Einherjar

[Legal Fish]

Re: Einherjar

And like I said, there is a place for dungeon crawls, but FFXI IS NOT THAT PLACE. FFXI's battle system is horrible for them. FFXI's battle system isn't too bad when you're fighting a single enemy, fights like ZM8 can be very good, but fighting one enemy.. after another... is not FFXI's strong point.

I disagree with multiple points in your post... more importantly, your entire opinion.

FFXI does need more instanced/planned end-game events if that's what you mean by dungeon crawls(since the dungeon crawl ain't popping once every 21-23 hours). The game has been bottlenecked for a long, long time, and it's finally starting to disappear. If people rather do Einherjar instead of Dynamis, that's a good thing.

Second, quests are quests. You complete them once and they are done, over. The quests you talk about you don't repeat. But quest/end-game content that involve going into "Dungeons"? You do those a hundred+ times. Quests are nice, I have most of them done, but once they are done, they are done. I'd take a new dungeon crawl as complex and expansive as Salvage or Limbus any day. Oh wait! SE is adding missions/quests(a nice continuation of the Skyserpent quest at that) anyway, why are exactly the complaint?

Now about your post.

And like I said, there is a place for dungeon crawls, but FFXI IS NOT THAT PLACE.

Final Fantasy has always been about dungeon crawls. FFXI is a Final Fantasy.

And... storyline can involve dungeons.

but fighting one enemy.. after another... is not FFXI's strong point.

I don't know if I'd call it a strong point... but if you are saying FFXI can't handle this then you are wrong. Very wrong. Have you much experience with the content already that forces you into combat with many, many opponents? Have you done the first tier of the Ashu Talif quests? Dynamis? They work perfectly fine.

If your data is up to date, you quit at level 61(on BLM, no less), meaning you've probably done none of this. I can see that being your only reason for thinking FFXI can't handle it, as you probably don't have much first-hand experience.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Einherjar

Saying FFXI isn't a place for dungeon crawls is bizarre to me. RPGs are about exploration, character building and finding loot. Meaning, RPGs are grinding and dungeons.

Story is flavor for any video game, but its content that is the real substance. RPGs can get by perfectly fine without story. You know, that whole RP we put in RPG, the role-play. Its not about acting something out, just writing your own tale in your head.

Go pick up a copy of Etrian Odyssey for the DS if you need a idea of what an RPG totally devoid of story is like. There is no plot, there is no compelling narrative, its just one massive multi-layered dungeon. Hell, they make you draw all your maps. But there's actually a major sense of accomplishment for beating each level and mapping it completely. The story of the game becomes that of your own experience.

Story is an element that's popular with Japanese RPGs and that's fine, but never assert RPGs are about cinematics. They weren't when it was just a few nerds and some pen, paper and dice. Hell, when RPGs moved to PCs at first, they didn't really even have graphics or music, just text. You had to actually use your imagination.

Einherjar sounds fun to me because there's really no set up for it story-wise, I just get to hop in and draw my own conclusions about how this relates to the world of FFXI. We can always stand to get more of that.

[Ziero]

Re: Einherjar

Even when SE says it's adding something for everyone, people will still complain. Now ToAU may not have a CoP-esque quality storyline, in terms of effort put in and such, but it more then delivers on the 'keep players happy' front. Adding in many, many, MANY *specifically asked for items* from players requests. Hell there was even a suggestion topic here that had someone ask if OPs could have lower lvl reqs and low and behold, that exact change is in the next update! And after seeing what they plan to do to CoP, something that I wholeheartidly disagree with btw, it's clear that the majority don't play FFXI just for the story.

But, SE is *still* adding more story and quests to the game *in addition* to the dungeon crawling missions, both of which btw can be highly enjoyable. And on top of that, the new expansion is right around the corner and with it will come the ability to literally rewrite *everything* about this game's past.

So in closing, SE is giving us more fun stuff, huzzah!~

[Legal Fish]

Re: Einherjar

Einherjar sounds fun to me because there's really no set up for it story-wise, I just get to hop in and draw my own conclusions about how this relates to the world of FFXI. We can always stand to get more of that.

