Easier to create new jobs than base classes?

[Stormfur]

I remember reading somewhere, possibly from a Live Letter, that every new class took something like a year to create -- and that the team wouldn't be doing anything like they did with the scheduling of ninja again.

But that got me wondering, would jobs take less time to make since most of them build off of the base stuff we already have? I'd imagine (hope!) 4.0 isn't going to start us at level 1 -- maybe 40 with 70 as the new cap? Who knows.

I also remember reading that SE wasn't going to cram 3 new jobs into an expansion because it was just too much too soon (and you can tell they rushed with the jobs like machinist). I'm kind of hoping they'll launch 4.0 with two new jobs and then bring maybe a third and a fourth in soon thereafter as we explore new areas.

What do you think?

[Evangela]

There's no need to create jobs with a base class anymore. Once people get their job crystal, nobody will remove it and play as a lv50 base class so the dev team has to make these base classes balanced somehow, even though no one is playing it beyond lv30.

[Vaer]

New jobs branching off would cause people who already have it leveled to instantly be 60 or whatever level it is right away. Sort of like how leveling anything arcanist is like leveling both jobs at the same time minus gear of course so unless they change how that works I doubt they would do something like that. Plus they still haven't changed SMN and SCH sharing stat point pools.

They might be moving away from even using classes at all since the last three jobs don't even have one.

[Evangela]

Branched jobs for existing classes will be hard to create as well. Hunter/Ranger for the example. Bard in this game isn't actually a bard but it already has a lot of Hunter's bow abilities. So making different abilities for the Hunter job must be difficult because most of their skills were taken by Bard. SMN and SCH were created when they already planned to make them a branch of ACN so there's no issue with them.

[Stormfur]

I'd love a hunter/ranger class much more than bard. Replace songs with traps. Yes please. That's why I was thinking they'll probably make archer a requisite base class to build upon for something else. Sometimes I wonder if they planned that far ahead since ACN> SMN/SCH didn't work out so well. Then again we could just have jobs start off at 40-ish with the expansion similar to how HW did. But then people would have no reason to go back to 2.0 areas, which SE seems fond of making us do.

[bass9020]

Even if we don't have base classes, the jobs should start from level 1. Its just the bases of any RPG. Having the HW jobs start at level 30 was pretty lame IMO.

[Mimilu]

To go with what Evangela said, after 2.0 released, SE said they would never do branching jobs again because of how difficult it was to design and balance them.

[Grayve]

I remember reading somewhere, possibly from a Live Letter, that every new class took something like a year to create -- and that the team wouldn't be doing anything like they did with the scheduling of ninja again.

But that got me wondering, would jobs take less time to make since most of them build off of the base stuff we already have? I'd imagine (hope!) 4.0 isn't going to start us at level 1 -- maybe 40 with 70 as the new cap? Who knows.

I also remember reading that SE wasn't going to cram 3 new jobs into an expansion because it was just too much too soon (and you can tell they rushed with the jobs like machinist). I'm kind of hoping they'll launch 4.0 with two new jobs and then bring maybe a third and a fourth in soon thereafter as we explore new areas.

What do you think?

Well, they said after adding the Ninja that they wouldn't be adding a new job mid expansion because of how hard it was on the team.

[Lethallin]

I really don't get why we can't have more divergent classes into other jobs.

Marauder could branch into Berserker, dropping all his extra tanking abilities to allow for more DPS options.

Gladiator could branch into Myrmidon, dropping the shield along with shield abilites to pick up a second sword, to do dual wielding sword to turn into a DPS.

Pugilist could branch into Brawler, gain a stance that increases HP/Threat, and drop positionals on their abilities while dropping their damage.

The base abilities of these classes wouldn't change any, and you'd unlock their job abilities one by one, so wokring out how they play different should be that rough.

If they're not going to bother doing anything more with base classes/jobs, just drop the concept already. Jobs vs Classes are strange to new players, especially if they're ultimately pointless and no one has a good answer to anyone when they ask why it's set up that way.

[Dorander]

I really don't get why we can't have more divergent classes into other jobs.

Marauder could branch into Berserker, dropping all his extra tanking abilities to allow for more DPS options.

Gladiator could branch into Myrmidon, dropping the shield along with shield abilites to pick up a second sword, to do dual wielding sword to turn into a DPS.

Pugilist could branch into Brawler, gain a stance that increases HP/Threat, and drop positionals on their abilities while dropping their damage.

The base abilities of these classes wouldn't change any, and you'd unlock their job abilities one by one, so wokring out how they play different should be that rough.

If they're not going to bother doing anything more with base classes/jobs, just drop the concept already. Jobs vs Classes are strange to new players, especially if they're ultimately pointless and no one has a good answer to anyone when they ask why it's set up that way.

The reason why they won't be doing this anymore is because of how much of a pain Scholar and Summoner are to balance code wise, and on the players side gear out, since they branch off the same base class. So, the likely hood of branching jobs happening anytime in the future in very very slim.

Also, once you hit 30, you put on your crystal and thats that. If you don't have it on, you start missing out on the stat bonus, the skills (which is only going to get more apparent as we go higher in level and get more skills and possibly traits), and the job specific gear. Like I've said in another thread, they need to just level cap base classes at 30. There really is no reason not to at this point. Toss all existing 30+ skills and traits on to the job (allowing a complete rework of scholar) and shuffle down cross class skills that are level 30+ to bellow 30. Which is easily doable and not game breaking by putting the level 34 cross class skills at 28 (in pugilists case put mantra at 28).

The reason why it's set up this way is because it's a hard coded remnant of 1.0 and because it's a FF1 staple to do a job change/advancement. If it was done like my suggestion, we really wouldn't have to worry about people being a 50+ archer because "They don't want to be a bard!" in any dungeon past Haukke Manor. It would force players to get their job crystal if they wanted to advance further.