Interesting news on Ant Urgan

[Amiricle]

http://www.theorderls.com/bigkill_sundi.php


Interview with Sage Sundi
We were privileged to have a private interview with Sage Sundi, in which we got to ask a lot of questions that people in the HNM community have been needing to know. The detailed version of this is a much more thorough read than the summary, from the front page, but both will be here. Also, I'll start translating the interview into Japanese.

I'd like to thank Freddy Hachi and Yasu Kurosawa for helping with the interview setup, and for being so helpful at the event. Freddy Hachi is a PR guy at SE, Yasu Kurosawa is a Producer for FFXI based in Los Angeles, and Sage Sundi is the Global Online Producer of the Community and Service Division which is based in Japan. I also was introduced to Matt Hilton who works at SE and deals largely with the NA community and would like to schedule an interview with him as well.


Question 1

Berticus: The change that was made to when mobs pop when they can become claimed, that was a brilliant change. Almost every American player loves that so much and it's changed the game greatly. What was the rationale behind that, and when did you guys know about it?

Sundi: Actually we knew that problem maybe since a couple years ago. We still have the number one GM call as MPK, you know, "someone just killed me." We tried to change the GM policy and it didn't work. And then also, well, we changed the system how the monster pops. Still we have a lot of calls about MPK, so we'll make a change in the next patch, to change more. For example, in EQ2 there's no MPK at all. Once the monster's target is dead, it will move back to the original position, not aggroed to anybody. So we're not going to create it exactly the same as EQ2, but maybe we're going to post some thread in the forum somewhere to get more ideas. We've been talking to the Battle Team for around 2 months and we stilll didn't come up with any good ideas.

Ondori: You know, beforehand, before the change was put in, NA players couldn't get claim. But since it, they've been able to get claims. It seems like you have a timer, that when it pops it sort of delays a little bit, and that seems like it's really really made a lot of people very happy.

Sundi: Right. We still don't know exactly what's the reason. It could be, someone told me, how many hops you have from the US to the Japanese server. But it doesn't show up on the server's log, and also we heard that there's a certain gamepad with a turbo feature. So, we knew that it was unfair, and that's the reason that we changed this.


Question 2

Berticus: This is Bikwin. Last week he got Excalibur - full relic - we finally got it. To pay for it we used money for 7.5 months of dynamis, that's 74 runs, and we spent about 200 million gil to get money from bazaars. So, the question is, why is it designed to take so long, and are there any changes in store to make it easier?

Ondori: Was that intentional?

Sundi: Yeah, that's intentional. Not my intention, but that's mainly from Mr. Matsui. Matsui san and also Gode san, that's the Battle Team. And ever since we put Dynamis in the game, we have been monitoring activity almost every day every week, to see how many people actually get the higher weapons. We think that's still intentional, I don't want to see a lot of people to have these stronger weapons..

Ondori: I see that there's also some people who say there are other ways to find Dynamis money. Fishing, and then there was a rumor about the Strange Apparatus. And some people also say there's the CoP Dynamises listed in the game data, that nobody knows about. Are those scheduled to be released this year? Or will those have the same currency?

Sundi: Currency has to be within the 6 Dynamis areas. We're not going to change that. However, maybe, umm... should I say that? Well, yeah, maybe there's a chance of some Dynamises to drop, something, not currency, but some way to... do something. You guys will know in a couple of months. I'm not gonna tell.

Ondori: Will it make getting relic easier?

Sundi: It's a little too tight to get those items. Yeah, we're gonna tweak it a little bit in the future.


Question 3

Berticus: Since Al'Taieu got Jailers and Ix'Aerns, we've killed a modest total of 22. But the pop items weren't 100%, we got more like 50%, and as for the torques and capes, we got 5 out of 22 more like 23%. Comparing Al'Taieu to Tu'Lia, why aren't the pop items 100%, and why are the loot pools so shallow, with 1 torque only per mob.

Sundi: I don't know. Hahaha.

Ondori: That scares us, you gotta know.

Sundi: Right, well, actually I didn't know until now. So I've got to talk to the Battle Team.

