Please make the new level cap 99 instead of 100

I know we always get 10 levels. But I'm pleading to make it 99 instead in homage to all the other FF games with a cap of 99.

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Originally Posted by Velaethia

I know we always get 10 levels. But I'm pleading to make it 99 instead in homage to all the other FF games with a cap of 99.

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And what after Dawntrail? I rather have SE stay consistent with it.

Also how you think that goes for the established gear progression? Also the levels would have to scale differently in power gain cause one less level.

Rather have them focus on actual meaningful content for the next expansion than throwing away dev time for a random homage.

I appreciate the reference to past Final Fantasy games, but I kind of have to agree with what Ranaku is saying here. Not only would they have to squish the content into fewer levels, but presumably they'd have to stretch it an extra level for the next expansion -- or else cap us at 109, which feels weird.

It might even get some people doomsaying that we'll never level up again after Dawntrail, or that it's the end of the line for FFXIV or something.

Maybe we can think of it as a reference to FFVIII, where the level cap was actually 100!

I have a feeling they will keep level cap at 100 for the rest of the games life and find alternative progression/leveling in future expansions. They could do job points/master levels like ff11 or some prestige type thing.

I'd rather have this game be its own thing instead of stifled by having to be like every other franchise title.

Out of curiosity, in the other FF games was 99 the max level because the game ended at that point (or at least was going into the final battle), or was there more content added that didn't contribute to character growth?

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Originally Posted by Velaethia

I know we always get 10 levels. But I'm pleading to make it 99 instead in homage to all the other FF games with a cap of 99.

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This is incorrect, not all FF games end at 99. Now it’s like 120 or something like that sometimes.

I think they would have mentioned it if 100 was going to be the final level cap, but so far this tells me they are just going to add 10 levels on top every expansion, add/remove job actions and call it a day.
So I was hoping they would set the cap at 99 as a way of saying that this will be the final level cap. You can still add/remove skills in future expansions.

They should really stop the level-creep and add more meaningful horizontal progression to the game because it has quite literally zero. I can't imagine unironically trying to level a job from 1 to 100 manually without losing my mind in the process.

But to me it's looking like every future expansion will be as formulaic as the last.

Yeeah they might not raise cap above lvl 100 for 8.0 - but if thats the way it'll go it's prob only going to be announced closer to 8.0 and not in any of the next fan fests

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Originally Posted by Elena_Farron

I think they would have mentioned it if 100 was going to be the final level cap, but so far this tells me they are just going to add 10 levels on top every expansion, add/remove job actions and call it a day.
So I was hoping they would set the cap at 99 as a way of saying that this will be the final level cap. You can still add/remove skills in future expansions.

They should really stop the level-creep and add more meaningful horizontal progression to the game because it has quite literally zero. I can't imagine unironically trying to level a job from 1 to 100 manually without losing my mind in the process.

But to me it's looking like every future expansion will be as formulaic as the last.

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Yoship already mentioned stopping at 100 and already thinking of alternate progression in future expansions after dawntrail in a interview last year.

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Originally Posted by Elena_Farron

They should really stop the level-creep and add more meaningful horizontal progression to the game because it has quite literally zero. I can't imagine unironically trying to level a job from 1 to 100 manually without losing my mind in the process.

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Other games did this and it actually became a massive barrier to entry. Stuff like ability points in EQ or the 37,000 systems in WoW or equipment and CP in BDO and so on. Levels are clean, minimal barriers to entry, the more complexity in your power systems the harder it is to balance and the more confusing and opaque it is to new players. It SOUNDS like a great idea to older players but experience has shown the reverse.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

I'd rather have this game be its own thing instead of stifled by having to be like every other franchise title.

Out of curiosity, in the other FF games was 99 the max level because the game ended at that point (or at least was going into the final battle), or was there more content added that didn't contribute to character growth?

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In ff11 level cap was 99 but they eventually added job points and once you hit job master at 2100 you can unlock master levels as further progression systems.

Final Fantasy XVI also has a cap of 100.

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Originally Posted by Ranaku;631009would 8

And what after Dawntrail? I rather have SE stay consistent with it.

Also, how do you think that goes for the established gear progression? Also the levels would have to scale differently in power gain cause one less level.

