Rate SE's FFXI performance in the past year / ToAU Birthday

[LD]

Eh? 100+ for day one fafnir at 1 a.m.

....What?

AV still being a big ball of murder doesnt say "fixed" to me. Making virtues drop 100 percent and cracking down on some RMT NM's was nice but hardly a full fix.

Uh, ok. Apparently making the only thing wrong with Sky/Sea go away and ensuring that certain NMs can't be monopolized isn't considered 'fixing it'.
Does anyone even care about AV drops? Most people are more interested in the torques & capes.

Everyone complained about how ROZ had no low level content and how easy it was, they made COP.
People complained about how arbitrarily difficult and unapproachable COP was with little to no reward and how it had no new jobs, they made TOA.

What are you complaining about now? I really don't see how this expansion has any of the glaring faults the last one did.
It's added as much content as the ROZ saga, created an approachable, semi-instanced activity, a simple, but still robust, story-line, added 3 new jobs (2 good ones), a dozen new 75 exp areas (which we've been bitching for since sky), new merits, jobs adjustments, and since they released it, they've been fixing and tweaking it every update.
Do you remember how Besieged USED to be? 700 people waiting at the gates for mobs that died before you even hit it?
2 Updates later, it's pretty much the way it is now. Some of you may not like that, but it's a damn sight better than it used to be.
Then they actually listened to THIS VERY BOARD and significantly changed content from 3 years ago that desperately needed it.

Everyone here shat themselves on the last update, and 2 weeks later, you were complaining again.
I mean, yea, Nyzul Isle seems to be a massive disappointment for anyone who was expecting ridill, BB items, or Abjs. and the items dropped from the kings in there seems lackluster.
Salvage still has its problems, MNK is almost required (people complan about this in particular, despite jobs like BLM or RDM or BRD being required for other stuff...but I digress), drop rates are low, no 'anytime' drops (Currency), and remnants besides Bhaflau seems to be broken in terms of cell drops.
You know what these two activities have in common?
They don't cost gil and you can technically do them every day.
Salvage is at least known to be worth the effort, I actually saw someone with a completed piece last week.

Beyond that and Whitegate lag (which, as I said before, it more a subject of personal responsibility), what do people mainly complain about?
How long it took them.
Ya know what? You're right.
A lot of this stuff should have been done a long time ago and SE shouldn't be given a clean slate just for some long overdue adjustments.
But you can't deny that this expansion added as much as, and improved the game more than, either of the other two.

[Starr]

DC

[Alpsyche]

I see definite change which is always good. From the way we enter assault BC's and things like the ashu talif made clicky instead of wait for the hum and then enter is awesome.

Salvage - decent idea, not as good on the execution. Could have been better and more inclusive.
Beseiged - More fun, might be just about played out for me.
Assault - clicky and all are thrown in is nice. Fast which is also nice. Positive xp which is also great. Chance at loot, can't complain there. Nyzul great idea. L100 reward (reward!??!) not to sure about yet.
HNM - Fix Hydra and Khim loot pool and make them more viable. I'd still camp out a Fafhogg over any of the ToAU NM's.
Ulli fix - Brilliant
RMT item adjustment - Brilliant

Problems out there still.
RMT - Don't let up.
Abjuration Aquisition - Still a major issue.
I hate to say it, but more limit xp camps would be great. Peak times are hard to find something not packed. Games been out a long time and there are a lot of levels out there. A few more camps would be great.

[Sasarai]

Very Tough.

SE really has put the foot down (belatedly) with RMT since AU and its had a vast effect on the game and player attitudes. Couple that with the Ulli fix and doing Sky is actually *gasp* fun and profitable, instead of a waste of time.

Salvage was a terrific idea, but needs alot more work to tweak it. I am confident SE will do that and have it as the main AU end game activity. Instanced end game is the way to go for sure.

