Missed Opportunity: Elite Marks and What They Should Have Been

Hunting parties & the ToS violations they are spawning are a sadness this game will now endure. People doing mark hunts for hours, for days, & with no end in sight, so they can upgrade, or store up sands. Grind that caters to those with massive amounts of free time, & leaves the working class/parental types to do dailies that will take over 100 days to acquire a sands. Was the myth grind for zodiac weapons really not enough?

This is a missed opportunity to take a bit of grind out of FFXIV. The game will now be abused with radar plugins. There is no good reason to do the daily mark hunt, because waiting for a fate(s) to get a total of 7 seals doesn't make sense, when you can get 20ish allied seals for killing 1 thing in 15 s.

We could have had a daily duty that takes 20-60 min that gives enough seals so that in X days we can afford a sands. A quest that caters to the needs of players who have just enough time to log in, do a dungeon, & a raid.

TL;DR
make hunts a duty

The daily things that give 1 seal each should give 10 instead. You would still need 75 of them just for one sands of time but it's a lot better than 750.

I also think regular GC seals should buy oil and sand, even if they cost 20,000 and 30,000 seals each.

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Originally Posted by Rufalus

I also think regular GC seals should buy oil and sand, even if they cost 20,000 and 30,000 seals each.

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You serious? I can farm over 100k Seals in a few hours. That would be freaking insane!

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Originally Posted by Sepix

You serious? I can farm over 100k Seals in a few hours. That would be freaking insane!

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Yeah, it would have to be more like 50,000 seals to buy one of those bloody adventure logs so 150,000 GC seals for sands. It's just far too easy to get tens of thousands of seals. I think I get around 3,000 daily without any direct attempt to get seals.

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Originally Posted by Bucy

to take a bit of grind out of FFXIV.

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Seriously? Seriously!?

I'm not going to spew the usual terms that usually goes along with it.

But FF14 has so little grind, it's just...not even a MMO in many many ways. ARR's walled garden approach is practically xenophobic in design for a better part of the game,

Marks is a long way to alleviate that.

Again Seriously!?

I know just the type of MMOs that cater to your argument... they give people with little time, anything and everything. They just have to drop in some voting power in this area called cash shop. If you want the VIP treatment, that's a good area to start googling.

yes seriously, I know a person who has spent every day since atma came out farming the stuff to only have gotten 1 yesterday. It took me weeks to do my atma weapon, and a month to do my animus, and another month to do my novus. I still have 3 other jobs to bring up to novus and the myth grind is not appetizing.

I've actually gotten a sand already (just farming last night), I'm as diligent as I can be, but not all of my raid group can spend that kind of time even once a week. And the seal farming got crazy today after I stopped to do RL stuff. It was ridiculous.

I'll let others throw out the "entitled" responses..

Seriously, you need to self anaylize what the the world is. You can get everything you want in a free-to-play game. That's what they're there for.

I don't like this road, so build me a short cut...is so...

and "I know a person" as well. just a faceless person with a faceless experience that can agree with anything I've said. It's great to know a person, yup.

For the record Yoshi already said, atma, atmus, and novus population numbers are roughly in line with where the the Dev team wants it be at this time period. This alone proves you're full of...

I don't think you understand my criticism. I don't want it to be easier or quicker to get sands; I suggest it would be better for the game, SE and the community if it were to be less competitive and less time consuming (on a daily basis). It could be a tough quest, but not something that allows people to do it all day long repeatedly.

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Originally Posted by Rufalus

The daily things that give 1 seal each should give 10 instead. You would still need 75 of them just for one sands of time but it's a lot better than 750.

I also think regular GC seals should buy oil and sand, even if they cost 20,000 and 30,000 seals each.

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I think you wouldn't make that suggestion if you realized this so I'm going to enlighten you: You can hand in i55 crafted items for the expert delivery and farm seals in no time without even leaving a city.

I assume you care about game balance and don't just want handouts, but my faith in this community might be misplaced.

Come to think about it... it is easier to get oil nowadays then a freaking ATMA.

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Originally Posted by Bucy

yes seriously, I know a person who has spent every day since atma came out farming the stuff to only have gotten 1 yesterday. It took me weeks to do my atma weapon, and a month to do my animus, and another month to do my novus. I still have 3 other jobs to bring up to novus and the myth grind is not appetizing.

I've actually gotten a sand already (just farming last night), I'm as diligent as I can be, but not all of my raid group can spend that kind of time even once a week. And the seal farming got crazy today after I stopped to do RL stuff. It was ridiculous.

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Looks to me like the 'grind' is in no way slowing you down.

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Originally Posted by HumsterMKX

Come to think about it... it is easier to get oil nowadays then a freaking ATMA.

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Totally. I did my mark farming on my drg and hit fates last night to hopefully get an atma. I got enough seals and a book to get a sand, but no atma. Some people have 1000s of seals already because they can put in the time, but other people who only have time to raid and do an expert roulette only have a dozen or 2 dozen seals. Basically, some1 who doesn't work or have kids, and can't down Rafflesia can get ilvl110 gear faster than someone who does work, has kids, but is clearing Nael. This is out of balance.

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Originally Posted by Cutie_McSnuggles

Looks to me like the 'grind' is in no way slowing you down.

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You are correct, but my raiding group is a bigger concern to me than my personal gear. I feel terrible that I can get a sand because my kid stays with her grandparents some weekends, but my raid leader and others haven't logged in but for raids since the patch hit once the reality of what they would have to do to get extra sands and oils became clear to them. I'm worried they will quit.

