Quote Originally Posted by MeowyWowie View Post
I don't understand how this solves anything. People will still fight for the initial claim to be eligible for drops.

In the Players Poll the 2nd, we were asked the following question:



Following the poll results, Yoshi said he neglected to add a third option:



Source:

Why were we not asked if we'd prefer keeping the current system but improving it? It's as if Yoshi assumed that this is what we wanted and made up his mind before even asking this question. Why even put the "If" at the beginning?

The problems I see with the new claim system:

NMs and similar open world content:

I see 2 new problems arising from this change, and I don't see it solving any of the current problems.

First: Lack of challenge and/or more difficult to balance content:
This is self explanatory. If anyone and everyone is able to engage any given mob, balancing would be impossible. No content would be considered difficult as you could just throw countless bodies at it until it's dead.

Second: Player griefing:
Here's an example:
Fafnir pops and 2 rival linkshells are competing with one another. The competition for "claiming" is still there because of how drops work, so bots are still very likely. However, we're met with yet another problem on top of the one that already existed.

Fafnir has a special AoE move called Spike Flail, which is triggered when hate is pulled from behind. This ability has the potential to completely wipe an entire party. Linkshell A claims fafnir, and Linkshell B (knowing they won't get any loot unless they have the initial "claim") begins attacking Fafnir from the rear for the sole purpose of triggering this attack. What ensues is a constant MPK battle between the 2 linkshells which could have been completely avoided with a real claim system.

This will likely end up forcing SE to make all Open World content just simple "tank & spank" BS.

EXP grind parties and EXP exploits:

At the moment we're unsure how EXP will be rewarded with this new system. Here are two possibilities that I can think of, and their flaws:

Equal EXP, not affected by the number of people helping outside of the "original claim" party:

Let's say we're in a party of 6 people and we're fighting a raptor and a party of 3 people comes and helps us kill our raptor. The SP we get in our 6 man party is not influenced at all by the party helping us, our SP formula follows the same rule as it does now. Likewise for the assisting party. Sounds great right?

The problem is that this system is heavily exploitable. Our party of 6 R40 players are fighting the same raptor, but this time a R10 person comes by, casts 1 spell, and lets us finish the mob off. The lower rank players gets a massive amount of EXP for no effort whatsoever.

End result: Power-leveling will run rampant, worse than it is now.

EXP affected by all additional players attacking:

Here's the opposite end of the spectrum. For every extra player attacking, the total EXP rewarded is reduced for all players participating in battle. This can quickly lead to griefing as competition for EXP mobs gets larger and larger.

If this new system is supposed to counter the EXP mob competition it seems futile. A better solution would be increasing the mob count and respawn timers so that more EXP parties can be supported per camp.

Overall, I'm open to new things. I know this system works in other games. But correct me if I'm wrong, and I very well may be, but aren't these games all quested based leveling and highly instanced?

I can't see FFXIV turning into a heavily quest based progression game and I'd hate to see challenging open world content become a thing of the past. I just can't see the reasoning behind this decision. Perhaps someone can shed some light on this for me?

Please forgive me if some of my points are difficult to understand. I kinda just rushed through this post but I think the main message is there. Discuss.
I honestly don't agree with anything you mentioned in here, I understand some of the points but I am 100% for the new claiming system because all the things your mentioned I find to not be a problem with some tweaking, which you know they plan to have a balance to it to some extent. Also they already said most of the big end game content will mostly be instanced in some form or another. I hate the current target system because its too plain and ordinary and I am playing a new MMO I want to see something that isn't like every other MMO. I guess I just more open minded with FFXIV than most people are, but then again most complainers on here want FFXI +3 and not a new game at all.