For 7.0 and future expansions. Keep raising level cap or finish it at 99?

Keep raising level cap with each xpac? Or finish it at 99 like FFXI and just add new systems to keep growing besides the ilvl of gear?

as long as whatever they do release is still fun, does it matter?

you re going to have people people says "its traditional", that adding more levels is what gets people excited etc. same thing as adding new jobs. personally, as long as I am enjoying what they release, I dont need more levels or more jobs, but I imagine time will tell.

I do not see them switching to the FFXI system as they are more or less using the WoW model of progression for FFXIV since ARR.

FFXI is one of the few mmos that did the Stop at 75 for most its life then go to 99 later in its life (which going past 75 in my opinion was a huge mistake to start with, broke most the game more or less).

The core design philosophies of the 2 games are so polar opposite would be like mixing water and oil. FFXIV is honestly a WoW style game, FFXI was about as far away from a WoW style mmo as you could possibly get. I do not see how it could possibly work in FFXIV with the limit gear system they have where it is as complex as dragging numbers on an excel spread sheet, the economy is vanity only, and ease of access is paramount. I could see would be more Eureka style alternative thing added, but those would just be side things.

This question was asked by alot of people back in the ARR era from old FFXI veterans who made the switch to 1.0 and stayed until ARR/HW. Yoshida actually chimmed in that he hears the players but he has to stick with his vision more or less. Which paid off big in terms of subs at least for ffxiv. Since more people like WoW style mmos that done well and the game is so old at this point and has an established fan base. Why Risk nuking it at this point with a complete shift in design.

I don't think it matters to be honest. Even if we go by traditions, FFVIII capped at 100 and FFXV went up to 120 after a patch.

Leveling keeps me pretty busy dunno what they would replace it with. Then I think people will just complain they don't have enough to do. Expansions are every 2 years going to be hard to fill that with just new content.

if we dont level traditionally we would need some other thing to grind when the expac drops, besides that it wouldnt be that different

I like multiples of ten so keep raising them by 10 levels per expansion.


Level 99 was a mistake that should have been 100.

They probably will level crunch before going beyond a certain point. It just gets to the point where people level so fast to keep the curve the same that you actually skip levels during the process, which is why WoW did the crunch.

No squish before level 100, please! Do as you want after.

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Originally Posted by Erinellza

Why 99? Why not 100? 99 would annoy me, tbh. :')

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TBF; 99 is a pretty "common" end level, its the highest 2 digit number, so it "saves" some space and you dont have to make sure everything works with 3 digits without breaking.
same reasson why another common max for other things is 999 in games in general, highest 3 digit number

99 made sense in old games for old systems like Super Nintendo but modern games don't need to limit their numbers.


Multiples of ten are more aesthetically pleasing anyway, 99 does annoy me.

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Originally Posted by SigmaOZ

99 made sense in old games for old systems like Super Nintendo but modern games don't need to limit their numbers.


Multiples of ten are more aesthetically pleasing anyway, 99 does annoy me.

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thats subjectivel, i find 99(or well 999) better, repeating the biggest single digit feels to me more like "the maximum" of something then a clean 100 or 1000


also, we already have 99 stacks and 999 stacks ingame


also once agian, there are still reassons why today you would want to not go into tripple or quadruple digits in modern games

99 and then just keep increasing item level on gear. Introduce other aspects to level, like using merit points to increase the level of key job skills. Then, 2 expansions later introduce a new level cap of 200.

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Originally Posted by Ritsuka-55

Keep raising level cap with each xpac? Or finish it at 99 like FFXI and just add new systems to keep growing besides the ilvl of gear?

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After hitting lv99 you'll be introduced to....

Aetherial levels! Brand new end-game leveling system. Its point? Ehhh..... Please look forward to it!
What? You don't like it? Mhm.... Introducing....
Dynamis levels! Still don't like it? How about light levels? WoL level of level? Limit break level? Lv 99+X? Friendship level? Trust level? Come on!


In all seriousness, new leveling system would not be that different unless they provide perks. Which is something I doubt YoshiP would provide.

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Originally Posted by Erinellza

Why 99? Why not 100? 99 would annoy me, tbh. :')

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Basically because most FF games the level capped at 99 so it would be with tradition.

I would say cap it at 99 then do something like FFXI Merits to keep progressing your character.

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Originally Posted by Ritsuka-55

Keep raising level cap with each xpac? Or finish it at 99 like FFXI and just add new systems to keep growing besides the ilvl of gear?

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I would like some kind of ending of the level cap. EverQuest has a level cap of 110 or 120 right now. It doesn’t change much in gameplay really. Just more grinding.

