New Interview with FFXI's Developers on 1UP.com

[Tirrock]

Re: New Interview with FFXI's Developers on 1UP.com

Taskmage, will you father my children in a "hilarious" comedy where a guy (governator!) gets pregnant?

...Uh yeah. Thanks. >_>

[Nimrod4154]

Re: New Interview with FFXI's Developers on 1UP.com

I am excited about the chocobo raising. I wonder if you can change the apperance of your chocobo?

[Taskmage]

Re: New Interview with FFXI's Developers on 1UP.com

Uhhh, no problem. ^^ I think I'll pass on the "comedy" though.

[Kazuki]

Re: New Interview with FFXI's Developers on 1UP.com

I hate SE's attitude about the expansion. Old stuff being fixed should be a priority really. I think they really want the game to revolve around ToAU.

(I guess they're failing at that too, because people are still getting the best gear in the game from 3 year old Zilart NMs.)

[Tirrock]

Re: New Interview with FFXI's Developers on 1UP.com

As far as gear goes, I think they didn't want to make the best gear available to high levels suddenly be worthless, but they also wanted to make it so there wasn't a large difference between "best" and what most players had access to.

I'd be pretty annoyed if I spent all my money on a noble's tunic (for example) and then some fairly easy to get item that doesn't require HNM access comes out with refresh effect, like noble's tunic, and +15% cure potency. Noble's tunic prices would shoot down.

Or even worse, make it so there's new, better, equipment, but only if you're in a major HNM linkshell. Further distancing people that are in HNM from those that are not.

[Kazuki]

Re: New Interview with FFXI's Developers on 1UP.com

The gear I'm talking about is more directly HNM related stuff. For example, a 20 minute fafnir fight might get you a Ridill, yet an hour long Tiamat fight has a good chance of just giving you a fire crystal. The itemization in this game has just died off since Zilart, and it would be nice to see it fixed. I don't want them to add compareable stuff that's easy for any player out there to get. I want them to add compareable items which are worth the time spent.

EDIT: Sorry, I know all of this is going off topic. Just disappointed with SE's lack of interest in fixing problems and trying to distract us with shiny new toys.

[Hamlet]

Re: New Interview with FFXI's Developers on 1UP.com

The gear I'm talking about is more directly HNM related stuff. For example, a 20 minute fafnir fight might get you a Ridill, yet an hour long Tiamat fight has a good chance of just giving you a fire crystal. The itemization in this game has just died off since Zilart, and it would be nice to see it fixed. I don't want them to add compareable stuff that's easy for any player out there to get. I want them to add compareable items which are worth the time spent.

EDIT: Sorry, I know all of this is going off topic. Just disappointed with SE's lack of interest in fixing problems and trying to distract us with shiny new toys.

I don't know, there's alot of gear from COP that I'd really like to get. I just haven't got around to doing the promies yet (let alone all the other missions).

I think the new expansion was more about giving us more stuff to do, and especially to expand end game activities, and I think it works. Eventually, they'll probably have an area like sky that has NMs that drop good stuff.

However, I think some guy on 1up summed up the interview well with "SE's evasion skill rasies by 0.3 points". That's how all the interviews were.

PuPs uselessness post 50 wasn't really answered, but that's mostly the interviewers fault. He said that he didn't really see a problem with PuP.

No, PuP is not the lowest high new job because everyone's waiting to play it until they finish BLU. It's because it sucks. The did mention new attachments, and combined with the AF, they may become useful. Time will tell, I guess.

Oddly, the answer given to the most random question (about the big areas) was the most informative, as the SE guy said that many of the first areas were meant to be like a one player game and be something that you get through to get to the boss.

edit: also, I think the answer to the "chinese gilseller" problem was useful for people having problems with them. SE seems to have a universal problem with anyone labeling anyone else a gilseller, and even moreso a "chinese gilseller". It very well may come off as racist to them. So (as someone else posted on here), if you see one, just send a GM call labeling them a botter, and don't mention gilselling at all if you want to have the most success.

[Murphie]

Re: New Interview with FFXI's Developers on 1UP.com

While SE's answers aren't very satisfactory, this is 1UP.com we're talking about here. I mean, they can't even navigate around Beaucedine.

[Stromgarde]

Re: New Interview with FFXI's Developers on 1UP.com

Lame, lame, lame. Any usefulness that otherwise would have come from the interview is blinded from my sight due to the rage resulting from the question dodge regarding Ullikumi. Can they really NOT see that this is a problem?

****ing weak.

[Esoa]

Re: New Interview with FFXI's Developers on 1UP.com

Or even worse, make it so there's new, better, equipment, but only if you're in a major HNM linkshell. Further distancing people that are in HNM from those that are not.

