Hunts Experience Post Hot Fix

I understand that the Hunts are not exactly being played in the way that they are supposed to be played. I understand that rank B and A monsters aren’t meant to be pummeled by a legion of players. I also understand that the whole point of hunting is to find a monster and kill it; waiting for people is not obligatory or mandated, nor should it incur the wrath of the entire hunting community. I am aware and I perfectly get all that. But the fact of the matter as it stands now is that hundreds of players are participating in hunts at any given point and NMs are being swarmed by practically all of them. On a very heavily populated server, such as the one I belong to, the HP boost of the marks has made little to no impact whatsoever due to the sheer volume of players participating. The atmosphere encompassing the hunts is as it has been, still much too thick.

There are players who are forever stuck in the loading screen zoning into an NM area, and such never make it to the mark and are left feeling helpless to keep up with the rush; while others who are escaping the loading screen are consistently dumping their gil in teleportation fees just to find out that the mob is dead or are riding out to area and watching the mob die in front of their eyes just as they arrive. And then there’s the ones who do make it and manage to score in a hit who end up with a measly 2 seals.

And most of these players, that I personally know and am familiar with, are not just lazing around waiting for other people to do the work of finding the NM’s and simply trying to cheaply cash in on the finds. No, rather they are actively participating and helping party members in inquiring where and what zones to scout and are then making the effort to roam around and search every nook and cranny in hopes of finding one.

Some players are left no other choice but to forcibly grab aggro on the mob and run it away and reset it just so that people would have a chance to arrive and could hit the mob at least once. I understand their method maybe seen as wrong, but their intentions in utilizing it are not wrong.

The bottom-line is the hordes are not going away anytime soon because the carrot at the end of stick is just insanely tempting and scrumptious; and everyone wants it. As it is now, you cannot force players to play the hunts as they were intended to be played, neither to obligate respectful behavior and courtesy, nor not to resort to employing third party apps on the hush hush to get an edge over the mania.

I understand and appreciate SE’s quick attempt to address and alleviate some of the stress and agitation with the hunts, but it seems to be pale and little to nonexistent in a heavily congested server.

I concur somewhat, but also disagree somewhat. This varies heavily by time of day in my experience - late afternoon to late night tends to see the heaviest concentration of players, while even on a populated server like mine the hunts are low in activity during the early to mid-morning.

That being said, the developers might take a look at how Blizzard implemented a similar system on the Timeless Isle in World of Warcraft's patch 4.3 and the social dynamic that resulted. I remember teeming hordes of players waiting for Tsulong to spawn for a crack at his rare mount, and while Blizzard had the foresight to let the rare spawn's health adjust dynamically with the number of players attacking it, it was also capped at a certain ceiling. And with the sheer number of players attacking, Tsulong would go down literally in seconds.

Also, forum protip: Editing your post allows you to exceed the 1000 character limit so that you're not forced to multipost.

Sorry about choppy post but it was exceeding the max characters allowed and so I had to split it up.

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Originally Posted by Deuxclydion

This varies heavily by time of day in my experience - late afternoon to late night tends to see the heaviest concentran of players, while even on a populated server like mine the hunts are low in activity during the early to mid-morning

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Understood but not many are able to play during the early morning hours (hence the ease in hunting), including myself due either work or school.

Also i believe it is now harder to get full credit, which doesn't make any sense to me given what was stated in the hotfix.

You can edit you post and go over the 1k characters

They just die too fast on my side. Imagine, the "bluffed" S rank mobs die under 1'30...not forgetting it disappears and reappears from time to time, making ppl unable to target them. Just imagine the speed it will die if ppl can target them.

Would be cool if mark NMs were invulnerable for the first 5 minutes of spawning, and at the point they could be damaged, their HP scaled according to people in the zone. That would pretty much guarantee adequate HP while also giving ample time for people to get there.

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Originally Posted by Thayos

Would be cool if mark NMs were invulnerable for the first 5 minutes of spawning, and at the point they could be damaged, their HP scaled according to people in the zone. That would pretty much guarantee adequate HP while also giving ample time for people to get there.

