How the other half lives?

So, I was think about how FFXI could become better in the next expansion, and I think there are some things that they could glean off of other games like WoW, that would definitely provide an improvement to the game over all. My first thought is about Assault. Assault is great, I really, really enjoy it, and if it wasn't for the Perdu Blade I wouldn't have thought to start doing it. It actually started out as a Nyzul Isle group but since we weren't doing to great at that because of our party set-up we switched to just doing Assaults and then start doing Salvage. We have been much more successful doing Salvage than we have at Nyzul Isle. Also, we opened up Assault for anyone that wants to do it in our social linkshell and it has been a resounding success. Almost everyone is at least Rank 3 and most are Rank 4 or higher. There are two Assaults in the first couple of levels that aren't worth the effort, so sometimes we need to repeat to get people to Rank up but everyone needs the points. :) Anyway, I do have a point here, and that is that people enjoy doing these instanced zones. There is absolutely zero competition, and their is generally a fun objective to get done, and it can cater to different play styles. This is what WoW gets better than FFXI, because their instances are huge, and well time bound. FFXI has Dynamis, which was initially fun and complicated, but has become far too long of a slog. It has Assault, which is still fun but is very short and not very complicated, also the rewards are a mixed bag. It has Salvage, which is very fun, but the limitations placed on it are pretty weird. If I had to pick, I would ask for something like Salvage. Something that is time bound but not to limit the chance of winning, but more to limit the ability to cover all objectives in one run, but without the strange limitations of the Pathos.

I believe that WoW may have better implemented instancing, but doesn't match the social aspect of FFXI. Honestly, FFXI better matches real life in its social construction than WoW. FFXI basically encourages groups of friends to stay together, much like a click, while WoW is more individual play with the occasional grouping. WoW is almost like a Libertarian fantasy world, where individuals interact only with others for the achievement of their own good. While FFXI is more how people really interact, groups of friends generally together, but people willing to work with others to achieve more simple goals. Sure, there are dicks in both games, but generally the dicks will migrate toward the more individual based games, while those that are able to interact move towards the more social games. Of course there are exceptions to the rules, but this is generally what I have found. Since this is the case, I think that 18-person based instancing would work very well in FFXI, something like a combination of Limbus, Salvage and Assault. The more I think about it the more I think that FFXI really has a good basis for this, but I think that these zones would be better served if they had more of a storyline involved with them, something WoW does very well, and has more shaped ideas of the goal for each run. Of course I am just dreaming here, and maybe being a bit of a backseat developer, but I don't think it would be hard at all to implement.

Ah well, those are my thoughts about this whole things, Einherjar is a pretty big failure at this point because it is actually a move backward to Dynamis, which was too big and too long. Now Einherjar is too big, too short and too ridiculously hard. At least, SE has been listening to us, in that they made Einherjar as an alternative way to get abjurations, but they kind of failed in that they made it very unrewarding and too easy to lose. As I said, Limbus, Salvage and Assault are the best way to map out the future of instancing in FFXI, not Dynamis and Einherjar. Maybe not even limiting the number of people in the instances so that larger linkshells can do the events, and maybe scaling the instances to the number of people entering.

Those are just my random thoughts for the day, and for a bit of a recap we did Limbus, a quick win to work toward finishing EP's Omega set. I managed to die like three times, one of course from Gigascream from the Greater Birds, which ALWAYS happens. LOL Then Assaults (probably the impetus for subject of the post), which were a mixed bag, but helped a bunch of people get to level 4. For some reason Iz appears to be trapped at level 3. LOL Has to be just one Assault away from getting level 4. And Thaz was able to finally get his Amir Boots which we got to test out afterwards in a burn party along with his new Maneater. In fact in the party Iz, Thaz and I all had Maneaters that Iz had a hand is getting from the Like the Wing ENM. It was a pretty fun and full night. Although we didn't do a bunch of new Assaults to get a rank up, we can do them on Friday and we will be pretty close to getting another rank up. I would like to have Achikasama and Izman up to level 4 and if King is there, getting him to at least level 3 (which he may already be at, I don't remember exactly).

I have to apologize for not having pics lately, I just keep forgetting to upload them at night. >.< Hopefully, I will have some more tomorrow. :)