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

[Luke]

RMT logging out in aery for post-maint fafnir on Carbuncle.........

You gotta be fucking kidding me ...

No lie ; ;. I'd get a SS of the /search but lolPS2.

[ircgeek]

If Ridill and D.Ring drop from Nyzul Isle "World" HNM will basically be fixed >.> Other than the "I WANT NOW" crowd the people camping kings will drop.

Besides Ryko's comment that we can't really say for sure those items will even drop in the new areas, why would people stop camping Kings? They would just have TWO chances to get the items now, and would simply do Assault when the windows aren't up.

[Toth]

It's the same problem I see about salvage gear. Some is comparable to kings gear but you can spend months farming salvage for a single piece but yet you only need a day (a lucky day of course) to get an abj.

[safer]

It's the same problem I see about salvage gear. Some is comparable to kings gear but you can spend months farming salvage for a single piece but yet you only need a day (a lucky day of course) to an abj.

the difference is though.. you can go months without seeing the salvage gear you want.. but in the mean time you've collected gears for other sets and helped people out, as well as had some fun doing something interesting...

with king camps.. what do you have to show after 3 months and you dont get claim?

[Toth]

Good point Safer. I just wish people continued to be interested in salvage. I love doing it but after three months and two morrigan pieces total, I am feeling a little gipped. That doesn't mean I want to stop, but there are people who begin to see the lack of rewards as a reason to give it up. It's all about incentives for some people.

[safer]

ive had the opposite reaction from my ls... at first it was a small group of maybe 7 people who wanted to do salvage....other people didnt wanna waste time with it... but we were dedicated.. (even losing our first bhaflau run within minutes of entering cause we had no monk didnt turn us off)

and now after other people seeing our slow, but steady progress, more have joined us to the point where im going to have to split up runs for farming zones....

almost got the bhaflau boss last night too.. 16% on our second attempt... next time i think we'll get it for sure, and im sure seeing lvl25 pieces drop will motivate people even more

[Alastaire]

If Ridill and D.Ring drop from Nyzul Isle "World" HNM will basically be fixed >.> Other than the "I WANT NOW" crowd the people camping kings will drop. Though really I don't mind Cerb/Tiamat, big windows so people don't camp, just a mad rush between LS's to get. Far more entertaining than Fafhogg.

Maybe not on your server rofl...

A couple LS on my server have an alliance at these when their windows are open sometimes, it's insane. They camp in shifts.

[Lordwafik]

If Ridill and D.Ring drop from Nyzul Isle "World" HNM will basically be fixed >.> Other than the "I WANT NOW" crowd the people camping kings will drop. Though really I don't mind Cerb/Tiamat, big windows so people don't camp, just a mad rush between LS's to get. Far more entertaining than Fafhogg.

Maybe not on your server rofl...

A couple LS on my server have an alliance at these when their windows are open sometimes, it's insane. They camp in shifts.

If only I had the SS of this LS leader retard on our server who was flaming his LS why they didn't have 6 people out camping Khimera when he logged in.

[bercus]

With the Version Update, anyone still says it was useless?

The conditions for certain Notorious Monsters to appear, as well as certain treasure drops, have been adjusted in the following manner:

- The method for obtaining the items listed below has been adjusted.
The monsters that dropped these items now have a chance of dropping an EX/Rare item with the exact same attributes.

Fuma Kyahan/Speed Belt/Ochiudo's Kote/Strider Boots/Healing Staff/Eurytos' Bow/Cross-Counters

- The Notorious Monsters listed below now require a certain item to be traded in a certain location in order to appear.

Big Bomb/Alkyoneus/Pallas/Sozu Rogberry/Ullikummi

- The items listed below can now be obtained through different methods.

Cassie Earring/Serket Ring/Juggernaut
*The Juggernaut will still also drop from the usual monster, but at a lower probability.

- The “Lock of Siren's Hair” will be removed from the treasure dropped by the following Notorious Monsters.

Voll the Sharkfinned/Zuug the Shoreleaper/Pahh the Gullcaller/Worr the Clawfisted
*In accordance with this change, the drop rate of this item from monsters other than the four mentioned above will be increased.

- An item to replace the “Kraken Club” has been added to the treasure dropped by the “Lord of Onzozo.”

- Certain items obtained from the Notorious Monsters holding the “Virtues” in Lumoria will now drop with 100% probability.

Sea and sky seem to be now pretty much fixed.
RMT got owned.
And the new Assault might be a Win as well.

[Sine]

Heya, don't normally post on forums, but have been playing since NA launch and doing endgame since 2005, so wanted to respond to this interview..

I understand some of their reasoning for having the items as hard to come by as they are. Despite its flaws, FFXI is still probably the most well 'balanced' (using the term loosely) MMO out there, both in item distribution and economy. Some of its due to the heavy supply & demand nature of the game, some of its due to lazy and extremely slow content development.

