This is a thread that is somewhat intended to get away from the common things people complain about, meaning RDM Melee/SMN/solo gripes/the state of meritpo and moving on to other miscellanious issues witin the game that you feel are important things that need addressing.

To be more specific, I'm not merely talking about job adjustments, either. Those are coming, we've gotten a lot of good ones, let's just wait and see what they do. Feel free to tack yours on in the thread and discuss it. If it pertains to an element of a job, ok, that's fair game, but let's not drag it into topics we've already been over a dozen times.

One problem I have is actually a long-standing, but now quieter criticism of the game.

Lack of real guild structure.

SE decided that it would be best to let the players regulate thier linkshells as they saw fit. Which is to say, SE trusted players too much. I think each time a developer makes thier first online game, they imagine us to be perfect little angels. Well, we're not, and the complete absense of an established guild structure makes things a lot more political than they have to be. That's not to say an established system couldn't be abused - it totally can - but if things like point systems were done in-game instead of externally, there's a lot less room for abuse. Bad/corrupt leaders would be spotted easier.

Another issue is that SE doesn't really update the older content that much. OK, so we can farm diorites from Aura Statues near the Nexus, there's a rage timer and NMs can build resistances over time. Still, this doesn't prevent us from using the same tactics over and over again.

SE said it themselves several times - they'd like to encourage different party setups and strategies. This works for the "small party" concept they have, but not terribly much for meritpo or endgame. Things need to be shaken up a little here.

Since the kings are now such familiar territory and have become such simple fights, I think its time they get a bit tougher with a bit more variety in thier tactics or even tactics that might vary by thier appearance.

As someone who favors the newer jobs in the game, another that stands out to me is the failure to really include the ToA/WotG jobs in the reward scheme in RoZ/CoP endgame content. Really, CoP busts your balls, I want a little more to choose from than some earrings and neck pieces. BLU got BOTH sea sets and PUP and COR got jackshit. Its clear BLU was way ahead on the drawing board than the other two.

All the same, all ToA and WotG jobs should get a shot at AF+1 sets, too. Same goes for relics, which I'm a little more understanding about SE holding back on. Given how contemporary ToA/WotG AF is in contrast to RoZ AF, it probably is somewhat difficult to reinvent these sets, and I'll also concede that Relic for WotG jobs is probably premature since other endgame sets aren't really there outside of the standard crafted and Assault gear choices

But lets look at the facts:

PUP, DNC and SCH get no abjuration gear - COR and BLU had it from day one on ToA
WotG/ToA jobs get no AF+1, just Limbus accessories and other sea accesories.
WotG/ToA jobs don't have Relic armor.
PUP, COR and BLU do have Relic weapons, but we have no idea what to do with them yet.
SCH and DNC get nothing from Salvage.
Only BLU, PUP and COR have incentive to camp HNM, and not very compelling ones.

I gripe about this only because you can't expect everyone to have a dozen jobs at 75. Two or three jobs at 75 is pretty common now, anything beyond that is going into extreme cases. I'm sitting at three with #s 4, 5 and 6 soon to follow. I think I'm going to stop there, I don't know if I can stomach a seventh.

Anyway, there will be newer players wanting to do this old content and they may end up favoring ToA/WotG jobs. There should be something there for them in this content.

People can spout off about how people should be compelled to camp these things out of being "part of the team," but lets just call bullshit on that - those people are addicts and I'm blowing three hours of valuble time camping something we might not claim on or even get a drop from (hi2u Defending Ring). There should be more incentives for more jobs from these ventures to keep it interesting for everyone.

Finally - and this is just because it really annoys me for some reason - those fucking /BRD and Barspell bots in campaign. Seriously, nerf the recast on BRD and WHM self buffs when Allied tags are applied or make it so you can only get so much EXP from Campaign. No one should be able to level up thier character by singing and not doing shit on the battlefield nor sould anyone get credit for these buffs unless they're hitting other active players. I've already made it a point to introduce Muu Buxu the Elusive to these guys a few times.

Kinda agree on LS; but I'd say the biggest problem is that all the LS system really does is give people a way to talk to each other.

There's no real way for players to contribute to the LS, or benefit from being in one (other than the obvious social reasons). SE also should realize that people really want some way to hang out with their LS; like an LS house (which can provide other functions, like storage)



Really, though, I think most of the problems in FFXI can be summed up by either SE being afraid to take big steps, SE's failure to listen to the playerbase, or some combination of the two. I mean, how long have people been asking for a Golden Saucer type place? Or private airships/ferries?

There's no real way for players to contribute to the LS, or benefit from being in one (other than the obvious social reasons). SE also should realize that people really want some way to hang out with their LS; like an LS house (which can provide other functions, like storage)


I really like that idea, particularly the storage. The ability to visit a friends Mog House was fun for about 3 minutes, but I think if my LS had a clan hall or something along those lines (with access to your mogsafe/storage as in a standard mog house) we'd probably all spend our time in there chilling and make it even more of a "community" thing. All we'd need past that is some cool posters and lava lamps and we'd be set. ^^

Even cooler, an ability to bank gear would be cool. While I have yet to make it to 75 with my first job, I've played them all to the point where I have gear on mules all over the place that is just sitting there 99% of the time. If I could, say "rent" it out somehow for a set period of time to other LS peeps I'd be all over it (I use "rent" loosely, I'm not trying to make money off of it, but I can see how that would be an option some would want). My main concern with that is there would have to be some system to track that other than the honor system (maybe claim slips that get delivered to me when it's checked out, and such gear is treated as rare/ex when it's being borrowed so someone can't sell it or give it to a third party)...I've lent out lots of gear over time and lost some just because I can't remember who the hell I'd lent it to, people quit the game, etc. My fault entirely (if I'm willing to lend it out it's my problem getting it back), but if my LS could borrow gear from me and I had a gaurantee it wasn't going to vanish, I'd do it in a second.

An old gripe of mine, one of pure laziness, is the lack of the ability to send as well as receive from the moghouse. I really dont see why I still have to run across town to the A.H. so I can send myself my gear. If S-E is worried about it being exploited by RMT or something, then they could restrict it to characters on the same account (via a handy list like when selecting where to exit your Mog House).

An old gripe of mine, one of pure laziness, is the lack of the ability to send as well as receive from the moghouse. I really dont see why I still have to run across town to the A.H. so I can send myself my gear. If S-E is worried about it being exploited by RMT or something, then they could restrict it to characters on the same account (via a handy list like when selecting where to exit your Mog House).

Agree completely, I have so many crafting materials on my mules that this is such a pain to go back and forth sending and receiving.

Make things more like, in game for the social structure.

To the LS house, yeah I see that as a nice add on, even with like a roof and officers room.

LS bank. Honestly, how much drama has there been with stolen funds? Really?
A bank npc that everyone can see who did what, where, when, how much.
TBH, really something along the lines of WoW's guild system.

More mog house space. Storage caps at 80, yeah... and I can still pack more cause of all the furnishings I got on Aka. More Gobbie bags... again. Already getting tight with the ones we gotten since Wings came out. Another mog house expansion please. The moogle hasn't done that I need gifts in soo long ; ;

More Mannequins, you know, to dress up with gear we don't want to be rid off, but still know we have it. And don't have to have a set to store it.

Be a bit random, but expand on some more of the background of some usually overlooked areas. Reading material please!

Add like in-game bulletin boards for like events and stuff. A design similar to RSS/pop3 mail clients, or what you might expect from .HACK

Even a new set of GMs, that like patrol areas of high drama in units of 4 and everyone can see them o_O;

SE's failure to listen to the playerbase
This is a good thing.

Even a new set of GMs, that like patrol areas of high drama in units of 4 and everyone can see them o_O;
Weren't they supposed to make themselves visible more often?

Utterly against the idea of "LS storage".

LS items are always potential sources of endless drama; no gear of any sort should ever belong to the LS. You have the points to lot Kirin's Osode? And wins? Yours to keep or sell, or do whatever you like. Novio isn't "too valuable"; have a minimum threshold so only the most dedicated and available BLMs have a chance at lotting--and the winner get a full point wipe.

I'd grudgingly say "Yes" to LS bank, since it lets members monitor the amount of money coming in and going out, and it's too much of a pain to make leaders distribute Gil after items sold every week.

* * *

What kind of "guild support" other than "guild storage" and "meeting place" do people want from S-E? I've never played another MMO, so is rather fuzzy on the concept. All I can think of is it'd be nice to have a usable "Linkshell Community" site instead of the slow, feature poor, badly designed one we have now. Even then, a phpBB forum would likely still give a LS better control over data retention, access policy, customizations, etc.

* * *

Dynamis loot disappears upon exit. Why?! Loosing a relic armor because AFK people who fell asleep or whatever is just stupid. -_-#

Just because it'd be a pain to program a correct solution, doesn't mean it can be ignored for years and years and years...

This thread makes sense. You got Thanked for basically this bulk part of the OP:

Another issue is that SE doesn't really update the older content that much. OK, so we can farm diorites from Aura Statues near the Nexus, there's a rage timer and NMs can build resistances over time. Still, this doesn't prevent us from using the same tactics over and over again.

SE said it themselves several times - they'd like to encourage different party setups and strategies. This works for the "small party" concept they have, but not terribly much for meritpo or endgame. Things need to be shaken up a little here.

Since the kings are now such familiar territory and have become such simple fights, I think its time they get a bit tougher with a bit more variety in thier tactics or even tactics that might vary by thier appearance.

As someone who favors the newer jobs in the game, another that stands out to me is the failure to really include the ToA/WotG jobs in the reward scheme in RoZ/CoP endgame content. Really, CoP busts your balls, I want a little more to choose from than some earrings and neck pieces. BLU got BOTH sea sets and PUP and COR got jackshit. Its clear BLU was way ahead on the drawing board than the other two.

All the same, all ToA and WotG jobs should get a shot at AF+1 sets, too. Same goes for relics, which I'm a little more understanding about SE holding back on. Given how contemporary ToA/WotG AF is in contrast to RoZ AF, it probably is somewhat difficult to reinvent these sets, and I'll also concede that Relic for WotG jobs is probably premature since other endgame sets aren't really there outside of the standard crafted and Assault gear choices

But lets look at the facts:

PUP, DNC and SCH get no abjuration gear - COR and BLU had it from day one on ToA
WotG/ToA jobs get no AF+1, just Limbus accessories and other sea accesories.
WotG/ToA jobs don't have Relic armor.
PUP, COR and BLU do have Relic weapons, but we have no idea what to do with them yet.
SCH and DNC get nothing from Salvage.
Only BLU, PUP and COR have incentive to camp HNM, and not very compelling ones.

