What's your verdict on the expansion so farFollow

I know there was a topic already created specifically asking about the verdict of the new jobs, but I was curious as to everyone's take on the expansion and the past update as a whole. I know some people here and there have mentioned bits and pieces of what they liked and disliked about it, but I figured we can have just one topic to cover all of it. So feel free to talk about zones, quests, jobs, etc.

As a whole, I think this expansion starting out is very solid. It's a good deal more interactive than Wings of the Goddess, with people needing to assignments in order to have direct impacts on what the whole server unlocks in terms of weapons, armor, etc. It's not like Campaign where you could do a few things, then just leave it for a good while and not do anything. It takes a fair amount of cooperation amongst everyone on the server to make progress in the proper coalitions to unlock new things, which I find a lot more interesting of a concept.

The zones are nice and varied, giving us a wide range of areas that, while they may feel familiar, are also quite foreign to us. It's been a long time since I've been in a zone that's truly allowed me to get lost running through it, but I went into the Cirdas Caverns a couple nights ago without a map and just ran around completely lost for a good 15 minutes. Some people may not like such things, but I honestly found it quite refreshing, since we've not had new zones quite like that in a long time. Combine that with having zones full of enemies that can once again potentially kill us quick, and it gives a nice sense of nostalgia.

The quests so far have been pretty enjoyable. Not too difficult (outside of that stupid Demolition KI), but still taking some time and running around. With the bayld rewards and how good/necessary bayld bought items are, most all of them are worth doing. It's a good way to make them pertinent to do and not just busy work.

The jobs...I don't know about Geomancer since I haven't unlocked or leveled yet, but I really enjoy Rune Fencer. It's still a really new, young job and I'm certain it'll see many changes in the near future to adjust and balance it out, but as it stands I find it a lot of fun. I can't wait for Naakuals to be unlocked in order for tanking in "end game" situations to come up again for them. It'll be interesting to see how well they fare in those situations.

While I wish there were a few more tracks, I enjoy most all the music available so far. I really, really enjoy the theme for areas like Ceizak, and I've found the Reive tune rather catchy, though a bit out of place for FFXI.

All in all, I think this is probably the more solid expansion release for the game. Far more enjoyable than Wings of the Goddess, and personally more enjoyable than Chains of Promathia. It'll be interesting to see if it can keep this pace (if not improve on it) as more content for it comes out.

I like the new SOA expansion but have a few issues.
First, why would they put a maze calling it Ceizak "Battlegrounds" next to a major city like west aoudlin and fill it with Ts near the city zone?
Secondly, not even 2 or 3 Geomancer handbells were released with the expansion. Im already a lvl 50+ GEO (casually solo leveling) and feel i will reach lvl 99 with a lvl 1 handbell.
Third, regardless if you could easily waypoint warp to Adoulin, i really would have liked to travel there by traditional ways.

Aside from all that it is a great expansion.
Just feels a little too FFXIVish.

I enjoy the expansion, but I only have one concern that hasn't been mentioned.

After campaign, the launch of the colonization system was a bit of a let down. I enjoy the activity and appreciate the complexity, but I feel they didn't really address the main problems from campaign.

Mages are getting the short end of the stick, so everyone goes DD, which can lead to some bloody endings when a few people start dying due to hate mechanics in reives.
Once players lose interest, it's likely we might start to lose coalition ranks and bivouc warps. Hopefully skirmish rewards will drive interest for extended periods of time, but it's difficult to say.
The information dump for colonization is hidden, so I find it sad to see people who put so much time into the game not making educated decisions. I know some people don't care, but SE still could have done a better job such as explaining voting WHEN you vote.

I enjoy the expansion, I just wish SE had done a better job in colonization.

Also if anyone actually paid attention to the initial story when they announced the expansion, the king of Adoulin shut off the city from the outside lands because the monsters were too powerful for them to actually explore and colonize the land themselves.

I'm having fun with GEO but I can't see myself making it a main job. Or even a toy job. I'm not sure what role SE planned for it, but I've already got a job that does AOE buffs and it has a relic horn and empyrean harp.

The Adoulin storyline is kind of directionless. I registered as a pioneer, explored the city to get all the waypoints, and then went "now what?"

I'm not really that interested in the white haired chick NPC we met yet. I think I needed another cutscene with her to find out what's her deal and get my actually interested in helping them out.

