Special Development Interview with SE (4/17)

[Gere]

Why do you care when we're 99% sure that there will be a new end-game area?

The person I originally addressed said he didn't necessarily think they'd add an end game area because the expansion was "end-game stuff". I disagreed that this expansion was "end-game stuff" and now here we are.

Oooooohh yeahhh....

I was having so much fun, I forgot.

btw, you never answered if you were Fred Perry.

[Miltani]

thanks for the translation elmer and first posted updated with elmer's translation

[Mifaco]

this interview lacks lol. where's Sage Sundi?

[Kaylia]

Only 3 things need to happen for Salvage to be fixed:

1) Have an armoury crate right when you zone in that has 1 magic, 1 weapon, 1 ability, 1 sub job
2) Fix the pop conditions for the NMs in Zhayolm Remnants
3) Adjust the pop conditions for 3rd and 4th floor ramparts in Bhaflau Remnants

Adjust drop rate of lv 35 pieces please Or at least, non-body lv 35 if they think those pieces are overpowered.

[divisortheory]

Only 3 things need to happen for Salvage to be fixed:

1) Have an armoury crate right when you zone in that has 1 magic, 1 weapon, 1 ability, 1 sub job
2) Fix the pop conditions for the NMs in Zhayolm Remnants
3) Adjust the pop conditions for 3rd and 4th floor ramparts in Bhaflau Remnants

Adjust drop rate of lv 35 pieces please Or at least, non-body lv 35 if they think those pieces are overpowered.

Non-body drop rates are already pretty high >.> Which zone are you talking about?

[Terrance]

Only 3 things need to happen for Salvage to be fixed:

1) Have an armoury crate right when you zone in that has 1 magic, 1 weapon, 1 ability, 1 sub job

Many of our runs with 12 people have multiple mages never getting magic, depending on zone. Theres 100 minutes of the most damn fun imagineable right there!

Designer of Salvage needs a boot to the head and AIDS.

[Kaylia]

Havent done salvage in a long time, but lv35 drop rate was way worse than lv 15 drop rate when I was doing it >_> 1 every 5 run or something for us.

[LD]

Ogawa: The plan for the Pit is complete but the staff is working on so much that we can't find a free hand to work on it (lol). We plan to implement it this year so you can look foward to that. As for the Colosseum, that's on hold.

Wait, so Colosseum is THAT much different from the Pit, huh?
Interesting...

Editor: In some quests the Far East has been briefly mentioned. Is there any chance a future expansion will bring us there?

Ogawa: Ah, about that (lol). Eh, that's just your imagination (lol).

Meaning 'Yes.'
These people suck at lying.


Give me a lot of insight here, very interesting.

[Lordwafik]

Only 3 things need to happen for Salvage to be fixed:

1) Have an armoury crate right when you zone in that has 1 magic, 1 weapon, 1 ability, 1 sub job

Many of our runs with 12 people have multiple mages never getting magic, depending on zone. Theres 100 minutes of the most damn fun imagineable right there!

Designer of Salvage needs a boot to the head and AIDS.

12 people is 4 people too many if you're going for specific NMs.

I understand completely about what the devs said re:salvage's difficulty. Everyone thought it was too hard untill it got fleshed out, now there's 1 zone that's completely garunteed to finish your item so long as you get lucky in Arrapago, there's another zone but people aren't doing it which is doable, that is ZH boss, SS lvl35, and Arrapago 15. With those powers combined there's Morrigan's Trousers, Usukane Head/Body, Ares's Leggings, Marduk Feet, Skadi Gloves.

Hell if only deimos cuirass wasn't cockblocking, we'd head out and start finishing ZH boss peices.

[Not Kuno]

Stuff like Mad Bomber can completely kill your run, and should be changed. If you're going for that 35 and that NM isn't up all you can do is just use your fireflies. I think that should be changed as well as having the 35 pieces in general drop a little more often. We've done arra a ton of times without much to show for it. :/

[divisortheory]

12 people is 4 people too many if you're going for specific NMs.

The only zone I can see potentially getting cockblocked on for magic cells is Silver Sea. It's totally easy to get 12 magic cells in every other zone.

[ringthree]

I partially agree with that last, but drop rates should be a little more reasonable in some areas for sure. At times it's just ridiculous.

We're currently 0/30 or so now on Machas body, with two THF every run and at least one having TH3. Occasionally both, and occasionally TH4. Chariot hasn't been much nicer either. All in all its come down to a good 3-4 weeks (if not more) worth of Salvage for absolutely nothing.

A drop rate adjustment wouldn't be too out of line, but only a slight adjustment. The more highly sought after pieces shoudl remain very rare. Morrigan Body and Ares Body are always going to be highly desired, so they should stay rare. On the other hand, giving you those 4 cells right when you start would seriously speed up farming in that zone, so you could have more time to kill 3rd floor Treasure Hunters in addition to the 4th floor treasure hunter (if you're fast enough you can probably kill both 3rd floor TH as well as 4th floor TH on the same run).

I like divisor's idea more than an adjustment in drops. Here is the reason, its a little convoluted but go with me on it.

