Besieged Update, May 15th

[sevenpointflaw]

Got a chance to participate in Besieged after they removed the homepoint in Al Zhabi and made the mobs harder.

Actually it was three. Back to back to back trolls, mamook, and undead. All three forces made it to the AC, though only the trolls managed to take out a general (and only one).

But even during peak hours, there were less than 450 people participating (As opposed to 750 during JP peak Besieged) so it was very managable if laggy.

Even so... hot damn the mobs were hard... There is a -huge- difference in the dificulty with this second adjustmest. Besieged is definitly a serious event now, and on defeat, the beastmen only drop to 75% training instead of 50 like before. They still prepare @ 100% and march @ level 5 w/ 150%...

So much fun now...

Double Post Edited:
On a side note, between the three besieged, 6 prisoners were taken (1, 4, then 1), and the first five were returned by the time the last besieged was over. That part at least is still eay.

[MisterCookie]

Re: Besieged Update, May 15th

I'm starting to think SE maybe went too far when it came to adjusting the strength. I mean its fine for now when everyone is zerging the mobs, but when the novelty wears off and there are few people willing to fight, the Astral Candescence will almost always end up in enemy hands.

[Shishimura]

Re: Besieged Update, May 15th

If they could just get rid of the lag... good lord it makes Jeuno look like high speed....

Oh... and I wish I could actually hit for damage... (-.-)

[Jei]

Re: Besieged Update, May 15th

I got a party invite today gathering in Jeuno. Didn't know there was a besiege going on. I zone into Al Zahbi for the warptaru, and got kicked for 20 minutes ;_;

[Aeni]

Re: Besieged Update, May 15th

Well, considering yesterday's besieged was a bit ... difficult already and only one of the three enemy's attacked the city. Not sure of the number of people there, but I'd hazard less than 300? Most of them were onlookers or curious bystanders.

My tier 2 spells do a whopping 1 dmg on these mamooljas and I just stuck with -en on my sword .. provided I could even hit these things Level 5 Mamools btw.

[Blood Red Poet]

Re: Besieged Update, May 15th

This is in the wrong forum section. This should be in news.

[Hamlet]

Re: Besieged Update, May 15th

I did my first besiged today. It was also 3 in a row (well 1, then a little wait, then the trolls and undead right after the other). It was alot of fun, I just wish I could do more damage (the most I can do is 66 aero3 with elemental seal, and it even hit for 0 one time). Still, whacky fun, I really liked it.

Midgarsormer hasn't lost yet. How are the other servers holding up?

[Icemage]

Re: Besieged Update, May 15th

This is in the wrong forum section. This should be in news.

It's not an official news post, it's a comment about the changes, which is perfectly in line with General FFXI Discussion. Speaking of which, you're off-topic BRP. Should I ban you (again)?

---

I haven't had a chance to see the new Besieged changes yet, but it sounds like S-E is going to continue to juice up the attacks until every server fails (I think that's the idea - the longer we resist, the harder it gets, until we lose and the cycle begins anew).


Icemage

[Slip]

Re: Besieged Update, May 15th

So far Pandemonium is unbeaten. We had a triple Beseiged last night with Undead then Trolls the moment we'd beaten the Undead then Mamool Ja about 10 minutes after the Trolls.

From my /sea we had about 300-ish people in Al Zahbi for each and managed to lose only 1 prisoner over the three.

At Pld 61 I can occasionally connect for 0 damage with my sword, or I can roam around healing with my Light Staff. My Drk 61 static party member though was managing to hit for about 150 when Soul Easter was up so it seems even at this level the jobs aren't worthless.

It would be nicer though if their defenses were a lot lower and their hp a lot higher so that all of us could feel like we were contributing more.

[sevenpointflaw]

Re: Besieged Update, May 15th

Yeah, I get really frustrated with WHM... I mean, damage wise I can't even touch the unded (6 damage with banish 3? 4 with cure 5?) At least with Banishga II I can get luck and hit a swarm of 20+ mobs.

Even so, I think y'all are right about the cycle. They'll keep amping it up until it looks like we are going to loose. I'm kinda looking forward to it, honestly.

[Balfree]

Re: Besieged Update, May 15th

This is in the wrong forum section. This should be in news.