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Originally Posted by Bucy

There is no good reason to do the daily mark hunt, because waiting for a fate(s) to get a total of 7 seals doesn't make sense, when you can get 20ish allied seals for killing 1 thing in 15 s.

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7 seals for daily hunts is for casual players. 20 seals is for experienced one that works in parties and often in even more organized matter (ls/fc).
Prices are fixed in the way that if you are not aiming for hardcore/exclusive stuff (like oil/sand, minion and 70 gear for glamour), seals given from daily hunts are more than enough.

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Originally Posted by Bucy

We could have had a daily duty that takes 20-60 min that gives enough seals so that in X days we can afford a sands. A quest that caters to the needs of players who have just enough time to log in, do a dungeon, & a raid.

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Yes, and this X is currently 110 days if you don't want to do it more "hardcore" like people do it in hunt parties.

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Originally Posted by Rufalus

The daily things that give 1 seal each should give 10 instead. You would still need 75 of them just for one sands of time but it's a lot better than 750.

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You do understand that sand is t8/t9 drop and what you are suggesting is just give it away for free? We are still not in 2.4 where coil2 content should be less relevant and more accessible by casual players to giveaway such freebies.

First two nights i ran for marks i got a sand of time and oil f time.The third night the hunts had been taken over by 2 other FC's not sharing locations with anyone,now i and many others cant run them at all due to the same old people hogging evrything and controlling the system. Also the fact that in a single night you can obtain a sands of time and not have to touch coil 2 is ridiculous and repeat this infinitly,why not cap allied seals at 500 per week,that way the people being excluded can run for them after the people farming them 7 days a week have finished reaching cap and you cannot spam sands/oil of time.

Agree with Baxter. Allied seal need to be capped. It will at least stop this "grind madness". 500 seals a week is a good number.

OR

SE can add allied seal to dungeon, pvp (frontline only), coil, primal, etc. This will reduce necessity to hunt the mob.

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Originally Posted by SarcasmMisser

I think you wouldn't make that suggestion if you realized this so I'm going to enlighten you: You can hand in i55 crafted items for the expert delivery and farm seals in no time without even leaving a city.

I assume you care about game balance and don't just want handouts, but my faith in this community might be misplaced.

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My thoughts exactly

600+ fates, 5 atma

Either a cap or a change of mob mechanics is definitely in order

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Originally Posted by Felessan

7 seals for daily hunts is for casual players. 20 seals is for experienced one that works in parties and often in even more organized matter (ls/fc).
Prices are fixed in the way that if you are not aiming for hardcore/exclusive stuff (like oil/sand, minion and 70 gear for glamour), seals given from daily hunts are more than enough.


Yes, and this X is currently 110 days if you don't want to do it more "hardcore" like people do it in hunt parties.

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Committing more time does not mean one is a better player. And someone who can't afford that sort of game time isn't necessarily casual. Why are you defending this time consuming method of getting sands? Read LS, use radar, mount chocobo, gather, hit a thing 3 times, get seals; there is no skill to that. We can do the hunt all day long, so we do, and we should, because it gets us sands. But this is way out of balance. Some1 who can only afford 2 to 6 hours every other day of game time shouldn't be relegated to 110 days to get sands. Whereas some1 who can play all day everyday is being allowed to get 5+ sand a week.

But part of my point is the daily isn't even worth doing; 7 sands for waiting hours on fates is a poor payout compared to elite marks.

People didn't realize that these arent called elite marks because the mark itself is elite, but because they are only for the Elite on your server to do. If your not in a massive ls or FC that's sharing info and using third party apps then your not getting many seals.

I don't mind the hunt or the grind. I mind the fact that people are using radars and cheating. I mind that I could spend days hunting could be fruitless because these unlocked open world monsters do not scale like FATES and are dead in seconds. I mind that I could even get to a rank S mob while its near full hp and I can't even target it because of the hundreds of people also going after it much like odin/behemoth used to be before they gave those models priority.

hell make sands costs a 10k allied seals for all I care. Just give me a task that I can complete without have to compete against mass cheating or hundreds of people going after what is basically soloable monster

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Originally Posted by Felessan

hardcore/exclusive stuff (like oil/sand, minion and 70 gear for glamour)

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The ilvl 70 GC gear needs to be about 10x less expensive or needs to be ilvl 90+. It's not 'hardcore' and it shouldn't be 'exclusive.' That's just more utter BS on the part of SE. Everything about the game post release has been more of the same 'Let's add ridiculous, overcomplicated, broken systems and try to explain them as being cool!'

I'm someone who is also pretty low on success in hunting.
Probably because I don't have a linkshell of actively scouting members.
Maybe because I don't really need the gear right now, so my time investment isn't with the zombie hordes chasing around marks.
Also, I know it's new content and therefore being mass swarmed by hundreds of people.

I'm not begging the devs for easymode.exe.
It's balanced in my opinion as is. Just give it a few weeks before we start screaming for super nerf.

If you are a parent/professional, you likely will never be able to be as l33t as the neckbeard in his mom's basement in full i110.
You trade your game time for a healthy life, professional/familial interaction, income, etc.
You can't have it both ways.

Abridged version: Let the basement dwellers and super hardcore players have their shiny gear, grind it when you can, and enjoy the game between spending time making bank and enjoying your kids.