Where's the sense of adventure?

[Surian]

FFXIV's flaw in this, is that monsters arent particularly "hard" if you have to cut through a bunch of them, but the main problem is that they have insane HP pools. They dont hit hard, and they cant kill you, but some of them take ages to take down. It's just anoying.

Compared to FFXI, it's similar to encountering a level 50 monster on level 75, which has a HP pool that even Kirin would be jealous of.

[Moqi]

I like that I can go anywhere without too much trouble.

[Lufir]

Everything in this game is also reachable in less than 1 minute travel time on a mount because of the Aetherytes. Maybe in the future, I'd like to have a few difficult and scary areas that must be zoned into from Coerthas/Mor Dhona and have no Aetheryte telepoints.

[Deifact]

Hard stuff that gives no reward is just annoying roadblock. If u want the lvl 50 players (or lower level) to fight trash world mobs instead of running throguh, they need an incentive to do it. "Not dying" is not enough.

Not wanting to pick on you in particular... But this attitude is what is ruining the gaming industry especially MMORPG's. People don't have any kind of internal reward system (you know when you do something difficult and just completing it is reward enough, opposed to external rewards like money/cake/myth tomes) so now EVERYTHING has to give an explicit reward.

The reason people pine after the old fashioned mmorpg style is that just surviving was a challenge and getting around the world was challenging and rewarding when you either levelled up enough to not worry or sneak through a high level area successfully. It's called fun, playing a game for the intrinsic fun of the game, opposed to always chasing a reward.

[Theonekitten]

This kind of game is what happens when Yoshi P doesn't want people to be 'stressed'... as a result the zones are more like Candyland with a FF skin than an actual MMO. I was really hopeful when 1.x was ongoing because I thought Yoshi was going in the right direction and I was actually excited to see what was coming next. Now, I feel a big disappointment. I play MMOs for the adventure aspect in them, that's my main thing. In ARR there is no adventure. I don't want to queue up for every group battle I do, I want to be able to ride my chocobo with my friends and explore the world and find those rare monsters that are a challenge to take down. I also like the idea of adventuring requiring teamwork to get around easily, such as needing sneak or invis to get through certain areas. And before someone says it, I'm not saying ALL AREAS need to be like this, but there should have been some zones like this in place that would make those that like those challenges look forward to tackling them...

[Seif]

It's not only that all mobs are just facerollable (which btw made me actually read the skills only when I reached EX modes) .

Just bumping up strength wouldn't solve anything this game has NO AI on enemies whatsoever.
They all detect by a small line of sight cone and there are no other mechanics in play. Like at all.

I think the skillsmashing gameplay trivializes the story too. Like why are these people having such trouble with the empire while you can literally dance samba in their stronghold in your bikinis while your pet takes care of an entire swarm of over-sized yet weak enemies?

Even single player FFs had difficulty spikes to emphasize strong adversaries.
Despite all of the posing the last boss-rush of the game is hands down the easiest part of the entire game. Even Gaius is ridiculously easy making 1.0 nannygoats and XI mandagoras appear like Omega Weapons in comparison.

[Seif]

I gotta add that reading this thread is surprising how for once everyone seems to be at last on the same page about one thing. =D Go team!

[Sakasa]

Everything in this game is also reachable in less than 1 minute travel time on a mount because of the Aetherytes. Maybe in the future, I'd like to have a few difficult and scary areas that must be zoned into from Coerthas/Mor Dhona and have no Aetheryte telepoints.

I have rode most of the zones and they are all short the teleport takes time off in long distances but from quarry mill to tranquil the time isn't really noticeable unless you are racing for lets say an odin fate which at that point teleporting between the two would still have a time lapse that was to long to make it in time for gold alot of times.

[stupiddog]

The reason people pine after the old fashioned mmorpg style is that just surviving was a challenge and getting around the world was challenging and rewarding when you either levelled up enough to not worry or sneak through a high level area successfully. It's called fun, playing a game for the intrinsic fun of the game, opposed to always chasing a reward.

I appreciate your argument, but I think you are barking at the wrong tree here. The problem (as I understand it) is that no trash mobs (aka FATEs) in the main world are a match for, say, an iLvl90 DPS (cannot speak for tanks and healers since I have yet to level these roles). Even when I am the only person in a boss-style fate, my iLvl96 summoner cuts through all of them like butter.

As I understand it, one reason for the iLvl system is that players should feel the reward that their chars got stronger when they go through a "lower-50" dungeon like Pharaos after some time is passed. But, honestly, I find Dzemael (with level adjustment) harder (in a good way) to complete than Amdapor (HM), where there is no level adjustment. It should not be this way. There should be an iLvl adjustment, too. I would even go further and make the overworld FATEs harder for lvl50+ chars than for players who are actually in the intended level range for the reason that the former are (or should be) more experienced.

[Sakasa]

Valid points made here

One could say the same about AV because the dungeon is designed at a target that you can't beat with gear you have to follow the mechanics. If they made fates for i65+ they would be harder but at this point what point would there be, consider where we are right now the base world, aka three kingdoms of FFXI. There was no challenge there once you made cap if you fought things how they were designed (in a party) but with the introduction of areas that required people to complete certain things the could push the limit. COP originally was just like AV and Darkhold, and sea and sky were the challenge..the coil if you will.

But then Aht Urhgan hit and nothing in the area was a walk in the park (Which you have to wonder how did the normal people and children survive at all because going outside was paramount to insta death but i digress). So adjustments like enemies for the purpose of being strong would have to be either sweeping wide scale which would change how new players must traverse and the overall experience or expansions which it won't matter because to get here you must be this "tall". Mandatory prereqs will allow stupidly strong mobs with out endangering the ability of newer players to enjoy the original game which I find much more acceptable.