Ondori: But just to reiterate on that, it seems like the pop items - it seems like there's 4 tiers - the pop items along the way are never 100%, and if you get all the way up to a certain point, and you don't get the drop, you have to start all over again. So some people say that that's pretty aggrevating.

Sundi: It could be bugged. It doesn't seem like it's the intentional way to design. Honestly I don't know, so I have to check into it.


Question 4

Berticus: We popped Jailer of Love about a month and a half ago, with about 40 people, and we fought for 4 hours. We died to it. We got torn apart by it,. it was really hard. But our problem was that we couldn't damage it. We couldn't get it past 90-95% the whole fight. You know, with 40 people we threw everything we had at it, but it's autoregen sent it straight back up. We did a 1500 Chi Blast from 100% and it was back full in about 20-30 seconds.

Ondori: We estimated that the auto regen on Jailer of Love, is about 200-250 HP per second or per tick. And that seems like it might be bugged. Since sea is such a new area, we were hoping that in the latest patch that that was fixed, that the regen wasn't as strong. Do you know about that? Because there are a lot of people who are actually thinking about not popping it.

Sundi: We received a lot of GM calls and e-mail saying that it might be bugged. Again I honestly don't know exactly what's going on but, when we put in those zones a couple of months ago... There might be a way where you can fight with them, not just straight to them, but it could be that there's a way.

Bikwin: We killed Jailer of Temperance, and for that you need different weapons. And we figured that out. Jailer of Love we tried everything and we didn't die, we could handle it, but we couldn't damage it.

Ondori: It felt impossible.

Sundi: Well I don't think that's a bug. The response from the dev team regarding those players' comments...

Ondori: Maybe it was designed to be beaten a few months out, like right now not to be beaten but to be beaten in a few months with more gear and more additions having been added.

Sundi: Well the other players have those items. You've seen the other players with them haven't you?

Bikwin: We've compared with other LSes that have tried this as well and they died, they failed.

Ondori: We have a very large network of HNM LSes and no one gets it. And 2 LSes, us and one other group who has talked about popping it...

Sundi: What about the Japanese linkshells?

Ondori: We read on 2ch that a lot of them have tried it and they can't kill it either. One person made a fake post but couldn't post any screenshots.

Berticus: Our thing is, with 18 people to handle the adds, even with another 18 people, like 4 involved in tanking and 12, 14, 15 people involved in damaging it, we still could not damage it, it's just too fast.

Sundi: We have about 30 or 40 people on a Q&A team to check how strong all the monsters are. We also have an internal dev team Q&A, 18 people, that work for them. Before we release the patch, they test how, they like, actually fight it. They mainly are working for the Battle Team, so I'm sure that there's a way somehow. At least that Q&A team could beat it, right? If they couldn't beat it, we were not going to patch it.

Bikwin: If they knew how to, if there's some secret...

Sundi: I guess so. Well if you have a forum or something, maybe I can write something later.

Ondori: We have the largest NA HNM forum, so you know, if you would come in...

Sundi: I have great interest in that.

Ondori: You could even maybe post there.

Sundi: We only have like a relationship with Stratics, or IGN, etc, and yeah we need to integrate those core players.


Question 5

Berticus: What percentage of Treasure of Aht Urgan, the new expansion, is going to be level 75 endgame content?

Sundi: Not really. Everyone is complaining that there's no solo content, so we're adding the solo content and lower level content. Because I know everyone hates Promathia, it's kind of boring right? So we're also not going to add another ranking system. Now the maximum is rank 10, we're not going to put any more stories after 10. We may put more stories, but for this expansion, it's basically for jobs and low-level content. And also solo content and solo zones.

Ondori: If you look at games like WoW, WoW has a lot of solo content. And that's the reason that it's been so popular. Anyone can log on and play. The one thing we notice in WoW though, is that there are a lot of zones [instances] that you go in that have a lot of NMs, not like Dynamis where you go in and kill a lot of small mobs over and over again. You go into a zone and you kill 5, 6, 7, or 8 HNMs - hard mobs. I think that would really benefit the game as a personal suggestion.

