Ladies and Gentlemen. Answers to the Interview....

[Melchiah]

(This is not directed to anything/anyone in particular, just something i've observed in my time lurking on this forum)

You guys have to realize that only a small percentage of the Vanadiel population are actually hardcore enough to do stuff like camp 3 kings and gear-grind all day every day. SE will not put all their efforts into making the BG community happy. Most 75 shells are social shells that do events once or twice a week, and for them all the last several major updates

You completely missed what Xavier has been talking about. Killing Fafnir is a forking joke. It's a joke for any moderately equipped, halfway intelligent 12 man group. We are not asking for a change in the difficulty of the HNM mobs. We want to be able to play the game. We want to be able to fight Fafnir more than once a forking month. The issue hasn't been killing Fafnir for the last three years, it's about the claiming, and claiming against cheaters. The claim system is broken, bogus and ignorant. Also, most of us here in this community don't give a happy goddamn about stuff outside of the endgame arena. This is an endgame community, and we are all about endgame here, not Santa Hats. Trying to say that SE can't solve our issues because we aren't the majority of the playerbase is just wrong. We are not asking for anything huge, or time intensive.

Next interview, would someone please, for the love of god, just stand up quietly, take off your hat, and tell the developers the 3 fucking kings are broken because of the claim system. If it was part of the design of the game that I can't fight kings because they are botted to shit and require 9 hours a day, they are fucking stupid. Someone grow a pair and just say straight up claiming should not be counted in the difficulty of a monster, nor the rarity of its items. I don't get why they don't understand this or why nobody has brought this up with them.

I'm the perfect man for the job. I'd love to do this.

[Quicklet]

You guys have to realize that only a small percentage of the Vanadiel population are actually hardcore enough to do stuff like camp 3 kings and gear-grind all day every day. SE will not put all their efforts into making the BG community happy. Most 75 shells are social shells that do events once or twice a week, and for them all the last several major updates were excellent (I know i've been pretty happy with them). For these shells, mobs like Fafnir are still a big challange. I'm guessing that SE intentionally made all the recent HNM have average-ish drops just to give those shells a chance to do hnm.

A lot of the suggestions offered on these boards would probably benefit more social endgame LSes anyways. Many of the complaints endgame people have come from the problems that are inherent with the current camping system, and fixes to those problems would no doubt be nice for players who can't be as hardcore about endgame as others.

Another thing I want to note: The game was designed from the core to be for the Japanese, and they are notorious for wanting games to be stupidley hard. Try playing the JP version of FF7 (the part where cloud climbs up the cliff, you have to SMASH your game controller to get past it) or JP marios brothers 2. That's why Fafnir etc is staying the way it is. Just be happy that they're slowly changing the design to accomodate everyone.

If they wanted the game to cater solely to the Japanese, it would make no sense for them to put so much time into NA/EU releases. In fact, I bet if you took away the revenue from NA/EU subscriptions, the game itself wouldn't be sustainable anymore, so they sure as hell should be listening to what NA/EU players want.

What I still don't understand is why everyone thinks it's their God given right for SE to listen to them in a personal one on one setting. Or, why it's your God given right to have the answers to your questions handed to you on a silver platter. They don't owe you answers to anything.

People who play the game are paying for the service of playing the game. They have a right to expect at least an average quality of customer service for their payment. If I buy a magazine subscription and after 6 months they cut out half the content they're putting out in the magazine, I have a right to complain about it as a paying customer.

[The Blackrose]

In a day and age in which the company producing MMOs are starting to do away with their god complex and decend to the same level as the player base, engaging in conversation on numerous subjects, SE continues to act like the stubborn old dinosaur.

Boards such as Fires of Heaven have (or had) active commentary from devs and executives such as Smedley (SOE), Scott Hartsman (EQ2), Tigole (Former EQ player, now with Blizzard), Furor (same boat as Tigole), Brad McQuaid (Vanguard), or any other number of employees. They come out and just talk to players about the small things such as upcoming changes to big things like why they decided to take particular design routes and see how the player base reacts.