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I was thinking of something similar the other day but having it trigger a massive regen for x mins if the mobs hp dropped by a large percentage too fast. Your way seems easier to put in. :p

So far, I must have gotten lucky as things seemed to have improved for me after the hotfit.

However, I still think an HP boost is necessary. B is relatively fine now, but could be 2x. A should have been 10x (though 7x could have worked) and S should have been 10-15x.

At least now on A rank, the one I managed to partake in last night, I could actually see the percentage of health drop by 1% at a time (took a whopping 20 seconds to die). Whereas before, it looked like it was a 5 second zerg - I got a swift cast F3, and one F1. And if I procced, might have gotten another F3 in. But definitely not able to cast more than two fire spells.

So I saw an improvement. Let's see what happens on the weekend though....

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Originally Posted by Thayos

Would be cool if mark NMs were invulnerable for the first 5 minutes of spawning, and at the point they could be damaged, their HP scaled according to people in the zone. That would pretty much guarantee adequate HP while also giving ample time for people to get there.

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Pretty much a great idea, if only something similar was implemented. I guess that would make things to easy, right?

My personal approach to the hunt issue is I only do it early morning/afternoon. Once I feel agitated by the many people pulling mobs I stop. I used to see hunts as a way to speed the process up, I understand that spending 4-5 hrs doing hunts with such a busy server isn't for me. Different people are able to tolerate this mess called the Hunt in varying levels. It's up to the individual to decide to either spend the extra 2 hrs in misery or move on and enjoy other aspects of the game. We will all acquire the seals in due time.

The hotfix did nothing.

Well, they gave them more HP, but you also have to put out more damage to get your full contribution. So all it realisticly did is made it so that more people could get a hit in (and thus ruining it for the most of us)

Saw a complaint about this in bug reports, and saw it get moved to "Working as Intended", so yeah...

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ctly-%28Bug%29

If you're first to a B now, there is no downside to engaging right away because you'll cut through like 5% HP soloing for full credit instead of 35%. Claim the mark and get your credit while doing a /sh /l /fc /whatever. You'll get your due seals, the mob barely gets scratched and you can wait for the parade to finish it off.

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Originally Posted by Erudain

You can edit you post and go over the 1k characters

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I tried to but it wasn't working in my favor. Idk if it's because I'm doing it on an iPad.

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Originally Posted by Thayos

Would be cool if mark NMs were invulnerable for the first 5 minutes of spawning, and at the point they could be damaged, their HP scaled according to people in the zone. That would pretty much guarantee adequate HP while also giving ample time for people to get there.

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This is what I've really been wishing would be the adopted solution to the mayhem

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Originally Posted by HumsterMKX

They just die too fast on my side. Imagine, the "bluffed" S rank mobs die under 1'30...not forgetting it disappears and reappears from time to time, making ppl unable to target them. Just imagine the speed it will die if ppl can target them.

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My poor party members got left in the dust on their loading screens trying to zone in. Rest of us who made it only got 30 seals. I guess because we were missing people.

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Originally Posted by PreetWilson

My poor party members got left in the dust on their loading screens trying to zone in. Rest of us who made it only got 30 seals. I guess because we were missing people.

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My PT everyone is present. Still only got 30.

I'm surprised how many people don't know about the edit option to exceed the limits. It's like everyone that has a (not so new) idea about something, they also are someone that doesn't frequent the forum much at all. If you spend some time on the forum long enough you will see either A: someone that is like yourself, and didn't know about the option. B: You will see someone with a freakishly long post, and ponder hmmm how can I do that. Anyhow I'm not trying to rag on ya or anything. It just always interests me that people who post a potentially new idea, also seem to be the type that doesn't know how the forum works.

In any case on the subject, the hunt changes have definitely improved the situation. Everything in this thread has pretty much been repeated throughout all the hundreds of threads on the subject. For example, it seems to have significantly improved to some people, but others it hasn't. One of the reasons is, people on low pop servers are noticing a much bigger improvement, over those in a high pop server. I'm on Midgard and it is a LOT easier to get credit now. We are a smaller server, and now people wait on A class's longer, and the mass of players equals that of what you'd expect to see at a S rank pre-patch. And you can easily get credit as long as you find out about it, and jump on it ASAP. There is improvement all around, but as stated in multiple other threads, the % hp increase should of been based on the server populations. I know this would of delayed a hotfix, but that is what would help a lot. They likely are considering it for future adjustments.

