July 2024 Version Update

Kupon or bust.

Would have made these RoEs worthwhile, seeing as they're one-time objectives. Also could have been used for Bonanza as Funk said. Also could be tossed into the AMAN Trove.

The goal isn't to give you what you want

I'm really not sure how it can be made more clear. Do they literally have to say *** you pay me

It's not "giving you what you want" if you win bonanza. There are plenty of people who have never seen certain drops in their Trove runs. You're still very much at the mercy of RNG.

People spend lots of money on Bonanza and Trove mules. I'm not sure how you think a Kupon wouldn't continue that trend.

Considering its a one time roe, giving the players a +2 earring for ONE job in a game that encourages you to play multiple jobs is not game breaking.

Calling it now: the next time you see an Old Case+2 will be as one of the top rewards for the next VanaBout.

SE are professionals at dangling these things in your face to get you interested/hooked/invested and to drive participation on existing content. Bonanza was starting to get old too but then they threw in a line of exclusive weapons and you'll never not play it again. Genius

Of course it isn’t. They don’t care about game balance. They aren’t afraid of breaking anything. They just don’t want to actually give us what we want. That way they can say they gave us something nice when in reality it’s just a carrot to make us log in.

My group got a bunch of mediocrity from ours. A couple people got duplicate +2s they already had (go figure), one got a Corsair which is the worst of em all, and another got one on a job he doesn’t play. I consider myself lucky. I forgot to scroll past the first 8 to set the aminon objective so I get to wait until our next kill before I get to do the /sadkittyface emote.

Seriously the RNG odds of these things is so bad. And out of all the +1 cases from the upstairs boxes the group got ONE +2 upgrade (which ironically was the best hit out of all. It was a good earring with a good aug on a job they played). S-E knows exactly what they’re doing. It’s just mind games.

If they made these roe weekly I would consider still playing and do sortie sometimes, as i is, I'm done.

If you're gonna tell people you're quitting, you gotta commit. This your last post? Have you logged off and desubbed yet?

...is the game's fun factor really determined by the chance of getting a single piece of armor to you?

3 days til subs end. It's not about the gear, it's about motivation and not being a masochist to SE's ongoing sadism.

I was asking about mechanics more than anything yesterday because that interests me and will always remain one of the most interesting things about FFXI. I did an 8 boss run on WAR today, but already had the free drops. It felt sad getting a NQ case if lucky granted the low odds on +1/+2 and then the stats in them.

Also I'll probably still post sometimes. I have 3 kids, an academic career, and starting a PhD in October though (this is mostly the reason - would do sortie once a week with guaranteed drops for fun if they added it though).

I'm just struggling with the concept.

Sortie: Not fun, won't do.
Sortie, but with a weekly higher droprate: Fun, will do!

It is insane to me that someone would suffer gameplay they don't enjoy just because they might get a drop that they would presumably only use for more gameplay they don't enjoy.

I would do it once a week. As it stands I have done maybe 10 runs on each char in the last 6 months. Yes, it sucks. The 1 weekly better drop rate would make it nice to do once a week (per char) and it be casual.

There is no excitement in sortie content. It is all easy and mundane, and repetitive. The thrill of opening a +1 case or +2 case is what is fun, what we seek, not the actual doing of the event.

In no way was I saying I am quitting because they won't do that, I mean to say I am quitting but would consider still playing a bit if they did that. As it is, I play too much, but have always played intensely for a few months then quit for months or years. I didn't play from 2013-2016 (about 3 and a half years) so I can have the strength.

Doing V20 T3+4 and R25ing sets has been fun, but so repetitive. I would need to store a few 100k more segs before starting V25, then the sick and lifewasting time in RP runs afk? I'm not doing it that much when it isn't needed to clear any content (nor are primes, 2 WAR can do 8 boss I'm sure, and even HQ animon only with rmea brd and idris for speed).

I'm not at all shocked because this has been the standard response for as long as I've been following this community but god damn it's unbelievable that the response to free cases was "this isn't enough free stuff and I didn't get the one I wanted."