We even have companies that aren't afraid to come out and say they've fucked up, making their dirty laundry public. I'm referring to the recent incident in EVE-O with employees forking over high tier equipment to their Corporations/Alliances.

And SE wants to continue this "wait and see" bullshit with a lack of information?

SE may not owe answers to every little detail down to the wire, but with other developers putting in time with the public player base, whether it's answering questions or simply listening to other's concerns, SE is just outright failing. To be rather honest, I nearly died of laughter at the response to question set 1/2/3. Right off the bat they decided to present themselves as utterly clueless, whether it was a misinterpretation of the question or the fact that they're still living in 2002/2003.

SE needs to drop their current approach to PR like a bad habit and level with the player. Not hide behind vague answers and "we're not telling." Tell the player who's watched AV been fixed and broke more often than a hooker going up and down on a good night why you designed a particular encounter in a certain fashion. Tell the person camping Ulli only to see him cockblocked by a bot what they are going to do about the current situation. Tell the PUPs and DRGs what you're going to do so they will stop being the buttend of lolX jokes (actually, in this case, don't).

And they need to get a damn brain for once.

[Khamsin]

We practically never take MNKs to Salvage.

Ok, but then why say

Salvage is still too hard

When it's because

We practically never take MNKs to Salvage.

[Brandson]

Their answer about CoP Dynamis didn't address the question at all. I doubt they are really that dense but rather their English skills are probably very bad. If you ever send them questions again, get the questions accurately translated into Japanese first like in the direct discussion forum here. Talking to SE in English is a waste of time.

[aurik]

Honestly, I like most of these answers. But maybe because my LS hardly ever focus's on Kings and only does sky once a week (and recently got another haidate the other day) it doesn't look so bad. New places to find top gear = nice. Increased sea drops = awesome. The 3 kings have never been a focus in my LS and never will be, we still enjoy this game a lot and have plenty of things to do yet. Maybe some people need to focus on other things in this game too?

There's a reason why your LS hardly ever focusses on kings and does sky once a week. Because they're broken and/or overrun with botters!

[zoobernut]

I wonder if there is a way that we can ask them to change endgame activities like three kings in such a way that they understand what everyone is saying. It seems like SE wants the three kings to stay "scary" and difficult and the items to stay rare and they like the three kings where they are because of atmosphere. But like someone said before SE is completely oblivious to their actual playerbase. They think the three kings are scary when for us its trying to camp and claim three kings that is scary, at this point the fight itself is not scary at all. We would rejoice if they made the fights more difficult to actually fight if they made it so that we could fight them more often and did not have to deal with three hours of mind numbing boredom of staring at darters, or lack of darters.

[Ashira]

We practically never take MNKs to Salvage.

Ok, but then why say

Salvage is still too hard

When it's because

We practically never take MNKs to Salvage.

Where did I say the first two floors of every Salvage are the difficult ones?

[Priran]

Where did I say the first two floors of every Salvage are the difficult ones?

cells are for chumps, yo

[Eaglestrike]

Honestly, I like most of these answers. But maybe because my LS hardly ever focus's on Kings and only does sky once a week (and recently got another haidate the other day) it doesn't look so bad. New places to find top gear = nice. Increased sea drops = awesome. The 3 kings have never been a focus in my LS and never will be, we still enjoy this game a lot and have plenty of things to do yet. Maybe some people need to focus on other things in this game too?

There's a reason why your LS hardly ever focusses on kings and does sky once a week. Because they're broken and/or overrun with botters!

Right, which is why my LS spends times on the other parts of the game, which we enjoy. I'm sure you're familiar with this concept since I believe you've said you almost never went to sky because you didn't enjoy it. We have events on a daily basis and none of them involve the 3 kings. Hell we have a Bahamut V.2 win but at no point has my LS claimed or killed a king (not counting NQ Behemoth) lol. I think most of my LS is enjoying the game a lot, we haven't gotten serious about salvage yet either. There is plenty to do outside of the 3 kings and I enjoy any additions they give us. If they keep adding new content, Aery "should" clear out anyway, and I'd rather them work on new content than fix old content because there's still plenty of competition for everything. The more there is to compete over, the more each LS will get, I know my LS recently claimed Tiamat because another LS was fighting Aspi at the time, Besieged was going on when Cerberus popped the other night, etc. I like what they keep adding and it's just getting better and better.

