75 cap content with 119 rewards ?!

[KaraKrieg]

Yeah, they won't do any server mergers & I'm the same. Found a good linkshell to play the game casually. If you like the lvl75 grinding again, you may have a good few jobs to get up to lvl 99 then gear up. I just think I want lvl 75 gear/weapons that need items that takes ages to get to be made easier so us oldies can just skip up them up to lvl 99, ready for the lvl119 augments. Maybe curio moogle items we can just buy the upgrade items for empyrean weapons with gil, once we have completed Rhapsodies, for example. No harm in speeding things up a bit.

See, again, you're basically saying "i don't care about 75 gear unless it can be reforged to 119" - The entire point of the OP suggestion is to *give people a reason to* It isn't direct path from lvl75 item to lvl 119 item; It's respectably gear jobs for 75 cap content > defeat content (repeat) > variety of droolworthy 119 items. It seems to me the best way for SE to profit from the undeniable 75 era nostalgia that is widespread amongst current and former players alike.
I also just want to rain death in 75 cap ballista with a 75 sam/nin ridill kclub yoichi / spirits within, namas arrow, utsusemi: ni; The sky set (except for feet or hands or something) all have like +50 hp and can get some sick synergy augments like haste and dual wield - dual wield for that kclub sounds nice.

I mean these are brainstorm/spitball ideas on a theme with specific parameters: Make lvl 75 endgame gear necessary again in order to get new 119 endgame gear that people are going to at the least, really want, and more likely will have some people saying it's required. Put a ring that grants COR a third roll, that'll have them queueing up for a while.

[Alhanelem]

I just don't see SE as likely to do anything like that. In most cases, rewards are aligned with the level of the content. there are minor exceptions like cryptic quests that don't require a particular level but have a good reward, but for the moset part, if you do 75 content you're going to get 75 items, if you do lv30 content you're going to get lv30 items, etc. etc.

[KaraKrieg]

I just don't see SE as likely to do anything like that. In most cases, rewards are aligned with the level of the content. there are minor exceptions like cryptic quests that don't require a particular level but have a good reward, but for the moset part, if you do 75 content you're going to get 75 items, if you do lv30 content you're going to get lv30 items, etc. etc.

that's a trend, not a rule, and the entire premise of the OP is hey lets try something outside the box

saying hey that's outside the box they won't do it is not constructive

Once again, from the top:
1. There is a substantial untapped nostalgia market vis a vis 75 cap
2. There are many, many players with hoards of 75 gear gathering dust
3. 75 cap content still exists and still has to be maintained even though nobody is playing it
Objective: Make lvl75 cap content/gear relevant again, for up to and including endgame players

It just seems to me that the only way to incentivize endgame players are endgame level rewards. Just because something is unprecedented, doesn't mean they won't do it. Who would have believed trust would happen? Guess what, EQ did it first (granted they're only tanks or healers). Everything is unprecedented until it isn't. The OMM system is a clever and unique battle content that was very popular and fun, and something like it could be easily adapted and would be well received.

I'm not interested in the likelihood that they'll do it - they're literally polling the community for suggestions for new content, so don't presume to say what they will or won't do. You've made your naysay opinion clear, you don't need to keep beating the dead chocobo.

If you have any better ideas for new content that makes the sea of unused gear and content relevant again, I'm all ears.

[Alhanelem]

that's a trend, not a rule,

Hence why I didn't use the word "rule", obviously

1. There is a substantial untapped nostalgia market vis a vis 75 cap

I think you overestimate this "market." As far as MMOs go FFXI was hardly the biggest in its heyday and today it's over 20 years old and most people who are not playing now have moved on. The people who would vocally come back to do 75 content are overrepresented by forum threads. Forum goers are a very small percentage of the actual community and typically forum goers are biased towards the most dedicated portion of the playerbase.

SE is not going to make enough money off this "market" to justify the investment required to attract them.

2. There are many, many players with hoards of 75 gear gathering dust

so what? Where's the law that says every item in every MMO must remain useful for its entire existence? While some people do treat these games as a collectathon, there's no rule that says just because you've collected an item that it has to be useful. That aside from the fact that many items remain useful for their looks even after their stats are no longer relevant.

I will never understand this argument. Why is it so important that those leaping boots I got 19 years ago remain useful today? There's literal hundreds of other items out there that can come and go from the spotlight.

3. 75 cap content still exists and still has to be maintained even though nobody is playing it

There's nothing to maintain, it all exists and it is all stil functional. Unless some bug is introduced to break it, it doesn't need attention.

