In The News...
So, you've probably noticed that FFXI has been in the news recently.First, there was a flurry of stories surrounding Pandemonium Warden who was apparently so tough that he actually started kicking players' asses in real life.
I'll be writing about him for the next couple of posts.
It's a whole thing.
But before I get into that, I thought it would be a good idea to go into our newest announcement.
Now, if you're not a FFXI player, you may not have heard a lot about our newest game adjustment. It made the rounds of several major gaming sites, but you may have missed it.
I'll forgive you this time.
If you are a FFXI player, then you're probably reading this in a state of post-orgasmic bliss.
Yes, it's that big.
As the player base in FFXI evolved, we saw a major pattern forming. Players who achieved level 75 tended to merit more than party at lower levels. This created an abundance of high level players, but made lower level partying difficult.
This isn't news for FFXI players. Anyone who has ever had to find a tank or healer for a forming party knows what I'm talking about.
Leader>> Alright... Let's get some more members.
Member1>> Anyone lfg?
Leader>> 17 melee DD... And no healers.
Leader>> Wait... Wait...
Leader>> 18 melee DD.
Member1>> Yeah... I'm gonna go craft.
The party dynamic requires a certain layout of job classes. Because of a lack of lower level players, it was often difficult to fill vital roles.
That was bad.
After carefully considering the problem, the devs decided to do something about it.
I suggested we just delete every player below 75 and change the name to FFXI: Meriting Online.
Apparently, that plan wasn't financially "acceptable".
Instead, the devs came up with the new Level Sync function.
Using this new function, players of any level can party together and their levels will be reduced to the level of a single party member.
Great. You've got 5 members for your party and you need a Bard. Unfortunately, the only Bard is level 47.
One quick button push later and all of your members are temporarily reduced to level 47.
It's beautiful.
You may be asking yourself "But won't you have to go buy new gear when you change levels?"
That's a stupid question. You should be ashamed for even asking it.
Shame.
Of course they thought of that. Your uber high level gear will automatically adjust stats to match your new level.
You can still wear your epic armor of ass kicking + 1 even though you're now level retarded.
The only down side to this part is that now you're going to see Dunes parties in full Ares gear. People with some of the best gear in the game are going to be spending time killing level 16 crabs.
I'm pretty sure that can cause your head to explode.
Still, a little fashion awkwardness aside, this update is an unprecedented level of awesome.
Hey, all you Black Mages stuck lfg around level 55. Those of you who can't get parties because all the parties are fighting Colibri.
A few mouse clicks later and you're getting your party on at level 45.
All of you melee stuck in the doldrums between 40 and 50. Those of you who can't get parties because there are so many melee competing for limited party spots.
A few mouse clicks later and you can join any party at any lower level.
All of you Puppetmasters...
Yeah, you're still screwed.
But now you can not get invited to parties at a variety of levels.
Honestly, this announcement marks a major change in the game itself. We're opening the game up and making it easier and more enjoyable for players.
Hopefully, this will make everyone's life a little better.
And hopefully, this will stop people from making inane GM calls about how they can't find a party and that FFXI is dying.
That'll give me time to deal with all the other inane GM calls.
Yay.
I'd be upset by that, but this update is just too awesome.
Plus, I'm very, very drunk.
posted by Goblin Smithy @ 6:12 PM
24 Comments:
Yay. Now I can party with the guys that got me into this addictive yet satisfying form of crack...I mean game.
All of you Puppetmasters...
Yeah, you're still screwed.
But now you can not get invited to parties at a variety of levels.
I lol'd.
It will be interesting to see what our gear abilities and bonuses will look like after adjustments. I know some go away completely. Others....we shall see.
Overall, a very good change. Soloing was getting very old, very fast.
I've already seen people freaking out, saying the game is over and dead now, and that the economy is screwed.
People are dumb lol.
Myself Im totally psyched about the idea of wearing full PLD AF in the dunes lol :D
Wait does this mean the party leader can turn off the synch in case a member dies, and you can raise them right then and there, instead of having to run to selbina?
Being drunk solves everything.
Maybe the level 45-59 range won't be such a pain anymore...
To Jack: Yes, they said that you'd be able to turn off the level cap, and have to wait 30 seconds for it to wear off. So if you get links or whatever, as long as your party can stay alive for 30 seconds while turning it off? Then you're in great shape.
I'm so excited for this patch. It'll finally give my boyfriend and I a way to really play with our friends. We're both 75. They're 60. It makes it rough.
I thing the best part is is the equipment feature will be spread across level capped areas. IE, CoP just got allot less annoying to do. Not to mention, BCNM?