Sundi: Well the solo content is a lot of easy content. Players will consume that content too fast. So that's going to be our main thing. We're also going to put in new NMs by the patches in the new expansion.

Ondori: We like to see the NMs, please, more.

Sundi: Sure, we will.


Question 6

Berticus: With the current merit points, if a player levels a new job, or gets a Ridill and wants to up their sword skill instead of a previously raised weapon, or just makes a mistake, they have to lower it, and then they have to earn it back to raise the new stuff again. Are there any plans to address this?

Sundi: I see. Still there's a lot back and forth back and forth talking about it. Not just from the battle team but also from the dev team. And we'll just test it. We want feedback.

Ondori: The merit point system was strengthened in the first part of this year. Everybody really loved the meripo system. I think a lot of people were hoping for more meripo, maybe like job abilities that could be bought with meripo and stuff like that.

Sundi: Does this sound like EQ1?

Ondori: This sounds like EQ1.

Sundi: We still need to revamp the system. Maybe this year we're going to start beta for xbox 360. We're expecting a lot of people to be coming in and those are going to be like a lower level, so then we need to rebalance it.

Ondori: I heard that you guys recently had a show in Amsterdam. How did that go?

Sundi: That's more like a media event, but we showed them the new expansion. December 10th is the beginning of JP beta. But we still haven't decided how to distribute the beta kit in the US. But it's going to be huge. It's not going to be like a beta test, more like a beta promotion.

Ondori: We saw that in some of the picutres some Xbox360s with the expansion installed. So does that mean the new expansion is maybe going to follow directly behind?

Sundi: We're going to continue to test for beta a couple months, then it will be released. But it has to be at the same time in the US, EU, and Japan.

Ondori: Do you think that the US will get a beta chance before the end of the year?

Sundi: I can't answer that.


Question 7

Berticus: This is our biggest question.

Ondori: This is the biggest question.

Berticus: Everybody is very interested in it. Nidhogg, King Behemoth, and Aspidochelone, they've dropped the best loot pools in the game since they came out over 2 years ago. Any new improvement or addition to this game hasn't matched or surpassed that in all players' opinions. Tiamat, Jormungand, Vrtra, and Ouryu, when those got added we were very hopeful that they dropped - since they were extremely hard - that they would kind of put Nidhogg, put KB, at a lower priority. So these incredibly hard mobs - 2-3x harder than kings - don't drop as good loot.

Sundi: There's always a loot table discussion. But we maybe are going to change that. We also need to add new

spells. You know spells usually just drop off a monster or are bought from an NPC. So maybe we should create some kind of quest, to get new spells or new songs. It's always that new stuff is going for the Warriors or the Paladins.

Ondori: For example, the Monk Black Belt, that takes very long, and you have to be very lucky. A lot of people have asked, you know, there's 3 dragons, which came out at the same time. A lot of people wondered if they would ever had a Monk style, doesn't have to be a Monk, but for example they drop 3 pieces and you trade it in for an item.

Sundi: Oh, oh, ok.

Ondori: Or abjurations.

Sundi: Yeah that's a possibility. But I am concentrating on not weapons for melees - maybe for mages in the future. Mages, maybe 5% of mages have a crucial spell, or something. I want to see that - a big difference between mages.

Ondori: Yeah, for example, if you have a SJ of WHM, so like RNG/WHM, and someone else has RDM/WHM, the RDM can't land spells better than the subjob. So a lot of people have wondered why there have been BRDs with SJ WHM landing silence or paralyze on Kirin, but a RDM can't. So a lot of people wonder if that part of the game is a little bit broken.

Sundi: It's not broken, but we always need to balance each job. You're going to see new spells and songs in the future, the near future. So we will change that.

Ondori: That sounds great.


Question 8

Berticus: We'll end with this one. Is the HNM, camping, the haijin playstyle incorrect in your opinion?

Sundi: It was correct when we created the game at first. We didn't intend to addict people to the game, but somehow we did. But now we realize we have like a 100 people right now and we see a lot of people that become haijins like that. Yeah, now I don't think it's a good idea. So we may change that.

Berticus: Are those players' opinions and.. do you take them into consideration?

