Dev Tracker - Discussion

No. 4 plus 2 squared equals 8 so the patch will be on Sunday at 11:00.

Every update in the last several years has happened between the 10th-12th besides the April update which is pushed a week early due to golden week.

Huh, I didn't notice that trend until you mentioned it. Yeah. 10th 11th or 12th since august 2020.

I generally expect it to be monday, cause they love to screw us on gain-money, but I guess it'll be wednesday the 10th (tuesday night)

Been longer than 2020 they've been aiming for those dates. I'd say something closer to 2016-18.

Here are some observations I've made. Nothing concrete but usually pretty accurate for guessing.

When they first announce the the patch, when they say "early Month" its the 9/10th, and "mid Month" is the 11th/12th.

10th/11th are most common, with 12th being slightly uncommon and 9th being rare.

Login campaign ends a day before planned patch.

Bonus campaigns typically start a day after.

First announcement of next patch typically falls between 2-3 weeks after patch with bonus campaigns following 1-2 days after. Typically don't see announcement before the 22nd/23rd.

Patches can fall on a weekend, but announcements seem to be weekdays only.


......I think I need a new hobby.....

Yeah they've got a set pattern.

6th-12th most being 10-12. for the past forever. With those update notes, login starts/ends and campaign starts/ends being relatively predictable.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/59773

Update at 10th
JSE Earrings in Sorie!
Sortie mechanics unknown and they expect us to figure it out
V1: Ramuh
Ambuscade: no EP loss


EDIT: My guess would be JSE ammo and/or belts (probably not necks and backs, since we have JSE necks and Ambu JSE capes) in next Sortie update.

I like how se thinks people aren't helping returning snd new players is because of ep loss lol.

They might be off with conclusion, but the problem of losing EP was real. 15k EP loss if you won't get raised is brutal.

And they still insist in not putting an upper cap in the maximum amount of EP that you can lose.
(used to be like that for EXP after all)

No I know the loss its just funny statement from them is all. I love how ep loss has people scared to play half *** tbh.

DRK Earring:
MAB +40 vs Arcana

SAM Earring:
Store TP +5

FTFY :)

MNK earring
Subtle Blow +50 on Counters

God please no sadly I can see them doing this lol. Brutal gonna be stuck on my ear forever.

Someone make the Sortie Strategy/Discussion thread so we have a little over a week to debate, argue, complain, and fight about the event that hasn't even gotten here yet. It's a ritual at this point, might as well get to it.

My hope is they activate empy set bonus like the regal accessories do with AF

And the original abyssea earrings had zanshin for sam and kick attacks for mnk so they could be pretty cool for some jobs

I would, but I'm on vacation from 16th to 23rd, so I won't be able to update it in the hottest time, so I will pass.

It would have to be soem good stuff for people to wear them because of set bonuses. Like drk earring gonna be -50 defense put +10 attack and acc(joking clearly) but it would be interesting if they did it like regal.

I personally hope they go the "augments" route for stat bonuses on the earrings. I think there's a lot of cool potential to improve previous traits and abilities.

I think Ambuscade is a bit of a mess. Every month is obviously different but I feel like as time goes on, they make it less and less friendly to returning or undergeared/skilled players. Seems like the majority of the months the SE team asks themselves "What mechanic can we throw in to make this fight annoying".

Most returnees struggle with anything D+. Hell, a good percentage of people who arent even returnee's struggle with it. A veteran/skilled player isnt generally going to waste their time on anything less than VD (or D at the very least) to carry the less fortunate.

I just feel like they should make ambuscade more friendly towards the entire FFXI base (which I think should be a given since its the only thing they change every month). I also dont really understand why they dont improve the hallmarks/gallantry for regular ambuscade. Because regular ambuscade is very friendly for new members, but its so little points, that its a waste of peoples time.

You answered your own question.

They don't make V2 better, because no one would do V1. V2 time:reward would be much better than even bothering with some of those (made more annoying every month) V1s. Also, time waste, is the number one objective.

If V2VD gave somewhere between V1E-N values then V1 would basically become Master Battlefields, only the tryhards bother.

(Some of the V1's are fast and simple, some of the V2 are still annoying so it's not absolute)*

I agree with this like they keep saying it's made for returning players but you make these fights so much harder for returning players to even touch. Changes need to happen for sure with it like making it more forgiving or add more points for returning people.

It's always V2 that's for returning players. SE doesn't care if the points are low and the grind is dumb, as long as it's possible.

Excuse me, why should a returning player be able to spam v1 VD?

It should be very clear by now to everybody that SE tries their best (granted, not always succeeding) to avoid putting in content where you can bulldoze through in a day and none of the intermediate steps matter except the final reward. We had a couple of years of that, and the game was terrible at that moment.

Getting NQ and then +1 ambu armor was a huge step forward when I came back in 2017. NQ let me move from being carried entirely to be able to do VE with trusts, +1 let me group with other returners and do E-N-sometimes D to farm our +2s. Once I got to +2 then I was able to frequently join D groups, with the occasional VD those months where the fight was a bit easier for the jobs I had.

All of that mattered each step of the way. The content is certainly not perfect but it's scaled in a way that the intermediate steps DO matter.

What you all ask for would make all difficulties but VD completely irrelevant, and that's not good game design.

Is this more about the ammo belts, or are they addressing the 1000 domain point penalty for accidentally firing off your Hauksbok arrow/bolt/bullet?

Would hope its REMA belts as you can already re-obtain DI ammo.

RDM earring:
Fast Cast +5%
Enfeebling Magic Recast -3%

but the best will be

BST Earring:
Charm + 30
Enhances "Plantoid Killer"

They aren't trying very hard I can tell you that much. Ambu has heen bulldoze for a bit now. None of those steps matter much now because you can just outright skip ambu for better gear and not wanna blow your brains out as a new player. I don't think anyone is saying vol1 and vol2 should be the same gain just should he increased more so people can be up to speed and make it worth it. Right now currently ambu is just used for money making which again idk why se thinks the reason why vets don't play with returning players is because ep loss.