Dev Tracker: Discussion

[arus2001]

Can't shake the feeling they're gonna unveil F2P once they drop the consoles. As is, the various campaign bonuses we've seen over time would make suitable sub perks. They've had enough free log-in campaigns at this point to also have a feel for how many people might return and possibly stick around for longer periods of time if they didn't have to pony up the sub fee. I imagine there won't be any major arcs at this point, instead focusing more on small questlines or random lore one-offs. And depending on how grindy they make the RME process, that could easily string some folks along.

[Trumpy]

They already said it would cost too much to turn it into f2p. And im not sure why everyone thinks a game is terminating when major content is all that is being halted. Alot of games went well past their years with no updates.

[Kincard]

I doubt it'll do any good, but I decided to post on the OF about the RME thing (We're still a month and a half away from implementation, so who knows).

Personally I think they should keep making both non-afterglow and afterglow versions, but make it so that past +242 skill you can upgrade up to Afterglow anymore so they can play with the augment slot and don't have to deal with that Trials of the Magian retardation. I don't think anybody who doesn't already have an Afterglow would care that much if they did that.

[Viar]

I wonder if they're upgrading mythic AM again.

Perhaps AM3 will be 40% OAT, 40% OA3, or maybe it'll be 20% OAT, 20% OA3, 20% OA4.

Please no = =, melee mythics are way too OP as it is, other legendary weapons deserve a chance to compete

Can't shake the feeling they're gonna unveil F2P once they drop the consoles.

I doubt FFXI will ever go F2P. They'd need to implement things like vanity item (that sells), virtual currency, and new stores + new UI for it. Basically an entirely new system to generate profit that requires more resource to build. At this point of time I'm not sure if servers can handle that many people if it goes f2p, since some bigger servers still suffer from congestion during prime time.

[PSOfanatic]

SE already said they weren't going to do the F2P route. It's unfortunate. I do think they should lower the subscription fee if they are not going to update as much as in the past. That would only make sense. I understand they need money to maintain servers but to pay the same sub fee as when the game first came out and you were getting tons of updates and are now getting way less seems pretty dumb.

As far as the RME discussion goes...I'm pretty much in agreement with most of you. It sounds like the gap between current 119 and this new upgrade they are talking about is going to be pretty big. If they make it excessively difficult for non Afterglow RMEs then people are going to be sitting on a lot of gimp weapons which seems pretty silly. To do something like this THIS late in the game is extremely poor decision.

Guess we will just have to wait and see how it all pans out.

[Byrthnoth]

I bet they're just playing up the difference between having to turn in 100 Fern Stones and 1000 as if it somehow compensates for the afterglow process.

[Draylo]

Me too, I don't think it will be that crazy, certainly not 700~1 billion gil worth of effort.

[Kincard]

One has to wonder if they're making the trial harder than they otherwise would have had Afterglows never existed. If that's the case, they're picking an option that makes nobody happy.

Not to mention pretty much all of us are speaking as people who already own RMEs- when you think about how much time it takes just to get an RME to 119 (bar people who have billions of gil lying around, I mean) it seems really silly to add yet another big timesink at the end just so you can use it in content that matters. Or just imagine wanting to start a new RME- now here's another big quest at the end for you.

I mean, the team should know by now how obsessive some of the players are about their RMEs and their timesinks feeling "worth it"- they had a player revolt so bad the last time screwed with it they had JPs threatening to quit, then they made an entire line of upgrade items that made fun of the whole story as if to say, "Yeah we learned our lesson guys".

At the same time, I like the idea of freeing up that augment slot- but then again, nobody's saying they have to keep the Magian Moogle for future iterations. They could just add some other NPC that says "here, I'll make your 119+ RME glowy if you trade me 3000 riftitems/whatever". Then they wouldn't have to deal with the Magian Moogle and its dumb Trial augments.

All this comes back to them wanting to slash the time they have to spend on updating RME in the future. If people really demand that they keep the double questlines in place it would mean we'd be getting RME updates with a longer wait between each one.

JP reactions so far have similar concerns, so we'll have to see how they respond to it.

[Hoshiku]

I thought the no brews for aeonics thing was confirmed? Does someone else know?

[Bukadan]

There isn't really a reason to believe that using a brew would disable you from getting a kill credit. I mean incomplete/ambiguous npc dialogue is about as bad a reason you can get. Unless I'm wrong, in which case I'm sorry, lol.

