Abyssea ruined low level XP parties

[Runespider]

Not sure if the devs actually realise this but Abyssea having the min level req of 30 did a huge amount of damage to the leveling system of FFXI, within a month normal XP parties pretty much died out completely. If abyssea was made to make 75>90 bearable you succeeded, as I said though a bad decision also totally ruined the XP system and social interaction for low levels players.

What players now do is they create alliances(or tag along with their friends/ls) now on low level jobs and get big amounts of XP from XP boxes and if they stay long enough the base XP builds up to the point they get the same xp as high level players from Abyssea mob kills. So why XP anywhere else?

This has a bad effect on the entire playerbase of FFXI because these people that make alliances for this purpose would usually be the players that would go and make parties, now nobody makes any XP parties at all and players without the inclination or knowledge to make parties are out in the cold and can't get party xp at all. Did you as a dev team intend to kill the XP party system? Because honestly it's almost impossible now for anyone to get any kind of XP party at all on low jobs because as I said people that would normally make parties now just leech in Abyssea. This blocks the vast majority of FFXI players getting an invite no matter how long they flag up.

Abyssea minimum level req basically forced most of the population to solo XP using FoV. It amazes me how such a simple and small change that could make the game better for the vast majority of it's players has not been addressed in so long.

I guess it might be hard to change the min level req now so maybe another way can be found to fix this problem? Put a hard cap on XP from kills if you are below 70(maybe no more than 50 per kill), put a level cap on being able to partake in dominion and greatly reduce XP from chests.

I make this post because I honestly don't think the Dev team realise how much damage this is doing to the leveling system, new players, returnees and indeed normal players that don't want to leech in Aby now find it impossible to get XP invites at all.

The other post is all stupid off topic arguments about lack of skill etc, pointless to post in that now. If you fixed this you would annoy a small amount of players who are too lazy to level a job but you would make the gaming experience better for everyone else, most of whome don't post here or complain about it but still can't get an kind of XP parties anymore.

[Sasukeuchiha]

Its not that hard just make an xp party yourself. If you do not know how learn. Learning how to make an xp party is not that hard.

[Runespider]

But if you learned how to make an xp party they could then go make an abyssea alliance instead, this still puts the vast majority of players out in the cold. Some will never ever make a party, lack of confidence or whatever and Square have to decide if losing players because they can't get xp parties is better than keeping a small number of players that leech happy. I know which option I would go for if I wanted to make money from subs long-term.

If players can't get xp parties they can't make friends or gain shells either, its a really big problem. I don't care how selfish some are they at least have to have some sense to see how bad that is for the life of a game they still play.

[NrvnqsrKhaos]

The recent EXP mini-update shows that SE is aware of this. It's not unreasonable to get 20k EXP or more an hour in parties outside of Abyssea.

Of course, this doesn't address the issue of people leveling in all of two areas now, because syncing to 20 and killing Qufim one creature at a time is so much easier than going anywhere else in the massive world SE created. Or maybe, if you're lucky, Colibri in Past Ronfaure.

No, I'm not bitter.

[Dubberrucky]

Very well written post you nailed one of the key issues on the head. Several people are coming back to the game recently and I see as well a hear a lot of the same issues you have stated by them. Another note for the "just learn to make a party" people is that it would not be hard if more than a handful of people even seek so its not as easy as it used to be in that respect. Best of luck to you keeping this one on topic though.

[Yopop]

My favorites are the people who have 6 jobs @ 90 and I'm just returning so I throw together a party and try to take them to Crawlers Nest and those same people who brag about having all these jobs at 90 send me a tell saying they've never been to Crawlers Nest. I asked them what zones did they level in and they pretty much said Dunes, Qufim, and a couple times MMM.

ouch but that's what the world has come to ^^ but I'm a BST so I'm not complaining, less parties near my BST camps.

The recent EXP mini-update shows that SE is aware of this. It's not unreasonable to get 20k EXP or more an hour in parties outside of Abyssea.

Of course, this doesn't address the issue of people leveling in all of two areas now, because syncing to 20 and killing Qufim one creature at a time is so much easier than going anywhere else in the massive world SE created. Or maybe, if you're lucky, Colibri in Past Ronfaure.

No, I'm not bitter.

[Avarice]

I don't make Abyssea alliances because I enjoy them more than the traditional parties of yesteryear (actually, I do), I make them because they're more efficient and less of a time sink. The "problem" that you describe isn't really a problem at all, it's just the norm disagreeing with your preferences, which are nothing more than opinions.

If you prefer traditional, old school parties to Abyssea, then good for you; not everyone feels that way. That aside, what you're describing is hardly all that different anyway. Abyssea is merely three parties (i.e. an alliance/18 people) killing mobs repeatedly instead of one party (i.e. 6 people) killing mobs repeatedly. The formula is the exact same, only there are perks and benefits that Abyssea has over the old partying system.

Lastly, I don't know about you, but last I checked when you're in an Abyssea alliance, no one forbids you from speaking and exchanging pleasantries with the 17 other people in the alliance. Why you seem to think Abyssea prevents you from meeting new people and joining new linkshells is beyond me.

[Dubberrucky]

The recent EXP mini-update shows that SE is aware of this. It's not unreasonable to get 20k EXP or more an hour in parties outside of Abyssea.

Of course, this doesn't address the issue of people leveling in all of two areas now, because syncing to 20 and killing Qufim one creature at a time is so much easier than going anywhere else in the massive world SE created. Or maybe, if you're lucky, Colibri in Past Ronfaure.

No, I'm not bitter.

No it doesn't address the entire issue but it is a step in the right direction. there will always be people out there who want to stay in one place until they get to abyssea but if more parties were being made they would spread back out again due to competition as well as sheer boredom of fighting any 1 mob for to long. At the rate SE increased exp to you can easily solo 10k per hour without FoV getting a party should not be the problem that it still is, but there has been a noticeable increase of people in small roaming groups.

[Dubberrucky]

I don't make Abyssea alliances because I enjoy them more than the traditional parties of yesteryear (actually, I do), I make them because they're more efficient and less of a time sink. The "problem" that you describe isn't really a problem at all, it's just the norm disagreeing with your preferences, which are nothing more than opinions.

If you prefer traditional, old school parties to Abyssea, then good for you; not everyone feels that way. That aside, what you're describing is hardly all that different anyway. Abyssea is merely three parties (i.e. an alliance/18 people) killing mobs repeatedly instead of one party (i.e. 6 people) killing mobs repeatedly. The formula is the exact same, only there are perks and benefits that Abyssea has over the old partying system.

Lastly, I don't know about you, but last I checked when you're in an Abyssea alliance, no one forbids you from speaking and exchanging pleasantries with the 17 other people in the alliance. Why you seem to think Abyssea prevents you from meeting new people and joining new linkshells is beyond me.

I believe the OP is referring to low level parties not the higher level type of abyssea parties like you describe in your post.

[rog]

It only ruined low level exp parties because no one wants to do them. If people wanted to join such parties, then they would. But they don't want to, so they don't.

Not sure why you want to force your play style on everyone else.