The Silence of the Devs

[Correction]

Agreed. At the very least, Faf and Nid should NOT be sleepable. Also, I'd like the rage timer for all NQ kings to be 30min instead of 60 :/.

Something bugs me about this and it's an old argument. Why should Kings be harder? They're some of the oldest content in the game. The fact that players vastly outgear the intended challenge of those mobs puts this into sharp contrast. And yet people want the oldest content to be harder, rather than hope for new content which pushes the limits of their 'haha 5-man Faf kill 15 minutes gg no re' state.

'NO NO MAKE MY UNCOMFORTABLE LITTLE COFFIN MORE RESTRICTING AHH YESS THAT'S THE STUFF'

Intentionally buffing old HNMs is pulling the wool over your eyes. What you really want is better content to match your strong gear and levels of experience.

[Raineer]

Something bugs me about this and it's an old argument. Why should Kings be harder? They're some of the oldest content in the game. The fact that players vastly outgear the intended challenge of those mobs puts this into sharp contrast. And yet people want the oldest content to be harder, rather than hope for new content which pushes the limits of their 'haha 5-man Faf kill 15 minutes gg no re' state.

'NO NO MAKE MY UNCOMFORTABLE LITTLE COFFIN MORE RESTRICTING AHH YESS THAT'S THE STUFF'

Intentionally buffing old HNMs is pulling the wool over your eyes. What you really want is better content to match your strong gear and levels of experience.

It's because people want those who aren't geared to not be able to compete. It's the same thing as being pissed at the LS's who slept Tiamat for 3-4 hours just to record a kill.

You're right, it isn't justified anymore. There needs to be new fights which are difficult enough to push those with almost-complete gear. Unfortunately SE knows little about this except to create shit like AV and PW.

The troubling problem (as we all know) is that Zilart still provides some of the most useful gear. In a WoW context (not nearly the "ideal" endgame either), it would be like Onyxia still dropping items relevant to endgame at 80. Ony can still be killed by smaller groups and those looking to cut their teeth on easier content, and that is how Zilart should stay. Unfortunately, SE has chosen mostly not to scale drops and mobs upwards with new content. As long as Ridill is "the" weapon to use for so many, Faf stays relevant even for the best LS's. SE should be commended for buffing 2h and taking so much focus away from Ridill, but there are still 1h classes for which it is such an extreme benefit. Adaberk is also difficult to replace.

[thetruepandagod]

we dont want people to feel secure in claiming kings with their speakers turned to max taking a nap.

[Kerberoz]

More like we don't think people should be able to log 8 blm mules at tiamat and hold it for half an hour while they wake up their linkshell.

[Kilorilo]

SE finally realized nothing is fun without a full alliance or 3.

[Sho]

Pretty sure this entire "fix" and/or "nerf" is just SE finally fixing a piece of their spaghetti code they probably missed over the years. No one panic.

[Seraph]

http://www.4gamer.net/news/image/200...7145352_12.jpg

Wut? I'm sorry, I'll have to take this back to Japan with me.

BULLSHIT! YOU USE THE TOKEN MONEY TO BUY A VIDEOPHONE AND HAVE A CONFERENCE CALL RIGHT NOW!


> : (

[Cantih]

BULLSHIT! YOU USE THE TOKEN MONEY TO BUY A VIDEOPHONE AND HAVE A CONFERENCE CALL RIGHT NOW! > : (

Unfortunately, timezone issues. Remember, during the day in the US, it's after midnight in Japan.
But I agree with the sentiment.

Spoiler: show

(And on the S-E/Playerbase personal bug up my ass. They always do updates/maint during EU primetime. Now, I realize that this is because it's not during JP prime, and EU is a smaller playerbase than NA, but jeez, why not ROTATE the downtime so that everyone gets a little of the shafting rather than just a few getting the whole thing)

So, we can't rely on the community sites to consistently deliver on crunchy issues and demand the serious answers we want. (tbh, I'm not fully sure in her case it's Pikko's fault. Isn't Alla owned by a company, and thus she's an employee, and souring SE's favor of the site would result in no more Pikko? Correct me if I'm wrong though.)

I believe Sono has said that S-E looks in on BG from time to time, but I don't know if there's ever been any direct action due to that. We also have Bercus, though with how busy he is, and the runaround S-E tends to give him, he can end up seriously ham-stringed.

Now, how do we get some representation, and access to the portions of S-E that can give us the answers we need? Lets DO something about it.

[Sifer]

This reminds me of the "mnk nerf" thread when SE adjusted 2 handed jobs. most likely they broke something when they made composure.

