Adjustments and Additions to Fellows (02/26/2008)

[Kaslo]

One could argue that some of this stuff should've been with the expansion to begin with. The general lack of missions was pretty lame.

Do you realize that the same lack of missions were in ToAU too? There was I think 7 missions released at the time with all of them being Cutscenes. When you look to WotG and individual city quests that are part of the storyline it's about the same...

[ronin sparthos]

Compared to everything 'novel' that SE has given players over the years, id like to see someone argue that Fellowship NPCs werent one of the best fucking ideas ever churned out by our good masochistic friends at SE - even with the limitations...

It boggles the mind that people can jump up and yell, "this update is garbage, I don't even use NPCs." Does this mean that if they make all jug pets uncapped, untimed, zoneable, and buffable, everyone who is not a BST should start shouting "EPIC FAIL WTF"?

If this happens, can we say: Beastmaster Bandwagon '08?

....seriously if BST was a bit more open-ended with pets/jugpets/customization it'd be one of the most fun jobs in the game >.>;

Plus, id kill to see the day that BST becomes a bandwagon job.

[Kaslo]

these notes are teasers meant to entice us and spark discussion about the full update (and indeed they have).

They are neither enticing nor are they sparking any sort of positive discussion.

Going to have to agree here too, none of the update notes have been all that exciting so far. Actually I think this fellowship update is the first one I've seen so many people happy about.

I think freaking seige turrets are exciting and enticing >.> PHEAR THEM!!!

[Anadosia]

wewt! Now my npc will quit killing herself with Circle Blade

[ronin sparthos]

To see those turrets, dont the Beastmen have to be owning the Allied Forces to get their technology levels up?

That means losing alot... something you cant exactly do when npcs are raping faces with relic weapons and crazy shit x.x

or maybe they only need like level 1 tech to use em.... as if Jagidbod wasnt an overpowered son of a bitch already.

[layoneil]

Compared to everything 'novel' that SE has given players over the years, id like to see someone argue that Fellowship NPCs werent one of the best fucking ideas ever churned out by our good masochistic friends at SE - even with the limitations...

Automoblies are a great invention and then SE decided to ban all selling of gas in cities with a population higher than 500.

a poorly implemented good idea is still useless.

[LD]

Even if they are actually planning to add fellows to TOA or WOG, you can only take this at face value without sounding like an ass. So, at least, you have to assume this is the best of what they're changing, meaning NPC's exclusion from these expansion areas will still make it practically useless for most people.

[Tokitoki]

No more AoE WS? fuck ya!

[Lordender]

NPC's looked great on paper when SE first annouced them, but as usual, they fucked it up by adding their own negative twist to it. SE did the same thing with chocobo raising, everyone was in high spirits about being able to call your own chocobo in areas. SE had to put their lame twist on it by limiting it to normal chocobo calling areas and making it slower than rentals.

Overall these ARE good ideas but the way they are executed makes them fail hard.

[LD]

NPC's looked great on paper when SE first annouced them, but as usual, they fucked it up by adding their own negative twist to it. SE did the same thing with chocobo raising, everyone was in high spirits about being able to call your own chocobo in areas. SE had to put their lame twist on it by limiting it to normal chocobo calling areas and making it slower than rentals.

Overall these ARE good ideas but the way they are executed makes them fail hard.

Pretty much, if NPCs limit the number of PCs you can have in a party, they should have been allowed the same advantages since the begining.

Chocobo's could have been significantly less lol simply by making whistle charges free, but they cost 4x as much as a crag (0 traffic).

[Isiolia]

If you don't use NPCs, this isn't going to affect you, so what the hell do you expect?

My problem with NPCs is when they do affect me. There are other changes they could make that would allow them to be less disruptive to others. For example, if they made say, ToAU areas possible and opened up new armor, do you really think you'd find a Lesser Colibri -not- being soloed by some JP with an NPC, intent on having it show up in full Yigit?

Maybe it's bitter, but frankly, that's been my experience with NPCs. Like I said before, I have been MPK'ed for the sake of NPC appearance.

If they were say, making quests to complete for NPC XP, and more direct selection for armor rather than requiring someone to just grind out on what are EPs for them under the right nation control...it may help alleviate that, along with making them more attractive to use by removing some of the grind of XPing them.

'course, yeah, again, there are jobs that need these kinds of changes. If pet jobs don't get a similar buff, I think there will be calls for SE Dev blood.

More than already, I mean.

[ronin sparthos]

Im usually the one overly critical of SE but compared to these novelties:

-Ballista (good idea, dropped like a rock by SE, Ballista Royale was pretty popular.)
-Brenner (capture the.... whats brenner?)
-Venture Roll (play the game of corsair, without being one)
-Pankration (Po-ke-norewards)
-Clamming (hey, its the lost craft... i heard you can dig up moly ore there but its suuuuuper rare)
-Expeditionary Forces (Hey, 2004 called. They want their Campaign back.)
-Garrison (lets go do garrison, its that 20 cap only event in ronfaure right???)
-Chocobo Racing (Man, my red bird looks BADASS... hey why am i riding in 'bullet time'??)
-Chocobo Circuit (had potential as a bazaar mall.... and thats about all it was good for SE)
-Kokba Hostel (for all those manthras waiting to be sexed up while trying out new mysterious foods on eachother!)

