Chains of Promathia Areas Unfettered! (05/24/2010)

[Eldelphia]

Meh. Whilst I'm pleased that we might get to xp in some interesting but rarely used areas, I am kinda sad to see the CoP mission fights uncapped. I have a certain amount of sympathy for those people who joined the game late but in all honesty, completing CoP before they started messing with it is still probably what felt like the biggest accomplishment in this game. It certainly meant a lot at the time.

I'm sad to see those fights go that way, but I guess it helps out those who came late to the table.

[KoD]

if you want fight it the "Old" way jst get a level sync homes lol

[Hioki]

Not a thread I'd expect bitching in. Someone missed the memo: This is a good thing.

You've done it when it was capped, kudos for you. For everyone else who just wants to enjoy the storyline and not put up with 6-7 hours of shouting this is a godsend. But Final Fantasy was never really about the story now was it...

[Khajit]

I'm just happy I dont have to put up with idiots thinking BRD is a bad job for missions now. It sucked how my mule could never get a swift belt.

[Absolutely Virtue]

I did the CoP's one million years ago, when you wiped to each fight ten times and lost thousands of xp each time. No question finishing them un-nerfed was my biggest "accomplishment" in terms of "holy shit I can't believe we just did that." I think what made those fights stand out is how different they are from the usual grind of FFXI.

But maybe we're romanticizing them just a little bit? They've obviously done a lot to nerf them over the last five years. And new gear and new merits and blah blah blah. But maybe we're better players now, too? Maybe if we could play our characters with the gear, merits, strats, and limitations (no spellcast, etc) we had back then, they wouldn't be as hard this time? Just a thought.

I remember horror stories about Maat and people losing to him 20 times on RDM back in the day. Then I did that fight last year on 66 RDM wearing nothing but AF, and he never touched me. Maybe we just suck less than we used to.

But I will be glad to be rid of the shouts in WG for CoP missions.

[ronin sparthos]

Not a thread I'd expect bitching in. Someone missed the memo: This is a good thing.

You've done it when it was capped, kudos for you. For everyone else who just wants to enjoy the storyline and not put up with 6-7 hours of shouting this is a godsend. But Final Fantasy was never really about the story now was it...

Speak for yourself.

While I usually can never tell if BRP is just trolling people, he does have a point that this is a big change in the history of FFXI. This officially ends one of the best series of level capped missions in the game and part of the challenge that separated XI from other MMOs like WoW. CoP was an era where SE abandoned alot of people but it had the most memorable set of missions for a reason. This little debate sums that up nicely.

Tell me, how many of remember ToAU more vividly than CoP for whatever reason? or those Rank missions? Oh right, those missions were easy as shit and nearly mindless. ToAU managed to pull itself out of the tailspin of "way too fucking easy and pandering to whiny players" with Amnaf/Alexander. Most people can agree that while CoP had some pretty annoying snags that the developers took too long to fix the missions themselves were rewarding upon completion.

I liked having zones other people didn't have. It gave the player a feeling of being a little more unique than the other guy. It's the same feeling many endgamers have when they 'dominate' a specific HNM for an extended period of time.

While I understand that most people here could care less about such a change as most players have devolved into either disgruntled players or just play strung along by loot. For an FF purist the small group that will start XI after this patch will never know the true challenge or feeling of accomplishment that came with beating CoP. They'll just blow through the missions and ask the older players what all the whining was about.

When you first got dropped in Lufaise Meadows, it was an amazing moment to have beaten those 3 bosses. The same when you beat 6-4 and realize you were a stone's throw from sea.

You have to look at it as a new player, not as the whiny bunch of lazy bastards most have us have evolved into. It also is an insight into XIV if you look at what SE has learned from XI. Honestly had SE just abolished EXP loss from the get go, the refarming of the 'weakening' items and nerfed 2 bosses - CoP would have been fine out of the box.

This is coming from someone who wiped Snoll Tzar 30 times.

[Hyan]

While I understand that most people here could care less about such a change as most players have devolved into either disgruntled players or just play strung along by loot. For an FF purist - the small group that will start XI after this patch will never know the true challenge or feeling of accomplishment that came with beating CoP.

And had SE kept it the way it was, those purists would still be out of luck, if they're not good at making lot of friends that have nothing else to do than help them clear said missions.

No matter how you want to paint the picture here, this was a needed change, and if it means "an era has ended" (how overwhelmingly epic does that sound)- then so be it.

[Acturus]

This is just one more acknowledgement of how top-heavy the game has been.

Personally, I'm trying to understand how anyone could get bent out of shape about content that's been out-of-date since 2008. Hasn't that been the biggest piss-fest about FFXI? That SE doesn't retire content? CoP can't just go away, so SE has streamlined how the process works.

The level cap shit was the least liked thing about any expansion, and a big reason that ToAU was such a success was because it ignored everything that defined CoP.

Besides, everything that SE is doing from now until the end of their timeline is in an effort to make the game self-sufficient. Once they pull the plug completely from development of new content, they're going to want the existing content to be as easy to manage as possible. This works towards that end.

