In ARR I'd like a feature to help get people interested in redoing quests.

One of the biggest problems in MMOs today is that after a certain amount of time, the amount of new subscriptions falls off and the newer players have a hard time catching up to the older players. You see this all over the place in FFXI today and it's a real issue. One day we had to wait for a level 99 to take the boat from Selbina to Aht Urgan.
I hope that in ARR they have something in play to avoid this exact type of phenomena. They need to give people that have already finished content a reason to redo it. As a newer player to FFXIV I've noticed that if you want to get any type of "quest" or "mission" party together that isn't endgame, you're going to be shouting in Ul'dah for a very long time. Then you have to go through the "mini-quest" of assembling the party.
I've created this thread with the hope of brainstorming ideas of what might entice older players to help newer players. A few things come to mind:
Obviously, cold-hard gil is a choice.
Exp based on level.
Or maybe even a completely random materia based on the helper's level.

I'm sure you guys can come up with even more. ^^

As somebody who was stuck for far too long on The Chorus of Cataclysm (and many other quests) just because I couldn't find enough people to help I agree completely. I've been thinking myself of a few solutions, some will be more popular/practical than others -

1) Balance your content! Re: The Chorus of Cataclysm - it was impossible to solo, and a complete pushover with the recommended party. I didn't fail because I lacked skill, and I didn't succeed because I played better. By all means it should be easier or offer better rewards for a Full Party, but the ability to experience content should be determined by player/group skill, not just how many people they can find with an hour to spare.

2) Alternatively, offer some sort of grindable token/reward if you re-complete a quest you've already completed. Nothing of any direct importance, but perhaps something that can be exchanged for decorative items or other "fluff".

3) Make the recruit feature less specific. At the moment, as far as I can see, you can't just generally search for people looking for help you have to check each camp in each area.

Umm... that's it for now, but I really do think this needs looking at.

I like the token idea a lot.^^ As for the balancing, I think that has to be done very carefully, I think things should be challenging but they should never be a roadblock, like how you experienced with The Chorus of Cataclysm. On the other hand it can't be too easy or else you see what happened with Mini-Ifrit, it's too easy now because of how fast people level, I skipped half the cutscene to get in on the fight and the fight was still over before I started and I missed half the cutscene. ;_; Luckily, I can go back and watch them. ^^ It's good to know though that I'm not the only one that feels this way!

As long as the tokens don't lead to something like in WoW.

Perhaps a token that can be redeemed for a set amount of XP that you could use for another class that is the equivalent to a certain amount of quests that could be done in that time frame or something?

The token system could work if done properly. I like the idea of redeeming them for useful consumables such as XP scrolls, materia, catalysts, crystals/clusters, stacks of ammunition, etc. As long as they don't award so many that the market for them becomes worthless, it could work. I could see someone who spends a lot of time helping others rarely having to spend gil on arrows, but in general, I doubt many would ever do that much assisting others.

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Originally Posted by KoujiMoreno

As long as the tokens don't lead to something like in WoW.

Perhaps a token that can be redeemed for a set amount of XP that you could use for another class that is the equivalent to a certain amount of quests that could be done in that time frame or something?

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Can you elaborate on the WoW thing please? I've played WoW for all of a week. I honestly don't know what they lead to.

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Originally Posted by BlaiseLallaise

The token system could work if done properly. I like the idea of redeeming them for useful consumables such as XP scrolls, materia, catalysts, crystals/clusters, stacks of ammunition, etc. As long as they don't award so many that the market for them becomes worthless, it could work. I could see someone who spends a lot of time helping others rarely having to spend gil on arrows, but in general, I doubt many would ever do that much assisting others.

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I believe they're taking consumable ammunition out of ARR. I like the idea of the exp scrolls though or other R/Ex items maybe PvP related items or cosmetic items or maybe even furniture for the new housing system. Items that have no real impact content wise but are just nice to have and show off.

Hell, even an achievement catagory for "Charity" would motivate people.

