The "Go Solo It" fever

[Superbeast]

There are definitely a lot of ways to look for information on what your trying to do, ffxiclopedia.com is a great source, not meaning to go off on a tangent but I would like to address the "MMORPG" thing. No where in the word or the definition does it say co-op ( Massively multi-player online role-playing game ) it does imply that people interact with each other and peoples perception on that is their own. Sorry to get off subject, but if you are having trouble with getting and item/quest whatever due to lack of help best advice as others have said is to try and make a couple of friends and join a linkshell. Or come back in a few years when it will more than likely be solo-able. If your ever on Siren look me up, I'm in a linkshell and as long as you aren't rude i'll give you a pearl, If I have the time I will help with what I can.

[Chronofantasy]

I think this is why a lot of people often will spend an extra $13 a month to create an extra account and buy another copy of FFXI for a different system and level an alt character to assist their main character to help them on certain stuff. But I like your idea for incentives for people to help a person with something for those who normally don't help unless there's something in it for them. Some people offer gil as a reward for people helping but not everyone is rich enough to offer a reward. For those that do need an incentive to help I have a little bit of an idea of what SE can maybe do to give players that incentive to help.

SE can make some sort of helper or assist point system where a player gets one point everytime they help someone with something. A NPC can be placed in all cities and the helper has to get an item from the NPC that they can use to multiply the item and trade to the person they're helping out to hold onto. There can be different help categories like quests, notorious monsters, missions, etc. from the help NPC and while the person that is being helped with is fighting the monster or doing the quest, that person can use the item on the monster or trade the item to the NPC to get some kind of imprint on the item. (Maybe a soulplate can somehow be involved to capture an image or something) The NPC/Monster or player's name is then imprinted on the item and the person being helped trades the item back to the helper and the helper can trade the imprinted item back to the NPC for their point reward.

As for the rewards, the rewards can be very good rewards like something almost like twilight gear or something that players will really want to go after.

I don't know if this sort of system will work or can be done but let's say you need 100 points for a really good piece of gear or item, then that gives you 100 reasons to help 100 different people and a lot of people can get the help they need and people won't have to worry about never finding anyone to help them.

[Superbeast]

I think this is why a lot of people often will spend an extra $13 a month to create an extra account and buy another copy of FFXI for a different system and level an alt character to assist their main character to help them on certain stuff. But I like your idea for incentives for people to help a person with something for those who normally don't help unless there's something in it for them. Some people offer gil as a reward for people helping but not everyone is rich enough to offer a reward. For those that do need an incentive to help I have a little bit of an idea of what SE can maybe do to give players that incentive to help.

SE can make some sort of helper or assist point system where a player gets one point everytime they help someone with something. A NPC can be placed in all cities and the helper has to get an item from the NPC that they can use to multiply the item and trade to the person they're helping out to hold onto. There can be different help categories like quests, notorious monsters, missions, etc. from the help NPC and while the person that is being helped with is fighting the monster or doing the quest, that person can use the item on the monster or trade the item to the NPC to get some kind of imprint on the item. (Maybe a soulplate can somehow be involved to capture an image or something) The NPC/Monster or player's name is then imprinted on the item and the person being helped trades the item back to the helper and the helper can trade the imprinted item back to the NPC for their point reward.

As for the rewards, the rewards can be very good rewards like something almost like twilight gear or something that players will really want to go after.

I don't know if this sort of system will work or can be done but let's say you need 100 points for a really good piece of gear or item, then that gives you 100 reasons to help 100 different people and a lot of people can get the help they need and people won't have to worry about never finding anyone to help them.

I really like the basis of this, help point base system, with the equivalent or better of rewards ex: twilight gear. People would be falling had over foot to help people, just one problem, what happens when everybody is helped or only help those they want for personal gain. The Idea is splendid and well worth looking into but needs to be well thought about before its put into action. Excellent post Chrono.

[KorPoni]

Maybe a point system where you can select NMs, quests, or Missions you've completed/beaten already that have a fight, and you're considered to have completed the prerequisits of the mission. Maybe kind of like the hunt registry, where you forfit any chance of reward for the points. I have a good feeling alot of people would not only be given incentive to help people, but to complete missions, quests, bcnms, and NM hunts so that they can get the helping points.

I love your idea, and options on it can definitely be explored.

[Wojo]

I play with friends to have fun, I solo to hoard loot. Personally, I see nothing wrong with hangin out in linkshell to socialize while soloing in the game. In fact, I prefer it

[katoplepa]

sometimes , it can happen to be unhappy to help someone new on your Ls , someone maybe who pop in Ls in the middle of an event (and all the others are already in fight) and start to blame because he needs to do some mission and no-one help him (in that right moment) .... I think this happened to all of you ... or more : someone new on your Ls, maybe low level, you help him A LOT to level up, he saying "when I will be 75 I will join linkshell events and I will help back" and when hit 75 he says goodbye and switch to an Hnmls ... these things happened a lot... so, if you need help, it's not only the others who have to help you, but you also have to be in a certain way of respect when/how ask help...

