Announcement

**neighbortaru** · 08-24-2006, 08:06 AM

Re: new SE interview by Bercus over on BG

continued...

Originally posted by bercus

At 4:00 PM the Interview #2 started :
When I asked a question they all talked in Japanese and then Saori Hill answered to me in English.

Question 1:

Bercus : The first question is about the new Sanction effect in new areas +15% Exp and possible Refresh/Regen/Food duration is much better then Signet with Conquest Points.
This makes exping in old areas unwanted and makes the new ToAU areas packed. The exp rate differs quite alot as well. Repops from most Treasures of Aht Urgan mobs in 5 minutes compared to 15 minutes repop of mobs in older areas is just insane.
Is there going to be any adjustment for Signet bonuses and repop time in older Areas?
And do you plan in putting new Rewards for Conquest Points?

Saori : I think that works for our intention to get those Areas crowded, but we wanted the people to go to the new Areas,

Bercus : But everyone goes to the new areas, cause its so cool and easy to get high chains and a get lot of exp there.

Saori : Thatâ€™s what we did expect in the beginning, so now we will change that â€¦.

Bercus : Is it possible to get a 15% EXP Addition with Signet effect on as well?

Saori : If we do that, it might be difficult that people wont come back again and only stay in the old areas then, so we need to be careful but we are looking into this.

Question 2 :

Bercus : This is a very important question, FFXI has been out for awhile now; many players are level 75 on one or multiple jobs, and the number of players with a 75 job is growing every day.

More 75 players means more demand for gear to outfit those jobs, but many of the pieces of gear, especially from King Behemoth, Aspid, Fafnir and Nidhogg drop at the same bad rate as they did 3 years ago. Like Ridill 1 to 100 (ok ok the droprate is better then 1 to 100 but come on : P)

More 75 players means more competition, and a 21-24 hour spawn window guarantees that you see daily 150 to 200 people in Dragon's Aery on more populated servers, yet only 18 players will be able to engage if they get the claim, 18 out of 150+ people for a LOW chance at fighting said monsters.

A simple reduction in the spawn timers as well as the increase of the drop rate for some items for many of these monsters would decrease the amount of people coming to these areas, as well as greatly increase the morale and general happiness of the end game community.

Saori : If we do make those changes, we have to be really careful how we will make those changes.
If for example the old areas are overcrowded we plan to put new Notorious Monsters in the new areas. â€¦.

Bercus : â€¦ but here comes the problem, these Items on these Mobs, are still almost the best Items, and they become easier now, because people can kill them in 10 minutes, and thatâ€™s why everyone is still there because of the low droprate, right now, after 2.5 years people still have to camp those mobs for themselves or other linkshell members. This is the problem why more and more people go there because more and more people are 75, do you maybe plan to remove such Big timers for those monsters?

(They talked to the President and also the EU global Producer)

Saori : We will maybe change the timer when the monster pops.

Bercus : I have something for you here, there is a player who designed a system, because right now only 18 people can fight those monsters. And he was thinking of making this something like Assault or Instanced Fights. This way everyone would have the chance to fight those monsters.

(I showed them the paper, with the rocks and the Entrance and the exit and explained them the way how to fight those mobs then, with getting Orbs ect, they all came really close together and they all wanted to keep the graphic already at this point: P )

Bercus : This is the area where Behemot pops and you could make a entrance and a exit, and you get orbs like for Oryou Fight in Riverne Site B, this way everyone could have the chance to Fight those monsters (they started to laugh >.<).Letz say you could fight these monsters every 7 days and get in those Fights of NQ Versions Orbs for HQ Versions Fights, everyone would just have the Chance to finally fight those monsters and you could solve the problem.â€¦

Sundi : This is a real good Ideaâ€¦..

Bercus : Right now those monsters are botted by the use of 3rd party tools, Its almost always the same Linkshells who get the Claims, ok maybe most of the time 2 different linkshells get the claims,

Saori: It will be difficult to make the game easier, and we donâ€™t plan to make the game easierâ€¦.

Bercus : .. You can make them harder.. this will just give legal players the chance to be able to fight them .. Because we cant get with a fair way the claim, just give us the chance to fight those monsters. I donâ€™t think this has anything to do with making the game easier, but give us the chance to fight said monsters.

