Making the game alt/alt-job friendly

Just as the title says, and just as many others have said before me. I'm making a new thread to hopefully draw more attention to the subject and consequentially see some changes!

Making the game alt friendly: right now, unless you're masochistic or have way too much time on your hands, making an alt is just plain unrealistic due to MSQ restrictions on progression. There are many ways to fix this. Please do something!

Making the game alt-job friendly: OK, so you don't want to change the MSQ thing for real alts. Fine. Then maybe implement something where each job counts as an alt! (i.e., allow each job a separate lockout on raid bosses/daily roulettes, etc). The only reason I went on Omega server was for the road to 60 buff, which took *some* of the pain of leveling other jobs away. Now they've taken away that buff. It's not even fun anymore.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dyylan

Making the game alt friendly: right now, unless you're masochistic or have way too much time on your hands, making an alt is just plain unrealistic due to MSQ restrictions on progression. There are many ways to fix this. Please do something!

---

As it stands, the game is based around not having multiple characters to switch between, as is the case with, say, World of Warcraft. We can take up any job at any time, and getting minimally geared doesn't take too much effort with some Verity and Omega farming.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dyylan

Making the game alt-job friendly: OK, so you don't want to change the MSQ thing for real alts. Fine. Then maybe implement something where each job counts as an alt! (i.e., allow each job a separate lockout on raid bosses/daily roulettes, etc).

---

Pffffttttno.

Whats even the point of making the game "alt-friendly" when one character can be every class and crafter. Alt on another server? Sure, valid point, before it was a hassle. Now with Mogshop's new Story Skip and Level boost cash items that even further removes the need to make the game "alt-friendly", even if its for another server.

"But I don't want/"shouldn't need" to spend money to skip it even though that's what I basically want"
Well then either bite the bullet and endure the game's structure or suck it up and buy the item.

"But we can only buy one per account "
Patch 4.1 "Please look foreword to it"

Fair enough. I take both of your points, but I still stand by what I said. I still think the game would be overall more enjoyable if there was ***some*** sort of system in place to help ease the burden of leveling jobs/gearing. I get why it is the way it is, I just want to propose a minor change. Hell, at least leave the Road to 60 buff that I had on my server, and I'd be fine with that!

MSQ restriction is the least of your concerns if you're into alts. I've done all ARR quests (i.e. MSQ and all side quests) 4 times and all HW quests 3 times over. If MSQ requirement is an obstacle for you, then what you really want is probably just parallel end-game progression, i.e. a way around raid lock-outs, and not really because you want to have alts.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dyylan

Fair enough. I take both of your points, but I still stand by what I said. I still think the game would be overall more enjoyable if there was ***some*** sort of system in place to help ease the burden of leveling jobs/gearing. I get why it is the way it is, I just want to propose a minor change. Hell, at least leave the Road to 60 buff that I had on my server, and I'd be fine with that!

---

Do you raid V4S? If you don't then I don't understand the issue. You don't need higher tier gear for anything. Even then you'd probably trying to only specialise in a single job anyways.

this game IS alt-job friendly. the only content you actually need weekly-locked gear to enter is the savage-raid. everything else is designed around an ilvl you can reach without any lockouts.

I wish they'd allow us to cap tomes on two separate jobs, or have the first 450 count for any job, and the second 450 count for a specific job. I know it'll never happen (I can't even think of a way they could implement in a concise manner), but for players like me who love raiding on two different jobs per raid cycle, it's extremely debilitating.

Yes, you can level up alts. Yes, I actually do have an alt 70. However I'd like to keep everything to one character, it's a personal preference.

Oh this one is a doozy and I don't do the endgame gear treadmill currently. I alt like a monster even when the game is mostly friendly to level on one character.

Alt friendly XIV:

• Unlimited Sprint everywhere but group dungeons, not faster just a toggle so duration is always on or off.
• Account wide mounts
• Account wide Mounts available at level 1 on different characters
• Road to 60 Buff on every new job/class after the first max leveled one per character
• Account wide emotes
• 2000 Free Poetics upon reaching level 50 on any new character first time after you max leveled one character
• 2000 Free middle tier tombstones upon reaching level 60 on any new character first time after you max leveled one character
• Higher tier free company bonuses for progression
• Account wide Glamour Book
• New/Additional Racial Origin Stories
• More classes or jobs that start at level 1
• New/Additional Starting Areas
• Increased Fate Experience, progressively higher for each new class/job leveled
• MGP buff for Gold Saucer after the first character reaches one million MGP
• Squadrons use-able in normal MSQ content, hard/extreme/savage/super savage still party only(this one can be done right off the back or restrict it to a second character after a max level character, up to SE if even done)

Yes, everything can be done on one character. But people are still making alts.

This game has good quality of life features for keeping the playing field somewhat even. But I think if someone like's doing the alt thing, they pay to play too, and SE should give you the painless option to play how you want.