[Ruuz]

Im still waiting for MNK to get 1Att per STR and 1Acc for DEX. I get the feeling im gonna be disappointed for a long time.

[Qeomash]

Honestly, SE does need to open up more. Will they? I doubt it. We're yelling ourselves hoarse at a bloody wall. That wall is not responding anytime soon.

[Ruuz]

Also, I dont think its just now that we realized SE doesnt really care, but events this year (January bannings, fail update, stupid nerfs for lolmagemelee, paying for in-game items) have really just brought problems to the forefront.

Americans demand proper governing of their favorite past-time! It would be nice to receive some accountability from SE. I would personally like some Due Process, but fuck if we could ever get that.

[Pikko]

Agreed, it's not like yesterday we realized that there's crappy communication from the dev team. It's just that this unexplained nerf seems like a sudden added insult to the usual injury.

[grimrising]

It's because people want those who aren't geared to not be able to compete. It's the same thing as being pissed at the LS's who slept Tiamat for 3-4 hours just to record a kill.

You're right, it isn't justified anymore. There needs to be new fights which are difficult enough to push those with almost-complete gear. Unfortunately SE knows little about this except to create shit like AV and PW.

The troubling problem (as we all know) is that Zilart still provides some of the most useful gear. In a WoW context (not nearly the "ideal" endgame either), it would be like Onyxia still dropping items relevant to endgame at 80. Ony can still be killed by smaller groups and those looking to cut their teeth on easier content, and that is how Zilart should stay. Unfortunately, SE has chosen mostly not to scale drops and mobs upwards with new content. As long as Ridill is "the" weapon to use for so many, Faf stays relevant even for the best LS's. SE should be commended for buffing 2h and taking so much focus away from Ridill, but there are still 1h classes for which it is such an extreme benefit. Adaberk is also difficult to replace.

Maybe the problem is that the level cap doesn't rise. For instance, Haidate is still legs most 75 ninjas drool over, even if the only time katana is in hand is a merit or soloing. And it should always be a nice piece for a 75. But if we had seen the level cap rise to 85 with CoP and 100 for ToAU, perhaps we'd see far better legs for an 85, 90, or 100 ninja.

Hell, this alone would get the people sick of wyrms to let them be.

Let me say here, I don't expect SE to do this and the way they've set up their game it would be impractical.

Relics would pose a problem, people would either be pissed when SE made an easier to obtain item, or an as difficult ("expensive") item after they'd already busted their ass/wallet for their horny horn, or aegis, etc.

Several things make old content easier for the fresh meat than it was at creation (but imo, more power to them, they still lack the experience that the players, who will "lol"/get pissed at them,have. The gear can help compensate for learning)

1. Merits. New Jobs.

2. Swift Belt, Turban, the combined effect of the ABC obtainable gear. All pretty easy to obtain. Besides the random full homam that claimes to be too lazy 0/30 on swift belt.

3. Kaeko / Aikar, I love you guys. Kaekos research and Aikar's toys do make the game easier for people who don't care what tos says and are too lazy/too underskilled/too pissed off at 6 line macros to handle the game without.

4. pld/nin is a trend, anyone can /nin, you do not have to achieve anything other than grinding nin to 37 on 3 shadows at a time. The same for nin/drk as a trend.

4.1. Gifts to jobs like Shield Mastery and Atonement (nyzul 100 may not be the easiest to obtain for some people but all you need is some luck on drop and dedication for the ws points.

5. And of course, so many players outfitted in the drops that the hnm's and gods that these enemies themselves drop. From Adaberk to haidate.

Not to mean any offense to Japanese but, I must say the way their culture works from what I've read is a very closed hush hush type of method. That explains how they do what they want without consultation or anything, and if they did make mistakes, it is very shameful for their culture to admit faults so they do it behind our backs. If this was a North American or Europe company, it would be much different.

Regardless of how advanced most of Asia is (China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan) and where most cool new gadgets come from, they are obviously holding too much to old fashioned customs and out of touch with what most of the world does.

People seem not to have commented on this, but it seems semi logical. Maybe everything we get pissed about is because their culture can't cope with owning up.

There are two solutions:
1. Beta test your shit SE.
2. Play the game you made.

Assuming they're just too embarrassed to admit enfeebling nerf was a mistake, if they'd fought any hnm, or if rumors hold true, slept a ronfaure bunny, they would have noticed before the update ever hit our servers.

[Draylo]

Even if the nerf was intended or not it would have been nice to receive SOME kind of notification about it, they act like they want it to be a secret like we are dumb enough to not notice.

