Handout for Square Enix

[Ryko]

2 hours on an event isn't a bad thing as long as it's moderately rewarding. It gives you something to do every day with a feeling of progression and that's what you want in a game.

There's no reason for really good equipment to be rare, gimme my D.ring!!1 ZAM4lyfenukkalol

You're telling me there should be any excuse for only 7 of any item short of relic weapons existing on a server after 3 years of its existence?

[Volken]

Since you can kill everything in the game without it, yes?

[BRP]

I'll rewrite the parts of that are mine... tomorrow, I'm tired and going to sleep.

PS. Do you mean hand-out, hand-out? I mean could I turn what I said into a picture/chart instead of writing it out(the system with the kings). Its pretty much one big example, so it kind of pointless to explain it so much.

[Ryko]

Since you can kill everything in the game without it, yes?

That applies to every item in the game.

[JoOeetheplatypuS]

These points, even the way max wrote them, could use some re-writing to make them more encompassing of the idea we wish to get across to S/E. Example:

Are there plans for new areas like dynamis and limbus?

Rewrite to:
Are there plans for new areas like dynamis, limbus and assault which have their respective unique rewards, are challenging, and do not require extremely large amounts of time invested?

That rewrite makes sure that the Devs know why we like limbus/dynamis/assault.

Yeah it was just a quick rewrite... mostly for readability and redundant redundancy.

[bercus]

These points, even the way max wrote them, could use some re-writing to make them more encompassing of the idea we wish to get across to S/E. Example:

Are there plans for new areas like dynamis and limbus?

Rewrite to:
Are there plans for new areas like dynamis, limbus and assault which have their respective unique rewards, are challenging, and do not require extremely large amounts of time invested?

That rewrite makes sure that the Devs know why we like limbus/dynamis/assault.

Well I have most of Max's questions in the Interview, and all of em 2-5 lines long with a bit of background story like this :

I know it still needs some fixes what I do right now, and I also decided to do the Handout right now

This on is LONG compared to the other questions, I still liked it how some people asked the questions so I will ask some in a style like that

Question 3 :
FFXI has been out for awhile now; many players are level 75 on one or multiple jobs, and the number of players with a 75 job is growing every day. More 75 players means more demand for gear to outfit those jobs, but many of the pieces of gear, especially those from King Behemoth, Aspid, Fafnir and Nidhogg drop at the same rate as they did 2 years ago. A 21-24 hour spawn window guarantees that there will be several hundred players all sitting in front of their TV screens/monitors for a minimum of 3 hours, unable to participate in any other aspects of the game, for a mere chance at fighting said monsters. More 75 players means more competition, and it is not uncommon to see 150 to 200 people in Dragon's Aery on more populated servers during Fafnir and Nidhogg's spawn time, yet only 18 players will be able to engage in battle. A simple reduction in the spawn timers for many of these monsters would decrease stress (making FFXI seem like less of a "job"), as well as greatly increase the morale and general happiness of the end game community. Does SE plan in the future to remove such draconian timers for highly contested monsters? How does the development team plan on addressing this increasing demand for endgame gear?

and some in a style like that about new content

Question 6:
Do you have any more plans for any areas along the lines of Dynamis and Limbus?
They are amazing and we could use more battle dungeons, probably not sharing the same timers.

and smaller questions I will ask em after the Interview like

Question 4:
Is the development team aware that placing a telepoint or an outpost in the near east would greatly decrease the playerbase homepointing in the near east? (What about Teleport-Wajaom?)