...fixing the Adventuring Fellows is a step in the right direction.

If they still limit them to current areas, i guess its back to bitching @ SE.

[Kayos]

Im usually the one overly critical of SE but compared to these novelties:

-Ballista (good idea, dropped like a rock by SE, Ballista Royale was pretty popular.)
-Brenner (capture the.... whats brenner?)
-Venture Roll (play the game of corsair, without being one)
-Pankration (Po-ke-norewards)
-Clamming (hey, its the lost craft... i heard you can dig up moly ore there but its suuuuuper rare)
-Expeditionary Forces (Hey, 2004 called. They want their Campaign back.)
-Garrison (lets go do garrison, its that 20 cap only event in ronfaure right???)
-Chocobo Racing (Man, my red bird looks BADASS... hey why am i riding in 'bullet time'??)
-Chocobo Circuit (had potential as a bazaar mall.... and thats about all it was good for SE)
-Kokba Hostel (for all those manthras waiting to be sexed up while trying out new mysterious foods on eachother!)

...fixing the Adventuring Fellows is a step in the right direction.

If they still limit them to current areas, i guess its back to bitching @ SE.

I don't think using examples of all the absolute worst ideas SE ever came up with to justify this fellowship update is very relevant.

[Spider-Dan]

My problem with NPCs is when they do affect me. There are other changes they could make that would allow them to be less disruptive to others. For example, if they made say, ToAU areas possible and opened up new armor, do you really think you'd find a Lesser Colibri -not- being soloed by some JP with an NPC, intent on having it show up in full Yigit?

So then, on one hand we have people saying that NPCs need to be callable in more areas, and on the other, we have people pre-complaining about how bad it would be if they were callable in more areas.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. It's a wonder anything gets done at all.

[evilpaul]

It looks to me like they screwed around with NPC related code for Campaign battles and messed a few things up (pets not getting AoE'd, etc), so they're updating Fellows which they haven't touched in forever while they work on Campaign and fix those issue. I see how they could do a BST pet buff, but SE probably considers BST "fixed" because of the updates they've gotten recently.

Anyone have a favorite Fellow info page, btw? I should probably finish that quest and get one sometime.

My problem with the version update teasers and various other interviews/announcements is that SE says they're thinking about adding a bunch of stuff that turns out to be tier 2 merits but it takes them a year and a half to get around to it. Or not at all in the case of BLM. WAR getting some sort of thing to enhance tanking, MNK getting some sort of Kick Attacks enhancement, SMN having Spirits become useful or get a new avatar, etc is the latest batch of expectations SE has created but hasn't delivered on in what...6 or more months?

Like they couldn't have released some of this shit if they're really planning to as a three month update?

[ronin sparthos]

I don't think using examples of all the absolute worst ideas SE ever came up with to justify this fellowship update is very relevant.

They are all lumped under the 'novelty' content, fellowship is one of the few that stuck with the community... the rest are well.... history.

The argument that npcs are gonna suddenly make monsters go extinct is laughable.... everythings on a 5min repop and there are literally a metric ton of Colibri outside Aht.... maybe if people would go beyond the fucking zoneline then they could solo in peace

Seriously, this is one of the better outcomes of an update to old content... IF they allow you to go to TOAU and WOTG with your npcs.

[Lordender]

Didn't SE say in an interview they would never allow NPC's in AU because they didn't want npc parties clogging up the areas?

[Kayos]

Im not saying it is a bad update, as I use my npc a lot when Im soloing. My issue was that if you compare a pretty mediocre bit of update news to historically the dumbest ideas ever put into the game of course it will look better in comparison.

[Khamsin]

- Magic and other abilities you use on party members will now also benefit the fellow you summoned.

I wonder if that means we can only indirectly buff our NPCs with -ra spells. If it said "...you can use..." that would be clearer.

Well, even if it is only AoE spells cast on party members, at least I can curaga myself and heal my NPC. That's something, right?

[Intense]

I think that the 1st update announcement's should ONLY be focused on NEW expansion content. The silly little NPC/battle music things are cool I guess, but should be only post-update noteworthy. I want more info, content and hype pertaining to THIS expansion and what they plan to add to it ("Fixing kings" can blow me at this point, I dont camp them nor have the desire to, rly).

In other words, SE needs to help us justify spending 30 bucks on their expansion, which, to me, as of right now, theyre not doing a very good job of. I sincerely hope that I have to eat my words about this in about a week, also. :]

(For the record, I hate NPC's and generally the people who use them. A lot of people Ive seen level their dudes in popular EXP spots which is stupid.)