[Raineer]

It's actually kind of ironic the Japanese culture gets brought up, I hadn't thought about it in that light. The vast majority of my day job is supporting field service for Japanese customers (I'm based in US), and the way they treat us is completely opposite to what is described above.

If we mess something up, or if we need to release a code fix, or if they even think we messed something up (even if the customer knows it was their fault), they want to know everything about the situation. They ask for developer names, our testing process, exactly what was broke and how we fixed it.

If it was a problem in a Java console, we are asked to provide the source code that was found to be defective and the replacement code written to correct the defect. If it is a hardware issue then similar requests are made. We are the largest player in the US market for my field and no US company (no matter how big) has ever made requests like that, whereas for the smallest Japanese customer with only one or two machines that is standard business practice.

I talk to my colleagues almost daily about whether or not Japanese companies provide that kind of detail to their own customers. It's obvious for SE this is not the custom.

[Elmer the Pointy]

For what it's worth, I'm going to try and help out too.

I sent an e-mail to a guy at SE Japan. It was a contact I received way back when I was trying to get an interview at TGS 2007. As you know, that interview never happened, but this time I at least got a reply.

I didn't get into any player concerns or all that stuff, but I gave a heads up that I was going to send along a formal letter. They gave me the proper address and such to make sure it gets to the appropriate department. They added that the FFXI team would be interested to read it, but who knows, it could end up being used as toilet paper.

Anyway, I'm going to head out and get some fancy-ass paper, a fountain pen and an envelope, then sit down and write out something serious and honest and respectful. I hope people trust me enough to keep their best interests at heart.

I was thinking of making a post on my site, track the letter, or some goofy junk, but with the situation the way it is, I don't want to get all jokey or make a huge deal of it. So, I'm just tucking it in this thread, and I'll hope for the best when the letter goes out.

With everyone so riled up, I thought I should at least let you know I'm trying. :D

[Kohan]

I know I'm disregarding the rest of the post by focusing only on this one part, but nonetheless...

There are two solutions:
1. Beta test your shit SE.

Could we all stop requesting "beta testing"? FFXI is one of the least buggy MMOs in existence. Public beta testing isn't nearly as useful as efficient internal testing.

I'm obviously all for criticizing this worthless community interview garbage, but if we're going to talk about industry-related matters, it should be clear that Square-Enix actually does have very good internal testing (and before someone complains about that, no testing department is ever perfect).

When bugs are found, their mere existence doesn't mean SE has terrible testers. The reaction time and/or repairs done rely on someone finding out about them, and reporting it to the development team. This has nothing to do with the testers themselves, as again, they're not perfect. They will never catch everything, and a bug that's glaringly obvious to a regular endgame player may have not been caught by their testing process, regardless of its complexity.

In fact, this is more evidence that there is little to no communication -- people can discuss these things in the open on SE's officially sanctioned sites, and no one of importance finds out for far too long. That, too, has nothing to do with the testing department.

[Septimus]

Honestly, SE does need to open up more. Will they? I doubt it. We're yelling ourselves hoarse at a bloody wall. That wall is not responding anytime soon.

This is pretty much how I feel as well. S-E is making a killing off of FFXI so they don't see a problem, not realizing that most of the people who are really, really angry about their lack of communication and unwillingness to fix glaring problems won't get caught up in the rapture. But I am sure that it will be a funny surprise to them.

For what it's worth, I'm going to try and help out too.

I sent an e-mail to a guy at SE Japan. It was a contact I received way back when I was trying to get an interview at TGS 2007. As you know, that interview never happened, but this time I at least got a reply.

I didn't get into any player concerns or all that stuff, but I gave a heads up that I was going to send along a formal letter. They gave me the proper address and such to make sure it gets to the appropriate department. They added that the FFXI team would be interested to read it, but who knows, it could end up being used as toilet paper.

Anyway, I'm going to head out and get some fancy-ass paper, a fountain pen and an envelope, then sit down and write out something serious and honest and respectful. I hope people trust me enough to keep their best interests at heart.

I was thinking of making a post on my site, track the letter, or some goofy junk, but with the situation the way it is, I don't want to get all jokey or make a huge deal of it. So, I'm just tucking it in this thread, and I'll hope for the best when the letter goes out.

With everyone so riled up, I thought I should at least let you know I'm trying. :D

And we love you for it, Elmer.

[amentis]

Welp, looks like it's all fixed, guess we can go home now.

"But what about all the other bull shit in this ga-"
ALL BACK TO NORMAL NOW