An Open Letter to Square-Enix

[sleekmotorwurkz]

I was really (really) pissed about this yesterday, Ive only farmed bats maybe 5-10 times if I happened to be in the area. I have a different farming spot that I usually stay at, but the fact that real players make gil this way, kinda sucks that they cut it off to battle rmts.
That being said, there are plenty of "nm" type battles and even stuff that can be npc'ed/quested that still make good money. 50k/hr by npcing everything, not quite, but with some AH research, and questing, even bcnm/enm/isnm if you can get a small group together, you can still make a decent amount of money, which over time, if you stay devoted to it will add up - and you might just get a lucky drop now and then that would equate to 5-20 hours of farming.
I do think they are doing it wrong, and lol'ed hard at the "cure the disease by killing the patient" but I doubt they will change it, so im just gonna deal with it. If the letter does work, kudos to you and im sure many in the community will be thankful

[rmtbot9000]

People need to just go back to the golden oldies of repeatable quests, like tiger fangs, or the new addition of ladybug wings, or even low level fishing/mining/logging. Theres still ifrits cauldron, or newton movalpolas, or logging places for bloodwood logs.

This doesn't kill gilmaking methods. This kills lazy people gilmaking methods

lol your logic is hilarious. Need to go back to reapeatable quests like tiger fangs & ladybugs? So in other words, go farm a monster for a certain item drop and then take them back to an NPC and collect your reward? hmm doesnt' sound the least bit like what the fuck we are doing in the first place, the only difference is its not counted as a quest ;D

Lazy peoples methods? Fuck me, when did the people who actively pursue mining/logging points for hours on end against RMT become so much more involving and well thought out than actively pursuing bats or leeches against RMT? at least there is a battle element to farming mobs, rather than spamming your mine/log macro on a ???. You've been so helpful to all of us, thanks =p

[Guyverarmor]

Yeah, them nerfing the NPC rates on the said items stated in the updated did hurt my farming...but not much. Like it has been said before, Final Fantasy XI Auction House - FFXIAH.com and pick up a craft... You will be amazed that you can still make decent money. With just mining and spending the day doing it, I net about 150-180k, which is not bad at all (Atleast for my needs)

[altwight]

I would like to touch up on a few things.

1) Why are all of you saying that being in an HNM LS is a valid source of income? In no way possible does this have an impact on the amount of gil you have. All drops 9/10 go to LS bank which tends to go to LS leaders and sacks. Unless you're a sack holder I doubt you're seeing any kind of rewards other than the items you receive from events from your LS.

2) I agree with the fact that SE is getting rid of the disease by killing the patients instead of curing. However you must take into consideration SE does things by what we tell them. Some of you may or may not believe this. Think about it this way. Everyday there's probably 5-10 people per server that farm in zitah. These players see an RMT and just to spite them they report it to a GM. Now you have 5-10 players everyday PER SERVER reporting these players for RMT in zitah. It's an everyday thing what way did you expect SE to fix this issue? I would bet all my gil that everyone who calls a GM on someone farming in Zitah is because they want less competition so they just GM every RMT keyboard smash name. Probably 5% of the population that farms in zitah actually says to themselves "he's an RMT i should call a GM for the better of the community".

3) The endless chains of SE doing something the players ask and in return is bitched at. SE fucking sucks but as a player myself I find it annoying when we as a whole are NEVER satisfied. You complain and complain about how we pay a fee as a service and SE should have better support for their customers. SE doesn't and won't, and yet you stay.

4) Nerfing zitah is the exact same as every other quick gil farming method. Rusty caps, padded caps remember those? Those actually took skills it was a very legitimate way of making gil. This was even before the RMT were around. You think SE did this to counter RMT activities? Think again and again for every other nerf farm update. It's not about RMT.


edit: you can make money while leveling up a craft. if you take the time to research i promise you it's not always lose 500million gil to get 100 craft. people who lose insane amounts of gil through leveling up a craft go from 1-100 within a month or two. I personally level'd smithing from 1-98 over a course of a year and a half and to my knowledge lost no insane amounts of gil.

[sleekmotorwurkz]

I would like to touch up on a few things.

1) Why are all of you saying that being in an HNM LS is a valid source of income? In no way possible does this have an impact on the amount of gil you have. All drops 9/10 go to LS bank which tends to go to LS leaders and sacks. Unless you're a sack holder I doubt you're seeing any kind of rewards other than the items you receive from events from your LS.