[bercus]

Bercus, I applaud you my good friend, you asked good questions but we got bullshit answers. They say the obvious and take away the little hope we all build up inside

Well I will give it one more try after the Patch.
Let´s see what they have done and maybe not told us yet...
See if they even made something about the Ulliproblem in this Patch...
See what is up with their new methods of obtaining hard camped NMs Items.. ectect... Wait after the patch is available and a few more days.
And then I will gather everything that is still open including responds to their answers, even if we get 30 questions and it takes them till June.
Maybe that Elmerpony or whatever can translate everything once done into Japanese. Also I will use the SE Section in here to gather better Info.

[crazyrabbit]

If you need to "skip" old content to enjoy the new additions then its no solution to the problem. Why do they even want to add new content if they still want player to fear the 3 kings? After such a long time it is realy needed to get over the old stuff, but this is just not posible due to respawn times, bot competition and low drop rates.

We are finaly at some point that sky isnt realy needed anymore for the majority of the endgame comunity (be it for doing sky a lot or just that many ppl buy the equip from rmt). So now with the addition of Salvage, Nyzuhl Isle and soon maybe the testing grounds are other endgame areas its time for the next step.

If you still need to spend 3/4 of your playtime camping old HNMs to get the equip you "need" (nobody realy needs anything but *shrug*) then how should you have time to fully explore what they add?

I don't realy want to say much about that email, good job for getting at least some answers even tho they are almost all useless and just a slap in the face.

(writing this post while camping Faf >.> what a nice coincidence)

[bercus]

Since so many people say this Interview is not saying much.

I will sum it up for those who only see the negative stuff, Iam sure they will change everything, however we know it requires testing and Iam sure they already look into a new way Sea works and Sky pop Items all of them, maybe not just Ullikummi

Server immigration
We are preparing for this now and will be announcing details with the topics of our official website, etc. once it’s confirmed.

Inventory/storage increase using alternate methods of memory allocation).
We will continuously consider the possibilities. We don’t have any plans to make huge changes, but we will keep on expanding the Moogle locker.

Possibility of having Windower
Due of the technical issues we can’t make the changes straight away. Along with Windows Vista compatibility, we are eagerly looking into the possibility of it. Please look forward to further information.

Question 1:
Will there ever be new HNMs that drop equal or better gear than Fafnir, Nidhogg, King Behemoth, and Aspidochelone that do not have 21-24 hour repop timers or that can be popped rather than camped?

Question 2:
Will Fafnir, Nidhogg, King Behemoth, and Aspidochelone ever be altered to keep players from having to camp them for 3 hours every day?

Question 3:
Are there any other ideas under development for the powerful gear obtained from the "3 kings" 21-24 hour HNMs? What does the development team think of the graphic that was shown at the games convention?
we are planning to make various changes with the next version updates. For example, the introduction of some new methods to obtain these items.

Question 4:
Are there any plans to add weapons equivilant or better than the Ridill sword dropped by the 21-24 hour NM Fafnir? Are any equivilant weapons going to be added that can be utilized by other jobs, as Ridills are primarily used only by Warriors?
we are willing to add items which might also have some unique aspects so you can enjoy FINAL FANTASY XI even more

Question 5:
Can the pop conditions of the Ullikumi NM be changed so that it is a more frequent (2-3 hour) lottery spawn or similar to other Tu'lia NMs that require pop items from normal monsters(Waters from Pots, that are used to pop the NM Olla(Grande))?
Please look forward to our future version updates.

Question 6:
Why are pop items for the god HNM in Tu'lia 100% drops but the pop items for jailer HNM in Al'taieu very rare?