Rather have them focus on actual meaningful content for the next expansion than throwing away dev time for a random homage.

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I hope they go with advanced classes after dawntrail, too many classes just leads to further and further homogenisation to justify the existence of the new two. I hope we go back to needing to unlock white mage + paladin to unlock a new class for example and cut down the number of available classes for higher end content.

https://www.gamesradar.com/final-fan...xt-is-unclear/

Level 99 would have been a cool detail but I'm guessing whoever handles the math would have a stroke trying to balance around 9 levels instead of 10.

level/skill/number bloat is a big problem with long-living MMOs so I'm curious how exactly they're going to "fix" it. My guess would be something similar to Eureka/Bozja

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Originally Posted by Ranaku

And what after Dawntrail? I rather have SE stay consistent with it.

Also how you think that goes for the established gear progression? Also the levels would have to scale differently in power gain cause one less level.

Rather have them focus on actual meaningful content for the next expansion than throwing away dev time for a random homage.

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Show me that mythical meaningful content. The one level has nothing to do with it. Content in XIV has like no longevity regardless.

Literally who cares.

As others have said, there is precedent.
and tbh, if what others believe becomes fully concrete with other advanced leveling in the future.
Then you can consider the 10th level of the expansion as breaking beyond 99, and 99 your true cap. or whatever 9th level it is.

But regardless of all that, you will have people that simply prefer or love flat founded numbers.(Regardless of obsessions, impulses, or anything else)

it's honestly a minor thing to worry about, but references would be nice.
[if it was a mmo I'd run, I'd toy with people with starting them at level '"0"', and when they finally level up.., it turns into (0).1 -since having only ten levels is small for a new one, but it would give a lot of space to work with when working a fresh game, and then stick to either 10<or 10.0> for expacs]

but that's just a untested and random idea.

the reason I even wrote that, is to point out that leveling or progression has to have a purpose. <while likely they'd have to have thought way far ahead if they wanted to do the 99, or like I said, 99 is true cap(and 100 is your breakthrough level)> but it's been clear for awhile now that 10 for each expac has been so stable for them to not steer away from it. though well see what comes after or even during Dawntrail.

[I get the want for symbolism, but sometimes not all the neat things can fit in. and then if people keep pushing, you'll just ask for a deluge of reasonable responses against it. Hopefully logical ones.]

As someone who likes nice, round numbers, no thank you.

FFXV originally had a cap of 99 but this was raised to 120

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

I'd rather have this game be its own thing instead of stifled by having to be like every other franchise title.

Out of curiosity, in the other FF games was 99 the max level because the game ended at that point (or at least was going into the final battle), or was there more content added that didn't contribute to character growth?

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"Ended"? You were usually around Level 50-75 in the old FFs when you fought the final story boss. Leveling to 99 was just an extra.


They might reset the levels with 8.0, you know, like WoW did

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Originally Posted by Ranaku

And what after Dawntrail? I rather have SE stay consistent with it.

Also how you think that goes for the established gear progression? Also the levels would have to scale differently in power gain cause one less level.

Rather have them focus on actual meaningful content for the next expansion than throwing away dev time for a random homage.

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Personally I don't want to see the levels go beyond 100. Make the cap 99, and then future expansions just have some alternative progression similar to like FFXI merit/mastery system or something because we all know a level squish would be really difficult given this games MSQ requirements and seeing something like level 150 would be absolutely obnoxious. I was super happy when WoW squished the cap back to 60.

I too would like the cap to stay at 99 or 100 for every expansion going forward. They're already having a hard time trying to fill in the spaces between levels (which is especially bad for jobs like SMN, or the healers) whilst trying to stay under a limit of too many buttons. We can see this with how many useless fluff traits the game has like Melee Mastery or Maim and Mend that are there only to fill in the gap between levels and nothing else. Increasing the level cap even further is only going to make this problem worse.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

I'd rather have this game be its own thing instead of stifled by having to be like every other franchise title.

Out of curiosity, in the other FF games was 99 the max level because the game ended at that point (or at least was going into the final battle), or was there more content added that didn't contribute to character growth?

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The original Final Fantasy had a level cap of 50, but usually you ended the game between level 28~35 depending on how lost you go/how much you ran from battles etc.

