Concerning Merit Points.

[Seriha]

I've purposely had to pace myself from doing too much since the last update, gone back to doing Campaign for merits and allied notes just so I can feel like I've earnt my dedication.

"Earning" something is relative. While you can list the expansions and other activities, highlighting a good item or two, someone more critical (and likely right) would point out that a given activity only having one or two good rewards is not a very well-planned event, especially the more bodies you begin to demand to participate for success.

The only "problem" with the "fast track" during the level 76-90 progression is that level 91+ has pretty much seen nothing new, only recycled and slightly revised systems. Unsurprisingly, they're also suffering from either lacking drops or poor drop rates. This might trick some people into thinking they've earned a given item when it finally shows up in their inventory, but it's also infuriated others into not even trying, or even outright quitting the game.

Meanwhile, those still uppity over Abyssea need to realize it wasn't meant to be endgame, only a stepping stone toward it. If you truly think tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of players at similar stages of character progression (namely everyone being able to level past 75 after years and years of being the 'final' cap) being able to advance at a decent rate is bad, imagine the bottleneck and drama on all NMs if you multiplied the needed effort by 10. And if you're someone who can play every day for 4+ hours a day, you also need to accept you're going to be a hard customer to please.

SE not putting money made by FFXI into FFXI first has always bothered me. There could be so much more content, so many more fixes, and so many new additions to jobs that it's just depressing to think we're running on a skeleton crew with no real big picture beyond Even More Voidwatch(tm)!

[Tashan]

"Earning" something is relative. While you can list the expansions and other activities, highlighting a good item or two, someone more critical (and likely right) would point out that a given activity only having one or two good rewards is not a very well-planned event, especially the more bodies you begin to demand to participate for success.

I only listed one item to not bog the post down. I could list the whole of Salvage, Sky, Sea, Limbus, Dynamis, Campaign etc drops if you want though.

But yes, the feeling of earning something is definently relative.

Meanwhile, those still uppity over Abyssea need to realize it wasn't meant to be endgame,

I don't think this was addressed to me but if it was:

I'm not looking to have a go at Abyssea, which I dearly love for reviving the game,

The point of this discussion is the idea you can take merit points and exchange them for progress in an area of the game. The reason why I've highlighted different areas of progress is to show not the rewards gained but the fact that in the past you had to reach out to different places of content in order to progress.

Building merit points is something which is still tied to Abyssea. By allowing yourself to exchange merit points for other forms of currency and progress means players will continue to put most of their attention towards less content.

[Malamasala]

I wouldn't mind transferring merit points to exp on other jobs. God knows how many times I've been asked to come job X, with capped exp to events that grant huge amounts of exp, that simply end up wasted because I had to adjust to strategy instead of what benefit myself.

If I could both help others and myself at once, the game would be much better. Not to mention I could also play the job I like the most, but level up a new job in the process.

Still got some issues with skillups though. So I guess buying skill for merit points would also be lovely.

[Seriha]

The point of this discussion is the idea you can take merit points and exchange them for progress in an area of the game. The reason why I've highlighted different areas of progress is to show not the rewards gained but the fact that in the past you had to reach out to different places of content in order to progress.

Building merit points is something which is still tied to Abyssea. By allowing yourself to exchange merit points for other forms of currency and progress means players will continue to put most of their attention towards less content.

Multitasking isn't a crime. Old-FFXI was problematic because if you wanted to make gil, you likely weren't getting EXP or new gear. If you wanted to get EXP, you weren't getting money or equipment. If wanted to get equipment, you were probably losing EXP and money. Some might enjoy that cyclical style of grind, but when you consider the people capable of investing great amounts of time into the game, in turn, affect those who can not, you essentially risk alienating people.

I dare say FFXI "got away with it" back in the day because MMOs were still young and people largely didn't know better. The fact there are numerous game options out there now, some F2P, does not offer much potential profit if your focus is pandering to the absolutist hardcores. Others touched on it earlier, as have I, in saying that merits are basically another form of currency. No one is outright saying to stop adding new NMs or events in place of some kind of merit exchange, only for it to be a supplement. Options aren't bad. A bad event with good rewards is probably your average player's worst nightmare. If they had the choice to acquire said rewards without suffering through the event they dislike, that's a win, as far as I'm concerned. Ideally the event would be the faster route, but you just can't expect everyone to like everything the same way. I dislike Salvage, for example, as it punishes people for wanting to take larger groups, is not fun if you're low on cell priority list, and arbitrarily denying people use of the gear they've earned is further magnified by the two prior points in mind as it hardly became some equalizer that balanced the playing field between pros and scrubs. The former still tries to vehemently avoid the latter.