Saori : It could be the possible design, that not everyone should be able to get those Items, and we donâ€™t want to change that so that everyone would be able to get those Items. It would be difficult to give chance to everyone.

Bercus: But how do you want to address the increasing demand for endgame gear then, because in the past there were 30 people and now there are 200 people. So either make better Items orâ€¦ did you think about that? Make better Items then 2003 Items, right now Black Belt for example is still the best waist for Monks, Ridill is the best Sword for those Melees, and the bodies from 3 Kings are still the best bodies for those 3 jobs. If you would make new gear this would give the old people the chance to get the old gear and will make the other people move on to the new Mobs. Look at Jorm or Vrtra or Tiamatâ€¦ they drop no Gear to make them worth fighting.. like a Pole wit 4 DMG that attacks 2-4 timesâ€¦ or Tiamat with Herald Gaiters with 18% Speed, you fight those mobs 2 hours and Fafnir 10 minutes, so it has to be changed that challenging Fights give the best gear and easy fights drop decent gear and not the other way. A party of 6 players can kill Fafnirâ€¦

Saori : We will for sure try to work on balancing the game and we will definatly change something therefore soon, can we keep this paper?

Question 3:

Bercus : Do you have any Endgame planned yet for the new Expansion ToAU? Zilart has the so called â€œskyâ€, Promatia has the so called â€œseaâ€. Will we get a so called â€œhellâ€ or anything like that?

(laugh)

Saori : We are really looking to see more of your ideas, it is also very interesting for us and we are also considering something new but we cant tell you anything at the moment. It might be something you are expecting or it might be something completely diffrent,

Bercus : So do you have something planned?

Saori : Yes.

Question 4:

Bercus : ULLIKUMMI !!!!!! In one of the last Version Updates you changed the pop condition for the NM Ullikummi. But we still have the same problem. The area is overcrowded at Ullikummi, several Linkshells want this NM to Fight Byakko and get the Seals for Kirin. Instead of changing the pop area, why didnâ€™t you change the repop rate for Ullikummi to 2-2.5 hours or make it like how to pop Olla (Grande). Kill any Statue to get a Rare Item and pop Ullikummi with this Item. This will solve at least the problem our community has with Gilsellers regarding Ullikummi and also will put the Ullikummi EXP camp back to be worth it. Right now over 50% of the time Gilseller get the claim and put those Stones for 8-10M in their Bazaars because they can still monopolise it..

Can we see further improvements on Ullikummis Pop condition? Also do you think about the pop Conditions for other NMs in sky so they canâ€™t start monopolising them?

Saori : Well monopolisationâ€¦ we think itâ€™s a separate issue with the Gilsellers, we donâ€™t think it would be easier if we change the pop rate, the Gilsellers would still be thereâ€¦.

Bercus : .. yeah but we would have more chances to get the claim, right now 50% of the time Gilsellers get the Claimâ€¦..

Saori : .. So we cant really tell you the details, but we work on this issue and are really working hard to get rid of thisâ€¦

Bercus : ok

Question 5:

Bercus : The Jailor NMs and the miniquests completed to spawn them are totally unique and challenging to even experienced linkshells. However, when defeated these monsters often do not drop the item required to progress to the next tier of fights. Considering the incredible challenges of the Chains of Promethia missions and the work needed to pop these monsters,

Why do they not drop expensive synthesis items and useful armor at a guaranteed rate like their cousins in Tu'Lia? And why, again unlike the tiered monsters of Tu'lia, do they not drop the items required for the next fights at a fixed 100% rate?

Nothing is worse than spending hours upon hours farming pop items and killing Jailers, to see them not drop anything other than a weapon maybe.

I remember in the interview with BG you said something will be done, yet nothing has been done
(Sage Sundi laughed; ) )

They talked like 1 minute in Japanese; I think it was too much information at that time

Bercus : do you want me to ask again?

Sundi: yeah

Bercus : Why do they not drop Items required for the next fight at a 100% rate?

