Wings of the Goddess Missions! (05/09/2008)

[Shadowneko]

I do kinda wonder why they even bother teasing the storylines to missions, particularly knowing most people won't touch them until some endgame zone or content is tied to its progression. Even knowing this is the case, people will still wait to forever and a day to get around to it.

Won't be happening with me this time around, both characters will be caught up as of doing my second round of ToAs, muahahahahahah.

Still I should probably pick up on some of the WotG quests and get those done just in case they're tied to moving this storyline forward. They had proven to be tie-ins when it initially started, anyway.

I just hope these missions are more along the lines of CoPs and not so lolToA.

Speak for yourself...Cait Sith has me hook, line and sinker! I love that weird cat so far...(anything to see more cutseens with that crazy regal cat in them!)

[Feba]

Yes I can see how the lack of missions would have been a great bother to you.

I just wanted to be the first to say it.














































dick

[Aksannyi]

dick

That made me lawl.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

If players don't touch missions till they see what end-game/reward or whatever..that's their fault..not everyone is like that, but because of the people that are like that newer missions/content is "lacking", because instead of just being grateful and enjoying things in strides..SE is obviously delaying the stories in chunks due to that mentality.

I don't know what you're trying to say, but the ToA Missions were so embarassingly easy that people had a right to complain about them. I mean, you can duo or even solo Khimeria 13 if you have the right jobs. They didn't even get hard until the Ghesso fight.

SE delayed the missions because the WotG mission content wasn't ready yet. They're just now rolling out ToA Relics and I wouldn't be suprised if there was some lingering ToA content elsewhere, either. SCH certainly wasn't complete when they released it, the March update shows that.

They even confessed to being behind on content in ToA, probably the same situation here. Not that I've been dying without the mission content, its giving me a chance to catch up on what little remains incomplete on one of my characters. Still, if all this waiting leads to more and more embarassingly easy missions, I have to wonder why they'd even bother.

But then, this is the FFXI/CoP team's expansion, ToA was handled by the people who did RoZ zones and content (their M.O. or "overkill or lowball") so I'm still holding out hope.

[BurningPanther]

The teasers seemed to hold about as much content as the first three WotG missions.

[Feba]

You know, I wonder if it would shut people up if SE just added an "easy, medium, hard" setting on the entrance to the BCNM. Hell, you could even call it "COP Challenge", "ROTZ reasonable", and "TAU"... well, the thesaurus fails me, but something that implies it's easy and starts with a T.

Let the people that want a challenge get it, and let the people that want it easy have that too. Maybe even just have it be at the start of the mission set, that way when you get to the end and get your Shiny Prize it could be different. Perhaps give the same stats to all difficulty levels, but have different names for each to show what level someone completed it on. Possibly with the ability to go back and do the hard missions later to get one to reflect that level of play.

[LyonheartLakshmi]

You know, I wonder if it would shut people up if SE just added an "easy, medium, hard" setting on the entrance to the BCNM. Hell, you could even call it "COP Challenge", "ROTZ reasonable", and "TAU"... well, the thesaurus fails me, but something that implies it's easy and starts with a T.

Trivial?

Edit: Oh, I doubt that would shut anyone up. The complaints you would here is how Player X wants to do it on Challenge mode, but can never find enough people through random /shouts to do it.

[Feba]

There you go!

[Aksannyi]

Think how difficult it would be to find people to do the mission with you after all that?

{Excuse me...} WoTG {Mission} 3-5 {easy} {Do you need it?} 1/?? {/tell}
WoTG 5-1 {impossible to gauge!} {Please assist.} 2/6
{Do you need it?} {Can I have it?} {Mission} Altana {middle} {Help me out!}

Not only would you have to find people who are on the same mission as you, and needing the jobs that you have, but the same difficulty level, too? Oh, lord ...

Then the people who complete it on hard setting would be pissy because their stats aren't better, even though they worked harder. Or, if they were, then the people who did it on easy would complain even though they don't deserve better stats because they did it the easy way.

Imagine the elitism that would erupt: "Oh, you did the easy set of missions? You're too gimp for this ls, kthxbai." "What, because you beat in on hard mode you think you're so special?" Talk about e-peen inflation. Is that what this game needs?

I'd like a challenge, less missions that are cutscenes for sure. None of that level cap bullshit but something like CoP - epic storyline, great and challenging battles (Snoll fight, you have like 45 seconds to kill it! I loved that, such a challenge!) even mini quests that require you to get items which will aid you in your fights, and not only an end-result reward, but several "Get to this point and you can do this fun fight for all kinds of cool stuff" quests like "Uninvited Guests" and the Promy ENMs.

That's what I want to see, CoP was hard as hell and I wouldn't want to do it again but it was also a hell of a lot of fucking FUN with a capital F U N.

[Feba]

Hm, well the idea would be for people to do the more challenging ones in statics and with friends, and the easier ones in pickups.

But I thought about that, people who want more challenging missions would have the self satisfaction of it, and a little bit of bragging rights. Of course a few would bitch, but the few that appreciate the challenge for a challenge would appreciate it.

