Things I Think SE Should Have Done By Now...

[Tellahchan]

why it seems only leechers keep saying that? for 1 thing like it or not abyssea lvl30+ entry did hurt lot and the main reason why all the low/mid lvl camp is dead now.

new player: hey guys where to level at?
lolleecher player: just leech/afk in Gusgen mine best exp ever till you get to 30. then join the leech/afk army in abyssea!

It is true that the lv 30 entry requirement hurt low level partying, but the reason it hurt partying is because most people don't enjoy the exp grind. If making a party were fun, easy and entertaining people would do it. As it is right now, there's no reason to not Gusgen to 30 and Abyssea to 99 if you're able.

I find Gusgen parties incredibly boring and generally only take my jobs to Abyssea when they can contribute at 70+.

[SpankWustler]

why it seems only leechers keep saying that? for 1 thing like it or not abyssea lvl30+ entry did hurt lot and the main reason why all the low/mid lvl camp is dead now.

new player: hey guys where to level at?
lolleecher player: just leech/afk in Gusgen mine best exp ever till you get to 30. then join the leech/afk army in abyssea!

You are rapidly becoming a Casio CDP-120 with one broken key and this general post as the one note that you produce forever. I'm not sure what you could hope to accomplish through this process, other than eventually replacing any possible discussion about this topic with very specifically captioned pictures of Jean-Luc Picard slapping his face with his palm.

[Yinnyth]

really? endgame only matters? just forget the people that wanna have FUN lvling low mid lvls (like in the good old days) ya guys end game only matters. just leech to 99!

It has always been a race to the top. If the level cap got raised to 200, people would be seeking the fastest way to reach level 200. If levels became completely uncapped, it would be a matter of getting to the highest level you can get to as soon as possible. The most interesting content in the game is the endgame, and being an endgame player allows you to handily spank all other content you wish to spank. The only thing you lose for becoming a higher level is the inability to give yourself a challenge with older content (something a 100% voluntary level cap system would fix).

The reason we had fun doing it in the old days (IF you had fun doing it in the old days) was because it was what all your peers were doing. It was impossible to go from level 1 to 75 in a single day... exp sources just weren't that good back then. Since the game was newer, and it had more fresh blood, there was no shortage of people to party up with and share your adventures with. You'd band together with people of a similar mind as you. Some were too ruthless and rude, but very good at what they did. Some were easy going and polite, but not very good at producing results. Some were the best of both worlds and you respected and admired them. Some were the worst of both worlds and you dreaded ever having to party with them again. But that's what a large part of the game used to be: leveling. We now have those same experiences, but our goal is no longer the exp... most of us already have plenty of that. Our goals are now endgame content.

I honestly think there should be a series of quests for each job which gives them massive amounts of exp and exp bonuses for long periods of time. Leveling is no longer the core of the game, so you could treat levels 1-75 as the intro. Give whms quests where they need to learn to recognize what status effects an ability causes and give them a time limit to remove them from NPC friendlies. Give thfs quests where they need to navigate some tunnels without aggroing anything. Give rdms a quest where they have to slow enemies who use blood weapon and mighty strikes, paralyze enemies who use hundred fists, and silence enemies who use chainspell and manafont. Don't make them too easy, but seriously make the rewards something like 5 levels worth of exp and 24 hours of 2x exp.

[Tellahchan]

Back on topic:

I know this has been mentioned already but, OMG skill up rate of Summoning Magic...
We can only do 2 Blood Pacts a minute.... so please oh please up the rate that we skill up WHEN we summoning something!
Either that or make it so avatar melee attacks have the posibility to grant skillups.

Ok here's a big one, Low to Mid Level Armor, Weapons and Accessories.
They, in general, no longer exist.
Would it be possible to have NPC vendors sell stuff to the AH? It could be a nice gil sink.
It wouldn't hurt Crafters because the demand is low, and hardly anyone makes the stuff anyway.
This would be a huge help to people who don't leech their way up to 70+.

