Development Team Q&A - May 2008

[Elipse]

I'm with Tekki here. My LS does the same thing, completely self funded dynamis and the last thing we'd want is any group of 6 ass hats that feel like farming a xarc NM to scoop up the zone while its still not instanced.

Raising the drop rate, if significant enough, should lower the overall demand for dynamis over time and reducing the congestion problem. Lower the cost will only cause more problems.

They should have a different glass for CoP zones and that glass should cost half as much. That might help spread some people out (though probably not much)

Let me get this straight; Because SE fails at making certan zones instances, you would like to keep the amount of the hourglass @ 1mil when pratically everything has decreased in price, even the cosmo-cleanse. How about asking SE to make zones instances rather than Q_Q about a group "taking" your zone?

On the specific interview, thanks Bercus but after SE dodging soo many questions, I'm just not surprised anymore. The only real good thing about this is the nation change and hourglass being reduced.

As it stands now, If you are an LS of say 18+ experienced players then dynamis is profit if you doing Zilart zones only. CoP zones are most likely a loss unless you get a lucky 100 piece. So if you do a healthy mix of Zilart and CoP dynamis then there is no real cost to Dynamis for your LS.

Drop the cost and you take away the need for larger groups. Why go with 20+ players when you can just pop you can just grab 6 friends pay 80k each and go farm Xarc NMs that now have an increased drop rate? We all know this is what will happen right? Cause it just makes more sense to do it that way then to wait in line..

Now lets get to yoru question. Yes I would rather keep the amount at 1M then asking SE to make it an instanced zone. Why? cause they won't do it. Yes, I'd much rather it be and instanced zone, that costs less and people can farm as they wish but at this point I think its practically retarded to waste time asking for them to fix it. It would take a major overhaul for them to do this and I just don't see it happening with their track record.

People ask for kings changes and AV and nothing gets done, so I think it would be a waste of our breath to ask for them to commit to a major programming overhaul to an old system when they're already stretched for development time.

As it stands now, they're much more likely to just lower the cost of the glass, flood the zone with low man groups and piss everyone off. Keep the cost high so that its kept to LS sized groups and not spamed with low man groups. If they can't fix it, why make the situation worse?

Its smart to increase the drop rates in outlands, over time that will reduce the need for LS's to spam the outlands creating a little less conflict with dynamis northlands. We do Thursdays and Sundays on Odin and there is virtually no conflict for Cities or CoP, everyone is fighting to get Xarc and Beau.

[The Blackrose]

My biggest suggestion is to make a more visible english speaking community outreach guy, somebody we can converse with about the game. He doesn't need to be an expert on everything in this behemoth of a game, but does need to have access. That would really make great strides in this game.

Unfortunately Elmer did not get a job at SE.

[bercus]

Well this is not the last Interview I have done. I won´t have time in the next 5 weeks to work at all on any Interview but I plan to ask for one at the next Games Convention again. Hopefully they don´t totally hate me yet >.<.

[Octavious]

Well this is not the last Interview I have done. I won´t have time in the next 5 weeks to work at all on any Interview but I plan to ask for one at the next Games Convention again. Hopefully they don´t totally hate me yet >.<.

You should bring Elmir with you, surely the combined awesomeness of you taru will be enough to make them submit an answer to AV. I think it would make for a great video documentary too, "Bercus & Elmir Do Europe" :D :etp:

Also, I don't think they would hate you for your interviews. Hell, you're providing them with essentially free constructive criticism for them to work with. In essence you're providing them with ideas to pursue that they don't have to spend time on themselves, so less time spent on their end. Plus, you're a tarutaru and lets face it, everyone loves tarus. ^o^

[bercus]

Just so that noone wonders, the official title for this Interview has to be on all sites :
Development Team Q&A - May 2008

So I changed it in both Topics ^^.

Btw :

Your questions were always so interesting and very informative. There were a lot to learn from.
And ofcouse your site is as important as other community sites.

[Shuemue]

Well this is not the last Interview I have done. I won´t have time in the next 5 weeks to work at all on any Interview but I plan to ask for one at the next Games Convention again. Hopefully they don´t totally hate me yet >.<.

They may not hate you, but they appear to treat you and us with contempt. Thanks for repeatedly banging your head against a brick wall for us Bercus.

[Khalil]

Let me get this straight; Because SE fails at making certan zones instances, you would like to keep the amount of the hourglass @ 1mil when pratically everything has decreased in price, even the cosmo-cleanse. How about asking SE to make zones instances rather than Q_Q about a group "taking" your zone?

