Odin Might Be A Dead Server For PUGs

You will only get invites to PUGs on Asura if you have all gear max ranked. No exceptions.

It’s Asura or go home in regards to PUGs, but not for social outreach. You gotta dig a little on the smaller servers for linkshells and new mates if you’re looking for a core group.

Regarding the state of the game: I remember seeing “FFXI IS DYING!!1!!1!!” back in the dry zone before Abyssea came out. I didn’t believe it then. I do believe it now. Whatever comes out at the end/after TVR better be a knock out of the park.

Can't die until we get the expansion to the far east

Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've seen a lot less of this lately thankfully.

The game would be more alive and it will bring more people if mid content is not time locked like Omen, and Sortie this is HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE people who yell and if anything wrong happens or if it ends up as a half *** run you get punished for a full day which is really *** stupid in 2022, Sortie is like The old skirmish/delve and it was not time Gated but this is time gated and *** stupid. This is why the game Feels Dead now, During the VW era the game was a *** blast it was even better than the 75 era you would see shouts Every time your in jeuno, from VW to Abyssea to provenance,

Its time gated to force the content to be prolonged otherwise people would finish it in a week.

The problem isnt that its time gated, its that its time gated and you're punished if you miss a day. Voidwatch was time gated: you get one stone per 20 hours (reduced to 16/12 with certain KI's). Abyssea was time gated. Think back to when it first was released and no one had any abyssites: You were only allowed 3 stones at a time, they only granted 30 minutes, and you only got one stone every 20 hours. What do these two events offer that current events dont? The ability to accumulate an indefinite amount of entry KI's.

We've been over this, all the older content was time gated in some fashion:
Dyanmis (72hr)
Einherjar (72 hr)
Assault / Nyzul (24 hrs / tag 3+1 held max)
Salvage (JP midnight, and restricted by assault pts)
Kings (21-24)
Sky (bit of a reach, but pop item NM's having 5+ hr repop is a decent time gate, considering its popularity as the endgame event at the time)
Limbus (72 hr I think?)
Voidwatch
ANNM (jp mid)
ENM (72 hrs I think?)
ISNM (JP Mid)
Abyssea

When I offered that list last time, it was pre-Abyssea stuff only, but it extends beyond it:
Meeble Burrows
Zeni was kinda time gated (pop item cost would go up if it was too popular and Sanraku only took 10 plates per day)
Campaign Ops (24 hrs / tag, 7 max)


With the exception of Coalition Ops, almost everything in SoA was unrestricted (skirmish, sinister reign, vagary, delve, incursion, did I miss anything?), guess what happened:
"I finished all the content in a week, I'm bored, I'm gonna deactivate for 3 months"

We had so much content back then... and way bigger populations, so having most of it time gated was fine because there was always something to do. Now we have what... Odyssey and Sortie. Dynamis-D if you still do that to farm points for necks or clearing wave 3. Omen isn't difficult and most veteran players are finished with it.

The only content that isn't time gated is Geas Fete, but after you've done 3-6 Aeonics there's little point doing more. Casual/returning players struggle to complete them on smaller servers because the veterans farmed them to death and have no incentive aside from to merc or be nice to LS members. So, once you're done with wave 3 Dynamis D and got all your AF+3s and other pieces from Omen, on top of any Aeonics you may want, you're left with grinding Odyssey, Sortie, and Master levels (if you don't bot). They do not have good replay value and are restricted to six players a run.

Back in the day, we had Sky, Sea, Limbus, Einherjar, Salvage, HNMs, Legion, Voidwatch, battlefields, EXP/Merit parties, missions, and so many other things we could be doing. The difference in relevant, varied content is staggering.

Imagine if tomorrow, SE released ilvl equivalent content for Sky, Sea, Limbus, Einherjar, Voidwatch, and Abyssea, on top of adding more high tier battlefields, Unity NM fights, proper rewards for beating Master Trial fights (outside of glowing weapons), and even new battlefields for your Sacred Kindred Crests. A harder version of Sinister Reign? Why not. How about a new Delve area? Or a stronger Wildskeeper Reive in Ra'Kaznar? I'd even accept new HNMs in the field, so long as there was a fair system to stop RMT and botters monopolizing. The possibilities to refresh older content are limitless.

