The fundamental problem with hunts

[RakaMaimhov]

I really liked your analogy to Black Friday, OP.

Sometimes when I see the "zerg rush" train of hunters flowing past, it is somewhat reminiscent of Black Friday stampedes.

I personally feel that nerfing the rewards given by individual hunt marks is NOT the solution we need. That won't change anything. People will still zerg and spam to death, and it will take even longer. Hunts were intended to be uncapped content and changing this would not only be against its original vision but it would be unfair to players who have yet to try hunts for themselves. Reducing (allied seals) rewards will only make things worse, as players will spend even more time on hunts to get what they want, eschewing other content since hunts are "easy". I actually do agree that the mythology and soldiery rewards could be reduced and nobody would cry over it. People are already having to "dump" myth far too much while on the hunt as it is.

The proper solution is to balance daily mark bills so that they are considerably more rewarding. That way players won't feel as though their only option for seals (myth, sold etc.) is to hunt all day, every day.

I also don't know what it is like on other servers, but on my server we have an open to the public teamspeak channel that players can join to get in on hunts. Nobody is excluded for any reason that I'm aware of (except maybe if you are a notorious troll who likes to face pull before the designated pull time you might be blackballed from the parties). I understand this does exclude some console players who lack a computer or phone which can run the TS app, but even they can usually get in a group if they ask politely (or shout in a zone when they see a rush). I have seen a good deal of teamwork on a more massive scale than I have EVER seen in a MMO, ever since the advent of the hunt system. That is something that should be praised, not cried about. Players have been very inventive and have shown an unprecedented ability to work together in very large numbers to the benefit of everyone who is participating.

While our server's solution is very helpful, it does highlight the fact that the hunts are definitely not working as they were originally envisioned, as the player community literally had to come up with a way to make it work for as many people as possible, without any aid from the game's developers.

Again, I will reiterate that I personally don't feel that nerfing (reducing) the rewards from felling hunt marks would be the most ideal fix to the problem at hand. I feel that increasing daily hunt rewards would be a better way to approach this problem, at least before any more drastic action is taken.

We must also take into consideration that within a month or three, all the current BiS gear will have been replaced anyway, and everyone will have moved onto the next treadmill.


Edit:

After further consideration, I feel that perhaps a good solution would be to CAP the books obtained through purchase with allied seals to 5 per week would be fair. This would be in balance with coil to some extent, while still leaving hunt content mostly uncapped. Without the ability to endlessly purchase books for sands/oils, players would not spend so much time doing only one thing, allowing room for other players to participate instead.

Leaving S ranks alone would still allow for the "chance" to obtain additional books through luck.

[Moqi]

I really liked your analogy to Black Friday, OP.

For real, yesterday I was minding my business in Northern T waiting for a FATE for a book. It popped, I follow the NPC like I'm supposed to when suddenly BAM! A horde of people appears from behind me, making my fate all laggy. I wondered how come there were so many people interested in my FATE (I never see more than 2-3 people camping book fates) when suddenly I see this Tam Tara HM enemy with a different name that I have never seen before... and yep it was a hunt. Right on top of my FATE mob. Fortunately I got gold anyway, but I was worried I wouldn't. Hitting my enemies had become impossible. As soon as they left, everything went back to normal...