[Riggs]

i think it would be nice if you could merrit hp as much as you like, it would need to be high tho maybe 50k merrits for 1 hp with no cap, pretty sure this would interest allot of people

[Mavrick]

i think it would be nice if you could merrit hp as much as you like, it would need to be high tho maybe 50k merrits for 1 hp with no cap, pretty sure this would interest allot of people

Eventually everyone would be running around with 9999 HP on every job/race so that would be a pretty game breaking idea.

A simple solution would be to have Merit Items/Gear (preferably Rings) that function similarly to Exp Band. They provide a beneficial Effect to the player which cannot be dispelled by monster abilities. (like reraise).

Acquisition:
- Purchasable from NPC via Merit Points
- Cost 15-30 Merit Points
- Can Only have 1 "Merit Ring" in your possession at any given time.

Enchantment Effect:
- Type of effect varies with each individual ring.
- Enchantment Effect stays in effect even if ring is removed.
- Enchantment Effect cannot be dispelled by monsters (aka reraise). However effect will be lost upon death, level sync, or job change.
- Max Charges: 3~5
- Charge Recast: 60 seconds
- Effect Duration: 180 mins
- Stacks with other effects of similar properties (ie refresh, haste, regen)
- Enchantment Effect also affects Pets (with the exception of charmed monsters)
- Rings cannot be recharged. Once depleted, you must toss it and purchase another from NPC.

Few Examples

Merit Ring 1
Cost: 15 Merits
Level 95
Enchantment: HP+150, MP+150
Charges: 5 - Reuse: 60s - Duration: 180 mins

Merit Ring 2
Cost: 15 Merits
Level 95
Enchantment: Regen+3, Refresh+1
Charges: 5 - Reuse: 60s - Duration: 180 mins

Merit Ring 3
Cost: 15 Merits
Level 95
Enchantment: Attack+15, Accuracy+15
Charges: 5 - Reuse: 60s - Duration: 180 mins

Merit Ring 4
Cost: 15 Merits
Level 95
Enchantment: Haste+5% (Gear Haste)
Charges: 5 - Reuse: 60s - Duration: 180 mins

Merit Ring 5
Cost: 15 Merits
Level 95
Enchantment: Double Attack+3%
Charges: 5 - Reuse: 60s - Duration: 180 mins

Merit Ring 6
Cost: 15 Merits
Level 95
Enchantment: Enmity+10, Damage Taken-3%
Charges: 5 - Reuse: 60s - Duration: 180 mins


Merit Ring 7
Cost: 15 Merits
Level 95
Enchantment: TP Bonus+50
Charges: 5 - Reuse: 60s - Duration: 180 mins

[Alhanelem]

Gil not Gils

the proposed rewards are ridiculous. A strong party can get 30 merits in just over an hour. Yeah, let's let people change their name/race 48 times a day, or give them 24 million gil a day if they grind constantly. Great idea.

/sarcasm

If you're done with merits, just stop grinding merits- or keep those points handy in case you want to change your merits around.

[Greatguardian]

A strong party can get 30 merits in 40 minutes, really. I was rocking 450-500k/hr after the 99 Genkai when all the good players were out exp'ing.

Honestly, all I'd really ask for are Voidstones. Wanting to be able to make 2mil~ an hour between Merits and Cruor is just stupid.

[Alhanelem]

And changing merits for a single fight is a stupid solution to what should be something super easy.

That's pushing it a bit, particularly factoring in the time before the chain is maxed when exp/hr is unavoidably lower, but the point is it doesnt take long

(Joined a random party killing acroliths in ulegurand and was over 300k/hr- considering just about everyone was fighting their own mobs rapidly, I couldn't see it getting a lot higher than that. There was virtually no AFKing, though the alliance wasn't always full)

[Aldersyde]

Still got some issues with skillups though. So I guess buying skill for merit points would also be lovely.

I really like this idea. I think one merit per skill level would be too generous but 3:1 or 5:1 would provide enough of a time sink SE intended the skill-up process to be but still be fair, especially for some of the skills which are just asinine to level (enhancing and summoning). Although they are fairly easy to level, it's still annoying. Standing in one spot outside of town spamming a macro over and over again is not really the reason I play games (plus with limited play time I really don't want to spend a night dedicated to doing it).

I know people will disagree but the idea is better than converting merits to gil or region specific currency, which would make it so people would never do events like besieged or campaign again.