live letter QA reponseFollow

"Regarding the Zodiac Weapons, in the future will they have visuals that stand out? Animations, Sounds, Skills, etc?
The grade after the current Novus we do plan to have something that will substationally change the appearance of the weapon. Even after this next grade, we have plans to eventually add a final version, what we imagine for example the Excalibur looked like, what the Zodiac Braves actually used; we want these weapons to stand out both visually as well as audibly to reward players for their hard work."

I find two things wrong with that:

1) if theres a "final" upgrade lets say the final one is il200.... what good is that weapon you worked so hard on when the il is raised to il300 yet your relic isnt getting a high il but new i300 weapons exist? In the end all that work was wasted..... unless you did all that work just for a new glamour weapon which imho would be stupid


2. at the end of the day youre work is paid off by getting you a weapon that stands out visibly and audibly? umm so ll have a weapon that LOOKs and SOUNDS better than everything else? also pointless.. how about a weapon thats just as strong as the strongest weapon or better than the strongest weapon? Or it doesnt even have to be just as strong or stronger how about giving it a unique stat or ability that no one weapon has... i.e sever enemy attack or defense lower noticeably enhances crit hit rate, or a job ability you can ONLY use when having that weapon equipp[ed... it doesnt have to be as good as the Coil 10000 weapon but at least make it unique in the regard that it brings something to the gameplay that no other weapon does even if its not physically the strongest

Could follow a path that XI did and every few expansions brings a new set of ultimate weapons.

Relics from vanilla XI
Mythics from ToAU
Empyreans from Abyssea
Delve/Skirmish weapons from SOA

The relic horn and Empyrean harp and the relic shield and Empyrean shield, and arguably the mythic WHM staff, are the only weapons in XI worth getting from any expansion prior to SOA now. Yeah if you get the full 99 version of the relic it's still very good and has a funky glow, but you could spend a fraction of that amount of money and get a Skirmish +2 weapon with a bit of luck that completely outclasses it. Hell, one of our MNKs just got the iLvl 120 knuckles from a Delve NM.

Well, "fully upgraded to max" relic is optional. You don't have to collect all 12 atma before you can roll into Coil 1.

But getting a Relic Zenith takes like, a day, assuming your HM primal groups are not full of derp. Last night we had to call out a bard in our Lost City run for not having done the quest yet.

It takes 3 months to farm a 75 relic these days in XI? Mine took about 10 times longer to obtain and required that I fork up far more gil than it takes to buy the ADL drops. Never mind the man hours it took the dozens of players who helped me along the way. Never mind having to follow a schedule that didn't always line up with my own outside of the game.

Last I checked(currency/marrow prices), you could easily make enough money selling currency from Dynamis and Salvage to pick up a marrow daily. 2 hours a day for a few months(on your own terms and schedule) kicks the **** out of the ordeal I(and dozens of others) went through to obtain mine so I really can't feel bad for anyone who thinks 3 months is excessive. I walked uphill both ways to get to the same place with Shiva on my back

That said, people should expect that any type of new weapon will span at least the gap between updates(3-4 months), if not longer. Gotta keep you scrubscribed somehow

Um, no, it does not gate content. There are multiple weapons that are as good or better than relics. Relics are just the most casual friendly endgame weapon to get.

Does it? I thought it just required beating the HM primals. You don't need to be on the relic quest for that.

While I personally would love to see monthly updates, it's pretty clear that at this point in development we can only expect them quarterly. I think they're banking on the fact that players will accept that the game is 'extremely casual' and log into the game on an even more relaxed schedule than the 10-15 hours a week that you consider casual.

As far as 'catch-up' options, I thought they'd released a currency system that you could earn points while leveling up and use those points to get geared up enough to start participating in current endgame. I don't know the exact numbers, but the stuff you can earn while leveling up as a new player puts you a step or two behind upgraded RME. Seems legit to me.




Edited, Jun 11th 2014 7:47pm by FilthMcNasty

I mean..... that's a pretty good update pace.

WoW only gives you major content updates every 7-12 months or so. End-of-expansion raid tiers have a tendency to last a year or more.

It's more accurate to say that the content patches come about three months apart.

Almost 2 months between MoP launch and 5.1 patch. Just over 3 months between 5.1 and 5.2 updates. A little more than 2 months later 5.3 hit servers and then about 4 months later they added 5.4 update.

5.4 has been out for a while, but you also have to keep in mind that they're adding quite a bit more content than XIV is. Scenarios, new battlegrounds and arenas, the pet battle system, brawler's guild, world bosses and dungeon/raid content were added during that span of time. The pace of updates always tapers off toward the end of an expansion to give people who aren't hardcore raiders the chance to experience the content before it's obsoleted by the following expansion and level increase.


Correct me if I'm wrong, but FFXI(shocking, I know) has had monthly version updates at least since the beginning of the year, if not earlier. The content and adjustments are not as large as they were when the updates were quarterly, but there's almost always something new when you visit the playonline website. I can't say what the impact has been, but if I were still playing XI I'd be satisfied knowing that I get something for my subscription every month.


Edited, Jun 11th 2014 10:30pm by FilthMcNasty

I guess I expected the next item you chase to come either in a separate update or to be something that was unlocked in phases. So instead of getting the entirety of coil up front, you get the first turn and the next becomes available the following month.

The other thing about RME is that it will probably remain relevant until servers close while the relics you get in ARR probably won't last longer than 2.x updates continue to come. I can't say that with certainty, but based on the style of progression they've adopted; ARR relics won't last half as long as XI relics. I don't think that it would take much longer than two months to complete a relic, but even if it did...

40-60 hours for an item that will last you maybe another 8 months to a year, or 180 hours for an item likely to last you until the servers close(or cost you a few more hours farming the next upgrade). XI relic had a lot more longevity value than ARR's relics are likely to have.

Even if I hadn't decided to devote my life to the kindreds, I still would have participated in and enjoyed the hell out of Dynamis. It was several mechanics serving players with different goals, all wrapped up into a single event. You could use it to make money, farm a relic to improve your character, farm up AF2 if you didn't have the dedication for a relic or even just dive in for some good old fashioned face mashing. My LS would wager on who would be the first to rip hate and catch EES to the knee. The theme from Dyna-Xarc is still in rotation in my workout playlist. I still have fond memories of muting that in favor of the Benny Hill show theme music when we got to the mobs with charm.

Good times