[Gwynplaine]

I have full confidence in Square that they will manage to find a way to keep CoP missions horrible without a cap. Maybe you've forgotten who you're dealing with.

[Destinye]

I can guarantee this will still make people not want to help, every update the "I don't want to help because (insert excuse)" people are constantly losing their excuses not to help those shouting.

I liked that I cleared CoP way back in 2005-2007 on multiple characters but honestly, it sucks that people don't want to help with something that's supposedly been "nerfed to hell" and now further "nerfed."

If things are so easy, why is standing around whitegate jacking off any better than actually helping someone with a quick mission? If you're a veteran obviously you'll know the ropes better and could do it more efficiently.

I can tell one of the reasons for this is to try to entice players to help more since they can use their job to the fullest extent against CoP stuff now.

[BerenTebogo]

Maybe I'll log in to go solo my stoneskin gorget now.

Oh wait, 5,000 other people just had the same idea.

[Hioki]

Speak for yourself.

Nothing in your statement disagreed with the fact that people can play the missions for the storyline.

I did all my missions before any of the major updates of difficulty change, however, I just see it as a self accomplishment when I went through it than a disappointment when others go through it. CoP hasn't suddenly disappeared off the grid and has far from ended. The main challenge of having to sneak and invis and keep an eye out for true sight/sound mobs to a BC has been taken away. The BC's were never really hard so I don't understand why people are making them out to be the most challenging.

Your challenge is a ruse and your bitching to bitch.

[Destinye]

Nothing in your statement disagreed with the fact that people can play the missions for the storyline.

I did all my missions before any of the major updates of difficulty change, however, I just see it as a self accomplishment when I went through it than a disappointment when others go through it. CoP hasn't suddenly disappeared off the grid and has far from ended. The main challenge of having to sneak and invis and keep an eye out for true sight/sound mobs to a BC has been taken away. The BC's were never really hard so I don't understand why people are making them out to be the most challenging.

Your challenge is a ruse and your bitching to bitch.

Because it's a bold faced lie to say it wasn't challenging the first time you started running through CoP in 2004.

[Hioki]

Because it's a bold faced lie to say it wasn't challenging the first time you started running through CoP in 2004.

Most fights I went 1/1 til snoll and airship in which we went 1/3 and 1/4. Stop making excuses. The only challenge was actually getting to the BC's. With an organized group you'd be kidding to say they were even hard.

And still your missing the point that the whole reason you should be doing missions is for the story, which was great and memorable, and not the little shinies that will make you feel special for all of 20 mins.

[lamp]

Oulanbator, do you understand that by getting rid of level caps they make these missions less fun? It becomes impossible to return to the restrictions required to make the fights interesting. No one brought up pride or anything, what the fuck are you talking about?

Im pretty sure SE has given up on getting new players in. All of what they are doing is clearly aimed at bringing old players back, in there minds maybe even those that were banned.

They dont care about fun or challenging in regards to this old content, because the majority of the people they expect to be going through these missions again will have already beat them in another life.

[Not Kuno]

I'm glad you had a perfect setup but my CoP group consided of pld, thf, drk, rdm, smn, smn and it was a fucking challenge to get to the airship fight. I had a lot of fun doing it but it was fucking hard as hell.

[Nevex]

The question is why do people in this topic seem to care about the difficulty of CoP BCs.
I don't think any of the above posters is planning to (re)do them anytime soon and it's not like FFXI is getting as many new players now as it used to.

CoP missions gave me my fair share of issues but why should I care now? If I can reach ENM places without having to deal with the stupid level cap it's only good stuff. Whether anonymous new players have issues completing those missions or not is none of my business.

[NynJa]

Oulanbator, do you understand that by getting rid of level caps they make these missions less fun? It becomes impossible to return to the restrictions required to make the fights interesting. No one brought up pride or anything, what the fuck are you talking about?

Its next to impossible to find people to drag up and around the CoP missions these days. A quick lvl cap fight is one thing, a 2 hour trek in a lv cap environment is shit.

The question is why do people in this topic seem to care about the difficulty of CoP BCs.

Remember Odin's introduction? WAH WAH EVERYONES GOING TO HAVE MY HARD EARNED E.BD WAHHHHHH

[drwaffles]

Removing the level caps is a bad thing, end of. Even after completing the storyline the caps made areas like Sacrarium, Promyvions, Pso'Xja and Riverne still feel fresh and interesting years later, rather than being exactly the same as every other boring-ass zone that you just run your 75 toon through on autopilot. It's a shame about the BC caps being removed, too, since it means anyone attempting those missions for the first time post-update will never be able to experience them as the rest of us did.

I've been through CoP twice myself, and through select parts a third time for a friend's mule, and the challenge presented by the level caps is extremely enjoyable in my opinion. As BRP said, it's a great shame that no one will be able to experience the true CoP saga again after June.

[Snprphnx]

so, since Ouryu and Baha are in normal zones, does that mean their level will be adjusted as well?