Can we stop destroying the solo part of this game?

[PaynesGrey]

If they wanted to make us force party, for one, maybe they should have fixed the terrible party search function. Barely anyone uses it. Solo should still be viable (for now) because it is really hard to find people to play with. The people currently on the servers are mostly people that are long gone from the lower levels. You can just look at the countless threads on here and other sites asking for LS that have 0 replies.

This is so much true. I'm actually pretty sure that it's mostly the people that already have higher level jobs, a large, active group of friends (Linkshell) to do stuff with that are praising this patch and trying to imply that solo playing is fine.

Now I quit this game around late november 2010 and just recently came back to try it out, and so far I've started a new character on 3 different servers just to find people to play with, but it hasn't been easy.

Basically what I've been doing and what many of you are saying to be really easy - is trying to find a linkshell. I have very politely shouted for an active social linkshell on the streets of Ul'dah, but I really haven't had any luck on any of the servers I've tried.

On the first character that was on Lindblum, it took me 4 evenings of throwing shouts every 15-30mins while crafting in Ul'dah for around 3-5hours per session to get in a Linkshell, sadly the LS didn't really fit into the "social and active" category, because it only had 2-4 (counting me) people on at best. Decided to try another server a few days after.

The next one I tried was Figaro, being one of the highest populated server I had high hopes of finding people to play with here, but surprisingly it happened to be the worst case for me. 4 evenings of throwing LS shouts in Ul'dah and not a single reply, even though I had a rough week at work and couldn't really get myself to spend more than one or two hours for shouting, I was pretty disappointed by the lack of replys.

The third and so far the last server I've tried after coming back is Selbina. Took a few evenings to find a linkshell here and I actually had to apply from their page to get in, but that's fine. The thing that isn't fine though is the fact that people in the LS start to wake up when I'm about to go to sleep. So yeah, still no real luck here.

So please, go ahead and try to make a character from scratch and see how fast you can actually get into an active Linkshell and group activities. Also the people who are in big Linkshells and are saying that getting in a Linkshell with a character that has basically nothing done is easy and fast, I have a question for you - is YOUR LS actually taking new members or not? I'm afraid quite many of you actually figure out that the answer is no - you probably have to have at least one level50 job or other stuff like that. Believe me, I've read quite a few LS requirements.

Also you're probably wondering what timezone I'm at if english speaking players are waking up when I'm about to hit the bed - I live in eastern Europe and I'm on pretty much the opposite timezone to NA for example, not much I can do about it for now. I guess I could try to learn japanese really fast or try to find an EU LS, which both seem quite hard tasks to complete atm. But if someone can point me towards a server with big EU population that doesn't only speak french or german, I'd highly appreciate it.

well most people are saying if you want to solo to look for even matches now. Solo will never get as much xp as party, thats the way they design it, its a way to encourage party play

You do realize that at lower levels (I say it again; LOWER LEVELS, that being 20 and under) even matches actually give you like 120 exp and require you to stand still and rest after the kill?

Also, solo exp has been miles away from FFXIV party exp for nearly a year now, don't try to imply that it has been close, or too close to the exp gain. And now they actually made the party exp to have much, much larger gap to solo exp than before.

And to everyone, do any of you remember how SE was (or is) advertising FFXIV? They were saying it is a game for all kinds of players, solo players, group players, casual and hardcore alike. They said you could play it alone casually and still progress in it, but I don't imagine a new player seeing that now after joining the game and getting beat to the ground by a 3 levels higher squirrel.

[Deminia]

This is so much true. I'm actually pretty sure that it's mostly the people that already have higher level jobs, a large, active group of friends (Linkshell) to do stuff with that are praising this patch and trying to imply that solo playing is fine.

Now I quit this game around late november 2010 and just recently came back to try it out, and so far I've started a new character on 3 different servers just to find people to play with, but it hasn't been easy.

Basically what I've been doing and what many of you are saying to be really easy - is trying to find a linkshell. I have very politely shouted for an active social linkshell on the streets of Ul'dah, but I really haven't had any luck on any of the servers I've tried.

On the first character that was on Lindblum, it took me 4 evenings of throwing shouts every 15-30mins while crafting in Ul'dah for around 3-5hours per session to get in a Linkshell, sadly the LS didn't really fit into the "social and active" category, because it only had 2-4 (counting me) people on at best. Decided to try another server a few days after.

The next one I tried was Figaro, being one of the highest populated server I had high hopes of finding people to play with here, but surprisingly it happened to be the worst case for me. 4 evenings of throwing LS shouts in Ul'dah and not a single reply, even though I had a rough week at work and couldn't really get myself to spend more than one or two hours for shouting, I was pretty disappointed by the lack of replys.

The third and so far the last server I've tried after coming back is Selbina. Took a few evenings to find a linkshell here and I actually had to apply from their page to get in, but that's fine. The thing that isn't fine though is the fact that people in the LS start to wake up when I'm about to go to sleep. So yeah, still no real luck here.

So please, go ahead and try to make a character from scratch and see how fast you can actually get into an active Linkshell and group activities. Also the people who are in big Linkshells and are saying that getting in a Linkshell with a character that has basically nothing done is easy and fast, I have a question for you - is YOUR LS actually taking new members or not? I'm afraid quite many of you actually figure out that the answer is no - you probably have to have at least one level50 job or other stuff like that. Believe me, I've read quite a few LS requirements.

Also you're probably wondering what timezone I'm at if english speaking players are waking up when I'm about to hit the bed - I live in eastern Europe and I'm on pretty much the opposite timezone to NA for example, not much I can do about it for now. I guess I could try to learn japanese really fast or try to find an EU LS, which both seem quite hard tasks to complete atm. But if someone can point me towards a server with big EU population that doesn't only speak french or german, I'd highly appreciate it.



You do realize that at lower levels (I say it again; LOWER LEVELS, that being 20 and under) even matches actually give you like 120 exp and require you to stand still and rest after the kill?

Also, solo exp has been miles away from FFXIV party exp for nearly a year now, don't try to imply that it has been close, or too close to the exp gain. And now they actually made the party exp to have much, much larger gap to solo exp than before.

And to everyone, do any of you remember how SE was (or is) advertising FFXIV? They were saying it is a game for all kinds of players, solo players, group players, casual and hardcore alike. They said you could play it alone casually and still progress in it, but I don't imagine a new player seeing that now after joining the game and getting beat to the ground by a 3 levels higher squirrel.

I think you might have be hasty about leaving Lindblum in your case. First of all, Lindblum has a fairly large EU population and during EU prime hours, there are usually plenty of players online to group with. I actually had a hard time finding an NA linkshell at first on Lindblum because my playing hours were meshing more with the EU schedule. There are plenty of people online during NA evenings as well. Lindblum is far from a ghost town server - lots of players on at pretty much any time except FridaySat nights NA time.

There are usually plenty of shouts in town for dungeon runs, linkshells recruiting, exp parties, etc.