FFXI Thinning Out?

[BRP]

And arguing ToA as same amount of content on release than WoTG is retarded, when there is an obvious gap between both. Assault, xp mobs, HNM, besieged vs campaign? Add campaign ops if you want, but they suck

You are arguing quality of content rather than amount of content. WotG has more monsters(therefor more potential exp monsters, but not necessarily merit monsters, but it does have 3-4 camps of those), did give some armor(unfortunately most of it is lackluster or underleveled), and Assault at launch vs Campaign Ops they're about equal in size. WotG had a lot of stuff in it, it certainly isn't empty and this shouldn't be argued. Whether it's worth doing and worth staying in those zones is an argument that makes sense.

[Ryko]

And arguing ToA as same amount of content on release than WoTG is retarded, when there is an obvious gap between both. Assault, xp mobs, HNM, besieged vs campaign? Add campaign ops if you want, but they suck

You are arguing quality of content rather than amount of content.

Just stop yourself there, seriously. People's desire to play this isn't filled like a fucking gobbie bag, it's not "well 1 thing is 1 thing, so it's equal".

[BRP]

And arguing ToA as same amount of content on release than WoTG is retarded, when there is an obvious gap between both. Assault, xp mobs, HNM, besieged vs campaign? Add campaign ops if you want, but they suck

You are arguing quality of content rather than amount of content.

Just stop yourself there, seriously. People's desire to play this isn't filled like a fucking gobbie bag, it's not "well 1 thing is 1 thing, so it's equal".

That doesn't make the accusations of SE releasing an empty expansion any less untrue. It may be poorly targeted or poorly designed, but it hardly lacks content in comparison to ToAU's launch. It's of normal size/amount.

[Kaylia]

You are arguing quality of content rather than amount of content. WotG has more monsters(therefor more potential exp monsters, but not necessarily merit monsters, but it does have 3-4 camps of those), did give some armor(unfortunately most of it is lackluster or underleveled), and Assault at launch vs Campaign Ops they're about equal in size. WotG had a lot of stuff in it, it certainly isn't empty and this shouldn't be argued. Whether it's worth doing and worth staying in those zones is an argument that makes sense.

Dude...enjoy twisting reality, I'm done after this post. If you think harvesting outside town, clicking a "???", doing 2-3 campaign is fine content, you're just lying to yourself. It's not quality content, and it's not even a good amount of content because you could already do those thing. (Why would i mine in gustaberg, when I can min khroma ore somewhere else?)

New content is what make the game last and prevent it to feel repetitive, and WoTG doesnt have anything of the sort beside campaign, but even that need a lot of tweaking. Large scale battle that feel tiny compared to besieged.

I'm one of the few ppl who spend a lot of time in the past, one of the 2 in my linkshell. But after getting over 100k point, it feel empty.

[Lordender]

BRP is like in the 1% minority of people that constantly defend WoTG, its a shitty release dude, there is a reason a lot of people go "lolwotg i havent been there in weeks to months"

[Charismatic]

I don't think he's defending WotG as much as he's just pointing out flaws in people's arguments.

He's probably just as disappointed with this expansion as most of us are, just too busy arguing shit that doesn't matter.

[ronin sparthos]

And arguing ToA as same amount of content on release than WoTG is retarded, when there is an obvious gap between both. Assault, xp mobs, HNM, besieged vs campaign? Add campaign ops if you want, but they suck

You are arguing quality of content rather than amount of content.

Just stop yourself there, seriously. People's desire to play this isn't filled like a fucking gobbie bag, it's not "well 1 thing is 1 thing, so it's equal".

That doesn't make the accusations of SE releasing an empty expansion any less untrue. It may be poorly targeted or poorly designed, but it hardly lacks content in comparison to ToAU's launch. It's of normal size/amount.

The issue lies in the main fact that if its poorly designed that everything following after it is doomed to be 'empty content' regardless of if SE put it there or not.

ToAU:
-Besieged: Accessable, Still used to this day, started very weak.
-Assault: 3tiers, off the bat rewards that are still used to this day, progressed to be a huge part of the expansion,
-EXP Bonus/Regen/Fresh/FoodBonus: Changed the game, tipped the scales towards nothing being comparable to ToAU xp, still used to this day faithfully.
-Aht Urhgan Whitegate/Al Zahbi: Still used today, changed the idea of a hubtown, most crowded zones in the game.
-Cerberus: Ok Mantle, Algol for DRK/WAR/PLD, fed the HNM addicts.
-Walahra Turban: 5% Haste headpiece, killed the Panther Mask+1 overnight.

WoTG
-Campaign: Garrison'd Besieged, started out more challenging than Besieged outta the box.
-Campaign Ops: Small Quests, incomparable to Assault
-Sigil Fresh/Regen/Food Buffs: Lack of EXP bonus means its doomed to be inferior to 'AU, stackable bonus is neat and original. Horizontal Content theory i assume SE was trying to practice here.
-Bastok/Sandy/Windy: 3 zones split means people cant communicate or effectively shout, so everyone will go back to the largest concentration of lag.
-Sandworm: Cruel joke or preparation for something bigger?
-Sprinter's Shoes: 12% Movement, gives everyone the taste of movement speed+

To me it feels like WoTG should have followed CoP and ToAU would be the newest expansion because its like 2steps forward, 3steps back due to the dev team refusing again to obsolete content. Horizontal progression doesnt work too well when ToAU is such a well-oiled machine. It may be on paper 'equal' to a standard expansion launch but compared to following up ToAU, WotG looks like roadkill to many - 'empty' is just a way it feels probably due to the fact its rehashed zones mostly.

