I have had mixed feelings about update day over the last year. While you can not help but get hyped up about the coming of anything new, for the most part, the past year of updates has been a great let down.
And while there are many things left to discover about this update, the initial indications are that this update may not be a let down at all. In fact, it may be the beginning of a shift in a new direction.
The gear .dat lists are already out. Missions titles and descriptions are posted. The Trial of the Moogles™ information is becoming more clear. Things are looking pretty damn good at this point.
New (H)NMs are available from a new guy in Ru'Lude Gardens. It's hard to tell what they might drop but there are titles for a number of new NMs, so I suppose by the most strict definition they have to be HNMs. Looks like the pop items are going to cost some gil, but we don't know how much so far.
Some of the goals for the Trial of the Moogles™ have been discovered but they so far there is not much information on what you can get out of them. They are likely already part of the augments listing so we probably can't see which are which until we get in the game. Though it should be noted that Occ. Atk. Twice, Occ. Atk. 2-3 times, and Occ. Atk. 2-4 times, has been added to the list of potential augments.
New NM and the Trials are the most interesting things to me so far, but there are still new missions, and the new Campaign Op for fighting the Shadow Lord.
The .dat mining looks like a good start, but I don't think we are going to get the full picture until we are able to get on the servers late tonight.
Monday, March 22, 2010
The Beginning of All Things to Come.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Grist for the Rumor Mill: FFXIV betas picked from FFXI HNMs?
*WARNING* This is just an uncorroborated rumor! *WARNING*
Yeah, I don't believe it either, and even the person that told me is high skeptical. I am more trying to get in front of this before the mindless repeaters get a hold of it. The newest rumor going around about FFXIV betas is that SE is going to give the beta invites to the best HNM LS's in FFXI.
Before you get started there are about a million problems with this, and I don't think it is true at all. First off SE has never done anything like this before. They have never even recognized the fact that there are "HNM LS's" as opposed to other kinds of LS's. How would they even determine what an "HNM LS's" is? Second, SE has already said how their beta testing is going to work and that while there will be a closed beta for a while with limited groups, there will be an open beta by the end. So even if this were true the closed beta testing would only be for a limited time. Third, it just doesn't make any sense. Everyone wants to get in on the beta, limiting it to HNM LS's would definitely leave a bad taste in the mouth's of non-HNM LS members. I don't think this is the kind of thing that SE wants to put forward. Finally and in the same vein, why would SE invite HNM LS's to a closed beta when they have been playing up how casual-friendly FFXIV is supposed to be.
There are now two groups of people reading this: The HNM LS members that are hoping it is true, and the non-HNM LS members that are hoping it is not true. And you might be saying "Hey, Ring! You aren't in an HNM LS, so that is the only reason you are poo-pooing the idea." and in response I would give you the /facepalm. You have to remember that there is NO evidence that this is the case now, except for a few things I have heard through various other people. The "cousin's friend's postman's dog told me" scenario. The only reason I am reporting it at all is that I trust the person that passed along the information in as much that he passed along what he heard and that he didn't make it up. He was pretty clear when he told me about it and stated that he didn't think much of it either because there were just too many things that didn't make sense.
There are a few things that could support the idea. First, and everyone's favorite reason: SE makes a lot of bad decisions. That one pretty much stands on it's own. Second, it's a beta. Beta's are not the real game and therefore it doesn't have to be equal before the game is released.
There are major issues with those ideas too, but I am not going to debate out every little detail here. Instead, I will just conclude that it is so far from realistic as to be laughable. Actually, I think the thing that motivates such a rumor is that someone was feeling like SE is ignoring all of the "hard work" they did playing FFXI, and that giving out betas to the "HNM LS's" would be a proper reward for a new game. This is kind of pathetic when you think about it, but I can understand they psychology of someone starting a rumor like that.
In the end, it might just happen, but I give it less than a 1%.
Friday, August 07, 2009
Morning in Vana'diel: How Good is RNG?
Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! Is Ranger the most neglected job in the game? Is it the new Dragoon? Is it time that people take notice of it's strength in almost every aspect of the game? Ring thinks so.
So I have been playing my RNG a little more lately, and after I do some gear tweaking I would like to play it a lot more. The reasoning is simple: RNG is incredibly powerful. You might not really realize this anymore, because everyone bases damage off of their XP parties instead of things that have real defense and require real gear choices. Why do I say this? Because I can’t stop from pulling hate off of the tanks while fighting Odin.
Odin provides the perfect example of the difference between were most people judge gear and most people use. In an XP party, RNGs are at a general disadvantage. They have to constantly reposition themselves, they have to constantly be using a ranged attack macro and they can’t really get any consistency going. In a fight like Odin, a RNG can put themselves in position, even if it is at a sub-optimal range, and just fire away. Melee on Odin are the ones that have to constantly move in and out and can not take full advantage of their greatest strengths.
I often find myself pulling hate at Odin and that is not because I am being aggressive or stacking abilities, it is just through general damage done. There are many different fights were RNG can really take advantage of that but for some reason melee are still preferred, but this is mainly because of TP accumulation problems. I think that if SE creates more mobs especially HNM were TP is less of an issue (Odin has different moves, but the main concerns are the HP related moves that he does so TP is far less of a concern) so that more jobs can shine. Or they need to at least fix the issue were ranged attacks give more TP than equivalent melee attacks.
Whatever is done, I think it is time to reconsider the relative strength of RNG. If you ask a RNG they will tell you that this has been the case for a long time and that people are just ignorant. I definitely believe this is true for the most part. And I think it is time for the damage output of RNG in all situations, not just XP situations, to be considered.
#1 ~ Monk
#2 ~ Samurai
#3 ~ Ninja
#4 ~ Dragoon
Chaotic Pellucidity
Teabags and KY Jelly
The Bloggaru!
