Personal Leves

[Charmin]

So I posted in the thread about asking questions for the Letter from the Producer Live and one of my questions spurred on an interesting thought: Personal Leves

The basic concept is that we as players make basic leve requests for other players to complete. It could be to fetch a material or make an item. Payment could be set up akin to asking for repairs is done now where you can offer gil or an item(s) in exchange. What, too, if you could offer experience points from your own bar?

The good point brought up in the Live thread was if this would encourage powerleveling by offering 5,000 experience for one log. Perhaps there is a scale that it can be compared to, perhaps drawing from NPC leves. So if you only get 100 exp from the log in the NPC leve you can only be able to offer 100 exp of your own as a reward. Offering experience from yourself would be a good way higher level players can help lower level characters, though it would necessitate a side "pool" held aside for level 50 characters (or maybe it just drops you from 50 so you have to go out and bonk a bit more to get 50 back so besides spirit bonding you have another reason to go out to Natalan late-game).

As a bit of a balancing factor, too, perhaps making your own leve draws from your pool of available ones and you can only have 4 active at a time? And that the leves can only stay "active/offered" for a day or two at a time?

I see this as a way to accent the AH, the player economy, and can help ensure that players are getting the exact materials/items they are looking for instead of waiting for a long time at the AH. Since delivery boxes will be available in ARR it can just be delivered to your house like anything else.

= = = = = = = = = = SAMPLE LEVE = = = = = = = = = =
Issuer: Averageguy Playerman
Requested Item(s): 3x Marbled Eye
Reward(s):
Gil - 300
Item(s) - [none]
EXP - 1,000
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

So here's the bulletpoints:

1. Go to Special NPCGuy at Adventurer's Guild
2. Register your leve, paying all rewards up front (Returned, maybe minus experience if leve doesn't get accepted. EXP loss could be part of the risk of making a leve and a way to ensure better quality ones are offered within bounds/caps.)
3. Randomette Adventurechick goes to Adventurer's Guild and checks leves, accepts yours.
4. Adventurechick gets materials and/or craft items, turns in to Special NPCGuy for reward (items get sent to your inbox in your house).
5. ????
6. Profit. Both parties got what they needed and the economy seems non-the-worse.

Ideas? Concerns? (Constructive) Criticism?

[HitsuMaruku]

I believe this is an excellent idea and, as long as the game is what determines the rewards of gil and exp, seems quite foolproof and does not allow abuse of powerleveling, RMT, etc. This could really be a fun way to get experience and seek materials or even HQ equipment that are necessary for what you want to accomplish but are rarely found in the market or auction house.

The only downside I can see coming from this would be that even though demand for a particular item or equipment piece could be high, it would not be reflected in price history in the markets or auction history. Therefore, as long as the game also incorporates it into the markets' history (and marks, also, that they were from personal leves), I think this could be made usable and efficient.

[Rau]

Don't retainers have the option to "Seek Item(s)" for a certain price?

[Mardel]

So long as the search feature becomes much better the above statement is true. Plus if we gain more access to central areas the above maybe a moot point.

Also, I've always wanted the ability to place stands/retainers in areas such as camp dragonhead with stuff for sale/seek. :|
I guess a "leve" could fulfill that, but i doubt you will see many people thinking "YES I WANT EXPERIENCE FOR ALL MY 50 CLASSES!" In which case the reward area for gil is going to need to be quite high.

[Zantetsuken]

[Reposted from an old thread I started - Since this idea has come back to the forefront (thanks to the OP), I thought I'd repost my concept for it here as well.]

In ARR, there is a great opporutnity to revisit and expand the leve system to actually incorporate custom player-created leves - especially for crafting.

FIrst, the issue that it adresses:

Members of large Linkshells don't have many issues finding people to create items for them, a good LS will have many trustworthy people with the skills.

Casual players. on the other hand, are resigned to /shouting for help from strangers in Ul'dah, asking for help with crafting and hoping the crafter is trustworthy.