A6:
We are planning to make adjustments in the near future.
The exact details of the drop rates is still a secret, but we believe it won’t disappoint you *g*


Question 7:
Will virtue stones (used for jailer weapons) be made quiverable like most other ammunition in the game?
It is an important issue for those who use weapons with virtue stones, so we should be able to fulfil your request shortly. Please look forward to it.

Question 8:
Can new uncapped Beastmen Seal battlefields (BC99) be added? Can abjuration items and other "3 kings" gear be added to existing or new Kindred Seal 99 (KS99) battlefields?
so we will consider adding new battlefields by monitoring progress.

Question 10:
Hydra gear is extremely difficult to acquire but many pieces are not useful, or are only used for the Fellowship NPC characters that have not been improved in many months. Why did this gear unique to Dynamis-Tavnazia turn out the way it did? How does the development team create new gear?
The situation has changed since then, so if many voices claim they are unsatisfied with them, we might make some adjustments, such as adding new items.

Question 15:
Will jug pets ever have the timer for their use eliminated or increased?
we are planning to allow Beastmasters to be more active


ALL THE BLACK BOLDED STUFF IS POSITIVE IMO!!!!!!!
We also know from the zam stuff that they plan to change drop rates.
You guys asked for Windowed mode, I told em a lot about it at the Games Convention and asked again and again via Email. You guys want inventory. We know we cant get it cause of PS2 limitations. Moglocker is hella good. People wanted to have the possibility to change servers one time or so, and it will be possible soon, probably with a fee.
They made changes to obtain gear, possibly with the Assaults. They said they will add new Items we will like. They said they make changes to Ullikummi and possibly sky.
They will make adjustments for Sea in the near future. They will change Virtue Stones thingy. They want to add new battlefields. They might change 3 kings if EVERYONE KEEPS COMPLAINING IN EVERY FUCKING INTERVIEW. They will change Beastmasters abilities.

So I ask everyone…. Why are you guys so fucking negative? Do you really think that poop Interviews others make changes more stuff? No. I find the other Interviews I read more useless. Anyway in around one week I will start gathering stuff for the next Interview. Right now Iam just glad I got the answers and don´t have to spam my Inbox anymore lol...

[Ashira]

Where did I say the first two floors of every Salvage are the difficult ones?

cells are for chumps, yo

Hehe.

This is why the 8 people or less runs rock. Whee.

[Melchiah]

There is plenty to do outside of the 3 kings and I enjoy any additions they give us. If they keep adding new content, Aery "should" clear out anyway, and I'd rather them work on new content than fix old content because there's still plenty of competition for everything.

This will never happen. The two best DD pieces in the game drop in that zone, not to mention Zenith Mitts, Dalmatica and M body. That zone will never clear out as long the two NMs who pop there are still dropping Ridills and all three of those body abjurations. Simply put, Zilart gear is still, 4 years later, the best gear most of the jobs that can wear it can get. Ares body is situationally on par with E body. Barring some hidden effect no one knows about because no one has one yet, Ares body looks to me like a Steel Cyclone macro piece. Find a replacement, hell find something on par with Ridill. SE hasn't matched the Zilart gear YET, and until they do, the Aery will still be packed out at every window.

[Ashira]

Barring some hidden effect no one knows about because no one has one yet, Ares body looks to me like a Steel Cyclone macro piece. Find a replacement, hell find something on par with Ridill. SE hasn't matched the Zilart gear YET, and until they do, the Aery will still be packed out at every window.

Arrow has one on Odin. But not the whole set obviously, and him being JP I can't exactly waltz up to him and ask if he's noticed any hidden effects (which I highly doubt, since the whole sets give add'l effects).

[Melchiah]

I'm inclined to agree with you Ashira.

[aurik]

Right, which is why my LS spends times on the other parts of the game, which we enjoy. I'm sure you're familiar with this concept since I believe you've said you almost never went to sky because you didn't enjoy it.

