How about this: a Classic Server !

[Francois424]

Hello all,

I've got this idea that's been burning me eversince I came back from FF11 retierement 2 months ago. The reality of FF11 now is Abyssea, which leaves the game rather empty of parties, and most items we always tought for granted (look at the price of the "scroll of invisible" for one thing.

While Abyssea has it's definite ups (such as levelling to 95/99), and insane leeching abilities if you use them, it also brings the end of the classic levelling tred we used to have up until not too long ago. Where reaching Aht Urgan meant you really where accomplishing something worthwile and interesting.

So on with my suggestion: I suggest ONE classic server.
Really only little changes, and I'm not killing/nerfing anything.

Classic servers means that you only allow Abyssea entry for a character/class that has beaten their Maat Fight... That's right. You have to beat Maat with each class you wish to enter abyssea with. How does that bring back "Classic" pre-abyssea FF11 ? Well parties are back, and it's already as much as I'm really wanting.

The next thing would be to keep the new XP curve introduced in 2009 (I think), but removing the FoV experience bonuses. You still get to complete pages for "Tabs" that you can exchange for buffs; but not the endless cycling of FoV pages for XP. That also brings back low-level parties in the Dunes, Qufim, and Khazam, which imho are really well done zones.

That's it ! Nothing else really needs to change.
Now I am making this suggestion to get ONE server of this. If you really like the new reality of FF11, keep playing your actual server. But if SE does indeed want to go with this idea, then let's transfer our characters over and have some fun.

Then comes the hardware issue, where to get the server for cheap ? Merge the 2 lowest population FF11 server, and use the free hardware for this one. Call it "Lunarian" or something (in memory of FF4, why not ?).

That was an Idea I just had to spill on this forum. It most likely wont do anything at all to FF11, and most ppl are most likely to be trashing it like no tomorrow. But I tought this interesting enough to voice it anyways.

Happy Hunting All !
-- Francois424

[cidbahamut]

This is a terrible idea and I really don't think I need to outline why.

[Soranika]

That's... classic?
And Abyssea is not FFXI. It's already on it's last leg of being the "now" content and many of us either moved on to voidwatch or waiting for the next new time sink to keep us busy.

[Mirage]

Why not? It would shut the anti-abysseaers up, and leave the rest of the servers for us cool guys.

[Eurell]

Classic Server should be like a lvl 60 cap or so, so we can all get in full alliances to farm our ultimate gear, Artifact Armor.


Seriously though, if people want to server jump to be with people that want to play like this, they can go right ahead. People used to do that for a larger Ballista crowd all the time. SE shouldn't have to change the rules on that server though.

[Greatguardian]

FFXI has always been stringently anti-segregationist. I'm sure quite a few people might prefer regional servers too, but that doesn't mean they'll do it.

[cidbahamut]

Well for starters what was outlined wouldn't fix a darn thing. People will level, beat Maat and then proceed directly to leeching just like normal. Heck, leeching wasn't really viable until after you beat Maat anyway because you'd constantly be stumbling over limit breaks.

The OP also has the audacity to suggest that their solution wouldn't kill/nerf anything...and then proceeds to suggest that FoV(and presumably GoV) exp be abolished. Because that totally isn't nerfing something, right? It's actively degrading one of the better quality of life changes SE actually decided to offer us. Even if we take them at face value and assume that they omitted GoV from this nerf intentionally, they'd still be back at square one as everyone will just do GoV burns.

Then there's the problem of population. The entire premise hinges on there being large numbers of disgruntled veterans(not new players) who are willing to drop all social ties with their current server and relocate to this new one just so they can relive 2005 or whatever. That's a heck of commitment to undertake. It also doesn't account for the fact that people change. There would inevitably be people who grew tired of trying to recreate a bygone era and leave to return to actual FFXI, as the nostalgia fails to provide for all of their gaming needs. The server would begin with a frighteningly small population and only dwindle from there until it housed only a handful of zealous idealists. The cost in resources to bring this about would not justify what might laughably be referred to as the "benefits".

The OP's idea only really works in the context of private servers customized for a specific user-base. However, FFXI private servers are not a reality, so everything proposed here would be a colossal waste of resources.