Didn’t SE just announce in their New Years message that we are getting enhanced chat filters and new master trials for 2023? Lol. That’s what we are getting.

I don’t know if anyone can confirm this, but recall reading something about a new endgame zone at the end of TVR. Was this confirmed?

People say the VW era was the worst i think it was the better
I always said they should add SOA Voidwatch Path,
Abyssea Aht urghan zones and Seekers of adoulin
Dynamis aht urghan lots of stuff they can do / add Abyssea Halving would be interesting to see for example

You always look thru things with nostalgia goggles bolted on.. You just simply dislike the content we have now or you yourself finished it and dont see its relevance to others. Most people that burned thru content are in that boat atm, but that isn't to say its not comparable to the past. How are you putting Voidwatch and Abyssea with the rest ? Makes no sense, but if you wanna list all the content from the past, in reality right now we have:

Ambuscade
Odyssey
Omen (you claim most are finished but people still farm cards, crystals for Gil, still people needing gear etc.)
High Tier Battle(Mostly the ones in Selbina but the rest have occasional uses and for farming REMA mats during campaigns)
Sortie
Dynamis D
Unity NMs
Escha (Aeonics or gear.)
Master levels (lol)
Master Trial

Thats if you want to purposely not include things that ppl still do for various reasons like:
Delve
Voidwatch
Einherjar
Sinister Reign
Abyssea
Nyzul (Neo Nyzul for campaigns)
Very few BCNMs during campaign or kraken club

There isn't some shortage of relevant things to do, its about as equal as the past with the rest of the crap you listed. We still have missions too with TVR.... Not long ago with RoV. They added a high tier battle not long ago with Shinryu and we are getting another Master trial. This is why I think they made things too easy, because people like you complain theres nothing to do and complain about lockouts when weve always had lockouts for literally almost everything. They need to start making things more long-term oriented and keep players chasing that carrot. If people burn thru things so quickly they need to either keep consistent new content coming (which we know they wont) or make it last... Most high end players have burned thru all of that and so we are in this spot atm.

They needed to make that Odyssey gear a lot harder to obtain. Hopefully with the new relic type weapon we can get some more things to work towards.

Of your list, the only ones I really pay any heed to anymore:

Ambu = $ during non 'skip' months.

Ody = $ from C; NMs / RP.

Sortie = Gear; Prime Weapons kinda.

Mlvl I just get as I do things. Not going to spend tons of hours doing what is basically a more boring job point farm.

Thats what all the private server ppl are doing for "fun" though. How many people even wanted another EXP type grind? I guess if they policed the game they would probably be another relevant "content" but yeah.. They should make the mobs a lot harder too and add gift type bonuses to make it more enticing.

I don't get why they are so shy to make certain grinds hard but then randomly add something like Shinryu with horrible drop rates. If I had to guess they probably just screwed it up when so many complained about the entry, like always, and it ruined it for everyone else. I still think they should focus on long term goals and content longevity. I was looking at UNM gear earlier and some of them are quite nice side grades but they made it all too easy to upgrade with Gil, similar to what they did with Dyna D. In the past they would have had a more annoying process.

Everything else we all say is just window dressing for this point. From day one of Odyssey's release, the forums were full of bitching how it wasn't like the Omen Canteen System. Then Sortie got dropped and we thought the Ruspix's Plate would allow more flexibility...and all it really has done for most is give justification to "waste" an entry for a Job Unlock.

There's the social media model of "but what are you missing if you don't log on every day?", which is not a comforting way to play a game for most- even I as a person who plays way too much can see in the people around me that no one enjoys that FOMO being created by devs, and let's not even talk about how its a pretty shitty way to gear entertainment from a mental health standpoint.

