Campaign - How do we gain control?

[Zerayla]

I was wondering if someone could explain how we win back areas in the past, through campaign? For 2 weeks now, all the areas have been under beastmen control and I really can't understand the whole "poke the fortification non-stop only so it can recover full HP when you get it down to half". (sooo retarded!)

If most of the players are fighting in campaign (seems to be about as many people as when campaign was first made available, I don't think the numbers have gone down too badly) then why aren't we gaining any zones?

 

[LadyKiKi]

1. City constantly under attack, more or less. We can't warp out there as easy.
2. City constantly under attack, more or less. Players are less inclined to go out to these areas for EXP since you'll earn more over time by sitting still at cities.

EDIT:

3. I think fortications determine who gets hold of the zone. Once it recovers HP it loses a "point". Keep it up until it has 0 points (seen on the map) and we'll have that area. I guess?

 

[Zerayla]

Ahh, that makes a little more sense, especially the third point. I never noticed the icons on the campaign map.

 

[Jeska]

Its rough trying to take back captured areas when everyone seems to remain in the towns awaiting the next strike, unless you have a sizable force of players attacking a captured territory, the beastmen will just wipe the floor with any threat.

 

[Auron X]

I honestly believe that the whole campaign deal is scripted...I mean how do we go from having pretty much every place under control to having only cities under control?

 

[Tyrath]

I honestly believe that the whole campaign deal is scripted...I mean how do we go from having pretty much every place under control to having only cities under control?

Because they made them harder with the update, and then once we lost everything, like the others said, everyone started defending towns only.

 

[Auron X]

Because they made them harder with the update, and then once we lost everything, like the others said, everyone started defending towns only.

Yeah we should of gradually started losing things, when the first update came with them harder we automatically lost things and all the other servers seem to be experiencing the same thing, if I'm wrong and it was the week after that forgive me as I just woke up.

 

[iaredrew]

I remember seeing a ninja update in the maintenance topics a day or two after update where they had to reduce the strength of the mobs in campaign. It seems like they made them ridiculously overpowered and then forgot to fix the controlled areas they fudged up in the process.

In other words, I think you got the shaft.

EDIT: Found the ninja..

At the following time, we performed a version update of FINAL FANTASY XI.

[Time & Date]
Jun. 18, 2008 at about 13:00 (PDT)

[Affected Services]
FINAL FANTASY XI

[Important Update Details]
Following addition and adjustments were made:

- New advanced official races have been added to Chocobo Racing in Chocobo Circuit.

- Corrections were made to the strength of Beastman Confederate forces depending on the status of Campaign battles.

- A whole bunch of other stuff got changeded yo.

 

[Euphacent]

Every time a fortification regains its hp, it loses one fortification point on the tally. It doesn't update in real time, though.

 

[Celvantes]

Something to watch out for though...

Today we actually drove the beastmen back in South Gustaberg and we had maybe 30 players and 15 or so NPCs kicking the crap out of the fortification. We got it from 150 down to about 107 in roughly 20 minutes, BUT...

Not two minutes later, I check the campaign map again and it's back up to 144/150. What happened? A Quadav Transporter delivered supplies. Now I *thought* these guys just delivered resources, but apparently they fix the fortresses too. So, if you see them, you gotta voke them and kill them before they reach the tower. If they get anywhere near it, it's too late.

A PLD with Sentinel+Reprisal can take the beating from the transporter and his two guards for a little bit, but someone needs to help out quickly to get the guards off of him, otherwise, he's going to be one dead tank.

 

[iaredrew]

I was under the impression that the transporter and guards will not attack you unless you sneak up on them under sneak and invis and attack first. That's how it goes in the Campaign Ops involving them and I've gotten them to stop for me before outside of the ops but they didn't attack and just kept going a few seconds later.

 

[Jeska]

I was under the impression that the transporter and guards will not attack you unless you sneak up on them under sneak and invis and attack first. That's how it goes in the Campaign Ops involving them and I've gotten them to stop for me before outside of the ops but they didn't attack and just kept going a few seconds later.

I've had those transport Quad's stop and growl at me even when I dont have tags, they dont engage its just a kind of 'Get Stuffed' reaction from them I think.

I bet a few people could delay those transporters nicely, I dont think they are as strong as the regular attacking turtles.

 

[Genna]

The transporters are part of one of the Camp OP's they won't stop and attack you either way because they are trying to get to the fort. Even for the camp op you have to kill it before it gets to the fortress, so it'll just keep running away. And they come every 10mins, regardless of campaign battles.

Anyway, I think the reason we lost so many areas has something to do with the camp ops, I think we are supposed to be doing certan ops to rebuild our fortifications and such by doing the camp ops, but most people just do the easy ones in the easy areas so we never repair the fortifications when the mobs destroy them.

Besides, since the mobs having all the other areas doesn't really affect us like losing the astral condescence(sp?), no one realy gives a damn. They just do it for the exp.

 

[Zerayla]

Does the status of the nation that controls an area change with the conquest tally on Sundays? Or can this change throughout the week? That's another question I've been wondering about.

 

[Jeska]

I dont think I've seen any WotG areas change untill Sunday update, I think its much like the regular conquest in our present day world.

 

[Zaltana]

Besides, since the mobs having all the other areas doesn't really affect us like losing the astral condescence(sp?), no one realy gives a damn. They just do it for the exp.

This. the laziness of campaign in full effect. why even bother when you can just sit in 1 city, spam spells or bard songs, and get all the exp you want. SE is giving the lazy bums all the breaks in the world. Campaign is a decent way to exp while you wait for a party invite or just don't have the time for a party, i just think it sad that SE made it so easily abusable.

 

[Dayner]

anyone know what the bar is for ?

when you move your mouse on a area at Campaign map you see a red bar thing

 

[Sandria]

I don't think that SE made it 'easy' to abuse, by any means. As it stands, I still cannot go into a Campaign and play a white mage as we traditionally would see one played without getting lousy expierence points. Had they made it any 'harder' support jobs would be completely shafted to the extreme. In all the campaigns I have participated in, I would say only a small fraction 'abuse' the system in the way that you describe it.

The adverage player goes in for the sake of attaining the most points. Only a fraction for the sake of the win. Sad, but true, with the current system you cannot play your job the way you would normally play it if you want to attain a lot of points. I doubt that I would melee with WHM if I was interested entirely in the win. I know I'm not the ony one. I know a lot more PLDs that would sub WAR if they were interested in the win.

You also have a large portion of players who don't understand the actual mechanics behind the campaign, and another fraction that knows but don't care. Hence why the transporters come and go freely while people whack on mobs.

In the large spetrum of things, its no different to having the melee mage verses the guys that just sit by the npc and cast buffs. To each its own in the end.

IF SE wants things to change... the only way is to add an incentive to regaining areas. Currently there is really none outside of faster transportation, but even that is meh.

 

[Altheya]

For some reason, I didn't see a Campaign update last week. Maybe I zoned when it happened or something. I was looking out for it till 0030hrs (JPT) and gave up.

I always thought the red bar that you see when you mouse over a zone is some sort of aggression bar. Like how much conflict is going on there. I don't know what it's for though.

 

[Valcristiel]

It's possible to win back our areas, but it requires dedicated players.

As for the forts I've noticed there are 2 different enemy beastmen parties that help restore the fort. 1 is the transporter and another is a beastmen group under an enemy general. I only know of Bo'Dho's Elite guard in bastok areas, so if you see them wipe them all. Won't be easy either since they come from all sides. They're the ones that go straight for the fort and warp.

They should also raise the "RAISE" cap to 2k or something and make it 100 EXP per raise.