[Kjara]

I really like the help points idea, it sounds like something Mentor Recruitment NPC could do.

[Seriha]

People aren't really helpful to strangers because there's largely been a lack of incentive to do so. Exceptions are involved if you by chance need the same thing, but that's pretty much a case of mutual back scratching.

Back in the day, you'd see few willing to go back and redo CoP missions. The cost of medicines, EXP loss on failure, and the often long trudges through remote locations weren't exactly conducive to risk-taking. So, this basically devolved into people accepting cookie-cutter set ups for PUGs and if you weren't one of the in jobs, tough luck. Fortunately, the cap increase and lifting of restrictions helped to alleviate this issue, but even before that you could see SE maybe took the hint that a lack of reward wasn't helping things, so you got the meager EXP payment for helpers. Definitely a case of far too little, though.

Fast forward to today and while you might have some issues getting boss or caturae clears for Abyssea, it's not nearly as unrelenting. Finding assistance for more mundane activities like magian trials can be a chore, though. In the past on Alla I made a request thread asking for a system of "Kupo Points" where, if helping someone on a trial you're not on yourself, you're given credit to invest on your own needs. For kills, this could mean every 5 you get for someone could become a credit for 1 kill on another trial. 30 could possibly be an Empyrean seal or weapon item like Mikey's Nugget. 50 could be an AF+2 item while 100/125/150 could go toward the respective Empyrean weapon tier items.

Personally, I've never been a fan of throwing gil at a problem. "Helpers" can ask unreasonable prices, and odds are if you're having a rough time doing one thing, making good cash fast isn't really on your plate, either. I can't recall what the census called the average gil gain for a player was, but I don't think it was terribly high. 500k per person, if not willing to split, isn't reasonable for something as an example.

Meanwhile, making friends isn't as easy as it sounds, either. A lot of "end game" shells close themselves off, and the shrinking of required bodies for things hasn't really encouraged recruitment for new blood while even in-shell people break off into little cliques. While PUGs still get things done, you're often at the mercy of finding others who need the same thing at the same time you're playing who happen to be in the same zone you're shouting for help with.

Actually, I guess that leads into the game needing a global chat channel so people looking for help can find it more easily. It'll just need a broadcast timer to keep spam to a minimum and possible GM supervision to keep flame wars down and the channel serving its purpose.

[Virjunior]

Googling normally leads you to the appropriate wiki page more quickly. Wiki takes a while to load...too many graphics.

[Superchicken]

Couple things i'll give my opinion on. Some said something about having multiple linkshells. This can hurt you chance of getting help or not. I'll give an example. There's people who have a pearl to the linkshell i'm in and the only time you see them in linkshell is when they want something, and here's how it typically goes

X player pops in linkshell

X: "hey linkshell can anyone help me with blah blah blah"
linkshell members usually dont respond cause this person is notorious for this, or will simply say "i can't i'm busy doing this"

It becomes very apparent and even the least intelligent person catches on to trends like this. If you are only popping in the linkshell to ask for help most likely you won't get any, at least from me you won't.

I've been playing the game for a long time and have made some bonds with people over the years who I know I can always count on for some help. Yeah I don't expect them to drop what they are doing to come help me, nor do i hope they expect the same thing. So recently my thing is that i've been building popsets for abyssea NM's for gear i need by myself. So what i typically do is use my mule to build a popset as well. Now usually if i say to a friend, "hey i got this pop set for this NM and need a little help killing it" they'll come help since all we have to do is go in and kill it and no farm KI's. Sometimes people even friends need a little incentive, so when i was doing sobeks i for kannagi i would build two popsets then i'd get a couple people to help and let them lot on the +2 mats while i took the skins. And sometimes i'd say he i have two popsets for sobek, can you come help me kill it, i'm gonna take at least 1 stone of balance but you can have the rest. And then i've got friends how i know i can ask for help who dont need anything in return for helping cause they know i'll return the favor when they need help.

One thing I try to do is if someone needs help and i'm not doing something (referring to some random person shouting for help) I'll go help them, in returns that they'll remember me helping them so when they see me shouting for help for something it will ring a bell "hey that guy helped me out before, I'll go help him out." Sometimes it pays off but most of the time it doesn't but meh.

You'll always run across those "well what's in it for me" type of people. Can't really do anything about that. But you'll find a few people who will help you out just to help you out.

I'll admit when i see someone on level 90 w/e job shouting for help on something you know they can solo with no problems its kind of irritating and of course you gonna have people telling them to go solo it. it's like the same people who shout things like "who do i talk to to start X quest" you will get those answering with "look it up on wiki."

Easiest way to get help is to make a few friends and help each other, cause shouting in PJ or wherever will most likely get you responses like "go solo it", no response at all, or something like "what you haven't finished CoP yet", or many other flame on responses. The you scratch my back i'll scratch yours method works most of the time. Setting up a day and time with someone to help you on whatever you need works pretty good cause then your helper can prepare for it cause its hard to get people to drop what they are doing sometimes to help you out, so if they know ahead of time they have something to do with you it turns out better.