The other reasons some people may not be noticing differences is because they don't fully understand how to get full credit. When your dealing with so many people killing the same hunt(see FATE) the system is kind of broken. You no longer can rely on damage as a way to get full credit, because obviously you have to get relatively the same % damage as everyone else that is getting full credit. But for some reason, Enmity and Healing seem to be handled completely differently. These skills seem to be added onto the system to check your credit. So if you do meager damage, and nothing else you get 2 seals from a hunt. But if you have a tank or two spamming flash(3-5 times) or fits in a Enmity combo like Butcher's block, and/or you have your healers spamming medica(if they remembered to actually tag the mob with something aero or w/e) Then you suddenly are given full credit. I think it's this way because originally damage was the deciding factor for FATE credit. Then later Enmity, and healing was added to the mix in a later patch.

On another note, this reminds me of how mining/harvesting worked in beta(or was it alpha). All of the points were shared server side. So when one person used it up, no one else could see it. But obviously they can't apply the same fix they did to DoL. Because that would result in everyone seeing their own S rank. It might work for Bs, and even As. But that would be very messy. It's almost as if it should be tied directly to the Mark Bills/Elite Mark Bills. And make it trigger a quest that then leads to the Hunt Scholars, and then once you talk to them, then they give you their extremely vague hint. And you and your party of players, then start trying to trigger these monsters. If your successful then the monster could only be viewed by your group. Now obviously this would not work with S rank, because the 8 man group would be killed. So I'm wondering if this kind of system would work once they implement making pre-made alliances in the open world. The only thing this would nullify is the roaming high level mobs around the open world. So maybe at the end of the day this wouldn't workout, but its a idea. I know others have said something similar in other threads. IDK maybe it would work to make them roaming, then make it so you have to have the Marked bills in order to defeat it. That way they could regulate how many people can do, that way everyone can get a shot.

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Originally Posted by HumsterMKX

My PT everyone is present. Still only got 30.

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Oh god now that's just sucky for a Rank S monster with everyone present and still no full credit. I was under the impression this would only happen if you're missing members as it was happening yesterday our party would get to an A rank and we would have one or two people who couldn't make it fast enough to the mob before it was zerged, rest us would only get 12 seals.

It's extremely hard to get your whole party zoned in and to the mob in time before it dies.

The system seems even worse after the hotfix tbh.
I have even less motivation to do it as it seems like an even bigger waste of time right now.

Right now all SE is telling us is to say fuck you to the rest of the community and keep NM to yourself.
Right now just found Naul myself on Hyperion, 1 other person there then a BRD comes along and claims it. I figured I'd be "nice" so I took agro and reset it 5+ times until there was a relatively large group there where I just decided screw it it can die now.

Yeah... me letting other people get there resulted in me getting 1 seal and no weekly hunt completion. Good going, I should have just killed it when only 3 of us were there.

For what it's worth I have a feeling the changes to s ranks haven't gone through. They still seem to be dying as quick as before the hotfix, and they also still seem to be suffering from culling issues. The first could just be because there's more people doing them now, but I thought the culling was supposed to be fixed now.

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Originally Posted by PreetWilson

Oh god now that's just sucky for a Rank S monster with everyone present and still no full credit. I was under the impression this would only happen if you're missing members as it was happening yesterday our party would get to an A rank and we would have one or two people who couldn't make it fast enough to the mob before it was zerged, rest us would only get 12 seals.

It's extremely hard to get your whole party zoned in and to the mob in time before it dies.

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It is just too badly zerged. And with the mobs playing the disappearing trick, sometimes you can;t even hit it. I got spells interupted mid cast too.

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Originally Posted by Drako

anyhow I'm not trying to rag on ya or anything

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You clearly are trying to, or else you wouldn't have made a mention of it.

