"Elite Marks" or "Hoping for Change"

I don't know if anyone here will agree with me, but that's what discussion is for. This is my opinion on "The Hunt" and specifically "Elite Marks".

I am an old-skool FFXI player, and I never really got high enough to hunt HNMs or camp Fafnir when those things were...well...a thing. However, I've heard horror stories about how long it took to camp them, how people cheated to get a claim, and how many kills it took before you finally got a drop.

FFXIV, in my eyes, is a new game. This is not, nor should it be, FFXI-2. Times have changed, MMORPGs have changed, becoming more action-oriented. I approve of open-world content, but I don't approve of how the devs have handled these mobs.

I am of the opinion that this content needs to be more accessible to players outside of 'following the zerglings' and trying to get credit on any Mark you see. There is still a LOT of mudslinging and just general HATE going around between players over this game system.

The solution? Limit rewards from an individual mob to 1/week. That means if you kill Naul, until reset on Tuesday, you cannot get any reward from participating in his death again. This does not mean you can't help, but you can't get rewards. This would allow the devs to lower the amount of HP they have back to their original levels, since people would be done hunting them much sooner, and they would be allowed to remain spawned for other 'casual' players to find.

This would also allow them to make spawns MUCH faster with absolutely no detriment. However, this would mean that it's easier to gain the rewards, so perhaps a small price change on certain things bought with Seals or a change of the Tomestones and Seals dropped by these mobs, especially S-ranks, would be appropriate.

I don't really love having weekly time gates on things, I hate that about Syrcus Tower, but for something like this, I think it is the best solution. It would stop player harassment over killing the mobs before people arrive, since the spawns would be faster, and every person who killed it already will NOT BE THERE when the next one spawns. It would also allow more people access to the content.

I think this kind of change has crossed the minds of the devs already, they are not stupid. These people know a lot more about game design than I could ever learn, but I think they hesitate about setting limits like this, or changing the system too heavily, like making all rewards through bills, and posting every bill each week, which would be the equivalent of my above suggestion. If they spend too much time modifying this, it could delay 2.4. Personally, I'm alright with that. I really think hunts need to be changed so the community as a whole is comfortable with them, before we move on to other things.

To anyone who has read this far, you earn a cookie.

I don't do hunts, have no intention to do hunts... but I'd rather see other things upgraded to give similar rewards, than see hunts nerfed. I DESPISE the idea of nerfing rewards for something after they have been available for weeks, so only the first wave of people can get them. That only pushes the idea of "exploit early, exploit often" that you see in so many MMOs at launches and xpac launches.

thats nonsense imo and destroys all the fun

You can edit your original post to add more text.

Thanks, edited to the original. I think it explains things better.

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Originally Posted by Kenji_Shiratsuki

I am of the opinion that this content needs to be more accessible to players outside of 'following the zerglings' and trying to get credit on any Mark you see.

The solution? Limit rewards from an individual mob to 1/week. That means if you kill Naul, until reset on Tuesday, you cannot get any reward from participating in his death again. This does not mean you can't help, but you can't get rewards. This would allow the devs to lower the amount of HP they have back to their original levels, since people would be done hunting them much sooner, and they would be allowed to remain spawned for other 'casual' players to find.

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Actually this would make the hunts less accessible to all the casuals, because all the people that really do the hunts will just zerg them on Tuesday during the reset and have no incentive to do them again. Sure the marks would remain spawned for casuals to find, but what about that casual player that can only play on the weekends? He'll log in on Sunday and find Agrippa (s rank) but good luck trying to find enough people still needing him or willing to help. I'd much rather have the system the way it is now and miss a mark here and there but not have to beg or hope enough people show up to help kill the mark I still need, because even if the S ranks hp are cut in half good luck soloing them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kenji_Shiratsuki

I am an old-skool FFXI player, and I never really got high enough to hunt HNMs or camp Fafnir when those things were...well...a thing.

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This made me laugh.

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Originally Posted by Dark_Legacy

-Snipped-

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Easy solution: Party Finder+Invite FC/LS friends. Seriously, the marks were intended to be taken down by a full party at S-rank, light party at A-rank, and solo at B-rank. If someone can't pull together a full party for an S-rank, they have other issues. Also, all those casuals who only play weekends can BAND TOGETHER and fight the mobs as party. People who aren't really into hunts could also easily be convinced to help someone out on just one mob. If they REALLY can't get enough people to do an S-rank, then do all the B and A ranks. The way it is right now, it's still hard for casuals to get credit in hunts, so this really isn't making the situation any worse for them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kenji_Shiratsuki

If someone can't pull together a full party for an S-rank, they have other issues.

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You're right- the other issue being that all other players had already done the hunt and didn't need the reward anymore, and had likely already helped half a dozen other people get the reward after it was no longer needed.

Since we've found the problem, let's find the solution... don't make it hard to find groups by limiting the reward like that.

Personally I think, and I believe that this has been posted in a thread before, that elite marks should all be spawnable through some sort of hunting license. Maybe make this license available for x number of allied seals, maybe that will help limit zergs, spawn monopolization (as I've read that some FC's are actually charging for participation) and all the nastiness that is occurring. Idk, just a thought.