[Yellow Mage]

And further more, why hasn't anyone from DiV provided some rep? We're a premire site, right?

I don't have a transcript of the report, and just about everything I know you can hear over at Pet Food Alpha, but here's everything I took note of. (If someone else here has more information, feel free to post it. Also, do not make trolling comments if you feel everybody knows this already, I merely felt a thread concerning it was in the obligatory category.)

Before we get to FFXI, of note is the fact that S-E's new MMO will not be a part of PlayOnline, however, you will have the ability to retain your PlayOnline Friend List. Neat, I guess? S-E's development team are said to be getting to work on it the moment FFXIII is finished (iirc, XIII was supposed to be the last in the series, or at least, the last before a hiatus).

Back to FFXI, I'm sure everybody's exited about the new Relic Weapons and the new Relic Weaponskills. As it turns out, while the Nyzul Isle Weapons will be among the most difficult to obtain, and thus worthy of the title "Relic," no weapon is necessary to get the new Weaponskills, and S-E themselves said that, whereas the Nyzul Weapons will be rightly difficult to obtain, the Weaponskills will be available to the masses, and should be doable by even the casual player.

However, there will be one unique to each job, and they will correspond with the Nyzul Weapons in another way: using the new JSWS SWAG while equipped with a Nyzul Weapon will give you the status buff of "Aftermath," which can give you a variety of the bonuses dependent on the weapon (and thus, dependent of the Weaponskill and Job).

And, for those interested in obtaining said weapons, S-E has figured out that 50,000 Alexandrites at their current drop rates was a little on the unreasonable side, and are planning on adjusting both for the easier.

You know what we all knew was coming? Final Fantasy XI Fan Festival 2008. And, well, Square Enix finally decided to confirm it for themselves. Expect it towards the end of the year, or at least between the next update and the one after that. All of us interested parties on the East Coast should probably think it wise to save our pennies for plane tickets, too, if things go predictably . . .

This has been discussed before, but ToAU Relic is coming in the September Update, and it has been indicated that little picture of the PLD and PUP in Dynamis was supposed to be a "hint" as to how it would be obtained. Let the whining from the Malacite party commence! As for the rest of us, I really don't think we cared so much how the Relic was implemented so much more than the fact that it was, for the sake of completion.

Speaking of Dynamis, S-E reminded us that reduced costs for Dynamis and increased drop rates for Northlands is coming sometime. They feel since it will be cheaper to get in to Dynamis, this will affect the costs for Ancient Currency, and made a side remark that this might make obtaining existing Relic Weapons a little bit easier.

Oh, and I remember what Cotners said in one thread . . .

Originally Posted by Cotners

Everything in that [the AV] video has been tested to death, so yes, to hell with that video.

You may want to take back that curse, as S-E is *ABSOLUTELY* certain that the key is right there.

Oh, but it may be worth watching the video over again after considering the following change in perspective. S-E insists that even after the key is found out, this is still going to be one of the more difficult fights in the game, and not to mention one of the longest, and by that, I mean: Does "18-FLIPPING-HOUR-LONG-FIGHT" mean anything to you?! I mean, sure, they conceded it may reduced to 10 hours long if you're lucky, but, still, something to chew on for a little.

While watching the video again, you may want to consider that everybody involved had access to about nine two-hour abilities in that time period, and, due to an all-too-human need for sleep, there could have been only an alliance fighting at any given time, but any extra people can be explained with person 1: "Oh, hey, I have to go, you mind taking my place for the next 4 hours?" person 20: "Sure, dude, go get some rest." /logout person 1, /invite person 20. So, while defeating AV is certainly possible, you may want to rethink the entire thing. I mean, really, {Holy}18{Hour}{Long time}{Battle}{bat}{man}!

So, as I close this thread, I have to ask again: why wasn't there anybody from DiV to provide all of this information for us!?!

[Taskmage]

Originally Posted by Yellow Mage

You may want to take back that curse, as S-E is *ABSOLUTELY* certain that the key is right there.

Oh, but it may be worth watching the video over again after considering the following change in perspective. S-E insists that even after the key is found out, this is still going to be one of the more difficult fights in the game, and not to mention one of the longest, and by that, I mean: Does "18-FLIPPING-HOUR-LONG-FIGHT" mean anything to you?! I mean, sure, they conceded it may reduced to 10 hours long if you're lucky, but, still, something to chew on for a little.

While watching the video again, you may want to consider that everybody involved had access to about nine two-hour abilities in that time period, and, due to an all-too-human need for sleep, there could have been only an alliance fighting at any given time, but any extra people can be explained with person 1: "Oh, hey, I have to go, you mind taking my place for the next 4 hours?" person 20: "Sure, dude, go get some rest." /logout person 1, /invite person 20. So, while defeating AV is certainly possible, you may want to rethink the entire thing. I mean, really, {Holy}18{Hour}{Long time}{Battle}{bat}{man}!

