Dev Tracker: Discussion

[Kanriel]

So they're going to come out with ANOTHER new dagger for THF? Super offhand last update, now super mainhand?

[stamos]

Wonder if they will add more drops to these. Since most of those nms have extremely job specific drops.

[Sechs]

But this one is gonna be WAR-THF! Not THF-only like Jugo Kukri!
DNCs and ddBRDs around the world rejoice...
...not.

This approach of not updating the list of jobs who can equip a certain item to mantain a certain sort of fidelity to the old drops is going to backfire pretty soon if they keep at it, imho.

[stamos]

People will rage if they keep their drop rates. Since P.Harpe is extremely rare lol

[Sechs]

I don't think "drop rates" have been kept for the Unity NMs released so far, so I don't see why they should start now.

[Kainstryder]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/at...554034&thumb=1
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/at...554048&thumb=1

Wow that is one terrible Scythe and one situational earring. Really, really lackluster again. Back to the 2004 type drops. If it's not meh side grades, it's -stats on solid armor, or situational nighttime etc stuff.

NMs will probably yet again be fodder that die in 1 minute and cost 3-3.5k points. Really not looking forward to this, give us something of substance that isn't cockblocked based on points because Matsui wants us to "challenge the content by doing other things, and looking at our points and going "oh, I have enough! who wants to do Unity?" fuck him, I'll take Tanaka at this rate. At least Tanaka could release gear that wasn't outdated before it even was released, or you could keep challenging it easily. New Skirmish I'm betting is going to be worthless or outdated just like the new weapon one was also.

[Yeager]

Ah >< nvm then.
Was Geush Urvan even a Buffalo? I fought it only twice long time ago and I remember it was a mess.

Pretty sure clogs will be the other drop from Camahueto then.
Guess Vampire Cloak as the second drop from Tiyanak?
No clue what to hope for from Xolotl, but given the fact that Onimusha-no-kote exist, I'm kinda hoping for something other than Bandomusha from him.

Yeah, Geush Urvan is also a Buffalo NM. Perhaps they will combine drops from both Bonnacon & Geush Urvan into this Buffalo Unity NM?

Also, fucking Zoolater Hat seriously? The new hat better have some Pet: Regain or some shit like that, otherwise I'll be tossing the new hat just like I used to toss Zoolater Hats on the regular.

[Hitou]

Wow that is one terrible Scythe and one situational earring. Really, really lackluster again. Back to the 2004 type drops. If it's not meh side grades, it's -stats on solid armor, or situational nighttime etc stuff.

Not defending the drops or anything but what's a good scythe?

NMs will probably yet again be fodder that die in 1 minute and cost 3-3.5k points. Really not looking forward to this, give us something of substance that isn't cockblocked based on points because Matsui wants us to "challenge the content by doing other things, and looking at our points and going "oh, I have enough! who wants to do Unity?" fuck him, I'll take Tanaka at this rate. At least Tanaka could release gear that wasn't outdated before it even was released, or you could keep challenging it easily. New Skirmish I'm betting is going to be worthless or outdated just like the new weapon one was also.

I'm not a fan of Unity crap either but you're freaking kidding right? Tanaka released more useless gear to this game than Matsui ever has. Did you forget about Evoliths or something? And that's just one example.

[Yeager]

Not defending the drops or anything but what's a good scythe?



I'm not a fan of Unity crap either but you're freaking kidding right? Tanaka released more useless gear to this game than Matsui ever has. Did you forget about Evoliths or something? And that's just one example.

Dear Altana DO NOT remind me of that blasted Evolith system. And lets not forget Ragewatch, I mean, Voidwatch.

[Byrthnoth]

God damned P.Harpe. Another dagger I can't use on Dancer.

I wonder wtf the bugard will drop. An Enmity ring and . . . I don't know. It may be the only one that has drops I give a shit about this release.

[Kainstryder]

Not defending the drops or anything but what's a good scythe?



I'm not a fan of Unity crap either but you're freaking kidding right? Tanaka released more useless gear to this game than Matsui ever has. Did you forget about Evoliths or something? And that's just one example.

Only good scythe is Apocalypse. If you aren't using that, then Great Sword.

Tanaka releases one bad system, where as Matsui single-handedly in one update ruined the entire game and made things obsolete and then made RME worthess with "no plans" to fix them, and he's been playing catch-up ever since. Delve 1 equipment still smokes a LOT of things they've been releasing, because they jumped the gun WAY too fast with ilevel and most things are worthless before they even go live (+1 abyssea gear, leaping boots+1, etc). He fucked up and has little understanding of this game.

Instead of widely enjoyable content that keeps us busy, we get youtube videos of Matsui playing dress up in cute outfits, worthless Trusts, monster rearing no one cares about, period, except probably weird JPs who like farmville, and quests that should've been part of the Adoulin Missions but they rushed it so fast to keep subs up to get you hyped for 1 of 12 rings which most are solid but sorry, only 1, kupo.

I have no hope for new skirmish, especially after how worthless the weapons are and the amazing what, 8+ or whatever different stones to augment? Sure there's a few decent weapons with specific augments but nothing that's gonna make most grind it out only to have the stuff replaced by say, some Unity drop out of nowhere or something.

