Mr. Producer... You make me a sad panda :(

[Betelgeuzah]

Sounds good to me.

The producer did say (although it was not officially translated as such) that the exp gains may see a short-term drop as the game takes its intended shape. That is exactly what is happening.

Now you can either QQ about this short-term hindrance while the game is being taken to the right direction, or you can quit. Which would be hilarious now that improvements are finally being made. But alas.

You don't need to be a wizard to realize that as the SP is divided between different activities instead of being exclusive to only one, the activity losing the exclusivity status is going to be toned down, while everything else will see improvements in SP gains. Right now that means quests and raids, later on that means stronghold battles, chocobo escorts and hamlet defense battles. These activities replace (or rather, complement) guildleves and the SP is divided among them.

Now, I myself had a preference for all activities having their own unique rewards (which means that when you do decide to level up, its fast, but exclusive to only one activity as the downside) but this will do. "Leveling up" is no longer exclusive to guildleves and behests, and the SP changes reflect this.

Oh yeah, and one can't really ignore the removal of fatigue either. Now that exp bonus will take its place, casuals are going to be the ones suffering from the change. Fatigue hurt hardcore population, exp bonus hurts the casual population.

And the community rejoices, haha.

[MookiesPM75]

Sounds good to me.

The producer did say (although it was not officially translated as such) that the exp gains may see a short-term drop as the game takes its intended shape. That is exactly what is happening.

Now you can either QQ about this short-term hindrance while the game is being taken to the right direction, or you can quit. Which would be hilarious now that improvements are finally being made. But alas.

You don't need to be a wizard to realize that as the SP is divided between different activities instead of being exclusive to only one, the activity losing the exclusivity status is going to be toned down, while everything else will see improvements in SP gains. Right now that means quests and raids, later on that means stronghold battles, chocobo escorts and hamlet defense battles. These activities replace (or rather, complement) guildleves and the SP is divided among them.

Now, I myself had a preference for all activities having their own unique rewards (which means that when you do decide to level up, its fast, but exclusive to only one activity as the downside) but this will do. "Leveling up" is no longer exclusive to guildleves and behests, and the SP changes reflect this.

Oh yeah, and one can't really ignore the removal of fatigue either. Now that exp bonus will take its place, casuals are going to be the ones suffering from the change. Fatigue hurt hardcore population, exp bonus hurts the casual population.

And the community rejoices, haha.

As far as I can tell... He's basically padding the game by forcing you to do all forms of SP gain in order to get the same output you may have gotten from one activity alone rather than letting you choose what you want to do. Not a good thing in my book by any means, as one of the staples of any good MMO is choice. It's ironic and sad one of the headers in his latest letter is "Play how you like." That is clearly not the case in the current state of the game if you want to rank up sometime this year.

Look at it like this: He introduces a game changing mechanic alongside a game breaking nerf. People like me who came back excited about the new changes are completely turned off by the SP gimping. Further degrading our perception of this game ever bearing fruit. This is NOT something he should have done in the current state of the game without properly and fully implementing whatever idea he has for ranking up. He essentially used the introduction of auto-attack and instances as a cushion for a hefty nerf. It was honestly a bad move as he got people to come back only to find out the game is still unplayable.

All of you "hardcore" players may sit there and blindly praise this game to no end. But the cold hard facts are:

1) This game released in such a terrible state that they were forced to make it free to play till it was fixed.
2) It's been a year and there have only been MARGINAL improvements at best.
3) The Producer just spat in the faces of any player that returned upon hearing the introduction of auto-attack by making it virtual torture to rank up.
4) He clearly made a hypocritical move (in the current state of the game) by nerfing ranking up. And it might not have ticked people off as much if he had not made a post talking about how he was not going to nerf ranking up mere HOURS before the patch...
5) Square Enix is not a charity foundation. At the snail's pace the improvements are coming, there is a growing chance that they'll eventually cut their losses. The economy is in the can, I doubt they can afford to continue to bleed off cash developing a MMO that is literally going nowhere.

[Betelgeuzah]

As far as I can tell... He's basically padding the game by forcing you to do all forms of SP gain in order to get the same output you may have gotten from one activity alone rather than letting you choose what you want to do. Not a good thing in my book by any means, as one of the staples of any good MMO is choice.

You never had a choice to begin with, if that's your mindset. Nobody is forcing you to play the game the most effective way. And SE can not force you not to play the game that way.

The only options there are: Either there is one activity that yields the most SP or a combination of activities yields the most SP. There are no magical choices to be had as long as you want to progress most effectively.

People that have not experienced the previous progression system won't even have a problem to begin with.

Also... I dont understand why the SP normalization took place before the camps/settlements were fully introduced. Could this nerf not have been introduced in patch 1.19 at the same time as the camp quests lessening the negative impact on the perception of this game? Honestly the quests currently available are dependent on level, scarce, and they are OFTEN not worth the effort time/sp wise.

You could say the same about any addition. Unless you wanted to wait another few months, its not a practical solution, although a very effective one.

Honestly, look at it like this: He introduces a game changing mechanic alongside a game breaking nerf (that may have future implications but for now it's a nerf). People like me who came back excited about the new changes being made are just being completely turned off by the SP gimping. This is NOT something he should have done, it will hurt the image of the game, and it will further increase the chances that this game falls through the cracks.

This game is a construction yard. And it will be for some time to come. Now is not a good time to start playing if this bothers you.

They could release everything at once, but they chose not to because it takes too long and the current population is bored. Everything they do has a downside, and someone will be upset. If this time it was you, I'm sorry for that.

At the end of the day the changes are moving this game to the intended direction, and that's all that matters at this point. You can choose to wait until the transformation is complete. You don't need the developers to stall the content until it is fully completed and working just so you have no choice but to sit in the sidelines.

[Deceptistar]

All of you "hardcore" players may sit there and blindly praise this game to no end. But the cold hard facts are:

1) This game released in such a terrible state that they were forced to make it free to play till it was fixed.
2) It's been a year and there have only been MARGINAL improvements at best.
3) The Producer just spat in the faces of any player that returned upon hearing the introduction of auto-attack by making it virtual torture to rank up.
4) He clearly made a hypocritical move (in the current state of the game) by nerfing ranking up. And it might not have ticked people off as much if he had not made a post talking about how he was not going to nerf ranking up mere HOURS before the patch...
5) Square Enix is not a charity foundation. At the snail's pace the improvements are coming, there is a growing chance that they'll eventually cut their losses. The economy is in the can, I doubt they can afford to continue to bleed off cash developing a MMO that is literally going nowhere.

tbh i think after the 1.18 patch its more the hardcore pple thats disgruntled.
Cause they were patient with high hopes and the first major long awaited patch kinda exploded in their face >.>