On the specific interview, thanks Bercus but after SE dodging soo many questions, I'm just not surprised anymore. The only real good thing about this is the nation change and hourglass being reduced.

As it stands now, If you are an LS of say 18+ experienced players then dynamis is profit if you doing Zilart zones only. CoP zones are most likely a loss unless you get a lucky 100 piece. So if you do a healthy mix of Zilart and CoP dynamis then there is no real cost to Dynamis for your LS.

Drop the cost and you take away the need for larger groups. Why go with 20+ players when you can just pop you can just grab 6 friends pay 80k each and go farm Xarc NMs that now have an increased drop rate? We all know this is what will happen right? Cause it just makes more sense to do it that way then to wait in line..

Now lets get to yoru question. Yes I would rather keep the amount at 1M then asking SE to make it an instanced zone. Why? cause they won't do it. Yes, I'd much rather it be and instanced zone, that costs less and people can farm as they wish but at this point I think its practically retarded to waste time asking for them to fix it. It would take a major overhaul for them to do this and I just don't see it happening with their track record.

People ask for kings changes and AV and nothing gets done, so I think it would be a waste of our breath to ask for them to commit to a major programming overhaul to an old system when they're already stretched for development time.

As it stands now, they're much more likely to just lower the cost of the glass, flood the zone with low man groups and piss everyone off. Keep the cost high so that its kept to LS sized groups and not spamed with low man groups. If they can't fix it, why make the situation worse?

Its smart to increase the drop rates in outlands, over time that will reduce the need for LS's to spam the outlands creating a little less conflict with dynamis northlands. We do Thursdays and Sundays on Odin and there is virtually no conflict for Cities or CoP, everyone is fighting to get Xarc and Beau.

While I do understand your point, if people really wanted the drop from the zones, they would find ways. Sure, reducing the cost will entice them more to do so, but it will also help who do low-man these zones when they're just not a big LS. Honestly, there's really not that much competition for Dynamis on my server; sure we don't use the calendar but I haven't seen a huge /emo thread about it since I transferred over.

Besides, with the adjusted drop rate (I hope it's an increase...), you'll be more likely to get the piece you desire and *gasp*ALMOST be done with Dynamis. Also, the point you made about a group of 6-man doing the NMs. It's already being done atm. Heck, I saw Taj's once of him and another BLM (?) duoing the BLM NM and getting drops.

[Tajin]

They may not hate you, but they appear to treat you and us with contempt. Thanks for repeatedly banging your head against a brick wall for us Bercus.

^ This is a better reply than what I was going to type. Thanks Bercus.

[Elipse]

While I do understand your point, if people really wanted the drop from the zones, they would find ways. Sure, reducing the cost will entice them more to do so, but it will also help who do low-man these zones when they're just not a big LS. Honestly, there's really not that much competition for Dynamis on my server; sure we don't use the calendar but I haven't seen a huge /emo thread about it since I transferred over.

Besides, with the adjusted drop rate (I hope it's an increase...), you'll be more likely to get the piece you desire and *gasp*ALMOST be done with Dynamis. Also, the point you made about a group of 6-man doing the NMs. It's already being done atm. Heck, I saw Taj's once of him and another BLM (?) duoing the BLM NM and getting drops.

Yeah we did the same thing. Went into Xarc with 6 before. As for competition we scheduled Xarcabard for 1.5 months straight on the dynamis calendar for thursday night and it was stolen every single time. JP's don't really give a rip what us silly NA's have planned >_>. Its been really frustrating at times. It might just be an Odin thing considering how bad our population boom is at the moment.

[Khalil]

While I do understand your point, if people really wanted the drop from the zones, they would find ways. Sure, reducing the cost will entice them more to do so, but it will also help who do low-man these zones when they're just not a big LS. Honestly, there's really not that much competition for Dynamis on my server; sure we don't use the calendar but I haven't seen a huge /emo thread about it since I transferred over.

Besides, with the adjusted drop rate (I hope it's an increase...), you'll be more likely to get the piece you desire and *gasp*ALMOST be done with Dynamis. Also, the point you made about a group of 6-man doing the NMs. It's already being done atm. Heck, I saw Taj's once of him and another BLM (?) duoing the BLM NM and getting drops.