Sundi: We have a lot of emails from not just players, but maybe parents, and we have to listen seriously. But maybe still, even if we could sell 4million xbox360s, a lot of regular players start coming in. We have the majority of players as the light player. But still we have like 10% of the core players. We have to provide both contents, that's all. So we're not going to kill the camping, or core playing style, which I like, so there's always a camping style. Also there's a lot of content for the light players in the future.


Conclusion

Ondori: We're really hopeful in the future that you guys will focus a little more attention to the HNM community. We really hope that in the future that there is a future. We hope that there is more content that takes time but rewards you well.

Sundi: Alright, thank you very much.



Ondori's Thoughts


After this interview, Berticus, Bikwin, Peng, and I talked to Sundi some more. We thought for a while, and were a slight bit confused. We had the impression that the people at these igames shows were fairly close to the cutting edge or dev team. Well some of them are, but not as close as we'd have liked for them to have been, and they aren't allow to say much of anything. That is a fundamental difference between American game companies and Japanese game companies. But wait! Later that night I recieved word about a multi-day event that may be based in California that will involve the Dev. Team and the press/players. This excites me, and I can only hope its a FFXI event and not a SE event; meaning I hope the event is centered around FFXI and the products or expansions that surround it.

New information was released, but nothing earth shaking. Compared to the other events that have happened across the USA, I felt that there was more player-SE interaction than at any other. I could be wrong, but I feel that this is in large part due to either Yasu Kurosawa or Matt Hilton at SE. It seems like SE is listening more and more to its player base.

It seems like new changes are coming, and SE is choosing to focus on the distinctions between all of the mage jobs that are in the game. I can only hope that SE will start to focus more and more on endgame additions. I'm going to make a quick Everquest 1 comparision.

When I played Everquest, there were very FEW times that I ever felt like I had hit that 'Invisible Glass Ceiling'. What I mean by that is there was no visible cap. Endless number items to get, HNMs to kill, and hundreds of merit style bonuses to get. I'd really like to see a robust merit point system introduced. One that would really show why this game is so unique, job switching and sub jobs. For example,

-The ability to turn on or off an ability or traits in your mog house once you get it.
-Weapon Skills expanded with more Weapon Skills or other Weapon based unique traits.
-Meripo-unlocked job abilities or job traits that would make you really want to meripo.
-Job merits that have some abilities that you could use when you sub a job too.

Sundi and other talked about the Playstation 2 being a big stopping point for the progress of new armor and textures. In Everquest there were 3-4 gfx engine upgrades, but you could choose any one of them. So if you wanted low lvl gfx for speed, you could have it. If you wanted to see just how cool your new armor really looks, you could load the game in full models and check it out. This design allowed tons and tons of items, and it just recycled textures and models for machines that couldn't handle the real textures, which is far far far better then just not adding stuff.

These are the 2 things (meripo, PS2 setback resolution) that I'd personally like to see changed. This all comes down to more content, and I think we'd all like to see more end game content in these 2 month wide patches.

Since this expansion looks like it is NOT going to be an expansion for hardcore endgame players, I'm really going to be curious how SE will keep the interest of end game players that have 2-5 level 75 jobs now. As a player the game myself, I'll just have to wait, and hope that this expansion will give lvl 75 players more of a home then CoP did.

[Kintrra]

well that's kinda disappointing. It's basically saying that if you've leveled stuff up much, there isn't gonna be much for you to do in Art Urgan. and the talk about the HNMs...he may find the current camping to be correct, but it drives me insane. >< 3/4 of the time I don't even bother to camp anything due to gilsellers camping it, and the fact that they have absolutely no qualms about MPKing you if you claim something instead of them. ><

[Eviticus]

It's basically saying that if you've leveled stuff up much, there isn't gonna be much for you to do in Art Urgan.

Except for new gear, new job(s), new areas, new quests, and the possibility of addition end game content stuck somewhere in Art Urgan.....Honestly, at the moment in the game, no one has finished all of the endgame content SE has put before us. No one. Not JP, not NA, not EU. Sure one or two people have Maat's Cap. But Sea has not been breached fully yet. They still have time to think of new content, the old stuff isn't even done yet.

