EXP Parties as an option please!

EXP parties already exist in the game. They're called dungeons.

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let's face it, most people dont talk in dungeons or Fates.

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So what makes you think this will be any different?

I wouldn't mind if traditional EXP parties returned, so long as it wouldn't become the only way to level up. (Obviously it would never be the only way in this game).

As others said, even getting an EXP party was hard in FFXI. Could take at least an hour to get enough people, let alone actually get a good camp to kill everything. On top of that, if the party wasn't relatively balanced you were gonna have a bad time. Couldn't just have 6 DDs (DPS) in a group, a single mob could destroy that sort of party (because if the mob didn't check at least an Even Match, it would give like no EXP because of the amount of party members). But in XIVARR there are fate groups that can just zerg everything without the absolute need for a tank or healer (some fates excluded of course, particularly level 40 and higher level ones, plus like Svara and Cancer and whatnot).

And story time! My first EXP party in FFXI outside of Qufim worm/crab parties was in Y'tuhnga Jungle fighting Mandragoras outside of Kazham (so like level 30?). Worst experience I ever had in the game. I was a Red Mage, and I wanted to melee to help kill faster because A) it's what I was told to do in Qufim, and B) we had a WHM in party and a lvl 75 RDM healing us. But guess what? "RDM ONLY HEALS/HASTE/REFRESH!!! [derogatory remarks]!!!" That was always the response I got while on RDM (even before I was a high enough level for Haste/Refresh...).

So I switched to Dancer, which I mostly soloed up to like 60 in using Fields of Valor pages because "Sorry, already have a dancer", "Dancer damage sucks, already have a sub healer/support", or even just "No DNCs". From like 30 to 50/60 I was mostly in Altepa Desert... I hate that place so much even now.

Now I wanna resub to XI for some reason... lol. Upgrade my level 99 RDM and DNC Empyrean gear past +1 finally haha. Will give me something more to do until Heavensward XP

If they want to create something that is far far far superior alternative, perhaps they should go back and look at what Blizzard did...with Diablo 3... yup. Just make it so that ANY combination of ANY jobs can clear ANY exp dungeons. You want 4 healers? you got it, 4 tanks? sure, 4 dps? you betcha! Diablo 3 + Phantasy Star Online + Monster Hunter + Borderlands 2 style, grab anyone, any friends, any jobs, any roles, go smash for xp and contents. Randomized loot with randomized bonus stats, you don't get the ones you really want? go farm again, and again. At least you are not restricted to jobs XYZ only!

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Originally Posted by Luvbunny

If they want to create something that is far far far superior alternative, perhaps they should go back and look at what Blizzard did...with Diablo 3... yup. Just make it so that ANY combination of ANY jobs can clear ANY exp dungeons. You want 4 healers? you got it, 4 tanks? sure, 4 dps? you betcha! Diablo 3 + Phantasy Star Online + Monster Hunter + Borderlands 2 style, grab anyone, any friends, any jobs, any roles, go smash for xp and contents. Randomized loot with randomized bonus stats, you don't get the ones you really want? go farm again, and again. At least you are not restricted to jobs XYZ only!

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Sorry No, that's a horrible generic design that is just "re-skinned with different monsters." The "new thing" that Diablo brought to the table was procedurally generated dungeons (not straight up "random" like you think.) This ensured that you could keep going into the same dungeon and pick up where you left off. If you switched to multiplayer, you were given a completely new version of the dungeon so that you and your friends would get a clean dungeon that neither of you have completed or explored, and had it's own loot table.

The point of classes and jobs in Final Fantasy is that they do different things, not just "here's the 100 point damage skill, here's the 300 point healing skill, here's the 500 point AOE, have fun you need nothing else." Playing the BLM and playing the SMN are completely different things, and playing SCH and WHM don't play alike at all. For all the crappy things I've seen in MMORPG's FFXIV's are the most fun and balanced way of doing dungeons, where every MMORPG I've played before you were either left begging to join parties or you could solo everything (thus not needing a party) at a high enough level because there was nothing equivalent to a level sync. Only Blizzard and SquareEnix even bother with nice animations and visuals. All the WoW clones are just "click on NPC glued to the spot, receive wall of text, go to place on map, kill everything until the quest goes 'ding', go to next NPC", where you can basically get to the maximum level on field monsters alone.

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

The open-world exp parties are exactly the thing RMT bots would, and did in V1.0. In fact someone found what I think was an exploit in V1.0 -snip for character limit-

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I remember very well the bots in 1.0, but they weren't near the issue that they currently are in 2.0. My point is that bots are going to exploit any system they can, no matter what you release. You don't design around the fear that bots will exploit, you design around players and the kinds of content they want.
And I absolutely don't want the option for every mob I target to become a 24 player Zerg faceroll. That's completely opposite of what I'd like to see. If you're interested in my thoughts there, they're a few pages back.

