Interim Report – Sorry to keep you all waiting!

[Rustic]

First of all, I never said any of that applied to me, and it doesn't. If I didn't have anything left to experience in this game, I'd quit. Second, every item you mentioned except for EXP I love and I would do again, and I help everyone out with. You are completely off base listing all of that, because none of it I have a problem with, and none of it I want to keep from others (again, EXP being the sole exception).

And even back when I never did any of it at all, I still hated EXP. I already said a few posts ago, there is only one thing I dislike about EXP. I can deal with grinds. I can deal with time sinks. I can deal with slow (or even no) rewards. The only thing I cannot deal with is boredom, and that's what defines EXP to me. You're trying to make it out to be a lot more than it is.

And in that regard, I'm in the middle. I think oldschool exp rates were mind-numbing. I think Abyssea exp rates are overdone. But I also think that without people having reasons to go out there, you don't have people even thinking about those zones. I don't think we need people going to the same zone for a month straight grinding away in Garbage Sit-adel slapping bats and beetles around- but they should have a reason to go there for a level or two, for a day or two. Not because of some masochistic need for people to grind, but so people actually experience the zone and a feeling of progress that isn't "blink and it's gone".

Aside from crafting, it very much is.

And heck, crafting is more of a 100% game in the sense that it takes people all over the game world, from the basics in Zerhun/Saruta/Ronfaure as newbie crafters all the way out to the guy smacking around an HNM and hoping for a crafting drop. Endgame is -not-. Endgame is "doing what's at the end", and it focuses around the stuff that gives you the top-end gear in a limited number of areas at the top levels the game allows. You want the endgame to be a "100% game", start putting endgame HNM's in 100% (or near to it) of the game zones- just not all at once. Kill one? Another one spawns somewhere else. Maybe your alliance takes down an HNM Antican in Quicksand Caves. A Giga Behemoth pops up in Qufim. He dies. Deep in the Outer Horutoto Ruins, a Wild Cardian appears. It goes down. Castle Zvahl gets a new Demon King. Blam. A Gold Hydra in Mamook. Boom. A Great Tauri in the Aqueducts. Bang. A Fomor in Arrapago Reef. Biff. A Golem in Ro'Maeve. They don't have to have a huge unique loot table (indeed, quite the opposite) - but let them have drops that relate to the area they spawn in. Random AF2 pieces and some ancient currency in one case. Some Salvage armors and alexandrite in another. A mixed bag of AF3 seals for a third. Crafting materials. That sorta thing. Things relevant to the care and feeding of L99 players, in other words.

[Prrsha]

And in that regard, I'm in the middle. I think oldschool exp rates were mind-numbing. I think Abyssea exp rates are overdone. But I also think that without people having reasons to go out there, you don't have people even thinking about those zones. I don't think we need people going to the same zone for a month straight grinding away in Garbage Sit-adel slapping bats and beetles around- but they should have a reason to go there for a level or two, for a day or two. Not because of some masochistic need for people to grind, but so people actually experience the zone and a feeling of progress that isn't "blink and it's gone".




And heck, crafting is more of a 100% game in the sense that it takes people all over the game world, from the basics in Zerhun/Saruta/Ronfaure as newbie crafters all the way out to the guy smacking around an HNM and hoping for a crafting drop. Endgame is -not-. Endgame is "doing what's at the end", and it focuses around the stuff that gives you the top-end gear in a limited number of areas at the top levels the game allows. You want the endgame to be a "100% game", start putting endgame HNM's in 100% (or near to it) of the game zones- just not all at once. Kill one? Another one spawns somewhere else. Maybe your alliance takes down an HNM Antican in Quicksand Caves. A Giga Behemoth pops up in Qufim. He dies. Deep in the Outer Horutoto Ruins, a Wild Cardian appears. It goes down. Castle Zvahl gets a new Demon King. Blam. A Gold Hydra in Mamook. Boom. A Great Tauri in the Aqueducts. Bang. A Fomor in Arrapago Reef. Biff. A Golem in Ro'Maeve. They don't have to have a huge unique loot table (indeed, quite the opposite) - but let them have drops that relate to the area they spawn in. Random AF2 pieces and some ancient currency in one case. Some Salvage armors and alexandrite in another. A mixed bag of AF3 seals for a third. Crafting materials. That sorta thing. Things relevant to the care and feeding of L99 players, in other words.

Well said.

All of that information can be stored server-side, so none of that is an issue.

Correct as well. Heck FFXIAH can bring up a great deal of information and it hardly needs full access to the servers. It's just laziness on the SE's part (or overlooked) for some reason. Not only would this new interface help with leveling/exp but with endgame events (gear gathering) as well. You could even add a "synth request" option.