[Weeks]

Can't we separate out the expansion? ToAU was garbage. One great item was absurdly easy to get, the others are rewards from the ridiculous appraisal system that makes everything on par with Ridill in the rarity department or from Salvage (Read above for Salvage's many failings). The only real positive to ToAU is that merits are finally worth the amount of effort you put into them. Once every PLD gets their Dynamis-only sword off Khimaira, Cerberus will remain the only worthwhile HNM introduced, and even his drops are no big deal really. EP at best.

Square's response to the longstanding issues rates quite a bit higher, EM or T. They just need to be more proactive in removing RMTs from the game and then turn their focus towards claim bots, which are at least as big a problem to honest players as the RMTs are. They don't rate higher because they're only just now looking at issues we've been bitching about for years and because my recent encounters with GMs have been less than satisfactory: One screwed up my request for Fire Bomblet replacement and the next day we were nearly jailed for a "holding" violation 5 minutes into a Fafnir pop when the GM codes clearly state that stalling while members arrive is permissible.

[Ryko]

Eh? 100+ for day one fafnir at 1 a.m.

....What?

WIth said 100 riding the claimers' balls the entire time too. I hope that my pointless banter in say while fighting the thing, elegy or cure V be damned gets enough people bored/annoyed enough to the point that they just log the fuck out lol.

Uh, ok. Apparently making the only thing wrong with Sky/Sea go away and ensuring that certain NMs can't be monopolized isn't considered 'fixing it'.
Does anyone even care about AV drops? Most people are more interested in the torques & capes.

Virtue drop rate wasn't the only thing wrong with sea, it did make the entire process of getting AV to either not pop or pop and ignore it much quicker though. To say no one cares about the AV drops in general is blind, though there are easily a slew of people who just don't give a shit because of the roadblock involved.

[Ashky]

I gave them a Tough. Much better job with RMT, good content added. But, RMT tactics need to get even better. Even if they have to change the ToS so they can ban people on site for ANY reason they feel necessary. I have been jailed before accused of speed hacking while farming fucking rams in Kon. Highlands so I am sure there may be innocent people caught in the wash but it still has to get better.


Yeah, to the GM who banned me, flee + a bad upload connection on my PS2 = 3rd party program use. I promptly laughed in the GM's face which didn't help my situation I am sure.

[Dense]

I gave a VT. Almost an IT.

They've done such an incredible job over the past year of not only listening to the end-users, but implementing so much content. I think that the ToAU expansion was a lot more fun than the CoP expansion, and if I'd played before RoZ, I'd probably gauge them the same, knowing the things that were added.

In the past year, SE has fixed the following:

SAM
DRK
RNG
PLD
Ulli
Alky/Pallas
THF knife
THF weapons
Okote
Simurgh
Roc
etc

They have introduced three new jobs that are all quite fun to play (regardless of their exp popularity).

They've kept the game interesting with things like Besieged, Assault, Nyzul Isle, Salvage, and lolChocos.

They've added just about everything that players have asked for in Mog Lockers, Jeuno warps, Warps to Tu'lia etc.

They've announced a windowed version update, which is last on the list of severely-sought-after user recommendations.

They added Category 2 Merits, and some are simply amazing! (Shikikoyo, Warrior's Charge, Assassin's Charge, Feint, Pro V, etc) Some are lackluster of course, but that had to be expected (poor MNK, btw).

I think that all of these facts puts them at an IT level, at least, however, the speed of the expansion and the way they seem to come in bursts (nothing for 4-5 months, and then loads of data immediately) has made it much harder, and caused problems like the "dead zones" etc, and lost a bit of respect by blaming it on other factors. The lack of new-job endgame affairs (AFv2, Category 2 merits etc), and the aforementioned bring some reality to the buzz, and keep it from going to IT or ITG for me, but I have a hard time whining about anything with all of the gameplay, content and extra things to do in-game. I stay loyal to FFXI because the long-term investment of time feels more rewarding to me than 2 hours or 3 hours in WoW to attain a week's worth of FFXI rewards...