Sounds like WoW.

[Manatra]

Re: New Interview with FFXI's Developers on 1UP.com

Sounds like WoW.

Wrong.

Anyway, yes the itemization in FFXI needs to be fixed, but it's not really that. Often times the developers in FFXI seem to be off in their own little world just doing their own thing; not listening to the playerbase. Though, the whole chocobo breeding thing sounds interesting~

[Hamlet]

Re: New Interview with FFXI's Developers on 1UP.com

Wrong.

Anyway, yes the itemization in FFXI needs to be fixed, but it's not really that. Often times the developers in FFXI seem to be off in their own little world just doing their own thing; not listening to the playerbase. Though, the whole chocobo breeding thing sounds interesting~

I think they listen, but it's a hard balancing act. Any change to the game will almost definately cause many negative changes that will upset players. As long as the game is playable, and has a decent playerbase (which it does), you'll probably agree that SE would logically be reluctant to change anything.

Just one example of late: for years many different melee jobs were complaining of long lfg times. SE introduced a few new areas that are basically built for TP burns. They made all those jobs incredibly happy, and it encouraged them to try TP burns at lower lvls. The flipside is that now alot of blms are upset because now they aren't wanted.

PuP and gilselling seem to be the biggest problem with ffxi I see right now. They do do something about gilselling every once in awhile (it's definately not as bad as with some other mmorpgs), and they may be reluctant to do more because of japanese laws or customs or other reasons that I have no clue about. I don't know if this problem could ever be dealt with conclusively (I don't know of one succesful MMORPG that has been able to), so I set that aside.

PuP is bad, but I strongly suspect it will be fixed in this update. They mention in the interview some things about better upgrades, and I imagine that they'll give them some badass AF that will make them useful 50+.

[Telal]

Re: New Interview with FFXI's Developers on 1UP.com

Why hold out the best gear for the smallest portion of most MMORPG players?

This is a huge problem in WoW where Blizzard admits that only 10-15% of the players are "raiders" yet the gear this small number of people can get, totally wrecks pvp balance against players who don't have access to it.

I'm not in FFXI for the gear, it will come, I'm here for the fun and the story, but locking out Swords of Pwn just because someone doesn't have access to an HNMLS is bad game design.

[Hamlet]

Re: New Interview with FFXI's Developers on 1UP.com

Why hold out the best gear for the smallest portion of most MMORPG players?

This is a huge problem in WoW where Blizzard admits that only 10-15% of the players are "raiders" yet the gear this small number of people can get, totally wrecks pvp balance against players who don't have access to it.

I'm not in FFXI for the gear, it will come, I'm here for the fun and the story, but locking out Swords of Pwn just because someone doesn't have access to an HNMLS is bad game design.

I think it's good to have some gear that is very hard to get. It gives the powerplayers something to shoot for, and something for other people to wish that they could get.

If you want the sword of pwn, it's excalibur, and you need a dynamis ls for that, not hnmls.

But really, your attitude is the best way to approach the game. There is some gear that is almost mandatory that is hard to get or expensive (like sniper rings), but they ARE farmable/bcnmable/etc, if you put some effort into it. Having everything be the best it could possibly be is probably impossible if you're a normal player and don't buy gil, but 95% of it isn't necessary to fulfilling your spot in an xp party.

[Telal]

Re: New Interview with FFXI's Developers on 1UP.com

I think it's good to have some gear that is very hard to get. It gives the powerplayers something to shoot for, and something for other people to wish that they could get.

If you want the sword of pwn, it's excalibur, and you need a dynamis ls for that, not hnmls.

But really, your attitude is the best way to approach the game. There is some gear that is almost mandatory that is hard to get or expensive (like sniper rings), but they ARE farmable/bcnmable/etc, if you put some effort into it. Having everything be the best it could possibly be is probably impossible if you're a normal player and don't buy gil, but 95% of it isn't necessary to fulfilling your spot in an xp party.

I don't mind having to work for my gear, that's part of the fun of obtaining it.
I'm not going to pretend I even know what hnmls or dynamis are about, i'm lvl 14 with no subjobs yet.

However, in WoW there is gear that is only avaible to people who can play 5-6 hours a night, 4-5 nights a week. This i can't do, but if i can log on, get a group or 3 or what have you, do a few bcnm's a week, and have a shot at getting comparable gear, than that is 100% ok with me.

But if Dynamis, takes a large portion of my week, I can not and will not ever see one. (Unless I find a cool group of people who do it on Saturday nights or something). :D