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I wanted to thank you for such a thorough review and open mind about my post / project. I'd like to take a few moments to discuss some of your points and I will definitely take many of them to heart on how to improve it.
Short Summary of my thoughts:
MuffinMetrics may be promising long term, but I'm disappointed with the state of it now at its first mention, which appears to be no more than a Patreon funding request with only a few screenshots and the promise of features, but nothing to play with. MuffinMetrics is far from the "new era of FFXI simulations" that it claims to be, considering that its current state appears to be, at best, a sidegrade with less functionality than existing software. The planned future work is more ambitious than the developer's apparent history suggests they're capable of when comparing Google Docs checklists to web application development and rigorous in game testing and verification. I want a new FFXI simulator/calculator to take over the scene and free me, but I worry that MuffinMetrics will not reach such heights within on a reasonable timescale and may be abandoned before reaching its potential and standing out from existing software and spreadsheets. I do not recommend placing any funding into this project at present, but do recommend keeping an eye on it for a few months.
100% it is above my skill set, But I have been pushing myself to continue to learn what I can and keep going. I am very proud of what I've made so far and plan to continue to develop it to be the best version of the tool the community deserves.
I fully get the skepticism and fears of it being a money grab. All I can offer is my word that it isn't, but unless you know me that is not worth a lot. I tried to be upfront that supporting before I release offers no benefit. Perhaps the best call would have been just to keep quiet with everything until it was ready to release. But I was excited for it and my close friends were excited for it, so I foolishly thought others would be as well.
Positive notes:
It looks like it may be a web app, which is the best option for such software as long as the hosting web server remains active and available (and ad-free). This is a huge positive that massively expands the reach of the application to the community, who may be uncomfortable with local software downloads.
MuffinMetrics includes total HP, MP (BLM Death damage and Myrkr return), and defense stats, which can be useful compare estimated enemy damage to players (enemy DPS!). Seeing block rates included would be nice too. Neither enemy damage nor player block rates appear to be available at the moment, though.
Thanks for some positive points!
Sorry for these appearances, I do see how it looks like that. This is not my intention.
If the project is a web application, then there may be no way for advanced users to make changes. Any and all adjustments must be requested before being rejected or implemented, which introduces significant delays to otherwise simple personal changes.
A web application introduces the potential of being taken offline due to a lack of funding or for personal reasons (similar to the loss of some useful BG Wiki guides).
The software is not open source. You must trust that the calculations are mathematically correct with no way to verify or locate issues/operations yourself. Yea I've thought of these as well, I have plans to work on a 'show the math' mode so people can see how the numbers work together. And being disabled and on fixed income, the patreon idea was me trying to create a solution for the costs of hosting. Hopefully when it is functional, people will be able to make decisions with a bit more trust to keep it available and ad free for everyone.
The post mentions a "goal" to keep MuffinMetrics ad-free. This suggests ads are already being considered. I dislike even the idea of ads, but I'm not sure how expensive it may be to host this online. Not really being considered, I really hate ads and think everyone else does as well. I also don't know the costs yet and am really hoping it isn't too much.
The application appears to be limited to manual set building and single damage calculations (not simulations). Its functionality is limited to the equivalent of the "Quicklook" buttons from existing software, but without TP return and no DPS simulation option yet. It's not clear if the "Expected Damage" from MuffinMetrics is an estimate of the mean, median, or mode of the "true-to-game" damage distribution.
There is no "find the potentially best set automatically and let me work from there" option. It's manual from start to finish, which is the old spreadsheet method. I do not see this as a huge negative, but the author claims "new era" so I expected significant improvements on all fronts, similar to my moving from single-job spreadsheets to all jobs Python software. I do plan to have both available for the 1.0 release, but again that is just the word of a guy on the internet.
I present the general notes I took while reading the main post here.
Most of the post is flavor text with no meaning and is being heavily over-sold to increase hype. A little thought while reading immediately dispels the hype and leaves only questions about why the explanations are so verbose with no substance. This reminded me of reading resumes with ambiguous text trying to sound impressive but with no demonstrated metrics of success, but I also agree that it could be seen as AI assisted writing without a sufficiently detailed prompt. The use of the long dashes certainly does not help since this has been a good indicator of copy/pasted AI text. Yea, I guess I was overly excited about my project and assumed others would be as well. I will say that I did use GPT to help write this post to convey a lot of information without stumbling over my own words. It was never my intent to deceive people.
