Ragnarok Y U NO PvP?!

Hi there, new server people!

Since the merge, I've not seen any Ballista happening... is this due to the fact the ballista scene is as dead as it was on caitsith, or am I just catching it at bad times?

I figured that I'd ask here instead of wasting another few days doing /sea all ballista whenever there's meant to be an official match on.

I've a feeling that I'm running on false hope here, but can't hurt to ask.

Thanks in advance

Shred

Hey there Konda

Actually you are right about the dead ballista at least for what i saw... long time ago used to be some kind of "playground" but there where always the same peeps so i guess since a lot of them quitted no one is doing ballista anymore D:

A shame tho

<< Has had ballista liscence for years and never done anything besides 1-2 diorama-ghelsbas. I dont even think ive ever SEEN people do it.

Ballista on Ragnarok has been dead since 2006, when people used to at least do cap 60 fights and sometimes uncapped ones. I honestly think the same happens on all other servers, perhaps the only 2 exceptions are Siren and Fenrir where at least until 2 years ago or so ballista was still being done on a regular basis. But I am sure that if you ever try to make a shout for a diorama or a brenner lots of people would come and join in w

Ballista is a case of overdue neglect and I think a nice case of organized linkshell promotion can go a long way and pump at least some life into Ballista again. The more people you get involved, the more interesting and fun it becomes. You can even do rosters, teams, and duals if you wanna get fancy.

It's always fun doing a Diorama and watching two guys PvP with the opposition being clearly stronger--while I go do Petras for the few kills we do manage to get.

They see that, despite their higher kill count, they still lost. When they ask how, I explain how the game of Ballista works. Some end up quite interested, others use the typical, "That's stupid" excuse.

The problem with shout dioramas, is that they always descend into 1v1s, which gets boring pretty fast. People don't seem to realise that Ballista is a TEAM game, and the object is to score as many petra as possible.

I'd love to play some real, team based, Ballista again, but it seems like the Ballista scene went around the same time as Caitsith's and I'm not sure if there'd be enough interest to get a group/LS going. realisitacally, you need 6+ per team to have a good game, and you need people willing to play mage classes instead of just the usual mix of MNK, BLU, SAM etc.

Thanks for the answer to my original question tho!

The clanky, mechanical movements and "turn-based" don't really facilitate PVP. The "capture the flag" petra aspect can make it easy to just "hit-and-run" and avoid the PVP aspect altogether. I enjoy tooling around in PVP on occaision but I COMPLETELY understand why the vast majority doesn't.

I agree that FFXI does not have the game mechanics (mostly battle system) to be amazing for PvP, but you really should have more experience before commenting on strategies. The reason I like PvP is because you need to be continously adapting as you are actually versus a group that can react to what you are doing. I wouldn't argue that PvP takes more skill by any means, but it surely requires a different skill set.

To OP, Fenrir has always been the most PvP active server (why I transferred a long time ago). We still run uncaps 90% of the time and 60 caps 50% of the time usually depending on the day/time of day.

I'm not particularly commenting on strategies so much as I'm commenting on how the gameplay isn't conducive to having fun doing it. In most other MMOs (even diablo II now) you can respec your character and use multiple gearsets to change pace of the fight. It's not like you don't know EXACTLY what you'll be up against when you see a drk/mnk or whatever. This is compounded by the fact that some of the quickest actions take 3-4 seconds. You don't exactly have to have "lightening reflexes" to stun or avoid spells sometimes etc. Lastly, when most DD jobs have at most 5-6 Job Abilities, a battle turns into a "battle of attrition" waiting on timers.

Whether I have a wealth of experience or 2 entire days of tooling around doesn't change the validity of my points.

(edit) realised this came off as a bit testy. I'm not upset or anything I'm just at work and hurried.

60 caps 50% of the time?!

I agree to some extent, Ashman. There are many jobs that just don't have the complexity to offer any sort of skillful gameplay but...

1) You are underestimating the skillset ballista requires especially for certain jobs. Thf comes to mind as one... excecuting Sneak Attack on someone locked on to you is always fun. But even things as simple as nin vs nin can be affected greatly by if a person is skilled in ballista or not.

2) You are focusing too much one 1v1 type scenarios rather than strategies carried out through large scale matches(as the OP mentioned, they are very fun). You'd be surprised how much communication it requires, and how certain members fulfill certain roles (decoy, scorer, gate breacher, defender)

3) Just because you say something is valid doesn't make it valid. We are both just expressing opinions.

If anyone ever needs a WHM BLM or BRD for a real uncapped ballista match hit me up. Man its been so long since I've played a real match. I used to go to a lot of 60 and uncapped years ago when people still played it on caitsith.

if you want some 1v1 fun let me know.

Does any server actually do Ballista anymore? Back when I first started it was already pretty much dead, you were lucky to have 10 people in the match (5 on each side).. That was probably over 4 years ago..

I never felt the game was designed for PVP. I know SE said before they introduced Ballista that "the game was always designed for PVP", but I think this statement more accurately reads "the programming allows for players to attack other players with only minor alterations to code". It felt unbalanced from the very beginning, and after BLU came along, I think just about everyone who still did it lost interest entirely.

It's my opinion they added it to appease people, not because it was planned, balanced, or added with the intention of ever balancing it. Considering all of the currently unused content in this game, I'd be surprised if they ever got around to revamping PVP/ballista at all.

From what I saw, BST was the Ballista killer.. Without team mates backing you up, or a way to bind, sleep or some way to freeze the BST master in it's tracks, all he had to do was call out a pet, sic it on an enemy and run around like his pants are on fire..

Fenrir runs mostly only uncaps sometimes 60 caps. Heard that Lakshmi runs 60 caps sometimes.

And lolBST lolBLU. Cor is what breaks ballista now (5 tick tp regain for whole alli/ 400 QDs / 900 WFs)