I do visit the forums often but I'm usually a silent observer and so yes you're right I'm one of those people who does not create threads on the regular.

There's a first time for everything. You live and you learn and that's alright with me.

There....all fixed

Also I do agree with you in that that HP should have been proportionate to that of the server population. Maybe if this were the case the change might have been noticeable. But idk how doable that is or isn't.

If anyone reading the notes, B and A is NOT meant for multiple parties. So no one is obligated to "Wait" for you. Making a system where waiting for the entire server to bog down the server would be incompetent on SE side.
Im not saying I always get to the NMs, or get full point because I dont, and I personally hate that progression is based on it.
If they removed progressive items or we just wait till 2.4 when Sand/Oils are old, then hunts will be what its suppose to be.
People will ignore these NMs and only the ones that care will gather their closest friends/LS/FC to join them. Just like Fates.


Just like the phrase "gun dont kill people, people kill people" Hunts is not the problem, people are.

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Originally Posted by DeathFiend

"gun dont kill people, people kill people" Hunts is not the problem, people are.

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Yes you're right but like I said you can't force players to behave and play nice nice with one another. A lot are not willing to share.

I really would hate any sort of additional caps or lockouts due to almost everything which capped or locked out, but I do have there's nothing in hunts atm which forces players to practice self control because seal accumulation is limitless.

I don't see why anyone is surprised. This is one of the only two open world results you can get, everyone throwing a fit over good drops. The alternative would have been everyone ignoring it for bad drops. And the solution is instances through duty finder, which is what we already had and people complained they wanted something different from.

More or less this is the result of people asking for "please shoot me in the head" and SE did as they said, and now are getting complaints that it hurt. Stupidity is not something SE can take responsibility for, even when they attempt to appeal to it.

There is only one solution to this and it is simply to cap the seals per day or per week. The rushers can spam their cap and others can wait a day or two and reach the cap casually.

After the Hotfix, the Elites are still not visible 100% of the time. The ones that I haven't been able to see are always the ones in Mor Dhona. I guess because of the heavy population, but even if there aren't a bunch of people at the hunt site, the Elite is still not visible. I missed out on the S & A rank Elite there because it was invincible. People in my party were complaining about the same thing.

Also, it turns out that the B rank Elite is still soloable. I managed to kill one after being attacked by it doing Beast Quest in The Mines. It takes a lot longer to do it, but can still be killed by doing it yourself. Although I don't think every Job can do it. The previous day I saw a Monk try killing the same Elite, but was about to die before I came and took control of it and helped him out. As a tank it's doable, but I don't know about the other jobs. Also, I don't know about how high your iLevel should be to solo it as I am at the moment iLevel 93 Tank.

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Originally Posted by Malamasala

*snip*

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Ultimately that is what it comes down to as it seems.

Most ps3 and some ps4 (and even some pc) users whom I'm friends with have not been able to keep up and participate in the hunts due their load times.

I love playing on my ps4 but for doing hunts I have to make sure I'm using my pc due this very issue.

It's aggravating.

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Originally Posted by Antonio_Xul

*snip*

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Yes they are go invisible for me as well.

Agrippa, S rank in mor dhona popped yesterday on my server Hyperion. There had to have been over 100 players easy. I couldn't see the mob so I'm having to twitch around my camera, go on the other side of the mob where ppl are not standing. He popped on my screen long enough for me to get of an aero, and a medica 2. And they disappeared again until he died.

Thankfully I did get the credit though, but had he not shown up at all I would have been jipped.

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consistently dumping their gil in teleportation fees just to find out that the mob is dead or are riding out to area and watching the mob die in front of their eyes just as they arrive

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Wait...could this be!...could this be SE's newest gil sink!?!?

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Originally Posted by Mergadeth

Wait...could this be!...could this be SE's newest gil sink!?!?

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Lol

I don't have much to dump, I'm going broke rather quickly.

I'm going to need to beg my FC to give me Gil to support my hunting habits as I have not done anything to generate any revenue since the patch.

Lol hopefully my husband (FC leader) is feeling generous or I might get a kick in the ass saying, "go craft something you bum."