Dear SE: I wish lvling wasn't so fast :(

[Jynx]

so wait..

if FFXI isnt like FFXI, how the F**K FFXIV could be like FFXI?

By going back to the design priniciples they had when XI was level capped at 75 for damn near 10 years.

Content didn't get outdated, gear wasn't always a linear path you almost always had something to strive for even at the endgame. XI wasn't perfect but it sure was great at making content last without becoming dull. But what do I know, I ENJOYED the "grind" the feeling of accomplishment I got when I hit my first 75, how I slowly unlocked more and more features as I leveled to 75 how I when I got my subjobs to 37, how my merit point allocation wasn't the same as everyone elses but it was still usefull in all situations, how I had options of what I wanted to do at endgame.

XI was a game full of something this game lacks, depth. XI was drowning in depth it was amazing few games have done it and I douby any will now especially.

----

To elaborate on how "XI isn't like XI" the game went more or less the same road that XIV has started to go down where level caps were broken content become outdated and useless, gear was handed out like candy for being able to breath, game being played with point systems rather than having a market with a semblance of stabillity. Hell I often wonder if people craft in XI anymore I haven't kept up to date with how crafters work in the uncapped expansions I imagine it's much like here where you do naught but make "Filler" gear before people brush it off as inferior to their rare/ex token gear.

[MStowastiqVahlshdeh]

Open world mobs have the lowest experience in the game as far as I know and if you grind exp on those you will take your time.

[Vaen]

Even if you only want to play PLD, OP, you should still level the classes that PLD can uses cross-class skills from, to make your PLD even better.

I see that you haven't leveled CNJ to 34 and MRD to 26 yet to unlock all their nice skills you can use as PLD.

And have you fully leveled your Chocobo companion yet? Playing with your Chocobo gives some of your exp to the chocobo, so you won't level as fast but the exp will still be going toward something useful.

So there you go. You still have plenty more leveling to do without making the game worse for all the players that want to level multiple classes to 50

[Saidosha]

XI wasn't perfect but it sure was great at making content last without becoming dull.

Venturing deeply into the realm of opinion here. Dynamis was dull, and back in the day, you'd have to do it for a year just to get one person a weapon who'd decide to quit the game or RMT their account off after. Events certainly didn't reward all jobs equally. Artificial time blocks also forcefully spread out the consumption of content. People didn't really do Kings because they loved them. They did them because they had no choice if they wanted their Ridill, Adaberk, Dalmatica, or whatever. Einherjar coming years later could barely be called a "free" king claim and even forced mule rotations to optimize Odin access every few weeks. Why did people Salvage dupe? Because Salvage drop rates were terrible. So let's kindly not assume everyone loved doing the same content for years, nevermind content people could screw you out of doing just because they wanted to do it, too. If I wanted PvP, I'd actually PvP. Like it or not, people actually quit for these reasons, from a rough million sale launch, to an alleged 500k steady for a few years (with little other competition on the market), to probably 200k pre-Abyssea, a bit higher during that because people could do things with friends on their own, then lower during the VW Era and now at its worst due to a mix of forced alliance content and games like XIV being more appealing.

[Sephirah]

Even if you only want to play PLD, OP, you should still level the classes that PLD can uses cross-class skills from, to make your PLD even better.

I see that you haven't leveled CNJ to 34 and MRD to 26 yet to unlock all their nice skills you can use as PLD.

And have you fully leveled your Chocobo companion yet? Playing with your Chocobo gives some of your exp to the chocobo, so you won't level as fast but the exp will still be going toward something useful.

So there you go. You still have plenty more leveling to do without making the game worse for all the players that want to level multiple classes to 50

Once again, I'm not complaining about a lack of content, I'm aware there are other classes to level. (even though there is only ONE other useful ability I can cross class, - stoneskin - and even that is not required to be a good pld, my whm casts it on me all the time, and not having it hasn't prevented me from progressing to Turn 4).

[Lisotte]

I think there just isn't a possible way for this game to both have you spend a decent amount of time leveling, AND make leveling multiple jobs a thing.