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Originally Posted by Xerius

I believe they're taking consumable ammunition out of ARR. I like the idea of the exp scrolls though or other R/Ex items maybe PvP related items or cosmetic items or maybe even furniture for the new housing system. Items that have no real impact content wise but are just nice to have and show off.

Hell, even an achievement catagory for "Charity" would motivate people.

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You are correct. I happened to read that little ammunition tidbit after I made my previous comment.

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Originally Posted by BlaiseLallaise

You are correct. I happened to read that little ammunition tidbit after I made my previous comment.

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Could still work with thrown weapons though because those are going to remain consumable I believe. They need more variety of those anyway in my opinion.

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Originally Posted by Xerius

Could still work with thrown weapons though because those are going to remain consumable I believe. They need more variety of those anyway in my opinion.

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It would also be nice to see some viability in throwing weapons. Who uses them anyway?

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Originally Posted by Xerius

Can you elaborate on the WoW thing please? I've played WoW for all of a week. I honestly don't know what they lead to.

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In WoW, at higher levels, people would run dungeons for tokens (or badges in WoW's case). They would drop from bosses that would people would take to an NPC to receive gear. (Like 50 badges would get you a head piece or a chest piece for example).

So you're saying you don't want the game to have a progression based loot system where clearing a dungeon a certain number of times would eventually lead to you getting an item you want, thus eliminating a portion of the RNG's cruelty.

Makes sense.

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Originally Posted by Churchill

So you're saying you don't want the game to have a progression based loot system where clearing a dungeon a certain number of times would eventually lead to you getting an item you want, thus eliminating a portion of the RNG's cruelty.

Makes sense.

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I think that a lot of the items that would come from this should be more cosmetic based I don't think that the best gear in the game should be handed over. Although, I don't think that RNG are the way to go for that content either.

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Originally Posted by Xerius

I think that a lot of the items that would come from this should be more cosmetic based I don't think that the best gear in the game should be handed over. Although, I don't think that RNG are the way to go for that content either.

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Cosmetic rewards won't be enough incentive to achieve what you originally suggested. There has to be something useful and desirable. It doesn't have to be the best stuff. Nobody's suggesting they allow you to save up tokens for, say, a Garuda weapon, but it does have to be useful in order to provide that incentive.

There should definitely be an achievement for helping others and I like the idea of getting tokens that could be exchanged for things like materia or even unique useful items that can only be obtained through these tokens. There could be one or several complete, and useful, gear set to collect this way. Perhaps one each for DoW/DoM/DoH/DoL.

There was a mention of having some benefit to Free Companies fror helping lower level players which might help as well.

EDIT: For me, the level cap and level sync will make me a lot less inclined to help. I often help out on things like baby Ifrit and Toto-rak since at L50 I know it will be quick and painless. If the content would be hard to complete and require several runs to get the team to work together I would be much ledss inclined to spend the time unless the reward was on-par with helping out on something like AV/CC/DH which might take about the same amount of time.

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Originally Posted by BlaiseLallaise

Cosmetic rewards won't be enough incentive to achieve what you originally suggested. There has to be something useful and desirable. It doesn't have to be the best stuff. Nobody's suggesting they allow you to save up tokens for, say, a Garuda weapon, but it does have to be useful in order to provide that incentive.

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Maybe not cosmetics, that was just an example but if they don't give out the best weapons or armor no one would help anyway. That's why I think it needs to be a secondary system built for this. Maybe incorporate it into free companies or the housing system. Just brainstorming here. :)

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Originally Posted by Xerius

Maybe not cosmetics, that was just an example but if they don't give out the best weapons or armor no one would help anyway. That's why I think it needs to be a secondary system built for this. Maybe incorporate it into free companies or the housing system. Just brainstorming here. :)

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I know the population hasn't been known for going out of the way to help a stranger, but a few actually do. With an appropriate reward balance, not the best stuff obviously, you might have a good chance to sway others into helping out when a shout comes up.

I still like the idea of XP scrolls. Everyone loves XP. I'm also for the idea of gear sets for each discipline, something relative to GC gear. Cosmetic stuff would surely get someone's attention, so that in addition to useful stuff wouldn't be pointless.