give the current players a time sink....Post your ideas for what SE could implement

Ok i'm sure this post is premature considering the pact is just days away but my gut tells me even the ifrit battle won't hold the current player base's attention for more than a month or two considering how many players have already devoted this past year into obtaining the best gear and leveling multiple 50 classes.

A "quick fix" solution to sooth the not so casual players who have a good amount of time to put into the game would be to introduce a decent time sink system.

Time Sink: Something that takes a considerably lengthy amount of time to complete and occupies players in a attempt for the developers to "bide their time."

Remember, I'm not saying for SE to not make more fun content and make everything a time sink. When they update a new feature everyone will still dog pile all over it and try it out. This is just ideas for people to keep doing after they have "finished" the majority of the "newer content" and have grown "board again." A distraction if you would call it.

Nothing that is so good that is becomes required to do in the game. Like god gear. We don't want something that could later be the reason your not invited to parties or linkshells because you don't have a massive amount of free time.

Ideas:

*Collectable Cosmetic Gear
- Like the Swimsuit gear
- Rank 50 gear that matches current best gear in the game, but looks different. So its not better, but looks different.

* A randomly generated maze or labyrinth to complete that yields rewards and resets with leves to keep things fresh.

* A card game to play and collect with others. Tetra Master (FF9/FF11) or Triple Triad (FF8)

* Earning Fame or Reputation with certain factions.
- Doing quests or killing certain monsters to raise fame with a certain group.
- Fame will gain access to certain items in the game.
- Get a gil discount on a certain items they sell based on your fame.

*NMs with a really low drop rate of about 1%
- Farm items that increase the drop rate stacking them to increase the drop rate to 35%-50% ish

* Coliseum battles
- PvP one on one
- PVE group of players battle against random group of monsters. Random chance of a NM

*Chocobo Races
- Gambling

*Chocobo hot and cold game. (FF9)

How about they make fun things to fill out the game's content instead of trying to artificially inflate it with boring time sinks?

Think your missing the point of the post. While they are working on making the "fun" part of the game which takes a considerable amount of time they can just give the current players who have the mind set of "I have nothing much to do except level yet another class to 50, and I'm tired of leveling" something to do while they make the actual real content for the game.

Supposed to just be "tossing a bone" to the beta players without rolling out the red carpet.

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Originally Posted by Sypherblade

Think your missing the point of the post. While they are working on making the "fun" part of the game which takes a considerable amount of time they can just give the current players who have the mind set of "I have nothing much to do except level yet another class to 50, and I'm tired of leveling" something to do while they make the actual real content for the game.

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No, I completely understand it. And it's a stupid point, because it's damaging to the game.

I'd love for this game to have more random drops and general randomness.

Also epic underwear.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ture-Class-Job

This. I'd spend hours and hours a day just doing this :p

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Originally Posted by Alexis_Arteme

I'd love for this game to have more random drops and general randomness.

Also epic underwear.

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lol epic underwear... like the swimsuits? something cosmetic with no stats what so ever.

Collectable cosmetic gear.

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Originally Posted by Konachibi

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ture-Class-Job

This. I'd spend hours and hours a day just doing this :p

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Yes i love your class idea posts you put up Konachibi, but that would be more the "fun content" that i was talking about that would require countless hours for SE to do. Not the distraction the beta players need while they create wonderful features like your choco breeding class

I agree with Wolfie your idea is terrible and is everything that is wrong with the older MMOs. Nothing should feel like painful, unfun work. Have work, yes, but make that work fun.

I totally agree (with the need for events), but I think it has to do with the current status of the game. Really, no one should be playing this game right now. They should just shut down the servers while they fix the core mechanics. Until then it doesn't make too much sense to add activities such as this because they will be built based on a game that probably won't exist (in its current state) in a year. All that said, I would love to see things like Nyzul, Einjerhar (sp?), Limbus, Sea, that were fun events that gave varieties of gear for different purposes. Unfortunately, in addition to the aforementioned issues, this game isn't set up to be gear dependent like FFXI was, and therefore setting up events that spam out gear will probably phase out any other events because there will then be a new better piece and no one will want whatever the last event dropped. So how do you make events that allow you to build up gear but also don't kill previous content? Not sure what the answer is for FFXIV.