What follows is an idea to make crafting work better for both crafters and general adventurers (*I apologize for stealing parts of this idea from another posters, but the concept is fantastic and deserves more discussion and recognition)

In each crafting guild there should be an NPC who players can visit and create submit their own crafting leve and all materials and rewards that correspond to it.

For instance:

Player A just fought Leviathan and received as a reward a U/U "Leviathan Spine". He then heads off to the Carpenter's Guild to have a lance crafted from it.

He researches the recipe and gives all the required materials and crystals to the Carpenter's Guild Player Leve NPC who creates a custom Leve for him. He decides to offer a 24k gil reward for NQ result and a 40k gil reward for HQ (if applicable) result. He sets a minimum level for the Leve at 48 to ensure that only high level carpenters will attempt this leve. The Leve NPC asks how much insurance he wants on his materials @ 10k gil per attempt. The insurance means that if the crafter fails, the guild will replace all the mats for him up to the allotted attempts. Since the mats are very rare and expensive, the Insurance is well worth the cost in this instance. Player A spends 30k gil to insure 3 attempts.

Player B has just hit 49 as a Carpenter and she wants to make some gil. She goes to the Player Leve NPC at the carpenter's guild and sees that there is an order for a Leviathan Lance. She accepts the leve and begins to craft the item. The first craft fails. She checks the list and sees that the Leve is still available. She tries again and gets a NQ result. this nets her a reward of 24k and a guild experience bonus.

Later that day, Player A checks his mailbox and sees that the craft was successful and he now has a shiny new Leviathan Lance as well as a 20k refund on his unused insurance. In addition, when he checks the lance, he sees that Player B's name is mentioned as the one who crafted it. He will have to look her up when he needs other work done. Not HQ, but maybe if he offered a bigger reward more for a HQ version he might have a different result... but he has the Lance now with not much out of pocket and he is off to adventure more.

This scenario would be ideal for all parties involved and has many benefits:

• It connects crafters with adventurers,
• It allows U/U items to become part of crafting.
• It incorporates crafting into endgame content like Primal battles,
• It is a gil sink (the insurance part).
• It disperses population of players throughout the City-states, making the DoH guilds a hub of activity for gear and item creation.

TL : DR version: Put NPCs in each DoH guild where adventurers create crafting Leves by submitting materials and rewards. Crafters can then accept and fulfill them

[Charmin]

Sorry I didn't see your thread, Zan, but it is awesome that we were independently on the same wavelength (the "insurance" aspect is something I hadn't considered)! I agree with you it would be a great way to craft and not be a detriment to the economy. As long as reasonable limitations are in place to keep it from being abusive it is a great way to keep money, good, and experience points flowing through the player base. It could also do a great job of mixing up the same old leves that get boring after a while and can even unlock a whole new category of Achievements! Something like this:

First Aid - Succeed in your first crafting Personal Leve request
Gofer - Turn in your first gathering Personal Leve request
- - - - - - - - - -
Handyman - Succeed in 50 Personal Leve crafting requests
Errand Boy - Turn in 50 Personal Leve gathering requests
- - - - - - - - - -
Contractor - Succeed in 200 Personal Leve crafting requests
Concierge - Turn in 200 Personal Leve gathering requests
- - - - - - - - - -
Etc., etc. (Possibly create another category for melding on behalf of others?)
- - - - - - - - - -

These could even synergize with other crafting and gathering titles/goals for further inspiration and motivation to accomplish them beside the feel-good title and a luminary tool (presuming they will carry over into ARR).

[Zantetsuken]

Not just crafting Leve's either btw.

Player-created Gathering Leves would be nifty as well... although, those might be more like just 'Trade 16 Maple logs to the NPC', than an actual DoL leve with map targets, time limits, etc...

Then again, if the system knows what's available in the region and what lvl a DoL needs to be to fulfill it, Those leves could be done by selecting an item off a list that corresponds to nearby gathering locations.

However it might be implemented, player-created DoL leves would be quite useful for people who want stuff that isn't for sale in the Wards (or costs too much)

[Rassa]

Yes. Do this.

[syntaxlies]

this was a thread before, maybe more then once

[Ingolf]

Fantastic idea.