[Ziada]

I worry when they say they're closely monitoring Dynamis drop rates. So, the AF2 drop rates we're getting now are just what they want? I've been to Dynamis-San'doria maybe 40-50 times, and only seen 2 Cleric's Caps. Been to Beaucedine maybe a dozen times without a single WHM or BLM body piece. But one time we got two Summoner's Doublets on consequtive kills...

What could they put in the four new Dynamis areas, now... Another way to... something? Probably not AF1 pieces. Maybe the top abjurations that only drop from the kings now? Rare materials like Damascene cloth and Venemous claws? Hrrm...

[Losfuin]

I have to admit, the talk on more solo content has made me a little happy. While I find partying and working with others to be the most fun in the game, sometimes it can also be the most frustrating experience ever - the Dunes, anyone? - and all you want is to do things on your own. The inclusion of more "pick-up-and-play" material will make me happy.

[Darkmattre]

sounds like they're trying to appeal more to the casual gamer.

[Kistala]

Sounds like good stuff to me overall.

I've been playing for over a year, and though it's true I've jumped around a LOT I still have my main character, who's highest level is RDM37 after over 60 days of playtime... I'll be looking forward to all the lower-level and soloable content as I've exhausted much of what's there already (you may be surprised just how much IS there). As for endgame stuff, they've already added to Limbus zones and I'm willing to bet there are more Limbus zones on the way to keep you 75ers happy for months on end.

I've heard that Final Fantasy has been rated as one of the hardest, most challenging MMOs out there, and I have no qualms about that statement. Considering other games out there now, it comes as no surprise that SE is trying to appeal to more casual gamers.

[xaresity]

тайн260PERFCHAPимевСодеVuesДаниАгафПавлNintXIIIПанкSereAaroABBYZalmAlleавто1920Zone1980Лени
БирхOrigЦветлучшChanOZONRichJeweФормхудоWillГениКагаЧергБобиИсетBarrXVIIThisмедвLoewLivePink
JennZoneRichСметVishSoliCotoTraiCircTrevSlanМинфStepКевоМенаримсЛапиJackСергпризЗэлдПечаШвед
СолоAlbeТрухAlbeСодеButtразвRobeхудоBrixCleaBoriдопоZoneZoneMoraEnhaкакобюроТараDrifSnifRipp
ПетуXVIIKommEverГранпамяOverBABYNighотряискуАфинВранliveAmerZoneПисьArisКомсЕсак(195BranКага
ВладспасArtSпродхороNardZanuDaxxтексрамкНовиSwarMiniСоде0052ExpeИллюAVTOARAGFIATзначмедиEngl
ValiлиступакТерхSmobDucaSmobWindMetawwwrNighBrauViteAngeqMonВаргЛитРКазаТрееЛитРавтоЛитРСобо
ЛитРЛитРЛукьШестHugoБорзЮнгаlvisЧелиФормИллюБЩукДуроМазырукоUberБирюстенАралNickфильOrioстра
ГусяDisnPhilСнасNapoBobbТимоThomPaulЕфимCoun1962HarrThomБереПушкВолкМоскJackШишоPetrпродпрод
продКочеСтеп36-4ЛьвоApplBrunЕгорСтар335-БродRichhelmtuchkasНефеJetF

[xaresity]