The introduction mentions "exploring lockstyles" as a purpose of MuffinMetrics. Does this application plan to integrate AltanaView or similar? This makes the project seem poorly-defined and overly ambitious. I recommend scaling back and building up later unless this functionality is already implemented.
The only note directly from the author on what MuffinMetrics does to "set it apart" from other simulators is its treatment of PDL from gear and PDL from traits. As far as I'm aware, my software is the only other FFXI damage simulation and calculation software "widely" used by the community, and my software does not have an issue with PDL calculations. This suggests a few things:
I have had comments to look into adding in a gear viewer option, much like AltanaViewer. I think it would be nice to have without having to download an older exe. Just unsure on the legal limitations. Absolutely it is ambitious, ffxi is and has been a long passion of mine. I like helping people. I don't plan on everything being go from the start and I do understand and plan for a lot of building up.
I have heard of yours, it is the python based one if I am remembering correct. I am not trying to steal people away or say yours has flaws. I know many many people use it, but having multiple sources for the same material 'should' just push eachother to be even better. I see no issue with having more than one tool that does similar things. I also make the assumption that you are likely a busy person. I am disabled and spend most of my time trying to manage my pain and find distractions. If I can funnel that time to help create something that helps people who have similar passions to me, I find it time well spent.
The post mentions "small mathematical refinements", but provides no details about what these refinements are or how they were determined. What are the refinements? Why did we need them? Where is the testing data? What are the results? How are they different from the previous values? My FFXI Ninjutsu Formula post is a decent example of providing unambiguous mathematical refinements backed with data and used to improve damage calculations towards exact in-game damage matches for ninjutsu, including two relevant historical references on the topic. Taking this wholeheartedly, I will make sure to give more details on mathematics to future posts. I didn't want to slog down a post with too much math that some players would find intimidating. I can see how both more and less can be helpful and hurtful in different ways. I'll lean towards the more for any future posts.
Looking at the "core features" in order:
Comprehensive Gear Library - nearly every item in FFXI, including event and level 1 lockstyle gear
Including nearly every piece of equipment in the game seems nice on paper. However, I see almost all pre-ilvl equipment as bloat that must be scrolled through to find the useful gear. My software includes over 1500 unique items, but nearly all of them have some relevance in modern FFXI.
A case could be made for private servers. However, the well-maintained private servers tend to apply closed-source modifications to damage equations for a fresh feel, which makes most retail-based calculations largely useless.
Where you may see as bloat (and I understand why) I can see small niche reasons for people wanting to plug in low level items or maybe even someone just wants to mess around with random event items. I just want to be able to give people the option to do what they want.
True Damage Calculations - BG-Wiki-aligned fSTR, PDIF, WSC, and WS parameters
I do not consider this to be a "feature", let alone a "core feature".
Using the generally well-understood and well-tested BG Wiki equations is an expectation. If these are not used, and no justified alternative is presented, then the application is simply wrong.
Agreed it should be expected. But assuring people the well understood and well tested equations are being used is better then not, no? I also do not want to assume the knowledge level lf the user, the game has had a lot of newer players in recsnt months, I think it helps them understand a bit more.
Compare Page - analyze two full gearsets side-by-side
This is a nice feature that has been requested to me at least twice in the past and resulted in a separate web app just for it. Unfortunately I haven't ranked this as high priority for my software so I've put it off. I'm glad it's planned to show up in MuffinMetrics in some form. Thanks! I actually have that finished already, just didn't post a SS.
GearSwap Integration - export formatted sets directly into FFXI
The application may output a few lines of formatted text which can be pasted into a lua file. This is generally very useful when building sets and lua.
Clipboard Load/Save - save or share builds instantly
This seems identical to the previous feature for "gearswap integration" and does not need to be mentioned twice.
Fair point. Originally I was planning to have a save/load function to keep sets saved to your profile so you can quickly go back to them, change something, and save/export quickly again. But having it able to shoot it out in a usable code for Gearswap, essentially does the same thing, just users keep their own info inside their luas. I'll think about wether keeping it or not is worth it. ^^
Ambuscade Cape Creator - experiment with any augment combo
I assume these capes are saved to the web-app server and bound to a session ID or login. Otherwise, you may need to manually recreate or import your custom capes each time you re-open the app, which would be an inconvenience.
This is a useful feature to test niche capes that are not included by default in other software, which requires manual (but permanent) creation via text file manipulation.