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Originally Posted by Pyrix

I agree with Wolfie your idea is terrible and is everything that is wrong with the older MMOs. Nothing should feel like painful, unfun work. Have work, yes, but make that work fun.

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Not saying it would necessarily be painful unfun work. People seem to voice pretty loudly that they like grouping up with people and killing monsters in this game. Some even like grinding. But they just need a reason to group up. I'm just saying we need to create a long turn goal in the form of grouping up for people.

Don't get confused and think im suggesting that this idea becomes the center of the game. Cause thats not the case. A simple feature that requires time as a "side" thing.

FFXI did this to a degree with merit points. Yes it was much more rewarding to increase your stats and lower cool down timers and stuff.. but it was just to give people a reason to kill stuff with their cap jobs "in-between" things like sky and limbus etc etc.

The Moogle Maze Idea:

Players are transformed into a moogle and put in the center of a maze, they must attempt to escape the maze as quick as possible. Taking a wrong turn causes the player to be teleported back to the center of the maze.

First player out wins a cosmetic clothing reward, possibly in the form of a moogle costume or something like that, with possible battle equipment being rewarded for escaping in a very short amount of time.

Maze would be doable once per every 1.19 leve reset and would be a different maze each time to keep things fresh.

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Originally Posted by Gidonoidon_Sur

I totally agree (with the need for events), but I think it has to do with the current status of the game. Really, no one should be playing this game right now. They should just shut down the servers while they fix the core mechanics. Until then it doesn't make too much sense to add activities such as this because they will be built based on a game that probably won't exist (in its current state) in a year. All that said, I would love to see things like Nyzul, Einjerhar (sp?), Limbus, Sea, that were fun events that gave varieties of gear for different purposes. Unfortunately, in addition to the aforementioned issues, this game isn't set up to be gear dependent like FFXI was, and therefore setting up events that spam out gear will probably phase out any other events because there will then be a new better piece and no one will want whatever the last event dropped. So how do you make events that allow you to build up gear but also don't kill previous content? Not sure what the answer is for FFXIV.

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I agree, they should of shut down the servers and just redid it from the ground up. Hell they could have just called it FFXV. But they didn't. They kept it open for people to beta test it for them.

And yes your totally right. The gear needs to not diminish in value so rapidly if they invested a large amount of time into obtaining them.

why i think the CoP rings from 11 worked out so well, cause they were re useable on other classes easily and were not major pieces of equipment like a body piece or leg piece...just a ring.

cosmetic gear like bikini's will never diminish cause they are just underwear and are just for the sake of cosmetics.

Triple Triad would be a pretty big sink.

The game does need long term goals for its current playerbase, especially the loyal ones who been with the game awhile. Content is not coming fast enough for alot of people, it is why we are seeing hardcore people "take breaks" between patches which is a really bad sign in a mmo.

There needs to be a timesink element, or if you want a nicer sounding word since that sounds negative... long term goals for the hardcore people to work to that keep them busy until new content can be completed.

-Bring back the fame element make a reason to do all the quest besides pointless armor rewards and minuscule sp gains. Have some decent rewards from finishing all the existing content.

-Add some NMs that are not 5min spawns (yea people are against that because of camping, but it is a great thing to keep hardcore ppl happy and busy)

-Come up with really long quest that people can complete over time, but it takes 2weeks-2months to complete. Give it a decent reward so people want to do it... Say a ring with +10critical (no other crit accessory available so would give an incentive to do it)

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Originally Posted by Sypherblade

Not saying it would necessarily be painful unfun work. People seem to voice pretty loudly that they like grouping up with people and killing monsters in this game. Some even like grinding. But they just need a reason to group up. I'm just saying we need to create a long turn goal in the form of grouping up for people.

Don't get confused and think im suggesting that this idea becomes the center of the game. Cause thats not the case. A simple feature that requires time as a "side" thing.

FFXI did this to a degree with merit points. Yes it was much more rewarding to increase your stats and lower cool down timers and stuff.. but it was just to give people a reason to kill stuff with their cap jobs "in-between" things like sky and limbus etc etc.

