Atma farming...Follow

160 brayflox runs. I'm not sure about you, but that seems like a lot of doing the exact same thing again and again... which I can't understand in a game where there are so many other fun things to do. Why not REWARD people for doing other content, rather than spamming one thing?

The big problem with the game right now, it's not pug friendly.

We'll see. Growing a little bored myself and not very fond of this "Oh, every patch will be just side stuff." deal we've been getting.

My concerns are really with what Yoshi has said. He likes the WoW model but I think he may forget the roots of what MMOs are (because that's what WoW was originally) if we keep going down this path. Maybe atmas were just an experiment to test the popularity of RNG in modern day MMOs?

I need to chime in here, because at this point this post really sums up my feelings towards the game.

I am a SE fanboy through and through. I played my first FF when I was 6 years old and was hooked ever since. I played XI for 7 years. I've played XIV from the 1.0 beta, and white knighted this game even when it was terrible. Yes, I was stupid and misguided, but I held up hope for better.

I've heard a lot of people relating the Atma system to pretty much 95% of the content in XI, and saying that by comparison "oh it's not so bad". I think the reason that so many of us look back fondly on XI was because of the social aspect, and how the game design essentially forced us to cooperate with others... which sometimes led to true friendships. But the reality is that XI was packed to the point of bursting with bad design decisions, mainly in the form of masochistic time sinks.

Since the release of 2.0, I think we as players have come to expect better. You could say we've been spoiled, but I think we've merely been given what we're owed as consumers. We've seen a lot of good design choices, especially those that remove RNG elements in favour of progression systems. Even some of the most inept companies (Riot Games) realize that RNG is awesome in a multiplayer context and have all but removed it.

By adding something like Atma in, with its horrifically low drop rates, it's a major step backwards. I don't want to say it's precedent setting but if we as gamers simply except this !^@% and ask for seconds, it will be. That's why every time I see another post complaining about Atma farming on any forum, it makes me happy. The devs need to know. I firmly believe that anyone who defends such a system was one of the "lucky" ones, who got their drops within a reasonable timeframe.

I am not, nor will I ever be. Back when I was more stubborn than I am now, I went 0/106 (100% the truth) on Mee Deggi the Punisher. Some of that stubbornness has stayed with me over the years... and so, I've put in LITERALLY 50+ hours atma farming. I have 4 atmas to show for it.

If they would have made it so you have to complete 50 FATEs in each area I wouldn't have cared. But RNG is lazy, unintelligent, and overall crap design. And if it continues, yes I will unsub. They can make a beautiful world, full of great characters and tons of fun things... but I am at a point in my life where I will simply not tolerate RNG mechanics in a day and age where developers HAVE TO KNOW BETTER.

Now, some shocking numbers for you: I lead a small FC of about 12 people prior to 2.2. Since the patch, one pair of brothers have stopped logging in all together. Not sure the reasons why but I can speculate. 3 of my friends who I encouraged to buy the game have quit DIRECTLY as a result of the atma grind. So now it's just me, my brother, some random girl, and another one of my friends. Literally none of us have the patience to continue to grind atma. None of us log in nearly as much as we used to.

Now, on Brayflox, Soldiery farming, and the link: it's horribly repetitive. There is so much great content in this game, why are we only getting soldiery from 3 dungeons that we've all done to death by now? Why can't we get it from other dungeons? From retainer ventures? From beastmen quests (sorry, a random 3 soldiery doesn't cut it)? From crafting, or gathering? From killing trash mobs? Anything but more brayflox seriously. Let me put this in perspective...

2.2 came out on what, March 27? Let's say it's 4 months till the next patch, which is 16 weeks. If I wanted to cap soldier each week (450) and I was doing brayflox each run, which is the fastest... that's 10 runs a week. So 10 x 16 = 160 brayflox runs. I'm not sure about you, but that seems like a lot of doing the exact same thing again and again... which I can't understand in a game where there are so many other fun things to do. Why not REWARD people for doing other content, rather than spamming one thing?

So, tl;dr: Atma, because of it's RNG is enough to make me quit. Soldiery spam, while boring, isn't... only because I still have hope of better things to come. We'll see what the new expansion brings, but if it's more of the same my time will be going elsewhere.

Edit: Of all of the things to bring in from XI, as other players have said, why bring back crap RNG type content, when there were so many great systems like ZNM and BCNM which would easily be adapted here?


Edited, May 6th 2014 1:31pm by Onionthiefx

The problem with standard sidegrades in this game is they'd shortly be obsolete. That's why I think the Zodiak quest is a great addition to the game, because the result is gear that will never be outdated as the iLevel is increased.

That wasn't really an issue in FFXI. The level cap was in place for years, and also gear swapping allowed far more utility from other max-level gear pieces.

If there's anything ARR should take from XI's playbook, it's the Trials of the Magians content... something like that would seem to fit perfectly within the structure of this game.

One thing though is gear in this game is too short lived. If I was grinding for something I was going to use for a long time it would not be sooooo bad. As soon as you get something it already something better..

You know SOMEPLACE in the bowels of your character data is the total number of FATES you've completed.

Just have an atma drop at least once every 25 fates. If you get an earlier drop, lucky you. But at least that way you could count to 25 and know you're gonna get it by then no matter what.