FC for lvls 4-30? ; ;

[Dragonlord]

They cannot undo the lvling system as it stands, they can however make it more new player friendly

This. The problem isn't FCing, or hard to obtain gil for FCing. Its the other obstacles and the boring startup exp that is the problem. To reference WoW, you start out and go head first into quests designed specifically to get you from 1->6+ (in starter areas). In FFXI, you plop in a city, here's 10gil and an adventurer coupon (yes you get destrier's beret now at least), but there's no structure. You just go kill random stuff for a few hours, that's the problem. Leveling the first 99 job has to be fun, or newcomers will just give up.

[Fynlar]

This game has become entirely to unfriendly to new players

Is this a joke?

Doubled EXP, FoV/GoV pages and buffs, Signet protection, skillup change, dirt cheap Instant Warps... the list goes on, all of these are things available to new players that were not available to me, and likely many others here when we started playing the game. It is *significantly* easier to get started nowadays. The catch is, they have to play a lot more catch-up. In a type of game that's forever moving onward as time goes by, this is kinda inevitable.

The game is itself very nice to newbies comparatively to how it was back then. The real issue is having a top-heavy playerbase, not the game itself.

[Xantavia]

I think you're missing the biggest thing about FCs...it isn't just the fact that they get xp quickly, it's the fact that you pay them and get to level a job while AFK. What does this mean?

Most people think leveling up a job isn't fun, and is a hindrance to the actual game content.

So like I said, the only way to fix this is to make rich low/mid level content that also bestows a great amount of xp on the player. Only then will low/mid-level parties might make a comeback. Even then, human laziness may ultimately win people over and they'll just opt to pay a couple mil so they can cleave up to level 99 in 2 days.

There is some of that when it comes to doing missions (not xp though), which I think some people forget. Level caps used to be a great way to tell when something is doable in a group. CoP you can be a contributing member to the early missions as low as 30. Unfortunately, it seems people don't want the challenge anymore (I wouldn't do it at 30 again, 35+ and I'll go), they just get told to level to 99 and steamroll the old stuff. Or not to do it all since its not the best gear rewards.

[Kristal]

The question shouldn't be how those poor newbs are going to get the money to FC burn through the levels. The question should be why SE still hasn't nerfed it. Blinker gilfountain and FC exp have utterly devastated the game.

[Mirage]

Yeah. I mean, it's cool that you can level up rapidly and stuff, but the more of the current playerbase that caps out on merits and exp on all their jobs, the harder it gets for new players to actually get a party to level up their first few jobs.

What sort of a first impression do you think new players get of the game when the first thing they hear is "gain money and pay to get leeched to level cap"? Not a good one, I'd say.

It's just not sustainable in the long run.

[Kincard]

Do you know what did something similar to what I'm talking about? Moblin Maze Mongers. I don't know how many of you actually bothered with the MMM EXPing in the few months it was hot stuff, but that kind of xping is exactly what low levels needed, but it was missing one key component- context. Well that, and ease of access, because only people that had all the important runes could make the damn things.

One weakness FFXI seems to always have is segregating its leveling content and its world lore content. In many other MMOs, you'd get story as you went along your grinding. The downside to that is that eventually it becomes so routine that you don't even notice which quests you're doing are actually interesting, because you're not going to bother reading half of them after you've done "get me 50 goblin taste buds" quests over and over.

Imagine if you could do something that was similar to a assault mission that lasted maybe 30-min to an hour, that had a simple auto-party system built into the lobby (rather than the completely useless one the game has) that ended with a MMM type EXP box and then gave you a storyline cutscene. Sounds great right? Of course, anybody that has stuck around here long enough knows they're not going to do that...especially not for such a top-heavy game as this game has now become, at least not right now, with the limited resources they have.

Even when they have more resources, it probably won't happen simply because a lot of the time they're still designing XI with the same Everquest-era MMO design philosophies as they have for years, and I suspect they think that's what a lot of us want anyway (They're probably right).

[Luvbunny]

Seriously do not understand what is the problem, leveling is soooooooo much easier nowadays. With exp ring and GoV book bonus, you can easily reach to 30 all on your own in a matter of hours. If you are a new players, it's good to solo and explore areas all on your own for at least a good 6-10 hours of game time to get used to the game mechanic. There are still tons of people soloing or duo-ing, as well as LS who are quite newbie friendly. The assault-moblin maze-meeble burrow type activities for low level is actually a great idea but maybe not at level 4-30. This is is good for level 30-50. They should just make it that assault give you 10k points of exp upon completion when you level cap it. And they should just make it that you can do it via abyssea system. Meaning your tags accumulated the minute you started the assault CS. This way you can spam it later.

[Kristal]

This is is good for level 30-50.

Uhm... the levels go from 1-30 then 99. There is no 31-98 anymore.

[Plasticleg]

What ever happened to people joining a linkshell and finding out about the game by their own will, not spoonfed.

Also, no one likes/liked leveling ever. If those were your shinning moments in previous visits to Vana'diel, I can rest assured that you never did level 75 group content, or you did it to the point that it became a job.

[Areayea]

I just say they need to either rid of fell cleave or gimp it beyond belief >.>, it's making players dummies at their jobs... and making them think their bad ass, when in reality if they tried to hit a mob with any weapon... *Skefjiojr misses the Wild Rabbit" or horrible cures/enfeebles/weak black magic, I'm just saying, not completely hating, but that's how you take the lazies away.