If you have any better ideas for new content that makes the sea of unused gear and content relevant again, I'm all ears.

Again, I don't have better ideas because I don't see the need to make the "sea of unusued gear and content relevant again." The only exception might be a content that upgrades existing items, as has been done with many popular gear sets and such. Many old NMs got new life with higher level versions through Wanted battles. Frankly, I think most of the stuff that we cared about 75 and prior has already had this gap bridged via content that upgrades existing items or offers an improved version of an existing item.


It is not necessary to keep all content relevant at all times. It all was designed to serve specific purposes. It is completely okay if few people have need of the purpose it was made for. It's still there for anyone that happens to need it. Frankly I'm more interested in content or features that were never truly finished or in some cases even released. Like Monstrosity (unfinished). Like the Pit in Aht Urghan (Never released). New UI (Never finished or released, only a very early version shown on the test server). Also reminder that even 15+ years ago there was content and items that had little relevance, or were only relevant to very specific needs/situations.

I don't see how making XYZ old item relevant again or XYZ old content relevant again brings back any significant number of players. Even if you're yearning for nostalgia, you don't just want to do old content you already beat before, you want to do new things. And there's plenty of new things to do. Just keep playing and you gain access to more content and items.

If an old player returns to the game, their old gear will work fine. As they level up, they'll get new gear thanks to relatively easy content systems that will transition them to how things work at the level cap. I think the current content available to do this is adequate.

[Zenion]

Again, I don't have better ideas because I don't see the need to make the "sea of unusued gear and content relevant again." The only exception might be a content that upgrades existing items, as has been done with many popular gear sets and such. Many old NMs got new life with higher level versions through Wanted battles. Frankly, I think [B][U]most of the stuff that we cared about 75 and prior has already had this gap bridged via content that upgrades existing items or offers an improved version of an existing item.

Well, okay. There kind of is a point here. Gear for levels 1 through 98 is massively depreciated because the grind up to level 99 basically doesn't exist; most players are going to end up getting fast-tracked up to 99 because that's where all the actual content is. That's not, in itself, a bad thing, but it leaves most of the game's economy orphaned. Crafting basically only matters if you cap it and go for a shield, because you're going to be selling ilvl119 cursed gear, Su2 gear, JSE necks, and Su4/5 weapons, and little else.

Slowing down the initial level grind isn't an answer. That just keeps players from participating in the relevant parts of the game for longer. New 75 cap content is part of an answer, but it still leaves any of the 76 - 99 stuff (and most gear below level 50) hanging in the breeze.

So...

If you have any better ideas for new content that makes the sea of unused gear and content relevant again, I'm all ears.

I already pitched an idea for a level cap exp grind content before, but let's push it a bit further. There doesn't seem to be an issue with adding new zones to the game, only with making new terrain for them, so let's create duplicates of a few zones, give them a color filter, and slap level caps on them. Sarutabaruta, Ronfaure, and Gustaberg to level 15; Tahrongi, Konschtat, and La Theine to 25; that sort of thing. You enter, and gear over the cap is removed. You get a personal level cap that starts at 1 and is raised through fighting monsters in these areas, on a per-job basis. Experience is slow - 400 for an Incredibly Tough mob, divided six ways. Essentially we're replicating the classic experience party... experience... in zones where there won't be any high-level visitors to save you.

Give out some kind of currency that's awarded on a 1:1 basis with experience points inside that content, which is used similarly to Hallmarks: maybe a few unique prizes, but mostly just things that could be obtained in other ways, but might be less tedious to obtain through this content. Maybe allow the points to be exchanged for moogle segments and gallimaufry at a 10:1 ratio up to a monthly cap or something too, since people keep talking about how hard those can be to get.

Basically, you create something that feels like "classic" FFXI, with the whole experience parties forever and gear that might boost one relevant stat by a point if you're lucky thing. You renew the need for gear at all levels (though ultimately people will settle into whatever level range feels comfortable, and maybe there will be a need to balance that with higher or lower reward ratios at different level ranges.) Since these will be whole zones with mostly the original monster distribution, there's no need to make them layered zones, so you create a sense of community again by creating opportunities for groups to run into each other out in the field.

While it's not impossible to bot out the experience grind, it should at least be made a little more difficult by not being able to tank worthwhile monsters indefinitely, and having to run a bit afield to pull one back to camp to fight safely. So that might even encourage people to actually get out and play some more, instead of just making this more content for machines.