Hell, half the reason it took me this long to start doing it was I didn't want to go back and buy level cap gear.
Oh snap, this is awesome news. I am SO getting back into FFXI this weekend. Screw my lack of free time, I'll MAKE time!
*makes mental note to quit his job*
Its about time FFXI caught up with City of Heroes\Villians; sounds like they only took the exemplar part of it that lets high levels go lower though. I wonder, with your system will the higher levels that aren't maxed out still earn xp? Love the blog, thanks.
You may be asking yourself "But won't you have to go buy new gear when you change levels?"
That's a stupid question. You should be ashamed for even asking it.
This is SE we're talking about. How in the hell is that a stupid question? I'm really glad they addressed that though!
as a blm, when I heard this I was basically dancing around my living room XD
Glee :D
Sweet fancy Moses...
It's official. My desire to get back to FFXI is now on the psychotic fringe.
When I read this, I went around my house in roaring maniacal laughter and kept thinking to myself "did this just happen?"
This basically fixes many a-problem FFXI had originally. Can't find a merit party 'cause the only people who are accepted to merit parties are BRD, RDM, SAM, and WAR? Go hang out in Valkurm for a little while. Your normal camp taken over by five other parties? Go hang out in Yuhtunga with Goblin Smithy for a while.
The only problem with this is that people are either going to exploit power leveling or they won't allow power leveling. Either those, or the White Mages will develop brains and realize that they can start partying again. Valkurm needs White Mages!
Speaking of doom-sayers, some guy was /shouting in campaign battle that SE ruined the game on purpose to get players to quite and to focus working on there new MMO?
I think at that point my brain tried to eat itself :/
So if it removes the +haste on endgame gear does that mean that it also removes +slow. Because being able to TP in heca on THF would be awesome. Yes I know it will be scaled back but even if it's scaled back to 10% of it's normal stats at lvl 20 that's still better than anything a THF can wear at that level.
This is a big change, though it does not surprise me coming from SE, they have a gift for coming up with enormous things sometimes, and things nobody cares about the other times. (lol pankration...)
The only drawback i see to that update is that it could make the game more community based, i mean more little communities like language, country, race, favourite colour etc.
Now noone will get a pt at JP time anymore, and LS or taru onry pt's will appear more often than the good old /sea invite pt.
All in all an interesting change. Not interesting enough to make me come back to ffxi tho.
This is going to make meritting much more annoying. Yes, it annoyed me that half the time the really fast merit spots were taken, but you could still find one that wasn't taken (God bless Main camp at sky). Now, you're going to keep getting invites to parties in the dunes, the jungles, Garbage Shitadel, and all sorts of places you were glad you were no longer required to level in.
Yes, it made lower level parties harder to make, but damnit, I never thought they were that easy to make with my first job to 75 five years ago.
... I get parties as PUP...
...
*cry*
But parties as pup weren't bad in the dunes, so it shouldn't be bad.
Gee, City of Heroes only started doing that 4 years ago.
The only problem with this is that people are either going to exploit power leveling or they won't allow power leveling
Exploiting power-levelling is a problem, indeed, but you find not allowing power levelling to be a problem?
One of the biggest things to ruin the game, after RMT's and bots, is the rampant PL'ing.
Now, if I'm in a party full of experienced players with half a clue, I know we all just want to get the hell out of dunes asap and I don't mind a PL. But if there's at least two newbs in the pt, PL should not be allowed as these people will make a significant impact on how the party goes (whereas just one newb will pretty much coast on the skill of the other members), and need to fraggin learn how to play the game, before the newbs evolve, or rather devolve, into n00bs.
I can't count the number of times in dunes when our puller has wiped the party by pulling when the main healer has less than 10 mp, or when one or more party member's is still weakened from the last disaster, simply because that puller is too used to relying on a PL's mp pool. And then there the person who builds a party with no true tank at all because he has a friend PL'ing.
Now I don't know about you, but I would think if you can't keep hate in one place consistently, the PL's gonna have trouble keeping track of everyone who needs healing.
Then we come to the experience, and I don't mean points, I mean skill. When I'm levelling my lowbie secondary character's war in dunes, as a tank who is eventually going to be a pld, I need to skill up shield, parrying, and evasion, not to mention hate control. I can't do that when the PL takes hate with mega cures and says "don't voke off me".
Anyways, to bring the rant back on topic, I welcome level syncing to lower levels, where the members know wtf they're doing and don't need a PL to do well.
Wow, that went a lot longer than intended, sorry >.<;;
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