What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

[Yygdrasil]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

None the less...Your ‘new player’ choose Smn. A job that’s had a shit load of partying problems since the beginning of time. I leveled Smn. I’ve been there. It was a bitch to do even 6 years ago. Trust me, dune parties weren't like "OMG A SMN LFP, GET IT GET IT". Welcome to the lovely world of Smn. Tell your friend it doesn’t ever change. Tell him he’s lucky to have a friend like you that will party with him.

i think i was level 61-63 for a month. wanna talk about discouraging?

Any serious smn will tell you they did their time ‘soloing’ bombs/bees/gobs while LFPs. And that they got discouraged many times. Why do you think they were so touchy after Astral Burns?

Tell it, brother.

---------- Post added at 02:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:45 PM ----------

Fair enough, there are a number of problems with SMN and getting parties on it is certainly one of them. However this player is one of those people who likes to sample a little bit of what every job has to offer, so I'm not certain if he was only having problems on SMN or if SMN was just the breaking point.

Regardless, it's just really discouraging to see a friend get so utterly demoralized while the playerbase plugs their fingers in their ears, hums loudly and pretends there isn't a problem with what's going on. Keeping the game accessible to newer folks is important for the overall health of the game and I worry that if both the players and the devs lose sight of that then the game is sunk.

I completely agree. Specifically:

Keeping the game accessible to newer folks is important for the overall health of the game and I worry that if both the players and the devs lose sight of that then the game is sunk.

I'm doing my best.

[cidbahamut]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

The thing is, I don't really know what would fix the situation. The best I can do is be a disgruntled end-user who points out flaws in the design, but I'm not clever enough to design a system fixes those flaws. It is supremely frustrating.

There aren't new players streaming in in high enough numbers to really warrant grand sweeping changes to accommodate them, but at the same time if those new players don't stick around then the game will only bleed players rather than maintaining something resembling a stable population. So ensuring that new blood isn't driven off at the drop of a hat is key to keeping the game going for a long long time to come. Doubly so when the influx of new players is so tiny.

I don't think the level requirement for entering Abyssea is actually the problem. Rather I suspect it is simply the huge gap in exp that's the issue. Clearly we can't have all exp processes yield the same exp/hr or no one would bother doing anything but soloing. On the other hand, the huge exp disparity between the different exp methods seems to outright discourage some methods while favoring others to the point of singling them out as the one and only method worth considering. Ideally the gap would still be there, but considerably smaller so the choice of how to exp came down largely to personal preference. An Abyssea party could still be tops for exp/hr, but it wouldn't be so far ahead of everything else that you'd turn up your nose at soloing, trioing or even going to an old school 6-man exp camp.

Yet while I firmly believe that might alleviate some of the issue, I don't think that would possibly be enough to make the game actually welcoming to new players. That's what really gets under my skin. I can pick out individual things that are detrimental, but fixing them doesn't necessarily fix things on the whole.

[Romyro]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

Bah..work meetings..

The thing is, I don't really know what would fix the situation. The best I can do is be a disgruntled end-user who points out flaws in the design, but I'm not clever enough to design a system fixes those flaws. It is supremely frustrating.

I agree, im not clever enough either.

My only suggestions would be…

The level requirement. People like Yyg (sorry to use you as an example bud) are joining parties at 37, if not lower, opening a few chests and waking up at 70+. Raising the cap to 50 would force people to level subs outside abyssea. And with so many people burning different jobs up these days, it’s opening up a shit load of subs people need to keep up with. Hell I have 6 subs I eventually need to work on. SE can essentially screw me into leveling that outside. 20 more levels of xp with all the additional resources (FoV/double xp per kill) is nothing I would quit the game over as a vet. I might bitch but not quit.

That or make keys an equip-able ammo item with a level requirement of 50 or something. There will still be leechers but much less desired if they can’t even be a key bitch anymore.

Maybe make Maat a requirement to enter abyssea (for your specific job). Earn your entry to abyssea instead of just getting a CS from Jochiam(sp).

Lets not even get started on Dominion…
5 Mobs for 600xp, PLUS maybe an xp chest or 2, PLUS the additional ~4k free xp…all within 5 minutes or less.
Design flaw at its finest.

I feel bad for new players but the only thing that can save them is more new players. And even if SE offers new accounts 3 months free a long with a pretty pony, I feel there’s never going to be enough drive for a wave of new blood to join.