No set up? Halzam has been mentioned a couple times and likely will be explained further in the future. Likely, we will be facing a majority of khimaira type monsters and on the bottom floor we might encounter Odin or something. Likely, what exactly the place is, was used for, and why it's full of monsters will be explained in detail in the missions, without directly crossing over into it.

I think most people who roleplay don't know jack about Vana'diel so they aren't that great at it.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Einherjar

No set up? Halzam has been mentioned a couple times and likely will be explained further in the future. Likely, we will be facing a majority of khimaira type monsters and on the bottom floor we might encounter Odin or something. Likely, what exactly the place is, was used for, and why it's full of monsters will be explained in detail in the missions, without directly crossing over into it.

I think most people who roleplay don't know jack about Vana'diel so they aren't that great at it.

Well, Halzam's setup seems about as sparse as Alzadaal so far. Yeah there was the Khimaira bit in the missions and where it came from and we've been able to stumble upon the testing grounds before. There are connections to the lamia and most chimera creatures in ToA from that area. I'm sure there will be future story added later for it.

For now, its more of a mystery and I like it that way, I'm sure more will be uncovered about Alzadaal in the future as well.

And roleplayers are a strange breed, but you do get a good one very rarely. Most are just bad because they play against Vana'diel rather than within it.

[Akashimo]

Re: Einherjar

I gotta admit, I'd take the headache story missons over the insane easy content anyday though. Last night, cleared Dynamis - Buburimu though I had to log before joining in on the farming but, doing it was the fun part, considering died twice and had to eat an r1 due to time. Saturday, finally gotten Sea, story wise, it was worth all the lengthy travel and fights. Hell even dieing the sharks was fun, considering I knew first thing I'd aggro and die to was them when I was reading on FFXI wiki about Sea. In terms, content like CoP is what I love about FFXI. Though Nyzle Isle is the best thing I've seen that came to ToAU, just for the fast paceness and having to work without a set plan. Highest floor my static gotten was 5, though we ran out of time at the last stretch >.< If anything, I think SE is going for a good balance of Dungeon Crawling, non-grinding friendly content and grinding headache content.

[Legal Fish]

Re: Einherjar

Nyzul is incredibly awesome and the rewards are great. Goliard set could be a bit better, but at least it has some very nice hMP pieces. If I don't get Nashira Body in time, Goliard Body wouldn't be bad for a stun/drain/aspir macro. The other two sets are very nice.

My team beat our first set of 5 floors with 15 seconds remaining. Nyzul is can be a real pain, but at least they are adjusting it so that floors difficulty will be grouped by 5s(instead of completely random).

[Caspian]

Re: Einherjar

So far, I've found the AU mission storyline rather interesting, it doesn't involve a multitude of level cap fights and quests, but the cs's have been neat. I'm looking forward to finishing it and seeing what's next.
Nyzul Assaults can either be a lot of fun, or one gigantic, aggravating, pain in the ass. When you miss making it to lvl 11 because it asks you several times if you're sure you want to exit, then, yeah, it gets annoying. There seems to be a little more luck involved in which floors you get than I'd like, but when you do get a stretch of good floors, its a lot of fun. And the rewards can be very nice, I just have to make it far enough to make it to them.
Anyway, I'm thinking this could be a lot of fun. I'm guessing since you can have 36 people go, that all mobs will be red and you'll have one treasure pool like dynamis. Though they could have it to where one alliance is responsible for the smaller mobs, while the other takes on the big mob. Looking forward to seeing how all this pans out.

[tazirai]

Re: Einherjar

It's all about attracting as many groups of players as you can. They cater to the hardcore, "sit around for three hours hoping your voke bot is better than the other HNM shell's" gamers just as much as the story-driven crowd. Focussing on one specific demographic is a sure way to kiss your subscriptions goodbye. EQ was, and still is, one of the most hardcore MMOGs out there and even they relented and dumbed down their game allowing faster transport, relaxed death penalties etc in order to attract more than just the self-flagellating hardcore crowd. In the era where all other MMOGs live under Blizzard's shadow, most companies can't afford to be so complacent about their subscriber numbers.

even though I agree with Feba, what you say is QFT!