New Letter from the Producer, XII

[Chezen]

That's all nice and all, but stuff endgame content.. I'd prefer to enjoy the journey getting there.

Places to explore, being encouraged to range far and wide in my character progression, to group with people and enjoy just playing together rather than obsessing over how fast we gain experience, finding/working to acquire special items or solving puzzles..

The 'rush to cap/endgame' thing is one of the most poisonous things you can encourage when developing an MMO, in my opinion. Sure there should be stuff to do at the end, and people should be allowed to rush if they want.. but there should be no more to do at the end than there is along the way, and the wide-ranging impression should be that the people who rushed chose to miss out on something, not that they got the boring bit out of the way quickly. 'Hope that's kept in mind and all.

Quoted for agreement.

[Holland]

I am very glad to hear the max cap will not be stagnant for extremes amount of time like FFXI. While I understand first hand how we feel waiting for content, I am glad Yoshida is able to hold it for us ^^. Also, thank you for taking the risk on the dungeons.

[Ashthra]

Doing the math, that's about 9-10 days /played to reach cap. Slower than the current crop of MMOs (which have you hitting cap in 3-5 days /played, if that), but blazingly fast compared to FFXI and EQ era games. Honestly, that doesn't sound like a terrible trade off. Though I wonder how these new jobs will fare with this leveling speed.

[syntaxlies]

Doing the math, that's about 9-10 days /played to reach cap. Slower than the current crop of MMOs (which have you hitting cap in 3-5 days /played, if that), but blazingly fast compared to FFXI and EQ era games. Honestly, that doesn't sound like a terrible trade off. Though I wonder how these new jobs will fare with this leveling speed.

the new jobs wont need to be lvled, theyll be the same lvl as the class your playing.

[Crica]

the new jobs wont need to be lvled, theyll be the same lvl as the class your playing.

I don't recall any dev stating this.

All I have read simply states you will unlock jobs, but not what lvl they will be when unlocked.

[TheVedis]

I don't recall any dev stating this.

All I have read simply states you will unlock jobs, but not what lvl they will be when unlocked.

its actualy been stated several times

jobs are equipped, not a new thing to level on their own

[Wolfie]

On the other hand, FFXI's endgame got stale really fast because new gear was just sidegrades. And there was some end game content that was obsolete the moment it was released, because the upgrades were minimal and the effort was too great (like sea, COP dynamis, Hydra).

[Jericho]

On the other hand, FFXI's endgame got stale really fast because new gear was just sidegrades. And there was some end game content that was obsolete the moment it was released, because the upgrades were minimal and the effort was too great (like sea, COP dynamis, Hydra).

I disagree with this. Sea gear did not become obsolete until Abyssea, and most AF2 were useful macro pieces, so the +1 and Acc's from CoP Dynamis were just as useful and nice trophy pieces. I never felt the endgame was stale. It was challenging and emotionally rewarding when they were obtained. Merits were a great idea for character advancement without raising a level cap.

[mmk]

my hope is that party play is lucrative enough that it makes people want to take the time to form a party. if you can level a character up playing alone just as fast as you could in a party than why would anyone spend their time to make a party? if party play isnt MORE lucrative than solo play than party play wont happen. it takes a lot of time and effort to make parties, and many times its wasted when there arent enough of the appropriate jobs to form a party.

without a lot of people invested into making parties happen, they wont. having 10 people looking for a party makes partying unpractical - what are the chances that within those 10 players there is a healer, blocker, support and enough damage? and then whats the chance that theyre all within the same level range? its not very high.

without a lucrative party system that pushes people towards wanting to party with others the party system falls apart. the only place that you see parties forming in any game is where being in a party is much better than being alone. and though thats not to say playing alone has to be a horrible waste of time, it just cant be nearly as fast as partying.

without a party i find myself alone for hours killing the same mob, barely talking to anyone and i dont want to sit by myself and kill the same mob for hours on end, i would much rather be with friends or some random people that i can joke around with while i level up my characters. if ffxiv doesnt have party play at its core it probably wont be the game for me, and while a few may disagree with me ill still keep my hopes up and keep checking in from time to time to see how the game changes. to see if the game can incorporate party play in a meaningful way.

[Ceons]

The Aion one man dungeons are ok at best. I think they get boring really fast. I would have preferred if they had done duo-trio dungeons. At least to play with a friend or two.

Of course there are ones that you 'can' duo or trio but they require very rigid setups (in classes) and then not everyone is welcome. That is a shame.

If SE ever wanted to do solo dungeons, I'd love for them to reconsider to duo/trio dungeons. This is an MMO after all and it can not be that hard to grab 1-2 friends/people to do things with.