Let's compare things to oldschool FFXI. Back then you leveled ONE job that you leveled for a year or more. Got faster with level sinks and FoV books and all, but still took quite a bit of time. Now that job you leveled was YOUR JOB. Better hope you weren't "loldrg" or "lolpup" because that was the only job you played (except for leveling subjobs). After you spent ages getting your first job to 75, merited and such, you might go look at leveling another job on the side.

Fast forward years later, when first Abyssea, then GoV came out. Leveling suddenly took a couple days. Now everyone started leveling alt jobs, particularly since there was an emphasis on going out in small parties with your friends/LS members/shout group people and fighting something in aby. Suddenly everyone had to have a good variety of jobs to be useful for everything you wanted to do.

By this point, not only has leveling become trivial, but also the gear progression has changed from horizontal progression to a vertical gear treadmill at lvl 99. The old FFXI is no more, that game doesn't exist anymore.

XIV is more like this later period. While not everyone is going to play multiple jobs, a great many people do, and the game encourages this. Both with the cross-class skills, how easy it is to switch jobs, and how fast leveling goes.
If leveling took 6 months, people probably would stick to 1 job for a while. But it doesn't, and so after some point when you're bored on your pld you're probably going to try and level something else.g.

[Balbanes]

I wouldn't say I'm a casual player, but I'm certainly not hard-core. One of the things I loved about XI when it originally launched was how long it took to level. (SNIP)

I have to agree, leveling is too easy. I don't think we should go back to old school FFXI speed, but this is too fast. Problem is that you have all these characters that are from 1.0... so that creates an issue.

[Jynx]

Venturing deeply into the realm of opinion here.

To touch on the meat of your post it's exactly that, opinion. I found XI to be vastly entertaining, obviously not everyone did the game found a steady subscribe base that most MMO's these days would
kill for. 500k steady subs is nothing to sneeze at it has been quoted by Square Enix themselves to be the most profitable Final Fantasy game to date.

It's the same reason they are putting so much effort into making XIV work out, MMO's when they even pull in a mediocre subscriber base can be massive cash cows with the subscription base there just needs to be a certain "Critical mass" and they are set to go. I feel they over-reached with the audiences they are aiming everything is scattershot to try and appease everyone but not always hitting it's mark instead of focusing where they were good. WoW really seems to have bent alot of publishers into thinking any game can get those numbers it's a issue industry wide just not just for MMO's.

In the words of Andrew Carnegie: "The men who have suceeded, are men who have choosen one line and stuck to it."

I'm all for SE doing their own thing, or emulating WoW as much as they want but as long as I'm a paying subscriber I will continue to tell them how I feel the game should evolve to become a game I want to play.

On your point that "People quit for X reason"

Everyone quits for X reason, people quit FFXI because it was too grindy, people quit WoW because it wasn't grindy enough, people can and will quit XIV for multiple reasons, people are leaking from SWOTR like a sinking ship because Bioware couldn't deliver on their promised product, the same will happen with the next MMO. You can't please everyone Never going to happen, do what you think is best and stick to it. So just because you and some others didn't like how XI did things there are many people who did like me, I liked how they did things slower paced more focus on the leveling than the endgame for a long time I think it's how a great MMO community is allowed to flourish.

You (Guessing here) May want more rapid paced gameplay focusing on the endgame above all else, you may want items granted through said endgame content alone instead of from multiple sources. There is nothing wrong with that, we have our opinions and we are here to discuss them not to tell eachother how wrong we both are.

[Mushy]

You don't want to level anything else? Heck you don't even know what your favorite class is yet, and I BET it isn't the one you have leveled, because you have no idea. Mine changed, and heck it changes on my mood too. Leveling is not fast I just wish people did more dungeons(to lower DD wait times)

I hope they release more lower/mid level dungeons as well as a health of mid-end level ones in content patches. They are the best part of the game, and I cannot wait to have more


Also they are raising the level cap in the not too distant future, it could become a lot harder to get to the top for multiple jobs

[Andrien]

In old FFXI, I remember it can take plus/minus an hour to build a party, and depending on your job you may not even get a party. If you're lucky, you'll find an empty camp spot to xp on.. I can't believe I spent 8 years doing that. I'd do anything to get those 8 years back.

Hmm, I think that is what people remembers the most about FFXI. The mindless grind, and the camping. At least that is what I remember, and I absolutely don't want to go through that again.