(They talked about something in Japanese and English and were mentioning the storyline of cop)

Bercus : this has nothing to do with the storyâ€¦. >.<

(I think they didnâ€™t know what I was talking about >.<)

Saori : There could have been a reason why the Development team didnâ€™t want at this time for the mobs to drop the items 100% and we canâ€™t really answer the question at this point.

Bercus : Can I send these questions to you via Email and you give me a answer then?

Saori : We would like to see the details about this question and answer you, yes.

Question 6 :

Bercus : Another thing is Dynamis, Assault is great, multiple people can do this at the same time, this is a change that many players have asked for and if Assault wouldnâ€™t have been able to enter by multiple groups at the same time, many people would not be able to do those Missions. These instanced zones cause no conflicts or problems between people. If older Events such as Dynamis which are frequently the cause of conflicts because multiple linkshells want to enter the same areaâ€¦

Sundi : conflicts between whoâ€¦.

Bercus : .. Conflicts betweenLinkshells , because they want to enter the area at the same time.
Is it be possible to make Dynamis/Limbus Instanced, like Assault?

Saori : The concept about Assault was a completely different idea we had for, it is something we wanted you to enjoy very casually (is this word right?). And for Dynamis you really have to plan the day and you have to make a plan and preparation and it is a different type of battle and a diffrent direction we did with Assault. If we do Dynamis instantly it would also cause problems with the servers, so it would be difficult to do that.

Bercus : .. so itâ€™s a server problem?(<.<)

Saori : If we would have bigger servers it would be probably possible, but we donâ€™t really plan to do that.
(it was very hard to understand the sentence here on tape>.<)

Question 7:

Bercus : Do you have any more plans for any areas along the lines of Dynamis, Assault and Limbus?
They are amazing and we could use more battle dungeons, probably not sharing the same timers, like Assault.

Saori : there are some areas, that we havenâ€™t released yet like I told you, so there are new areas.

Bercus : so you have something planned?

Saori : Wait for the new areas (she smiled)

Question 8:

Bercus : Real Money Trade: Many characters in the game are very obviously owned and operated by Real Money Traders. The pattern of their behaviour, their login/logout times, their communication, and their actions make it completely certain that they are the property of owners who operate in violation of the terms of service. Many of these characters have been monopolizing the same sources of game income for years, many use third-party programs to out claim legitimate players, and all are participating in RMT.

When players notify GMs of these characters' actions and the absolute certainty of their ownership, they are told that the matter is being investigated. However, many dozens of these characters remain in place, dominating different areas of the game just as they have for years. This cycle of summoning GMs, being told that investigations are under way, and then seeing RMT characters remain is very disheartening, and creates a distrust of GMs on the part of legitimate players who feel they are being purposefully ignored. The removal of these RMT characters from the game would not only eliminate violations of the terms of service, but also restore faith in the company and the gameâ€™s GMs.

What can you tell us about this problem?
(I think this question was too long >.< anyway I got answers)

Saori + Sundi : (smiled), when we say we are investigating, we are investigating, maybe we donâ€™t give responds case by case, because we just cant really do that, but the problem is, even when they are obtaining so many money, thatâ€™s not violating the rules, it doesnâ€™t say in the rules that you cannot obtain a lot of money, thatâ€™s why we cant say, â€œyou have done that wrongâ€ cause its not in the rules, thatâ€™s why we have to work from a different direction, we cant really say you the details, I am sorry, but we are in work for this. And also you say camping area havenâ€™t changed (I actually didnâ€™t say that >.<), you know some areas have changedâ€¦.

Bercus: â€¦ when do you think we see something done with RMT ? Like those players, they are still there after years. Its very obvious to us that they are gilsellers, they show us they are gilsellers, like they tell us you wont get anything blabla, or they talk in say Chinese, whatever they show us that they are Chinese gilsellers, when we can figure it out, why cant GMs figure it out or you guys? Something we wonderâ€¦

Saori : we can imagine, well we might think that these persons are gilsellers but we cant get the evidence (hope thatâ€™s the word) from that person. That is something we can guess they are gilsellers, maybe yes, but maybe not..

Toshi : And we cant say we arrest you cause you speak german..

Bercus : Haha I know, but they just donâ€™t show us with speaking Chinese that they are gilsellers, they are rude in some way and yeah well we can be rude to (grinned), they show us in many ways they are gilsellers.

