Hunts don't really feel like...hunting.

[Silverawz]

I agree with op. Hunt are just fate disguised. I have kill some S target, see 0 deaths, the mob dissapear sometime too. I don't understand this feature.
Why the hunt target are so weak ? I have read the condition for spawn the S rank, it is a good idea. But the weakest of the mob made this totally useless and not fun at all.

[Velox]

Here's how I would have handled hunts.

B-rank mobs remain 1-man difficulty
A-rank mobs remain 8-man difficulty
S-rank mobs remain 24-man difficulty

B-rank changes
* 5 second respawn timer
* Only receive rewards when mark bill is in inventory
* Can obtain 1 mark bill daily
* Reward for max participation adjusted as follows:
- 10 Allied Seals
- 3 Tomestones of Soldiery
- 7 Tomestones of Mythology

A-rank changes
* Player-triggered respawn (details below)
* Only receive rewards when mark bill is in inventory
* Can obtain 1 mark bill daily
* Reward for max participation adjusted as follows:
- 50 Allied Seals
- 5 Tomestones of Soldiery
- 15 Tomestones of Mythology
* Player can now obtain mark bill from Hunt Board at affiliated Grand Company HQ. Using the mark bill will give a hint as to mark's last known whereabouts. When you enter said area, you will need to search for a clue that points you in the right direction (tracks, disturbed ground, scratches on tree trunk, etc.). The number of clues needed to find the mark will vary between 3 and 5 along the chain. Clue locations will be completely random, as will the area where the mark appears in the end. Once you reach the end, the mark will appear with enmity on the player. Due to this, it is advisable that player be in a party prior to starting the hunt. Once the mark appears, anyone who has the mark bill in his/her inventory can engage the mark regardless of whether or not they are in a party with the player who initiated it. If a player does NOT have a mark bill for that specific mark, he/she will be unable to engage it or build enmity (similar to how maps are now). This is to limit grief tactics.

S-rank marks will not be changed from current implementation now that they have render priority.

These are just some ideas of making hunts more engaging and hunt-like without them being spawn camping v2 as seen in so many other MMOs.

[Wylde]

I love hunts. Free i110 gear with no work. I'm sure they're just doing this to make i110 the norm so they can roll out new gear. Pretty soon the i110 gear won't be all that great because there will be much better gear. Then all the whiners and cryers can get their gear I understand the people who want to give constructive criticism. That's cool and all but the people in games who insult everyone when they don't make it to the target. They're off in limsa chilling waiting on their LS to announce the target then try to get there on time. I'm sorry but if you aren't actively looking all over the map for the target you don't deserve for everyone to wait on your lazy ass. I've only not gotten full credit ONE time on an A rank while searching on the map it pops. These are free sands and oils.... what more do people want? If you don't like hunts so coil for your sands. Or look for the target like the rest of us

[Dorfentyme]

... Or look for the target like the rest of us

Well, you're looking for something that may not have spawned yet. How can you search for something that isn't even there yet? You just run around in an area and hope that you're near the area when it spawns. It's a waiting game. That's all it is. It was boring in FFXI with NM camping, its boring here. Not sure why they thought it was a good idea.

Although the rewards are pretty damn good, but to bad Hunts are boring.

[Ashkendor]

Well, you're looking for something that may not have spawned yet. How can you search for something that isn't even there yet? You just run around in an area and hope that you're near the area when it spawns. It's a waiting game. That's all it is. It was boring in FFXI with NM camping, its boring here. Not sure why they thought it was a good idea.

Although the rewards are pretty damn good, but to bad Hunts are boring.

That waiting game is almost completely nullified with a tracking system.

[Velox]

That waiting game is almost completely nullified with a tracking system.

Part of the problem IS that they are track-able, thus allowing them to be camped. In addition to the random spawn area, SE should have made all of the respawn timers random as well. That way you'd never know if an A rank was going to pop in 2 minutes or 2 days.

[Krr]

Now people only bother to look for Hunts when the S rank windows open up. Other than that, Hunts are essentially dead.
Maybe that's what people wanted. But I feel like it's a serious waste.

If hunting is dead I'm really, really curious how the server still coordinates 60+ people showing up to an A-rank whenever I chance into being in the same zone as one...

As someone who reluctantly did hunting in the TS to pad out her unweathered i110: it wasn't enjoyable. Hovering around open window zones for the one in a thousand chance you're the one to find something and then warping in to a "fight" that was 60 people spamming Medica and beating down a monster severely underpowered compared to the group size is reminiscent of the mindless grind that was fate leveling is the most thoroughly unengaging thing I have done in the game since I tried Atma farming.

Pretty much all the 'midcore' content, by which I mean the one entire Primal encounter we got and the two that might have still been relevant, is dead as a result too. The people who were doing Leviathan mirrors that might have been interested in Ramuh weapons simply aren't due to the insanely disproportionate rewards given to hunters and no one else (even after the B-rank patch).

[Ashkendor]

Part of the problem IS that they are track-able, thus allowing them to be camped. In addition to the random spawn area, SE should have made all of the respawn timers random as well. That way you'd never know if an A rank was going to pop in 2 minutes or 2 days.

On one side, I agree with you. On the other side, I think it would lead to even more hurt feelings.

People get way more bent over S ranks than they do A's, for example.

[Jacost]

B-ranks work well now that they're not subject to the zerg. Since they respawn 5 seconds after they're killed, they're always somewhere in the zone. In fact hunting them is more like hunting due to the multiple spawn locations than the FATEs in the dailies. Ideally, I'd do it like this:

B-ranks work the way they currently do, but replace the FATEs on the daily hunts. That means 2 B-rank hunts per day, with a 10-seal reward.

A-ranks become the new weekly hunt. They're scaled to 8-man parties with a 5-minute respawn, and give a reward of 30 seals to the mark holder. In addition, everyone else in the mark-holder's party gets 5 seals. As a result, people would form hunting parties at the start of each week to down 8 weeklies, getting 65 seals each in total, with additional parties formed by people who didn't get there at the start of the week possibly supplementing that. This would make hunting a social activity, and a way of getting to know your server community a bit better.

S-ranks work as they do now: spawn window opens after 72 hours, followed by a hunting alliance performing the spawn trigger to make it pop, and finally downing it for up to 50 seals to everyone who participates (depending on their contribution). This'll give the zergers something productive to do, since they're actually useful for an S-rank.

[Mogi]

I don't see what's so hard or wrong with how they are right now get your bills first take out the fates {sure it can be a wait} but so what find out where the fate starts camp out after the fates are out of the way kill the easy mobs and your done but if you want more seals find a S and A rank link shell. The way it was before was sad a small lil B rank getting killed by 200+ ppl that was not the way hunts are supposed to work. At least now ps3 users can get seals and or ppl who don't like mass lag or rude players