SE wants us logging in daily, even if just for an hour, rather than logging in twice a week for 2 big sessions- and I still don't understand wny. Its the same $12.95 either way to them.

As someone who enjoys leveling in mmorpgs, the issue isn't the grind. Its the lack of meaningful rewards.

+1 attribute, and some HP is hardly noticeable when advancing through Mlvls.

During the Job Points farm not only did more Gifts = faster JP, but the points were able to spent on seemingly meaningful passive upgrades to your job. Along with cool Gift thresholds (500, 1200, 2100) unlocking unique job-based spells or passives.

Old-school ffxi leveling is more akin to job points, whereas every other level you unlock something cool: New WS, new spell, new equipment, new sub job level, etc.

This is why Mlvl is so abysmal for so many people. Its not that the difference between mlvl 0 -> 50 isn't felt, its that the grind feels boring. And worse yet, the bonuses are all passively applied. You don't get any manual choice on anything. At least job points gave the illusion of choice (as you would eventually hit cap on all, but could choose the order).

Technically you do get access to new spells, traits and abilities for that job

How come modern content gets the "if you arent finished with it" treatment and back in the day doesnt get the "if you arent finished with it"? Why cant someone be finished farming any of those above listed events?

They probably figure that feeding a little crack to the addicts a day is better than having them get blasted twice a week, it's easier to keep people addicted drawn in.

I've known a lot of players, including myself, over the years who "took a break" and never came back. I imagine their expectation is that people who only play twice a week probably won't stick around very long, my experience being that people who don't login for prolonged periods of time tend to not stick around also. Getting on every day also keeps you more engaged with the community, which again, is more likely to make you stick around.

I agree the current system is excessively punishing, though, and has poor mental health implications. I think they could still keep people engaged with the content and make it less of an obligation to do some of the content daily to progress.

Daily engagement gives you less chances to escape.

If you start taking a day off... It might be two... or three... eventually you escape.

Psychological warfare. You can't help it. It's purposely designed with hundreds of years of research to target you.

I asked someone a few months back who was real active for a few years why they quit and the answer was basically that they stopped playing for a little while, realized they didn't miss it, and didn't come back. I took a hiatus around Sept-Nov to spend more time outside because of RL stress and I only really started again because of people I knew in game and kept in touch with during that period combined with downturns in the weather keeping me indoors. I think people underestimate how easy it is to ditch the game when they don't touch it for a week or two.

It's real easy to walk away once you spend a week or two without logging in. This may also be why there are fewer people on now, folks took time off to travel for the holidays and didn't miss it. It doesn't help that the first week of v25 was a clusterfuck and Sortie just isn't as engaging.

This victim complex is super annoying, people are not addicted and they are preying upon you. You ain't go nothing better to do, if you stopped playing XI you wouldn't be building boats and learning to play the guitar. If you stopped playing XI you would just have to find something else to spend time on, and it would end up being another game or social media. Near every other mmorpg out there is worse, they have higher budgets but the content is aimed at casuals so turbo autists like us will burn through it and have nothing to do in month. They are also less aimed at making you spend your time on the game and more aimed at emptying your bank account.

Half the population of zoomers spend 5+ hours a day on Tiktok, in the grand scheme of things spending your time on XI ain't so bad.

For a few years I played Warframe, it's way worse than XI and the kicker is that even though it's f2p you'll end up spending way more money cause the cash shop is a *** and preys upon you and your busted up monkey brain.

On XI they want you to keep playing, on near every other game they bring the power of psychology down to bear on you to buy the latest mchammer pants and whale mounts.

I'm not done with Odyssey, Sortie, or Master levels, but I am done with everything else. The game is great if say, someone left ten years ago and gets into a group not long after returning. There's a ton of content for those who are well behind the curve. And that's wonderful! But for those who stuck around, the updates were so few that even at a leisurely pace (I don't rush content... I never have!) you got most things done and are now stuck with more of the same thing. I loved Omen, it was awesome. But once your group gets everything you have to move on eventually. We did it once a week for about 2 years. There was no rushing involved.