Because we all know every linkshell on every server functions the same right? And if your SH are taking all the bank money for themselves I suggest you find a new shell. Sheep much?

[altwight]

Because we all know every linkshell on every server functions the same right? And if your SH are taking all the bank money for themselves I suggest you find a new shell. Sheep much?

Right because every linkshell on every server is a HNM linkshell. Jesus shut the fuck up with your tard ass flame.

[sleekmotorwurkz]

Right because every linkshell on every server is a HNM linkshell. Jesus shut the fuck up with your tard ass flame.

Then stop QQing that your sackholders are robbing your bank. Just because youre dumb enough to stay in a shell like that doesnt mean nobody in any HNMLS on any server makes money. Generalization ftw

[Isiolia]

People need to just go back to the golden oldies of repeatable quests, like tiger fangs, or the new addition of ladybug wings, or even low level fishing/mining/logging. Theres still ifrits cauldron, or newton movalpolas, or logging places for bloodwood logs.

This doesn't kill gilmaking methods. This kills lazy people gilmaking methods

Methods you're saying are basically the same types of things. HELM is just clicking points instead of killing stuff.

Additionally, you can't have every single person in the game making money in the same way. If everyone wanting to farm was out slaughtering tigers and ladybugs, then you'd just see people fighting over claim for those. If everyone was logging, then you'd eventually see prices on the worthwhile stuff drop, to the point where people wouldn't feel it worth doing.

A big reason that the methods there were even seen as all that good is because of how much the economy has tanked. NPCable item farming is typically just decent, but consistent money, which is frankly something the game needs more of at this point, not less.

[bluesavvy]

I just assumed this was to offset the loss of Jeuno tax. They can't just delete a gil sink like that without turning off some other source.

I'm sure there is a delicate balance to keep the value of the gil at a comfortable level. In this case, I think it has much less to do with rmt than everyone is assuming.

[altwight]

Then stop QQing that your sackholders are robbing your bank. Just because youre dumb enough to stay in a shell like that doesnt mean nobody in any HNMLS on any server makes money. Generalization ftw

Are you gonna end every post with some sort of witty phrase? I don't even play FFXI. Great job seeing that coming friend. Great job! Based on the fact you could only find some means of flaming me because of your ignorance I'll accept the fact that you agree with everything else with my post and thank you for your agreement. Good luck doing w/e you're doing ^_^

[altwight]

I just assumed this was to offset the loss of Jeuno tax. They can't just delete a gil sink like that without turning off some other source.

I'm sure there is a delicate balance to keep the value of the gil at a comfortable level. In this case, I think it has much less to do with rmt than everyone is assuming.

In any case it has much less to do with RMT. SE has nerfed every legitimate form of farming since the beginning. Once a lot of people catch on to a good source of income SE abolishes it. I think they've just found a scapegoat.

[Sho]

Are you gonna end every post with some sort of witty phrase? I don't even play FFXI. Great job seeing that coming friend. Great job! Based on the fact you could only find some means of flaming me because of your ignorance I'll accept the fact that you agree with everything else with my post and thank you for your agreement. Good luck doing w/e you're doing ^_^

You shouldn't be so vehemently arguing then if you don't even play FFXI. Makes everything you just said kinda moot.

[Horadrius]

I'm just glad I no longer have competition for my Lifedrinker Lars ingredients.

[Cookiemonster]

Changing the prices on these items seems really unnecessary. Who knows maybe they had a valid reason for doing it but it kind of pisses me off. I didn't do it personally but I have a friend who doesn't get to play often and this was a quick way she could run out and make gil.

[altwight]

You shouldn't be so vehemently arguing then if you don't even play FFXI. Makes everything you just said kinda moot.

You act like I've never played. BG is nothing but ignorant flames these days. Next please. Oh wait, before your next post I've played since NA release up until about 3months ago

[ringthree]

In any case it has much less to do with RMT. SE has nerfed every legitimate form of farming since the beginning. Once a lot of people catch on to a good source of income SE abolishes it. I think they've just found a scapegoat.

I think that logic is paranoid. That said I do agree it was a poor decision, because it is effecting legitimate players now more than RMT. There needs to be a tipping point for which dealing with the RMT has to be approached in a different way because it hurts too many legitimate players.

The problem is that SE is not recognizing the fact that NPCing items is now effective because of the collapse of prices and they need to do something about that instead of just eliminating sources of income that are available to everyone and are actually very hard to exploit.

