To: Mr Akihiko Matsui

[Eyeballed]

Thank you for answering for me so I didn't have to wade through 30 some pages I've missed, haha. -smile- But that's not an accurate enough method to create thriving exp parties. That's still slow, boring, painful exp. It's faster than 2003, but it pales in comparison to 2012 and Abyssea.

What I'm wanting from Eyeballed is a method that will allow all jobs equal opportunity into a party. Six man parties require one tank, one to two healers, a buffer, and damage dealers to fill up the missing slots. That's not efficient when there are several more damage dealing type jobs compared to healing and tanking. While Square Enix has added more healer type jobs into the game (Scholar, Puppetmaster, Dancer, and Blue Mage to an extent), they've not really added more tank jobs (Paladin and Ninja still). And while tanks can be over looked and healers reduced when attacking lower level monsters, that's not how Eyeballed EXPed, that's not the 2003 way, and in the end it still excludes some jobs unless said party is composed of friends.

Perhaps if Eyeballed could create an event that acted similar to an EXP party yet rewarded each job for its own unique abilities (like Campaign/Beseiged/Bastion) and could compose of several different strategies for similar rewards then I could get behind it. Potentially under this effect (similar to a Fields of Valor buff) it could induce jobs with a pseudo enmity+ or cure ability+ to reduce the need for tanks and healers and let anyone fill any particular slot.

For example, with the special buff up, a Summoner could use a Blood Pact Rage of say, Aero II, and the additional effect would be a Cure II on the person deemed 'tank'. Said tank could be any job, like another Summoner, or a Warrior, or even a Paladin. Another example could be a Warrior using Rampage and said weapon skill grants a bonus of "drain effect" for all members for ten seconds. Or maybe a temporary strong Refresh effect on resting mages (this would bring back HMP sets ).

What I'm saying is that 2003 exp doesn't exist for many reasons. Aside from how slow it is, it requires people to be specific jobs (PLD or NIN, DD, DD, BLM or BRD, RDM or BRD, WHM) which, most people don't want to play because they find them boring. There's a plethora of DD jobs, but only a handful of tank, healing, and buffing. We need to allow all people the ability to play regardless of what they're playing in order to trump Abyssea, because Abyssea allows it. Hell, Grounds of Valor parties allow it too, and they have just as high an AFK rate as Abyssea, if not higher. But GoV also allows for 18 people and works on the system of defeating easy prey monsters for the book's exp reward. 2003 EXP parties work on the EXP rewarded from monsters (though can be used in unison with FoV/GoV and grant delicious bonuses).

You also need to remove the wait time for exp parties. I can easily join a GoV party or solo while I wait for one, but 2003 required I sit and wait for hours for an invite unless I was on my WHM, BRD, or RDM. My THF rarely ever got invites, BST never did, and SMN only did when there were no WHMs and people were desperate for some kind of Cure (which after 60 I soloed the rest to 75). BLM got parties until level 40, then Treasure of Aht Urgan came out and I had to solo the rest of the way up.

We have new tools to make 2003 type parties work, but you must be creative in order to make them work. Banning Abyssea and banning GoV are not the ways to do it -- that will alienate and anger the player base who, for the majority of players, just want to get their EXP fast so they can work on acquiring armor, weapons, and helping their friends do the same. This is a stupid idea and praising it like Altana's word is ridiculous. Be creative and think of something unique and original.

Our current tools are EXP bands, Anniversary Rings, Fields of Valor, Grounds of Valor, and models are GoV parties, Abyssea, Campaign, Beseiged, Bastion, Dominion, MMM, and BCNMs. Our out of date model is the 2003 EXP party of six people bringing down incredibly tough monsters for high exp. Blend these all together somehow and you'll create something new, fresh, and exciting for people to participate in.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who says they AFK frequently in GoV parties and Abyssea because they're bored out of their skull. I like interaction, and sometimes 6 man parties were interactive. I'd be interested to try small group parties again if and only if they were enticing enough.

I'd say the ratio of healers, support, tanks and melee was just about right. Six party members comprised of 1 tank, 1 healer, 3-4 DD and/or 1 support; (WHM, RDM, SCH, [SMN]), (PLD, NIN, [WAR]), (BRD, COR, DNC [SMN]), (DRK, RNG, SAM, MNK, THF, BLM, DRG, PUP, WAR, BLU, [BST]). Of course, there was always opinions as to which jobs were over-powered, and usually it was situational. Ranger and Samurai (Polearm) come to mind versus Colibri, which were pretty much the go-to mob from Lv55 onward. Except for that break in Caedarva with Imps, which brings to mind the lowly BLM soloing or doing burn parties (or in rare cases when they could get folks to go to Bibiki). If you ask me, it was less about the job than it was about the mob. Before Lv55, Ranger and Samurai were pretty much on-par with the rest of the melee. In the case of Red Mage monopolizing the healer spot post Convert/Refresh, WHM could have stood about a bit more in itself if one of those abilities had been removed or given to WHM & SCH too.

