Fate grinding made the world feel more alive - why was it de-emphasized?

[TeraRamis]

Honestly I'd like them a bit more if they were like the dynamic events from GW2.

That's one of the best things about GW2. Sadly, the PvE endgame is just... bleh.

[Lucy_Pyre]

Whenever I level a DPS I go farm level-appropriate FATEs in between dungeon queue pops. Almost always see at least a handful of other people running around doing them, which spikes up to double digit numbers of people when I get to late SB areas and into ShB zones.

[ItMe]

I don't want fate grinding to go back to being the only route to the level cap.

. . . What?

[Vahlnir]

. . . What?

Back during ARR launch, Fate grinding was basically the only efficient way to level. Dungeon exp wasn't very good, Levequests were...eh, plus you couldn't do them infinitely, nor did we have 23412019 roulettes at the time either. But it was because of this period of the game's life that I came to loathe the Fate system.

[ItMe]

Back during ARR launch, Fate grinding was basically the only efficient way to level. Dungeon exp wasn't very good, Levequests were...eh, plus you couldn't do them infinitely, nor did we have 23412019 roulettes at the time either. But it was because of this period of the game's life that I came to loathe the Fate system.

Ah, I didn't play during ARR so I didn't understand.
Thanks for clearing that up.
Also, I misunderstood and thought they were saying that FATEs were still the only route to cap.

[Enla]

Ah, I didn't play during ARR so I didn't understand.
Thanks for clearing that up.
Also, I misunderstood and thought they were saying that FATEs were still the only route to cap.

Yeah the basic strat was to use dungeons + leves until you hit Lv.30 then immediately go to Costa Del Sol and join the fate train there. From there you'd go to Coerthas and spend the vast majority of your time there because it had a larger zerg of like minded players before finishing off the grind in Northern Thanalan. The only other viable ways to level were all locked past Lv.44, mass pulling the first room in Dzemael Darkhold then immediately leaving was faster than FATE grinding but it required you to again be Lv.44 and by that time I think most people did it just for a break from FATES. I don't begrudge SE for changing things because I absolutely NEVER want to go back to the hell that was running the Coerthas FATES again, but in the process they basically made FATES absolutely useless up until ShB.

[AngelCheese77]

Main use of FATES when I played was leveling between expansions. You get to that point where quests are broken or it's a PITA to get to the next level, so FATE groups were very common. I'd love to do more, and still have some where I need the Achievement for,

[Shougun]

I think with the addition of FATE tokens and zone levels that they're trying to do just that, bringing back some open world value- maybe they could slightly boost the exp or add some mechanic to it (simply a larger weekly log might help).

One of the things I hope they might consider is adding some more rewards to leveling up a zone's tier (thread). I had suggested that they go back to older content as well, and when you level up a zone you get both a general exp amount and a % amount (with more tiers added, meaning you could level even in old zones). There were a number of other things too like small changes to the area as you gain influence over it, since that's what the system says when you read about it ('you've made this area safer. . .'). The idea of at the tier up was to make it a momentous fanfare and still let players level up their other jobs in the regular content too (as you said in the main thread, it shouldn't go back to being the only way to level- I think that'd be bad).

Also had wanted to see a cosmetic merit system, and in this you might see FATEs offer bonus merit exp for completing them (not mentioned in that thread, just another thing I shower thought sometimes lol). That and I believe then working in value back into older beast tribes might turn old content, and open world, into a playground for some again. Some ideas of the beast tribe beyond relating to the FATE system's zone level (requiring certain beast tribe ranks / donations), was also things like being able to help you advance that expansions relic content (only for old relics of course, like you might be able to help create a sylph pool at the bed of a tree that allows you to soak your weapon once a day for a big free light multiplier bonus, or the Ixali can cut pages / help complete chapters out of your sky books). Among other things.

On a historical note I didn't really enjoy fate grinding for levels pre-ShB (I did the FATE grind for like ARR, I don't really enjoy the FATE trains for hours- just puts me to sleep), but post-ShB I did enjoy doing the random fate as I was going by to do other content (and on occasion did many in a row just because, like 10-20), so the new system has brought FATEs into better light for myself. I would be happy to see more of that zone tier content concept (more, and expanded), just so long as it doesn't become the exclusive way to level (as I'd like to be able to reprieve if I want without feeling like I'm picking the horrible choice lol).

I was one of the people that passionately argued against huge zones, flying and giving dungeons as much exp as FATEs. Anybody that played WoW knew that this would happen, the game would turn into a lobby where you just queue for things while the overworld felt dead and empty.

But oh well, people got what they wanted. The dev team is doubling down on it by making flying possible on the last bastion of overworld that's still the ARR zones. This is unfixable by now.

Honestly think that the teleports had more to do with that than the flying. Especially in comparison to zone size. Teleports everywhere, small zone- this game was a hub game before flying was out. If anything it's less a hub due to the huge zone size, even with flying, but the teleports obviously still have a massive impact. I think an open world (like WoW) can benefit from less teleports more though (without being too annoying), since you could climb over mountains to make more direct paths to your location, rather than being forced from a neighboring zone's exit into the zone you wanted then finally to the point you actually needed to be- like it might have worked well if the game had few teleports but airships and you could land in particular safe areas and then trek it to location (which may be a size-able distance).

Of course taking away many of the fast transportation options will make it far less casual friendly, so it's all a pro/con. As for flying I think the aether current system is good (vaguely suggested something like it pre-flying), although I personally wonder how transportation would be if they added an energy system. In this way you could have flying but also have some mindfulness of your area as you need to do some ground running (ran out of energy) / find wind vanes to boost flight time- I believe GW2 has done a bit of this with their gliding system, but I've not played it so much so I'd want to hear from someone else if that does anything for the feeling of environmental scale / presence.

I like transportation but I think there is a magic number for time that should be the ideal, like not ever longer than 5 minutes and especially if you have to remake that trip many many times in a row. A great journey once in a while feels great (imo), 5 mins both directions to turn in the milk you just bought for the lazy npc to make 5 gil and .5% of your exp bar . . . not great at all lol.

None of that extra classic FFXI moment where they miss the boat which causes them to miss the airship which makes them miss the white mage who was altep porting everyone and then they get to the entrance of the cave late without their deodorize and the white mage is already at location and so they have to start begging in zone and heading back and then one of the people already there has to go for dinner and it's been an hour already and you've not done anything and the group has already fallen apart, nice.

[StriderShinryu]

I think with the addition of FATE tokens and zone levels that I think they're trying to do just that, bringing back some open world value- maybe they could slightly boost the exp or add some mechanic to it (simply a larger weekly log might help).

One of the things I hope they might consider is adding some more rewards to leveling up a zone's tier

Yeah, this is a good point. They are on the right track with the Shared FATE idea in the ShB zones but the reward for actually capping out a zone is pretty meh. Toss something really worthwhile in there, even if it's for capping out every zone in an "area" and expand the idea to the old zones.

[Theodric]

I think the new FATE currency and vendor rewards are a step in the right direction. With that said, I do wish we had more reasons to go out into the game world and explore.