This is an instance where my above save/load feature would make something less inconvenient. But having all the possible capes pre-made is not entirely necessary with the UI I am making for this, and would make finding the correct cape more annoying in my opinion. But being able to create the cape and click in the 5 mods you want on it and the gear grid use those values, would make this an easy to use function. With minimal extra work for the user.
Level + Master Level Scaling - stats, HP/MP, and skills scale automatically:
Why is "scaling automatically" mentioned at all? Was the expectation that the user would manually input these stats previously?
Again, I see no benefit for pre-99 gameplay simulations/calculations. Given how fast solo leveling is in modern FFXI, simulations regarding damage for levels 1-98 will be out of date nearly on the same timescale it took to run them. This is entirely a lost cause when considering power leveling.
This is useful for retail-based 75-cap communities, but likely useless for all private servers, which may use custom damage formulae.
Keeping options open for players to explore more than just optimized end game level play. 75-era groups, new players to the game, private groups of friends or a niche wanting to build a better BCNM50 set could all be examples. Where they will most likely not be the most common use of the tool, I want to let the user have the freedom to do it if they want.
I'll skip over the equipment/rema checklists and trackers. I have never seen value in such things considering how trivial they are to create/maintain. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback on these both from newer players making their first REMA and players with all 22 jobs geared to the teeth. I understand not everyone will use them, and I am fine with that. Some people like the extra structure and organization to help them. It's for them. ^^
I do not see much benefit with extracting the treasure hunter reference table or COR/BRD/GEO cheatsheets from BG Wiki directly into the application itself, especially considering that the application will be applying these in the background out of sight anyway. These exist in an accessible form on a popular web site already. Many people still don't even know these are things you can look up on bg or other places. I see no harm if making the information more available to players.
I'm very interested in the claim for future work towards "Dedicated simulators for Magic, Blue Magic, and Pet mechanics." However, I have a few notes on this claim:
Magic damage is generally well understood due to the lack of randomizers. However, as far as I'm aware, there has been zero published testing for white magic and blue magic base damage variables (M and V values tested against dMND, dINT, dCHR, etc for all spells). Without these values, the reported damage outputs would be no better than educated guessing.
I believe many base pet stats are not well known. Using /checkparam <pet> will show basic pet stats, but a significant amount of testing is still required to obtain "true-to-game" damage calculations for pets as this MuffinMetrics claims. I have seen no posts about such testing and would not trust any damage estimates without it.
Both of these points suggest the author plans to perform extensive testing to determine the necessary values. This is a significant time investment that has likely been severely underestimated and will not be completed on a reasonable timescale.
Yup, I plan in some extra leg work and testing. These are not areas that I have really seen people make sims/calculators for. And as ffxi is a passion of mine, I am having fun putting this together and am excited to keep helping other players. I would love to be the one to work on this and make these for the community.
I'd like to be proven wrong, but I agree with previous posts here suggesting that MuffinMetrics (as it currently stands) is a simple cash grab based on the historical success of spreadsheets and simulation software, which have been free and open source. Asking for funding to do better and bring in a "new era of FFXI simulation" without providing direct comparisons, metrics, or even a beta application is a red flag. Futhermore, potentially using AI to write the introduction post further suggests that minimal effort went in to this project so far, and minimal effort will be provided later. I'll keep an eye on this over the next few months, but I do not recommend providing any funding to an intangible and poorly defined project.
100% don't give any funding until you are satisfied. And prepare to be proven wrong. I have nothing but time and seeking distractions in my life. I have been having a lot of fun putting this together so far and do not plan to just give up due to honest feedback. As I know I am not some scammer Chinese bot trying to pitch a cash grab, I find some of it a bit harsh. But I do understand and appreciate the skepticism.
I do appreciate your feedback, there are some good point here that I will take to heart and I will make sure I am much more thorough on the next post. Please keep an open mind and I hope you will have many more positive notes on your next post! |
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Old Case +1 is also terrible.
How? They're literally free and you literally get it just by playing the game semi-daily, just as you did before
It's a little extra that you can get through your "loyalty card" for absolutely zero effort if you're playing
And if you're not playing daily you likely don't care much about one extra earring roll per month (two if you login every single day, which we estabilished you don't in this second case)
I'm a bit confused by this stance really, yeah it's not a bonanza weapon on login but it's an improvement from before in a way that makes sense and still gets you a little bonus for absolutely zero effort..!
As someone who is relatively new into endgame, I think this is awesome for me. Login points really shouldn't be something that are game breaking, but from what I understand these +1/+2 earrings are a pain in the *** to begin with so a bonus roll at them per month is a decent gift.