Saori : The thing is they also have plans and donâ€™t give us evidence to ban them. We are really doing something, if you feel that we do nothing thatâ€™s not true, we are doing something and we are investigating.

Bercus : So will something be done soon?

Saori : Itâ€™s always happening

Bercus : Now you ban only the characters that store the gilâ€¦. Ah forget it letz go to the next question.

Question 9 :

Bercus : Many players who created their characters when the game was first released have poured countless hours of work into them, and to rebuild from scratch would be impossible. However, certain actions in the game are irreversible, and mistakes once made cannot be undone without the total recreation of a character.
Like when you are a Galka and want to be a Tarutaru later.

For these players, who are among the most loyal and longest customers, it would be incredibly beneficial to allow the rewards for completion of Chains of Promathia and Rise of the Zilart (The rings and earrings respectively) to be re-chosen in some way. In addition, some rewards from the battles with the prime elemental avatars cannot be reacquired, as many have regretfully found after somehow losing theirs (through accidental use of throwing weapons or mistakes when throwing away less valuable items).

On this same topic, many players would like to ask for a one-time race change, so that their ugly Galka can become a hot Mithra. Letz say a mission or a NPC you trade your ring to and after some days you can rechose. But you canâ€™t do that daily, more then maybe once or every half year or so.

Do we have any chances to re-chose race,gender,the Cop Ring, the Divine Might ring or other decisions?

Saori : there were some reasons, where we decided you cant change it, but like when you have black hair you cant just change it. Once chosen in game, you canâ€™t change it. There must have been a reason for the development team to not be able to rechose.

Bercus : In real life you just go to a hair dresser and he/she colours your hair. In game you donâ€™t think its possible

Sundi : I donâ€™t know yet.

Question 10:
Bercus : Right now EXP Scrolls are vastly underwhelming and mostly useless.

Can we possibly see some improvements in the future? For example 2-4k from Escort or 1-2k in Dynamis?
Also would it be possible to get EXP from Dynamis/Limbus Mobs? You can get EXP in Assault, why is it not possible to get EXP in Dynamis.

(At this point I already was 10 minutes over the Interview so we had to stop because the press was waiting outside)

Anyway, they were nice all the time. And I know what mistakes I made, like to long questions, but itâ€™s to late for that already, itâ€™s done. At least we know we can ALWAYS contact they now. When the Convention is over I will hopefully get details how we want to do that. They were interested in many things, but I feel I sometimes had the wrong people there to talk to. Thatâ€™s why they will get every question again sent, basically everything from the Convention. I hope the questions and answers were not too bad in some people eyes. It took me a lot of effort to first of all get all the shit together, get the Interview, write everything down ectectâ€¦. Not to forget I drove to this Convention 80% because of this Interview.

I will post the unasked questions, when people are interested to, since I want to post the Interview now.
See you guys,

Bercus from Bahamut.

**Draco Dagon** · 08-24-2006, 08:29 AM

Re: new SE interview by Bercus over on BG

(Whoah, looks like I may be the first to reply to this.)

Sundi : Well its hard to tell, but okâ€¦ I know we cannot 100% prevent the use of a 3rd party program with our Full-Screen mode, but it will decrease the Number, its not easy to detect such tools you know.
First of all why we have that Full Screen mode is cause of the Cross platforms, PS2 you know, has to be Full Screen Mode.

Blah blah blah... PS2 this, PS2 that, PS2-blah hah... third-party...blah...not used...blah...in...windowed...mode.

Bercus : Why are Stats like Accuray, Ranged Accuray, Magic Accuray and Ranged Attack not visible in the status window? Would it be bad for players knowing their current accuray? Is there a reason why these skills are hidden? What is the reason? Would it be possible to display these statistics again? If not, why not?

Sundi : ummmâ€¦. Maybe there is no solid reason, why we hide itâ€¦ ummmâ€¦ maybe a limitation or some other reasonâ€¦. The question answer is, maybe I donâ€™t know, maybe you need to ask â€¦. Maybe I can ask the Development Team.

This has to be the quote of the year...