Question 11:
Since the new Areas are so packed, what about an assault area or Mission we pay for that gives us a 1:30 hour limit thats covered in mobs, we merit there for an hour and a half then time is up

As of now I included :

• Hidden Stats like R-Accu,Magic Accu[/*:m:35127]
• Signet+Sanction[/*:m:35127]
• 3 Kings content and lack on drop rate on end game gear[/*:m:35127]
• Again Ullikummi[/*:m:35127]
• Sea drop rate and NM pop time[/*:m:35127]
• About instancing Limbus+Dynamis[/*:m:35127]
• About getting EXP in Limbus+Dynamis like in WoW[/*:m:35127]
• Why the New NMs like Hydra+Beastman are so shitty dropwise[/*:m:35127]
• New BCs, new KSs, improvment in the Orb use. like can carry more then one and let em dissapear once used up[/*:m:35127]
• Parade Gorget[/*:m:35127]
• Inventory Space, Gobbie 7 and 8 where is it[/*:m:35127]
• A onetime Player Immigration if its possible[/*:m:35127]
• About Besieged[/*:m:35127]
• New ways to get to Aht Urgan[/*:m:35127]
• Green Porters in sky (yes i wanna know it if they plan something with it)[/*:m:35127]
• More time in the New Dynamis'[/*:m:35127]
• More solo content[/*:m:35127]
• Why nothing like a Windower for PS Users[/*:m:35127]
• A area/mission we can Merit 60-120 Minutes[/*:m:35127]

:D

[aers]

Since you can kill everything in the game without it, yes?

ie there's no form of progression based on gear that drops from stuff, because you can do pretty much everything with purely gil-bought items with enough bodies.

[Volken]

Since you can kill everything in the game without it, yes?

That applies to every item in the game.

Brilliant discovery.

Even if it dropped more often your LS would never be capped full of them so you'd get to stop camping KB, SE gets to decide a few things on their game no matter how much people complain. The painfully obvious problem is no alternative even comes close.

[Tahngarthor]

There's a lot of good points and questions you've collected there, but the language of some of them should be sanitized or they'd stop reading it right there.

[Kero]

Issues with challenge versus reward: Many of the players who are most experienced with the game and have participated in many and in some cases all of the battles it has to offer feel that the ratio of rewards to difficulty is unequal in many cases. Some fights are very easy relative to the rewards they offer, and thus are heavily competed over. For example:

The notorious monsters King Behemoth, Aspidechelone, and Nidhogg are still being claimed and quickly defeated the instant they appear because while they are not very challenging fights they offer what is still some of the best armor in the game.

Fafnir, the lower-difficulty version of Nidhogg, drops what most players agree is the most powerful sword in the game, despite the fact that a single party of well-prepared adventurers could defeat it.

The reverse is also true, many fights are challenging and interesting but offer relatively uninteresting rewards. For example:

The Jailor NMs and the miniquests completed to spawn them are totally unique and challenging to even experienced linkshells. However, when defeated these monsters often do not drop the item required to progress to the next tier of fights. Considering the incredible challenges of the Chains of Promethia missions and the work needed to pop these monsters, why do they not drop expensive synthesis items and useful armor at a garunteed rate like their cousins in Tu'Lia? And why, again unlike the tiered monsters of Tu'lia, do they not drop the items required for the next fights at a fixed 100% rate?

The Dreamworld Dynamises added in a patch for players with Chains of Promethia to participate in are also very tricky compared to the original dynamises, and also offer new challenges. However, they do not offer more reward in the form of beastman currency and relic armor, or the low quality relic armor necessary to upgrade to high quality relic. In addition, many of the upgraded relic pieces are not signifigant improvements on the originals.

The new Notorious Monsters, Cerebrus and Hydra, are also very interesting fights, and require large alliances of well-prepared players to defeat. However, their drops are so low in value that after only a few weeks there is no longer any competition to obtain them. Instead, players return to the Dragon's Aery, Behemoth's Dominion, and Valley of Sorrows to attempt to claim the monsters there. The same can be said, to a slightly lesser extent, of the Notorious Monster Wyrms added in CoP, Tiamat, Vrtra, and Jorgumand.

It would add to the balance of the game if rewards for such challenging events were increased, and if new equipment was made available that would reduce the demand for items from easier battles. If armor that was more useful than that dropped by older monsters was added to harder fights, more experienced players would try to acquire it and leave the newer players to obtain the older equipment before moving on.