I agree with them focusing on new content rather than old, so long as it emphasizes progression. However, post original dynamis, they seem to not know exactly how to create meaningful progression. And with whatever 'good' progression they have created since, it has come at a ridiculously slow rate so that the majority of players are hitting their heads repeatedly on the ceiling. I see this as THE problem as opposed to the shoddy game mechanics that dictate who gets to fight a king/whatever and get their drops. We shouldn't be concentrating on getting old content 'fixed', we should be emphasizing the importance of more meaningful content. I know this isn't news to most people, but with how SE listens, I'd think it would be best if everyone voiced this.

FFXI is a very complex game and I sympathize with them not being able to keep their balance while satisfying us. But focusing on fluff items (tav dynamis, etc.) is a step in the opposite direction. Increasing the level cap would be an obvious way to do this, but would be a major headache with subjobs, etc. Also, with how they design their items and how to obtain them (relic weapons, etc.), it's tough to impliment ones that are upgrades, so they stick to making sidegrades and situational items...as it would make them obsolete, in turn making the content you get them in obsolete.

They had chances to improve this, such as the cop Dynamis zones, but ended up just kicking themselves in the balls. They could have made it so you need to progress through each of the dynamis to gain access to the next each time (meaning your key item from winning is eaten up when entering the next one in progression) and having the cop ones be tougher than beauc/xarc, while having a much better droprate on currency/unique non fluff items. I know repeating the city zones ad nauseum seems asanine to people who have done them countless number of times and don't need anything from them, but it would allow them to up the droprates as the time required to get to each one would be increased. I don't know about anyone else, but I'd be much happier seeing higher drop rates and having a better feeling of progression than repeating the same zone over and over with small hope that an item will drop. And perhaps after completing the final cop dynamis, you would get a key item that allows you to bypass the city ones for progression.


As for HNM's being big and scary and feared, ummm they must be stuck in 2004 when referring to the kings. Their problem is that they rely too much on their 'theory' and 'concept' of what they think the game should be and disregard what is actually happening inside of it. And the answer isn't something like AV, it's constant meaningful content...it can't be emphasized enough. Supply us with a new, slightly harder HNM every few months and I think we'd be much happier campers (pun intended)


For the casual vs hardcore debate and those that say they don't need to listen to the hardcore playerbase, that's pretty ignorant. A loyal player is much more important than a new or casual player as it's a more secure monthly fee that they can rely on. The hardcore are the ones who stay in the game for the long term and the casuals tend to flake out more easily (especially when new mmo's come out, etc.). The hardcore base does the same, but are usually more likely to come back due to their time invested and attachment to their character, unless the game is in disrepair for them, as we've seen many times with FFXI.

[Sine]

Those are some pretty nice changes, kudos to SE.

[bercus]

I'm really sorry for keeping you waiting but also relieved we manage to send it to you in time...^^;;
Hope you like this version update!

It is "quite" busy today because of all the stuff related to this new version, so I will write to you again shortly.
Just wanted to drop a quick note to wish you all the best

Kind regards,

I see only a few more things to ask in 2-3 weeks. I like everything they have changed so far. Next time will be less about endgame, it will be more about stuff like more Macro lines or whatever.

I wish you all much fun with the new Version Update. Hell who knows and the new Kraken Club Version from LoO only hits 2-8 times with Latent when you have no /NIN SJ to prevent Dual Wielding with Kraken Club .
I am sure noone has tried that yet, if not who cares.

So check the Forum again in 2 weeks so we can gather another set of questions. On a sitenote I try to work together with the zam people so we dont waste asking the same questions when we have the chances to get the Developments attention via Q&A Interviews.

See ya, and keep this Forum busy with Update Details ^^.
And stop bitching about the Update, SE can´t change everything in one VU. It IS the right direction. And they ARE listening. Seriously I do not care anymore if we get late answers. We know they listen, and were probably not allowed to tell to prevent Gilsellers ect preparing for this Update when they would know about a few things.

[Jonel]

gg, bercus.

[Dirian]

Part of me wonders if it might not be a bad idea for overlapping questions so SE knows that a diverse part of the population is concerned about a certain issue.




Anyway, after the update, SE scored HUGE points in my books. Ulli force pop = win, sea NMs dropping shit 100% = win, if Nyzul Isle turns out to be as good as tenatively advertised, and more importantly if future updates continue to address our concerns and they do get in contact with their player base on a more consistent basis, then I rescend any negative thoughts toward SE and applaud them for being willing to listen and make meaningful changes.

[Gasgul]

berky, did they mention anything about incorporating my graphic diagram:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...orums/diag.jpg
in to the game?
/humour

ps feel free to link this in response
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y225/G ... reword.jpg