**Dragonly** · 08-24-2006, 08:47 AM

Re: new SE interview by Bercus over on BG

Bercus : This question is about the entertainment side of the game. In the past SE has adapted a cross world feature evident in many games, like Kingdom Hearts, where you work together with Disney. Could SE consider something like this for FFXI so that players can fight against square legends? Like a BCNM, or mini-quest oriented to FF XI culture so that it doesn't interfere with storyline etcâ€¦

Probably ahd to be one of the most pointless questions asked.

**Balfree** · 08-24-2006, 08:50 AM

Re: new SE interview by Bercus over on BG

Some questions are ridiculous, and got the answer they were calling for, change race? seriously. But overall i guess we are... wait we arent, what is this, allways the same kind of questions, never anything new, NMs and Gilsellers, o brother..

**Yeargdribble** · 08-24-2006, 08:55 AM

Re: new SE interview by Bercus over on BG

The reason nobody asks anything new is because the same old shit is still broken. RMT, Ulli, Kings, windowed mode, sea drops. These are some of the most broken things in the game and the endgame community is tired of this. Maybe if we keep driving the point home they will get it. I think Bercus did a good job of not pussyfooting around things like msot interviewers have in the past.

You say that calling for race change is stupid (which I agree with) and such.... but what NEW and DIFFERENT questions would you ask?

Q: lol why is beaucedine so hard to run through? (Actual question from a IUP interview)

There really aren't any more pressing issues for people who are participating in endgame.

**raidenn** · 08-24-2006, 09:09 AM

Re: new SE interview by Bercus over on BG

Is it just me or does it sound like this interview is confusing?

**DakAttack** · 08-24-2006, 09:14 AM

Re: new SE interview by Bercus over on BG

It sounds like Sundi and the others are taken a little off guard at times, and try to remain on the ball so to speak. It also sounds like they're cranking out answers for some of the more lame questions.

I always hate it when somebody has the chance to ask them questions, but ends up giving them more suggestions than questions. It's an interview! Not a developer's meeting!

**Ziero** · 08-24-2006, 09:34 AM

Re: new SE interview by Bercus over on BG

Well their stances on windower and RMT are pretty understandable. What they do in regards to those subjects they do with the best interests of the game in mind. Windower is never 'needed' and they wanted to give all players as close to the same experiance as possible. Their full screen only concept was to try and make it so the PC and PS2 were as similar as could be. Yes I know people will say 'well a ps2 user can still check his com!' but what if the ps2 user doesn't have one. And why couldn't a full screen player own a second com? Sure I prefer a windower on my com, use mine all the time (Don't bother with plug ins though, not even tparty) but it's certainly not needed.

And as for RMT, prove they are what you say they are. Sure they're there every day, but that just proves they're there every day. Sure the camp the same mob 24/7, but that just shows they camp the same mob 24/7. Prove that they actually take that gil and sell it for real money. And no, asking them and having them say 'yes' is not proof enough for GMs. Jokes get made all the time about people being gil sellers and a GM wouldn't know if it was or wasn't if they saw one. The only way to get a gil seller banned for selling gil was if they *offered* it to you.

A lot of those questions seemed redundant/pointless to me. It seemed he would rather make a statement and hear their response then actually ask a question. Anyone with half a brain could see SE is *trying* to deal with gil sellers the best they can. But most people don't consider the long term affects of many of their radical 'ideas', and often come across sounding extremely biased. His reasoning that someone speaking chinese as proof of being a gil seller was a good example of that. Other questions, such as the loss of messages during changing of zones, the 'rent-a-camp' concept and his question on race changing/re-choosing rare items questions were just a waste imo. It was almost as if he was talking at them as opposed to talking with them.

The questions about RoZ vs CoP/ToAU drops was certainly valid, as was the new warp to ToAU question, the status of Ulli and the Pup job and the hidden stat questions. But understandably so they weren't able to be fully answered. But SE has been trying real hard as of late to listen to it's fanbase so it's very possible many of these 'problems' may change in the near future.

**Zamphire** · 08-24-2006, 09:40 AM

Re: new SE interview by Bercus over on BG

I dont know if it was just the english to japanese translation... but to me this interview kicked down my impression of SE by 6 or 7 notches. They seemed like they were complete idiots and just threw a game together without thinking about it.