[Greatguardian]

The OP, as well as many others, tend to forget why things like Level Sync, FoV, GoV, and Abyssea EXP were introduced in the first place.

You will never, ever be able to party the "Classic", no-sync, no book way with FFXI's current population without a static. Not gonna happen. Plenty of people were already LFP'ing for literal days on end without invites even when the population was twice the size it is now, and the FFXI population is severely top-heavy now to boot. There simply aren't enough people looking for EXP for this to be feasible.

If you care that much, make a static party and go level your own way with friends.

[Gennadi]

Hmm good concept but that's like giving a baby 2 scoops of ice cream then taking it away and giving them an empty cone.

[Alhanelem]

Why do we need a special server just to apply abyssea entry restrictions?

This is just going to start up the level lock abyssea/don't level lock it war again...

If you want to play "Classic" FFXI, I would say just uninstall the expansions...

As others have said, if you want to play the old fashioned way, just find some like-minded people and do it. No one's holding a gun to your head and telling you you have to level a certain way.

[Zumi]

That's just an awful idea no way SE would have that.

[Aliekber]

They should just go all-out and make a hardcore server where death is permanent--if you die it uninstalls FFXI and deletes your account*--weapons and armor break after a predetermined number of hits and all NMs only ever pop once. The level cap is 99 but only includes vanilla FFXI, none of this Zilart stuff for namby-pamby wimps. And if you're caught using 3rd-party tools of any kind (and I mean, if you're running Internet Explorer in the background here--no wiki help for you!), a Special Task Force Unit shows up at your house and burns your genitalia with a soldering iron.

*The original version had it format your hard drive as well, but the higher-ups would decide that you might have FFXIV on there, so it's not worth the risk!

[Karma]

Im all for removing the ease of levelling, it's not enought that you can get 5k xp from one page at aby altepa,only 2 days ago someone was moaning at having to run back to the book to get a new ops page.I dont think you should be able to enter aby till 75 personally and they should halve the xp you get from book burns.

[TybudX]

Wouldn't a classic server be more along the lines of rmt fish bots, rmt ah bots, rmt miners, rmt choco-diggers, rmt tried-and-failed-at-sky? If you're trying to bring back 'classic', I want Rabao back.

Oh, and SMN burn says hi.

[Greatguardian]

Classic?

I'll sell you this Thief's Knife for 50 Mil.

[Twille]

Classic?

I'll sell you this Thief's Knife for 50 Mil.

Quoted for truth.
I'm sorry, but the current FFXI is vastly superior to the "classic" FFXI.

If you want "classic" parties, beg some friends to level sync with you, let the rest of us enjoy our exp.

[tyrantsyn]

Quoted for truth.
I'm sorry, but the current FFXI is vastly superior to the "classic" FFXI.

If you want "classic" parties, beg some friends to level sync with you, let the rest of us enjoy our exp.


Or go make a link shell that cater's to it. I'm sure with a few days of shouting you can get a decent shell of classic minded players together go level up the old fashion way.

[Juri_Licious]

The only way to play classic stuff the old way is to die 100,000x till you delevel your mainjob to 75, than switch to merit points (Or just level a job to 75) and some how find people that actually do stuff outside of Abyssea and would like to play in this certain way.

Maybe there should be a hardcore server idk, but if you are serious about this than just setup a linkshell and maybe a website focused on this.

[Buffy]

No SMN burn because level sync didn't exist!

[Sparthos]

Classic XI?

3k/hr EXP @Bibiki Bay Gobs!

[Alhanelem]

No SMN burn because level sync didn't exist!
Summoner burns existed before level sync. Sorry, try again.

[Modoru]

Summoner burns existed before level sync. Sorry, try again.

But they weren't as efficient, specifically because of that lack.

[Ketaru]

I agree with the OP. Why don't we take it a step further and make it an uber-classic server?

- Make Call Wyvern a 2hr again.
- Remove BLU, PUP, COR, SCH, and DNC.
- Remove accuracy food.
- Make incredibly tough mobs chill at the zone for hours because people keep zoning them.

Yeah. I can see people flocking to that.