[Preed]

Ok here's a big one, Low to Mid Level Armor, Weapons and Accessories.
They, in general, no longer exist.
Would it be possible to have NPC vendors sell stuff to the AH? It could be a nice gil sink.
It wouldn't hurt Crafters because the demand is low, and hardly anyone makes the stuff anyway.
This would be a huge help to people who don't leech their way up to 70+.

OH, GODDESS YES!
My highest jobs right now are all level 30 (I know that's low) but there's no way I can afford to buy armor from the AH because A) it really expensive, even the low level stuff or items you can find in stores...all the way on the opposite side of the continent and/or B) they're generally barren, i.e. there's nothing there for lower levels. This also includes scrolls and crafting materials...

[donavin]

I am wonder if fix with An Imperial Heist (quest) and King beastmen (Gurfurlur the Menacing, Medusa,Gulool Ja Ja) NM adjustment please 3-5 day change to 21-24 hour NM had no NM for 3 week sad! Problem no mega boss in Besieged. Please issue fix adjust this. no more from besieged noticed. Something can get trigs pop!.

[Rustic]

OH, GODDESS YES!
My highest jobs right now are all level 30 (I know that's low) but there's no way I can afford to buy armor from the AH because A) it really expensive, even the low level stuff or items you can find in stores...all the way on the opposite side of the continent and/or B) they're generally barren, i.e. there's nothing there for lower levels. This also includes scrolls and crafting materials...

Incidental note: If you want to have a steady income these days without much effort, find out what your starting city has that others don't.

Start selling it with a markup on the AH. I have yet to figure out why the primary weapon for a warrior (Great Axe) means you run into your first L5 version...in Mhaura, three zones full of nasty away from your starting area if you're in Windurst. (Never mind the others).

To this day, I've been amused as heck by simply buying from them, shipping the results to a mule in the appropriate two cities, and watching happy young adventurers picking up their gear (at a minor markup). Reminds me, I'm logged in Mhaura now. Time to load up on newbish gear and ship it to Bastok/Sandy...

...as for crafting materials, every city has it's favored ones. It's tough to go out there as a lowbie and smith in Windurst, for example- on the other hand, it's not much fun trying to clothcraft in Bastok either. That's on purpose. It helped keep people from bunching up early on in the same city, since it provides a good reason to be in X city when pursuing Y craft.

[FrankReynolds]

So, in other words you're saying endgame is the only part of the game that matters.

By that standard, FFXI has slipped straight into auto-fail. WoW has people going through the base/expansion areas actually playing and exploring as they do, and the logic of lower level players NOT doing this, even on a more brief level....well, you're stating that FFXI has failed as an MMO by doing so.

The current Abyssea system encourages NO skill as you head into endgame, with a character who likely hasn't even used or in many cases NOTICED many of their JA's.

I had to mention Elemental Seal to a L65 BLM who was fighting a random NM in Rolanberry Fields yesterday.

He had no idea what I was talking about. Abyssea is an idiot farm for the newbies, even if it's an easy method of exping up jobs for more experienced players. You want to make things less annoying for players leveling jobs?

Give them a significant exp bonus for every job they've leveled to 75, applied to any other job they use. Give them a bigger one for any leveled to 99. Voila, you've just reduced the grind even FURTHER than the well-lubricated FoV/GoV page system (and I agree, FoV should be given the Prowess option of GoV)...

None of what you just described is accurate. All the low level content is still there. People are free to live Amish if they want. Most people choose the fast city life because high level events that drop items which will be useful over long periods of time are far more interesting / beneficial to them than low level events / parties that drop items which are only valuable for a few levels.

Can you honestly say that if you spend the next 3 months leveling your thief while I spend the next 3 months (minus two days of leeching) doing Twashtar, Empy +2, NNI, VW etc. on mine that at the end of that period you will actually be better than me because you were practicing getting two tanks to line up for SATA for the last 90 days while I was out using mine in actual events?

I mean sure it would be nice if there was something to do at level 40 that mattered, but reality is that they can make quests that are just as rewarding for level 99 players and it's a lot easier to build when you don't have to compensate for all sorts of different levels.

