F.A.T.E.: Free Advancement Through Easymode

[Kauld]

They could always "borrow" from rift and make hard mode level 50 versions of the lower level dungeons so the content created doesn't sit there unused.

[pandabearcat]

We're not connecting here. And I guess it speaks to the different POV.

*snip reasonable discussion because of the godawful post limit*

I -did- do every dungeon at least once or twice, shouldn't that be enough? Do you expect the average player to enjoy doing the same thing over and over? I think not. But grind is a given in mmos like you said, its just the shift to max level grind rather than leveling grind.

Grind is boring no matter in what form, and while its sort of true that "mmo's need grind", its more that "mmo's need a reason for you to keep playing, and artificial content lengthening is cheaper than actual content creation". You may be right that its not cost effective to churn out content at the rate in which we'd like to consume it.

Anyway we sort of ranted off topic, FATEs are easy, FATEs are quick, if they want people to do dungeons, dungeons need to not suck. More exp, more interesting mechanics, better loot.

[mooney6023]

*snip*

Anyway we sort of ranted off topic, FATEs are easy, FATEs are quick, if they want people to do dungeons, dungeons need to not suck. More exp, more interesting mechanics, better loot.

That is, in the end, probably the best possible solution for diffusing the FATE debate without hindering playstyle choices.

FATEs are currently abused, but I think as the population get's a class to level 50 and goes in different directions the participants of popular FATEs will drop and the difficulty/time sink vs reward ratio will be more reasonable. I strongly suspect that a significant portion of the population will not chain level every class in order to max out everything and thus after this initial rush FATEs will self regulate.

Dungeons are definitely lacking rewards. The first time I ran Daezemel's Darkhold (SP?) I received 25k exp total (mobs and all) and a shield for a clean run with no deaths. That same 30+ mins in FATEs or even crafting would have netted more income and experience. (though I guess the shield would sell for 15k+ if I was willing to part with it)

1/4 to 1/3 a level of XP for running an at-your-level dungeon and something valuable dropping off trash would be enough to stimulate dungeon grinding.

[Senchai]

I miss exp parties from FF11. Was hilarious fun. Even with all the funny encounters. At least you knew when you headed out that you will get whats called "Adventure" hehe.

Now this game would reward it even more but ppl dont do it since they have fates. On some days i go out with a friend and our 2 Chocobos and just grind exp/farm, you have no clue how much gil (from selling things on market) and exp you can get with this on the right mobs. Also Dungeons give a lot of exp too, not sure why ppl say they dont. Just yesterday i was in the Lv 43 Dungeon and one single mob granted me 1750 exp. In fact there are well known websites that suggest leveling trough dungeons, especially from ~42 to 45 or something.

There are other ways to level, but as long as fates are what they are, noone will go them.

[Sibarian_Aries]

.

The problem to this experience, as high as it is... Is the simple fact that alot of people have horrible wait times and not alot of time to play the game. Taking my own personal experiences and laying them out. Keep in mind that this example is WITH a tank in my party too, as I am dps. It took 67 minutes to get into a dungeon, and even without wipes it took about 35ish minutes. So rounding it to a nice and neat 100 minutes. 100 minutes to get not even half a level and not even a green on that run for my off-class that I was playing on. Lets turn this around and pick out any fates in Drybone, most of them give 4-5k each and on average they only take about 3-5 minutes to do. Even putting the worst of the variables up there, 5 minutes for 4k experience comes up to 80k experience minimal, this is not including the 12k that you could get from the end of the chain on High-bridge. At lower levels this is enough to level you up... twice i believe.