How Do You Feel About The State Of The Game?

It doesn't seem like you're really looking for advice, just venting your frustration but...maybe your shitty attitude is the reason you can't find a party of people to exp with.

I could easily put together a party of people to EP with, I've done it before and will do it again. People in my LS are regularly forming parties and asking if anyone wants to go out and get CP/EP. You also get quite a lot of EP through Odyssey, I've mastered at least 3 jobs to 30 (before 40 was introduced) without ever going to a camp and fighting mobs to get EP.

For the record, banning "boxing" would kill this game overnight. It's got a very small population and if nobody was playing more than 1 character and had to do everything with either trusts or friends would cause a VAST majority of the playerbase to quit. Which would cascade into the remaining players quitting because they have nobody to play with.

As a recent returner... Unless you're willing to use your credit card, or get started on multiple accounts, or know someone willing to help you with their multiple accounts.. You're kinda *** and it feels awful to be stuck in that spot.

This isn't true.

You have two options, join a linkshell or lower your standards for what you expect when making solo progression.

When I came back I was scrubbig out v2 N Ambu over and over, and getting a handful of Job points a night and was happy with what I was doing. Mainly cause I wasn't judging my progression next to some OP capped out player.

I also helped someone get hooked up a while ago with a nice event LS and they have better gear than I do now, cause they got on with them and did stuff every night.

But then I'd have to play with people I'd rather not play with. I love the game, turns out playing with ***players is when I start to actively dislike my experience. I have my 3-4 friends that I play with on a regular basis and that's all I ever need again, hopefully.

I see some people voicing complaints about disappointment, stale content, lazy devs, etc. Admittedly, the anniversary stream took the wind out of my sails, but I still thoroughly enjoy the game.

Recently did a full V15 odyssey clear for a friend of mine who needed it from scratch and I just genuinely had a good time doing it. Using the different jobs, the different strategies, theorycrafting how we were going to approach the Ongo, the Mboze, etc. It was a nice little jaunt.

V20 T3 NM's were challenging and it felt very satisfying when we were able to clear them. Heck, even same with this stupid Qutrub Ambu or any new ambu really. Gotta get in there and do the science sometimes.

Do I wish some things were different? Of course. Very much so. I'd change a lot of stuff...but I would also change a lot of stuff with every game I've ever played, ya know?

I am pleased with what I've got goin' on.

I agree with all of your points here. Blizzard smartly kept World of Warcraft's engine updated and while the in-game models are very dated they've been able to tie the game in with a new launcher, support newer hardware and features, etc. despite WoW being nearly as old as XI.

Ultimately Square-Enix doesn't care about this game anymore, and it showed in the disappointing 20th anniversary presentation. FFXIV is Yoshi-P's baby, this game is an anachronism, and S-E has it on the barest of maintenance modes. Despite that I still enjoy playing on and off, slower pace of updates means that it is possible to play more casually and still progress, still have fun.

I love the game and enjoy being able to put it down and pick it up when I feel like it. Being single in college when I started to now married with 3 children, there is still a pace to the game I can enjoy.

I really think people who expect a 20 year old game to be at the cutting edge of content are looking to be let down. It is an expectation management issue, not a game issue.

I do think that the game has had opportunities to really impress that have fallen flat, but I don't dislike playing the game because of it. I have played this game since the day it launched in NA and I still have things to do that I will pursue at my own pace.

I want more, won't get it, but enjoy what I have. Until the day they shut it down, that will probably be the mentality I will maintain.

The problem with this comparison is the difference in resources. WOW has made these updates because they have/had millions of players, not 50k. Therefore they have more developers, more incentive to put money (labor) into the game...it's not that FFXI couldn't be more, it's just not realistic.

They have more players because they put more effort into keeping WoW going (at least gameplay wise, the storylines fell off pretty hard...), with a new expansion every other year.

They have more players because of better marketing in the west. WoW had millions of active players before any of the graphical updates started and XI peaked at like 500k there is a big difference. WoW also has the fact that it was made for PC only which makes it easier for their dev team to make these updates.

Personally I think that the game's in a really s****y place at the moment. I haven't played for about a year properly and only came back on very briefly when ML came out.

What killed the game for me was Odyssey. I'm really not interested in all the grind, and even if I was, I just don't have the time. Marry that with the fact that you've got to have a dedicated group to do it properly and you've got what is a complete turn-off for me.

The Voracious Resurgence just bores the crap out of me along with what seems like the trillionth month of Ambuscade.