My two cents, anyways. |
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By Zenion on 2025-11-05 08:41:42 |
Old Case +1 is also terrible. And if you're not playing daily you likely don't care much about one extra earring roll per month (two if you login every single day, which we estabilished you don't in this second case)
One if you log in every day. Even with max carry-over, there are less than 3000 points in the November login campaign. |
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By Lili on 2025-11-05 08:37:27 |
Old Case +1 is also terrible.
How? They're literally free and you literally get it just by playing the game semi-daily, just as you did before
It's a little extra that you can get through your "loyalty card" for absolutely zero effort if you're playing
And if you're not playing daily you likely don't care much about one extra earring roll per month (two if you login every single day, which we estabilished you don't in this second case)
I'm a bit confused by this stance really, yeah it's not a bonanza weapon on login but it's an improvement from before in a way that makes sense and still gets you a little bonus for absolutely zero effort..! |
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By Zenion on 2025-11-05 08:18:25 |
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ep. In a lot of cases it's all about who you know, though. I got my last job because the director of the department knew me and knew how to use my skill set to his advantage. He said I'd be the last person to get laid off from the department.
Well knowing someone just ensures your resume is on the short list and makes you a known quantity. The two things hiring managers are looking for in candidates are "can they solve a problem we are having" and "will they become a problem". Being a known quantity answers the second question, meaning you only need to demonstrate an answer to the first. Candidates coming in cold need to do both.
I try to encourage people to use personal time to enhance skills and work on themselves as a way to make answering that first question easier. |
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I mean, the whole post is spat right out of a LLM without the formatting fixed. I'd hold back on expectations until you actually see something. Despite the claim that it's handwritten line-by-line, the previews sure look to be AI..
They also claimed it's a simulator, but it looks to be a mean damage calculator. A simulator uses many passes through the calculation to get a low bound, high bound, and expected results based on the actual events that could occur. A calculator just takes averages of everything numerically, which requires losing precision on some aspects of the calculation.
tldr; dude used AI to slap a front-end on spreadsheets other people have created and then used AI to advertise it and now wants your money
Sorry if I offended you by using GPT to help organize a post. I was excited for it and just wanted to share what I was working on.
I can assure you it is much much more then just a spreadsheet with an ai face, and I am most certainly not just asking for money. I tried to be clear that there is no inherent benefit to support before I release it.
I totally want to have it ad-free, but I'm disabled and on a fixed income. To have it hosted and functioning the way I was hoping would require money. That was the incentive behind using patreon. However, I do understand the skepticism. Please just keep an open mind and give it a try when I get it running. If you don't like it, you don't like it. If you do, you are still not obligated to support.
Thank you for your time. ^^ |
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By Dodik on 2025-11-05 07:06:06 |
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15 mules..
XI seeming more like a cash shop grab. Sadness.
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By Dodik on 2025-11-05 07:04:54 |
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There's not even a link to anything other than promises and dreams.
This is the XI equivalent of a Nigerian prince email.
If it's so good let's see it.
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The RMT shareholders of SE don't want you to get free aby items! They want you to pay their merc services! Duh!
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2) A new category for Login Campaign will be up, in this category you'll be able to buy items used to upgrade Unity Gear Looks like this old galka was right! Sort of.
Also Old Case +1 for 1500 points, welll! That's not too bad now isn't it?! Unity NM trophy drops have been offered as Login rewards in the past. It's ***option, as you only get one item for such a high cost.
Old Case +1 is also terrible. We already know the probability of getting a +2, much less one for your desired job, and even further less one with a high augment roll. They should have kept Impish Box in that reward tier.
As this month is, there is nothing new in this "rework" of the Login campaign. They are all the same items we have been offered for months (years) but just with a different pricing structure. Would it truly have been so game-breaking to bring back Abyssea trophies? Put them on a rotation, one zone's per month, keep people logging in to get different Empyrean progress. Set them at something reasonable like 300 points each, so you can accumulate what you need over time (keeping you subscribed). |
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What WS do plan to use?
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By Jakey on 2025-11-05 05:47:12 |
Curious if the cap is still 4000 points.
Cuz Seals/Crests are still 10pts, and if there's a lower cap, that's really gonna mess with my "never getting a Kclub from UIA" vibe.
I'm lazy mathing, but this looks like a lower cap.
Its basically -700 points from the 14 days that are 50 points instead of 100 so unless its running 7 days longer you have fewer points to work with.