I gripe about this only because you can't expect everyone to have a dozen jobs at 75. Two or three jobs at 75 is pretty common now, anything beyond that is going into extreme cases. I'm sitting at three with #s 4, 5 and 6 soon to follow. I think I'm going to stop there, I don't know if I can stomach a seventh.

Anyway, there will be newer players wanting to do this old content and they may end up favoring ToA/WotG jobs. There should be something there for them in this content.

People can spout off about how people should be compelled to camp these things out of being "part of the team," but lets just call bullshit on that - those people are addicts and I'm blowing three hours of valuble time camping something we might not claim on or even get a drop from (hi2u Defending Ring). There should be more incentives for more jobs from these ventures to keep it interesting for everyone.

My sentiments exactly. Although . . .

meaning RDM Melee/SMN/

I really love how you specify "RDM Melee," and then just plainly "SMN" in your list of issues talked about "far too often." Really says something, doesn't it?

But, I digress. Back on topic . . .

Um, what do I feel is important that I haven't complained about recently? Oh, yeah, magic jobs.

You know the ratio of jobs that use MP to those that don't? Keep in mind this also includes Paladin and Dark Knight in the MP group: 8:12. Look, I'm a Tarutaru, and I consider MP a very important thing to have. So why, then, do I have less than half of the jobs in the game to work with? White Mage, Black Mage, Red Mage, Paladin, Dark Knight, Summoner, Blue Mage, and Scholar. Counting Summoner as part of RoZ, that's only one token MP job per expansion containing new jobs. Looking at expansions alone, that's Samurai, Ninja, Dragoon, Corsair, Puppetmaster (which, by looking at their gearsets, I suspect was actually intended to be an MP using job . . . why couldn't they have just made the puppets magically controlled instead of "wirelessly?" Afraid of another Summoner?), and Dancer. That number alone equals the total number of Mages there are, excluding PLD and DRK.

The one also sort of ties in with jobs: what's the big deal on the lack of hybrid gear S-E? Oh, and the TOTAL ABSENCE of hybrid foods (Ambrosia obviously doesn't count: it's an uber-food). Hybrid jobs can't work if you don't give them hybrid gear. To get any more specific than that, though, might anger the OP. Let's just end at I share his anger in BLU getting both Homam AND Nashira (or, rather, BLU in general, but no more specifics, as I said).

Elemental Staves being listed as "All jobs," as opposed to "MNK/WHM/BLM/SMN/SCH." And, for that matter, their very presence in end-game indicates that resistance rates are either far too high, or far too low, depending on the situation.

And, that's all for now. Probably crossed a line I shouldn't have, but that's for the OP to bite my head off and Straw Man me over. :P
______________________________
This is a good thing.

Really, it all depends. If S-E had a way of differentiating signal to noise, this is a potentially bad thing.

Although it's not necessarily new or even possible:

Rare/Ex only storage.

(After "new" storage update quest)
Moogle >> Master! I've just returned from the moogle's hometown, and I brought you a present! Here's your new "Super Safe!"
Moogle >> This Safe can only be used to store items that are yours alone, Kupo! I hope you enjoy it!

You now have access to 200 empty storage slots for r/x items.



<Yes, please.>


:)

They could track "DKP" within the game, like merit points. There would have to be a lot of reworking and restructuring of the claim system, but you could potentially bid on everything that has dropped from the HNMs that you or your linkshell has killed in some central office. I think it would require allegiance to some other faction whose existence isn't threatened by drama.

Rare/Ex only storage.
PLEASE

Another thing:

Who had the BRIGHT idea to make it so when you equipt items they are STILL TAKING UP INVENTORY SPACE are you serious? God its SOOOOOO annoying

This is a good thing.

Sometimes, but not all the time.


LS items are always potential sources of endless drama; no gear of any sort should ever belong to the LS.

Not really. Look at EVE online, as an example-- they have corporation storage systems, but the access can be restricted and controlled very much so. For example, I joined a corporation at one point that had a fairly large stockpile of weapons and ship modules-- I was able to see what was contained inside storage, and I was able to put my own items in (so that others could use them; such as for crafting), but I wasn't able to take anything out. If I wanted to do that, I had to ask someone who did have permissions.

It sounds like a good opportunity for drama, but really it's not. Of course, EVE online approves of things like scamming (as long as you're not taking advantage of the game to do it) and stealing, but there's no reason such a system would lead to huge problems in FFXI as long as it's implemented correctly, and people aren't idiots about it.


What kind of "guild support" other than "guild storage" and "meeting place" do people want from S-E?

Well, I haven't seen anyone actually asking for it, but there are ways to get people more involved in guilds and such. One thing which is a common theme is having to have many players contribute money/EXP to a group 'fund' of some kind, and the guild benefitting when they reach a goal. For example, in some MMOs I've played, your guild 'levels up' with your characters, and you have to have your guild at a certain level to have more than x amount of players, and so on. This probably wouldn't be the greatest for FFXI, since you can belong to multiple groups, and can switch between them at the drop of a hat, but similar systems could be done.

For example, give people who are in the same LS some kind of benefit while in a party; for example, if I'm a PLD, my LS mates would have a small enmity- bonus. If I were a WHM, I might have a small % healing bonus on LS mates. This could be made to start out at nothing or extremely little, and grow to a slight but noticeable benefit; to keep people from just buying an LS and equipping it before any random event. Your linkpearl/sack/shell could earn EXP *coughmateriacough* to enhance this effect, so that your efficiency with your LS mates grows as your bonds (in principle, at least) do.

Of course, that's just one of many roads SE could take with it. They could also have a gil fund that buys a bigger LS house when it fills up (that way your mog house could just become a bedroom inside your LS house, which is shared for other things), or something I couldn't imagine. There's a lot of possibilities for it.
______________________________

Just because it'd be a pain to program a correct solution,

Actually, would it? Would it be that hard to just despawn all the dynamis mobs 5-10 minutes (however long things sit in the loot window) and deactivate the ???s before kicking people out?

As I recall, dynamis mobs despawn or stop fighting about 30-60 seconds before time is up anyway, it wouldn't be TOO big of a change.

No matter how much SE could expand storage, there are always going to be players who can't handle the space they have. I'm a RNG and a COR - just how much excess do you think I have laying around in that MH?

A lot.

But then, I've also become accustomed to managing the space I have wisely. I don't level excess jobs with gear that doesn't meet the needs of my current one - with very few exceptions.

I'll use Foobar as an example - the jobs are RDM, SCH and BST.

All accessories from RDM and SCH pretty much overlap, leaving me with only body armor to change out. BST isn't compatible so much, its completely different armor, but since SCH and RDM aren't too different in terms of needs - similar to my gear needs on RNG and COR - I end up not using so much space.

For Kitten, what worked for RNG and COR, about half of that works for DNC and BLU, so with just a few subtle differences in needs, I may choose to level those as well. DNC really just gives me an excuse to round out my direct melee gear for COR, anyway, whereas my focus has almost exclusively been on ranged accuracy and attack.

Anyway, that's just how I approach the game. The downside to my approach is while having two characters that I focus so specifically, I have to repeat a lot of content, but then, I take this negative and turn it in a positive direction for the benefit of my friends having somone on missions that has been there before and also isn't wasting a space in PT.

I really love how you specify "RDM Melee," and then just plainly "SMN" in your list of issues talked about "far too often." Really says something, doesn't it?

If I didn't state it from the start, we all know where this topic would have ended up - beating a dead horse. Those discussions are things I'm tired of hearing about and if we're going to complain about something, lets at least do it while getting some new perspective instead of griping about the same old shit.

We know the game design inevitably influences social behavior in this game. SE is limited in controlling how we react to things, but with the right design choices you can lessen the problem.

Personally, I liked what SE started with Assault and Campaign because it lets the system manage you being rewarded rather letting players manage it entirely.

Just as an example, I think we more or less know that when that ToA/WotG relic comes out that players that don't even play those jobs seriously will go after them just to have a shiny instead of letting it go to players that will benefit from it. Even with the point systems we have, there will be drama inevitably in some linkshell because greed got ahead of need.

"Need before greed" is a hard-sell to players in FFXI and, really, its the only MMORPG I've played where the concept wasn't welcome from level 10 on up. I think the multi-job structure we're allowed to persue and this game being more Japanese-centric has a fair bit to do with that.

Like in Everquest, it was always need before greed. Didn't matter if it could be sold or not, it went to the people that could equip it - only they were allowed to lot. It was a pretty amazing and mature honor system, but then this was a game played almost entirely by US and EU players.

Another difference - players always sought out and go thier own replacements. No fuss, we just did it, we recognized the wide timezone gap and respected the time of others. I guess you could partly attribute this to the "refresher" jobs being a bit more combat friendly and mobs weren't so rigidly designed that it got in the way of players' melee interests. I was an enchanter, which was considered rare there, but not so much that I couldn't find someone to replace me or that we didn't have enough jobs that could root or be a manabattery.

But here's the other dimension of that - EQ at that time wasn't a franchise. WoW and FFXI are franchised MMOs and that means one other distinct difference.

Non-franchised MMOs don't really attract many kids. You get adults. Sure, they're not all perfectly functional human beings, but they're also much less self-absorbed. If I could find a linkshell that said "ages 21-35 or turned away" I'd join it in a heartbeat because I'd be more likely to find people I'm looking for.

I knew a guy who led one of WoWs biggest east coast guilds, he had a strict "21 and up" policy, if he found out you lied about your age, he kicked you without question. He told me that prior to WoW, affirming my EQ experience, there was much less drama in western MMOs and that he preferred things that way and preferred the company of adults, so he controlled the rules to prohibit kids. He only let kids in if they diplayed that "wise beyond thier years" quality and played like an adult. But mostly, he just turned them away.

Utterly against the idea of "LS storage".

LS items are always potential sources of endless drama; no gear of any sort should ever belong to the LS. You have the points to lot Kirin's Osode? And wins? Yours to keep or sell, or do whatever you like.

I agree here, if you win it, it's yours.

And I can see drama-potential with someone switching servers whilst wearing a piece of the 'linkshell's' armor.

But having storage for the LS for less drama-inducing things would be good. My kinship on LotRO uses the storage chests in the Kinship House (btw, Linkshell house would be an awesome idea for XI) to put in things we don't personally need, but others in the kin might. They're essentially free-for-all. Legendary trait books/pages. Crit items for crafting. Gear/drops/etc. Even some things that could be pawned off for 20+ Gold get stuck in there. We're a very help-oriented group. And we've not had any problems or backlash yet. But that's because there is no way to 'lend' gear on LotR, either. It's either BoA or BoE.