Instanced and Semi-instanced fights: Some recent additions to the game occur in areas that allow multiple groups of people to participate in events simultaneously (Assault). This is a change that many players have asked for, and if they were not implemented Assault events would be almost impossible for many people. These 'instanced' zones are extremely valuable because they eliminate needless competition. If older events such as Dynamis, which are frequently the cause of conflict between different linkshells that wish to participate in a particular battle at the same time, were switched to this system the player base would be grateful.

In addition, the battlefields 'Ouryu Cometh' and 'The Wyrmking Descends' are extremely popular because of the nature of the entry requirements (Uncapped ENMs do not usually lead to competition between players), the challenge of the fights, and the high quality of the rewards. In particular the battle with bahaumut is considered by many players to be the hardest single fight in the game, and the rewards are very nearly in line with that estimation. To be brief: please add more fights like these^^. (You can take out the happy eyes, I just figured a little humor couldnt hurt )

Real Money Trade: Many characters in the game are very obviously owned and operated by Real Money Traders. The pattern of their behavior, their login/logout times, their communication, and their actions make it completely certain that they are the poperty of owners who operate in violation of the terms of service. Many of these characters have been monopolizing the same sources of game income for years, many use third-party programs to outclaim legitimate players, and all are participating in RMT. When players notify GMs of these characters' actions and the absolute certainty of their ownership, they are told that the matter is being investigated. However, many dozens of these characters remain in place, dominating different areas of the game just as they have for years. This cycle of summoning GMs, being told that investigations are under way, and then seeing RMT characters remain is very disheartening, and creates a distrust of GMs on the part of legitimate players who feel they are being purposefully ignored. The removal of these RMT characters from the game would not only eliminate violations of the terms of service, but also restore faith in the company and the games's GMs.

Job balance: Certain jobs seem unbalanced in comparison to others. Specifically, both Dark Knights and Dragoons wield extremely high-delay weapons, which greatly damages their overall contribution to very short fights, such as the ones that most merit point parties focus on. In addition, the Dragoon job suffers from the lack of a powerful weapon skill. Both of the skills they have access to that allow the creation of the powerful level three skillchains are very weak when compared to attacks like Dragon Kick, Tachi: Gekko, etc. Many linkshells do not have any use at all for Dragoons, and they are relegated to secondary roles, or their players level other jobs.

Miscellany: Many players who have been participating in events that offer exclusive items as rewards have found themselves forced to drop exclusive items simply because of the current limitations on storage. The new Mog Lockers in the expasion pack are extremely useful in alleviating this problem; however are there any plans to extend the capabilities of armor storage NPCs?

Playing in full-screen mode does not prevent a person from running third-party programs, and in fact a program is available to allow 'windowed' play. Requiring full-screen mode to play the game on PC is also extremely inconvenient to those who wish to play music in the background or look up game information and announcements, or use popular voice communication programs with other players. Allowing windowed play would eliminate more third-party programs than it would enable, and would be another popular set amongst players.

Many players who created their characters when the game was first released have poured countless hours of work into them, and to rebuild from scratch would be impossible. However, certain actions in the game are irreversible, and mistakes once made cannot be undone without the total recreation of a character. For these players, who are among the most loyal and longest customers, it would be incredibly beneficial to allow the rewards for completion of Chains of Promethia and Rise of the Zilart (The rings and earrings respectively) to be re-chosen in some way. In addition, some rewards from the battles with the prime elemental avatars cannot be reacquired, as many have regretfully found after somehow losing theirs (through accidental use of throwing weapons or mistakes when throwing away less valuable items). On this same topic, many players would like to petition for a one-time race change, so that their burly galkas can become adorable tarutaru or their delicate mithra can change to formidable elvaan. After years of play it is too late for regrets, but the offer of a race-change would answer the prayers of many dissatisfied people.

