Editorial: Will Square Enix Deliver at VanaFest?Follow

itll probably be either another expansion, more addons, or exciting changes to brenner and pankration....


hopefully itll be a reason for me to stick around till FFXIV

I'd bet my money on "no".

I think I am the only one that is glad that Tavnazia was not included in WoTG. It just didn't fit with the overall theme and direction of WoTG which was each nations struggle and untold stories as well as campaign and constant state of war. Tavnazia was pretty much kept away from all of the fighting, and though it's story is fairly important to the Sandy storyline, adding that area would create somewhat of an imbalance to the game and players decision on what nation to be allied with. Tavnazia could have served as a hub, however, its proximity to Sandy would cause a majority of players to want to align themselves with Sandy instead of being more spread out.

As of right now, the areas are pretty much balanced out, with each nation/area having one dungeon (Eldieme, Crawlers, Garliage), one beastman stronghold (Castle O, La Vaule, Beadeux) , and one new area that doesn't exist in the present (Fort K, Vunkerl, Grauberg).

I wouldn't mind a Shadowreign style type of Dynamis though, where you go to the real Tavnazia after the destruction of the city and fight fomors and orcs that are trapped there. That would be kind of awesome in my book.

Spoken like a true hero of the people, Thayos. I couldn't have written that better myself. I am glad you are bold enough to stand up and let Square Enix know how the community feels, hopefully we eventually relay the message to them. I posted my opinion on what needs to be done, what should be done and what hopefully will be part of this "Surprise Announcement" that will blow us out of our seats here.




I'm not sure why you think it needs to have leveling spots all the way from 1 to 75. That's honestly quite a bit to ask for. At least some new merit camps on par with Aht Urghan and maybe some new leveling spots 50-75 would be great. As for 1-50 I think they're not crowded enough, and fine as is, if anything the old 1-50 camps need MORE people in them, especially with the East Ronfaure [S] fad.

Also, I don't think there's any real specific limit on how big the continent would need to be. It might be anything from a chain of islands, to several smaller continents, to one big one. I'm with you though in the fact that it needs to be as big as possible, something around Aht Urghan Size, or with the complexity Chains of Promathia added. That would be spectacular and very welcomed from me.

The rest of what you said I agree with.



I whole heartedly disagree with this post though. I think it was too convenient that Square Enix (in their own words) wanted to "Finish explaining the very root stories of Vana Diel and it's past" without going to where it all came together, in Tavnazia. That's where the conclusion to the war itself happened. Also, everyone has always wanted to go there, to venture off there. I even entertained the idea that it would be neat to go to Tavnazia and the area's around it in present day (like a place of ruins) once you beat WOTG. Not using it in one way or another was a lot of potential lost by Square Enix and disappointed a lot of people.

Not only that, but as I said that's where the conclusion of the war pretty much took place, and as you can even see in the opening movie, there are some pretty large scale battles that took place in Tavnazia. Before WOTG, everyone always associated the crystal war era with Tavnazia, not using that potential for new exploration and storyline is simply laziness and wasted potential. Also I highly doubt it would effect everyone moving to San d'Orian allegiance (not that they already aren't) but there are many different things they could do to prevent it.

Edited, Jan 18th 2010 2:38am by EndlessJourney

Edited, Jan 18th 2010 2:38am by EndlessJourney

I would just like to point out that the 2006 Fan Festival was in the first week of November, the 2007 Fan Festival was November 15-17, and the 2008 Fan Festival was in December.

The first Vanafest was actually in September at TGS, the next took place before the American Fanfest, and I don't know about the one from 2008.

I am remaining hopeful that there is still a chance that there will be a Fan Festival in the near future.



Edited, Jan 18th 2010 4:14am by stupidmonkey

How about just lower the cost for black magic spells drastically? Especially if you're a Black Mage. I think that would fix a lot.

As for SMN, maybe remove the MP cost to keep an avatar out, and allow only blood pacts to consume MP? That would be nice but that could overpower SMN a bit. Although one could argue, it would only make them similar to BST (who have unlimited pets).

The main issue with the game is there are no more "big" events to do. Everything has been broken down into 1 hour or less events, which in it self isnt terrible, but also stagnates the game.

Dynamis: There is always a reason to come back to this event. We have 20 jobs now and every job has at least one decent peice of relic. If your not after relic you could be after gil (lots of shells these days do pay outs), if not gil then perhaps a relic weapon.

Dynamis is truelly the most successful event SE has made in FFXI. Yes, it can be come boring pretty fast, and then theres issue of drop rates and the time commitment. But, there are always people looking to join and its one of the few events that hasnt died off after FFXI's long life. It also is one of the events that can create true team work and bring a linkshell closer as a group.

Nyzul: Nyzul has a strange problem with it, its popular but its not. Everyone wants at least one peice of gear from Nyzul, but no one wants to do any floors that arent boss floors. Nyzul is short, and generally excepts most party combinations, which make it a good event to run for those players who arent either 100% on their job or lack some gear.

A bigger issue then the boss floor problem is that, interest in Nyzul wavers pretty dramatically. Once someone gets their gear, they are done. There is zero reason to come back unless you want a floor 100 disc or a mythic weapon. Every day their are fewer shouts for Nyzul because it slowly is dieing due to it being stagnant.