My personal guess is that more fights will be tailored to GEO specifically by having more group vs. group content like reives. But otherwise, I agree. At least with RUN, I can see replacing a DD with the job if we need magic defense, but my group would only bring GEO for most current content if we happened to have an extra spot.

Wildskeeper Reives will require 100,000 bayld, so definitely recommend stocking up.
Next mission is obtained by finishing ~40 coalition tasks.

Edited, Apr 8th 2013 10:52am by xypin

I'm so-so on the expansion, but tbh that's probably because of where I am in the game right now rather than because of the content. I really don't like the Knotted Root BS as we all know that it's going to cause problems down the line and SE seems to be the only one who doesn't see it. I also don't understand the logic of having to attack the root in order to get exp/bayld... just a horrible way to force cooperation and there's no reason for it. I wouldn't have minded so much if it wasn't for the fact that certain areas are actually blocked off until a root is defeated. Unless I missed a way around it, I was blocked from entering Cirdas Caverns because of a root, with no way of passing it unless I warped back to town and started gathering people. Really, SE? You couldn't give us two ways to the area and block the short one?

Summary of feelings:

+ New content is always good. New jobs are always appreciated.
+ New music is nice; would've like a little more.
+ Mega-City is an interesting change with Waypoint travel.
+ Upcoming features have promise.

- Bullsh*t Knotted Roots/Forced Co-op/Blocked areas.
- Giving my BST things to charm again but essentially reducing the usefulness to farming only, and even then, only in the starting areas.
- Wall-o-text explanations for the new Signet mechanics... I mean serious text-dumping.
- Lack of certain gear for the new jobs.

Edit: Big-*** minus I forgot... Completely screwed up enmity system, but hopefully that's temporary.

Edited, Apr 8th 2013 1:10pm by Diamondis

I need to log in this week and give the expansion another chance. But, as a career Mage, I am very unimpressed so far. I really thought SE made the perfect co-op event with campaign, and more use of that formula would have made colonization efforts seem much more inviting. I also wasn't aware that you needed to do 40 quests before you could advance the story. That seems excessive, especially considering how little fun I am having being a Mage in this expansion, which was clearly designed to give Dd jobs a huge advantage.

HA! That's just silly.



Actually, I agree with you.

You just pissed me off for a split second before I saw the smaller text XD I'm so quick to anger... Seriously, though, it annoys me when things that normal people can fathom seem to be beyond devs.

You only need to deal damage to the root to generate evaluations. Having a group kill monsters and damage the root seems to work as some kind of multiplier.

I once held a bunch of mobs while casting Bio II on the root and was the only person at the reive. I deal no damage to the mobs, but still garnered 4xp, 1 bayld each evaluation. I was taking damage, however.
There is no need to kill anything or attack the mobs for evaluation.

Edited, Apr 8th 2013 3:41pm by xypin

How often were evaluations occuring? I'm mystified why sometimes they happen very rapidly, but other times don't appear until the reive is completely over.

I like exploring. Especially hard to find places. I totally love the forest and mountain. I like being able to ue my boat in many areas. The city is nice. But Ah whitegate was better.

Their are no HNM up at the moment. whitegate had three.
Very few new foods. I think only a drink. Whitegate have five+
Whitegate had a few spells and armors right out the door. Complete sets.
No real new weapon types. Everyone remember all the mny new types of weapons whitegate had. Cerebus greatsword, chainsaw sword, blue curved blades 60+ level, new type polearms. It just feels missing.

Reives are broken. They should use campaign formula. As well as a bigger circle so mages can stand back. I do like not having any temps, and I don't mind a few KI's through quest to make reives esier. But I absolutely hated the temp system in VW, and other events. They never let people play their skill.

Geo is a joke. It will be a bigger joke if you spend 8m now for spells but after nne months you get your fame in city up and they only cost 2m. Geo just doesn't do much. Run is fun.

I like the graphics of the new areas, they don't look trashy like ah whitegate, but great like Luffia medows or mis coast.

I haven't really figured out the signet thing,

Music is good/ new mobs are great.

Our server was 29% col rate, but now we almost down to 20%.

I like having T+ mobs all over. It even allows people to make three to four man exp's and make a profit off of drops.

I haven't figured out skirmish yet. Or my own island thing.