State of the Game: PvE Seasons and Making XP worth something at Level Cap

[Dustytome]

I could get behind this, maybe if the did some kind of Grand Company rally as a competition to see which GC wins at the beginning (or middle) of every patch. The winning GC would let those who win get the items for free, runners up have to pay a chunk of their own gil or allied seals or something.

Sounds like a tracker to track every thing the players did. Now multiply that with every person doing these activities. First GC that racks up ten billion points by a deadline wins. It'd be like gathering points for Free Company credits but a much larger scale.

Rewards could be glamour, though I'd like the option of having powerful accs,weapons, or armor that would be matching the max ilevel as current raid tier. And before people get upset, it's ONE PIECE of said gear... so even if it's "free" at the end of the season, it's still one piece of your choice.

Most people on the server would probably pick one GC to collectively back, rendering it pointless.

[Delmontyb]

I could get behind this, maybe if the did some kind of Grand Company rally as a competition to see which GC wins at the beginning (or middle) of every patch. The winning GC would let those who win get the items for free, runners up have to pay a chunk of their own gil or allied seals or something.

Sounds like a tracker to track every thing the players did. Now multiply that with every person doing these activities. First GC that racks up ten billion points by a deadline wins. It'd be like gathering points for Free Company credits but a much larger scale.

Rewards could be glamour, though I'd like the option of having powerful accs,weapons, or armor that would be matching the max ilevel as current raid tier. And before people get upset, it's ONE PIECE of said gear... so even if it's "free" at the end of the season, it's still one piece of your choice.

Yeah! I'd love to see the Grand Companies used more... they could/would fit really well into this type of system... That makes me start to think of the conquest system on a grander scale.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Whilst this may not interest you, but there was also a new set of crafter and gatherer gear to go for. This has taken me several weeks to get sorted in addition to levelling my battle gear with sigmascape, ridorana and tomes.

I actually like how this patch has been paced since now that things are quietening down we just got HoH for more progression and not too much later we will get the next step in Eureka too (if that type of grind is for you).

I have long had all those materials necessary to craft both sets and fully pentameld them. Likewise, all my jobs except BLM are level 70.

Were it not for Ultimate, I'd literally have nothing new to do in this game for upwards of five weeks. Things quieted down ages ago, which part of the issue. By the time HoH came out, many people were frustrated it took so long, not excited for something new.

[Jabe]

Personally, I think anything that improves game replayability is good. Though, at the end of the day one has to ask are the types of rewards being mentioned going to hold the attention of the players. Character progression is a consistent carrot for most people. So, we really need to ask is a competitive edge to pve with glam, mounts, minions, gil, etc. as incentives going to pull the player base again and again. The first thing that comes to my mind is, "If said rewards are exclusive to only a small number of players per data center, like pvp rewards, then maybe." Otherwise, what will happen is people will participate, but once they get the reward for a specific task they will stop participating. There needs to be some real loss/gain compared to others for it to be competitive.

It's a great idea. I've always wished there was a competitive side to The Hunt myself. I remember thinking it would be cool if it were similar to the FF9 Hunt event when I first heard about it. However, it was an iteration of NMs, but where everyone can share. Instead of requiring real hunt-like skills and exclusivity to a claimed mob it became a zerg-fest. Then, people became upset about early pulling instead of being encouraged by a lost chance to become better at the game. A true hunt would probably be too much to implement, but maybe something like a Top Hunter of the month achievment could work. Rewards for someone who achieved it could be a choice of a NM minion, or a taxidermied version as a housing item. Also, if they got it so many times in a row/additively they could get something like a reskinned tiger mount. (I.e. the tiger patrol in the upper floors of HoH comes to mind.)

[Delmontyb]

Personally, I think anything that improves game replayability is good. Though, at the end of the day one has to ask are the types of rewards being mentioned going to hold the attention of the players.

This is the real point to any and all content that they introduce, how are the players rewarded for their effort, and what are they chasing. This ties into the progression system this game currently offers and it's a bigger topic that I'm still working on, trying to wrap my head around different progression systems, balance, and more. The simple answer is cosmetic, much like the PvP season with the nameplate icon, along with alternate versions of mounts, titles, glamour, ect.

For me, this is something that would be interesting for the stats alone, but that's just me, not everyone would be into just that. However, I think it also offers a passive gameplay system that players are taking part in by just logging into the game, etc.

[Remedi]

It would help if content lasted. 4.3 launched and I had little else to do except the MSQ, Ridorana and Tsukiyomi. That takes less than a couple hours. Let's be very generous and say it took a full week. Okay. Now what fills in those five weeks thereafter? That has been the issue throughout Stormblood. There simply isn't enough content to stretch things out the way they do. It's fine to say, "hey, you can take breaks and play other games!" But that's been less an option and more a necessity. Granted, I have Ultimate. If I didn't...

People aren't devouring content. They've starved for things to do.

I'm starting to question the truth about the content in 4.3 and to a lesser extent in 4.1 to be devoid of anything tbh.
I'm rewiewing what there was to do on 3.3 and 3.1 and honestly it isn't any better. I think we are a bit blowing the problem out of proportions.
The real problem might be related to the fact that with an easier savage and the removal off accuracy getting gear from 24 man was BLEH (besides other problems).

Because frankly during 3.3 release we didn't had potd yet and besides wiping city there wasn't much to do. Again I don't defend the act of staggered release but I think we should look at the whole picture nevertheless

Edit: I don't really see the appeal in this

It's essentially Path of exile and D3 seasons with some glamour rewards in this. I get that it tries to make XP worth at level cap, but EXP system is utter garbage in this game and eureka has limitations because of it.
The only thing that it really might work is with titles for ultimate or clearing deep dungeons but that would mean making a season long an entire expansion, then retiring the content and readding it into the next with new titles.

But outside of that I don't see the whole point but making a competition for the sake of having one, which in a game where as we say bots are ramparts feels a bit HEH

[Mimilu]

I think the idea is interesting but there are several issues that would need to be addressed:

-How would this distinguish between Hard/Savage players and Casual players? It would come to reason that clearing harder content would be more rewarding, which puts anyone who doesn't/can't clear harder content at a disadvantage. If this was like PvP, where only x-amount of players receive certain tiers of rewards based on points, casual players wouldn't have a chance. While in other games, this might not be an issue, XIV is catered to a more casual fanbase.
-Dustytome brought up bots. If this system uses any actual openworld, PvE content like hunts, FATEs, or just killing at level mobs, bots would be a huge problem. Even Dungeon clears could be a problem if lower-level dungeons count.
-Jabe brought up rewards. We already have a bunch of content that offers cosmetic rewards that go untouched or haven't been touched in a while. For me, I think they would have to churn out new rewards almost every season just to keep the incentive there, which I don't know if the dev team could/would-want-to handle.
-Bourne-Endeavor brought up a lack of new content. I'm going to go further and say, as someone who has been playing since ARR's release, I don't know if this would make me want to do the same content I've already grinded in the past. Hell, I have a hard time wanting to grind current content because of the formula barely-if-at-all changing and rewards not lasting more then one-or-two patches. >x>()