The second Final Fantasy did not have levels, but attributes capped at 99, though due to how multipliers were multiples of 4, increasing a stat to 99 didn't yield any benefit versus having it at 96.

Final Fantasy III was the first game in the series to have a level cap of 99, and due to its sheer length, you were likely to be over level 50 by the end. And needed to be to withstand the damage of the bosses.

Final Fantasy IV had a level cap of 99, but you'd be mid 50s by the end of the game, and more than strong enough to beat it. Also, levels after 70 could cause negative growth for all party members except Cecil based on RNG.

Final Fantasy V had a level cap of 99 but also ability ranks for every job. Ability points were actually far more powerful than raw levels, but raw levels exist to help out the weaker jobs.

Final Fantasy VI had a level cap of 99, another far away goal that serves no purpose in merely completing the game.

Final Fantasy VII had a level cap of 99, same deal as 6, but you might want it to take on Ruby/Emerald weapons.

Final Fantasy VIII had a level cap of 100, but it also had enemies that scaled with your exp level, and so leveling up was actually a disadvantage for the player. Especially compared to making use of the Draw and Junction system.

Final Fantasy IX had a level of 99, but again, you'd finish the game without it rather easily, and could beat its super boss without it, too.

Final Fantasy X had a level cap of 99

Final Fantasy XI had a level cap of 99 once it reached Seekers of Adoulin, but added in item level gear that actually adjusts your level to be higher when you wear it, capping at level 119 (this is not like XIV's item level ). It also introduced Master Levels, basically another 51 levels that more or less cause your physical level to be i119 without gear, though you still wear i119 gear for insane stat boosts.

Final Fantasy XII also has a cap of 99.

Final Fantasy XIII had weird story gate level caps. Not sure what it let you cap at by the end. XIII-2 had a cap of 99 though.

FFXIV's initial cap was 50 (yay FF1 reference). 99 would not be unwelcome

FFXV's cap is 120, but I think it was originally 99. I think they raised the cap due to having those DLC stories and people having to wait for them or something? It's weird.

FFXVI's cap is 50 on playthrough 1, 100 on NG+. You hit these through playing the game organically if you do the sidequests. No grinding is required, as far as I know, and it more or less helps little in fighting things as player input is far more important since it's an action RPG.

So more or less, outside of the MMOs, level caps were just things you could aspire to do to pat yourself on the back/have an achievement. They usually cap it at 99 but not always. Nothing as ridiculous as level 812 in Dark Souls though. Or max overall level in Runescape.

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Originally Posted by Nebelheim

I have a feeling they will keep level cap at 100 for the rest of the games life and find alternative progression/leveling in future expansions. They could do job points/master levels like ff11 or some prestige type thing.

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11 level was capped because of technical. Now they have gear level that lets you get past what should be 100.

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Originally Posted by Moonlite

11 level was capped because of technical. Now they have gear level that lets you get past what should be 100.

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Yeah i know that ilvl gear being job mastered and the new master levels essentially is like the equivalent of being level 150 roughly. but since its confirmed that level 100 is going to be the cap and there thinking of adding alternate progression they could add systems similar to 11.

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Originally Posted by Vyrerus

Final Fantasy X had a level cap of 99

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For sphere levels... this hardly matters

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Originally Posted by Vyrerus

Final Fantasy XIII had weird story gate level caps. Not sure what it let you cap at by the end.

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Also hardly matters. The roles have 5 levels but that is only accounted for for their passive effect if i recall correctly. The parts of the skill tree are locked by story progression.

That's why strategies for FFX and FFXIII usually say how high certain stats should be

I would rather have 99 be the max as a homage to the most of the FF games.


As for what comes after 7.x... There is always the option of going back to ARR and doing a little bit of trimming on the levels, ARR does not really need 50 levels anymore.

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Originally Posted by Ranaku

And what after Dawntrail? I rather have SE stay consistent with it.

Also how you think that goes for the established gear progression? Also the levels would have to scale differently in power gain cause one less level.

Rather have them focus on actual meaningful content for the next expansion than throwing away dev time for a random homage.

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FF11 stopped at 99 with iLvl and job point progression for endgame. I don’t think we will see that here but offering an example.

Sooner or later we will likely see a level squish like WoW did.

I personally have no issues with going to 100 or above, it is just an arbitrary number representing power after all.

