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  1. #1
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    Not So Classic Servers

    Just putting a personal opinion out there, hope you appreciate the read and can discuss the topic in a civilized manner : )

    It would be really cool to actually have a middle ground between the totally classic servers (usually with content up to the expansion Chains of Promathia or Wings of the Goddess untouched) and what we have in the official servers today.

    I explain with some examples:

    Nowadays, it is no longer necessary to use the boats and flying boats in the game : (

    This is a pity because the boats and flying boats are real in this game, physical objects that really exist and take you through the world very fast, and not just a cutscene, other players can see the flying boats in the air, and normal boats in the sea, etc.. All of this adds a lot to the experience of the game feeling like an actual living breathing world, a simulation of the world it presents.
    But nowadays, after the first time you go to a place, you can always teleport there...
    This takes a lot out of the game's immersion. The argument is that the original way took a long time to wait (up to 11m waiting between one boat and another, and up to 6m of actual travel time). And I understand that.
    One way to fix this would be: keep some teleports, but between cities still force players to use flying boats, while also modifying the current way boats operate… putting two boats on each path at a time would be a great start, making boats available every ~4m always, something like that. And maybe make the boats a little faster, shortening the travel time by ~1m to less than the current one.
    The last thing would be to actually create new connections, having every city connect with each other directly.
    The above changes would keep all the original immersion, but without the long waiting times of the original.
    Teleporter usage could be limited to a maximum range that increases with the player level but never allowing teletransportation from capital city to capital city.

    Ditto for a lot of other things in the game…

    Another good example are chocobos and teleportation books.
    In the classic teleportation books didn't exist, but sometimes they are a very welcome help, the problem is when they are abused.
    I would love to see many books removed, however I believe the game should keep the books inside dungeons and dangerous hard to reach regions.
    Acquiring a chocobo license and hiring chocobos was an essential part of the original game. But the classic form is a little too much work as when you dismount a chocobo, it's gone and you can't call it again.
    The ideal middle ground, in my view, would enable you to call the hired chocobo again after dismounting it if you have time left. Maybe make it so that every time you call the chocobo again, ~3~5m of the chocobo's current available timer is removed, but you can call it again as many times as you like within ~2 ~3h after hiring one or until the usage timer is fully depleted (30m).
    With this modification, it would no longer be necessary for people to have personal mounts (those could be available at level 75+, something like that, instead of having them at level ~20 as it is today). One way to bypass it would still be to raise your own chocobo the classic way, of course.

    The same goes for Trusts, they help and are necessary to play the game alone, but they could limit the use of trusts to just two per person / group, forcing people to group up with other actual players for levelling content.

    Another example is the issue of experience points: it would be nice if those Rhapsodies of Vana'diel missions (which are nice themselves) simply didn’t ever awarded the player those unnecessary Key Items that raise the experience gained. That said, the current game is already much faster to level up as is, and that’s for the best. The middleground in question here is keeping the current faster levelling but without making it even faster (broken really) with Key Items.
    Normal equipament that raise the gained xp also need some rework and usage limitations in order to better balance out the gameplay (for example the rings that raise the experience gained for the next 11 hours by 75%, etc.).

    Then there is the issue of Sparkling Points… I believe they could continue in the game but their use should be limited to the first character levels, maybe something like 30 or 40.
    Next point is the loss of XP when you die. They could have kept the original loss but prevented the player from losing a job level to it. It would be the ideal middle ground I think, keeping the original severe XP loss but removing the possibility to ever levelling down after dying (xp would simply go as low as zero).

    Content like Escha and Abyssea give too much experience for nothing too, that said I would like to see them still in the game but with the experience gained reduced to less than half of the current one. And their usage should be limited monthly or something like that (maximum XP gain or maximum number of monsters down, periodically such as every fifteen or ten days at least, after that it would simply stop giving the player items, gil and xp for a longperiod of real world time). This wouldn't rule out this new content, but it would balance it with the game more harmoniously.

