Zenion
05-24-2024, 12:09 AM
Something I seem to hear a lot from players is that they have strong memories of their times in experience parties in Valkurm Dunes, Yuhtunga Jungle, and other places along the way. These low-level parties gave players a lot of time to interact, because they didn't require super tight focus, and the slow experience curve in the 75 cap age meant you'd spend a lot of time in these parties.
Master levels seem like an attempt to bring that back, but they miss the reason people stopped making regular experience parties as soon as alternatives become available: Level grinding is a barrier, it's something between you and the content you want to do; the inclination is to find the most direct path to getting it done, so you can get back to the real content.
So... what if the level grind was the content?
My proposal is a new event, entered from Windurst, San d'Oria, Bastok, and Jeuno. Players choose a level, and a level cap effect is applied to them which persists until removed, and their home point is set to the location the effect was applied in (though it may be changed afterward). While under the effect, players can only join parties with others under the same level cap status, cannot use mounts, survival guide teleportation, or home point teleportation (but airships, rental chocobos or your own chocobo whistle, and tele- and recall- spells are fine.) Outside assistance is blocked to these players - no higher-level players tagging along to cast Cure, no Raise from passers-by, only what their party can do on its own.
While under this level cap status, players do not earn experience points; however, they receive currency for every monster they defeat, at a rate of 100 for an Even Match foe, to upwards of 400 for an Incredibly Tough one. Defeating multiple foes in short succession applies a bonus to currency gained, in the same manner as experience chains. To encourage participation with a variety of jobs, a 5% bonus might be applied for each unique job represented in the party beyond the first; an additional 10% - 20% might be offered for using whatever is job has been used the least at a given level, with this job being recalculated at the weekly Conquest tally.
This currency should be exchangeable for a wide enough variety of rewards to make it desirable to choose to spend time gathering it; perhaps 5000 units could be exchanged for an Experimental Fluid, perhaps it could be possible to exchange the currency for Gallimaufry; there should not be a large pool of unique rewards, however, as the goal is to offer an enticing alternative activity and not another miserable grind that players feel forced to undertake.
This might, perhaps, help to satisfy those players who are forever yearning for the old days of level 75 Final Fantasy XI, and give the player base as a whole a new way to relive some of the nostalgic early days of their time in Vana'diel.
(And as a bonus, this would be relatively lightweight to implement: No need for new zones or new monsters, just a little engineering to make the cap status work as intended.)
Master levels seem like an attempt to bring that back, but they miss the reason people stopped making regular experience parties as soon as alternatives become available: Level grinding is a barrier, it's something between you and the content you want to do; the inclination is to find the most direct path to getting it done, so you can get back to the real content.
So... what if the level grind was the content?
My proposal is a new event, entered from Windurst, San d'Oria, Bastok, and Jeuno. Players choose a level, and a level cap effect is applied to them which persists until removed, and their home point is set to the location the effect was applied in (though it may be changed afterward). While under the effect, players can only join parties with others under the same level cap status, cannot use mounts, survival guide teleportation, or home point teleportation (but airships, rental chocobos or your own chocobo whistle, and tele- and recall- spells are fine.) Outside assistance is blocked to these players - no higher-level players tagging along to cast Cure, no Raise from passers-by, only what their party can do on its own.
While under this level cap status, players do not earn experience points; however, they receive currency for every monster they defeat, at a rate of 100 for an Even Match foe, to upwards of 400 for an Incredibly Tough one. Defeating multiple foes in short succession applies a bonus to currency gained, in the same manner as experience chains. To encourage participation with a variety of jobs, a 5% bonus might be applied for each unique job represented in the party beyond the first; an additional 10% - 20% might be offered for using whatever is job has been used the least at a given level, with this job being recalculated at the weekly Conquest tally.
This currency should be exchangeable for a wide enough variety of rewards to make it desirable to choose to spend time gathering it; perhaps 5000 units could be exchanged for an Experimental Fluid, perhaps it could be possible to exchange the currency for Gallimaufry; there should not be a large pool of unique rewards, however, as the goal is to offer an enticing alternative activity and not another miserable grind that players feel forced to undertake.
This might, perhaps, help to satisfy those players who are forever yearning for the old days of level 75 Final Fantasy XI, and give the player base as a whole a new way to relive some of the nostalgic early days of their time in Vana'diel.
(And as a bonus, this would be relatively lightweight to implement: No need for new zones or new monsters, just a little engineering to make the cap status work as intended.)