Instead of epic/awesome rematches against various bosses or new stuff to get people hyped and draw you in, it's "LOOK, YOU CAN RAISE DHALMELS NOW ON A BEACH PLEASE ENJOY UGUUU"

Remember, they keep pushing back whatever that rematch from the Adoulin fights is and other high tier fights because top priority is Mog Garden bullshit and some quests no one really cares because it should be footnotes to other exciting things. Oh and Unity NMs., because by the time you get enough points to try and get drops from ONE NM they're adding 4-6 new ones next month and 1-2 have stuff you may want, but you're cockblocked on points.

Please do other events to gather points!

It's stupid, I'm sorry.

[Sechs]

If they don't feel like revamping one of the old drops they will add new ones.
There already have been a few completely new items added to previous Unity NMs, I can see it happening again if they don't feel like revamping all drops of a certain NM.


And yeah, lol at that Tanaka vs Matsui thing, pretty preposterous
But I concur with the sidegrades (slowly degrading into mehgrades patch after patch...) thing.
Despite some cool things here and there, these past several months have felt like a slow series of sidegrades and stuff to buy them time through rushed chip chop content.
Buy them time towards what though, I ask myself?
It all feels like a wait for something "big" to happen. But will it happen? And if it does, will it be before people get burned out by this wait and just drop the game?
I don't know the answer anymore, wish they could let us in on some insights about the future of this game...

[Byrthnoth]

So far they have only added new drops when the original NM had fewer than 2 drops, iirc. All of these NMs have 2 or more drops.

[Kainstryder]

Bunch of new dev posts, but nothing really substantial that's worth noting, except they're making Automatons more durable/easier to keep alive next update. (I might've misread and he meant easier to keep their MP up, becauase he went on about Pro/Shell changes and MP this and that, but it says "Oh, in February we'll be adjusting it so the automaton is easier to maintain. We'll be using merits to further adjust this.")

Not sure if that was mentioned before, but it was added at the end of a recap of a long PUP post by Mocchi about the changes to PUP since December.

[Sechs]

Finally a Japanese player asked devs about the ADD "trick" on PUP, whether or not they consider it part of the PUP gameplay, or an exploit used by players to circumvein the built-in limits of the job (it's quite obviously the second, but I was curious to read their "official" stance on that).
Yet the reply they give is... uh... I dunno, did they even understand what was being asked to them? Or maybe Kincard's translation isn't accurade. Or maybe it's me who's just misunderstanding.
I dunno but it all sounds ridiculous if it's what I got it like >.>

[Ophannus]

First, do you think the Puppetmaster's habit of repeatedly resummoning the puppet for recovered MP to be a good thing?

Can you please change the Protect and Shell casting back to what it was before? I feel like I find the puppet out of MP a lot more often now.

Wut.

[Vathris]

I got super excited by the earring, i mean dusk til dawn is still 50% of the time, and not like we cant write rules for that on gearswap, 30 minutes later i saw the jobs and i cried... Earring and rings should be all jobs goddammit!

[Sechs]

Ophannus what's wrong about what you quoted?
The first is a question that got raised up by US/EU players a lot in the past. Last time a few weeks ago here by me and Capuchin. We all know the real answer behind it but I was personally still curious to read an "official" answer from devs concerning that.
Thing is... the answer is pretty confusing, I'm not even sure if they understood the question.

Recovering the automaton's MP using this is certainly something possible in the game's specifications.

What is that supposed to mean? It's "possible"? Wut? It already happens, it's been like that since day 1. I'm reading it like "Yes, we could make this change if we really wanted and make so Automatons recover also MP and not just HP", which makes no sense. The player wasn't even asking for a change, he was asking what do devs think about players "abusing" of that to overcome one of the issues of mage automatons (that is: mp shortage).

I don't get what doesn't sound right to you in the second sentence you quoted either.
I haven't tested it myself, but Soulsoother automaton now spams protectra and shellra instead of single target. Which means he will consume more mp by recasting AoE spells even when he has to reapply the effect to a single target, also bringing up the range issue (you need to be in range to receive the effect from -ra spells, whereas there's no such issue with the single target).
The concern that jp player voiced is legit, imho. Many of us said the same before the patch when they just announced that change.


@Vathris
I think the main concern with the earring and items like that wasn't really the activation pre-requisite, but rather the implied inventory +1 for an item you can effectively use only half of the time. I guess it all comes down to personal tastes? Personally, as a concept, I hate items that do not always perform the same way under all conditions. Stuff that only works on certain days, times etc always annoyed me. We had moved away from such an anachronistic approach with item design over the last year and I wasn't exactely shouting to see it coming back, dunno about you.

[Kincard]

Basically it was "We know it exists, but no, we didn't really want players to use it like that. But we don't mind that they do, so we're not going to nerf it, but don't expect us to buff it either".

Wut.

The quotes were from different people. Probably safe to assume the one having MP troubles was someone keeping his automaton out. Since that's how the devs "want" the job to be played, it's a legitimate concern.

[Sechs]

I see
And yes, it's a legit concern. It's not always viable to use the ADD trick, and even when it is I personally find it annoying.
Their answer is honest and I apreciate that, but it's also a bit disappointing.
The situation is stale.
They don't want to buff it because it's not the way "it was meant to be".
They don't want to get rid of it either (probably because it's been around far too long).
At the same time this produces the consequence that no major adjustments to MP consumption/regain rate will be done because they could make the ADD trick even more powerful than it already is.
It's likes a dog chasing its tail and things are gonna stay like this forever, it seems =/