It'd be nice to be able to have a LS storage for people to put in crafting items or something perhaps. But probably not such a good idea for expensive-ass pieces of gear. Because of the fact that it isn't bound on XI, save for rare/ex things...

I love the idea of being able to send things from your MH, for lazyness reasons. I really begrudge my muling time.


Linkshells:

So glad people mentioned this because it needs such an overhaul. More facilities, more features, more security. Even just the ability to administrate offline members would be a nice start.

I love the idea of having a group area, a bank system and a group armor and item store. Obviously the armour would have to be non rare/ex only and regulated. Make any donated armour non sellable/droppable/auctionable/tradable and make sure that the person who donated the armor can retrieve it at any time and get it back automatically if the ls dissolves or someone tries to server hop etc. I don't think anyone was suggesting a sort of group lotting of a drop.

If you are going to give real facilities though there need to be restrictions on pearl trading. At the moment if one of the sacs goes mad and invites hundreds of random people you can break the shell, spend 7k for a new one and it's no huge deal. If you have real features and shared facilities restarting would be more of a problem.


My next two are both from a practical side of things. Considering what Omg just said I don't think everyone will agree but honestly, the game has been going for a long time now, there are a lot of people with multi level 75 jobs, why not just go with it and make using multiple level 75 jobs less of a pain in the ass. You are not going to change people wanting more than one job at high level particularly given how endgame seems to work and how people go about CoP, merits etc.


Storage:

It would be nice if more armor was storable with NPCs or perhaps packagable in the same way that arrows are quiverable (turn a whole set of armor into a single slot package). Muling for half an hour to change your jobs over is not fun and not everyone wants to level the jobs that require the most compatible gear to whatever they consider their main. Anything that cuts down on muling time can only be a good thing.


Merits:

Someone is going to accuse me of dumbing down but meh. Leave job specific merits exactly as they are but make the non job specific merits internally swappable within each catagory (obviously limiting it so a whm couldn't have sword merits or something daft like that), possibly for a fee or with a mini quest or something. Something like this would let rdms that tank once in a while to swap over enmity merits for a fight and definitely helps people with either multiple mages or multiple DDs at 75 who are very cramped in the skill merits (I'm only on my second job and already getting a bit cramped magic skill wise). It's not like capping out your non job specific merits isn't many hours of work.

The Crafting system is a whole lot better than guildwars! No matter what people say there are no craft points no special sub titles for crafting.

As Far as EvE is concerned, there is alot more for lower lvl players to do In EvE. I bought the 2007 expansion and I don't think I have even touhced them yet. Still trying to lvl up to where I can hang out with the vets but it looks like its going to be a while. I haven't played enough except to just lvl.

I like Tabula Rasa's Monster attack on the city walls and everyone in the city runs out to fend the monsters off or you loose control of the city till a group comes to take it back. thats fun! alas I only played tabula rasa for a couple months. it totally lacked content. The idea was awesome for a short time. Now im here taking a break from EVE.

I know I can't be the only person who would prefer to see a guild system like it was shown in .hack//roots? A decent, multi-level room which can be furnished to great customizable details, ultimately depending on just how "rich" the guild is.

I think the idea mentioned earlier that after the shell gets to a certain size, MH's are more extensions to the shell's main gathering area. If something like this were actually put in, a linkshell bank would be easy to put in, comparatively.

Now, granted The World (R:2 in this case) is probably expanded and each guild has it's own building separate of each other, which would provide some of a problem in Vana'diel (perhaps, you could add another option when exiting to a specific area from your MH, which would send you to the gathering area of the shell that is currently equipped, and could only exit back into your room, much like the Chocobo Circuit works), but it's something that would be very nice to see.

One problem I have is actually a long-standing, but now quieter criticism of the game.

Lack of real guild structure.

SE decided that it would be best to let the players regulate thier linkshells as they saw fit. Which is to say, SE trusted players too much. I think each time a developer makes thier first online game, they imagine us to be perfect little angels. Well, we're not, and the complete absense of an established guild structure makes things a lot more political than they have to be. That's not to say an established system couldn't be abused - it totally can - but if things like point systems were done in-game instead of externally, there's a lot less room for abuse. Bad/corrupt leaders would be spotted easier.

IIRC, SE has stated that they didn't expect linkshells to turn into a guild system at all. They honestly expected them to just be used as a disposable communications device instead of the centerpiece of any sort of long-term social structures. Which says to me that they did worse than just think we'd be angels -- human nature never crossed their minds at all.

I think there's room for both casual systems like the linkshell (which could stand some polishing to reflect the long-term aspect) and more rigid structures like you propose. A linkshell-like system would be helpful because you can just pick it up and go, while a guild-like system would have more benefits at the cost of all kinds of annoying bureaucratic hoops. For endgame purposes and other Serious Business, the latter would likely be worth it, but why force that onto the average casual shell?

Another issue is that SE doesn't really update the older content that much. OK, so we can farm diorites from Aura Statues near the Nexus, there's a rage timer and NMs can build resistances over time. Still, this doesn't prevent us from using the same tactics over and over again.

SE said it themselves several times - they'd like to encourage different party setups and strategies. This works for the "small party" concept they have, but not terribly much for meritpo or endgame. Things need to be shaken up a little here.

Since the kings are now such familiar territory and have become such simple fights, I think its time they get a bit tougher with a bit more variety in thier tactics or even tactics that might vary by thier appearance.

Are you sure they meant that with respect to endgame content? I thought they were only talking about XP -- giving the grind more variety to make it less of, well, a grind. However, that's not likely to happen until they get a better understanding of how to balance risk/reward and effort/reward.

As someone who favors the newer jobs in the game, another that stands out to me is the failure to really include the ToA/WotG jobs in the reward scheme in RoZ/CoP endgame content. Really, CoP busts your balls, I want a little more to choose from than some earrings and neck pieces. BLU got BOTH sea sets and PUP and COR got jackshit. Its clear BLU was way ahead on the drawing board than the other two.

All the same, all ToA and WotG jobs should get a shot at AF+1 sets, too. Same goes for relics, which I'm a little more understanding about SE holding back on. Given how contemporary ToA/WotG AF is in contrast to RoZ AF, it probably is somewhat difficult to reinvent these sets, and I'll also concede that Relic for WotG jobs is probably premature since other endgame sets aren't really there outside of the standard crafted and Assault gear choices

But lets look at the facts:

PUP, DNC and SCH get no abjuration gear - COR and BLU had it from day one on ToA
WotG/ToA jobs get no AF+1, just Limbus accessories and other sea accesories.
WotG/ToA jobs don't have Relic armor.
PUP, COR and BLU do have Relic weapons, but we have no idea what to do with them yet.
SCH and DNC get nothing from Salvage.
Only BLU, PUP and COR have incentive to camp HNM, and not very compelling ones.

I gripe about this only because you can't expect everyone to have a dozen jobs at 75. Two or three jobs at 75 is pretty common now, anything beyond that is going into extreme cases. I'm sitting at three with #s 4, 5 and 6 soon to follow. I think I'm going to stop there, I don't know if I can stomach a seventh.

Anyway, there will be newer players wanting to do this old content and they may end up favoring ToA/WotG jobs. There should be something there for them in this content.

Cutting out your attack on endgame players, I can see your point, particularly with AF+1 (which are, as the name implies, direct upgrades) and Salvage gear (which cover broad categories of jobs and used to cover every job in the game between them). Relic armor does, indeed, seem trickier to do, particularly finding a method of delivery for the ToAU ones since they've painted themselves into a corner that way storywise; Limbus had odd jobs out anyway (and probably could stand some attention in general due to this); and as for the rest, I can't say I have any insights.

Finally - and this is just because it really annoys me for some reason - those fucking /BRD and Barspell bots in campaign. Seriously, nerf the recast on BRD and WHM self buffs when Allied tags are applied or make it so you can only get so much EXP from Campaign. No one should be able to level up thier character by singing and not doing shit on the battlefield nor sould anyone get credit for these buffs unless they're hitting other active players. I've already made it a point to introduce Muu Buxu the Elusive to these guys a few times.

The trouble with doing that for BRD is that, as you should know, BRD buffs are almost exclusively self-targetted. The nerf you suggest would screw them over in normal, legitimate combat in Campaign. I can see making sure that you don't get credit for AoE buffs that only hit yourself, though.

And, er, there already are caps on the XP you can get from Campaign.


On the subject of storage, my own thought is this: If they want to give us more Mog House space but can't because of PS2 limitations as they say, there's an indirect way they could do it: make a seperate, home-MH-only storage space that can hold only furniiture, and allows us to deploy it in our house with the same benefits as if it were deployed from our safe. That not only frees up space in our Mog Safe, but it encourages players to make use of the Storage function (and to get "fun" furniture).

Beyond that, why is all non-event armor storage by set? For the rare/ex pieces especially, this is awkward and frustrating. Thus, I'd love to see individual rare/ex storage too -- though unlike Dranzia, I've noticed that their hard limit for a displayable storage area is 80 (not that 80 rare/ex-only slots wouldn't be awesome, mind you). For that matter, I'd love to have storage just for elemental staves; they get in the way on low jobs and non-mage jobs.

The one also sort of ties in with jobs: what's the big deal on the lack of hybrid gear S-E? Oh, and the TOTAL ABSENCE of hybrid foods (Ambrosia obviously doesn't count: it's an uber-food). Hybrid jobs can't work if you don't give them hybrid gear.

Total agreement here, especially on the foods. Just what is a BLU supposed to eat besides souls anyway? Some sweet 'n sour dhalmel for Attack plus MP would be nice. They may be starting to realize the problem, though, given the recent release of Rabbit Pie.

Another food issue that comes to mind is the lack of variety in mage foods. You have INT, you have MND, you have MP, and you have hMP. Where's the elemental MAB food? Or the MAcc food? Or heck, the hybrid MDB/Def and MDB/Eva food for tanking spell-happy mobs, or at least the elemental resist food?

Speaking of Eva, we could stand to have more Eva food too. Like, something significant that's actually stackable. -- Pteryx

SE has stated that they didn't expect linkshells to turn into a guild system at all. They honestly expected them to just be used as a disposable communications device instead of the centerpiece of any sort of long-term social structures.

please. please, no, not even SE can't be that stupid.