For obvious reasons I'm not posting a link, but a google search easily finds proof that bots exist that can even play the mini games in the golden saucer.

For the sake of this argument, does that mean that golden saucer should be removed from the game?

Bots can grind fates, should fates be removed from ffxiv? Bots can grind dungeons, should dungeons be removed from ffxiv? Bots can grind low exp mobs in nearly any zone, should SE remove mobs from every zone.

The bot argument is weak.

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Originally Posted by AreeyaJaidee

And what generation would that be? COD? WoW?
You're comment is absurd.

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I stopped reading there because I know the rest is you insulting me at length.

FFXIV is not the entire FFXI fanbase. I've never played WoW.. I've never played CoD. When I made my comment, I had the generation of FFXI players in mind. Not the players now, but the players back then. There is a huge difference. Example, I am not the same person I was 11 years ago. At 22, I had a lot of patience for that stuff. I cannot say I do now at 32. What worked back then, will not work so well now. Different mind sets. The era of FFXI has passed, as I said. This wasn't meant to offend. If you hang on to the past, it will be hard to accept the present, and impossible to move into the future.

I personally didn't benefit from exp parties. I didn't make any friends. All it did was show me how nasty people choose to be on the internet.

For the record: You don't know me. Everything you've said(as I had to read it all anyay) are assumptions. I have no "FFXI bias", and I am not "anti-FFXI". I don't know this bandwagon you speak of. I miss how things used to be more than you can ever bother to know.

I didn't assume to know you. That's not required to read or comprehend your post and see you're biased.

You stated several reasons for your bias, as if they defend your stance in refusing a feature based on its relation to FFXI. Once again ppl are using it as a reference amongst other games, XI is the only one you key in on though

Either way, my interest isn't you, its the topic.

I'll step out by saying that i support this option being added to the game either in pve or as pve added to a persistent PvP zone as stated in some other threads.

Good luck in your journeys!

I don't think people that are "against" this are actually trying to come up with reasons it should not be implemented but are instead simply understanding some of the reasons the Dev team has outright said no to this. I know that's all I was doing. I can understand some of the reasonings people want this in but it seems the people wanting this choose not to understand why its not in there. As you guys keep saying if "its simple to add in" then it would have been done by now.

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Originally Posted by MageBlack

-snip snip-

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Speaking for myself only(which I really hope I've been able to make clear from the start), I don't expect exp parties to ever make a comeback. I completely understand that gamers are different now than they once were. I do reject the idea that the devs are so worried about Bots and RMT that they couldn't include exp parties in the game, however. Otherwise, yeah, while it'd be a dream come true for me to be able to jump into the game and level the way I enjoy levelling. But that's me, not everyone has to agree for my opinion to stand.

5 different people, 10 different opinions- it's just the nature of the internets these days.

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Originally Posted by Luvbunny

Just make it so that ANY combination of ANY jobs can clear ANY exp dungeons.

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Diablo 3 and FFXIV, nor FFXI, are even close to the same type of game.
Having to balance content for completion by any combination of classes/jobs is a development nightmare that is PROBABLY partially the reason Diablo 3 took over a decade to complete.
If you try, people will either come up with their own golden trinities and have exclusionist mentalities, or the content is so easy it can be done in your sleep. Unless you REALLY emphasize mechanics over boss stats, this is what you get.
And then people would complain that they can't do X dungeon as Y class, while at the same time complaining that Z dungeon is too easy or N dungeon is too hard.

I am still waiting for something like this to come to FFXIV. +1

If I could have something else though that made it easier to find players for exp grinding, I would ask the devs to either tweak or expand the Battlecraft Leves and give the players better party options. This is my idea, keep each task to a time limit, but let the mobs be able to respawn, this allows the party to track and kill as many mobs as they please. Give every mob strong attacks and high defence so it provides a challenge. After the time limit or when the party decides to complete the task, speak to the Battlewarden to collect your reward. Bonus exp should be awarded for every additional mob you can kill.

If you have an idea how exp parties can work, share it!

what IS an EXP party after all?

When you remove all the tedious grinding, ultimately an old-style EXP party is just a social event, nothing more (which is the real arguement being made here - the OP basically just wants a chat room with fighting in it).

FFXI EXP parties were so monotonous due to FFXI's slow, drawn out battle system, hence socializing was a way to break the monotony and actually make it fun - it's like any real-life situation where a group of people are thrown together in a dull or boring setting and start to have conversations to make things more interesting. Nothing wrong with that of course, except it just wouldn't work here, as FFXIV's battle system is just too fast paced to spend time yacking about random stuff.

This is why you usually don't see people talking much in a dungeon - they're more worried with the task at hand to waste time chewing the fat (especially as dungeons are timed and you simply don't have time to waste talking).