----------

It's very late, iono what my spelling is like, but I tried to use language like a translated press release and address all the important points I saw in the original document. Good luck Bercus, I hope this is somehow helpful.

edit: section titles, added paragraph with actual solution suggestions to complaints about challenge vs reward.

[bercus]

There's a lot of good points and questions you've collected there, but the language of some of them should be sanitized or they'd stop reading it right there.

Well I have went through the Handout once now and tried to split it up a bit and weed out the word fuck as well as a few sentences, check the first post. If someone wants to weed it out a bit more, please do so and send it to me in a PM or post it here and then send me a PM on which Page.

[darkdeath]

There's a lot of good points and questions you've collected there, but the language of some of them should be sanitized or they'd stop reading it right there.

Did u ask for meeleing SMN gear?.

On topic: Good questions, needs some grammar corrections.

[Ryko]

Since you can kill everything in the game without it, yes?

That applies to every item in the game.

Brilliant discovery.

Even if it dropped more often your LS would never be capped full of them so you'd get to stop camping KB, SE gets to decide a few things on their game no matter how much people complain. The painfully obvious problem is no alternative even comes close.

I'm sure if I were complaining about the amount of D rings my shell has out of a grand total of three (3) KB kills that first part would be somewhat relevant but aers and you both hit the problem right on the head. There's no alternative to crap in this game because the new shit isn't progressive enough to warrant it in SE's eyes because they overdid it with zilart and instead are fucking us over with 2 following expansions because they suck <_<

[Russta]

Not going to pretend I've read all of this because it's 9am and I want to go to bed but please just mention Parade Gorget, a Signet re-work (to bring it up to par with Sanction) and a worldshift without restriction that they mentioned over a year ago.

[bercus]

Issues with challenge versus reward: Many of the players who are most experienced with the game and have participated in many and in some cases all of the battles it has to offer feel that the ratio of rewards to difficulty is unequal in many cases. Some fights are very easy relative to the rewards they offer, and thus are heavily competed over. For example:

The notorious monsters King Behemoth, Aspidechelone, and Nidhogg are still being claimed and quickly defeated the instant they appear because while they are not very challenging fights they offer what is still some of the best armor in the game.

Fafnir, the lower-difficulty version of Nidhogg, drops what most players agree is the most powerful sword in the game, despite the fact that a single party of well-prepared adventurers could defeat it.

The reverse is also true, many fights are challenging and interesting but offer relatively uninteresting rewards. For example:

The Jailor NMs and the miniquests completed to spawn them are totally unique and challenging to even experienced linkshells. However, when defeated these monsters often do not drop the item required to progress to the next tier of fights. Considering the incredible challenges of the Chains of Promethia missions and the work needed to pop these monsters, why do they not drop expensive synthesis items and useful armor at a garunteed rate like their cousins in Tu'Lia? And why, again unlike the tiered monsters of Tu'lia, do they not drop the items required for the next fights at a fixed 100% rate?

The Dreamworld Dynamises added in a patch for players with Chains of Promethia to participate in are also very tricky compared to the original dynamises, and also offer new challenges. However, they do not offer more reward in the form of beastman currency and relic armor, or the low quality relic armor necessary to upgrade to high quality relic. In addition, many of the upgraded relic pieces are not signifigant improvements on the originals.

The new Notorious Monsters, Cerebrus and Hydra, are also very interesting fights, and require large alliances of well-prepared players to defeat. However, their drops are so low in value that after only a few weeks there is no longer any competition to obtain them. Instead, players return to the Dragon's Aery, Behemoth's Dominion, and Valley of Sorrows to attempt to claim the monsters there. The same can be said, to a slightly lesser extent, of the Notorious Monster Wyrms added in CoP, Tiamat, Vrtra, and Jorgumand.

It would add to the balance of the game if rewards for such challenging events were increased, and if new equipment was made available that would reduce the demand for items from easier battles. If armor that was more useful than that dropped by older monsters was added to harder fights, more experienced players would try to acquire it and leave the newer players to obtain the older equipment before moving on.