Yeah we did the same thing. Went into Xarc with 6 before. As for competition we scheduled Xarcabard for 1.5 months straight on the dynamis calendar for thursday night and it was stolen every single time. JP's don't really give a rip what us silly NA's have planned >_>. Its been really frustrating at times. It might just be an Odin thing considering how bad our population boom is at the moment.

I haven't seen a group of JPs taking a specific zone that we wanted to do. Then again, most of our dynamis is done around NA primetime. It's mostly due to your population, I assume.

[Yutuyu]

Lowering the hourglass will mean a subsequent lowering of price for relics, which is certainly welcomed for many players who wish to attain relic, but it's currently an impossible dream for.

As for the AV bit, I really want to know why people are still asking AV questions. No question ever asked in 3 years or so of AV's release has ever actually been usefully answered. What makes you think they'll answer something now?

[Therin]

If you're complaining about Dynamis glass cost reduction you can go burn in hell.

[Elipse]

While I do understand your point, if people really wanted the drop from the zones, they would find ways. Sure, reducing the cost will entice them more to do so, but it will also help who do low-man these zones when they're just not a big LS. Honestly, there's really not that much competition for Dynamis on my server; sure we don't use the calendar but I haven't seen a huge /emo thread about it since I transferred over.

Besides, with the adjusted drop rate (I hope it's an increase...), you'll be more likely to get the piece you desire and *gasp*ALMOST be done with Dynamis. Also, the point you made about a group of 6-man doing the NMs. It's already being done atm. Heck, I saw Taj's once of him and another BLM (?) duoing the BLM NM and getting drops.

Yeah we did the same thing. Went into Xarc with 6 before. As for competition we scheduled Xarcabard for 1.5 months straight on the dynamis calendar for thursday night and it was stolen every single time. JP's don't really give a rip what us silly NA's have planned >_>. Its been really frustrating at times. It might just be an Odin thing considering how bad our population boom is at the moment.

I haven't seen a group of JPs taking a specific zone that we wanted to do. Then again, most of our dynamis is done around NA primetime. It's mostly due to your population, I assume.

Yeah we go at 8pm EST, they pop in the zone at like 6:30-7pm EST and steal it lol. I'm pretty sure thats something like 9AM their time? I don't know the time zones really well. Likely they're going at that crazy hour to avoid the congestion during their prime time.

[Elipse]

If you're complaining about Dynamis glass cost reduction you can go burn in hell.

lol I know it sounds retarded. There are benefits to it, but generally speaking as an LS leader, dynamis costs nothing at all as it is. Cost is not a factor because all the currency sells for more than the entry fee for most zones.

[Izzy]

If you're complaining about Dynamis glass cost reduction you can go burn in hell.

If this happens we'll just lower the entry fee. The only problem I can see with lowering the price is random groups getting 6 people together for a random Dynamis run and not following the server schedule like Teki said. Even then, I don't think that'll be a huge problem.

[Zosi]

I think that the ability to find 6ish skilled and qualified people who want to farm Dynamis, but don't have access to a decent LS was and will continue to be more of a stumbling block than the gil cost. Particularly once you figure in the increased drop rates, I don't think that your average Dynamis attendee is going to get desperate enough to try to start his own low-man farming group, it's simply too hard for the majority of people. The people who would do it are the same ones that did it before, it's just less gil out of pocket for them.

[Khalil]

Yeah we go at 8pm EST, they pop in the zone at like 6:30-7pm EST and steal it lol. I'm pretty sure thats something like 9AM their time? I don't know the time zones really well. Likely they're going at that crazy hour to avoid the congestion during their prime time.

A good portion of our JPs are awake at 8 PM EST, which is about 9-10 AM JST. But, I haven't seen them try and jack a zone from the NAs or EUs. Like I said before, our server doesn't use the calendar and even if we did, some odd LS would always not play by the rules.

[Meian]

Nice to hear about the Dynamis portion, it may just be a small cut like they did to Limbus (I would guess 700k as new cost)

Bleh, still no word on why KC was no longer all jobs

[Yutuyu]

Bleh, still no word on why KC was no longer all jobs

My guess is they didn't want the new jobs to have it, but what do I know...

[Mizango]

Northlands droprates done it for me :D

No kidding, it's about time. The AV thing sucks still though. I like how they give you the whole "We released the video and it has lots of clues" blanket statement. Oh well, you cant win them all I supposed. As always, Thank you Bercus and we are appreciative!


Edit: LOL @ Therin, seriously wtf dude? Teh turtle iz finally kewl