They simply cannot have meant for it to be like that. Right? Right?

please. please, no, not even SE can't be that stupid.


They simply cannot have meant for it to be like that. Right? Right?
It would be a far better game environment if they had been right.

Yeah, no, sorry, FFXI sucks without social groups.

I spent probably half my time in FFXI wandering around without an LS; even being in one full of annoying twits is better than not having one sometimes.

I go back and forth. I joined an LS recently to keep from being lonely, but my god are they a bunch of mouth breathers.

I breathe through my mouth :(

It is big and can intake enough oxygen to keep my giant brain going :(

I am making my not surprised face right now.

well, yeah. I mean, my head is the size of a watermelon. There has to be something taking up all that space.

Yeah, no, sorry, FFXI sucks without social groups.

I spent probably half my time in FFXI wandering around without an LS; even being in one full of annoying twits is better than not having one sometimes.

Isn't that the truth? The silence becomes rather boring after a while, and you'd welcome even the idiot in the shell always announcing whenever he's drunk/stoned/horny.

...of course, you'd not be missing him long. Soon you'd wish you could MPK his ass. But at least it isn't silent anymore. And then you get pissed and toss the shell and start the cycle all over again. I lost count of how many linkshells I went through trying to find a mature one. Like BBQ said, if I could've found one where the rules were 21+ or turned away, I'd have joined it right off.

Isn't that the truth? The silence becomes rather boring after a while, and you'd welcome even the idiot in the shell always announcing whenever he's drunk/stoned/horny.

...of course, you'd not be missing him long. Soon you'd wish you could MPK his ass. But at least it isn't silent anymore. And then you get pissed and toss the shell and start the cycle all over again. I lost count of how many linkshells I went through trying to find a mature one.

It's like you're in my head.

I like the idea for a "LS community hall" a gathering area where you can jut chill. Possibly include some reps from craftin guilds so you you can craft in the hall and make it a more guild type feel.

Of course LS's are used solely to keep in touch over distances as per the manual so you never know.

I personally would like to see a over haul on PVP. I would love for them to offer up some type of reward system other than braging rights. Some non rare/ex items, maybe gil. Personally I love PVP and many other I know do as well. (We acctually have a PVP shell which runs a 10K/person tournament on weekends which is kind of fun. But I would much rather it being open on a large scale, and possibly a Cross server tourney once a month for some big prizes.

It's like you're in my head.


Except the 21+ part, pretty much. Measuring maturity in years doesn't work. Measuring it by kicking idiots out on their asses is rather effective.

Agreed. You'll notice I didn't quote that part.

Some non rare/ex items, maybe gil. Personally I love PVP and many other I know do as well.

Turbine did this to the Ettenmoors on LotRO.

It made all the Creeps cry.

Hell, it made all the (older) Freeps cry.

Both sides, many tears. So many loser ass respawn campers and burglar-gankers too interested in teals and shiny shit. Grams campers... campers.. more campers. Everywhere. It took what was a rare problem and made it an aggressive cancer.

Playing with PvP is like playing with fire. It could sound good on paper and backfire horribly. They'd have to be careful with that.

*looking for a flashlight to get out of Murphie's head* ...it's dark and scary in here.

Hey! It is awesome in there.

Agreed.

You're in an awfully unmurphic mood today.

The trouble with doing that for BRD is that, as you should know, BRD buffs are almost exclusively self-targetted. The nerf you suggest would screw them over in normal, legitimate combat in Campaign. I can see making sure that you don't get credit for AoE buffs that only hit yourself, though.

That's more or less what I'm getting at, but even that could be exploited, just have people party up thier song bots. It should only count if the targets it hits are actually engaged in casting and melee and that those allies are touching enemy targets. How to implement that is a grey area, but how its allowed to get by right now it unacceptable to me.

And, er, there already are caps on the XP you can get from Campaign.

Only in the sense that there are caps for specific types of actions. I somewhat knew we were in for these caps being exploited for Max EXP when the details were posted on BG and made thier way to other forums.

At any rate, it needs to be fixed to reward activity and risk, not spamming a buff on yourself. Until then, these people are NM AoE target fodder to me.

Playing with PvP is like playing with fire. It could sound good on paper and backfire horribly. They'd have to be careful with that.

A duel system would easily solve the problem of people going too nuts. Perhaps one that comes with it's own chat filter and an option in the menu that allows players to flag for pvp. I personally like pvp, but the available pvp mediums in this game suck. I don't want an elaborate distraction getting in the way of me stabbing people, and I don't want a scheduled and regulated timetable for it either. Also, before anyone brings up the possibility of some annoying kid spamming with tells because random player #42 doesn't want to fight, we have a blacklist function built into the game already. :thumbsup:

Finally - and this is just because it really annoys me for some reason - those fucking /BRD and Barspell bots in campaign.

I don't see how this is such a horrible thing, those bots might be saving people from getting a really bad party member.

I don't see how this is such a horrible thing, those bots might be saving people from getting a really bad party member.

Themselves?

Themselves?

Italic text?

Italic text?

Why not?

Why not?

There's a hammer in the cake.

the cake.

It's a lie!

A dueling system would be so annoying.

The one also sort of ties in with jobs: what's the big deal on the lack of hybrid gear S-E? Oh, and the TOTAL ABSENCE of hybrid foods (Ambrosia obviously doesn't count: it's an uber-food). Hybrid jobs can't work if you don't give them hybrid gear. To get any more specific than that, though, might anger the OP. Let's just end at I share his anger in BLU getting both Homam AND Nashira (or, rather, BLU in general, but no more specifics, as I said).

This was a particular problem in World of Warcraft when it was first released. Classes that were listed as hybrids were usually only given gear for one specific function, which was generally healing. Blizzard changed this when they released armor sets for the different functions of a class. I am not sure how hard that would be for Square-Enix to implement into this game, it has been awhile since I have played.

Would that be too outlandish of a suggestion? Take a Red Mage for example. You could have a set that focuses on destructive/enfeebling spells, one on healing/defensive spells or one that works with the melee aspect of the class.

I may be taking this idea in the wrong direction, so forgive me if I missed the boat.

The problem with PVP in FFXI is that it doesn't make sense outside of things like Ballista.

For example, in WoW, you have two competing sides; the ugly ones and the really ugly ones. In EVE online, players are free to do whatever they like; including be evil, space pirate, scum. You have police in some areas, but generally it's like real life (INNNNNNNNNN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE) in that if someone wants to hurt you, they can do it in a very public way-- the police will show up to take care of them, but probably not before you're already significantly damaged or destroyed.

In FFXI, however, we're all heroes, out to save the world from whatever the Bad Guy Of This Expansion is, and quests are centered on doing good deeds. We don't have an enemy with playable characters, and we aren't allowed to go around doing evil. Heck, even minor evil things (theft) aren't allowed in FFXI. Why should killing someone be allowed? Consensual PVP (like 'duels') also doesn't really make sense, as A- the characters would be better off fighting against an enemy instead if it's for 'training', and B- slicing your buddy in the face outside of a controlled environment doesn't really make sense for entertainment. There are also plenty of other ways to compete with people; plain old combat (while possibly pleasing to some players) doesn't really make much sense in terms of Vana'diel entertainment.

I thought there was a cap on self buffs in campaign? BG listed it as 150 a while back.

My personal gripe these days? Crafting and H.E.L.M.

Waaay before inflation and RMT became a huge problem, I absolutely loved mining and logging to fuel my smithing, gold smithing and woodworking. I would go on crafting binges, doing nothing but mine/log and craft. It was fun back then, because it wasn't a complete bitch to get any decent materials like it is now and things like Arrowwood Lumber were actually a good profit.

These days you are screwed if you don't have a lv 100 craft (other than cooking) and ever since SE implemented that damned H.E.L.M nerf years ago gathering materials has become a total chore rather than a fun, profitable side activity. My best run in Zeruhn Mines ever was 4 darksteel ores in one hour. I haven't seen a single ore in that zone since. And then there was the string of fishing nerfs...


So I propose SE undo some of these nerfs. RMT have become much less of a threat now and SE pretty well has them underwraps for the most part (save for a few groups on each server we all know and wonder why SE does nothing against them) so how about some changes?

I've proposed some ideas before, like making fixed mining points that everyone can use rather than the current (retarded) system of random points. Inclusion of mining, logging, harvesting and excavating skills in the craft menu would be great too. They'd of course be the same as fishing in that they don't count towards your cap post 60 (either that, or they compete with fishing)

This would help balance out returning the rates of materials to how they were before; the higher your skill, the more likely you are to find the good stuff and the less fatigued you become after repetitive mining. Maybe they could but in a cap too the same way they did with fishing? i.e. you can only gather so many ores/logs/bones/etc in a day depending on your skill level.


Oh yeah and isn't it about time they revisited the guilds and various shops in the game? Why are the NPC prices of some items still so obscenely high? How about more guild quests too, and not just the stupid contract system they put in to earn guild points. Actual freaking quests that the guild will ask of you from time to time. Maybe a way to earn discount prices in the guild depending on your rank/fame or something?

At this point I just feel that there's a real need to address the ways we make money in this game and how lame a number of the game's extra activities are.

That is actually one of the reasons I enjoy Final Fantasy XI so much, there is not this nagging worry in the back of my mind that the person standing next to me might come over and try to stab me.

The 'player-versus-player' aspect of World of Warcraft suits the game, like Feba stated. You have two opposing factions that have a common goal, but also are at war.

Final Fantasy is based on heroes and their great deeds. Killing a fellow comrade does not seem like something Cloud or Squall would have done, unless that comrade had turned on them. Duels and PvP are not part of the game's lore, and would be very out of place if implemented.

I am not an extremely competitive person, so that whole idea turns me off to many other video games. There, that is my bias.

Final Fantasy is based on heroes and their great deeds. Killing a fellow comrade does not seem like something Cloud or Squall would have done, unless that comrade had turned on them. Duels and PvP are not part of the game's lore, and would be very out of place if implemented.

Eh not really. Let's not forget that prior to the crystal war there 3 nations were all at war with each other for centuries (well, Bastok is the youngest of the 3 so maybe not that long for them) and there's still tensions between them in the present.

PvP isn't entirely out of place, which is why I like the concept of sparring in sporting events such as Ballista as opposed to straight up "I'm going to kill you because I hate you" theme in WoW (which as stated above, suits that game perfectly.)

It would be nice if we got some more PvP events that were fun and stick to game's theme. i.e., fighting each other to improve our skills, not to kill one another as in WoW. PvP and working together are not mutually exclusive.