[KaraKrieg]

My idea was just for some hard instanced battlefields or smt that are 75 cap but give 119 rewards (that would be sought after) so that you could have a little bit of digestible, bite-sized 75cap fun without getting anyone's panties in a knot, but so much for that...

[Alhanelem]

but it leaves most of the game's economy orphaned. Crafting basically only matters if you cap it and go for a shield, because you're going to be selling ilvl119 cursed gear, Su2 gear, JSE necks, and Su4/5 weapons, and little else.

This isn't really a problem. Before everyone was 75, you sold whate the leveling population needed. When everyone was 75, most of the stuff ppl sold was 75 stuff, and without as many new players entering the ring, the need for lower stuff diminished. Now the 75 stuff is the "lower stuff" and new stuff has taken its place. It seems like people expect the stuff they worked for years ago to always have value where that isn't true even in the most hardcore of MMOs.


Now, it COULD have been a problem if there was no items available for the occasional new/returning player, but most of the core stuff that such a player might need crafted were made available on the sparks vendor, filling the gap. Existing players don't need to spend time gathering and crafting these items and can focus on the ones that matter precisely because of this.

[Valtronic]

I think you overestimate this "market." As far as MMOs go FFXI was hardly the biggest in its heyday and today it's over 20 years old and most people who are not playing now have moved on. The people who would vocally come back to do 75 content are overrepresented by forum threads. Forum goers are a very small percentage of the actual community and typically forum goers are biased towards the most dedicated portion of the playerbase.

SE is not going to make enough money off this "market" to justify the investment required to attract them.

I think you may be underestimating the potential market for a classic server. Retail WoW players also used to claim that a Classic WoW server would not be profitable and that Nostalrius and Turtle players would not purchase a subscription, and they only played because private servers are free. Classic WoW's success ultimately proved them all to be wrong.

There are currently 27 custom servers (down from 30, as three recently shut down for various reasons), with 19 of those based on the 75-era. While most of these servers have modest populations—ranging from 5 to 100 concurrent players logged in at any given time—some are surprisingly popular. The largest server consistently has between 1.5k and 3k concurrent players, depending on the time of day. This is on par with Asura, FFXI's most populated retail server. In fact, it could be considered more active than Asura, as there’s no dual-boxing allowed, and the server enforces strict measures on household IPs, personal IPs, and hardware to prevent multi-accounting.

The second-largest server I know of sees between 500 and 1.5k concurrent players daily, the third-largest sees between 250 and 1.2k daily, and a brand-new server that launched just a few months ago has already gained traction, with 350+ concurrent players and over 1k signups. The Reddit page dedicated to private FFXI servers has 5.7k members, and the largest private server boasts over 33,000 members. The second-largest has 10,871 members, the third has 7,091, and the fourth has 6,280. Several others have 1k to 2k members each.

These numbers are significant, and most of this growth has been driven purely by word of mouth and forum communities. This clearly demonstrates there is genuine interest, and these player bases have been built organically without any official marketing. Now, imagine what an official 75-era server could achieve with actual marketing and support—it could be huge. Would it rival WoW or FFXIV? Definitely not. But it would easily surpass the current retail FFXI population by a wide margin. The interest is undeniable.


Edit: It also wouldn’t be nearly as difficult or as expensive as some people claim. Modders have successfully reverse-engineered the PS2 tools and created methods to bypass POL. Additionally, they’ve developed tools for creating custom maps, items, and textures. It’s even possible to extract the full maps of FFXI—along with all textures, mob spawns, and other assets—using programs like Noesis or Xidata. These assets can then be imported into modern game engines like Unity or Unreal with ease. If the community can create tools that achieve these things, surely Square Enix could do the same without spending millions...

[Catmato]

Those private servers also have the benefit of being free. Getting those players to stop pirating and start paying $12.95/mo just would not happen.

[Final_Farcity]

I dig it

75 cap is less convoluted. It is simpler times.

It is evident the 99 cap is a headache, because the team has to go back and update older content to make it align with the 119 cap lol......75 cap was perfect.

New players appear fine with the leveling process, but are overall lost post 99. And I can't help them because this 20 year vet is lost too.......endgame modern XI is just not appealing to me personally.

Everything they are doing now, could have been done @the 75 cap. Granted, I do like to ability to solo steamroll older content. Thus, with the general populace drop, perhaps the 119 ilvl cap was necessary.......