Suggestion: Level Sync

[Panthera]

Level Sync made creating parties much easier in several ways. You never had to worry about out leveling your friends and thereby hurting their EXP. It also allowed one to party on a monster of any level, provided one could find someone of the appropriate level to sync to.

The problem now is that with the sustantial boost to EXP, a party can level up so quickly that they can become too powerful for a camp in a short amount of time.

Another problem is that one might not be able to find an appropriate level sync designee for a good camp.

The solution is to allow players to adjust their own levels. The restriction would be that players can only set their level down to any level they have achieved.

For example, a level 90 Bard could set their level down to level 55 for the popular Wajaom Woodlands Colibri camps. However, a Monk with a maximum level of 55 could not set their level to 75, as they have not achieved the higher level yet.

A book that can be summoned anywhere, similar to the Magian Spectacles, could be used as an interface.

This would also help Magian Trials, as sometimes a player is too high level to gain points on a target monster.

[Chocobits]

I heartily support this. Sometimes I get an urge to go to old camps, but it is so difficult to find a level sync for this. All 30+ characters are joining Abyssea groups, and the increased level cap makes it difficult to find suitable camps to work on Magian trials.

[Jamesaji]

I kinda agree with this with regards to Trial of the Magians, but not for gaining experience points. Being able to sync yourself to a minimum of level 10 and fighting experience yielding monsters, gaining full points, would make leveling far too easy.

For Trial of the Magians it would be ideal. It would be logical to have an experience points penalty in place whilst having the "Self Level Sync" enhancement on. Personally, I wouldn't mind if the penalty was 1 experience point per kill. Only one flaw I can think of with it though is the "Additional Effect" weapons; the effect won't work during Level Sync therefore causing complications.

[Karbuncle]

I kinda agree with this with regards to Trial of the Magians, but not for gaining experience points. Being able to sync yourself to a minimum of level 10 and fighting experience yielding monsters, gaining full points, would make leveling far too easy.

For Trial of the Magians it would be ideal. It would be logical to have an experience points penalty in place whilst having the "Self Level Sync" enhancement on. Personally, I wouldn't mind if the penalty was 1 experience point per kill. Only one flaw I can think of with it though is the "Additional Effect" weapons; the effect won't work during Level Sync therefore causing complications.

I Don't think being able to lower yourself to level 10 Would make things Far too easy, Abyssea, and Even conventional exp parties, would still be much more beneficial and fruitful in the long run, While offerring better exp and the possibility of Skill-ups. Something like that Would only stand to benefit someone who is soloing.

Personally, I wouldn't mind syncing back to level 10, because I understand that its easier to solo at level 10~20 Than it ever is to solo 50+, But at the same time, You have the disadvantage of not capping your skills, Gimped armor (unless you carry around another set) Gimped Weaponry (*see armor), etc. It would have its own flaws. Which i think itself would even out the Pro-cons.

I don't see us being able to do this, But i would personally love to be able to open a book, sync myself to level 10, and Solo in N/S gusta, rather than as a 67DRK, be forced to Ro'maeve (Magic aggro anyone?) or Volbow (GOBRINS) to Solo FoV pages and take 4 minutes on 1 mob.



In regards to trial of the Magians, the Added effect not working would be a problem, But perhaps SE Could just adjust that? Make All Add.Effect Magian weapons work under sync (with nerfed effects of course).

[Starcade]

It'd almost have to be some sort of situation where one has a minimum level below which one could go no further, or you'd see a bunch of 50's "Syncing" themselves to 5 and running over the starter areas.

[Kavik]

seeing as you cannot currently sync below 10, i doubt they would lower the sync to anything below that, or they would have done it already.

[Kingofgeeks]

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!! if someone did that then we would have summoner burns all over the place. no one would ever leave Qufim pond, and every other freaking popular spot would be taken all the time. Level sync messes up the game because people sync too often and do not learn their job. If they were to choose what level to sync to, then NO ONE would learn their jobs because they would just stay at the level that gives good exp. If a party outgrows a camp then move. I know its inconvenient but its the best way to adapt to this new change. When you start a party, think of where to take the party once you level up 5 levels or so. We got enough ways to abuse this game, choosing a specific level to sync to is just a bad idea!

[Kingofgeeks]

This would also help Magian Trials, as sometimes a player is too high level to gain points on a target monster.

i do fully agree with this.. i'm afraid of how difficult magain trials will be once we all hit 99. if we're forced to do magian trials in Abyssea because nothing gets updated outside of Aby then i'd scream

[Kwate]

SE made EXP much more abundant, unlimited FOV pages recently. Seriously, this is more than enough to get you going, if you need to move camps so be it, its such a cakewalk now, we need to keep some sort of a challenge aspect here, especially compared to the way the game used to be. Soloing up to 70-75 is extremely realistic with the recent changes made. The Mag Trials I agree with as once the next update hits will become even more difficult.

[Andevom]

if someone did that then we would have summoner burns all over the place.

This is a really good point. The idea is attractive, and I'm not overly against it. I mean, the ability to sync down low exists now, and yet you'll be hard pressed to find a well rounded group of Lv. 60 characters who will sync down to a Lv. 20, because of the loss of abilities and skill ups. SMN burns are always going to be a stain, because honestly, how can you prevent them?

Level Sync is probably at the optimal level right now, and it was a bold move for the game when it was introduced. It allows for more opportunities, but has just enough in the way to keep it from being broken. People have constantly been asking for above sync-cap skilling up to be possible through syncing, but this would give almost no incentive to ever party in higher level areas. To me, doing that would carry a larger consequence than allowing level adjustment. But either way, level sync should be left alone for now. If partying outside of Abyssea for lower levels becomes a tremendous issue again, then possible modifications can be made.

