The Journey - Is It Still Wanted?

[Zezlar]

I want a two to three week grind to max. Not a 3 day Grind.

[Airget]

While I think XI's grind was a lil too slow orginally, I think XIV's is too fast at the moment. Just a smidgen too fast.

It's a pity though cause in cases like this, people will be glad when you "add" things to make it easier, but once you nerf it people will be in an uproar with how unfair it is. I guess the issue comes down from the fact that others can attack a mob you are already on in an open world. So when you are in a party with PLs, they will slaughter the mobs you have claimed yet you'll get the reward/chain for it.

I guess the bets medium to try and balance out the whole method of PL would be to add a blockaid feature, so those outside of party can't intefere with mobs you have claimed. If said feature isn't on then if you do have a PL/others outside helping to kill your mob you won't get a chain out of it.

So basically in a normal party you would be able to rank up the chain 10+ but in a PL party you would basically be stuck with the base xp those mobs give. I think that would be the ahppiest medium to extend the pace of leveling without completly nerfing concepts already in the game.

At least then while people could PL, it would no longer be as fast or faster then doing it with a party and would only be a method used by those who just don't feel like doing much work. But of course there would then be a third PL concept which would be the traditional XI version of healing from an outside party so more time can be spent focusing on the mob. At least with the 3rd concept while there is still a PL the people in party would still have to play an active role in gaining xp, the only difference is they don't have to worry so much about dying lol.

In the end though it's all up to the developer to decide how they'd like to work things out though. While sure some may PL through 1-50, there is still the concept of spiritbonding which I highly doubt people would let others leech on at 50 to obtain lol.

[Yves]

I don't know if Journey is really still wanted. I mean, after Steve Perry left they really went downhill. I saw them at an Indian casino (feather, not dot) and it was just the drummer and they only played like 6 songs. But I think people still want classic Journey.

[Teakwood]

Aw, nostalgia. <3 Love the OP, and I know exactly how you feel, actually, but I think you're conflating a sense of exploration and making new friends with the XP grind itself, and I'm not sure that those two things are as linked as you think they are. At least, I hope they're not; they're not in my experience (I had a lot of fun - more fun - exploring XI, for example, when I was at max level, for example) and also...

For every happy nostalgia-filter thought there, you're skipping the mindless drudgery of trying to get a PT, waiting around for hours, not being able to XP because some jackass had trained the entire zone up through Garlaige - I wound up quitting the game for about a year at 32 because in order to do anything with my friends, I had to spend months grinding, none of my friends could XP with me because there was no level sync, and I couldn't even get XP; I had to level my White Mage sub and I had joined three consecutive Valkurm parties that ended in fire and misery, and I'd just had enough.

Admittedly, I have the good memories too - meeting people, sometimes never even seeing them again for two years and then running into them in Jeuno and laughing and smiling, whatever - but I think it's really easy to let the nostalgia filter narrow the field for us, and only remember the good things and none of the bad. (Heck, even in XIV it's easier to remember the fun of trying to make it to every aetheryte on my old character, or make fun of being chained to a wall in the Alchemist's Guild crunching crystals for all of my friends, even though at the time the game was completely unplayable. >_>)

I'd also like to see a wider variety of stuff to do at level cap, given the developers' limited resources, at least at first, which means I agree with their focus on L50 content to the exclusion of lower-level content, which is part of their justification for not giving a damn how quickly people get to L50.

(However, the OP still made me smile. Thanks for sharing your memories! ^^)

[Sehro]

i always didnt like how fast and efortless leveling in this game but i dont complain since the majority like it this way.

FFXI was great when its about leveling and experiencing the game the first time <3.

[Kiara]

By the way Kiara, words cannot express how grateful I am that you took the time to inspire nostalgia into me and countless others tonight.

So alarmingly true, an experience that I miss dearly as no MMO has even come close to what FFXI was for me. I hate to bring this up, well, who am I kidding. I love to use this point because of how true it rings to me: Ever since WoW came along, the MMO genre (If you can even still call it that,) has gone downhill. In my opinion. Weigh it as you wish.

Hi Issac,

No problem. (^_^) Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the Journey. Like you, Final Fantasy XI really provided some of the best experiences I had an MMORPG.

[Shaedhen]

For every happy nostalgia-filter thought there, you're skipping the mindless drudgery of trying to get a PT, waiting around for hours, not being able to XP because some jackass had trained the entire zone up through Garlaige - I wound up quitting the game for about a year at 32 because in order to do anything with my friends, I had to spend months grinding, none of my friends could XP with me because there was no level sync, and I couldn't even get XP; I had to level my White Mage sub and I had joined three consecutive Valkurm parties that ended in fire and misery, and I'd just had enough.

While I agree it wasn't fun all day, I believe it's also those kind of things that made the game quite unique and remembered. Sure I would get angry while wiping over and over again in the dunes but in the end i would laugh about it with some friends. And well, at level 10 you would go to one of the most famous area of the game and you would remember your journey there for the next 10 years, yet you would still have plenty of areas to discover. On FFXIV, at lvl 10 I already went to all 3 cities and saw most of the world. Didn't die on my way, didn't went through hell to get my lvl or anything. It was ok and I saw some beautiful places but that's it.

So yeah, sometimes i would feel like quiting but then i was like : "Hey, I didn't come this far just to stop now ! Let's keep going !"

[IStolzI]

If popular vote is get rid of grinding and make leveling an overnight thing, fine.

However, it irritates me that despite this, they add so much lvl 20-30 content. There are over 9 GC missions that are lvl 25~ required just to enter a GC. It would be faster just to keep leveling and come back to speed through them at a higher lvl then to do them at the recommended lvl.

Instead of all these mid level quests we should have been getting lvl 40-50 quests/leves to match the concept that a new player should be level 50 in 1-2 weeks.

[Sehro]

there will be more GC missions in the near future i think.

[Phen]

It takes several weeks, if you are a crafter! Also I liked the journey part of XI but not the endless grind. The walk to Jueno that first time was amazing if a challenge. the eons in yuhtunga killing the same thing- not so much. I think it was that learn the new locale and the trip there fraught with danger was the most important part. I mean essentially the airship keys were a little mini-limit break that made just getting the chance to level an adventure.

I think its having the definite landmarks that really makes it feel like progress rather than the time involved. It is a little fast, i guess if you think with a longer exp curve it wont be as big a deal but for now umm yah.