Campaign needs to be held in different places across the zones and the map highlights where the action is to 'spice it up a little'. Its not exactly war when the beastmen go to the same place multiple times.

[BRP]

I don't think he's defending WotG as much as he's just pointing out flaws in people's arguments.

He's probably just as disappointed with this expansion as most of us are, just too busy arguing shit that doesn't matter.

Kind of, sort of. I think it does matter, because how is SE going to fix what they are doing without knowing what's wrong. Targeting lower levels/bad gear was a poor move, and having "more content" like that solves nothing.

If you think comparing what gear ToAU gave to WotG's selection has anything to do with what I'm saying, you should read it over again. It's there, but people aren't doing it(main reason being lack of worthwhile reward, another is incredible ease being aimed at lower levels), by saying "No one stays in the past" you are not even disagreeing with my point of view.

[Kaylia]

Campaign needs to be held in different places across the zones and the map highlights where the action is to 'spice it up a little'. Its not exactly war when the beastmen go to the same place multiple times.

I agree. What made Besieged fun is that you had to defend multiple point at same time. You could see both side progressing or getting destroyed. City map isnt that big, but still, no matter where you run, there was battle.

Campaign fight feel so generic and pointless atm. You dont feel like you're defending something or helping your nation. It's just the same thing over and over. No strategy involved, no real difficulty unless you are completely outnumbered (1 vs 15). I'm not sure how they could fix it, I cant imagine people running all over the map to find monster either, but it should be bigger. Maybe have an army of monsters camp the tower, but only one squad attack at same time. Make every fight last longer, but less often in every zone (1 zone up at any time for 1h for example)

[neochaos]

Well, WotG failed in the eyes of many (if not all) at release. And thats fine, half the time SE implements new shit it blows ass, we've come to accept this fact, BUT





a little over 3 months later, the newest latest and greatest accomplishment thus far since the expac release is "valentiOnes day"?? seriously, not condoning copying WoW but, RP servers, PVP servers, PvE servers, YESPRZ Pretty sure I can think of absolutely no one who gives half a shit about something like valentione's day.

Like I said, its not JUST the lolwotg thats making this game at least appear to be dying to the end-game community as of now, but the lack of communication via SE, and although this was out of SEs hands directly, the rmt hackings of late have really fucked a lot of ppl, and im sure the vast majority just took that as a sign to say bye. I don't have statistics of the "vanadiel census" or w/e, and maybe FFXI really isn't thinning out, but I can safely say that at least the end-game community is beginning to dissipate.

[Lordender]

Can you really compare WoTG and ToAU releases? ToAU was so popular in the first few months there was countless system messages spamming the server for people to move out of whitegate because of congestion. The only time i've seen 100 people in a WoTG zone is a jugner campaign in the morning on the weekend during jp primetime hours.

[Lucavi]

Can you really compare WoTG and ToAU releases?

Not really, but its so sad that we have to look at ToAU as the essential "pinnacle" of SE's shitty expansion pack releases (pre-updates), because it wasn't all that hot right out of the box, either. The best things were turban and the merit zones for a long, long time. People didn't start reaping the rewards from assault, and besieged didn't start not-sucking for quite some time.

I don't see why its so hard for SE to simply package a new expansion with at least 50% of the total content up front, and maybe release 10-15% with each subsequent update. Putting 15% out there at first is for the fucking birds. How are you going to lure a new player in when you're dangling a dollar on a string, while WoW is practically giving out free blowjobs to play their game.

Hell, the best example boils down to exactly how they lure you in:

FFXI: $1.99 starter pack that still requires the use of both a CD-key and a credit card account. No commercials (anymore), and no real advertisement (anymore) outside of on the actual website, lol. If your friend recommends you, they get a fucking lolable gold pass or some other junk.

WoW: Free 10-day trial version, and a free 10-day "get your ass back on the bottle, son" re-dedication trial if you've already quit once (shame on you!). No CD-key or credit card required, and offers you the ability to keep your toon(s) under the same account if you wish to buy the game. Also gives you the option to flat-out buy the game (with CD-keys) online, to skip having to go to the store if you're just that lazy. Liberal use of commercials (anything with MR. T is golden), and promotes heavy advertisement on many popular mediums, like Penny Arcade. If your friend recommends you, they get free months tacked onto their subscription.

SE sure seems like they're trying to put FFXI into retirement. They're not trying to kill it, but they're sure putting it out to pasture, where it will die a slow, comfortable death.

[Damane]

I am playing now almost 4 years FFXI. I am bored of it. WotG was fun for the first 2-3 weeks now I am bored again, started playing WoW last week, just because FFXI is realy dying and boreing to me.