[Solonuke]

There's a reason why stuff gets updated over time and that would be to balance out content and create content to keep things interesting. Creating a classic server would mean you wouldn't be updating any issues that occurred over the timespan between now and when the classic server takes place. It would mean all the convenient updates we've received on the "regular" servers wouldn't take place on the classic ones.

If the only reason is experience points that a classic server should be made, then I'll gladly pass on the offer since I've killed enough crabs in my life.

[Arcon]

Well for starters what was outlined wouldn't fix a darn thing. People will level, beat Maat and then proceed directly to leeching just like normal. Heck, leeching wasn't really viable until after you beat Maat anyway because you'd constantly be stumbling over limit breaks.

You seem to misunderstand just about everything the OP said. For one, he said you need to beat Maat on every job you want to take to Abyssea, so this entire argument is moot. And leeching was very viable before Maat, that's just plain wrong.


The OP also has the audacity to suggest that their solution wouldn't kill/nerf anything...and then proceeds to suggest that FoV(and presumably GoV) exp be abolished. Because that totally isn't nerfing something, right? It's actively degrading one of the better quality of life changes SE actually decided to offer us. Even if we take them at face value and assume that they omitted GoV from this nerf intentionally, they'd still be back at square one as everyone will just do GoV burns.

Again, GoV is exactly the problem the OP wants to address (along with Abyssea). Classic leveling is contradictory to that. You may call it nerfing GoV if you want to, but that's just misinterpreting their intentions and misleading readers of your post.

Don't get me wrong, by no means do I agree with the OP. I would love the old, classic FFXI, but leveling is the one thing that was always annoying as hell. If they capped the game at 75 again, and removed all Abyssea (and newer) gear, I'd be a happy camper. I'd use Abyssea to level and the old game to play. With "Classic FFXI" I usually mean the old Dynamis, Limbus, Einherjar, Salvage, Nyzul, ZNM, kings, sky, sea, and so on. All those events were amazing and I'd love doing them more, the way they used to be. I realize it's never going to happen, and the new FFXI isn't really bad either (Voidwatch was a step in the right direction, aside from the asinine drop system), and I realize that many people were bored of the old FFXI, but I wasn't one of them. It feels like FFXIv2 was released before I was done with FFXIv1. But it happens. Time to move on.

[Ketaru]

Again, GoV is exactly the problem the OP wants to address (along with Abyssea). Classic leveling is contradictory to that. You may call it nerfing GoV if you want to, but that's just misinterpreting their intentions and misleading readers of your post.

You know that "classic" leveling never really went away though, right? It is totally in the power of the player to find 5 other like-minded individuals to level the classic way. If, on your own server, you can't find 5 other like-minded individuals to play in a way that satisfies the OP's sensibilities, then you can see why a Classic server won't work.


The next thing would be to keep the new XP curve introduced in 2009 (I think), but removing the FoV experience bonuses. You still get to complete pages for "Tabs" that you can exchange for buffs; but not the endless cycling of FoV pages for XP. That also brings back low-level parties in the Dunes, Qufim, and Khazam, which imho are really well done zones.

Crab, crab, crab, crab, crab, crab, worm, crab, crab, crab, crab, crab, crawler, crab, crab, crab, crab, crab, mandragora, crab, crab, crab, crab, crab, crab, colibri, colibri, colibri, colibri...

[Alhanelem]

Badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, mushroom mushroom, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, Snaaaake...


Dunes, Qufim, and Khazam, which imho are really well done zones. They really aren't 'well done' zones. Dunes is problematic in a number of ways. Coming from the bastok side, you have easy access to the early monsters in the dunes, but the people coming from the other side have to march through a bunch of aggressive gobs and bats to get there. THen the problem is reversed for doing anything else in the area. Qufim isn't too bad for the most part, but the long cave from jeuno which serves no purpose other than to waste time (and to accurately physically locate the island itself), which also has aggressive monsters in it that are a real pain for newer players to get through (you can't expect someone coming to qufim the first time to be carrying stacks of silent oils). The jungle is terrible, because it's a horrible maze and there were a whole ton of people cramming into the space right near the zone when it was popular. Because of the aggro and the maze like nature of the zone, 95% of the area was never utilized at all.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

FFXI isn't abyssea anymore. It's over and done with.

On the other hand, I want my nondespawning mobs and over lapping damage back!