Let's not forget that prior to the crystal war there 3 nations were all at war with each other for centuries (well, Bastok is the youngest of the 3 so maybe not that long for them) and there's still tensions
Let's not, then!

What, exactly, do you think would happen if someone from one nation attacked someone from another nation? It would likely ruin the peace betwen them, and possibly bring war again.

That would be a bad thing.

Also, something about us being "adventurers" strikes me as us not having any clear allegiance to a nation, as opposed to say, the Star Sybil or any of the other major players in the story. Being adventurers, I see us more as a "I'll help you guys out because I want to, not because I need to" attitude, and the story we go through is an extension of that. Even Ballista and Brenner are a little bit of an offshoot of that: tensions between nations were rising, and so to keep a competitive attitude between them without launching an all out war, each nation tries to recruit the best adventurers possible to compete with one another.

Although, I could certainly see a duel system put into place, it would be interesting to see how it could be played out in the storyline. Perhaps that, while as I said before we have no true allegiance to any nation, we don't necessarily have an allegiance to each other either, which certainly wouldn't be too far off from the way it would be played out by the community.

Also, something about us being "adventurers" strikes me as us not having any clear allegiance to a nation, as opposed to say, the Star Sybil or any of the other major players in the story. Being adventurers, I see us more as a "I'll help you guys out because I want to, not because I need to" attitude, and the story we go through is an extension of that. Even Ballista and Brenner are a little bit of an offshoot of that: tensions between nations were rising, and so to keep a competitive attitude between them without launching an all out war, each nation tries to recruit the best adventurers possible to compete with one another.

Although, I could certainly see a duel system put into place, it would be interesting to see how it could be played out in the storyline. Perhaps that, while as I said before we have no true allegiance to any nation, we don't necessarily have an allegiance to each other either, which certainly wouldn't be too far off from the way it would be played out by the community.

Well, you might have noticed that Campaign did sort of strengthen the feeling of Allegiance to your nation again.

I do would like to see some sort of Dueling system though. But only in special area's so it doesn't annoy people too much. We all like to show off our skills to eachother sometimes don't we? We'd have to keep in mind though that FFXI isn't exactly PVP-friendly when it comes to ability's and such. That's why, if I want to play PVP, i'd rather do it on WoW than on FFXI (if it were available.)

I do realize that the nations were at war, but they are not currently fighting amongst one another. The way the current storyline is setup, you would really need to alienate the three nations from one another to make any form of "player-versus-player" system integrate well. When watching the opening video for FFXI, I do not picture them all turning around and beating each other until the last man/woman is standing.

Of course I am bias when it comes to dueling, I was always a holy priest in WoW...everyone liked to chew me up and spit me out.

I've never been into PvP either. Personally, I think that if people in FFXI want PvP so badly and they knew coming into the game that there really is none, they shouldn't bitch.

they shouldn't bitch.

That's a really, really bad attitude on the subject. By that matter, SE should never add anything to FFXI, and the players shouldn't complain about it.

Everyone wants to see their favorite games improve and be even better. This is why players think of new features and things that they think would be neat; this is why players complain about problems-- it's not that they aren't happy with it as it is as much as they want it to be even better.

I'm just saying that this game wasn't designed around PvP and that it's never going to be centered around it the way some others are.

Of course I think people have the right to express what they dislike about the game, but making the game more PvP friendly (than it already is) would change it so dramatically that I, for one, would not want to play it anymore.

I like that PvP is its own minigame and that it's not a major part of the gameplay aspect. I would not be happy if I had to fight other players in order to advance in this game. Surely, some people would like that, and to them, I would say that this is not the game for them.

I would not be happy if I had to fight other players in order to advance in this game.

...Nobody has even hinted at that.

Well if I'm not mistaken, Ballista was added later because people wanted some PvP aspect in the game, it was not originally intended, as far as I know.

So they came up with a PvP system that worked for the game, which, in a game that didn't intend to have the PvP aspect, is pretty significant, at least IMO.

I could be wrong and maybe it was intended all along, but regardless, I've always thought it was fine the way it is.

They could add a PvP aspect that had nothing to do with the leveling process.

They could add a PvP aspect that had nothing to do with the leveling process.

This.

I honestly don't think a dueling system would harm the game at all, especially if there was an option involved, hence the term Duel. Not "I'm going to kill you because I can lol, and there's nothing you can do!" Picture this: A message in yellow text pops up in the log telling you that player X challenges you to a duel. You open your menu and click the accept button, and then the fight starts. The flag for pvp could be similar to the sword used in campaigns, and if someone does not have theirs up then you can't even send them an invite to a duel.

So it's not like I'm suggesting pandemonium, I just want the opportunity to stab someone in the face when they're being a jackass. Or maybe duel a friend while waiting for a PT, mission group, etc. Also, as far as I am aware, whenever a character is reduced to 0 HP they're knocked unconscious and not actually a corpse.

Wall of text about H.E.L.M.

I couldn't agree more. In other MMOs I've played, my character is almost always a crafter of some sort that gathers materials H.E.L.M. style. If the system's done right, it's really fun but FFXI's gathering system is lame. Random points made me not want to bother in the first place, and the nerfs they made to the system later on made me decide to sell off my H.E.L.M. gear for good, as it's mostly just a waste of time now.

I'd like to see H.E.L.M. activities made more similar to fishing. If there's a pool of water, you can fish in it. I should be able to chop down every tree I see as well, not have to tab around for a logging point.

So it's not like I'm suggesting pandemonium,

we have a server for that too.

we have a server for that too.

Alright you got me, I lol'd.

Just going to hit on a couple things here.

The alegiance nations hold are not really applicable to us as adventures, I am free to change my alegiance whenever I see fit in both conquest and campaign so essentally that shows how dedicated the players are to a nation. Hell I dont even need to further the story lines in these nations and be oblivious to all that is going on aound me if I wanted to.

I think SE could tie it into the story pretty easily. Especially now that we have the past, (apparently this is where balista came from but ive yet to see any playability in the past). Instead of solely focusing on Nation quests for the war they can tie in a quest that explains along the lines of.

Back in the times of war adventurers were sought out by the nations of the alliance because of their abilities. These adventures spent ages honing their abilities against one another in an ancient dueling ground. These adventures would duel until there was only one remaining and that one would be declared champion.

I don't know its kinda cheese dick story, but after finishig that quest you could go back in time and seek out the tournament grounds and register for battle (maybe even offer some type of item that will warp you to the grounds when your match is on.)

Id also like SE to delve further back in time to the age of wars, so if you go back that far you acctually have a tie to your nation. The campaign and conquest I could care less about, as long as the beastmen arent controlling anything I am happy. But if I was able to combat sandorians or windurstans Id love it.

Lets go pre crystal war so I can happily decapitate some Knights of Sandoria or Warlocks of Windurst.

Well, you might have noticed that Campaign did sort of strengthen the feeling of Allegiance to your nation again.

Campaign is also set in the past, not the present. During wartime (as it is the Crystal War) it's only natural to get a strong sense of nationalism. Often the bigger the war, the stronger it is -- look at WWI & II.

Personally, I liked the EQOA setup of dueling, much like dirtyclown described. Being able to duel != dueling. It must be accepted by both sides. Heck, you could even put in a betting system associated with it (a wager of sorts) like the current trading system.

Beyond that, I'm not much of a PvP person, but sometimes it's nice to be able to show someone just how strong you are... especially as a job that's looked down on like pup. And you can do it without having to reserve Ballista or Brenner fields.

yea LS Halls or LS Vs LS events would be savage craic but realistically where would you put em.Something to do with mogs neway.Banking with ls ppl soounds gr8 but only if you trust em when i was on wow i put 5/6k in to a guild not much i know but still.Guild went and i was out 5/6k.Renting gear to ppl ehh same as above i guess.How abot an RMT huunt event find an RMT or RMT ls report it engage in PVP when you win yee et the value of there items or 10k or a reward.

Wut?

lol I actively hunt RMT myself SSG is an awesome plce to go. You can pull that one Shagin NM thats beyond the gold door Bind him logout and come back in and fishing bots are dead.

Although I have been placed in GM jail several times because of this I have yet to be severly punishevia suspension or banning. I think it is because the understand the length of time it takes for them to hunt down RMT. I find em and kill em and when they get back they are at their HP so I kill several hours of RMT BS am I a hero. Id like to think so.

am I a hero. Id like to think so.

I'm sure you do.

More like someone pissing into a windstorm, but whatever helps you sleep at night.

That windstorm's going DOWN.

Just to emphasis the right thing to do with fish bots (or any detectable bots): Report them to S-E.

Go to FFXI's Service and Support (https://secure.playonline.com/supportus/index.html) website:
1. Scroll down to "E-mail Support"
2. Click on "You can send mail form inquiries from here".
3. Scroll down to "Report to Special Task Force".
4. Select report type: "Witnessed the use of third party software in-game".
5. Click "Open mail form".

Then, fill out the page.

Info you'll need to supply:
- Date.
- Time.
- World.
- Character name(s).
- Description of what the botter(s) were doing.

Personally, I liked the EQOA setup of dueling, much like dirtyclown described. Being able to duel != dueling. It must be accepted by both sides. Heck, you could even put in a betting system associated with it (a wager of sorts) like the current trading system.

EQOA had dueling added? Sounds like I got away from it at good time, well, it was already headed downhill as of the first expansion. Sony showed time and again they didn't really give a shit about that one, though to the games credit it was the PS2's first load-time free experience.

Nonetheless, the thing about the system you're talking about is that it encourages people to be pests. Its like that guy in Lower Jeuno still doing the casino scam, you're not forced to associate with him or gamble, but he's still a pest anyway and you eventually blacklist him or you don't.

So, your point? Annoying people are going to be annoying. You're going to blacklist them anyway; why take out (or not add in the first place) a feature which many say they would enjoy, for the sake of getting to blacklist them for something else?

I mean, playing a support class encourages people to harass you; that doesn't mean SE needs to take out BRD and COR. Having a rare piece of armor encourages people to harass you; that doesn't mean SE shouldn't have given us Relic Armor.

Personally, I don't think I'd be opposed to a dueling system, so much as concerned about how it could be implemented. About the only thing I can think of that would make sense would be like a Dojo setting. But for all the reasons to oppose adding a feature, "idiots will be idiots!" is about the poorest one you could ever come up with.

I think SE just jumped right through Pup, to be honest. Do you know they have the second highest throwing skill rating? (Along with a few other jobs) But if they were to throw something, they would have to take out the automotion oils/animator, which leaves pup pretty much useless. Not to mention the only thing they can throw is the three (lvl60?) throwing discs that do 1dmg via IS, the Mamoolbane, Trollbane, and the other one that escapes my mind at the momment.