As for using different ways to increase power, this is essentially just levelling with a new skin, all so that the level number stays at 99/100. Seems silly to make a new system just for that.

well in this game 99 is not the cap.

The older FF games used to count 0 as level 1... hence why you got it those ways.... so caps would not be like 10.000 damage but 9.999 damage etc.

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Originally Posted by Elena_Farron

They should really stop the level-creep and add more meaningful horizontal progression to the game because it has quite literally zero. I can't imagine unironically trying to level a job from 1 to 100 manually without losing my mind in the process.

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There's no horizontal progression because the vertical progression would render it worthless once the power level was increased.

And the process of levelling 1 to 100 is going to be no different to the current process of 1 to 90, which players work on daily without suffering mass mental distress.

If anything, what they need to do is shorten the early half of the process by boosting the armoury bonus EXP for secondary jobs at lower levels – say, raise it from a 100% boost to 200% below level 50 or even 60 – so people spend less time at low levels dragging everyone down into low-level dungeons because it's all they have access to.

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Originally Posted by Nebelheim

I have a feeling they will keep level cap at 100 for the rest of the games life and find alternative progression/leveling in future expansions. They could do job points/master levels like ff11 or some prestige type thing.

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Not so sure.

I mean something like that could go against the devs entire ethos of accessibility and easy to catch up.

The exact reason they've refused to go horizontal ever since arr and the exact reason everything in thebgame is disposable trash. catching up on levels is easy. But how would you play catch up on mastery or some such.

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Originally Posted by Dzian

Not so sure.

I mean something like that could go against the devs entire ethos of accessibility and easy to catch up.

The exact reason they've refused to go horizontal ever since arr and the exact reason everything in thebgame is disposable trash. catching up on levels is easy. But how would you play catch up on mastery or some such.

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I don't know what they could do for alternate progression if level doesn't go past 100. Yoship could change his mind and we could end up going to level 110 and 120 or even higher and get a level squish. I think whether they continue going up 10 levels per expansion or come up with an alternate progression either way new players will feel overwhelmed regardless.

whatever the case, we know for Dawntrail that it should go to 100, from what they've announced.
Unless the unnamed efforts into Battle Content they alluded to was also including testing for future horizontal and/or +/- Good ol Vertical Progression.
we will not know until almost two years after Dawntrail Launch.

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Originally Posted by Nebelheim

I have a feeling they will keep level cap at 100 for the rest of the games life and find alternative progression/leveling in future expansions. They could do job points/master levels like ff11 or some prestige type thing.

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Considering how alergic this game is to any sort of horizontal progession or player customization, I definately think we're heading to a lv 110 come 8.0

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Originally Posted by Oizen

Considering how alergic this game is to any sort of horizontal progession or player customization, I definately think we're heading to a lv 110 come 8.0

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I think they probably wouldn't come up with any good alternate progression systems even if they took ideas from there previous mmo considering with eureka they took the worst aspects of ff11 that people didn't like and tried putting it in ff14.

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Originally Posted by Velaethia

I know we always get 10 levels. But I'm pleading to make it 99 instead in homage to all the other FF games with a cap of 99.

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FF1 was originally a max of 50. Only the PS1 re-release added 99. Obviously it has been somewhat of a staple since then but does a number really change anything for your enjoyment? I doubt it.

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Originally Posted by Velaethia

Please make the new level cap 99 instead of 100

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Why would the devs bother to change the leveling system and scaling of gear stats just for a reference so meaningless and stupid? Especially when there are other FF games that have the level cap at 100. The most that it would do is get a few people to say "oh that's neat" and then not care at all.

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Originally Posted by Nebelheim

I have a feeling they will keep level cap at 100 for the rest of the games life and find alternative progression/leveling in future expansions. They could do job points/master levels like ff11 or some prestige type thing.

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This won't happen because they need to cater to the most players possible, which is my very nice way of wording it but I hope you know what I mean.

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Originally Posted by Canadane

This won't happen because they need to cater to the most players possible, which is my very nice way of wording it but I hope you know what I mean.

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Haha, they literally removed systems that allowed side progression from 2.0. SE doesn't want choice, we are on their train.

It will be 100, then 110, then 120, then 130, then 140. Might as well get comfortable with it now.