[TummieGaruda]

One has to wonder if they're making the trial harder than they otherwise would have had Afterglows never existed. If that's the case, they're picking an option that makes nobody happy.

Not to mention pretty much all of us are speaking as people who already own RMEs- when you think about how much time it takes just to get an RME to 119 (bar people who have billions of gil lying around, I mean) it seems really silly to add yet another big timesink at the end just so you can use it in content that matters. Or just imagine wanting to start a new RME- now here's another big quest at the end for you.

I mean, the team should know by now how obsessive some of the players are about their RMEs and their timesinks feeling "worth it"- they had a player revolt so bad the last time screwed with it they had JPs threatening to quit, then they made an entire line of upgrade items that made fun of the whole story as if to say, "Yeah we learned our lesson guys".

At the same time, I like the idea of freeing up that augment slot- but then again, nobody's saying they have to keep the Magian Moogle for future iterations. They could just add some other NPC that says "here, I'll make your 119+ RME glowy if you trade me 3000 riftitems/whatever". Then they wouldn't have to deal with the Magian Moogle and its dumb Trial augments.

All this comes back to them wanting to slash the time they have to spend on updating RME in the future. If people really demand that they keep the double questlines in place it would mean we'd be getting RME updates with a longer wait between each one.

JP reactions so far have similar concerns, so we'll have to see how they respond to it.

I think the damage is already done. At this point SE probably feels that the gap in the next quest needs to be large enough to make up for the time/gil spent that AG users put into their weapons. To be honest, I wouldn't be mad if SE made both quest requirements the same amount, but simply gave AG owners a refund of Scoria/Marrow/Cinder. Of course this would create a large supply driving demand down but at least it would be something given back to those players. Either that or just give AG owners free upgrade access while the quest for non AG owners would need to be done or give current AG owners a stronger AG effect when they upgrade.

[The Assman]

I bet they're just playing up the difference between having to turn in 100 Fern Stones and 1000 as if it somehow compensates for the afterglow process.

Now that I think about it, the augment stones do match up perfectly with RMEs:
Pellucid:Relic (accuracy/attack)
Fern:Mythic (specalized)
Taupe:Empyrean (attributes)
Dark Matter:Ergon (odd one out from Adoulin)

[Mojo]

Adding Reisenjima augments to RME would be fucking retarded. I don't think anybody actually likes the augment system. Escha abjurations were so much cleaner...

[Hoshiku]

Now that I think about it, the augment stones do match up perfectly with RMEs:
Pellucid:Relic (accuracy/attack)
Fern:Mythic (specalized)
Taupe:Empyrean (attributes)
Dark Matter:Ergon (odd one out from Adoulin)

Didn't they say they weren't going to include ergon weapons in the RME update?

[dasva]

Adding Reisenjima augments to RME would be fucking retarded. I don't think anybody actually likes the augment system. Escha abjurations were so much cleaner...

I kind of liked the alluvion. Some rng and more specialization allowed but well with less lottery like this stupid system

[Mojo]

Oh, I failed to understand Assman's post. I have mixed feelings about stones. Any non trivial amount would result in waves upon waves of people endlessly farming Reseinjima even moreso than now. And yeah, Alluvion wasn't bad. Reseinjima augments are just stupidly random unless we can get some HQ stones or something.

[The Assman]

Adding Reisenjima augments to RME would be fucking retarded. I don't think anybody actually likes the augment system. Escha abjurations were so much cleaner...

Don't think anyone's expecting that. Just something like raise the amount Oseem can store then trade the weapon when he has 1000 stones or whatever. Might also explain why the current storage cap (250) is so small compared to how many you can get.

[dasva]

So the freshly picked transcripts are out. Looks like a lot of rehash or stuff that was somewhat gleaned from people from the vid (like the pop tips) before the transcripts came out but googlefu makes it look like it does add some info. Like about campaigns and augment system .And looks like they talk about some storyline stuff talking about the images in it.

[Kyte]

Didn't they say they weren't going to include ergon weapons in the RME update?

They're included.

[Draylo]

New mounts sounds fun but I hope they add an ability to summon them instead of an items, kinda annoying waiting forever on a chocobo whistle. I'm wondering what mounts they plan to add outside of raptor.