Announcing the Double Synthesis Skill Increase Campaign!Follow

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/index.shtml

Weird time to do it too... that's 3pm JST as well.
I guess we can still get a Saturday in. For a chance at faster skill ups for all those crafts I've neglected I'm up for it since we don't have to farm for anything under 50

I hope they checked the moon phase during that time. It would be pretty stupid if that was during a full moon.

^^
This.

You'd think that if the Moon Phase had the effect we think it does, or if it were in any way significant, then you'd think the developers would very much know and actually care. Why would they make a double skillup on a "bad" moon for it, if the moon actually did carry some significant effect to your crafting results?

And if the moon does have that kind of power, then you'd think they'd know enough to put the event on during a time the moon is favorable.

Whatever the moonphase is during the event (I really honestly don't care), then surely the moonphase is nowhere near the power of "Double The Skillup Rate" so you're still ahead either way.

Was Moonphase ever actually Proven, even?

Last I heard, the crafting compass was still doubted by many, but easy enough to use that I just did it just in case it does. Moonphase, however... I tend to not care about because I honestly cannot plan my activities around the moonphase.

Edited, Aug 31st 2014 11:51pm by Lyrailis

They did give us some info about treasure hunter?

Isn't it just a straight up "+x to drop chance"?

You do realize the event doesn't start for another four six hours?

Edit: Got edt mixed up with PDT.

Edited, Sep 5th 2014 7:49pm by Szabo

I was under the impression if you skillup on something wayyy too high for you, the skillup chance is less. I was trying to make Holy Waters with 39 Alchemy and I didn't get anything in three stacks of crystals. Then I switched to something else and got a skillup the first five attempts.

I mean I could be wrong.

Unfortunately, you probably just had a bad run of RNG. I have an average of 1/7 skillups all the way from 90 smithing to my current of 103.7. Sometimes I do 50-60 synths with no skillups, sometimes (like level 99) I do 8 skillups in 12 synths. My average though has been right at 1/7. I missed the double skillup weekend because I am kind of on a break from FFXI at the moment, but I'm sure I probably could have gotten my goldsmithing from 62 to 70 all the platinum ingots I have in my inventory atm.

To the above poster, skillup rates are pretty similar on successful synths 6-8 below cap and 5-1 below cap, the problem is you can't skill up on breaks when you are more than 5 away. I'm sad to say, I break a lot of syths if I am more than 5 away, even with synth support and +skill equipment and artificer's ring. If you are eyeballing it, it might seem like you are not skilling as much, but its mostly because of the breaks in between successful synths.

Important Public Service Announcement:
Directional "Skillup/HQ" crafting has been pretty much debunked for a long time. There has never been any definitive evidence to support the theory that the direction you face has any impact on your skillup nor your HQ rate.

The idea that SE had that good an idea what the real difficulty of getting materials would be violates my suspension of disbelief.

I only got about a dozen points of skill between several characters during the event, but any skillups are good skillups once you're in the 80s and 90s. I could probably have done more if I hadn't been at work most of the day... such a short window is really hard to take advantage of.

~sleepygirl

^^ This combined with the constant PS2 limitations excuses that the dev team always dropped lead me to a different logical conclusion. Global skillup rate instead of a per item skillup rate. It doesn't make sense with a game designed to be handled by the PS2 to have skillup rates determined on a per material or per item basis. Unless you have proof (non-anecdotal, since my holy water phase on alchemy contradicts/refutes yours) that there is a different system. Many people have amassed many spreadsheets of information and have reached different conclusions to yours.

^^
This.

It wouldn't make any sense whatsoever for them to calculate things like skillups client-side, because RAM hacks exist. Now, they can try to detect a program that reads/modifies a game's variables in its RAM (cheat engine, et. al.), but the rule of thumb is, for any game meant to be played online, it is best to perform all important calculations server-side to prevent that kind of stuff in the first place.