Really, if you want to chat with random people, go sit in the Adventurer's Guild around a table and strike up a conversation around a bottle of gyshal ale, battles just aren't the right place for that.

i don't see why all of you people are getting so blatantly butdevestated and the idea of someone wanting Exp parties back. Its just as easy to demonize it like you guys are as it is to romanticize it. Ignoring the fact that the OP is clearing saying they do not want exp parties to be the only way for Exp, and just another viable alternative, I don't see how anyone could be harmed by this concept.

FFXI exping was tediously slow yes, but it was the social aspect that made it bareable, and essentially all he wants back is the social aspect. Unfortunately, I can't say exp parties will bring that back, the combat pace will still be the same so there will be no room to talk. As much as I'd like a socializing aspect outside of FC/LS, you'll not find them in Exp parties/dungeons/whatever. Combat is to fast-paced for talking to your fellow players. They've essentially made an anti-social game. Playing in a dungeon I might as well be with NPCs for all the feedback I ever get.

FFXIV has level sync for FATEs, guildhests, and dungeons, but I'd like to see regular party level sync, so that you could do leves, maps, random open world fights, etc., with friends of any level and everyone would still get a bit of challenge and possibly XP as well.

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Originally Posted by Avenger

FFXIV has level sync for FATEs, guildhests, and dungeons, but I'd like to see regular party level sync, so that you could do leves, maps, random open world fights, etc., with friends of any level and everyone would still get a bit of challenge and possibly XP as well.

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Most maps worth doing are for level 50 anyway, no sync needed (til the expansion, when they'll have new maps to do)
Leves maybe, but if they level scaled people who are doing books would be rather upset. They're tedious enough without being forced to level sync.
Random open world fights? OK, again, which ones? If it weren't for kill X quests, certain loot drops, Spiritbonding, and Animus Books. There would be no reason to kill world spawn mobs at all. And every single one of them is soloable.
Level syncing exists in the places it does because those are the things designed for group content. anything without level syncing of some kind is designed to be soloable.

I support this message. Some of the most fun I had in 1.0 was in wolf killing parties in Natalan or even parties for mutual power levelling that turned out to be hour long chats where I made most of the friends I had in the game. If it hadn't been for the fact that I changed FC I wouldn't really have made any new friends in ARR because of the lack of these kind of activities. The closest we have got to things like these have been light farming parties which is the main reason I found that to be the least painful zodiac weapon phase.

you're asking for XP parties, FATEs are exp parties....
you miss the social bit, so why are you asking for exp parties that you can already do?
you can also have social LS/FC parties....so there's nothing missing...
If your fate party doesn't talk, then make a PF asking for social grinders. the only thing preventing you from having social exp parties, is you, not SE.

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Originally Posted by Zumi

FFXI purists do not like the fact you run around to do fates and you don't need have to have a balanced party to exp.

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It's still the same inregards to jobs in FFXI, before May it was stack THFs and after job changes in May update it's back to stacking SAM for DPS. FFXI is the worst system to hold up as a model for balance. As most jobs are ignored for the FOTM jobs, as everyone wants the path of least resistence. Even many of the "FFXI purists" ignore that aspect. Also what parties where killing dictated what jobs they took do to mob strengths and weaknesses to different damge types/elements. Which alienated jobs also.

Many jobs where forced to xp solo on things like mob pets/summons because they, simply, weren't wanted.

But fortunatelly they learnt from past mistakes and all jobs are viable in 14 for all content. No more, "sorry, you can't do this content as DRG as it is strong to piercing, but don't worry we will kick the other DPS for the next boss as it is weak to piercing and immune to crushing damage"

So i'm kinda on the wall about this one. I loved FFXI don't get me wrong, taught me a lot about PTing and dealing with people. But i'm not sure chain groups is worth bringing back. However, open world sense of danger i'm all for. Instead of me taking time to notice an enemy, I auto run from point a to point B with little care to the well designed mobs in the zone. Why? Because they don't drop anything worth a damn and isn't dangerous to me in any shape or form. For most people they are probably thinking well "it's just backdropping to make the game feel full" well that's cool i'm fine with that but do all the zones need to be so meaningless once you finish the quests/leveling in that area? Do we really have to resort to crappy reinventions of fates to bring back open world life? (looking at you hunts).

My point is pretty much we need to come up with a better use of the open world that isn't a zerg mess. The sightseeing log was a cute concept, but does not suit a large crowd. Fates are an exp tool that people suffer through only when they arent in a df group to level. Hunts, lol hunts..zerg much? I have yet to come up with a good idea but FFXI had a few zones you wouldn't stroll through like a park walk. Maybe we should...reinvent a few?

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Originally Posted by Twilite

We are in a different generation of players. The era of FFXI has passed.

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we want everything given with minimal work.