[Suggestion] Final Fantasy XI - EXP System

[Arcon]

Many people have complained that Abby Ruined XI.

Including me. There's a big list of what was wrong with Abyssea, but EXP is not on that list. EXP is not challenging nor was it ever, it was long, tedious, cumbersome and incredibly boring. I would totally understand if people would want a pre-Abyssea server for its old content, but for EXP? I only had three jobs at 75 despite playing for years before Abyssea, because I could never get myself to level other things just because it was so boring.

EXP has always been the least interesting and least important aspect to FFXI, at least to me. Even back at 75 the game didn't start before, well, 75. Now it starts at 90+. Anything that gets us there faster is perfectly ok with me. I'm still dreading to get RNG, DRK and BST to 30 so I can start leeching them in Abyssea. It's been on my To-Do list for almost two years, and even though EXP is so easy even outside of Abyssea, I still just can't bring myself to do it.

I understand that there's some people who enjoyed it, but they were rarely people who actively participated in endgame. They were people who thought that leveling was what the game was about, which, to almost everyone else, is an absurd idea.

As to your particular idea, why would that even matter? If people wanna do oldschool EXP, they still can. If it should indeed be a voluntary process, as you suggested, what's stopping you from finding five more people who feel the same way and go to East Ronfaure [S] and beat on Colibris? The only thing I could think of would be that there's no five people left who actually enjoyed that kind of EXP.

[Apelila]

Wait so you want old school xp inside abyssea? Easy, just break chains by killing a mob without CFH and see how long until the party kicks you.

*looks up levels on AH* Oh, so this is a reroll character. Listen, I kind of miss the old days too sometimes. I miss that newness that each level had, the feeling of achievement at each new foe conquered and battle won. I miss the social aspect of some XP parties. I made a lot of friends that way by noticing who wasn't pants-on-head-stupid. You can still get that in abyssea parties. Its just that instead of many parties, lasting hours from 50 to 75 you can do the entire stretch from 75 to 99 in a 3+ hours. I would rather chew my own arm off than have to do any of that again at the old rate, as would anyone without 10 hours a day to waste.

[Eri]

Exp was never a Challenge and it shouldnt be. Problem is that Ppl learned how tp play their Job. So if you leveled in Aby chances are that you cant play it. Thats bad..... but a player that uses Abyssea for low levelish leeching is probaly a pretty casual player anyway.

They won't be 99 anytime if they don't? Well the real problem is there is no content for lowlevel.. or nothing that would be desireable at a higher level, so its not desireable to get lower level things since its not useful later on... theres no motivation to to do lowerlevel things.

I personally feel Abyssea was a fail. But at the same time i can see its nice for newer Players to get into Endgame fast.
But i think theres something to be done about players that outright play bad >_>

How about revamping that mentor System? Give Mentors bonuses? Change the condions to become mentor?
Its not like i have to do Abyssea if i dont want to. But i'd want the players to play better..... seriously.

I have issues with Abys but i don't have to do it.... but i have to play with ppl that leveld there later on!
So pretty please make them decent players...

[SpankWustler]

I have issues with Abys but i don't have to do it.... but i have to play with ppl that leveld there later on!
So pretty please make them decent players...

Being bad at FFXI isn't really as simple as not knowing what to do. If the worst players were actually blank slates rather than aggressively stupid, they would tend to ask questions or try different things to see what works. This isn't the case.

Far more often it consists of being obstinately convinced that something horribly stupid is the correct thing to do. Stupid players burn with non-cognitive conviction that Provoke and Defender are vital to tanking stuff at level 99. They are filled to an atomic level with the idiotic ideal that changing visible equipment makes one less likely to be cured. They have known since times immemorial and incompetent that Haste is not that important at all.

The worst players "know" things. Untrue things. Awful things. Detrimental things. Things that should not be. I wish the worst players just knew nothing because that would be a huge improvement.