What is really missing from Salvage is intermediate rewards. Everything in the game has some kind of intermediate reward in this kind of situation. Dynamis has currency and crafting items, Limbus has coins and AF+1 upgrades, even HNM have junk and crafting item drops. You are not always going to get RDM hat from Xarc, you are only going to be able to do Omega or Ultima after collecting a certain number of chips, you aren't always going to get E. Body, Ridill or D. Ring. But you do get something for your effort. Once something for your effort is added, then there will be incentive to go even if you don't get the remnants piece. The pace at which people are getting Salvage gear for the quality of the pieces appears to be about right. Remember that Salvage gear really is downright amazing, and proper alternatives to some of the other gear already available. As a full set, they are better than most things in the game, and remember that some parts of abjuration gear sets are pretty much worthless. This isn't something people should just have piling up in their MH's. Adding intermediate rewards, whatever they may be, would make Salvage worth the effort because it would be something you would get even on runs that give no Salvage piece reward.

[Naramaska]

12 people is 4 people too many if you're going for specific NMs.

The only zone I can see potentially getting cockblocked on for magic cells is Silver Sea. It's totally easy to get 12 magic cells in every other zone.

We went 70 minutes without a single magic cell two days ago.

Complete waste of a run :\

[Not Kuno]

12 people is 4 people too many if you're going for specific NMs.

The only zone I can see potentially getting cockblocked on for magic cells is Silver Sea. It's totally easy to get 12 magic cells in every other zone.

We went 70 minutes without a single magic cell two days ago.

Complete waste of a run :\

Did you go west on first floor? East has guarenteed magic, as does various mobs on 2nd floor.

[Naramaska]

12 people is 4 people too many if you're going for specific NMs.

The only zone I can see potentially getting cockblocked on for magic cells is Silver Sea. It's totally easy to get 12 magic cells in every other zone.

We went 70 minutes without a single magic cell two days ago.

Complete waste of a run :\

Did you go west on first floor? East has guarenteed magic, as does various mobs on 2nd floor.

We went east, but didn't get any magic at all untill I think the far south room? I'm somewhat fuzzy about it, but I know we didn't get any magic drops untill the one that has a 100% drop on the 3x magic cells...who we also managed to get dead-last out of all the pulls. That combined with only a single MNK and running through way more hi-potions than we should have needed and having to resort to /heal slowed us way way down.

[divisortheory]

only a single MNK and running through way more hi-potions than we should have needed and having to resort to /heal slowed us way way down.

Yea, this was the problem more than the lack of magic was. With the right setup you can clear the entire first floor in 25 minutes. It seems like it took you 70 minutes just to clear the first floor. Salvage is heavily dependent on certain jobs, but then again so is everything else in the game, we're just not used to MNK being that job. Try doing Fafnir with 0 BLMs, or Tiamat with 0 tanks.

Also, I should point out that you can determine exactly what those 100% drop fomors will drop by looking at them. If you get that pattern down, you can always pull the magic fomor first.

[Not Kuno]

Then kill a few regular fomors, see if you get magic or not and gauge your hipo amount. If youre getting low on hipo and killed alot of fomor with no luck, silent oil past the rest and just pull the 2 hume mnks. One of them is weapons the other is magic. That's 50% chance right there and it's super easy if you know how to do it. Once you get some magic you can kill whatever you skipped.

[BRP]

If they gave out cells in the beginning, it wouldn't be a bad idea to limit them in the way no one can use all 3(or more) beginning cells. Would be kinda corny just to pimp out a single NIN/WAR with weapon, ability, spell, and sub job to solo everything.

[divisortheory]

If they gave out cells in the beginning, it wouldn't be a bad idea to limit them in the way no one can use all 3(or more) beginning cells. Would be kinda corny just to pimp out a single NIN/WAR with weapon, ability, spell, and sub job to solo everything.

I think people would find that it would be more optimal to split cells up anyway. Magic on a BRD, Weapon on THF, DRG, DRK, or Ridill WAR, Ability on MNK, SJ on whoever would be better than decking out a NIN.

Now that I think about it, NINs (and PLDs) are kind of a waste of space in Salvage anyway. There's no mob in Salvage a MNK/NIN can't tank.

[Wizerd]

If they gave out cells in the beginning, it wouldn't be a bad idea to limit them in the way no one can use all 3(or more) beginning cells. Would be kinda corny just to pimp out a single NIN/WAR with weapon, ability, spell, and sub job to solo everything.

I think people would find that it would be more optimal to split cells up anyway. Magic on a BRD, Weapon on THF, DRG, DRK, or Ridill WAR, Ability on MNK, SJ on whoever would be better than decking out a NIN.

Now that I think about it, NINs (and PLDs) are kind of a waste of space in Salvage anyway. There's no mob in Salvage a MNK/NIN can't tank.

If you gave weapon to THF, wouldn't it be naturally obvious to give Abilities/WS to THF as well? Their WS with SA and/or TA would be much higher than a MNK can do with just their bare hands. And if I gave magic to the BRD, I'd give them SJ as well so they could make double usage out of their job at the start (assuming MP cells weren't hard to come by at the start)

Edit: And really, I have no problem with the idea of running in there with hi-potions. It's the dependance on weapon cell drops that bugs me. 1 Weapon cell at the start would satisfy me greatly for Bhaflau and Arrapago. I've only done Bhaflau and I've read about Arrapago horrors so I don't know anything but Bhaflau very well, but yesterday we went 7 Bifrons with only a single weapon drop. Assuming we'd get more, I gave the first weapon cell to the THF and the NIN was stuck with nothing until the very last troll on the floor.