audiobookkeeper.rucottagenet.rueyesvision.rueyesvisions.comfactoringfee.rufilmzones.rugadwall.rugaffertape.rugageboard.rugagrule.rugallduct.rugalvanometric.rugangforeman.rugangwayplatform.rugarbagechute.rugardeningleave.rugascautery.rugashbucket.rugasreturn.rugatedsweep.rugaugemodel.rugaussianfilter.rugearpitchdiameter.ru
geartreating.rugeneralizedanalysis.rugeneralprovisions.rugeophysicalprobe.rugeriatricnurse.rugetintoaflap.rugetthebounce.ruhabeascorpus.ruhabituate.ruhackedbolt.ruhackworker.ruhadronicannihilation.ruhaemagglutinin.ruhailsquall.ruhairysphere.ruhalforderfringe.ruhalfsiblings.ruhallofresidence.ruhaltstate.ruhandcoding.ruhandportedhead.ruhandradar.ruhandsfreetelephone.ru
hangonpart.ruhaphazardwinding.ruhardalloyteeth.ruhardasiron.ruhardenedconcrete.ruharmonicinteraction.ruhartlaubgoose.ruhatchholddown.ruhaveafinetime.ruhazardousatmosphere.ruheadregulator.ruheartofgold.ruheatageingresistance.ruheatinggas.ruheavydutymetalcutting.rujacketedwall.rujapanesecedar.rujibtypecrane.rujobabandonment.rujobstress.rujogformation.rujointcapsule.rujointsealingmaterial.ru
journallubricator.rujuicecatcher.rujunctionofchannels.rujusticiablehomicide.rujuxtapositiontwin.rukaposidisease.rukeepagoodoffing.rukeepsmthinhand.rukentishglory.rukerbweight.rukerrrotation.rukeymanassurance.rukeyserum.rukickplate.rukillthefattedcalf.rukilowattsecond.rukingweakfish.rukinozones.rukleinbottle.rukneejoint.ruknifesethouse.ruknockonatom.ruknowledgestate.ru
kondoferromagnet.rulabeledgraph.rulaborracket.rulabourearnings.rulabourleasing.rulaburnumtree.rulacingcourse.rulacrimalpoint.rulactogenicfactor.rulacunarycoefficient.ruladletreatediron.rulaggingload.rulaissezaller.rulambdatransition.rulaminatedmaterial.rulammasshoot.rulamphouse.rulancecorporal.rulancingdie.rulandingdoor.rulandmarksensor.rulandreform.rulanduseratio.ru
languagelaboratory.rulargeheart.rulasercalibration.rulaserlens.rulaserpulse.rulaterevent.rulatrinesergeant.rulayabout.ruleadcoating.ruleadingfirm.rulearningcurve.ruleaveword.rumachinesensible.rumagneticequator.rumagnetotelluricfield.rumailinghouse.rumajorconcern.rumammasdarling.rumanagerialstaff.rumanipulatinghand.rumanualchoke.rumedinfobooks.rump3lists.ru
nameresolution.runaphtheneseries.runarrowmouthed.runationalcensus.runaturalfunctor.runavelseed.runeatplaster.runecroticcaries.runegativefibration.runeighbouringrights.ruobjectmodule.ruobservationballoon.ruobstructivepatent.ruoceanmining.ruoctupolephonon.ruofflinesystem.ruoffsetholder.ruolibanumresinoid.ruonesticket.rupackedspheres.rupagingterminal.rupalatinebones.rupalmberry.ru
papercoating.ruparaconvexgroup.ruparasolmonoplane.ruparkingbrake.rupartfamily.rupartialmajorant.ruquadrupleworm.ruqualitybooster.ruquasimoney.ruquenchedspark.ruquodrecuperet.rurabbetledge.ruradialchaser.ruradiationestimator.rurailwaybridge.rurandomcoloration.rurapidgrowth.rurattlesnakemaster.rureachthroughregion.rureadingmagnifier.rurearchain.rurecessioncone.rurecordedassignment.ru
rectifiersubstation.ruredemptionvalue.rureducingflange.rureferenceantigen.ruregeneratedprotein.rureinvestmentplan.rusafedrilling.rusagprofile.rusalestypelease.rusamplinginterval.rusatellitehydrology.ruscarcecommodity.ruscrapermat.ruscrewingunit.ruseawaterpump.rusecondaryblock.rusecularclergy.ruseismicefficiency.ruselectivediffuser.rusemiasphalticflux.rusemifinishmachining.ruspicetrade.ruspysale.ru
stungun.rutacticaldiameter.rutailstockcenter.rutamecurve.rutapecorrection.rutappingchuck.rutaskreasoning.rutechnicalgrade.rutelangiectaticlipoma.rutelescopicdamper.rutemperateclimate.rutemperedmeasure.rutenementbuilding.rutuchkasultramaficrock.ruultraviolettesting.ru