Be BOLD, UNLOCK it all.

Our player base has dwindled to 1/5 of what it once was.
We can hardly fill 18 player content without 1-2 hours of waiting.

Server Merge? Too easy. Eventually 1/5 of that will disappear as well.
So what can SE do to really revive the game, give it a strong breath of longevity?

The Light suggestion:
Unlock All merits. No more Category caps.
Why? We're at 99, ilevel 100-120. What can you give us? More ilevel 150? No, that'd require more content... A quest then, an epic quest to unlock all of our MERITS! Incorporate that failed LEGION content and call it "Legendary Adventurer". Make us play it. Win it. 1/100 of players have won it. Thats absurdly bad. Give us a reason!
As for the Meritd uncapping; Will it change the way we play the game? Yes!
Will it be game breaking? No, not really.

The Hail Mary suggestion.
It's time, don't you think?
Let's uncap that subjob.. We're already loving what we see in Monstrousity. Just give it to us already.. If Monsters are already main/main, go for it! Give it to us completely!
Who knows! We might even surprise you with what we do with the additional power! Players would return! They really will! Main/Main?!

Those jobs that were vital, they would come back! And those jobs that required superb gearing would no longer require it if combo'd with an alternatively well geared job.
Example:
BRD with no Ghorn/Duardabla = NQ BRD
BUT a 99 WHM/99 BRD = Superb Support.
Or a
99 BRD/99 WHM with Ghorn/Duardabla = Ultimate Buffer/Support.

For those that have REM, they'd benefit more. And for those that don't, they lose nothing that they don't already have but gain a functional /99 second job that allows them to perform just slightly below the REM.

How say you?

Bahamut summon plz

I think personally the whole uncapped sub is kinda...too far out there, I mean we're so used to half of our Kain's lvl being the subjob's lvl. This made players think tactically and set up the basis for what subjob's work best and what doesn't work. You can't just go in 99PLD/99DRK, that's not how the game should be, there's nothing to be gained from uncapping the subs, but I agree definitely on uncapping merits, that's way overdue../

The whole idea of tactics is still there. It will never be far removed unless mobs stop 1 shotting us.. Setting that aside, it'd at least push us into the next phase of FFXI. We're already i-level 119. Unless SE wants to add new gear/content for i-level 150, the simplest solution would be to remove the restriction. It'd be interested, even if on the test server..

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Originally Posted by Stompa

I would like to see the option of upgrading one favourite weapon or armor per account, to lvl 99 stats, via a simple quest storyline, and then upgrading that piece upto iLvl 115 (max) at one level per stage via an item collection system (similar to WKR drops on boulders etc.) <that way> if you have a favourite oldworld weapon or armor that you really want to use in 2013, you could have the option of upgrading one single piece (per SE account). To simplify the process, items would be upgraded to lvl 99 and escalating to 115 with identical scaling stats. So for example a lvl 70 weapon with low delay/low dmg would scale up to a lvl 99 low delay/low dmg. The coding system could be the same as Level-synching weaps/armors down, but in reverse.
Could apply to any lvl 65-99 weapons and body/head armors only.

It would be good for two reasons, it would appeal to nostalgia players who miss their one favourite lvl75-99 era item, and also it would create VARIETY in Seekers where everyone rocking the same WKR/Skirmish gear.

That and also expanding on magian lvl 99 weapons, new trials for lvl 99-115 <yes, please>.

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They already said once that they were going to expand on ToM, the thing keeping them from doing it is how to mesh it into SoA's content. There isn't anything to farm out there aside from the spawned NM's with shards, so things like NM farming is out of the question. They could go "Kill X amount of members of the vermin family" or w/e.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Anjou

They already said once that they were going to expand on ToM, the thing keeping them from doing it is how to mesh it into SoA's content. There isn't anything to farm out there aside from the spawned NM's with shards, so things like NM farming is out of the question. They could go "Kill X amount of members of the vermin family" or w/e.

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Well there's always pebbles!


LoL I kid.... but don't you hate when those drop in rieves?
They have a few items that aren't a part of the Delve grindfest... but they are mostly twitterim wings and beastmen stuff...
Of course... no one ever expected them to introduce a new seal...
So... new geode/ites are not out of the realms of possibility.

I agree with uncapping merits, but not with level 99 subjobs. That undermines the entire job system.

So, DDs get another macro or two to hit every few minutes in exchange for a significant increase to their damage output, but support jobs are now expected to do the work of two party members at much? Yeah, that's fair.

Imagine most/all DD's / 99 BRD. Now you tell me, is that a bad idea?
A DD/DD would be more worthless then a DD/support..
MNK doesn't need a subjob.

DRK could sub SAM. It'd bring it back as a good DD.
WAR could sub SAM, It'd bring it back as a good DD.

And for the jobs no one invites!
BLU/DD
BLU/Support
BLU/Mage

DNC/WAR
DNC/SCH

COR/BLM
COR/RNG!

RNG/COR!

DRG/DD

THF/Mage
THF/DD

Puppet/Support

Summoner/Mage

Nin/Thf

Nin/BLM!

BST/PUP = Change pet
BST/SMN = Change pet

Mage/MNK for some badass Staving?