Another issue about pup, if you rest, the puppet rests as well. Now how is that going to work when SE only gives pup mage gear, the crappy stuff only. Suggesting that pup /mage and does some back line stuff. It would take out the damage input/healing from the puppet totally, yea, you can rest inbetween fights. But with the... lets say, the whole +50 mp you get from mage gear wont last long.

Shrayn, I'm pretty sure every pet job is like that. IIRC, if you try to rest as a SMN, and your pet attacks, you get up. Might've changed, but being able to rest while your pet fights could be pretty broken in some ways; although not as broken as with SMN.

My advice? Cookies. +hMP is your best friend.

So, your point? Annoying people are going to be annoying. You're going to blacklist them anyway; why take out (or not add in the first place) a feature which many say they would enjoy, for the sake of getting to blacklist them for something else?

Because its completely uneccessary and there's already a means of getting that fix in-game already, that's why. Its called Diorama-Ghlesa Outpost and Diorama-Poroggo Isle.

Its also called Ballista. Takes places in various zones everyday.

I mean, playing a support class encourages people to harass you; that doesn't mean SE needs to take out BRD and COR. Having a rare piece of armor encourages people to harass you; that doesn't mean SE shouldn't have given us Relic Armor.

No one harasses CORs for invites, a BRD or RDM can go /anon and you typically stop getting bothered unless you're a real party whore.

I've never seen anyone harassed in FFXI over thier gear being checked in FFXI, its just some deep-seated fear JP players have. And really, it only takes place in the Western MMOs.

About the only thing I can think of that would make sense would be like a Dojo setting. But for all the reasons to oppose adding a feature, "idiots will be idiots!" is about the poorest one you could ever come up with.

Again, the Dioramas.

Its in the game - no one uses it because no one cares about PvP in FFXI.

Feba:
You can heal with a pet out on BST, but that's the only job. SMN won't let you heal with an avatar out, when a PUP heals the puppet heals as well, and I'm almost certain a DRG's wyvern acts the same way as pup.

Also, and I don't know this for sure, but speculation says that if the pet (for DRG and PUP) were to be attacked while you're healing, it'll stand up, and then sit right back down. You however won't be forced to stand up with them.

I've never seen anyone harassed in FFXI over thier gear being checked in FFXI, its just some deep-seated fear JP players have. And really, it only takes place in the Western MMOs.

That is very true. In World of Warcraft you would constantly see people harassing one another over their choices in gear. Often times I would be sitting in the auction house and someone would be inspecting me, then randomly send me a message and try to advise me on a better choice or even criticize something I was wearing at the time.

I left World of Warcraft because far too many people put emphasis on PvP, even on the servers where it is supposed to be PvE geared. The competitive nature was too much to handle as someone who enjoys end-game raiding. It is hard as a healer to go into a battleground wearing PvE gear and hope to survive unless you have a group of players guarding you. As far as dueling is concerned, I just ignore people who ask me to. It is pointless to try and prove myself in that manner.

I saw more and heard more about harassment over gear in XI than I ever did in SWG or LotRO. That said, it almost never happens in XI, either. (For nice emphasis.) It's more of a rarity and usually isolated to people who are overly anal-retentive about things like that. It's simply that I personally saw more incidences, not that it never happens on the other games. But I don't think it's more common in western MMOs than Eastern. But then, the only western ones I've played were LotRO and SWG. I've never touched WoW or EVE and have no desire to do so. It's almost certainly much more common in WoW than XI, though. Just from what others have told me of it. I just don't think all other Western games are a reflection of WoW's rather odd community.

Maybe it's because I came into SWG only a few months before the death-knell of the NGE, but I never once was checked, talked to, or asked about gear. In LotR, its the same. I don't know if people even use the function. The only time I've ever used it was to see what cloak some Elf I saw was wearing because I wanted to go buy my own. I like nice clothes. :p I've never heard people prepping for Rift/CD/Helegrod muttering in Kin chat 'Omg, look at that guy's armor. We need a new tank. lololomg' And in party I've never heard anything about anyone. Ever.

As an officer from an end-game guild in World of Warcraft, it is horrifying to read some the things that people say about others when they know the other person can't read it. One piece of gear can make or break getting into a guild, it happens quite often. I tried to employ the idea of bringing prospects on instance runs with us, but that was voted out because it was deemed to be "too much work". Gear is a part of the character, but I think that someone's skill is far more important.

As of right now, I feel like I am painting a terrible image of WoW. That is not really my intention, because the game itself does have quite a few redeeming qualities. Not everyone who plays is obsessed with being covered in epic gear and not everyone bashes their neighbour for what they view as a poor choice in armour. The incidence of it is higher, but it usually comes from the same people time and time again.

Considering myself quite lucky, I had access to the highest quality gear that the game had to offer for a healer. People need to realize that not everyone who plays can invest that many hours a day to a video game (even though I love to!). The world needs some constructive criticism, let go of that negativity.

Elitism at it's finest... - .-

On the subject of elitism, I always have to laugh about this because I find it so ridiculous.

I played Alliance on a PvP server for most of my WoW career, and our guild was the second for progression on the server behind a rather massive guild which was also Alliance. Many of our guild members were poached with promises of gold and epics, since they had access to raid bosses we were not at yet. Curiously, I was never asked to join their guild. All of our other officers had been asked, but not me. This had me wondering if I was not doing my job correctly, or if I had made a bad impression. Officer channel was buzzing one evening when that guild had asked our guild leader to disband the guild and join them. I spoke up and asked if anyone had a clue as to why I was being overlooked. The channel got very quiet and finally one of them said it was because I was female.

After a few minutes of silence, I asked the obvious question, "What does being female have anything to do with that?". According to this other guild, women are not as capable players because we lack an aggressive nature. They also believe that women are little more than distractions to a raid group and are to be avoided.

I nearly fell out of my chair laughing, I could not believe what I was reading. Of course, I had to say something to their guild leader. He happened to be standing next to me at the mailbox one evening and I was very direct in what I was talking about. He stood by this guideline and that he did not allow women in the guild, not even wives/girlfriends.

If that is not elitism, I am not sure what is :rolleyes:

Picture this: A message in yellow text pops up in the log telling you that player X challenges you to a D-D-D-D-DUEL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m61blkxROeE

I honestly don't know who has more time on their hands: those guys, or myself.

. . . But I'm at least pretty sure it's those guys.

On the subject of elitism, I always have to laugh about this because I find it so ridiculous.

I played Alliance on a PvP server for most of my WoW career, and our guild was the second for progression on the server behind a rather massive guild which was also Alliance. Many of our guild members were poached with promises of gold and epics, since they had access to raid bosses we were not at yet. Curiously, I was never asked to join their guild. All of our other officers had been asked, but not me. This had me wondering if I was not doing my job correctly, or if I had made a bad impression. Officer channel was buzzing one evening when that guild had asked our guild leader to disband the guild and join them. I spoke up and asked if anyone had a clue as to why I was being overlooked. The channel got very quiet and finally one of them said it was because I was female.

After a few minutes of silence, I asked the obvious question, "What does being female have anything to do with that?". According to this other guild, women are not as capable players because we lack an aggressive nature. They also believe that women are little more than distractions to a raid group and are to be avoided.

I nearly fell out of my chair laughing, I could not believe what I was reading. Of course, I had to say something to their guild leader. He happened to be standing next to me at the mailbox one evening and I was very direct in what I was talking about. He stood by this guideline and that he did not allow women in the guild, not even wives/girlfriends.

If that is not elitism, I am not sure what is :rolleyes:


that is not elitism...... thats sexism.....and a really poor excuse of it, that guild leader is a moron

That was too hilarious, I am having a hard time breathing.
______________________________
that is not elitism...... thats sexism.....and a really poor excuse of it, that guild leader is a moron

Sexism mixed with elitism, but of course Blizzard does not do anything about these types of matters.

bahh WoW PvP areas every 2 secs it's duel duel duel right in the middle of a quest duel duel ..... cancle em all you want they just followed me around once for 2 hours untill he took a hint

After a few minutes of silence, I asked the obvious question, "What does being female have anything to do with that?". According to this other guild, women are not as capable players because we lack an aggressive nature. They also believe that women are little more than distractions to a raid group and are to be avoided.

That is seriously the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. I've gotten my ass pwnt by women just as often as I have by men (although I will say getting t-bagged by a girl does sting just a little bit more ^^)

Because its completely uneccessary and there's already a means of getting that fix in-game already, that's why. Its called Diorama-Ghlesa Outpost and Diorama-Poroggo Isle.

No. Dioramas can be used by one group at a time, are not inclined towards duels (let alone tournaments), and hogging up an entire diorama just so you and a friend can fight is just plain assholish. An instanced Dojo would solve those problems.

Feba:
You can heal with a pet out on BST, but that's the only job.

Yeah, I thought so; I didn't play too much BST.

No one harasses CORs for invites, a BRD or RDM can go /anon and you typically stop getting bothered unless you're a real party whore.

Plainly, bullshit. Even people knowing you have one of those jobs at a level that's useful to them can be enough.

Hell, look at every BRD out there who leveled another job to 75, and still gets harassed to bring their BRD out instead of their new job.

I've never seen anyone harassed in FFXI over thier gear being checked in FFXI,
It's not /check, it's people bugging you after they see what you have. And yes, I've seen it happen.

I've never seen anyone harassed in FFXI over thier gear being checked in FFXI, its just some deep-seated fear JP players have. And really, it only takes place in the Western MMOs.
It's not /check, it's people bugging you after they see what you have. And yes, I've seen it happen.
Prime example - http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/general-ffxi-discussion/57962-what-s-your-pet-peeve-ffxi-123.html#post731540

Shoulda called the mods on their asses for sexism. Assuming Blizzard monitors chat logs, there's no way they could deny it.

Quite honestly, why would you want to associate with sexist morons anyway? What are GMs going to do, tell them to play nice?

Now I mean, sexual harassment, yes, call a GM. Harassment in any form because of your gender, yes, call a GM. But someone being a bigoted idiot? Not really much you can do about it.

No. Dioramas can be used by one group at a time, are not inclined towards duels (let alone tournaments), and hogging up an entire diorama just so you and a friend can fight is just plain assholish. An instanced Dojo would solve those problems.

You can have duels in Dioramas, there's no rule saying you can. Dioramas can be reserved by whoever for whatever reason they please, so its not being an asshole to reserve the area for a small period of time.