[Beckwin]

Oh shit, I wasn't even considering the job fixes. Fucking <3. I'm a pld drk and rng so yeah, its been good times for me.

[BRP]

I'm just surprised at "Too Weak" getting votes. I mean I can't imagine anyone thinking that ToAU wasn't an improvement over CoP, in some way or form. That's got to count for an "Easy Prey" at least. Then again, people are very bitter things.

[Sylphet]

Even Match

I'll give them credit for taking a lot of steps to curtail RMT activity. I love the shift to more instanced content and changing around NMs to drop rare/ex versions of the NMs that were often monopolized by RMT.

ToAU "HNMs" suck sorry but they do.

On the topic of Salvage. How can SE both do so well and at the same time so poorly on a single event? I'm not complaining about the fact that they strip you of your armor. I rather like the challenge. The gear ultimately is great, best we've seen out in this game since Zilart. However, they have totally screwed up the drop rates. Again, I don't mind things being rare but here's what salvage does to your storage:

My Salvage Gear Obtained:
Level 15 pieces (11)
Level 25 pieces (3)
Level 35 pieces (0)
0/29 on QQ Treasure Hunter for my team, and we always go with 2 THF.

They bombard you with level 15 gear. My mannequins are covered in it. Yes I know that you can trade some of it to the NPC, but only for one set. Why? Who knows. It's the same logic that lets us level up to 18 jobs on the same character and (despite the improvements they've made) inventory space is still at a premium. AF storage is great however they don't let you store partial sets. "But you can re-quest it". Seriously.. I've done the fucking quest already getting my AF ALL OVER AGAIN just about the last thing I'd ever want to do in this game.

Assault: great idea at first, though I hate now that everything is dependent upon it. Assault gear, Salvage and Nyzul Isle Assault all revolve around you getting tags or points etc. They took what is (imo) the best of the new content and put in a bottleneck. This bottleneck is on top of the hideous drop rates on 35 gear in Salvage.

Oh yeah and ::edits in:: COR BLU and PUP... all need a LOT of work to be as useful as the current jobs (and I'm a level 75 COR, this isn't hating it's just my informed opinion)

In the end it's par for the course for me.

[Mertron]

Eh? 100+ for day one fafnir at 1 a.m.

....What?

AV still being a big ball of murder doesnt say "fixed" to me. Making virtues drop 100 percent and cracking down on some RMT NM's was nice but hardly a full fix.

Uh, ok. Apparently making the only thing wrong with Sky/Sea go away and ensuring that certain NMs can't be monopolized isn't considered 'fixing it'.
Does anyone even care about AV drops? Most people are more interested in the torques & capes.

Everyone complained about how ROZ had no low level content and how easy it was, they made COP.
People complained about how arbitrarily difficult and unapproachable COP was with little to no reward and how it had no new jobs, they made TOA.

What are you complaining about now? I really don't see how this expansion has any of the glaring faults the last one did.
It's added as much content as the ROZ saga, created an approachable, semi-instanced activity, a simple, but still robust, story-line, added 3 new jobs (2 good ones), a dozen new 75 exp areas (which we've been bitching for since sky), new merits, jobs adjustments, and since they released it, they've been fixing and tweaking it every update.
Do you remember how Besieged USED to be? 700 people waiting at the gates for mobs that died before you even hit it?
2 Updates later, it's pretty much the way it is now. Some of you may not like that, but it's a damn sight better than it used to be.
Then they actually listened to THIS VERY BOARD and significantly changed content from 3 years ago that desperately needed it.

Everyone here shat themselves on the last update, and 2 weeks later, you were complaining again.
I mean, yea, Nyzul Isle seems to be a massive disappointment for anyone who was expecting ridill, BB items, or Abjs. and the items dropped from the kings in there seems lackluster.
Salvage still has its problems, MNK is almost required (people complan about this in particular, despite jobs like BLM or RDM or BRD being required for other stuff...but I digress), drop rates are low, no 'anytime' drops (Currency), and remnants besides Bhaflau seems to be broken in terms of cell drops.
You know what these two activities have in common?
They don't cost gil and you can technically do them every day.
Salvage is at least known to be worth the effort, I actually saw someone with a completed piece last week.