I understand the frustration with the +2 system because there are plenty of examples of people who have no/few +2 earrings for their jobs. I'm actually in a similar boat; I have 13 +2 earrings at this point and I'm only using 3 of them, the rest are duplicates and/or for jobs that I don't play (on that character).

The difference for me and the reason why it doesn't bother me that much is I'm not logging in to the game to get a +2 earring. I'm playing because I enjoy the mechanics of FFXI and I enjoy the company of the people I play with.

If you hate the content and are only doing it because there's a carrot on the end of the stick, you should really evaluate either that attitude itself or the carrot you're aiming at. Aiming for a maxed augments +2 earring for a job you're passionate about and getting disappointed every case you open that doesn't contain it just isn't healthy. Enjoy the game and if you happen to get a really awesome earring, all the better.

It's easy if you just stick to doing 8 boss runs with melee strategy and never attempt Aminon. It's a lot more interesting and MUCH more challenging when you add Aminon into the mix.

Also: you went to 10 runs in the last 6 months. Wonder why you aren't getting earrings...

Tell me more about how stimulating and thrilling doing the same Sortie run every day is.

The one good thing about FFXI if you're not in a static on a set job is you can vary it up a bit by going tank/healer/dd/supportdd each day. Even that isn't enough to keep going on the grind for me.

Asking for a +2 case once a week when that is something like 1/66% chance of getting a full stat +2 on the job you want isn't asking much.

Cannot/refuse to schedule my life around FFXI, hence no static, hence no Animon. Values and priorties...

I don't do the same Sortie run every day. I very rarely do the same Sortie run, because I'm not always going with the same people, we don't have the same shards/fragments at the beginning of every run, and we don't always have the same jobs available (because of the people).

It is really engaging though, because there are random elements that change the plan. Are we ahead of schedule? Maybe we'll grab that Porxie. When are we fighting B? How's the Clarion Call cooldown, if he's wind hand? Should we risk skipping Naraka or Botulus if we're tight on time? If we have extra time at the end of the run, is it best to spend that time getting the extra mini-bosses we missed upstairs? going to D basement and getting the chest there for re-entry? Do we have enough time to add Naakuals?

It's fun to try to optimize a run, especially when we're going with a mule (or two) or a newer player and there are restrictions on jobs or capability. No 2 Sortie runs are exactly the same, at least for me.

And of course the whole time I'm chatting with whoever I'm going with. It's fun. You should try it. You're on the most populated server in the game, you can't find a community of people who want to randomly run Sortie together at some random time each night (or every third night)? You don't know anyone who runs regularly but sometimes has a spot? You don't have a linkshell or Discord where you can ask your friends if they're available and have a Sortie tag they want to use? Put together a group with your LS and then yell for the 6th member. You don't need to go with the same 6 people 7 days a week to be able to run Sortie, despite popular belief.

Imma take a different stance from MT here: Sortie is boring. It's not an event with much variation. It's not challenging on the level of v25. There's no 'win' condition really, you do a run and you're 1 run closer, but there is a 'lose' condition (you do less galli than expected and shift your timeline). I don't think it's a good or fun event.

But, I also don't think that giving you more rewards makes it a good or fun event. If the only reason you're doing something is for the rewards, and it's the last thing left in the game, why play? Just quit. Getting the earring won't make your future Sortie runs more fun. It won't make you feel complete internally, you'll just pick another earring you want. If you don't like the run/game, don't do/play it in the first place, regardless of the rewards.

I actually think it would be better if it was more static, NM always in the same room, Blitzer always in the same place (e.g. in A B C D it is SW NW NE SE of the 4 small rooms. Add warping to boss entrance from the start warp if you have Animon HQ clear, etc.

It is hard enough to find 5 competent reliable players in EU time as it is, would be much harder to find 5 that are ok with doing every other day. People that play FFXI are generally hardcore or casual with few inbetween. Something like Tues+Thurs+Sunday would be a good balance and work for me, but yeah not gonna find 5 others that wont use KI ASAP on off days and mess up schedule etc.