They said the same thing in May. The video has been analyzed all to hell since then and still nobody has come up with a winning strategy. Fact is, any strategy is moot when it can wipe the zone with meteor and erase hours worth of progress with benediction. Saying hay guyz mebbe u shud wach teh vid doesn't accomplish anything.

As to why this site wasn't represented, I have no answers for you.

[TheGrandMom]

18 hour long fight........

I might do it once just to say I had, but thats it. That is beyond stupid imo.

Originally Posted by Taskmage

As to why this site wasn't represented, I have no answers for you.

Ditto.

[Yellow Mage]

Originally Posted by Taskmage

They said the same thing in May. The video has been analyzed all to hell since then and still nobody has come up with a winning strategy. Fact is, any strategy is moot when it can wipe the zone with meteor and erase hours worth of progress with benediction. Saying hay guyz mebbe u shud wach teh vid doesn't accomplish anything.

Has it been analyzed with the 18 hours in mind? Immediately off the top of my head, any theories about two-hours being restored are busted for good, considering the length of two hours has pretty much become a drop in the proverbial bucket.

Even if S-E just told us plain and simple "okay, this is what you do if you want to win," the whole 18-HOURS thing is going to be a turn off for many. Somebody in the LS wants a Love Torque? Fine, let us down JoL, and if AV pops, I think we'll just eat the Meteor and save ourselves the trouble.

I'm not too keen on calling S-E liars when they say something's right under our nose, especially not twice in a row. You have to understand the apparent trouble the dev team went through just to make the video in the first place, because nobody's going to watch 18 hours worth of nothing except the few parts which are apparently useful.

AV's possible, and the key is in the video: even when accepting those, any luster any of the drops could possibly have had for me is long gone by now.

[Raydeus]

DiV rarely has presence in those events for some reason. /shrug

18 hours to kill AV? Insanity. But then again, when you consider the entire days some people spends camping NMs an 18hr fight doesn't seem that farfetched.

[TheGrandMom]

PiNG and AKosygin apologize for missing the event. Of course, their real lives take precedent over such things and they were quite busy at the time. They are currently discussing solutions to the issue.

[Taskmage]

The length of the fight doesn't even matter. If you can't stop it from healing 49k hp at will with Benediction or wiping your alliance(s) with Meteor then you're not going to do any better than LimitBreak did back in 2006 when they spent 30 hours throwing bodies and raining damage on it and never got it past 51%.

AV has been out for three years and not one group out of the hundreds or thousands of people doing sea in that time have made a "legit" kill. Most people don't even try anymore. The playerbase has given up on the content. AV = fail.

[Feba]

Originally Posted by Taskmage

The playerbase has given up on the content. Playerbase = fail.

FTFY.

[Taskmage]

Originally Posted by Feba

FTFY.

It's SE's job to keep us engaged with worthwhile, enjoyable content. That's what we pay them a monthly fee for. If after three years the playerbase has been unable to extract worth or even fully experience that content by reaching the later stages of the AV fight, it's the developer's fault. Not the players'.

[Feba]

Which is like saying "if after three years, you can't solve a rubik's cube, you're not an idiot, it's just a stupid puzzle."

Most of us gave up on those fucking little cubes long ago. That doesn't mean they aren't wonderfully designed.

There's plenty of other content out there keeping people engaged, obviously. AV doesn't have to entertaining everyone; or even anyone. There are plenty of little oddities out there that don't engage people, but Vana'diel would be worse off if they were removed.

[Taskmage]

Originally Posted by Feba

Which is like saying "if after three years, you can't solve a rubik's cube, you're not an idiot, it's just a stupid puzzle."

Most of us gave up on those fucking little cubes long ago. That doesn't mean they aren't wonderfully designed.

There's plenty of other content out there keeping people engaged, obviously. AV doesn't have to entertaining everyone; or even anyone. There are plenty of little oddities out there that don't engage people, but Vana'diel would be worse off if they were removed.

No, it's like saying if nobody in the world had solved a Rubik's cube yet, it'd be a stupid puzzle. Except less like a Rubik's cube and more like a Lament Configuration.

[Feba]

Except people obviously do know the solution.

[Taskmage]

Originally Posted by Feba

Except people obviously do know the solution.

To AV? Perhaps, but the developers getting the full experience of the content isn't the point of the exercise. If the only person in the world to have solved the Rubik's cube was its inventor, it'd still be a stupid puzzle. Puzzles are created to be solved.

[Feba]

Exactly. And they've already given us hints at the answer that they probably were afraid would make it TOO obvious. The sorts of hints we'll be smacking our heads over later for not getting.

Goblin Drink, yes, that's a stupid-ass puzzle, because there's no logical way to solve it short of brute force. AV, we have strong hints, gameplay footage of him being defeated. Whether we WILL figure out the answer is probably a no, whether we COULD is probably a yes.

[Yellow Mage]

I have to overwhelmingly agree with Feba here: if you're to stupid to solve said puzzle, don't say it's . . . look, there's actually an Aesop about this, you know.