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The problem is that it creates a really s***ty dichotomy because of the rewards. If you remove the 'exciting' or 'fun' aspect (which is unavoidable in long grinds), the worth of the rewards is now based solely on the time and effort investment.

If they are worth the time/effort investment, and especially if the rewards are top notch, they become something that's required. Merits became required in a lot of FFXI's areas; some meripo parties and end-game LSes denied you if you didn't already have some merits, your class was incomplete, etc. The grind becomes unavoidable by the people who didn't want it or don't like it.

If they are not worth the time/effort, then very few people will actually do these events (think Voluptuous Vivian from FFXI).

Whereas if developers focus on making FUN content as opposed to just long content, people are more willing to overlook the time and effort they spend. Making long content just for the sake of having content is an extremely terrible way of developing a game and it sets the precedent that the devs are willing to throw in half-assed patchwork instead of making good content.

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Originally Posted by Zantetsuken

Triple Triad would be a pretty big sink.

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Excellent idea

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Originally Posted by Wolfie

The problem is that it creates a really s***ty dichotomy because of the rewards. If you remove the 'exciting' or 'fun' aspect (which is unavoidable in long grinds), the worth of the rewards is now based solely on the time and effort investment.

If they are worth the time/effort investment, and especially if the rewards are top notch, they become something that's required. Merits became required in a lot of FFXI's areas; some meripo parties and end-game LSes denied you if you didn't already have some merits, your class was incomplete, etc. The grind becomes unavoidable by the people who didn't want it or don't like it.

If they are not worth the time/effort, then very few people will actually do these events (think Voluptuous Vivian from FFXI).

Whereas if developers focus on making FUN content as opposed to just long content, people are more willing to overlook the time and effort they spend. Making long content just for the sake of having content is an extremely terrible way of developing a game and it sets the precedent that the devs are willing to throw in half-assed patchwork instead of making good content.

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You make a good point in how top notch will become a requirement. I will remove the CoP ring idea. Cause i agree that people will think they HAVE to obtain the items and then SE will base future content assuming people have said equipment.

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Originally Posted by Xatsh

The game does need long term goals for its current playerbase, especially the loyal ones who been with the game awhile. Content is not coming fast enough for alot of people, it is why we are seeing hardcore people "take breaks" between patches which is a really bad sign in a mmo.

There needs to be a timesink element, or if you want a nicer sounding word since that sounds negative... long term goals for the hardcore people to work to that keep them busy until new content can be completed.

-Bring back the fame element make a reason to do all the quest besides pointless armor rewards and minuscule sp gains. Have some decent rewards from finishing all the existing content.

-Add some NMs that are not 5min spawns (yea people are against that because of camping, but it is a great thing to keep hardcore ppl happy and busy)

-Come up with really long quest that people can complete over time, but it takes 2weeks-2months to complete. Give it a decent reward so people want to do it... Say a ring with +10critical (no other crit accessory available so would give an incentive to do it)

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The fame element. Thats going on the OP. Nice

make some nm's with like 1% drop rate like the buffalo but low drop rates. then add threw the zone guarding spots like in the leves, u stand in that area and mobs come, but instead of like 3 mobs they keep comming and by hordes for your party to farm. and they have drops that higher the drop rate on the nm's lower drop rates and they stack up to a % max of like 30-50%

kinda like that one assault in ffxi, where like 50mobs come at you at once in hordes mixed different mobs. gotta sleep, and bind and nukes and kills quick but make it always a chance to wipe party so it is hard and fun at same time.

You can make your own timesink, for example: Try to beat lv90 mobs with 5 people, if you can then try with 4. Have you done all the sidequests? Gotten all the achievements?

Your suggestion is fine until you get to the reward because then instead of being an extra for people with more time it becomes a tedious, monotonous thing for everyone because everyone wants the best. How about a good item that rivals those at the top but has similar stats and a different art design? You can be unique with your different looking equip but not surpass in stats others who can't dedicate their life to a game.

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Originally Posted by BloodPact

You can make your own timesink, for example: Try to beat lv90 mobs with 5 people, if you can then try with 4. Have you done all the sidequests? Gotten all the achievements?