**Grizzlebeard** · 08-24-2006, 09:55 AM

Re: new SE interview by Bercus over on BG

Still reading it but the first question and following response made me smile.

Sundi: That could be only happen whenâ€¦the person, you know, sent a message just right before the zoning, right?

Bercus : Right!

Sundi: So by the system, there is no way to know the other person is sending a message to you, so I donâ€™t think it is possible. Iâ€™ll make sure I talk to the programmer, if there is any way to do it.

This problem was resolved over four years ago on Everquest for tells only. I'm guessing non direct chat ie chat not labelled <character name xyz> is unable to be recognised when you zone due to lag, zone times varying due to differing machine capabilities and internet connections, etc.

**DakAttack** · 08-24-2006, 10:02 AM

Re: new SE interview by Bercus over on BG

Originally posted by Ziero

And as for RMT, prove they are what you say they are. Sure they're there every day, but that just proves they're there every day. Sure the camp the same mob 24/7, but that just shows they camp the same mob 24/7. Prove that they actually take that gil and sell it for real money. And no, asking them and having them say 'yes' is not proof enough for GMs. Jokes get made all the time about people being gil sellers and a GM wouldn't know if it was or wasn't if they saw one. The only way to get a gil seller banned for selling gil was if they *offered* it to you.

Feel free to connect the dots any time now. What if something is huge, grey, has huge ears shaped like India, a trunk, tusks, and camps the local villager's Banana crops all day? Isn't that proof in itself that I'm talking about an elephant? Or am I still just proving that whatever it is it's huge, grey, has huge ears, a trunk, tusks, and likes to camp Bananas, but it's not an elephant?

Or maybe this is a philisophical debate, and that whatever it is, it's just mimicing the perceptual qualities of the elephant?

**Yeargdribble** · 08-24-2006, 10:03 AM

Re: new SE interview by Bercus over on BG

What pissed me off most was the fact that SE doesn't seem to know anything about their own game.

Q: New areas are overcrowded... Thoughts?
A: They are?

Q: There are 200 people at King camps... Thoughts?
A: There are?

Q: You can't recieve tells when you are zoning... thoughts?
A: Zoning?

A: Sanction > Signet and this helps cause crowding in new areas... thoughts?
Q: It is? It does?

Aside from that every answer was basically:

We can't tell you now.
Wait and see.
We'll investigate.
I don't know.

**raidenn** · 08-24-2006, 10:03 AM

Re: new SE interview by Bercus over on BG

To catch a gilseller, go to Ebay or whatever website they sell gil, buy gil, go inside the game and see the seller hand or send you the money. Thats basically how I would catch one. Wonder why they're not doing that.

**Irisjir Callard** · 08-24-2006, 10:10 AM

Re: new SE interview by Bercus over on BG

Originally posted by Zamphire

I dont know if it was just the english to japanese translation... but to me this interview kicked down my impression of SE by 6 or 7 notches. They seemed like they were complete idiots and just threw a game together without thinking about it.

I think a great deal of the syntax problems were eng-jp translation problems, but the overall concept given is one of a man who knows about as much about the game as if he was pulled off the street about sony HQ. A lot of the questions I read seemed to go:

"Here is an issue that may need resolving, why is it this way and what are you going to do about it?"

"Umm...I don't know."

So the interview brings up some valid points for player base to consider, but I really don't feel any more confident that SE will 'fix' anything after this interview. It seems to be floathing way out in left field with no concrete comments like "Yes, the development team is trying to figure out a way to..." It's all "Well maybe we'll look into thinking about something...or not..."

Just my two cents. A good interview, but a very very bad subject.

Double Post Edited:

Originally posted by raidenn

To catch a gilseller, go to Ebay or whatever website they sell gil, buy gil, go inside the game and see the seller hand or send you the money. Thats basically how I would catch one. Wonder why they're not doing that.

Because theoretically then SE would have to ban itself for buying gil?

I dont' know. Florida police seem to have mastered the "Sting" operation, as well as NYPD, and any number of REAL LIFE law enforcement agencies.

But I've never yet found a single MMO that could manage to organize a single sting operation.

Announcement

new SE interview by Bercus over on BG

new SE interview by Bercus over on BG

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment