Future of Casual/Solo Player

[Platinumstorm]

Walking to a camp really doesn't take that long in this game. People seem to overestimate the time they spend traveling because they almost never do it.

If you find yourself getting sub-par SP because of leveling 2 jobs at once...perhaps you need to either accept that leveling multiple jobs will slow you down in general or focus on one at a time.

Walking takes forever. I spend more time walking to the places than I do engaged in combat. I have to walk from Gridania to Treespeak, then to Nine Ivies. It is bad, and that's just for Gridania. Since I added Lancer quests I also had to walk to Tranquil.

[Rizon]

Dunno about trolls, (under bridges maybe, in groups?), but I'm confused as to why the general consensus around here seems to be that their game just got busted before they've even bothered to find something else other than Leves to gain SP on. Leves are a thing of the past, and hey, it appears that even soloing can be friendly enough if you know where and how. I'm fairly satisfied with this patch.

Should have known that my comments were going to be misconstrued. Let me state that overall I am very happy with this patch. In my opinion they have laid a solid foundations for the next set of patches and I am anxiously awaiting 1.19 and 1.20. I fully expect that with those this game will be where it should have been last Sept and possibly beyond. All I was trying to do was bring out in the open a trend I have been noticing.

[Reinheart]

was experimenting over the weekend... instead of taking grinding leve's like before where you have to kill lots of mobs, take ones that are super short and easy to finish... you'll be surprised at least this is true for R40 leve's lol.
Duo with wife and we did pretty damn good for casual play.

But one thing they need to fix, already posted on JP side also but if they are really going to make the leve's for solo players they need to fix the 2-3 mob party ones as those get bit challenging if solo in higher levels + with all the agro mobs... but other than that it's all good. We tried leve's we would never take normally before 1.18 and it's good

at least good enough for me being casual player this time around in XIV unlike XI.

[Raze]

leves are the new acid-washed jeans.

[Cendres]

They said they are redoing how leves work in 1.19-1.20 so just wait it out. I know its annoying but it is what it is.

I'm awaiting this with abated breath. My experience (whatever Jynx wants to say about it) is that casual and solo play took a kick in the pants this patch. However we don't have the whole puzzle done yet so until then, heh it's the waiting game I guess or maybe I'll just rank up my crafts. :S Or play something else.

@Reinheart, yes you now have to take on leves that are lower then before and defeat for sure. Reminds me lot of FFXI fields of valor. Which kinda scares me tbh.

[SuzakuCMX]

"I want to level more than one class at a time and still do it as fast as people level one class."

Is that what this is? That's not going to happen. I solo myself, and when I actually try to level instead of just dick around by farming and grinding, I level up incredibly quickly. It took me about 35 minutes of grinding Weaver last night to get from 17 to 18 :I That is incredibly fast and easy, considering it was grinding.

Casual/solo play is fine, you're just spoiled from pre-patch.

EDIT: Oh and some leves are really easy. Specifically the Bee one from Gridania (each group of bees can be 2-shot, easily) and the one with the Doe's. I can solo those on 3 star.

[Cendres]

I want to see how many people complain the solo leves are a joke in 1.19. It's going to be epically hilarious.

[Shyd]

I have been walking everywhere just about for the last few weeks.

I have like 10-15 anima. I'll port once a day to save me some time, other then that im running.

I have been getting locals in grid for carpentry and leatherworking, and having to go to Nine Ives, Tranquil, Bentbranch, Crimson Bark and Emerald Moss to turn them in. Its a long run take me bout an hour or so.

Then if i go get more locals in Limsa, (where i usually port to) i go to skull valley and bloodshore. Since patch i can return to ul'dah for free, but i cannot do regionals in grid or limsa and still keep my homepoint ul'dah.

Meh hope Chocobos we can talk to NPC's and still be riding the bird. Choco's + Airship should help alleviate some of the traveling stress/boredom.

[SHJcules]

From a solo DoW aspect, I am ranking up MUCH faster than before, by simply doing the solo-friendly leves. I am getting SP and progressing at a very ideal rate. Thus leaving me with enough free time to explore the dusty parts of my map, do stupid things, rock out some crafting levels, and catch up on my side quests! and try out the new companies of course. As for solo world grinding, it is more difficult now, but I could never stand doing that for more than 15-20 mins anyways. I just hunt for sport now, and let the levels come naturally as I do other things.


On topic of your main points in gear damage/aggro mobs though, well I like it! It adds a sense of danger to solo exploring. It is just a risk you take when you choose to walk the road alone.

[Jynx]

Huh? try doing Regional quests as well as local quests from 3 different cities as well as the new company quests and tell me what your Anima pool looks like. I did and I used a bunch. It was either that or spend wasted hours walking

I guess perhaps I don't count casual players as people who want to trek around the entire game-globe. Perhaps they would do leves in close areas, and not hop to all 3 cities in a single sitting.

Sounds more like "Hardcore" players don't want to waste their precious time with the limitation of traveling around the world slowing down their SP/Hour.