    All of this is what I would like to see from a (not so) “classic” Final Fantasy XI server. It wouldn't be the original spartan classic experience as we have on famous private classic servers (Eden and Wings11), but it would still be a pretty old school experience that is very comfortable and accessible to anyone, nonetheless. A balanced middleground where people can have the experience of the original game in a much more leisurely manner, live the journey of levelling trough Vana’Diel and all of it’s content as originally intended but still with ~90% less grind.

    Survival and simulation games are in trend now a days, and old school MMORPG players are orphaned of new games and scattered between many classic MMORPGs servers (private and official). There is a market for a more simulated and immersive old school MMORPG experience, clearly, all that is needed is to actually explore it in a mindful and not so spartan way… as I said: a balanced middleground.

    All these little things I mentioned add up to create a more believable breathing world and a more wholesome experience that makes players feel part of the game’s world instead of just streamlining and overly gamefying the experience. There is balance between quality of life and time saving and actual immersion and wholesome world building believable experience. And one can have a pretty accessible game right there still.

    Thank you very much for reading.
    (1)
    Last edited by Lortheron; 10-05-2021 at 02:33 AM.

  2. #2
    Player Alhanelem's Avatar
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    Character
    Tahngarthor
    World
    Shiva
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    SMN Lv 99
    Nowadays, it is no longer necessary to use the boats and flying boats in the game : (
    Maplestory used to have boats everywhere that took 5 10 and even 20 minutes to reach the destination. During that time you just sat on that screen and there was nothing to do unless there was another person there to talk to.

    Boats and airships were kinda fun at the time, but the reality is you're really just standing on an island for 5-10 minutes. We figured that out, it was really just a deliberate inconvenience, considering instantaneous movement already existed in the form of teleports. Nobody likes waiting especially when the whole purpose is to make you wait.

    In a way it is a shame, but I don't think you'll find a player of the game today that misses waiting several minutes to get to a place they want to be at right now. It's a fantasy game, there's no need to have realistic transportation.
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  3. #3
    Player Voidstorm's Avatar
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    Apr 2015
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    Character
    Voidstorm
    World
    Ragnarok
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    SCH Lv 99
    players can just stop themselves from using HP's and unity warps.

    The biggest change to the game is the fact the old version of dynamis is gone forever. If we had that as an extra set of zones, and the ability to force a variety of level sync's w/o someone actually that level (think promyvion) then what is left that existed back in 75 cap era that doesn't still exist?
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  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alhanelem View Post
    Maplestory used to have boats everywhere that took 5 10 and even 20 minutes to reach the destination. During that time you just sat on that screen and there was nothing to do unless there was another person there to talk to.

    Boats and airships were kinda fun at the time, but the reality is you're really just standing on an island for 5-10 minutes. We figured that out, it was really just a deliberate inconvenience, considering instantaneous movement already existed in the form of teleports. Nobody likes waiting especially when the whole purpose is to make you wait.

    In a way it is a shame, but I don't think you'll find a player of the game today that misses waiting several minutes to get to a place they want to be at right now. It's a fantasy game, there's no need to have realistic transportation.
    Immersion is a big point, if the whe wait is never more than 2~3m. I'd use it all the time. Fast traveling kills immersion if abused even in singleplayer games and is one of the most discussed topics as something that is killing games now a days.

    Instead of having boring teleportation fast traveling, make traveling methods faster and more efficient. Retain immersion while having a very fast way to travel that is in character and makes you believe in the fantasy world you're in. The best of both worlds. A middleground that very practicle and accessible while being immersive and making the player feel inside that world at the same time, like I said in my text.
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  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Voidstorm View Post
    players can just stop themselves from using HP's and unity warps.

    The biggest change to the game is the fact the old version of dynamis is gone forever. If we had that as an extra set of zones, and the ability to force a variety of level sync's w/o someone actually that level (think promyvion) then what is left that existed back in 75 cap era that doesn't still exist?
    Don't get me started, all content in this game should be heavily level synced, and level sync should actually bring player power down. Nothing is worse than steamrolling through a fight that is supposed to epic and hard. Hard fights should just get a bit easier, yes, but they should never ever stop being somewhat challenging and offering some slight danger to the player NO MATTER the player level.
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  6. #6
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    And I am ALL IN for the resurrection of old content, old areas and the perpetual maintenence of all the game content, including old Dynamis and Promyvion.
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