I had my fair share of kings for 1.5 years, I am bored of them and dont even care much for them anymore, even if they drop the best pieces for my WAR/BST/PLD etc.

Dynamis is just getting too stretchy, 3 hours of pulling killling my ass, and the drops for 30+ people are just bad. I almost fall asleep in dynamis everytime.

ToAU kings are nice, but once you killed them 2-3 times they are nothing special anymore, just need good stunners for 2 of them.

CoP wyrms are just a waste of time once you killed 2-4 of them. Ecxeption is Vrtra.

Assault is nice, but its so /sigh to get people for 2. leutnant are 1. leutnant to join group, with shouts you can only expect to find people to do the rank 1-3 assaults.

Salvage is the only fun thing left for me in FFXI, but the drop rate on 35 pieces is just bad.... 3 months of my salvage LS and only 6 35 pieces droped totally my ass.

Limbus is yeah...

Main issues with FFXI for me now are:
- Drop rate, yes I am sick of it after 4 years. I dont fucking care if you want to keep an armor rare, especially when its a 3 year+ old armor. I am just not up anymore to put so much time into such crappy droprates. (1x alliance for a mob that pops every 4-7 days and drops usually only 1 abjuration looool)

- no solo content. when I log on in FFXI I want to play, but usually cant, everything so tight ass group oriented that I cant go have some fun solo in the game. not saying everything should be soloable, but hey maybe some instanced exp zones for soloing 1-2 hour (with decent exp reward so you feel like you have done something), when you are bored out of hell.
Add more solo BCNMs where you can burn your seals of fast for fun and decent - good rewards, I dont want to make for everything a fucking group

- the time sink vs reward ratio in FFXI just doesnt fit for me anymore, while I was happy before now I am just pissed. Enough of it, and thats why FFXI died/ is dieing to me, my last hope is the updates for WotG, if WotG fails to deliver fast hot stuff then FFXI definitly died.

[Hyan]

- no solo content. when I log on in FFXI I want to play, but usually cant, everything so tight ass group oriented that I cant go have some fun solo in the game. not saying everything should be soloable, but hey maybe some instanced exp zones for soloing 1-2 hour (with decent exp reward so you feel like you have done something), when you are bored out of hell.

[neochaos]

Lucavi I don't really think SE is trying to put FFXI into retirement, I think a big part of why we see what SE does and go "o.O wtf" is because they are japanese. Remember, JP culture is quite a bit different than NA culture, so what they do might make quite a bit of sense to them, but we're like, wtf why? I couldn't begin to tell you for what reason they make everything so much more difficult in many aspects, but unless you are a roleplayer, JP, or a masochist, I can safely say you prob dislike SE's methods.

If you've ever been a big fan of other games from SE, you should note they go about those in the same manner. The only times you ever find out anything new about a game is either at TGS or from JP magazine scans. They never, ever, EVER tell NA's ANYTHING until E3, and thats once a year. I do agree tho, their methods as of yet with this game is pretty much retiring it. People like fast and easy, FFXI is the exact opposite of that. Thats why... FFXI: <500,000 WoW: 10,000,000+, lol. Defend SE and FFXI all you want, but I don't see FFXI rising in numbers beyond what its at now, its had its day, WotG failed, and down over the hill we go.

[BRP]

An expansion's success is determined after it's run of updates is completed. "RotZ era", "CoP era", and so on. You can't say it has failed when it hasn't been completely released. This has been only one update out of 6-8 or however many they give them per expansion.

[Kuya]

Cliffnotes of thread please? 24 pages of something that may well be cancerous for my health is not very appealing.

[BerenTebogo]

Cliffnotes of thread please? 24 pages of something that may well be cancerous for my health is not very appealing.

"We all hate WoTG! My vagina is leaking! The two friends I had on FFXI quit so now FFXI is a dead game and you can't convince me otherwise!"

[Tymon]

you have to consider that we haven't gotten a single version update for the expansion yet.

compare other expansions at release with this..

RoZ: Well, I don't know. NA got the game with RoZ right away.

CoP: When this was first released people could only go to 2-5 and 95% of people couldn't beat promyvions due to them being really fucking hard, so in essence we had near no content at all other than a few outside-tavnazia exp camps (bibiki etc)

ToAU: Probably the best release content but still near nothing. all soloable missions, only 2 rank ups. no one could build up the points to get a amir/yigit/etc piece before the first version update so gear wasn't much of anything either

merit areas were by far the best part of the expansion for a very long time as others here have said. cerberus was nice but most people are only camping him for the money now a days. maybe the mantle if it hq's

by far, the best stuff in toau were:

merit camps (most released later)
assaults (most released WAY later)
some gear (mostly later due to assaults)

there is a thread similar to this (xxx expansion sucks! no content!) for a little while, until we get a few updates. it happened with CoP, it happened with ToAU, it happened here.

we aren't going to see a mass exodus of end game players because of it. people will rant and rave, then we'll get an update that has some decent stuff in it and everyone will be satiated and stop whining.

[BRP]

stop whining.

I agreed with your post until this part.