ToAU Missions (10-18)

[BRP]

I believe that fact how short these missions are only more noticable because they were single out. I've explained my outlook on things before. Main Story = Cutscene, yay for people who like story. Assault = Fighting time, this is where you get loot and BCNMish. In the end, this story upgrade gave us 2x5 zones of decent to very creative areas and a very kick ass stream of cutscenes and plot. They could have lowered the quality of the cutscenes and made them longer, but that would suck. Or they could have put in more "Wait 1 Day" stuff, and that would really suck. Really the only thing one can complain about is lack of new loot(or better, loot only reachable by LC/C) to the assault pools.... but, that isn't story. That simply goes to my arguement that SE sucks at rewards.

[Krandor]

Dude I like story but 2 hours of content after a 2 month wait is a fucking joke

[Ryko]

Main Story = Cutscene, yay for people who like story. Assault = Fighting time

You can obtain the "2 new ranks" 24 hours after the expansion comes out. I know full well that the assault storyline and the main storyline are standalone entities that coexist in some way but dont require eachother but no, 10 new assaults means that, at most, you're done with it all in a week.

3 months, for a week of content, and only because of the hard cap on assaults you're allowed to do in a certain time.

[BRP]

Um, you mean if you powerlevel through something for a week or two, you'll get it done? Well obviously. However, I don't see that being much of a surprise or even a fault. If you put your energy into something, and you get it done, that is good, not bad. FFXI isn't going to be shitting content at you every second, if you are playing for like 10 hours a day, you might simply burn out. This is where Limbus, Dynamis, HNMs, leveling a job different than your previous one, ect ect... even quests with little rewards but a good storyline attacted come in. You really won't run out of content if you try to do everything, despite the rewards. However, I won't get into that. This is an end-game board and a new HNM can distract you from the storyline is probably the only means. Hydra has bad rewards and failed to do that.

I will not admit this story upgrade was bad at all, but I will say that it is probably carrying a lot of weight on its shoulders because of the lack of rewards in Assault and other things. And also, because some people just play too much. Burning out happens in all games.

[Ryko]

Um, you mean if you powerlevel through something for a week or two, you'll get it done?

I don't think doing one different assault mission a day for the sake of the experience is "Powering" through anything. It's just coincidental that grinding assaults is counterproductive in terms of timely advancement instead of an aid to it.

[Marissa]

After finishing the last mission you get the title "Ovjang's Errand Runner".

There also seems to be some sort of limitation of either armor or level before you can view the last cutscene at imperial whitegate. We took a level 44 to the BC and won with her. Now when she talks to Naja, Naja says to her, well those clothes just wont do, etc. Then Naja lets you view about 6 sets of different armors she models for you. Homam armor, adaman armor, shakaree z's armor, smn jse, a bunch of stuff. We have tried having her wear different armor and zoning, and she always gets the same thing. "your armor stinks, come back with a better body piece".

So if anyone knows the limitation here and how to get it around please tell.

Thanks,

-Marissa

[BRP]

Um, you mean if you powerlevel through something for a week or two, you'll get it done?

I don't think doing one different assault mission a day for the sake of the experience is "Powering" through anything. It's just coincidental that grinding assaults is counterproductive in terms of timely advancement instead of an aid to it.

Not completely true, in fact its quite brilliant now that think about it, for the same reasons you seem to think its not. For LC, I did three SPs and a lot farming of non-SPs, however, I got my LC.

To settle this 'arguement' of content, I believe the update failed in too many places that the one thing it didn't fail in, the story, is hurt because any of a normally small flaws are amplified.

PS. I think she likes any high level armor that suits you(as in JSE or something). I was doing testing with body armor... I did Black Cloak(good), Errant(good), Weskit(good), and Wizard's Coat(Bad).

[Ryko]

You keep trying to divert the conversation over to the rewards/loot/etc. Sorry, that's not the issue here. Everyone knows hydra drops jack and shit, we came to terms with that a week ago. We know what the merits do, most of them are at least somewhat useful in some way, shape, or form. The storyline, however, should have been something that required slightly more time than the promyvions though. Instead it took 3 delays and a separate update to give us the "Aht Urgan storyline" which might have been the saving grace to this 3 month BS fest. Unless for some reason choco-breeding is yee-haw fun fucking shit then this was a complete waste. Usually I'm the one who pays little to no mind to the storyline at all but damn 2 hours and one BC you could monkey through with 2 amputated hands? A zone that serves no actual purpose aside from getting you around when your AC is taken (which in of itself is a nice thing, I will admit that). It's pathetic.

[Cythe]

The main problem comes from the mass feedback over CoP storyline missions, which were incredibly hard in the beginning(Sup full alliance promies). SE nerfed it over and over again because of whiners who have sucked their way to level 75, and continue to suck at 75. To avoid said whining, they nerfed the shit out of ToaU, making is almost 100% soloable(I even near solo'd that shade NM in the Mire, leaving only the BC to worry about), and in turn, gained the smaller population of players who DON'T suck whining.

Can't keep everyone happy, but come on SE...Learn what a fucking medium is.

[BRP]

The time spent on doing stuff that takes time is in the Assaults. While 10 missions of one a day isn't "a lot of content" for people who are actively getting them done, its about equal to the amount of stuff we got in CoP(if not more) if you include the cutscenes from the main story. If you don't see it that way, then there is no way this is a good story update. So its come down to the fact that if this is a good thing or bad thing is dependant on how you see it. I do think they probably could have done a little better, but it wasn't bad. I suppose at this stage, the BC is still targeted for level 60-65s(which probably might make it more of a challenge). Disregarding the fact SE should probably only focus on high-levels from the start, the only other alternative is putting on a level cap. Anyway, I'm sure it will get harder as the missions "level up".