Since we can already lvl all classes on one character I see no reason to change it. Also with the jump potions I sincerely doubt SE will want to change it as they make a lot of money on those potions.

It's so easy to level an alt, especially if you are a healer or tank. You never wait for anything. The only part where you might need some FC help for even just story-wise is going through Coil and Alexander.

Even then if you don't want to do ARR MSQ you have the jump potion options. I still haven't bought one.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pence

Do you raid V4S? If you don't then I don't understand the issue. You don't need higher tier gear for anything. Even then you'd probably trying to only specialise in a single job anyways.

---

Yep and exactly! That's the reason I have an alt, so I can raid with multiple groups without loot restrictions. Plus being able to be in a world or another data center is nice.

All I want for alts is to share housing and maybe make mount/minions account-wide, especially the achievement ones.

Achievement minions/mounts are currently fair. Like you shouldn't get the 500 commendation magitek automatically on every character. I had to earn that again. What is to stop you from being a goody-goody on one character and a douche on another?

You can add other characters as a tenant to housing or house sit other people's houses, but the best part of an alt is being able to get another house. Why share.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by technole

Achievement minions/mounts are currently fair. Like you shouldn't get the 500 commendation magitek automatically on every character. I had to earn that again. What is to stop you from being a goody-goody on one character and a douche on another?

You can add other characters as a tenant to housing or house sit other people's houses, but the best part of an alt is being able to get another house. Why share.

---

Because as much as I love to grind I don't want to re-farm some really long achievement again? There's also time-exclusive reward. To be fair, it's kind of a grey area. As for housing, there's much higher demand than supply, why buy another house (and keep another player or entire fc a chance to get one) if I can share it with my main? If I get bored of the decoration, I just tear them down and renovate again! Also, I can't add my alt as a tenant since it's on the same account as my main.

I have 4 characters at lvl 70 and never had an issue with alts. Doing the MSQ all over again isn't so bad... I mostly levelled them during content droughts and like the freshness they bring to the game. I'd make a 5th but my server is locked and don't want to do it on another one.

The spread is:
Highlander tank jobs - 70 PLD
Keeper healer and DoM jobs - 70 BLM,WHM
Midlander melee dps - 70 NIN,SAM
Duskwight ranged dps -70 MCH

I like how I can gear them all simultaneously without worrying about lockouts, and having different races with lore appropriate names is great without spending cash on fantasia and name changes.

For Alt jobs, I'd say give a tiered armoury bonus.
1 job higher = +100%
2 jobs higher = +200%
etc.

Some may call it overkill. I... would not. >_>

I do run multiple alts myself. The only thing I really want is the ability to either friend my alts or just be able to send mail to my alts. I hate having to ask my friends to shuffle funds for me.

The whole alt inconvenience with mail is mainly so you don't use them as an inventory dump. However you can get around this if you belong in an FC that gives you chest drawer rights, so you can move around tradable goods/gil between characters much easier. Otherwise you have to leech off friends as middlemen. Like I'd craft gear for my alt so she was raid-ready using the FC chest as a way to get everything situated myself.

I personally would just like to see unlocks carried over to other characters on that account..

So for example I could create a brand new character. Step out of whatever town I start in. Smash some fates and the hunting log and just straight into sastasha at 15. Because it's already unlocked on another character... maybe even smash my way all the way to 70 and jump into omega. Without even touching the me a. Because all the content is already unlocked

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dzian

I personally would just like to see unlocks carried over to other characters on that account..

---

Well, you can already kind of doing that by buying the story skipping potion. That's why "cross character unlocking" will def never happen, because yeah, money.

Having multiple characters in WoW has kept me busy (mostly willingly) through the years, but this game just isn't really meant for that. If I need a change, I buy a fantasia. Or switch jobs for a little while. The thought of having to grind the MSQ on another character is just...no. God no.

I'm probably in the minority, but I'll NEVER create an alt.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sandpark

Account wide mounts

---

already ingame. CE mounts and Legacy Chocobo

Quote:

---

Account wide Mounts available at level 1 on different characters

---

you will still need a license from your GC.

Yeah, many minions/mounts are account-wide like anytime you use a CE code, or some mogstation purchases that go over a certain cash amount like the Moogle. Achievement mounts rightfully need to be unlocked again.

I still say the biggest benefit of an alt is being able to be in the world/data center of people you want to play with without uprooting everything. Some more friends on Primal or Aether? Just make another, level in your spare time. Get a jump potion if you wish.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Croweyes

Whats even the point of making the game "alt-friendly" when one character can be every class and crafter.

---

I don't do this myself but I do know many people who have more than one character on the same server that they play so they can bypass the tomestone limit. While we can play every job..only one job can really be upgraded fully because of weekly caps and lockouts, at a time anyway. If I wanted to do BIS SMN and BRD in the same amount of time, it would be impossible.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Iromi

I don't do this myself but I do know many people who have more than one character on the same server that they play so they can bypass the tomestone limit. While we can play every job..only one job can really be upgraded fully because of weekly caps and lockouts, at a time anyway. If I wanted to do BIS SMN and BRD in the same amount of time, it would be impossible.