Plainly, bullshit. Even people knowing you have one of those jobs at a level that's useful to them can be enough.

Hell, look at every BRD out there who leveled another job to 75, and still gets harassed to bring their BRD out instead of their new job.


Again, you show your ignorance. CORs never get hassled for merit PTs. I get a stray invite from time to time. People will come right to me the moment my flag goes up, but since COR doesn't have March or Haste, we're #3 after BRD and RDM for the PT slot. Not to mention RDMs cure pretty good, I can't say the same.

No one will turn a COR down, but given how few of them there are, we're not a common sight, either. We're well outside the thoughts of the mainstream player most of the time because of the lack of population. Not that I'm complaining, really.

As for BRD and RDM, if you have enough backbone to tell people "no" - especially this in endgame shells - they'll back off on the subject. What merits? Go Campaign, Besieged, quest EXP scroll. I don't give a damn about your EXP buffer.

For non-LS situations, I have a search comment. If you don't read it, I blacklist you and my world gets one voice quieter. Simple, eh? The cruel world doesn't make me PT with them.

Not to mention these days people can usually find a job they enjoy meritting on, not to mention PTs aren't the only way to get EXP and merits now. If BRD is the only mage/support class you've had and you only have melee or tank jobs otherwise, you pretty much screwed over yourself on meritpo and endgame, no one to blame but yourself.

I do disagree with LS leaders that will only accept or use a player as a BRD - those people have no concept of team morale. A good leader will give an opportunity for thier members to shine on the other jobs they've enjoyed. That's the only thing about playing BRD that makes me iffy about the job - some leaders just don't have a good concept of morale and instead see endgame as all-business.

That makes the game suck.

It's not /check, it's people bugging you after they see what you have. And yes, I've seen it happen.

Its extremely rare that I get bugged about gear after I'm checked, though sometimes I am asked how I got my gear. I don't have a problem telling people how I got it. Its not like they're begging for me to sell it to them - I can't, 90% of the stuff is R/E.

Its not that hard to filter /check. If it bothers you so much FILTER IT. 99.9% percent of the time, no one is going to ask you about anything you have. Some people just /check to see what other people in thier jobs are using. Kinda helps give people ideas

You can have duels in Dioramas, there's no rule saying you can.

Again, they aren't well built for it (just look at how long the hike can be from one spawn point to a fight), and there are people that would actually like to use them for their intended purpose.

Again, you show your ignorance. CORs never get hassled for merit PTs.

First of all, I said "those jobs" in reference to RDM and BRD. Secondly, you are not representative of all CORs. I wouldn't be surprised to see your invite rate is lower simply because of how much of an ass you tend to be. Third, it doesn't matter if you have backbone-- people will bug you about it if they need you. Same as the point I was making. Fourth, if people bug you and you blacklist them, what's the problem with a duel system? Simple, huh? You don't have to duel them just because they ask. Fifth, again, whether you think something is ok or not is irrelevant. It's not ok to harass people to join your party, it's not ok to harass people to use a certain job they don't want to for an LS function, it's not ok to harass someone to PvP. We can all agree with that- YOU DO NOT TAKE FEATURES OUT BECAUSE SOMEONE MIGHT ANNOY YOU TO USE THEM.

Its extremely rare that I get bugged about gear after I'm checked,

Again, you are not representative of the whole. I specifically referred to Relic weapons. It also applies to some of the rarer equips-- people used to ask me about my Moogle Rod and Chocobo Wand all the time. That doesn't mean I wasn't still happy to have them, or that SE shouldn't have included it because there was the occasional annoying douche.

Its not that hard to filter /check. If it bothers you so much FILTER IT.

It's not /check, it's people bugging you after they see what you have.

come on, BBQ.

YOU DO NOT TAKE FEATURES OUT BECAUSE SOMEONE MIGHT ANNOY YOU TO USE THEM.
I'm gonna have to agree with Feba there.
Its like saying trial weapons should be taken out because it would annoy people getting weapon skill points like staff and sword(if your not a pld on sword).
Or take out the citadel because no one likes getting coffers or the massive death trains back in the day.

Again, you show your ignorance. CORs never get hassled for merit PTs. I get a stray invite from time to time. People will come right to me the moment my flag goes up, but since COR doesn't have March or Haste, we're #3 after BRD and RDM for the PT slot. Not to mention RDMs cure pretty good, I can't say the same.
Underlined: Its a tie with most people I know. Healer is always the first to the spot then cor or brd since they vanish faster than undead at dawn.
Bold: Yea....no. Red Mage cures don't quite cut it compared to White Mages. 1) Half the time red mages use cure 4 where a whm would either need to cure 5 or cure 3. 2) The real cures are Regen II/III + merits.
Italics: Anyone who's a cor I know of would get hassled to get on it unless they're making the pty as a DD or blm.

For non-LS situations, I have a search comment. If you don't read it, I blacklist you and my world gets one voice quieter. Simple, eh? The cruel world doesn't make me PT with them.
Mhmm, must have 99% of the server on it then :rofl:
You know there is the /away /anon function right?

Heh /anon dosen't help me very much. People know I am a RDM and bug me every chance they get wether or not I am on the job. I turn down about 5 blind invites a day. Hell I even get invites while I am in parties. Even with some of my other jobs doing group things I get begged to use my RDM and take the level cap so we can have refresh. Being one of the top 3 most demanded jobs can get very very anoying. I wouldnt go as far as blacklisting, but people need to show a little more respect to others. I have a really good BRD friend who just got his theif to 75 and got that wicked dagger (name slips my mind its the multi hit one thats like 3 mil.) We went to a party and someone who knew he had a bard pleaded with him to go and get it. Eventually the other 4 left because he refused to play bard, although not my loss we went and duo'd for xp in campaign but some people just need to grow up.

As for away, only when I am soloing.

I wish SE would address capital letters in tags... Why, oh why, will <Me> or <T> not work?!

Bold: Yea....no. Red Mage cures don't quite cut it compared to White Mages. 1) Half the time red mages use cure 4 where a whm would either need to cure 5 or cure 3. 2) The real cures are Regen II/III + merits.

That wasn't the point. They get asked over Corsair as healer in merit point partys and asked as Main Healer of merit partys a lot, that was the point. :P Anything else is a different topic.

And why is there no mention of Pankration with all this talk of PVP and stuff?

I wish SE would address capital letters in tags... Why, oh why, will <Me> or <T> not work?!


why does that even matter........

Bold: Yea....no. Red Mage cures don't quite cut it compared to White Mages. 1) Half the time red mages use cure 4 where a whm would either need to cure 5 or cure 3. 2) The real cures are Regen II/III + merits.
You fight Vrtra 24/7?

RDM Cures are indeed good enough for many things.

why does that even matter........
Don't type spells at all, do you?

Also, SE, tab completion for names at the top of the list, not the bottom.

You fight Vrtra 24/7?

RDM Cures are indeed good enough for many things.
No, I just noticed cures just don't heal as much as I'm used to seeing on whm.
<_<; It burns me to see such a difference to be acceptable.

No, I just noticed cures just don't heal as much as I'm used to seeing on whm.
<_<; It burns me to see such a difference to be acceptable.
You seem to misunderstand the concept of good enough.

I can't seem to quote just now ... if you need to use something outside of a macro, typing works well. It would just work better if you could afford to leave it as <T> instead of shift-, release-t shift-.

That was odd. I'm half asleep, and so my first read-through of your post made it look like you were commenting on T-Shirts. Then, I almost fell asleep and accidentally pressed the "Thanks!" Button. Then, I woke up and decided to post this. And now I'm typing and clicking "Submit Reply!"

I wish SE would address capital letters in tags... Why, oh why, will <Me> or <T> not work?!

I actually stopped typing spells out because of this, so I think it would be great to change.

And I wish I had yet more words available in auto translate. ; ;

You seem to misunderstand the concept of good enough.Why should we leave it at good enough? Why not superior or most effect?

Why should we leave it at good enough? Why not superior or most effect?
Because if it's good enough it works and allows you to consolidate a few different roles into fewer jobs. If a RDM is good enough healing for a situation, meriting for example, then WHM would be over kill and you would probably still be looking for a refresher. Good enough lets you get another DD, or a better puller, or whatever the party wants.

Good enough gets the job done. Since it's results we're looking for, there is nothing wring with good enough.

Some would argue that a WHM worth their salt wouldn't really need a refresher in an XP party. I've had several parties on WHM without one and suffered very little because of it. A good WHM is a hell of a lot better than a mediocre RDM, even if "endless" MP is what you seek in a healer.

Red mages don't enfeeble anymore. D:

First off, let me just say that I lol'd at the first post in this topic. The whole idea is to talk about things that are very rarely discussed and yet the majority of the opening OP is talking about how the new jobs get hosed on god/relic/Abj gear? Yea, that's lol-worthy.

Well, you might have noticed that Campaign did sort of strengthen the feeling of Allegiance to your nation again.

With Conquest, we're basically mercenaries taking missions for the city and nothing more. But in Campaign we're actually joining that nations standing military force. So that's the reason why it seems that feeling of allegiance is increased...because in reality it is.


Its in the game - no one uses it because no one cares about PvP in FFXI.

Plenty of people care about PvP, a lot of people love PvP. And that's one of the things that makes FFXI so frustrating for them, because PvP in this game is very poorly executed. Me, I could care less about playing PvP. I'm not the type to go randomly slaughtering other players, even if they did piss me off. But I would absolutely LOVE it if SE really pumped up the PvP system in this game...all the PvP systems. But I'll come back to this in a bit.

Infact, that's one of the things I think this game could stand to be improved upon. All it's awesomely half-assed Mini games, which PvP currently falls into. Chocobo racing/raising, Pankemon, Ballista, Brenner, and so forth, all fun things...that just aren't worth it. PvP especially should get major overhauls and additions, to make it easier to get into and more worthwhile to do. I'm not saying that people should get god gear or anything from it, but how about something more then pocket change, pitence Exp, a funny hat and a plaque.

Pankemon suffers from this the worst because once you get a mob to 50...what's left? You bought a funny hat that can only be useful for more Pankemon, and then nothing. Throw in the fact that there's still a ton of interesting mobs from the past that we can't use...but they allow use to take pictures of Chariots and Soulflayers? Yea, that don't make sense.

