New Letter from the Producer, XII

[Wolfie]

Aion's one man dungeons are infinitely more intricate than leves. Unless, of course, SE will add 1-3 hour long leves with bosses, puzzles, random spawns, lore, custences, quests, and good loot rewards. Then they'll be on par. =D

[syntaxlies]

Aion's one man dungeons are infinitely more intricate than leves. Unless, of course, SE will add 1-3 hour long leves with bosses, puzzles, random spawns, lore, custences, quests, and good loot rewards. Then they'll be on par. =D

The gear isn't top tier and it's not a 100% drop, but they're good for making money and leveling.

[Wolfie]

I get it, you're gifthorse 3.0.

[Eldaena]

The context of dungeons so far appears that they won't be solo-able or scale-able. You have to have 4 or 8 people depending on the dungeon. Not to mention a timer. Overall, it's extremely fixed and leaves no wiggle room or options, really. It's a frustrating situation. I'm sure lots of players would like to 'try' to solo a dungeon, even just for fun...or even duo, etc, but we are forced in really tight constrictions. The dungeons better be very fun to play in general, otherwise I could see them being more of a nuisance than enjoyable game play. Kind of like new leves with slightly better rewards, but more reiteration.

[BloodMage]

Sweet! I'm happy that this game has some hope in it and that it seems to be going in the right path. Love how he mentioned that this game isn't going to be centered around grinding and being casual friendly with the leve content while still having a hardcore content for when ppl have time to do them. Overall, GO DEV TEAM AND GOOD JOB TO THE PRODUCER!

Now lets just see if they can pull it off which I hope they can.

[Ashthra]

Personally, I think they should balance SP across the board by level, and not by mob type. A level 30 will give you nearly the same exp (maybe with some random small digit modifier to make OCD people rage), and/or a mob that is the same level as you. The former system is a static system that nearly all MMOs use; the latter is the system FFXI used in which xp scaled to your level. Personally, it's a system I wish they used more often, as it makes the grind feel more linear, and essentially promotes trying to kill mobs that are intrinsically more difficult for the greater exp benefit they offer.

But seriously, balance the damn SP rewards between mobs. If I see a vast field of rabbits that I can slaughter, I shouldn't be penalized just because they're not coblyns/raptors/efts. I want to KILL DA WABBIT! ...and get great SP while doing it.

[Physic]

Personally, I think they should balance SP across the board by level, and not by mob type. A level 30 will give you nearly the same exp (maybe with some random small digit modifier to make OCD people rage), and/or a mob that is the same level as you. The former system is a static system that nearly all MMOs use; the latter is the system FFXI used in which xp scaled to your level. Personally, it's a system I wish they used more often, as it makes the grind feel more linear, and essentially promotes trying to kill mobs that are intrinsically more difficult for the greater exp benefit they offer.

But seriously, balance the damn SP rewards between mobs. If I see a vast field of rabbits that I can slaughter, I shouldn't be penalized just because they're not coblyns/raptors/efts. I want to KILL DA WABBIT! ...and get great SP while doing it.

they need to get a more accurate number of how difficult a monster is to kill, but making all monsters the same is a bad idea, some are just easier to kill than others. A raptor is simply a harder fight than a squirrel, and Eft no matter what will take longer, it doesnt make sense that monsters of varying skills, strength, defense and hp give the same exp.

They got the idea of different monsters offering different sp right, but they need to balance it more

[Ashthra]

Perhaps, but the disparity in difficulty, especially in a party, is so beyond minimal that if you're NOT killing one of those high SP mobs, you're doing it wrong. If a mob is offering more SP, it should be significantly more difficult to kill, especially in a group setting where you can just zerg the ever-loving hell out of mobs currently.

Or they could make rabbits jack you up if you look at them funny, just like a raptor would. That'd be great to see (again).

[Bayohne]

Got another (late night!) post from Yoshida that I wanted to share with you all. The thread that Yoshida was addressing had questions asking about whether or not leveling up will be necessary based on some comments he stated in a recent interview.

I suggest that if you want to discuss specific points in the below post, you may want to start a separate thread so that this thread doesn't become further off-topic (than I'm about to make it!)

Without further ado, here's the official translation...

Hi all, this is producer/director Yoshida.

First off, I’d just like to say that I am not by any means saying that characters shouldn’t have to level, or that we should get rid of leveling up itself, or that leveling is boring. If there was anyone that took it this way, I apologize. I myself am a huge role playing gamer, I love MMOs, and I’ve even worked on a recent Dragon Quest title, so I understand the pleasure and fun aspects of character growth. With that said, this does not mean that we are getting rid of it.

Of course, when you consider the unique characteristics of MMOs, planning to reach the level cap within a week isn’t entirely accurate. The ideal image is one where if you play every day for 2 hours or so, you will be able to reach the max cap on one class in about 3-4 months. Naturally, if you make detours or spend a whole day just chatting with friends, the distance and time to reach the cap will increase. One of the important things we would like players to think is “if I keep playing, I too can reach the highest rank.”

I was a hardcore EverQuest player and I know of the struggles involved in getting to that point. Truth be told, I really loved it. However, dying and losing 2 weeks’ worth of EXP, going insane trying to make EXP parties... I don’t think those features are important in the future of FFXIV.

While this is only concept phase right now, we are planning to increase the rank cap for growth once every 1-2 years, and will be implementing elements such as additional classes and jobs in the future.

However, I think what you’re all really concerned about is whether or not the end-game content and reasons for growing your character are going to be worthwhile or not. All I can say to that is that I will give it my utmost best!

Additionally, in the midst of the current battle adjustments, I think that rapidly inserting content (specifically battle-related content), when taking into account the overall situation, can be considered a pretty rash decision under normal circumstances. Since the foundation of game design is usually to first focus on finalizing the battle system, and then to implement content that utilizes the finished system, we are running a lot of risks launching the instanced raids and the Ifrit battle at this time. ^^;

I want to state just how much we appreciate all of you that are playing in these conditions, and let you know that we’ll continue with our best effort to implement content alongside the battle and foundational-related fixes.

[Jericho]

While this is only concept phase right now, we are planning to increase the rank cap for growth once every 1-2 years, and will be implementing elements such as additional classes and jobs in the future.

I'd rather not work hard for 2 year sprints only to have the level cap raised and all the gear I've obtained become useless. And do it all over again.