---

Is only usefull if you also do Savage raid with all the alts.

I don't care for alt-characters personally.. Because XIV is more a story about your character progressing and going on various adventures / learning new skills etc.. That and the character switching system to play other classes is a rather archaic thing in an MMO.


Regarding alt-jobs however.. This is more of a content issue.
The current system blockades players from progressing their characters too quickly because they can't release content quick enough to keep players busy.
However currently we only have enough time to gear 1 or 2 jobs, maybe 3 at a push (due to hard lockouts/tomestone caps). So generally speaking we will have a max of a few jobs we can cap out before the next content patch - and the rest of our jobs are stuck in the highest crafted gear because of the physical blockade..

The solution is to add some kind of grindy content that is not locked behind a weekly cap that allows us to progress other alt jobs when we have finished capping tomes/raid lockout.
In my opinion, base tome gear should only be 5 ilvls behind raid gear. (eg. i335). Upgrading it would put it equal (as per-normal).
24-man raid gear should be the same ilvl as base tome gear as per normal (eg. i335).
There should be some form of open world / farmable content that allows you to grind for i330 gear without a lockout during the raid patch.
Keep crafted gear sitting where it's at now because max melding it still pushes the iLvl up quite significantly...

Wow! So many responses to this thread! And all bring up interesting points. In the end, though, my original post and desire for this game to be some version of "alt(job) friendly" is in fact due to raiding, and it seems I'm not alone. It's really sad for me to have spent so much time getting to max level on one job, and so much time getting that job geared enough to be viable in progression raiding, to lose opportunities because that class is already over represented in groups, or other raid composition considerations. (It's also hard to find a nice static just as it is!)

And if you don't know much about progression raiding, I'll tell you. In order to be able to participate to the highest extent, it's often asked of you (and in some cases demanded) to bring multiple classes to the table, for various reasons. In FFXIV, I'm trying to do that, but it's going to be a while due to lockouts and caps until I can. But I still have to pay my subscription in the meantime.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Altena

The solution is to add some kind of grindy content that is not locked behind a weekly cap that allows us to progress other alt jobs when we have finished capping tomes/raid lockout.

---

This is where I feel a modified version of WoW's Mythic+ could have value. They could even take Light farming and spread it out further to avoid the spam-fests that became A1S and Ravana. Some alternative for secondary jobs and gear progression in general would be a welcomed addition, regardless. I want more reasons to do content than farm for mounts and cap tomes-- the latter I mostly do through Savage anyway.

I can't think of any reason to have an actual alt other than crafting specializations.
I have 7 alts but that's more cause i enjoy replaying the MSQ and leveling process - this wont apply to the majority of the player base

The only alt-friendly thing that I really miss is the ability to send stuff to our alts. Would be nice to be able to craft some nice gear for my alts and help them along in the quest.

I have 3 active alts in FFXIV, where in WoW I had around 14/15. I'd like the game to be more alt-friendly because I'd much rather continue playing FFXIV than switch to another game when I get bored with my main. I make them for fun, to redo the MSQ and also because I find levelling everything on one character too hard because of limits on armoury and inventory space.

What I'd like to see:
-Sharing houses with alts enabled - This wont solve the housing shortage but it will help to ease demand.
-Being able to mail your alts

It would also be nice if some achievements, titles and mounts were made account wide (not rep or job-specific mounts) but that's a minor issue compared to the 2 above.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Solarra

I have 3 active alts in FFXIV, where in WoW I had around 14/15. I'd like the game to be more alt-friendly because I'd much rather continue playing FFXIV than switch to another game when I get bored with my main. I make them for fun, to redo the MSQ and also because I find levelling everything on one character too hard because of limits on armoury and inventory space.

What I'd like to see:
-Sharing houses with alts enabled - This wont solve the housing shortage but it will help to ease demand.
-Being able to mail your alts

It would also be nice if some achievements, titles and mounts were made account wide (not rep or job-specific mounts) but that's a minor issue compared to the 2 above.

---

Pretty sure the mail alt thing is to counter RMT. I'd love for it though.

Like I mentioned the easiest way to get around the mail issue is just get FC chest drawer rights to move items between toons.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SokiYagami

As for housing, there's much higher demand than supply, why buy another house (and keep another player or entire fc a chance to get one)

---

Because you can when no one cared at the time...

Two Final Fantasy XIV Players Buy Dozens Of Homes, Spark Debate Over Housing Shortage

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Felis

Is only usefull if you also do Savage raid with all the alts.

---

Who cares if it is "useful"? It is what people want to do to have fun! It is what they enjoy doing! And isn't fun and enjoyment what gaming is all about?