I know thats what gets under your skin. My question is…was this game ever marketed that well? I’ve seen commercials for Wow, Disney’s Pirates and I think even Lotro. I’ve seen magazine ads for City of Heros/Villains, Everquest I/II. I think I even recall seeing something on a Starwars MMO (if there is such a thing). Never have I see anything for this game. Started playing off a friends recemondation and because I knew the FF name. Outside of the few websites I lurk such as this one…never do I hear about this game. I went to Game stop a few months ago and NONE of the local stores carried it. It's more than just game design thats limiting new players.

[Yygdrasil]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

No worries man. Its a good example. Besides... unlike some others... I did mine on accident. That sortof speaks for itself. Nobody should be able to accidentally max out their lvl.

[Mhurron]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

A level requirement of 70 for Abyssea would have prevented a lot of problems, especially the one of convincing people to actually join parties and do shit past level 30. There is no content for jobs under 75, why open it to jobs so far below 75?

[Aksannyi]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

It's very true. But just try mentioning that on the official forums and watch how people cry bloody murder about having to actually work for their levels.

[Romyro]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

There is no content for jobs under 75, why open it to jobs so far below 75?

Very good point. And that makes sense. It’s all reskinned zones anyway. It’s not like your going to do much ‘exploring’ nor can one do quests for something like Uts: Ni scroll (or something you can learn at low levels).

Everything is 76+. Literally.

---------- Post added at 04:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:08 PM ----------

At the start, 75 or even 70 would have been ideal.
I suggested changing to 50 since the damage has been done already.

[cidbahamut]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

It's very true. But just try mentioning that on the official forums and watch how people cry bloody murder about having to actually work for their levels.

I think that's mostly the BG crowd actually.

[Romyro]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

I lurk there but cant help hating 90% of the post. I understand elitism but good god think outside the box once in a while.

[Aksannyi]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

I agree with most of what BG has to say, actually. Especially when it comes to optimizing, because I have no patience for suck. Too many people in the game have no fucking clue what they are doing. There's a big difference between having the understanding of your job but lacking the capability to gear it perfectly and having absolutely no understanding of your job and throwing crap on because you somehow managed to get l33t drop X from a random pick up group. I can't disagree with people who rage over some fuckwipe who never swaps gear getting the best fucking leg piece in the game off some NM because "he had the most points" or "he won the lot." /facepalm

But on this? I don't understand how they could possibly think this is a good thing for the game. I guess they don't care about new players coming into the game. I can see how you might not want to spend forever leveling your tenth job, but if you don't want to level it ... don't? Seems fairly simple.

I think SE dropped the ball on this shit. Big time. And at this point, they can't change it without royal QQs.

[Armando]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

A level requirement of 70 for Abyssea would have prevented a lot of problems, especially the one of convincing people to actually join parties and do shit past level 30. There is no content for jobs under 75, why open it to jobs so far below 75?

Having the balls to take stuff away from the players when it's broken would go a long way too.

I think the game would've been far more interesting if they had nipped Utsusemi in the bud and instead worked on MAKING DEFENSE AND EVASION WORK AGAINST THE MOBS THAT MATTER.

Never have I see anything for this game.

I remember commercials back in the RoZ/CoP days. I think I also remember a commercial for WotG.

[Murphie]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

The problem with the focus on optimization these days is that there simply isn't always the OPTION of being optimum. I'm wearing NPC and CP gear, and if I get really lucky, maybe a quested item or mob drop. Some of those are good pieces, but a lot of the really good stuff we're used to wearing is crafted gear. Maybe I'll get lucky and find a friendly crafter, and maybe I won't. If I don't, then should I just not level because I'm not optimum?

[Aksannyi]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

Sorry, Murphie. I was talking about endgame when it came to the gimps. Leveling and lacking the gear is an entirely different animal. I was talking about people (and this comes from a 75 standpoint, so forgive me) who could gear pretty well, but had no access to Salvage (for example) or weren't in an HNM shell and thus, couldn't get the best of the best. But would if they could.

My bad - I have an endgame perspective because I was in endgame for two years.

But yeah, that's an entirely different problem brought on by Abyssea. People who want to party are screwed because of gear limitations.

[Armando]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

People who want to party are screwed because of gear limitations.

Can you explain a bit more about this? I haven't played since ACP. Which players are getting left out, at what levels, and from what kind of parties?

[Yygdrasil]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

Everyone bbetween 10 and 60. There's nothing on the ah. Its insane