And while Chocobo raising is, with good reason, a long, expensive and somewhat difficult task to accomplish (if you're after a specialized bird), it provides very little rewards. And unless you go out and buy the tags of colored birds to mate them, your chances of getting a non-yellow choco drop dramatically...and you won't know which one you're getting until you're a few weeks in anyway. And then being able to race these birds, well it's highly limited and horribly ignored. The track is a great place to be and hang out...but no one ever goes there and it's a damn shame.

PvP should be expanded upon. Both in direct combat situations like Brenner and 'training contests' like Pankemon. I would personally love to see the addition of actual, ingame, Ballista leagues. It's supposed to be a sport, why not treat it like one. Let players build their own teams within multiple divisions, and grant the winning teams (relatively) large sums of cash/exp/merits/points/whatever. And even make a specialized zone, and not just some 'diorama' zone (which I think is a total waste because we can only utilize a small part of said zones), where people go play, and watch, these teams compete. Hell, it doesn't even have to be ballista, it could be a new sport entirely on it's own.

Dueling could easily be added as was suggested earlier, but it would be best to keep it to certain, specific, spectator friendly zones. Similar to Pankemon, only with more rooms.Winner gets exp/points, loser gets less exp/points. You'd be able to set handicaps, lvl caps, item usage and all that crap to keep it as fair as possible. And the rewards should be something usable in the 'outside' world, so there's a reason for people to play it casually as well as go hardcore into it.

And for crimety sakes, open up the damn Colosseum already. And no, the Pit is not the Colosseum. The Colosseum is a seperate door in whitegate that doesn't have a use yet. It was supposedly going to be like the FFVII one where you fight monsters for prizes but nothing happened with it.

And a 'Golden Saucer' type area with tons of fun, simple, rewarding minigames would be a great addition to the game. Make the rewards be special Meds or Food or Charged items so you can play them, get something useful, use it and have to play again. Pretty much being similar to the Treasure box rewards you obtain during Assaults, even adding in ??? items...those are always(slight sarcasm here) popular.

Also, an in game card game. It's speaks for itself, it's a simple idea and would add another form of 'indirect' PvP that players can do to kill time while waiting on stuff (though it's probably impossible to execute). The rewards would be the cards themselves, which could be bought/sold/traded and won at a players will. Do a mini quest to obtain your 'starter pack', which would have semi random cards, and even 'sell' better ones at the previously mentioned 'Saucer' area for 'points'. If done right(HA!) it'll take off on it's own and persist and thrive without any more enticement then what is needed to start. Hell they could even market a real life version and cash in on the CCG craze.

As for Linkshell changes, all I ask is to be able to obtain a list, and modify the status of, all those who've gotten a pearl to my group. Mainly so I can give my Mules pearl sacks. That, and maybe purchasble meeting rooms/house(but I think moving ones MH to the LS house would be stupid as people live in all three nations and would thus have to 'move'). But otherwise, for what it is, I think it works fine. What they should do however is add a more 'business' oriented grouping system, something in which you all seem to have discussed, designed to take down big monsters/events and stock and store gear/cash/points and the like. Keep linkshells as being that mass group, semi-disposable communication system that can be easily obtained and shared and create a new method for the big boys to communicate along side LSs.

More storage, though nice, isn't something that's ever going to be perfectly soved because the more we get the more we need. Though I do like the special R/E Storage idea, even if it's NPC storage. Though one thing I think should be changed is that furniture in your room should not take up Bank space. There is already a limit to how much furniture one can have in a room, why not let that be an 'extra' storage system. I.E., you set up a bed and it's removed from your Mog Safe and put into your 'Mog Space'. It can fill up while giving us both extra Mog Safe space and Mog Storage space.

I think those two changes would open up a *lot* of extra inventory space for players.

Prime example - http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/general-ffxi-discussion/57962-what-s-your-pet-peeve-ffxi-123.html#post731540

Sure that wasn't just an /em examines you? People do that in crowds just to piss people off :biggrin:

And I wish I had yet more words available in auto translate. ; ;

Things I'd like to see added to auto-translate:

{Enmity}
Color words -- at least {white}, {yellow}, {orange}, and {red}, but {pink}, {blue}, {green}, and {black} would be handy too.
{Evasion}
{resist}, in reference to reduced magic effectiveness
{Blue Magic}
{maybe} -- if I never see {May}{Bee} again...
{I'm on my way.}

Just off the top of my head. -- Pteryx

{Maybe.}

For god's sake, please give us Maybe.

Some would argue that a WHM worth their salt wouldn't really need a refresher in an XP party. I've had several parties on WHM without one and suffered very little because of it.Undoubtably for Merits and EXP at later levels a Refresher is not needed. However, is that what the party wants, or are they going to get a refresher as well? Many times, it will be the latter.

A good WHM is a hell of a lot better than a mediocre RDM, even if "endless" MP is what you seek in a healer.
Merit or later levels exp, RDM and WHM are pretty interchangeable with no negative consequences. This is because, wait for it, RDM is good enough for those situations. Where WHM shines as the premier healer, where the best healer is actually needed, are the same situations where RDM is busy doing it's support duties. When you aren't going against a mob that smacks you into next week at every turn and you don't have to throw 4 enfeebles at it and keep them on come hell or high water you can have a WHM or a RDM as the healer and no one would notice.

It's true, I'm just trying to get people to think that us WHMs need some love too. :p

Plenty of people care about PvP, a lot of people love PvP.

Then how come most Ballista on NA hours go cancelled and no on ever uses the Dioramas? After the first three weeks, who does Pankration anymore.

PvP in this game does not succeed because the majority does not care for it in FFXI.

One big reason for that is 60+, there's no real PvP balance between the jobs. BLU, MNK and RDM will own most of anything they come across. RNG will obliterate anyone without shadows of buffs. This game was balanced for PvE, for PvP there is no way to fully balance the uncapped fights. The most balanced fights are at 60 caps.

And guess what? No one wants to do those because its capped. And, worse, is that gear swapping - a way of life for most people in PvE - is penalized in PvP. That's really stupid.

WoW was balanced for PvP and they still don't have it down right. How long did Shaman get to be god in that game? Every job is a hybrid in that game, though, so without specialists, how can you hope to balance it?

Anyway, its not an easy thing to add into either game and be fair about it at the same time. I've yet to find a finely-balanced PvP game in any MMO. I can find them in FPS everywhere and the reason there's balance there should be obvious:

Nothing levels up. If it does, not so much that it makes a tremendous game-breaking difference.

One would think that a finer overall balance would occur when you take both PvP and PvE into account. I only know of Blizzard's endless quest for balance so my opinion is limited. In their case they've found themselves playing tug of war between what the devs want and what the current voices of the people want.

Balance in FPSs is evidently difficult to come by as well. Bungie just couldn't do one thing without creating and destroying cheap and overused tactics. Not that they would get points for trying. I'm not sure saying anything on BF2142 is worth the effort while DICE hesitates to admit it even exists. Like BF2 you can gain points, ranks, and earn unlockable weapons. Most of what you can unlock is useless, while some of the starter weapons are of the most all-around efficient.

Red mages don't enfeeble anymore. D:


That's because I'm leveling Paladin right now. Paladins have no Enfeebling Magic skill. :P

. . . In all seriousness, maybe it's just because spells become so impossible to get off without resists, even with the atrocious Staves, that some don't even bother wasting the MP anymore. But, that's just me.

(I would love to see our rosy Weapon-skill to be introduced later on to either give a bonus to Magic Accuracy or hit the target with some kind of reduced Magic resistance: either way, it has to be steep. Of course, since the weapons are going to be on the level of relics . . . S-E has to make with the Magic Accuracy in other areas, first. And a lot of them.)

And, worse, is that gear swapping - a way of life for most people in PvE - is penalized in PvP. That's really stupid.

Now, just hold on a moment and let me speak my opinion here: my opinion is you've got it backwards. If anything, it's the whole gear-swapping concept that's stupid, and I feel the penalty will not be permanently shunned by any more than the fiercest elitist begrudgers in the game if it became the law of the land everywhere else.

You're entitled to your opinion otherwise, but don't try telling me that my opinion is "wrong."

Now, just hold on a moment and let me speak my opinion here: my opinion is you've got it backwards. If anything, it's the whole gear-swapping concept that's stupid, and I feel the penalty will not be permanently shunned by any more than the fiercest elitist begrudgers in the game if it became the law of the land everywhere else.

You're entitled to your opinion otherwise, but don't try telling me that my opinion is "wrong."

Before we can even give any validity to your "opinion," you must first give reasons to back it up. Opinions CAN be wrong and yours doesn't even have a reason behind it.

In many cases, players have found it to be incredibly effective and that is why the penalty is an annoyance - a lot of players use gear swaps and don't want to waste a ton of time writing a macro set just for PvP.

That's because I'm leveling Paladin right now. Paladins have no Enfeebling Magic skill. :P

. . . In all seriousness, maybe it's just because spells become so impossible to get off without resists, even with the atrocious Staves, that some don't even bother wasting the MP anymore. But, that's just me.

Not trying to kill your boner or anything, but how hard can it possibly be? Not all ToAU mobs have resist rates that are off the charts, do they? I think the answer is that there is a majority who play the job, but would rather stand there in their cool hats and occasionally throw a refresh or a Cure IV my way, and outside from that, do little else. Not even a Regen comes my way. I don't see Haste very often anymore either, and when I do the Red mage casts it on the DDs and me like twice then stops bothering with it unless asked. I don't just stand there and use Provoke sometimes when tanking, the PT would die if I did. I've played Red mage before, and I don't see why it's difficult for someone to perform their job in a slightly less than half assed manner.

Before we can even give any validity to your "opinion," you must first give reasons to back it up. Opinions CAN be wrong and yours doesn't even have a reason behind it.

Open mouth, insert foot.

. . . In all seriousness, maybe it's just because spells become so impossible to get off without resists, even with the atrocious Staves, that some don't even bother wasting the MP anymore. But, that's just me.I'm not picking on you personally, YM, but this is a clear example of when your lack of actual experience shows through.

The situations where even with staves you can't land an enfeeble are few and far between. For most content that players will encounter, enfeebling is fine. The reason most of them don't bother in endgame meripo is because there isn't any time for it, or the mobs are too weak to warrant enfeebles, because they die too quickly. It's not because they've just given up.

The staves aren't atrocious. They are one of the best tools any mage past level 51 has. When you eventually get to that level, maybe you'll understand it better.

Open mouth, insert foot.

Go ahead and shove your foot in your mouth then, I have no reason to here. Hell you didn't even touch the topic of staves, which what YM was clearly protesting, instead, we got some diatribe about RDMs not hasting or regenning you, which has nothin