Quote Originally Posted by Shurrikhan View Post
What would you like to see from 5.0 Progression Systems?
[*]Pretend for a moment that literally everything about progression, except perhaps that clearing encounters can drop loot, is gone. What comes to mind as a cohesive and satisfying way to fill the void and reformat progression as a whole?[/LIST]
We are consistently leaving lower end content in this confused, empty, myriad state, where nothing has relevance, unless something specifically has relevance.

Material bloat and checklist crafting is partially why the world itself loses relevance patch by patch without specifically catering to it.

FATES will never be useful outside leveling, which gives them a defined lifespan and puts them in direct contest with Dungeons, which are better simply because they are more convenient.

Leveling Syncing and Ability bloat culling consistently leaves jobs that aren't 'level capped' for that expansion set (ARR, HW, SB) not only incomplete, but in some cases, intolerably so (Dark Knight, Machinist).

New characters / Alt characters are forced to play though the MSQ, which isn't a terrible thing in itself, but it is a source of frustration. The MSQ gating everything turns New/Alt characters into this long session of just trying to rush through it so you can actually access things.

Solutions for the problems above.

1. Material trimming. We do not need 80 different types of Iron. We need only "Iron" and "Current Expansion Iron". Centralizing materials in this manner means new players not only have a way into the market, but also heavily reduces needless item bloat. This concept can be expanded to Materia, where Materia bonus potency is based on an Item's socket level. A Storm Bringer crafted Chest, for example, would have 2 +40 slots, 1 +40 overmeld, and 2 +12s.

This reduces materia and again, provides new players with a way into the market.

2. Fates become an alternative method to achieve Gil. Want to level, but need gil? Do Fates. Not only does it provide an alternative to Dungeons (Your "Dungeon" reward has a portion of it dedicated to repairs), having more ways to generate "New" gil is sorely needed in FF14. Perhaps even relegate it to the Challenge Log primarily, if botting is a concern.

3. Stop culling abilities and upgrade them instead. Remember when Warriors lost Brutal Swing, then got Upheaval? Warrior could have kept Brutal Swing, and that be traited into Upheaval. It still maintains the purpose of being a gauge spender / moderator, which in turn means a little more thought goes into using it, but now your pre-62 warrior doesn't feel like it's missing a button.

For Paladin, Flash traits into Holy Explosion, increasing its MP cost, but dealing high magic damage. It gains extra threat while in Shield Oath, and reduced Casting Time while in Sword Oath. It is a natural progression for Flash, but done in a way that doesn't require it to be removed until level 72.

4. Cut the MSQ up into segmented quest chains without requiring the previous to be completed. These can organically be based around unlocking main dungeons, or features, so that a singular quest itself feels much more weighted without feeling like it's just running you around for an hour. (Remember unlocking Leviathan?)

You then greatly increase the XP rewarded, while providing a significant reward of Gil. The MSQ is required, but chopping it up like this and providing a more substantial reward encourages players to do it, and rather than blindly completing fetch quest after fetch quest, the point of this particular MSQ segment is made readily known from the get go. A big ole reward, and an unlocked feature.

This also allows someone to focus entirely on X.0 MSQ quests when leveling up Alts, or for end game driven new players. The X.1-5s are not required for the most important roulettes (Leveling and Expert), so if one were inclined and didn't need an xp or gil boost, one could simply complete X.0 to move on to the next X.0 quest chains.