I don't understand why anyone would assume I played this game hardcore 8+ hours a day setting up parties. I'd do one, maybe two events a week for a few hours. Any other time I'd farm gil and build weapons/upgrade equipment etc. Even at my snail's pace of events, my group got so much done. It was so much fun and I'm sure other groups are experiencing this right now. However, there comes a time where you rock up to destroy Odyssey and Sortie and think ehh... this content. It's not at the quality of the previous. Far too restrictive. Even if we had 10 moglophones for Odyssey, it would still take my group years to be done with it because we are that slow. So, please don't lump me in with those who do nothing but events every day or two and then complain that there's nothing to do. My gripe is with the poor replay value of current content... and certainly not that I have nothing to do.

No, cause that's how the game has always operated. Pug content has always been linked directly to content, when stuff that is pug friendly is relevant people wanna do it and when it's not they don't. Nobody is gone anywhere, they are just not engaged with whatever you're wanting to do.

Voidwatch was the same, probably the biggest pug boost the game has ever seen. Cause drop rates were crap and everyone wanted those glow bodies. Still, after a few years the pugs dried up till they added the next thing that people wanted to pug.

The real reason you can't get your pugs filled is because nobody wants to cultivate a pug audience on these servers and the people you were replying on capped or w/e, people just rely on other driven players to fill our their groups. They don't try cultivate more casual or nervous players to join groups, they don't make shouts with "no experience needed, will teach" or whatever. When you do that you get more casuals to want to join, however that takes effort and people are lazy asf.

Years ago on a diff game I had problems getting pug stuff going cause it was only elitists doing it. So I started making "learning groups" in party building world chat. I had some problems but ultimately I ended up creating a load of players that would join near anything I wanted to make, cause they ended up trusting me. Most of the people on your server don't join cause they are insecure of doing group content and the smaller the group size the bigger a problem this tends to be.

I never said anyone was preying on people. There is a difference between predatory tactics and doing things that they know will keep people playing and, as a result, paying. People make their own decisions in how they spend their time, it's hardly unique to ffxi that sometimes people involve themselves in things that, when they step away for a while, they realize they don't miss it and don't return to it. Game designers likely recognize this, hence the mechanics requiring you to log in daily to progress. People engaged in an activity regularly and a community around that activity are less likely to quit, this is true of anything.

Nothing I said made me out to be a 'victim' either, I just acknowledge that SE designs the game mechanics to keep people coming back regularly and keep people playing. We all make our own decisions about what we engage with and how we spend our time, I don't think SE is holding a gun to my head making me do anything, but I do think they could dial it back and make it less punishing to people who can't login every day or two.

The rest I agree with, esp the whole cash shop thing. I was pretty shocked looking back at some MMOs I've played in years past how much you could just go straight up buy from them.

It wasn't specifically aimed at you, just the overall concept of it that keeps being brought up.

Every company is preying upon you.

That isn't some fairytale, but it's also not something irregular. That's it's intended function.

You are a consumer of things, and they are a consumer of you. Your time. Your money. Your attention.

It's also symbiotic, not parasitic. You are getting something out of it. (But it is very Asymmetric Symbiosis)((that means they get more from you than you from them))

I believe there is a major difference between someone playing the victim card, and being able to cite that the exact same dopamine receptors that 'light up' when using cocaine also 'light up' when a major drop happens in an mmo. Yes, at this point the statement "aren't we all adults here?" is very applicable, but to ignore the chemistry of what gaming does and is designed to do is just naive.

Mayo Clinic and Screen Addiction in Video Games

Odin is a jp server. So ya, English pugs are pretty much dead.

still patiently waiting for Rolanberry Meeble Burrows

To add to this: everyone who makes money off you is preying on you. It makes me wonder: are these political YouTube videos, regardless of the stance, really interested in sharing their beliefs? Or are they putting on an act to rev-up the algorithm to make money? You can tell when a video is stretched to the 10 minute mark if the video has a few fluff minutes in it so they can post double ads.