I highly doubt it would lead to severe elitism-- at least, not anymore than things like "You don't have Sea, so you can't join our LS". And this wouldn't create a catch-22 (Can't find anyone to get you into Sea because you don't have an LS, can't get an LS because you don't have Sea. I've seen this happen to at least three people). There are far bigger things in FFXI to cause elitism. And again, it would have a way to go back and do it in the more challenging modes later on if you want to.

And yes, a lot of people found fun in COP's challenges. On the other hand, there are some people that just want to get to Sea. There are people who absolutely love the storyline, and would rather focus on that than fighting things. Everyone has something different that they enjoy in FFXI (and FF games in general); some like superhard challenges and a delicate strategy, some just like the pretty pictures and plot. Since you don't exactly have the option of just leveling up another ten or twenty levels; or turning on a gameshark; why not make it easier for FFXI to appeal to all types? Not ruin the challenge for those that want it, but not make it too difficult on those that could care less about how epic a boss fight is.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

And yes, a lot of people found fun in COP's challenges. On the other hand, there are some people that just want to get to Sea. There are people who absolutely love the storyline, and would rather focus on that than fighting things. Everyone has something different that they enjoy in FFXI (and FF games in general); some like superhard challenges and a delicate strategy, some just like the pretty pictures and plot. Since you don't exactly have the option of just leveling up another ten or twenty levels; or turning on a gameshark; why not make it easier for FFXI to appeal to all types? Not ruin the challenge for those that want it, but not make it too difficult on those that could care less about how epic a boss fight is.

I like stories.
I like fights.
I like zone access.

I think missions should be the content where everything is turned on its ear, even for the so-called experienced endgame players. I liked that CoPs made content that could be shared by different players at different levels of experience.

Funny thing is, to me, newbies came better prepared for most of the 30 and 40 caps than people with multiple 75s did. The newbies took it more seriously because this was, to them, exciting and challenging content. To many of the high level players I've tried to help through these, they treat them like a nuiciance keeping them from doing the endgame grind.

Guess who was more fun to work with?

The newbies.

I'm not saying that they should do level capped missions again, the age of the game now is really beyond the point of needing that. However, I think these missions should be challenging to high level players and have them get schooled all over again.

Most high end missions can be done with a mix of level 65-75 players. Sad thing is, high level players want 75 onry for safety.

And that mentality really hurt Assaults early one, there are people at 50 or 60 that would have liked to have Yigit or Paluwhan waiting for them when they hit 72, but people made it fucking impossible. To get any of that level 72 gear from assault, you must have something at 75 or most people will not take you on assaults. Well, unless you're a mage.

So really, I'd like to see some content that is the equivelant of a nipple-twister to high level players, but not so insanely difficult that a level 65 player couldn't participate, much like the Rank 6+ missions.

In fact, the Rank Missions most closely mirror the style of CoPs, which is all I can really ask for out of missions. ToAs truckload of cutscense and lolBCs is not what I'm looking for, even ZMs had a few more nutcrackers than ToAs did.

ToA's challenge boils down to Ghesso, Amnaf and that bastard BLU in the Alexander fight.

[Feba]

Actually, I like the idea of level caps; mostly for the reasons you pointed out, mixing high and low level characters. The big hassle was equipment-- most people simply don't want to spend a ton of gil on equipment for a level cap they'll use maybe twice. The easiest way around this would be implementing it as a 'power limit' instead of a hard level cap. For example, walk in as a 75, you're still a 75, but all your stats are severely reduced, your spells and abilities are less potent, and so on. SE could also completely revamp the equipment system so you can equip anything at any level, with varying penalties, but that would be pretty steep.

and yeah, the biggest problem with FFXI's content isn't that you have to be 75 to do it, it's that everyone wants you to be 75 before you can do it-- despite the fact that the amount of EXP it takes to get from the mid 60s to 75 is the same as 1 to the mid 60s.

[BurningPanther]

As much as I've bitched about level caps, I think the aspects that got to me most were 1. gear storage(I'd more readily accept level caps if it didn't require a mule purchase for CoP's capped missions), and 2. as Feba said, expensive, under-used purchases. This one's a little harder to get around, but a little more bearable, I think.

The easiest way around this would be implementing it as a 'power limit' instead of a hard level cap. For example, walk in as a 75, you're still a 75, but all your stats are severely reduced, your spells and abilities are less potent, and so on.

Something akin to Salvage's Pathos? I'd suggested something similar long before ToAU, it would be a much nicer alternative to level caps.

[Sevv]

Let's just hope that the end-mission rewards for these missions are decent and not as crappy as the ToAU mission rewards lol.

Oh hai



Nothing amazing but very useful

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

As much as I've bitched about level caps, I think the aspects that got to me most were 1. gear storage(I'd more readily accept level caps if it didn't require a mule purchase for CoP's capped missions).

You're complaining about a paltry 400-1000 gil for NPC storage? What do you spend this gil on? Smack?