Instanced and Semi-instanced fights: Some recent additions to the game occur in areas that allow multiple groups of people to participate in events simultaneously (Assault). This is a change that many players have asked for, and if they were not implemented Assault events would be almost impossible for many people. These 'instanced' zones are extremely valuable because they eliminate needless competition. If older events such as Dynamis, which are frequently the cause of conflict between different linkshells that wish to participate in a particular battle at the same time, were switched to this system the player base would be grateful.

In addition, the battlefields 'Ouryu Cometh' and 'The Wyrmking Descends' are extremely popular because of the nature of the entry requirements (Uncapped ENMs do not usually lead to competition between players), the challenge of the fights, and the high quality of the rewards. In particular the battle with bahaumut is considered by many players to be the hardest single fight in the game, and the rewards are very nearly in line with that estimation. To be brief: please add more fights like these^^. (You can take out the happy eyes, I just figured a little humor couldnt hurt )

Real Money Trade: Many characters in the game are very obviously owned and operated by Real Money Traders. The pattern of their behavior, their login/logout times, their communication, and their actions make it completely certain that they are the poperty of owners who operate in violation of the terms of service. Many of these characters have been monopolizing the same sources of game income for years, many use third-party programs to outclaim legitimate players, and all are participating in RMT. When players notify GMs of these characters' actions and the absolute certainty of their ownership, they are told that the matter is being investigated. However, many dozens of these characters remain in place, dominating different areas of the game just as they have for years. This cycle of summoning GMs, being told that investigations are under way, and then seeing RMT characters remain is very disheartening, and creates a distrust of GMs on the part of legitimate players who feel they are being purposefully ignored. The removal of these RMT characters from the game would not only eliminate violations of the terms of service, but also restore faith in the company and the games's GMs.

Job balance: Certain jobs seem unbalanced in comparison to others. Specifically, both Dark Knights and Dragoons wield extremely high-delay weapons, which greatly damages their overall contribution to very short fights, such as the ones that most merit point parties focus on. In addition, the Dragoon job suffers from the lack of a powerful weapon skill. Both of the skills they have access to that allow the creation of the powerful level three skillchains are very weak when compared to attacks like Dragon Kick, Tachi: Gekko, etc. Many linkshells do not have any use at all for Dragoons, and they are relegated to secondary roles, or their players level other jobs.

Miscellany: Many players who have been participating in events that offer exclusive items as rewards have found themselves forced to drop exclusive items simply because of the current limitations on storage. The new Mog Lockers in the expasion pack are extremely useful in alleviating this problem; however are there any plans to extend the capabilities of armor storage NPCs?

Playing in full-screen mode does not prevent a person from running third-party programs, and in fact a program is available to allow 'windowed' play. Requiring full-screen mode to play the game on PC is also extremely inconvenient to those who wish to play music in the background or look up game information and announcements, or use popular voice communication programs with other players. Allowing windowed play would eliminate more third-party programs than it would enable, and would be another popular set amongst players.

Many players who created their characters when the game was first released have poured countless hours of work into them, and to rebuild from scratch would be impossible. However, certain actions in the game are irreversible, and mistakes once made cannot be undone without the total recreation of a character. For these players, who are among the most loyal and longest customers, it would be incredibly beneficial to allow the rewards for completion of Chains of Promethia and Rise of the Zilart (The rings and earrings respectively) to be re-chosen in some way. In addition, some rewards from the battles with the prime elemental avatars cannot be reacquired, as many have regretfully found after somehow losing theirs (through accidental use of throwing weapons or mistakes when throwing away less valuable items). On this same topic, many players would like to petition for a one-time race change, so that their burly galkas can become adorable tarutaru or their delicate mithra can change to formidable elvaan. After years of play it is too late for regrets, but the offer of a race-change would answer the prayers of many dissatisfied people.