[altwight]

I think that logic is paranoid. That said I do agree it was a poor decision, because it is effecting legitimate players now more than RMT. There needs to be a tipping point for which dealing with the RMT has to be approached in a different way because it hurts too many legitimate players.

The problem is that SE is not recognizing the fact that NPCing items is now effective because of the collapse of prices and they need to do something about that instead of just eliminating sources of income that are available to everyone and are actually very hard to exploit.

I would like to ask you to think back to every legitimate 'good' source of income. Think back even before RMT if you were around since then. If not I suppose I can understand why you would my logic seems 'paranoid' However if you were around before RMT I would like you to give me an example of a 'good' legitimate source of income SE did not nerf. (The fishing update was a nerf)

[sleekmotorwurkz]

Are you gonna end every post with some sort of witty phrase? I don't even play FFXI. Great job seeing that coming friend. Great job! Based on the fact you could only find some means of flaming me because of your ignorance I'll accept the fact that you agree with everything else with my post and thank you for your agreement. Good luck doing w/e you're doing ^_^

The reason I didnt quote the rest is because I do agree with most of the rest of what you said. Just pointing out that you cant say that HNMLS arent a way to make money because there are a great deal of hnm shells that do make a great deal of money for ls paychecks. From your post I assumed you were one of those sheep who follow around a ls leader with 14 relics all funded by the bank and you were qqing about it.

Fact is they nerfed a way that a lot of people make money and it sucks, but there are still plenty of ways if people do some research. I would say that 95% (yes I know that 93% of all statistics are made up) of all the people who were farming these items learned about them beacuse RMT found them first and they were just following suit. Eventually rmts will find a new item to npc, and everyone will flock to that. On the other hand the 5% of people who actually found them before the rmt, will find new ways themself in the same manner they did before. So yea it sucks but people will move on.

[Sho]

You act like I've never played. BG is nothing but ignorant flames these days. Next please. Oh wait, before your next post I've played since NA release up until about 3months ago

No, I'm 100% sure that you've played, I'm just questioning your angles and intent that you are using on the guy. Come on, lets be serious; anyone that can argue about SE has obviously played in the past or plays right now-- you just wanted to trump the guy with a RL card. You come off more as a "I'm better than you" type of person, which I find funny.

Congratulations on playing so long ago, I myself played just before NA release. At the same time, I'm not going around totting it as if it's a badge of reasoning. If you aren't playing anymore, it moots out alot of your points still.

Ironically I do agree it's a poor decision to kill off those farming methods, as I was one that made good money off of Bugard Skins for a good long time.

[grimrising]

People need to just go back to the golden oldies of repeatable quests, like tiger fangs, or the new addition of ladybug wings, or even low level fishing/mining/logging. Theres still ifrits cauldron, or newton movalpolas, or logging places for bloodwood logs.

This doesn't kill gilmaking methods. This kills lazy people gilmaking methods

lol.

I've only been playing about two years, and tiger fangs were my scorpion harness, brown belt, jujitsu gi, and my life blood. It isn't--or at least wasn't, pre-12/8--overcamped on my server so its been something I quietly pass along to newbie friends who are trying to farm goblins or gigas lol. I've went back on 75 jobs or jobs that could get exp there, just to see and ofc kill way way too fast for the pop rate to even keep up. I can't wait to see Norvallen infested with 75s killing tigers.

As I think crafting has proven, a necessity of a stable economy is a variety of income, when people focus on too few sources, the price plummets to the point of not being worthwhile... What will they patch next, gil rewards from nation missions, which is about the largest source of npc gil. What about the avatar perma-groups that go out on a regular basis and kill the avatars for rather slow gil?

Regardless of spelling, Roaringhedgehog had a point. SE is closing holes they left open for too long.
But on the other hand, FFXI is the only RPG (on- or offline), where killing normal monsters doesen't give you reasonable reward over time. All ways to make Gil are either completely luck based or require unreasonable Gil and time investments.

And of all the mmo's I've played, ffxi is most dependent on the need to kill monsters to further yourself in the game. Making gil isn't supposed to be a seperate task from playing the game, at least I wouldn't think so. It should come hand in hand, with the exception of certain ultimate gear. Relic weapons, fulfilling the requirements for mythic weapons, kraken clubs, etc.

They're making my paladin's existence as mundane as the life I'm avoiding outside this computer when I'm on it.

Edit: lol BG posts fast. I said pretty much the same thing as this reply, though I clicked reply before it appeared. /sigh.