Salvage: Salvage suffers from the same syndrome Nyzul suffers from. Since Salvage requires Assault points, you have to run assaults. No one wants to do assaults unless its red vs blue, or the one of person shouting for a random assault for captain rank/mythic.

Couple that with meh drop rates and a pretty high price to pay once you get your 3 drops for one peice and Salvage becomes pretty elite to the upperclass of people in Vanadiel.

Assaults: If its not red vs blue, someone shouting for an assault for Captain/Mythic no one really does them. The awards have mostly been replaced since they were released, and you can even buy some of them on the AH.

MMM: Its all about the start up for MMM. You cant make a good maze until you get into pretty well. Theres a decent learning curve as to what to do and how to make mazes, and outside of a few decent items that random chest drops, theres not much use for it.

Had MMM not had the start-up issues, and some gear actually worth getting outside of a few swords, people who do it more often.

Einherjar: Dynamis on crack pretty much. Once you get into an established group who can win zones, things are pretty much cake. Einherjar is pretty welcomeing to most players and drop rates are ebtter then land kings. The main problem with it, is that once you get your gear your done.

The only reason tor eturn once you get your e body or v fork is for tokens for a mythic or some item from the ichor.

Sky: Its old, period. Most people only want 1-3 things, ie Kitty pants, Crimson legs, or K osode. Most of the gear has been replaced by other events and the content up here is pretty easy and boring. There is becoming a serious lack of interest in sky as well, since other gear is obtainable, without long wait lists.

Sea: The only reason there is a high demand for sea really is because there is still a large portion of the populas that doesnt have access. Sea like dynamis will probably always be in popular demand just due to its exclusivity and once inside, drops.


SO in the end we have pretty much 2 events that are probably gonna be around and stay popular till the end of FFXI. Outside of those events we have small group/time investments that are pretty much one stops. If SE wants to really fire up the player base, we need a new large group event that is going to last, coupled with a 3rd player base city.

New jobs/smns/small man events/crafts/nms wont spark the fire under the plwyerbase that it needs. We need a reason to actually do an exspansion or at least stay in that exspansions zones for more then 10min and a new large scale event.

I wouldnt doubt if it has nothing really to do with changes to ffxi, but some cross game promotion like if you have a sub for ff14 then only need to pay half for 11.

I haven't logged on to Nebo in months. I haven't deleted my account, though I have been contemplating it.

For me, it is just as you say. I'm sort of waiting to see if they do something with their next batch of updates that can convince me to stay. As I get older, I find myself less and less willing to tolerate Square Enix's sadistic style of effort(Read: Time Spent) to reward ratio.

Don't get me wrong, I love a challenge. But having something take lots of time to do, just for the sake of taking lots of time to do...is not challenging. Its annoying. And as of late...the rewards for time spent are low even by Square Enix standards.

I get it, you want people to spend lots of time playing your game so that you can collect monthly fees. I would just prefer you coaxed me into playing your game because it was actually fun. Not because some marginally better carrot than my current goodies awaits me at the end of some long winded, ridiculous, boring fetch quest rat maze.

I have not had respect for Square Enix's business practices in a long time. They constantly promise things they don't deliver on. They hype up ridiculous updates with /bell commands and try to pass them for viable content. They do NOT communicate with their North American player base at all.

Again, I get it. "If it's secretive and mysterious...it will be more addictive to the fans...more hype...more people will talk about it." Your game is not mysterious anymore. YOU as a company, are not mysterious at all. You are predictable to a fault. You have failed my expectations time and time again.

This is the line for me. Either something happens with this next update and you right some of these wrongs, or you have lost me as a customer. I'm just not willing to pay good money for this crap any more.

Wait, what?

The game as hard-programmed caps. The total amount of gear they can add is 4096 pieces/slot. That means 4096 different designs.

But areas are limited to a total of 255 areas. If they want to add more than 3-4 more areas, they will have to rewrite part of the game to do it. In comes PS2 limits. :(

Avatars. And that's avatars. And they promised them back in November 2007.

Contrary to popular belief, the battle at Tavnazia was NOT where the conclusion of the war took place. The battle at Tavnazia and the explosion (explained in the Sandy Storyline) basically reduced both the beastmen forces and the Allied Forces of Altana. After the battle of Tavnazia, there was the battle of Jugner where 100,000 beastmen slaughtered 1000 Norvallen troops. The Crystal war ended with the Battle of Xarcabard and the siege of Castle Zvahl where the Shadowlord was sealed.

Also SE's comment about "Finish explaining the very root stories of Vana Diel and it's past" had much to do about the mini expansions like ACP than anything else, though it was poorly executed.



I don't think there was a conflict in roles in the past. I believe that in the past, we didn't have access to a lot of things we have now, nor the understanding of damage formulas and how to maximize our damage. Skillchains/magic bursts worked back then because that was the best way to deal damage in a majority of cases when you leveled.

Now with job buffs, weaponskill buffs, and changes to the damage formula, melees can deal sufficient damage without the need to do skillchain+magic bursts. Because melee damage output was increased, and mobs defense/hp was not increased alongside these changes, it is easy to see why BLM's have been casted aside.

The ideas that you posted are ones that a lot of people have suggested and they are good ideas. Not only would SE need to change the system, they'd also need to change/add mobs with different behavior. I think SE tried with the Qutrub mobs, but they were implemented poorly.

Edited, Jan 18th 2010 10:31am by ImmortalAlchemist