[Ryko]

Assaults add pretty much jack and shit to the storyline themselves though. Ryaaf does to an extent but the rest is maybe a single NPC that gives you instructions. Assaults arent bad as minigames and instances but they do little to aid the storyline aside from the 2 quests you get from naja.

[Cythe]

The time spent on doing stuff that takes time is in the Assaults. While 10 missions of one a day isn't "a lot of content" for people who are actively getting them done, its about equal to the amount of stuff we got in CoP(if not more) if you include the cutscenes from the main story. If you don't see it that way, then there is no way this is a good story update. So its come down to the fact that if this is a good thing or bad thing is dependant on how you see it. I do think they probably could have done a little better, but it wasn't bad. I suppose at this stage, the BC is still targeted for level 60-65s(which probably might make it more of a challenge). Disregarding the fact SE should probably only focus on high-levels from the start, the only other alternative is putting on a level cap. Anyway, I'm sure it will get harder as the missions "level up".

Yea, but you leave out the fact that CoP stopped you along the lines with interesting fights/destinations. It wasn't just click, CS, win. That's not fun. I love the story, but what fun is story if there's no gameplay. If I just wanted story, I'd read a book. MMO's are supposed to be group oriented mixes of both, IMO.

Also, while Assault can be fun, some of that loot is goddamn disappointing. 100,000 AP for a full set bonus of 1 MP a tic on Yigit? I can only imagine the other 2 sets are equally as shitty in their full set forms as well. They could have at least made the gear A) Amazing individually, far surpassing other alternative(Which it is not), or B) Amazing as a set, making the full set a desirable, yet situational, asset(Which it is also not when you compare it to the work required).

While a lot of the stuff they added is indeed nice, it's nowhere near as good as it should be considering how many goddamn delays, pushbacks, etc, we've had to sit for waiting for it. It's just a slap in the face.

[BRP]

Either way, when I do /mission, I see two new groups: Assault and Treasures of Aht Urghan. It just looks too much like SE split CoP in half and added more funny to one side and more rewards to another. You don't have to think like me, but it might make you happier with some of the new content if you changed your outlook on it.

Any flaws on Assault seem to be about rewards. And I think that is something 80 to 90% of FFXI needs to not be bad at.

[Degenxerate]

I agree with BRP, i think alot of people complained about how hard CoP was to complete so they seperated it, put the fighting mainly as assault and the Missions as a laid back story.

[jibini]

They could have at least made the gear A) Amazing individually, far surpassing other alternative(Which it is not)

Depends on your job, I suppose.

The only things better than most of the Pahluwan set for Thief is Homam, and that's not even in the same league of accessibility to the general population of the game.

[BRP]

oh oh oh!

Something I would like to say about SE, that isn't ass kissing.

Why no cap setting on the mission? How flawless would it be to pick the cap of the fight. Then everyone would be happy. I mean they have already did it.

Now anything is easy for high-levels if you make it as simple as "pop monsters, kill monsters, pop monsters, kill monsters", but they could have easily made it more tactical for high levels... like constantly popping monsters(in this case, hard to sleep shadows).

[Bananas]

Just finished the new batch of missions, fucking dissapointing. The only fun part was beating the BCNM trio on a friend's RDM with two other RDMs.

THE EMPRESS IS A GALKA
THE EMPRESS IS A GALKA
THE EMPRESS IS A GALKA
THE EMPRESS IS A GALKA
THE EMPRESS IS A GALKA
THE EMPRESS IS A GALKA
THE EMPRESS IS A GALKA
THE EMPRESS IS A GALKA
THE EMPRESS IS A GALKA

Edit: That clothes changing shit took me over 45minutes of swapping jobs/changing gear before I found out I had to talk to Naja with my clothes on before tapping on the gate trying to trigger the CS.

[Ryko]

They could have at least made the gear A) Amazing individually, far surpassing other alternative(Which it is not)

Depends on your job, I suppose.

The only things better than most of the Pahluwan set for Thief is Homam, and that's not even in the same league of accessibility to the general population of the game.

Hands: Dusk
Shoes: Dusk
Legs: Du--should I keep going? <_<

[Krandor]

I could care less how awesome and amazing this content was. A few hours later and it's done, after however many weeks of waiting I spent just a few hours spitting out effort and walked away with nothing more then a 1 week extension on my mog locker. Storyline is one thing, but about an hour of cutscenes doesn't really give us shit, and the lack of any decent material rewards doesn't help.

[hexagram23]

People like this make me wish answers couldn't easily be found on the internet, as they would never get past lvl 60 or 65, whichever limit quest makes you find the NPC's scattered around the world. People who don't want to think and just expect the answers to be handed to them, and justify their need of it by espousing their laziness as if it were a virtue.

yeah, but it's just a game.

Games are meant to be won or lost. Those people were meant to lose.

No, competitive games are meant to be won or lost, FFXI isn't a competitive game considering 95% of the things you accomplish are from SOMEONE helping you. Games like this are played for the sake of fun, and some people don't think wandering around for hours following vague clues is fun. Why do you care?

Stop being so melodramatic, and stop acting like you figured out every single aspect of FFXI on your own, with no help from your LS, websites such as this, or the FFXI community as a whole.

Fred.

You've never camped kings I'm guessing

Yes, because 99.99% of FFXI revolves around camping 3-4 mobs? No offense but just because you do that doesn't mean everyone else does. No matter how many people pop up in Dragon's Aery there is literally 1000s more who could care less about those things.

Chocobo racing will be competitive too, it doesn't mean FFXI over all is a competitive game. Counterstrike or some shit is a "competitive game", FFXI isn't so I was wondering why this person would be concerned with how another person advanced through the missions. It's not like it's a race.

Fred.