The 20th anniversary was a complete s***show and revealed how little SE cares for their loyal customers. They're totally f*****g clueless when it comes to knowing their customer base.

I think the game is the best it's ever been. If I could transport my 2011-era linkshell into this version of the game, it would be utopia.

My only real "you need to do this right now" ask is to make imprimaturs accrue at the same rate as Assault tags.

With that said, I'd like to see more old content revamps a la Neo Nyzul Isle, but geared toward 119-era FFXI. Just some spitball ideas:
- Increase chances of colored Chocobos in Chocobo raising, make it possible to breed a Chocobo that's 50% faster than the monthly mounts (but still callable in the same way)
- Remove per-minute XP/AN caps from Campaign, add 119 versions of Fiat Lux, Cracking Shells, etc.
- Add 119 versions of ANNMs
- Add 119 versions of Assault
- Add 119 Einherjar

Also, Trust could use some pruning. Cut out many of the (largely interchangeable) DD trusts to make room for more healers and (especially) support. The best healers and the only actual Geomancer are all locked behind specific Unity memberships, and that sucks. Or at the very least, give us a little more control over what songs/rolls our trusts use, and let us ask them not to melee/WS (I'm looking at YOU, Qultada).

LOL so true! Corsairs roll during Alexander/HTBF but rarely during gain exp!

Qultada uses Corsair's Roll if you've got an EXP ring on, and won't use it if you don't. It's easily controllable.

But that would also explain the coincidence. Chances are when you're out earning experience points, you're grinding it so quickly that you burn through your rings in no time so Qultada stops giving you Corsair's Roll. Conversely, you'll probably apply your EXP ring whenever you can so it can refresh in the background, so he'd use Corsair's Roll and maintain it all the time whenever you're doing other content because the ring wouldn't wear off.

Personally, I like to summon him for his two rolls and then dismiss and replace him anyway. You could strategize around a similar strategy so he isn't overwriting Corsair's Roll when you're grinding experience.

Heck yeah. I'm particularly annoyed we only ever got one COR trust. There should be different CORs for a wider array of Phantom Rolls... In particular, it's too bad we never got any buffers for pet jobs or nukes. Could add a trust COR (maybe Watzahl from the COR AF storyline) who could do:
- Beast/Puppet if your main job is BST PUP SMN
- Wizards/Warlocks for a mage main
- Samurai/Rogues for everyone else?

That would cover a lot more stuff than Qultada can do, assuming you don't touch him and his silly Corsair's Rolling, SC-breaking self.

I geared a COR on my alt to deal with this (and get better player strength rolls), for stuff like PUP solos... but we shouldn't have to do that when trusts exist!

The content drought still feels too much for me. They lose players because of how slow the content comes out and how exclusive a lot of it ends up being. I guess the game was in a more dire position after they tied up RoV given that they specifically said it was not getting anymore major updates. Now we at least have new content/updates to look forward to but who knows what will come after that is completed. I do wish they would revamp older content again, we last got that during the lv99 days. I think they should do it again as a means of more currency for the new weapons and possibly an additional source of Master levels.

I used to (and kinda still do) think this, but Bahamut population is the strongest it's been since I came back in 2018. The population right now is about 400 higher on average than it was this time last year. And about 600 higher on average than it was in 2018.

I used to think that because some of my friends were quitting that the game was dying, but A. they usually come back and B. the /sea all numbers that I do routinely (it's a weird habit, I do it at various points during the day) do not support mass exodus.

There are a metric poop-ton of gilsellers, so that could inflate some numbers, but is it over 200 at any given time? I'm not sure.

They should just let you set a list of songs/rolls/bubbles you want support to focus on. Trusts are already pretty crappy compared to real players even when they do what you want them to do. It's not gonna break the game if they stop giving the wrong buffs.

Luzaf is also a Corsair Trust. SE just chose (stupidly) to remove Phantom Roll from his list of usable abilities.

A Gambit system (a la FFXII) would arguably be best if they could add it to the game. But given how much extra that might be, I think a good workaround would be to have each Trust that has a similar function use a slightly different array of abilities.

For example, add a few more Corsair Trusts, but have each one focus on different things. One Corsair Trust could prioritize rolls for pet jobs, maybe another could prioritize more defensive rolls.

what about ygnas and monberaux? I was under the impression those where the best healers leaving sylvie as clear top unity choice.

monb is on a several month wait, as is ygnas with a whole quest/coalation/garden grind to boot, and even after that ygnas shares some of the same problems other trusts do where they have an aoe TP move because why the heck not which can cause some annoyances.