----------

It's very late, iono what my spelling is like, but I tried to use language like a translated press release and address all the important points I saw in the original document. Good luck Bercus, I hope this is somehow helpful.

edit: section titles, added paragraph with actual solution suggestions to complaints about challenge vs reward.

Yeah thanks to everyone so far, you guys help me a lot to answer my questions and well your questions a lot better. I had to edit everything again. And I also write something atm, that lists bugs/problems/stuff needed to be fixed with solutions from us
:D

I will post the questions I will ask in some hours, as well as the Handout sheet and as well as the suggestion Handout from the playerbase (like change repops in older exp areas to 5-6 min instead 15 blabla, or make Orbs from BCs dissappear once used, or make 3 Kings harder, like KB resistand to Gravity and Fafnir DISPELGA haha)
:D:D:D

[niwaar]

Yeah I read it all, and for the most part I agree with what has been said about Zilart Kings, Sky(Ulli), Sea(drops where?), Zilart Dynamis (Instance them please), COP Dynamis (Give us more time in the zone, either via another 1hour time extension, or starting out with more 2hours.) However, the one thing I didn't see that I would like to see asked is this.

The multi-year evolution of FFXI as a game has seen the addition of many items. Thus creating alot of unused and worthless items. They crafting/synthesis system is now marred with more and more items that are worth 20% or less of what it cost to make them. Thus, hurting the economy as a whole. To fix this, SE could do one of a few things. First they could raise the NPC price of these items to compensate for the loss. Or, create new recipes using these unused items for new equipment that has decent stats that will get used.

Unused equipment is not the only problem. Worthless food items is even worse. SE has seen fit to give us such cooking items as Noodle Needing and Stewpot Mastery and did not create food items that would ever be used on a regular basis. While most forms of Pasta seem good, the price/performance ratio is off, and the only end-game Pasta food requires such rare meat all the while underperforming attack numbers compared to other Str/Attk foods endgame. The group food effects were a novelty that never caught on. Change them please. You have seen fit to change food on a whim before. Make such keyitems as Passtier and Stewpot Mastery worth what Raw Fish Handling has become. Food has become relegated to only a few types; Accuracy Food(Sushi), Attack Food(Meat), MP/INT Food(Sweets), Defense food (Taco/Seafood) and the little used MND food (Mushrooms). While on most food within these catagories is worth it, there are few real choices. Players tend to all eat the same foods instead of something that is say better for a thief than a warrior. Please give us another food adjustment, making some older foods more enticing to players, and giving us new Near Eastern food that may even have job specifc buffs. TAU has given us several new food items. Unfortunately, a few have been group effect foods, and the only two items have had any real use (Sis Kebabi and Coffee).

[Tekki]

I couldnt agree more on the subject matter of that list and of the previous post concerning crafting.

My number 1# I want addressed in this game is Kings, like many other players.

[miokomioko]

Under lolpup, throw in these complaints about Automaton AI:



Why can't the Sharpshot Frame's ranged attacks critically hit?
(While melee hits can)

Why can't the Stormwaker Frame cure party members?
(Perhaps an attachment can fix this)

Why doesn't the Scanner attachment work?
(No apparent effect other than inhibiting Elemental Magic)

Why doesn't the Tactical Processor attachment work?
(No apparent effect other than increased overload rate)

Why doesn't Overdrive do anything worth being a 2-hour ability?
(Overdrive effect is extremely small and extremely short)

Why does the Sharpshot Frame use Ranged attacks so seldomly?
(Delay between ranged attacks is exaggerated)

[Eldelphia]

Just a thought - the handout is a good idea but if a lot of players also emailed that/submitted that list via their feedback mechanisms it might reinforce that these concerns are coming from more than a handful of players.

Whether of course that makes any difference /shrug I'm not sure. It might.

[Uzor]

What are the green markers in the /map for? They seem to serve little to no use <.<;

That's a question I'd like answered <.<;