And if it wasn't overrun with gil sellers, I would be up in sky right now having fun. The system is fundamentally broken, and just because I *don't* take part in its current brokenness doesn't mean I wouldn't enjoy the content if it was fixed.

We have events on a daily basis and none of them involve the 3 kings. Hell we have a Bahamut V.2 win but at no point has my LS claimed or killed a king (not counting NQ Behemoth) lol. I think most of my LS is enjoying the game a lot, we haven't gotten serious about salvage yet either. There is plenty to do outside of the 3 kings and I enjoy any additions they give us.

That's exactly like my LS, then. But just because we don't participate in lag/botfests of kings or fight against the cockblocks of hacking RMT in sky doesn't mean we don't WANT to experience this content. I've said it a dozen times before and I'll say it again: if there was a free fafnir in aery, I'd totally round up 6-12 people from my LS and go fight it. But I'm not going to slam my dick in a door for 3 hours a day hoping that we get claim against 30+ bots.

If they keep adding new content, Aery "should" clear out anyway, and I'd rather them work on new content than fix old content because there's still plenty of competition for everything. The more there is to compete over, the more each LS will get, I know my LS recently claimed Tiamat because another LS was fighting Aspi at the time, Besieged was going on when Cerberus popped the other night, etc. I like what they keep adding and it's just getting better and better.

They need to obsolete ridill/ring and they need to do it in a way that isn't a complete botfest or otherwise cockblockable. Salvage was a good start, and this new nyzul assault has potential, but they need to continue pursuing it aggressively because it's already 2 years too late.

[Eaglestrike]

There is plenty to do outside of the 3 kings and I enjoy any additions they give us. If they keep adding new content, Aery "should" clear out anyway, and I'd rather them work on new content than fix old content because there's still plenty of competition for everything.

This will never happen. The two best DD pieces in the game drop in that zone, not to mention Zenith Mitts, Dalmatica and M body. That zone will never clear out as long the two NMs who pop there are still dropping Ridills and all three of those body abjurations. Simply put, Zilart gear is still, 4 years later, the best gear most of the jobs that can wear it can get. Ares body is situationally on par with E body. Barring some hidden effect no one knows about because no one has one yet, Ares body looks to me like a Steel Cyclone macro piece. Find a replacement, hell find something on par with Ridill. SE hasn't matched the Zilart gear YET, and until they do, the Aery will still be packed out at every window.

Dalmatica is beaten by either Salvage piece.

M. Body is pretty much only e-peen gear. My main LS pld still wants one but I honestly have no idea what situation it would be more useful than AF2/Ares (and I asked him the other night what situation he'd use it in and he had no answer lol). Maybe if they made a mob where defense made a huge difference and you couldn't use defender or food? Right. M.Body is owned by AF2/Ares in every pld/nin situation except for...Max spirits within!

Ridill is the best DD option for: WAR (maybe rng?) but there are plenty of other jobs. If they made similar level pieces for every job (say a staff with MAB+15% Ele skill+10 or basically Jailer weapons with higher DMG) like they kinda implied I bet people would stop being so obsessed with it because there are other jobs that are more important. From the sound of it everyone lvl'd WAR to 75 cause it's so cool doing 1337 dmg and now everyone wants a Ridill for it. If pld/nin wasn't so huge Hauteclaire *would* be the Ridill of tanks, honestly why wouldn't someone want to try pld/brd, hauteclaire/aegis/dring to tank stuff? Hell I'd throw in a jelly ring there too for lol's, -22% physical and -30% magical dmg. Tank in Ares Body for additional refresh, etc. etc. I can see it working.

Edit for Aurik: RMT aren't that bad on my server so guess it sucks for you guys >.> They've been slowly dying out here, they're most active in Qufim and still are at Ulli but our sky team has been fairly successful from what they've said (I don't go, too many sky hunts in my first "HNMLS" makes me get a headache upon entering the region).

[Caspian]

Thanks Bercus for staying persistent and getting some answers. Let us know when you're able to get another interview.