Beyond that and Whitegate lag (which, as I said before, it more a subject of personal responsibility), what do people mainly complain about?
How long it took them.
Ya know what? You're right.
A lot of this stuff should have been done a long time ago and SE shouldn't be given a clean slate just for some long overdue adjustments.
But you can't deny that this expansion added as much as, and improved the game more than, either of the other two.

Probably wasn't the right place for a RoZ/CoP discussion since the topic was to rate ToA, but saying "they fixed sky" doesnt mean RoZ is fixed, RoZ added kings and no, kings arent fixed. Step in the right direction, sure.

Saying pop item drops in sea for better chances at torques is a step in the right direction as well, but the kirin-equivalent of sea still pasting people if you get within 5 feet of it ins't fixed either, regardless of whether his drops are worthwhile. And what the hell not worthwhile, AV drops a ring that is far more useful for tanks than that sword people drool over at khimaira, for one quick example off the bat that doesnt include lolsash. I bet if AV was reasonably killable sea would be invaded by a bunch of people who didn't think it was worthwhile before hand, hell just making the pop items 100% seems to have added to peoples efforts in sea, last saturday we went to pop JoL and one shell already had it up, we said lets go to JoJ for now instead, head there and another shell has him up.

Anywho I said I'd give ToA a T but didnt feel like basically repeating the same things people who posted before me said. Though at the same time I'm basically rehashing the same old arguments about kings and sea. Wewps >.>

WIth said 100 riding the claimers' balls the entire time too.

I WAS GOING TO TANK ON BLU/NIN, YOU RUINED IT

take this

:3

[Miji]

Does anyone even care about AV drops?

They do indeed. If nobody cared, people wouldn't know who Map is.

[Thistle]

Incredibly Tough. Based on totally personal reasons, I'm having more fun now than I was a year ago. Besieged, Assaults have good stuff, and while chocobo raising is annoying I finally got a colored bird (only took 10 tries!). So all in all, I'm pretty happy with SE right now.

And while I'm sure it won't be a popular opinion here: I'm happy that the ToAU missions are nothing like CoP missions. That bumped it up from VT to IT.

[Eddie]

Well I guess as the OP I'll post.

I gave it a Very Tough. Always room for improvement but since playing from NA PC release, I have to say I'm having the best time now.

If CoP and slump the game seemed to be in for awhile didn't happen, I'm sure alot of my personal real life friends would still be playing. One thing to me that really makes this game.

I don't think I saw it list, but Runic Portals totally make my day. One thing that was ALWAYS a big bummer was taking FOREVER to get anywhere. I know this is a massive world in older time setting...BUT COME ON!

[VZX]

I really like how they add middle-sized party activity like assault and besieged that no one will be picky picking which jobs to enter the PT, as well as recent's signet bonus. I can solo with my RNG easily now, without any sleep bolt.
Account banning, that's a good move too, though now I think they overdid it.

Overall, I gave VT for that

[LD]

Hmm....You bring up a bunch of interesting points.

I do believe TOA has offered more COP and changed more, in terms of game mechanics, than ROZ, but I think my real point was that it seems like people are desperately looking for something to complain about, despite TOA, on the whole, giving people many more chances to actually do something besides exp.

The remark about AV was mostly hyperbole, AV items, for the most part, are very good. Anyone can see that.
However, it is true that most people are more interested in the jailor's drops and usually get more out of them.
Whether that's purely a product of AV's difficulty seems to me like a moot point, since he is still a giant murder machine.

I gave it an IT, mostly because any problems that have arisen have been nailed pretty quickly. Beseiged, for example.
People still don't like how it's crowded and the lag you get, but at its core, it's a fun destraction that acutlaly makes you feel like you're in a warzone (for me, anyway.)
It seems like they're really starting to put some effort into it, and it shows.