Fully in support of the 99/99 unlocking of subs, I really thought that would happen by now, or;

Tertiary jobs (99THF/49DNC/24WAR) etcetc or 99/49/49 or even 100/50/25

Side note, Let us unlock the past Weaponskills! My Uriel blade, has been in storage for 3 years. Hope keeps it from the trash can.

I just don't see how they will consider it, it's too off the wall to just got "Ok going to unlock the subjobs, the thing that has been capped for 11 years to be half of your main job's level." That's like one of the main things of FFXI, you shouldn't mess with that.

I approve unlocking merits. Even with copious amounts of magic accuracy, magic skill is still necessary for some jobs. Even at 5/5 with all merit WS, some are still not the end all be all. Nothing would really be game breaking about 5/5 on all job specific merits either. Especially if we're talking about them being unlocked somehow post adoulin. Just another step in getting stronger that actual feels like a static accomplishment.

The "special snowflake custom tailoring your main job" never existed in FFXI. You are expected to have certain things fully merited on some jobs, other jobs the merits don't even matter that much, or some mix of the two. I don't see anyone going "I'm a Thunder potency BLM", "Regenerative WHM" or "Garuda specialist SMN".

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Originally Posted by bluethao5

Our player base has dwindled to 1/5 of what it once was.
We can hardly fill 18 player content without 1-2 hours of waiting.

Server Merge? Too easy. Eventually 1/5 of that will disappear as well.

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I think you're wrong. A server merge would serve to keep servers lively. At this point, post FFXIV release, everyone that still plays FFXI, is probably not going anywhere else so it's difficult to see much more of an exodus happening. They'd really really have to bring out the big guns to drive away what playerbase they have left. Utsusemi Ni will have to be nerfed to two shadows. BRD songs will have to drop to a max of 30 seconds of up time. We'll need to lose 100,000 exp for deaths. The game will need to be reset to pre Abyssea, total wipe back to level 75. You get the picture. People will have to be disgusted to leave.

I don't know what they're waiting for. Midgard had much higher pops during it's end days than Q does right now and it was doomed to a merge. Don't get me wrong. I prefer low pop with all of my being. Except that in today's FFXI, it doesn't work well with how players have chosen to conduct their daily FFXI business with shout groups. Of course, needless to say, with any merge comes mega congestion in end game with playerbase being lv99 heavy. So I guess that may be what's holding them back on merging. Perhaps they are trying to figure out how to deal with that or already did and are working on it.

You're quite wrong. The only people who seem to have stayed are those that invested alot of time into the game to give it up. Mostly ones that call this "My final MMO".
No offense but even with 2 relics, 2 ebisu and a hard on for grinding my burtgang; I will leave soon.
A server merge could happen, that'd take away not enough people to do stuff with, but that doesnt solve nothing to (fun) do.
Its "Not" just not enough people to do things with, its (Nothing FUN to do). .

I'm suggesting they let us play around more. Unlock the crap they thought would break the game. We'd have some fun. We would. Why Wouldn't we? Its been 11 years.. We're still here, posting stuff and reading stuff. We're whats left. Listen to us, remove some if not all restrictions and let us play the dying game with some "Fun" to be had when we log in.

yes yes yes to the uncapped merits

NO NO NO to the uncapped subjobs

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Originally Posted by Vold

with any merge comes mega congestion in end game with playerbase being lv99 heavy. So I guess that may be what's holding them back on merging. Perhaps they are trying to figure out how to deal with that or already did and are working on it.

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The best way to solve this is to make all endgame content worthwhile again and not just make one or two endgame activities worthwhile. The absolutely more horrid thing they ever did was raise the lvl cap past 75 and introduce ilvl gears. It effectively rendered 95% of the game not worth the time/effort in one fell swoop. If they wanted to raise lvl caps and introduce ilvl they should have also changed the endgame to match cause as it stands now most of the old fun endgame is now relatively boring solo farming and just teetering on the edge of not worth doing *cough* dyna *cough* salvage *cough*

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Originally Posted by Elphy

The best way to solve this is to make all endgame content worthwhile again and not just make one or two endgame activities worthwhile. The absolutely more horrid thing they ever did was raise the lvl cap past 75 and introduce ilvl gears. It effectively rendered 95% of the game not worth the time/effort in one fell swoop. If they wanted to raise lvl caps and introduce ilvl they should have also changed the endgame to match cause as it stands now most of the old fun endgame is now relatively boring solo farming and just teetering on the edge of not worth doing *cough* dyna *cough* salvage *cough*

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Doing this was a necessity though. MMO's can not remain static or they will fail, it's like only bidding the ante on Poker but never raising and folding instantly. You'll never lose but you'll never win and eventually run out of money.

SE's mistake wasn't raising the players power level, as the raise from 60 to 75 proved. It was raising it too fast and not keeping up with content. The older content needs a revamp such that it's optional as an alternate method to acquire stuff. Have AU/AO drop 119RME pouch's, have Dyna poped NM's drop some also with ADL droping a box every time. Have limbus zone clears drop random pages for the new AF. FFXI doesn't have a proper instancing engine so you can't really expect selectable difficulty for older content, so you gotta use it as farming / casual stuff with a reward.