It is interesting how they delay the 500 point day, that prevents you from just making new characters for log in points to spend on sendable items, combined with the lower carry over that should make it a lot safer for more interesting log in point items like the empy weapon mats and such again. |
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Wondering how Lugra Earring +1 with full +16 wsc mods stacks up against TP Bonus Moonshade.
Or if there are any substitutions that are at parity with ye olde supreme WS earring.
Anybody got any data or comparative tomfoolery?
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A little sad they increased the price of Dwarf Pugils from 100 to 150. I was redeeming those.
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2) A new category for Login Campaign will be up, in this category you'll be able to buy items used to upgrade Unity Gear Looks like this old galka was right! Sort of.
Also Old Case +1 for 1500 points, welll! That's not too bad now isn't it?! |
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By macy85 on 2025-11-05 02:32:55 |
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Amazing job! It could be perfect if you can import your items and the tool gives you the perfect set based on your items. If i remember correctly there's something around that does it. Probably just for damage calculation. It could be game changer if it's implemented a similar function for other gearsets like buffs, healing, debuffs etc. I don't know if it's even possible but i think is a lot of work.
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Quote: The areas in each nation open and close at predetermined times
This doesn't seem like it's a rotation. It sounds like all 4 zones are open, every day. |
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By Ravael on 2025-11-04 22:25:05 |
It really depends on your skill set and how good you are at selling that skill set as a solution to the problems a prospective employer is having. To "win" in the labor game you need to either be super cheap (India/China) or super high skilled.
Yep. In a lot of cases it's all about who you know, though. I got my last job because the director of the department knew me and knew how to use my skill set to his advantage. He said I'd be the last person to get laid off from the department.
Once he left, the new director was far more interested in fighting fires than improving our processes so that they didn't happen in the first place. I was screwed because the people who appreciated what I did were not the ones directly in charge of me, so I became much more expendable when a big layoff occurred. |
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Try saving it to the server and then loading them back.
Actually, I haven't saved my macros to the server in a LONG time, so now's a good time before I start having problems with my own (been a while since I had that issue).
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He has less experience than I do, and he made it there in roughly 2 years. From learning to weld to becoming a lead.
Still though, he was able to pick it up and be good with it. The same cannot be said for all people.
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By on 2025-11-04 20:26:59 |
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By Seun on 2025-11-04 20:13:33 |
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100 mobs was original dyna d. This new content is being implemented because people thought that was too difficult. The expectation here should be that the mobs in the new area will be much lower level. Like you might not know you fought an NM except for the fact that it was named, easy.
You guys will remember you said RP and Volte gear... lol
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i just hope that enemies don't spwan from statues, why? I Highly suspect that if they do there will be some «Ash Pole» that pulls the entire zone and leaves, making the run much harder.
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By NynJa on 2025-11-04 19:34:05 |
It's too easy to reward anything that would make it worth your time. It's for relic reforge unlocks. Then this shared Dyna should end after wave 1 if its just for reforge unlocks. Remember:
+2 unlock is enter area
+3 unlock is kill 100 mobs or kill wave 1 boss
Theres no need for wave 2 to exist in this shared dynamis if its just for unlocks. |
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By Seun on 2025-11-04 19:25:22 |
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It's too easy to reward anything that would make it worth your time. It's for relic reforge unlocks.
They removed the need to clear bosses in Omen and obliterated the card count necessary to upgrade AF. Now they're doing the same to dyna d without having to adjust the original content. The whole purpose here is to allow players access to +3 so anyone at all might care about Limbus.
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By Seun on 2025-11-04 19:03:37 |
As a pld runs through the entire zone and his blu bots kill every mob in 7 minutes
The lengths people go to for relic unlocks? |
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By NynJa on 2025-11-04 18:08:20 |
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I'm looking forward to unlocks on less useful jobs where I can just roll in with my army all solo with trusts for survivability that would be rather inefficient locked to a pt of 6.
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By Meeble on 2025-11-04 17:57:22 |
As a pld runs through the entire zone and his blu bots kill every mob in 7 minutes
Just means they add -99% AOE penalty on secondary targets in December - if it's not in place for the new solo zones to start.
I'm ambivalent about Trove and login point changes until we see them, but dyna seems like a net positive even without details. How effective it will be remains to be seen, but even the worst case scenario is an improvement over what we have now. |
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It will not be python or lua!
I plan to have it hosted on a dedicated web page to use. With an optional lua (future development) that will parse your items and let you choose to use the full item catalog or only the items on your character.
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