After that you have yoran who is probably the 3rd or 2nd best depending on how much you value cureskin, and apururu who blows her mp dry if curaga is ever a factor. All the other healers are pretty sub par, we need more yoran's ideally

That would explain a lot... should probably stop throwing a Trizek on when logging out ._. /facepalm

best game ever! it's great!

He's lovin' it, boys!

If the active player base is soooooooo dead, then who the hell is buying all this gil enough to make it worth it to bot farmers etc.?

I desperately want to travel to new areas, to explore, to quest, to see new monsters, to read about what culture/mythology they've pulled them from. To have characters I can laugh with, cry with and beat all the odds with. To have a monthly storyline that's not locked behind anything; that's mysterious, dramatic and ultimately rewarding so I can discuss it with my LS and online as it happens. To be playing a game I can proudly recommend to friends beyond my declaration that this is the best Final Fantasy in the series.

I couldn't give a flying frog about another tier of gear or another year-long grind laid out before me.

I was gutted at the 20th anniversary, am generally annoyed by Yoshi-P's attitude and feel so low about the game right now I barely log on.

My thoughts on the game are that it's a wasted opportunity. We get the bare minimum to satiate an older gamer crowd, which simply by existing/paying, has confirmed that we're willing to put up with a LOT of "jank". In my conquest to attract new players to the game, it's very hard to convince them to follow obtuse guides, which sometimes have objectively false information, to do everything from level 1 to 99 R25 Odyssey.

I'm genuinely surprised by the lack of exemplar point shouts on Bahamut. I don't have a single max ML job because I don't see them as "required" to do current content or even upcoming content, but I assumed it'd, to an extent, go back to 2016/2017 where Job Point shouts, groups, etc were all more frequent. The cap just increased and Crawler's Nest is objectively empty -- aside from the 3-5 idiots off to the side camps botting. I'm not sure if this is more caused by the advent of JP/EP mercs or player apathy (like mine) about earning Exemplar Points.

If RoV and the 15th anniversary had me feeling hopeful for the future as the game aged gracefully into its twilight years, coming back for the big 20th anniversary just to learn that the game is a hobby project for the company by this point in time while also doing more back patting for the team than a baby ward's trying to burb multiple babies, I don't feel too great about the future now. I've also embraced the fact that the devs are balancing things around Asura problems, which is a problem in itself when there's so many servers that are not suffering from these things, but Matsui and team feel via metrics that Asura is the western standard for XI players at this point.

Modern XI feels like a casino to me, with all the power being tied to the gil. I can log in and get freebies due to login points and gobboxes / keys, but then the rest of the day is limited to what people are willing to grind with me in my LS at the moment vs whatever upgrade items exist via merc shouts or the auction house. RMT run rampant shouting things that botters made "acceptable" such as JP / ML farming, or flatout shouting to sell gil / DREAM weapons. I talked to a /sh guy in Asura not long ago for Emp weapons, since they constantly sell via shout it seems, only to get a 190M offer to do GS/GUN line, then the person immediately follow ups with "I can do it for $110 USD as well" and I'm just flabbergasted by that point that things are so lax anymore in XI. I'm also frustrated by bad RNG design that still plagues the game in terms of loot drops and inscribing gear, since again, it's casino elements to keep one trying "just one more time" with little respect to one's time.

Also, I'm displeased with how many systems they introduced, lock important things like gear upgrades behind, then seem to just jettison off and put in another half-baked system in place. Playing in a returning player LS has made me realize how many people are locked behind Vagary / Dyna D clears to upgrade gear pieces, or how Omen is basically burnt out on people running for bodies or cards since 2015ish. If they really want to respect returning players and help gear them up to new content, make new campaigns like an Omen scale dial with some cards or else other options to bypass needing Vagary / Dyna D to be able to upgrade equipment pieces. Let me buy some beastmen medals or flatout pay Aurix gil in order to +2 or +3 some Relic armors, or just drop the need to complete Vagary while still requiring drops, like they already do for the Emp armor that requires Abyssea NM drops to upgrade armors. There's so much that can be done still to help new and returning players feel more at home, but it's just questionable design mixed with "Asura or burst" mentality that's really hampering things on the dev side of things. I just hope SE doesn't go the way of CCP and end up hiking the price sometime as players bleed out over time, since I really don't wanna drop $20+ a month to play XI.