[Ravenmore]

Exp was never a Challenge and it shouldnt be. Problem is that Ppl learned how tp play their Job. So if you leveled in Aby chances are that you cant play it. Thats bad..... but a player that uses Abyssea for low levelish leeching is probaly a pretty casual player anyway.

They won't be 99 anytime if they don't? Well the real problem is there is no content for lowlevel.. or nothing that would be desireable at a higher level, so its not desireable to get lower level things since its not useful later on... theres no motivation to to do lowerlevel things.

I personally feel Abyssea was a fail. But at the same time i can see its nice for newer Players to get into Endgame fast.
But i think theres something to be done about players that outright play bad >_>

How about revamping that mentor System? Give Mentors bonuses? Change the condions to become mentor?
Its not like i have to do Abyssea if i dont want to. But i'd want the players to play better..... seriously.

I have issues with Abys but i don't have to do it.... but i have to play with ppl that leveld there later on!
So pretty please make them decent players...

I can point to a dozen players that leveled the old way that suck at thier job and I can point to a dozen more that burned a job though abyssea and are pretty good. Good players will be good bad will be bad no matter how they level. Only reason you see them more is just the amount of things that are puged now and the we do things in allis so you get to play with far more people on avg then you ever did at 75.

[Eri]

Only reason you see them more is just the amount of things that are puged now and the we do things in allis so you get to play with far more people on avg then you ever did at 75.

That might be accurate. Personally i see less cause i only play with ppl i know as of now. We dont need alliances anylonger. If i get on XI as of now (might change on content...) thats for planned events... so like if ppl contact me in messanger saying hey we could need help here. So i log on...

I used to play more with random ppl... but the current lack of skill is scary... so i dont play that mutch....

The final stike was when i outparsed a SAM on Pup ..... that was like ok im done >_>

[Ravenmore]

That might be accurate. Personally i see less cause i only play with ppl i know as of now. We dont need alliances anylonger. If i get on XI as of now (might change on content...) thats for planned events... so like if ppl contact me in messanger saying hey we could need help here. So i log on...

I used to play more with random ppl... but the current lack of skill is scary... so i dont play that mutch....

The final stike was when i outparsed a SAM on Pup ..... that was like ok im done >_>

Nothing really new there sam is not the all mighty DD they are made out to be. In dyna at 75 I out parsed a couple good sams on blu getting lucky on having a brd balleding me when I got low on mp and stats refilling me. But tha was perfect condictions for me trash mobs and mp rainning for the heavns. Only thing sam has always had was it was the hardest job to fail completly at. The big 3 were all str based WS and being one hit WS got the Acc bouns so the dimwits that stack str in thier tp sets weren't total waste of space. I stop parseing against others long ago it tells me nothing.

[Runespider]

I used to play more with random ppl... but the current lack of skill is scary... so i dont play that mutch....

you don't play with other people so how can you judge? I do a lot of content in alliances with randoms and most people are as capable on their jobs as they always were. You're talking nonsense, some suck...but that was always the case.

The final stike was when i outparsed a SAM on Pup ..... that was like ok im done >_>

I can outparse anyone easily, all you need to do is parse vs someone with no atmas in a lolxp party, vs someone that is doing content that doesn't matter when they are chatting on ls or vs someone that has no idea you are running a parser vs them (this one is the biggest advantages in beating a well geared/"good" player in a parse). That's why a parser is a terrible tool in the hands of people that don't understand them and use them in arguments.

[Zarchery]

Don't you already have the option to manually decline levelling in Abyssea? Just don't go there. There's no need to make programming changes. You major roadblock to doing old style XP is finding 5 other people to do it with you. If you implemented this config button, it would be just as contingent upon other people using it.

I think with posts like this, people are trying to relive the past. You can't. The past is gone, forever.

[Zarchery]

I've been finding that seal farming emulates the feeling of old style XP parties pretty well. The NMs take about that length of time to kill, and the need for weakness triggers encourages the same diversity of jobs. Also been finding that I run into the same people over and over when forming my seal parties.