Airship Exploration!

[Nektulos-Tuor]

Its randomized up to 210. It might be ilvl170 to ilvl 210 and 210 will be random stats and very rare.

The way they're explaining this makes it sound like there's a hard limit on how many people are going to show up in the zones. They say you may encounter other parties there. Not that it is a fully open zone like those we are used to.

So, speculatively, it sounds like we're covered. But I have a feeling that the greatest monsters in these Missions will require collaboration with our neighbors.

The only way this will turn into hunts is if everyone gets rewarded. If its first come first serve, then it will be NOTHING like hunts.

[Hyrist]

The only way this will turn into hunts is if everyone gets rewarded. If its first come first serve, then it will be NOTHING like hunts.

I don't believe SE is going to vastly deviate the reward system within this zone. I could be wrong but it seems like they've created a theme of co-operation that shines through the majority of this content. Hunts was problematic because it was overpopulated, with no way to stagger participation. This Exploration Mission system seems to address that problem.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

I don't believe SE is going to vastly deviate the reward system within this zone. I could be wrong but it seems like they've created a theme of co-operation that shines through the majority of this content. Hunts was problematic because it was overpopulated, with no way to stagger participation. This Exploration Mission system seems to address that problem.

They have never released content in the game where other parties see each other. In Japan for example Hunts are completely contested, they do not help each other from what I understand.

This might be a continuation of that, where only the party that attacks gets rewarded.

[Nalien]

But now they sound like treasure maps and hunts had an amazing love child.

Any love child of Hunts will be a bastard, unless they finally took my advice and Hunts went out and got a fully time job with force pops...

If those NMs and HNMs are the same as Hunts... God f*cking dammit... I don't want another "We have to wait 30 minutes while my best friends flatmates grandmas dead cat logs on to get credit!", followed by a half minute zerg down... I also don't want something a handful of people can monopolize, and effectively kill the content for the majority... If they're not force popped, I'm going to be instantly disappointed...

Undersized Parties is by far the best thing they've added to Heavensward thus far, and I want this to be that, The Event. We already know we can enter solo or with a full alliance, and everything in between. Potentially relevant rewards on top of that is great. Everything just hinges on how the NM/HNMs are handled... Ideally this truly would be Sky, from Final Fantasy XI... That was great because you used items to pop Gods, I don't think we'd have seen things as interesting as Red Mages soloing Byakko, if the pop had to be contested, or the entire server could show up and help for credit...

Honestly. If they lock it to "Party Only" that kills it. It fixes the problem completely. Of course it means you will have to make it so the zone is large and spawns are fast enough so one party can't get everything.

It really doesn't... One party monopolizing them wouldn't be the issue, it would be several just camping them 24/7 and never giving anyone else a chance... Not to mention the drama that would create... You're happily waiting for a spawn, then someone else swoops in, it spawns, and they claim it, have fun!

Force pops or bust, IMO.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

Any love child of Hunts will be a bastard, unless they finally took my advice and Hunts went out and got a fully time job with force pops...

If those NMs and HNMs are the same as Hunts... God f*cking dammit... I don't want another "We have to wait 30 minutes while my best friends flatmates grandmas dead cat logs on to get credit!", followed by a half minute zerg down... I also don't want something a handful of people can monopolize, and effectively kill the content for the majority... If they're not force popped, I'm going to be instantly disappointed...

Honestly. If they lock it to "Party Only" that kills it. It fixes the problem completely. Of course it means you will have to make it so the zone is large and spawns are fast enough so one party can't get everything.

[Hyrist]

They have never released content in the game where other parties see each other. In Japan for example Hunts are completely contested, they do not help each other from what I understand.

This might be a continuation of that, where only the party that attacks gets rewarded.

Possibly. However the more I think of it, the more it feels closer to the concept of Treasure Hunts, where the monsters may force pop from treasure chests located during exploration.

There are balancing factors that have been revealed that indicate to me that they're not, however, going to be competitive. The fact that this can be Alliance content, and the Weakest of monsters factor into the strengths of an A rank Hunts mob. This means likely the greatest of chests will feature difficulties requiring a vast number of players to participate. So rewards may be party specific for multiple-party participation, not unlike our 24 Man raids.

That could be one way of discouraging competition. But again, this is all speculation. I'm excited to see what comes up. For me, even if there is competition. We have the certainty of currency gear, and the 8/24 man raids for those who don't wish to compete for loot. There seems to be enough fail-safes in this system for it to cover everyone.

[Selli]

Snip.

I never made XI so I can't make any comparison. I'm not particularly fond of the salt hunts bring myself, but the reason why I compared it to them is because hunts, at one point, were actually really challenging. You had to come together as a team, as a server sometimes too, to bring something down. That's what I liked about hunts and why I made the comparison. That, and, wasn't it basically directly said by Yoshi that "the easiest mobs will be like level 60 B Ranks"?

No need to fly off the handle. I didn't mean to offend you.