I keep dying on limit break 3 (60-65 cap)

[CaptainCrunch]

I am not naive enough to believe that I am able nor that I have the time to actually assist every new player that comes into the game, changing how I do things will not fix it, and even if I could do this, it would not fix things completely. Since the stance of anti-change seems to be content with leaving things just how they are I will end up FCing XP for people who will not spend a few weeks leveling, I will end up giving gil to players who are unable to make money enough to afford spells or gear, I will end up doing their limit breaks for them and robbing them of any sort of experience.

You have two real choices here, either you can expect players to spend their time holding new player's hand, or you can have the game explain things and hold a players hand so that they can get just as far. To me, build the game to help people, a new player needs help either way, why are we going to rely on the player base to do it when the game can just have simple changes done to it to make it easier to access and last forever, for everyone, rather than just hoping a player picks the up and helps them.

Making the playerbase do it doesn't cost anything. That's why.

[Demonjustin]

Making the playerbase do it costs no money, but it also does not come close to integrating as many people into the game and its community because there are hardly enough people with enough time, patience, motivation, and knowledge, to take a player from the start of the game and get them into the game to the point they will actually continue to play and even grow as a player in the game like many of us have since we started.

As I said, I am not naive enough to believe that I am able nor that I have enough time to assist every new player, I also believe as a community, we just will not do it, most won't even try, the ones who do will mostly give up or go to extreme in 1 direction or the other when it comes to helping, either not helping enough and leaving the person feeling lost, or, helping to much where they begin to expect all information to be provided to them on demand. If you believe we are capable of this then please explain the numerous threads popping up here, because I am fairly confident more people than not will leave this game before coming to the forums. Those people who leave will probably never return, because unlike us, they built no connection to the game or its community before their departure, and my guess is that they only saw a cryptic game they didn't understand, with few players, and probably not many people willing or able to help them.

On the flip side of that, what happens if SE rebuilds the early levels of the game a bit? Either its wasted money and effort, nothing different happens, and yes, it was an error, or, more people get interested in the game from the get go, and spend money on the game. If you want to look at it after 1 month sure, nothing will change besides a waste of effort, if you look back 6 months later, who knows, 6 months of new players being more informed, able to get into the game easier and making them more likely to stay, there is a good chance it could work out for the better.

The one final thing I add is that if they actually did fix the game up, they have to do some advertising for once, in some way or form, even if its saying something in FFXIV to the extent of 'if you like this game, you should try out FFXI!' or the exact opposite, since they are fairly different games, but something to get people's attention and even direct them to the trial, which massively needs improved, though thats another topic all together.

[Puck]

Making the playerbase do it doesn't cost anything. That's why.

In other words, another case of SE not spending their FFXI budget where it counts. Gotcha.

Though, if you get down to brass tacks, SE would probably make their money back if they spent some manpower on fixing levels 1-75 for new players. The game is now playable on a majority of PCs. A lot of the integrated graphics cards are actually good enough to run FFXI on medium or high settings, so even people that didn't buy a PC with video games in mind can play it. There's definitely still a market for new players.

I know a LOT of people that were turned off by the difficulty and abhorrent party-seeking difficulties in the old days of 75cap. They would've kept playing if the game were as accessible then as it is now. I know a couple that are thinking of returning. Leveling is finally fixed (provided they keep double Exp... most brand-new players don't Abyssea leech). Now all that's standing between new, completely inexperienced players are a bunch of draconian arbitrary limit breaks.

The only reason limit break quests exist in the first place is because EVERYONE used to be capped at those levels. The quests came along with the level cap increase, as a more immersive way to explain why our characters were unable to become that strong previously. That's pretty silly nowadays. SE knows we don't want to go through a bunch of garbage just so we can get back to level-grinding. Why do you think the 80, 85, 90, and 95 limit breaks were so damn easy? The only one that's hard now is the 99 limit break, and they even nerfed that a bunch and made it so you can spam old rarab tails.

The old limit break quests are relics of a bygone era. They need to change or go away.

And I agree with pretty much everything Demonjustin's been saying in this thread. Those are all great ideas that'll help FFXI survive a little longer.

If you believe we are capable of this then please explain the numerous threads popping up here, because I am fairly confident more people than not will leave this game before coming to the forums. Those people who leave will probably never return, because unlike us, they built no connection to the game or its community before their departure, and my guess is that they only saw a cryptic game they didn't understand, with few players, and probably not many people willing or able to help them.

See, this, 100%. How many players do you know--who actually knew how to play and devoted 100s upon 100s of hours playing it--quit and never came back? I can think of many. In fact, nearly all of my best friends in FFXI are gone now. Most of them simply couldn't justify playing anymore; they didn't want to run in the hamster wheel anymore.

Once the population dips low enough, FFXI will die. This is a reality. FFXI is bleeding players. It has been for a long time. The LAST thing we need are a bunch of frustrating roadblocks for new players. We need them to survive. Anything that makes the game more accessible to them is most definitely a good thing.

[Xantavia]

The old limit break quests are relics of a bygone era. They need to change or go away.

I would hate to see these go away, and it is not a matter of "I did it, so you should too". My personal feeling are that yes, 75-95 are just a roadblock of "get more XP in the form of merits so you can gain levels". And I strongly believe that 95-99 should not have been a group fight. But the earlier ones helped me bring a connection to my character. I felt that I earned the right to be a higher level. And with the speed of leveling now, I think it is important if only to have the players explore more of the world around them.

LB1 - Crawler's Nest they might have visited (used to be a popular GoV spot on Phoenix), but the Necropolis and GC seem to have little to no traffic today.

LB2 - You explore the Northlands, which you may have only been to before if you were working on Rank 5.

LB3 - Why else would you infiltrate the Beastmen's Lairs. And in my first shell, this is where you proved you really deserved a level increase. No physical help. Just me relying on snk/invisible and whatever tools my job had to offer.

LB4 - Talk to the NPC's around the starting nations. Take in the flavor of the world. Also a nice breather between what you had to do previously and what is coming up.

LB5 - This was the big one. Was I good enough to take the job of my choice to cap? Did I deserve to hit the then level cap? This fight was all on me, using everything I learned about the job over the previous months.

BLU was my first job and when I broke the final cap, I was elated. I felt like I honestly deserved the right to become 75. It was a huge deal for me. The next 4 jobs I took to 75 before Abyssea and the cap increase felt like I was just putting another notch in my belt.

I would hate to take those kinds of feeling away from a player. 50-75 felt like real character growth to me. 76-99 felt unnecessary but only because of the way the quests were designed.