[Glamdring]

The problem with Level Sync (to me) was never XP, that could already be awesome, it was the nerfed skills. If you were capped on dagger at 67 and synced to 28 to help a friend but hit 70 yourself your dagger is going to be 3 full job levels off cap now. What I would like to see added is that if you need x skill if whatever you are currently fighting gives skill to whatever level you are currently playing, then you should skill just like the player you sync to. Seriously, I usually turn down syncs to prevent widening my skill gap, this would make taking a sync party less onerous.

Still, if you want me to bring my bard there's going to be a fair chance I turn you down anyway when I consider the 20 minute macro reset (10 minutes down, 10 minutes back to real level)...

[Panthera]

if someone did that then we would have summoner burns all over the place.

I've noticed a few people are concerned about this in regards to this idea.

What I suggest is that we treat "an adjust to level sync" and "Astral-Flow Burn" as separate issues.

-If- AFB were not an issue, would self-syncing be a good idea?

It's tempting to talk about AFB here, but I think that's a topic for another thread.

[Misi]

I like the possibilities of that idea if they are used for the right reasons. Excellent idea while abyssea is the new thing, and for those who might need help capping weapons that are really low level, but if things shift back to traditional Vana'diel in the future it could cause problems.

Accusations that level-sync would break people from being forced to learn jobs is no longer a legitimate reason, seeing as people do that anyway by going to abyssea and getting from 30 to 90 in no time.

[Karbuncle]

Don't see why people are getting their panties twisted over Astral Flow Burns when their Exp doesn't even come close to a good Abyssea party.

It'd be like complaining its making KRT Monk burn parties too easy back at level 75. Astral Flow burns are basically nothing more than a great way to get Conquest points in my eyes >___>.

The idea itself (The OP) Is a sound idea. We shouldn't shoot it down because you're afraid some SMNs might come together and get decent Exp once every 2 hours (or COR reset, which generally takes more than 2 hours >____>)

[Mirage]

If I could sync to a level of my own choosing, I'd sync my sam50 down to 20 and destroy buburimu peninsula for a steady 35-40k/hour solo. :)

[Glamdring]

There are certain levels-on any job-where kills are just stupid easy to manage, and with the XP boost it would make leveling as easy as it is leeching in Abyssea. The level varies by job of course, but we've all seen it, and most of us have done it. Singling out the smn burn is unfair when Blm can do the same thing without a 2-hour rounding up a horde of whatever and taking them down with a single Thundaga as an example. I had fun doing trains on my rdm with enthunder and Ice Spikes on with Auto-attack: On. These are just examples, all jobs have a point where they can do something similar. You especially see it with farming.

The problem with sync voluntarily to any level is again that it is far to easy to exploit, putting the game in easy mode once more. Not that this seems like a concern for either SE or a large portion of the player-base, but it is with me. Example, 5 noobs want to hit 30 ASAP so they can leech to 90, they are currently level 10, so their characters are about 3 hours old. They hire a vet with multiple 90's to PL them in a new way, and the 90 is able to dual-box, bringing his own healer. Start with a level 90 monk, synced to 15 (5 levels above noobs), he burns thru mandies 10-20 in East Saruta-Tahrongi. On to Bubu, no sync 90 thief, let's get the noobs their SJ items, bang. We'll worry about lvling SJ tomorrow. Head to Meri, noobs 20, player 25 dnc, spam flies to 27, hold your grass, get choco on your own time. No time for jungle access, head to qufim, noobs 27, player 32 drg, tunnel to Behemoth's dominion and spam bats to 30. Use FoV whenever you can. Knock out your choco quest, call me when ready to level subs, we'll see you in Aby. I'd be surprised if this took 1 day.

[Karbuncle]

Snippit :O!

You make a very good argument.

But, It would still be "better than leeching". A lot of complaints i hear about Leeching is you barely learn your job (which is BS). If you exp'd at a certain level range actively participating, You're still at least Actively Participating. Even if one person sees it as "too easy" another sees it as "a relief to slow levels".

Most people wouldn't permanently sync because most are smart enough to know Skilling up would Suck after. So its not like someone would level 10-90 synced to level 10 soloing DC mobs. Some might, But most are smart enough to know thats probably going to suck when it comes to skilling up.

It wouldn't be any more abuse-able (I'd say far less abuse-able) than Abyssea Leeching is now, at least an imposed Level sync on yourself would involve you actively participating in your exp gain. It would simply give people who don't want/get to leech a way to Chose a decent level range, and not be screwed at bad level ranges. (I.e Around level 50~70 when Solo'ing slows to a crawwlllll).

I like the idea, While i kinda think it'd be very unlikely to be added, I think the idea holds merit. which would also help for Magian trials as well. Again, I think denoting a system simple for the idea some people may abuse it is a bad idea, If that were the case, this game would suck, because so many ideas would probably be half-hearted or bad due to the "Fear" of abuse.

[Teakwood]

Absolutely love this idea. It would make Magian trials a million times less of an enormous kick to the pants, and if you think it'd be 'brokenly fast XP', uh, may I direct you to a properly-run Abyssea XP party? There's absolutely no reason people should have to wait until they are level 80+ or keyleech and be bored in order to get XP that kicks ass. There's also no reason people shouldn't be able to solo to lowman quality XP. The one thing I /do/ worry about is the better low level XP camps constantly being taken; people just sitting around in E.Ron [S] meriting on colibri or something and blocking camp availability for people actually trying to burn through the levels pre-Abyssea-effectiveness. I'm not sure how prevalent a problem this would actually be.

[Mirage]

Yeah. There is no reason why soloing and actually doing something yourself, should be slower exp than running around in abyssea spamming an /item <t> macro.