Animon HQ isn't happening with pug every time though is it. Let alone NQ.

Well this is the problem, it is fun once or maybe twice a week. Even then I think the rewards should be better. At one point they said they would add drops to the bosses, what happened to that?

Having seen more and more primes I am less impressed, and it has definitely made it clear the game is over. I've been making some emp+3 armor for completionist sake but done now.

If it's fun once or maybe twice a week, do it once or maybe twice a week? The amount of rewards really should not be driving how you spend your time. They don't pay any dividends down the road because there isn't going to be a new vast swath of content to use them in. Either you like the game for what it is or you don't.

The flip side to this is that the lack of new content means you aren't on any timeline to 'stay caught up' or whatever. If you do 2 sortie a week and finish a prime in a year and a half, it's still going to be every bit as useful as it would've been in 6 months, just a bit less prestigious.

Part of that fun being the drops... don't know why you are pretending otherwise.

This has always been how FFXI worked until the game got to this point.

Again, I still feel like this is the first time FFXI got to this point and that's why I think I've had enough for the forseeable. Played since Aug 2016 off and on and it was fun, but now it is not the same. The time I quit for 3.5 years was after people worked Delve out and everyone and their mule was capped with endgame drops in a couple of weeks. There was nothing more to do, nothing harder that needed the drops to beat.

FFXI(or it's playerbase as a whole) does not determine the way you, a sentient human being, prioritize your time. If you've chosen to do content based solely on the drops it provided for the past 8 years, that is a personal decision. It's never too late to reevaluate why you made that decision and see if it still holds true today.

I can assure you that there are people, including multiple posting in this thread, who did and do not play primarily to obtain drops or equipment.

Well, have you ever truly stood back and wondered if you play more because you enjoy it or more because it is your career? Beyond a point of course you don't care for drops anymore, but last I knew you still tried to fully end game gear out 6 chars so you obviously cared about the drops.

Some people do things just for completion sake. There is no reward from getting Mastery Ranks but some people still spend time just on doing that.

There is a lot of running downtime in Sortie, to the point where if you have a group of people you like hanging with you are far more likely to keep doing it than otherwise.

You guys are funny, been refreshing the page over and over and I wish the conversation was on discord, I bet you a Yagudo drink it would have been quite lively.

this forum is basically a support group at this point. for those going through the five stages of grief in a very weird public way

I think you've missed his point though. If he was using me as an example of someone who:


Then let me say: I do care about drops and equipment. Part of the reason I'm doing Odyssey bosses, Sortie, Ambu, etc. is for the drops and equipment. I don't primarily play for drops and equipment. I enjoy the content and the process, and I enjoy spending time with my friends. We also, sometimes, get gear. I'm not logging in every night thinking "we'd better kill a new Odyssey boss tonight or I'm not having fun". I am excited at the prospect of clearing something, or getting a +2 earring, or whatever, but it's not my primary motivation.

I've assessed how I spend my time, yes. I have my own personal characters that are not used for RMT activity. They've gotten effectively zero playtime for the last year.

I spent the time streamlining and optimizing my gear and automation to 6box all of Odyssey[v25], Crystal Paradise, and past master trials because I found it fun. I did a bit of Sortie when it was new, and acquired some pieces I felt were necessary for Odyssey V25. After that, I chose not to play Sortie, because it is not fun. I care about equipment to the extent it is necessary to do other content, because I consider playing and eventually clearing the content to be the primary reward.

I made the same evaluation when looking at the 2 new MTs. If they were feasible without prime weapons, I would do them. I won't grind an event I don't enjoy for a prime weapon just to 'unlock' the ability to challenge 2 new fights. The quantity of content relative to the quantity of grind is not worth it, and it's also problematic that both fights may require different primes, or I may choose the wrong initial prime to form a successful strategy.