As far as people neglecting to play jobs because they're boring, well, the answer is pretty much don't play those jobs. I have played them all to at least the low 30's, (NIN, THF, BRD make me happy), and there's not one that I say I detest so much that I would not play it even to have their abilities useful as a sub (SMN is at the bottom of my list). I liked to play the game, plain and simple.

The amount of time you wait for an invite is totally up to you. Thief is a common beating-post for this complaint, and I tell you I waited not at all for invites when I wanted to play on it. I logged in and immediately began /sea spam for not only potential invites, but to leaders in my range and asked them politely if any DD spots would be opening up soon. It's about pro-activity. The reason I didn't wait much at all to take my THF up is because there's a healer, tank, support, and a bunch of melee out there with their flags up that just can't be bothered - they'd just rather complain. They'll take the invite you send, and either rejoice when the party is grand or complain again that the party was too slow.

I don't want to toot my own horn, but being as I led pretty much every group I was involved in, I even invited myself to pull at Caedarva Mire on my BLM/NIN (Stun) where I would pull, rest, Firaga II and repeat. It worked just fine. BLM BLM WAR WAR DRG DRG was probably the most interesting, good and functional party I ever made killing Kuftal's Robber Crabs. You know why?, Because magic can happen if people are willing to try and entertain the possible dynamics of those less-coveted jobs. Instead, what you get is somewhere along the lines of "I played SAM so I could be good just spamming Penta-Thrust."

(Though we won't talk about the time I took a BLU to tank Imps...) *Cringe*

[Meyi]

You still refused to present a better solution to a previous burden. :/ I didn't ask to relive the past because I already experienced it well enough. I want something fresh and exciting for the future.

[Eyeballed]

Anyhow, yeah I agree the lower-levels were a bit harsh as well as soloing (sans-BST) at any level was punishing as far as EXP gain. I do use books when I solo, and yes it is for the buffs and pages. However, I do not agree that the pages should auto-repeat simply due to the fact that the masses have abused it to get away with, the way I see it, not playing the game. That should not even be allowed. In my book, it's simply cheating.

Remove the auto-repeat pages, slow down EXP gain in later levels, and bring back tactics to grind parties instead of this balls-to-the-wall spamming.

[Eyeballed]

You still refused to present a better solution to a previous burden. :/ I didn't ask to relive the past because I already experienced it well enough. I want something fresh and exciting for the future.

The solution was already there - you just failed to take part in it.

[Meyi]

Remove the auto-repeat pages, slow down EXP gain in later levels, and bring back tactics to grind parties instead of this balls-to-the-wall spamming.

God no, I hated having to run back and forth for books. I like being able to stay at camp and continue killing rather than having to stop just to run back and rebook. Not everyone uses it to "AFK".

[Demon6324236]

God no, I hated having to run back and forth for books. I like being able to stay at camp and continue killing rather than having to stop just to run back and rebook. Not everyone uses it to "AFK".

Yeah I know, honestly GoV would work just the same as it did before the feature was put in, which is no different than now except without the limited camp options and annoying reselecting of a page. Also this feature should have actually been in long ago, could you imagine how much easier it would have been in Qufim & Dunes without having to go back to the book every time? Its why most parties ignored the books besides the 1st page when going to a camp and the food/buffs you might get as well. Just like abyssea's xp system however, players abuse the hell out of the feature.

[Eyeballed]

God no, I hated having to run back and forth for books. I like being able to stay at camp and continue killing rather than having to stop just to run back and rebook. Not everyone uses it to "AFK".

Kinda like it was before the books were even there? *wink*

[Demon6324236]

Honestly in a way of looking at this argument what it seems to be about the same as cars & bikes. In real life we have cars, we didn't always have cars, they get us places faster than horses did, but cars are bad for the environment, that doesn't stop most people from owning and using a car. There are people in the world who disagree, they will not use cars, they walk or jog everywhere, ride a bike, they use different forms of moving, its slower, but they prefer it. Now, these people can not simply walk up to the world leaders and request that cars be against the law everywhere in the world, so that no cars are ever used again, and everyone must walk, revert back to horses or ride bikes. Or at least this is how I see it.

[Meyi]

Kinda like it was before the books were even there? *wink*

Before books we just sat at one camp and enjoyed it. There was no "Hey, I have an idea; let's kill 7 lizards then run across the zone to the bunnies and kill just one, then run back to the start of the zone to repeat! ^^"

Sometimes I skip books even now. Just depends on the camp and monster page options. A lot of them suck.

[vienne]

i wonder if the people at SE read these kinda threads, cause the only thing it proves is that alot of people who play this game cant respect eachothers opinion. it is a bit childish dont you think? these threads have little to no use and i doubt the forum is here for people to fire back and forth insults to eachother. better to spend your time in a constructive way and go do the dishes or clean your house.