If there is such a thing as "skillup chance per recipe"... I do not think it is # of items. I've had severe problems with Scorpion Rings on every single mule doing bonecraft as aforementioned (also Ladybug Wings) .... but yet Green Ribbons were nowhere near as bad, and it is only a 1-item synth too.

Also, Geodes are ridiculously awesome skillup. My mule finished on Geodes, getting a 0.1 every single success save three -- 2 no-skill and one 0.2 on several different skillup sessions (I used the geodes as I got them). They are also easy-to-get single-item synths.

But then let's look at Hunter's Cotton, Catoblepas Leather, and White Mouton. Catoblepas Leather, I tried in 3 mules, one during the campaign. The two not in the campaign... used 40+ synths to gain a level and a half. The one IN the campaign required two stacks to get 1.6 which is.... yes... about double what the other two did. White Mouton wasn't quite as bad; I did it during the Campaign and it was a 0.1 almost every synth (with Kitron Macaron), but I did have this ridiculous no-skill streak of 12 in a row then it started doing 0.1s every synth again.

Hunter's Cotton.....I abandoned that recipe entirely because I'd make 12+ between skillups. Tried it on two different characters, both did the same thing. Apparently SE didn't want you farming easy-to-get Saruta Cotton to get to Lv60 clothcraft lol.

In fact, all the AF+1 materials seem like poor skillup choices.

Of course we don't have real evidence as nobody has thousands of characters to craft with, but when I see similar results on 2, 3, 4 characters on a few different recipes, and they are consistent with each other, well......

There's enough room to doubt/believe in such a thing.

Just like XIV's RNG system that nobody here on ZAM believes me with (I think it is simply bugged like Warframe's RNG was, or there are hidden variables they're not telling us about).

Earlier today, gathering Wizard Eggplants, 81% chance.

Node #1: Success, Success, Fail, Fail
Node #2: Fail, Fail, Fail, Fail
Node #3: Fail, Fail, Success, Success

What's the probability of 6 failures in a row at 81%? Very stinking small. But yet I see this kinda stuff very often (I've never seen 6 in a row at 81% though that's... a new kind of extreme). Or how about during that same session, 3 HQs in a row at 11% chance?

The streaks are just too ridiculous, too many "astronomically low chance probabilities" happening to just write it off as simple coincidence/freak randomness. If that kind of luck were real IRL, you'd be winning the powerball every other day. In fact, you have better odds at winning the powerball than you do getting a couple of these to happen in the same night.

You get a feel for the stuff after awhile, and the "skillup chance per recipe" thing is one of those things.

Edited, Sep 10th 2014 1:09am by Lyrailis

Well, again, one ridiculous streak here-and-there? OK. Crap happens. That's fine. But, 2-3 every single day I play the game? Ehh...... I find that a harder pill to swallow.



Yeah, there's just too many variables that they don't show us or even explain whatsoever. Speculate is all we can do, sadly. Either way, I'm glad I got that stupid crappy bonecraft done on all my crafting mules. That recipe has always been so horrible. Glad to have finally gotten done with the BS.

Kinda wish they'd revamp crafting, and make it an EXP-based system like FFXIV's. I'm not asking for FFXIV's minigame, just attach an XP value to everything you make, and display what XP you get so that you don't have to pray for skillups. Like... every level takes 100 and...

10 levels under: 25xp (but you almost always break, 0xp on failure)
9 levels under: 20xp (you can sometimes succeed, but usually break)
8 levels under: 18xp
7 levels under: 15xp
6 levels under: 12xp
1-5 levels under: 10xp, 5xp on failures

That way, a levelup takes a straight 10 synths no matter what you're doing if you're 5 levels under the cap. I really don't see why we need the crafts being so ridiculous to level up (esp with how few people are actually messing around with older crafting materials, other than this campaign.. I almost never see anybody crafting anything).

Would it really harm the game if we could get our crafting skills leveled up in a more reasonable fashion?