I'll take a well geared idiot who leeched to 99 over a poorly geared idiot who grinded to 99 every day, because all I can do is judge them by the gear they have on and the few basic sentences that may be conveyed in a chat window. And to be honest, If abyssea had been level capped at 75 from the get go, I wouldn't likely have the choice because one of the idiots would have never leveled the job to begin with. All that would have done is taken my choices from:

Guy who grinds and probably still sucks or guy who leeches and probably sucks

to

Guy who grinds and probably still sucks or ... Stand around shouting a few hours because nobody is available with the right jobs.

Doing something with people who may turn out to be lame is almost always going to yield better results than doing nothing at all. If nothing else, it will boost your ego as you will feel vastly superior to the noobs you invited.

[Rustic]

Can you honestly say that if you spend the next 3 months leveling your thief while I spend the next 3 months (minus two days of leeching) doing Twashtar, Empy +2, NNI, VW etc. on mine that at the end of that period you will actually be better than me because you were practicing getting two tanks to line up for SATA for the last 90 days while I was out using mine in actual events?

Nope. I'll have actually played the game, though. And seriously, you think it'd take 3 months?

Doing something with people who may turn out to be lame is almost always going to yield better results than doing nothing at all. If nothing else, it will boost your ego as you will feel vastly superior to the noobs you invited.

So you consider having a collection of noobs to feel superior to a good reason to encourage them to reach 99 by windowing out of FFXI as your buddies chop up worms for them? THAT'S HEE-LARIOUS.

Leveling up -was- the idiot filter for FFXI- yeah, we got our mouthbreathers in the days where 75 was the level cap and exp grinding was another word for suffering, but it did a good job of cutting down the numbers compared to the ones who couldn't figure out much past how to activate autoattack and still thought DRK/WHM was l33t endgame material.

That's been erased thanks to L30 Abyssea entry, and with the Chocobo Shirt, 1-30 will become even more simple to bypass since you'll basically find it impossible to miss on an attack. Period.

Also, we've managed to eliminate any challenging play or need for gear between 30-99 simply because of Abyssea- players can level so quickly as to bypass content entirely. The only logjams are level caps. Yeah, endgame is the only game- because we've castrated everything else.

You call it "Amish". I call it "eviscerating the base of the game for endless cycles of farming HNM's".

[FrankReynolds]

Nope. I'll have actually played the game, though.

So to be clear here...

doing Twashtar, Empy +2, NNI, VW etc.

Is not playing the game, but killing crabs and worms is? Maybe you're just confused?

And seriously, you think it'd take 3 months?

Yeah. Leveling to 75 without leeching takes a long time. Before leeching came around, the average Joe spent double that getting to 75. Obviously some superhero types played 24/7 and did it quicker, but those aren't the people you are complaining about are they?

So you consider having a collection of noobs to feel superior to a good reason to encourage them to reach 99 by windowing out of FFXI as your buddies chop up worms for them? THAT'S HEE-LARIOUS.

No, but it seemed like something you might get off on, so I said it with no small amount of sarcasm... Is that a hook in your mouth? or were you being sarcastic too when you made the below statement? Because it sounds a lot like someone who loves being better than everyone else.

Leveling up -was- the idiot filter for FFXI- yeah, we got our mouthbreathers in the days where 75 was the level cap and exp grinding was another word for suffering, but it did a good job of cutting down the numbers compared to the ones who couldn't figure out much past how to activate autoattack and still thought DRK/WHM was l33t endgame material.

Linkshells events were the idiot filter. Not exp. When an idiot came to LS events, it didn't take him long to get booted for stupidity and / or helped out by the LS with his game skills (if you were in a good LS anyways).

Now that most events can be done with pick up groups, you have to test your luck and hope you don't get an idiot.

The idiots always had level capped jobs. Hell, some of the biggest idiots I have met had Maat's caps. They just weren't in most of your events before. They were in their own little Linkshells keeping to themselves and their feeble minded brethren.

You call it "Amish". I call it "eviscerating the base of the game for endless cycles of farming HNM's".

As if "endless cycles of farming HNMs" are any less gratifying than endless cylces of farming crabs and worms...