Good job

Anyway, now for something that actually matters:

Besieged in Ragnarok, as far as my gimp timezone goes.. is allways a mess, allways 750 people (i assume thats the limit?)... it goes a lil something like this:

NERDY EXPLANATION OF BESIEGE! :D

1. Mobs pop around you.

2. You move accordingly.

Variable#1, Mages go in the back.

Variable#2, Melee take their place in the frontline.

3. Mobs lag-warp to you.

Variable#1, You die.

Variable#1.1 & #2.4.1, You Home-Point.You disconnect while zoning, and can't come back for 10-15 minutes because the server wont let you. Your time was spent, you gain no IS, no EXP, no nada.

Variable#1.2 & #2.4.2, You remain dead for the duration of the Siege, you gain minimal IS and EXP (if someone raises you before the siege ends, that is).

Variable#2, It takes you 10 seconds to engage. And in 10 minutes of bashing the same monster, you dont see any change in the enemy's HP, you also never really see yourself attacking, save for once or twice in that span of time. Suddenly...

Variable#2.1, The mob dies out of the blue.

Variable#2.2, The mob runs off, you cant follow because theres a mass so thick of other players that you rather stab your leg than go through.

Variable#2.3, The mob does an AOE that brings your HP down to stupidly low ammounts.

Variable#2.4, You die.

In the whole event, you only see people standing around, doing nothing, either theyre afk, or you cant see squat due to lag .

You barely if ever see yourself striking, youre hitting but you cant see it, so basically its do or dont, no strategy involved because you cant see shit, no, dont rely on chatlog either, things are happening 10 seconds before you see it.

I foresee the following fix:

Instanced Besieged.

Some zones "outside", and most zones "inside" the city. Allow people to form their groups and have them "sign up" on the npc, max groups of 100 or something, let people see what jobs have signed up, so they join accordingly, to avoid 50 whitemages on the same area. Depending on levels that signed up, make the zone accordingly difficult to the highest level that joined. Make the zones random for the groups so people cant gank them. And have the outside zones harder, since thats where the strongest army will come through, mobs will allways reach all the zones as to give people a chance to do stuff.

Make besieged 30 min max. If all mobs are not defeated, they win.

[sevenpointflaw]

Re: Besieged Update, May 15th

I've seen it get to 754, but only once. always 749 or 750. I think the 754 was only because there is a delay in updating the /sea funciton with that much lag.

I kinda like the free for all style. And the thing with the randomly teleporting people to different parts of Al Zhabi seemed to have helped the lag a LOT on my server. I just wish it would keep your party/alliance together.

Anyhow, on Odin, the mobs very quickly proliferate throughout the city, and there's always bout seven or eight "hotspots" that start seeing action within the first two minutes. These hotspots aren't really too close toeachother, and they have varying ammounts of lag (more lag towards the front line obviously).

I've also found camping the lesser hot-spots don't generate any less XP for me than say, being on the front line. I always get about 500xp. Five hotspots: the generals w/ the keys that unlock the door to the AC. The first gate breach the mobs do, the top of the stairs just pat that gatebreach and the hallway heading south from those stairs. The door to the AC, and the ground floor tunnel heading into the Al Zhabi marketplace (where I usually camp - i have a habbit of getting eaten by war wyverns here).

There's always lag, but at least further away from the front line its manageable. Today I was even able to play with all my filters off ^^

[Haggai]

Re: Besieged Update, May 15th

Wow, so Remora wasn't the only one who had 3 in a row last night. By the end of it, the Undead Swarm took a General prisoner. Everyone was shouting "Protect the Warp Taru at all costs!" People sure love him. I know I do. Funny that we deem him more important than that General.


I really enjoy Beseiged, but I'd like it more if I could do more damage than nothing at all. I was casting Blizzard II, Thunder II, and Stone III for 4-8 damage. I did find a way to do halfway decent damage, Elemental Seal + Freeze. That only did 145-170 damage, though.

Guess that's SE's way of telling me I need to get my finger out of my butt and level some more. There's just so much to do in this game that I enjoy.

[Django]

Re: Besieged Update, May 15th

SE went a little overboard with the eva/magic resists/defence with the mobs. On Seraph we had to pull mobs to the NPCs to beat them in a timely fashion (The immortals spammed Frypan).

[sevenpointflaw]

Re: Besieged Update, May 15th

I have to disagree; even with few people participating (half as many as normal), and doing three besieged back to back to back, only one general was taken. They have to take five before they win. At least on Odin, we're holding our own still... so far.