Your suggestion is fine until you get to the reward because then instead of being an extra for people with more time it becomes a tedious, monotonous thing for everyone because everyone wants the best. How about a good item that rivals those at the top but has similar stats and a different art design? You can be unique with your different looking equip but not surpass in stats others who can't dedicate their life to a game.

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So cosmetic gear. Thats a different way to do it though. ill add it to the cosmetic part of the OP

there is a time sink, and might i add you still have a while to go. you are rated at 2,618 on your server. try beating all the nms(the low lvl ones too), reaching all the ath's, doing all the quest and ranking all the classes to boost your achievement score.
http://www.ffxivpro.com/player/Palamecia/Merri-Ross

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Originally Posted by syntaxlies

there is a time sink, and might i add you still have a while to go. you are rated at 2,618 on your server. try beating all the nms(the low lvl ones too), reaching all the ath's, doing all the quest and ranking all the classes to boost your achievement score.
http://www.ffxivpro.com/player/Palamecia/Merri-Ross

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lol what?

did i say i personally needed a time sink? I'm confused. Just wanted to help those who i've spoken to in game that have stated they don't have much to do except level another class to 50.

I am definitely a casual player for the record lol

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Originally Posted by Sypherblade

lol what?

did i say i personally needed a time sink? I'm confused. Just wanted to help those who i've spoken to in game that have stated they don't have much to do except level another class to 50.

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give them the info i gave you then, there can be only 1 #1

achievements while they are time sinks, they are more like ps3 trophy's ...they are for kids who can't afford a new game every month and need extra useless gameplay that yields no reward. all things in a mmo need reward, or they pointless and no one does them. just saying, this is fact. i doubt most would even waist there time for even a new outfit, i might but i'd have to be bored and it would have to look awesome and i doubt that would be easy for se to make. im sure they would try charging 10-25bucks for an outfit b4 doing that lol.

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Originally Posted by weeble

achievements while they are time sinks, they are more like ps3 trophy's ...they are for kids who can't afford a new game every month and need extra useless gameplay that yields no reward. all things in a mmo need reward, or they pointless and no one does them. just saying, this is fact. i doubt most would even waist there time for even a new outfit, i might but i'd have to be bored and it would have to look awesome and i doubt that would be easy for se to make. im sure they would try charging 10-25bucks for an outfit b4 doing that lol.

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they are no more artificial then any other part of the game. its all 1' and 0's

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Originally Posted by syntaxlies

they are no more artificial then any other part of the game. its all 1' and 0's

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right but empty zones i think show what is liked and what is not. take ffxi, empty choco races, empty collossium, empty ballista's, tons of empty zones cause they not optimum exp then birds or wotg mobs. mmo's might be a game but people play them for long periods and they expect there time to be rewarded usually. also link peoples trophy's on ps3 while playing one day, u won't be suprised to see almost no one with 50+% trophies for almost 100% of there games.

also while seasonal events seem pretty packed in ffxi, no one really repeated them twice less they really gotta. lol. i did the chocobo scarf one every year till it was easy to get to city's an then they were pointless. i had outifts on all my mules, but this time around i not done a one, empty cities, uselessly unfun events ...i couldn't bare doing them. next year maybe when the game gets it's hussle and bussle back.

Guess no one liked my moogle maze idea then >.>'

I mentioned this before in another thread but think it would be relevant here. I also have another point.

One thing they could do is make a coliseum type event where you or a small group of people can engage in a fight against a semi-randomly generated monster. It would be similar to a BCNM but wouldn't drop nice loot. You could adjust the difficulty to make it as hard or easy as possible. It would reward experience points but the purpose would be for fun and to learn new strategies (build team work with LS mates, for example). Also, and this is my additional point, is I think there could be a crude PvP element added to this. Sure, it might not be balanced at first, but I think a simple 1v1 and 4v4 and 8v8 ballista type event would be fun too.

To me, these are two ideas that would involve relatively little development and could serve as fun... diversions, until real content comes out.