Stop it at 99 or 100, the leveling is egregious enough as it is we really don't need to push past 100 to make it even more brain-melting

remove the level cap and sideline all content in the game as same level for all and make it skill based content, which means you wont stand a chance if have not learned and acquired enough skills in this or that direction.

For a long time I was on the side of "cap it at 99" but now I'm not so sure any more.

The formula they have now is pretty much in the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mode as far as I can tell. Letting it go to 100 for 7.0 and then 110 for 8.0, 120 for 9.0 etc, would be the simplest model to follow.

Capping it at 99 and then switching to a merit / stat increase system or gear increase system doesn't satisfy the "make number go up" itch in quite the same way. New abilities will still be gate kept behind a stat increase system, so there's no benefit. You're still gonna be grinding, except now it will be some specific content, instead of whatever content you feel like grinding.

A level squish system would be even worse. It was bad enough that they had to do the stat squish, and then add stuff like super echo in unsynced content to compensate for it. I just can't imagine doing all of Heavensward while being stuck at, say, level 35 the whole time because they rebalanced the max level cap to 60.

At this point I don't see them ever doing like they did back with FFXI where they released expansions and content updates repeatedly over years without actually raising the lvl cap due to simply providing horizontal progression options for the new content. They've pretty much pigeonholed into powercreep at this point having expansions raise lvl cap then proceed to creep further with ilvl after that.

Level cap and just have quest-locked skill upgrades. Still encourage grinding through other, non-job rewards.

Max at level 100, add a new leveling system of some kind so you don't have number issues. Such as if we go to Meracydia for 7.0 and then New World for 8.0, have it so the New World "resets" your leveling to the new leveling type.

Nah lets go for broke and go the Disgaea route and have a max lvl of like 99999999...

One avenue would be to do what ArenaNet did with the Guildwars franchise. There are plenty of ways to create content without going deep into playing the numbers game and raising levels; it's just harder and requires more of a creative process.

I feel like with this game in particular, they should do what they already do well and lean more heavily into narrative-based systems, and allow the story writing to build new content instead of numbers or a carrot.

But the reality is that Yoshida's creative philosophy may be too tied down to the bed he's created, so we'll probably just keep getting new levels, as well as new problems they have to waste time solving due to sticking with tradition.

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Originally Posted by Neoyoshi

One avenue would be to do what ArenaNet did with the Guildwars franchise. There are plenty of ways to create content without going deep into playing the numbers game and raising levels; it's just harder and requires more of a creative process.

I feel like with this game in particular, they should do what they already do well and lean more heavily into narrative-based systems, and allow the story writing to build new content instead of numbers or a carrot.

But the reality is that Yoshida's creative philosophy may be too tied down to the bed he's created, so we'll probably just keep getting new levels, as well as new problems they have to waste time solving due to sticking with tradition.

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GW2 sort of has leveling tho with the Specializations.

But yeah I'd like to see some more innovation with this.
Do something different than just 10 more levels, same with WoW really.

Level is just a number. Keep doing what they are doing. Worst case scenario... buy some time. Make level 100 into level 95. Double the exp needed for each level from 90-95. Make the crafted gear 91, 92, 93, 94, 95 instead of every other level like it is now. Then do the same for 8.0 to bring the level to 100. That buys them 4 years before they have to worry about it.

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Originally Posted by Colt47

They probably will level crunch before going beyond a certain point. It just gets to the point where people level so fast to keep the curve the same that you actually skip levels during the process, which is why WoW did the crunch.

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I agree 100%, we are going to need a level squish soon, if nothing else to shift levels for all the skills in the game because with everything getting back loaded it leaves level 1-50 pretty bare with skills while plush with required MSQ to do.

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Originally Posted by Erinellza

Why 99? Why not 100? 99 would annoy me, tbh. :')

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Well, while not all the FF games capped at 99, a lot of them did. FFXIV tends to throwback to the classic FF's quite frequently so it wouldn't be unusual for them to pay homage in that way and cap out at 99. I get the feeling we'll be getting a level squish eventually though. So either 7.0 likely goes back to level 50, or we get a 99 or 100 cap in 7.0, but 8.0 would be almost guaranteed to have a level squish. I can't see them allowing what happened with WoW and level caps getting out of control at level 120. Leveling for new players was a chore even at the sped up exp pace.

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Originally Posted by SigmaOZ

99 made sense in old games for old systems like Super Nintendo but modern games don't need to limit their numbers.


Multiples of ten are more aesthetically pleasing anyway, 99 does annoy me.

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Personally I'd find 100 to be annoying and 99 would be a neat homage to to older FF games.