Thoughts?

there is no quick fix time sink though. the tup of sink he is talking about is some 5 year plan to achieve a rare weapon which will take time and planning. they cant just throw it in the game real quick cause people are bored, they are trying to develop a game. its in a play at your own risk stage right now now if you are playing for 20 hours a day with limited content then maybe people should ease up a bit.

what i suggested is already in game and can give people something to do if they are really that bored and dont wanna play something else.

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Originally Posted by Gidonoidon_Sur

I mentioned this before in another thread but think it would be relevant here. I also have another point.

One thing they could do is make a coliseum type event where you or a small group of people can engage in a fight against a semi-randomly generated monster. It would be similar to a BCNM but wouldn't drop nice loot. You could adjust the difficulty to make it as hard or easy as possible. It would reward experience points but the purpose would be for fun and to learn new strategies (build team work with LS mates, for example). Also, and this is my additional point, is I think there could be a crude PvP element added to this. Sure, it might not be balanced at first, but I think a simple 1v1 and 4v4 and 8v8 ballista type event would be fun too.

To me, these are two ideas that would involve relatively little development and could serve as fun... diversions, until real content comes out.

Thoughts?

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It's a good idea. What would happen in regards of XP gain and how much would you do the event? If you could constantly repeat it people would use that as a means to level up instead of doing leves or normal grinding, which can be seen in both a good and a bad way I suppose...

How about if there was a rare encounter during the PvE version where a special NM appeared that did drop cool loot but it had a small chance of happening, just to spice it up a bit?

Ya give us a time sink.....

Just make sure it's something that requires none of my attention so I can watch TV while my time is being sunk.

i like them ideas, i would go as far as adding also instanced ones, pve battlegrounds ...2 groups put into a similar battle scenario fighting that said mob or mobs and graded by time, and other variables perhaps.

would love to see some pvp too but they say that is also on way, questionably when would be years in i bet. by that time the game will have been fail and they won't have to do good on most there promises lmao.

Triple Triad.

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Originally Posted by Gidonoidon_Sur

I mentioned this before in another thread but think it would be relevant here. I also have another point.

One thing they could do is make a coliseum type event where you or a small group of people can engage in a fight against a semi-randomly generated monster. It would be similar to a BCNM but wouldn't drop nice loot. You could adjust the difficulty to make it as hard or easy as possible. It would reward experience points but the purpose would be for fun and to learn new strategies (build team work with LS mates, for example). Also, and this is my additional point, is I think there could be a crude PvP element added to this. Sure, it might not be balanced at first, but I think a simple 1v1 and 4v4 and 8v8 ballista type event would be fun too.

To me, these are two ideas that would involve relatively little development and could serve as fun... diversions, until real content comes out.

Thoughts?

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Good ideas. will add to the list

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Originally Posted by Konachibi

It's a good idea. What would happen in regards of XP gain and how much would you do the event? If you could constantly repeat it people would use that as a means to level up instead of doing leves or normal grinding, which can be seen in both a good and a bad way I suppose...

How about if there was a rare encounter during the PvE version where a special NM appeared that did drop cool loot but it had a small chance of happening, just to spice it up a bit?

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Exp could be set based on difficulty and number of party members. But just to give a number, could be like 500 exp per fight with each fight lasting around 15-20 minutes. Not a viable way to level, but would give you something for participating to encourage participation. I imagine the fight would be very similar to boss mechanics, but what that particular monster does would be somewhat random. For example, you could have a Marlboro with enhanced speed and casts AoE magic, but takes double damage from behind (just made up example, sure there could be way better/more divers). That way you wouldn't know ahead what you would be faced with. The point of the event would be fun, challenge, and building teamwork with little risk and little reward.

i liked your idea konni, it kinda remind me of some of the ffxi assault battles. there were some where full party had to get threw it an hit switches all over the area, but there were mobs all over walking around, and if you got caught/seen by them you got ported right back to start. it was also one of the hardest ones in there lol, even the fighting ones were easier. people always getting caught by the mobs ...specially last switch. can be very fun idea if done right.

Time sink if often regarded as negative pointless work.

To keep players busy, card games would prolly be the best and simplest thing they could add (and lot of players request them).

PvP arena is another good option, but seems more complex to implement.