New Letter from the Producer, XII

[Ashthra]

So, are they giving players who have static parties an alternative way to make the same SP as before through leve-linking? Or are most players going to have to take a SP hit until a patch comes around with party-oriented leveling content?

Hopefully the amount of SP you'll gain from completing leves will offset what you'd get from failing a leve. At least, failing it once. Anyway, aren't those two dungeons coming in with 1.18?

[Molly_Millions]

So, are they giving players who have static parties an alternative way to make the same SP as before through leve-linking? Or are most players going to have to take a SP hit until a patch comes around with party-oriented leveling content?

yes?

Seriously though, with the info we've been given up 'til this point, nobody but a dev can really answer that.

[Rowyne]

I'm a bit concerned about leves being changes to be focussed on solo play. As boring as leves are, they're still more fun than raptor grinding.

They're giving us more options to get SP, such as dungeons and quests.

Not picking on you in particular, because a lot of people seem to do this, but there are potentially more ways to level than just do leves and straight up grinding. Yoshi-P wants to give that to us and get away from the 'grind' mentality.

Please, think outside the old-school MMO box.

[Rowyne]

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I still dont know what that is

http://dragis.files.wordpress.com/20...d-facepalm.jpg

[Lerris]

Why doesn't he realize that having to go back to the leve counter is a massive deterrent for casual players?

Every time I log in, my anima is full.
I only have to go back to the leve counter every day and a half.

What's the deterrent?

[Wolfie]

looking at the servers that all were "full" and now are at low/medium... isn't all "well" to me.
It did a lot of things right but its losing a lot of players every day due to the lack of content. Many are leaving back to wow, what a surprise. But well you know everything. That's not new to me.

That tends to happen after the free month is up. But they're not shutting down servers like other MMOs, their development is still going forward at a frighteningly good pace, and they're still raking in good dough. Look at how fast NA Aion crashed, how fast FFXIV crashed, how fast AOC crashed, how fast Warhammer Online crashed. RIFT is on the other side of the spectrum.

Also for the record, WOW is bleeding customers right now. They lost 10% of the subscribers these last few months, most of which jumped ship to RIFT.

Also also for the record, you really should read my posts more thoroughly. You even quoted me as saying that lack of content drives people away; that's what's happening to WOW and less so with RIFT.

Although Wolfie might disagree with me since he's always trolling me with crazy comments like "Your comments are stupid, I wish bats would attack you for no particular reason" or "That makes no sense, why won't you give me your carrot cake recipe, it's as if you're made entirely of indifference and left over turkey" I'll say it anyhow.

I for one thought Yoshida's (and the team's) assessment and repositioning of guildleves in the game and the way in which they went about it were very reasonable and rational steps to take that give me only hope for the future of this game. They espouse an underlying common sense that's refreshing to see.

I had to come back and reply to this since I missed it.

You're making it really hard not to dismiss your posts altogether as nonsensical. Especially when you pull out ad hominem attacks when I'm not even present to defend myself ... and you're being argumentative over a topic we agree on.

[darkstarpoet1]

just thank goodness most of my battle classes will be r50 before the patch so i will have only minor grinding left to do.

[Bigglesworth]

So for battle classes if you need marks you go to Uldah for THM, PGL, and GLD. You go to Gridania for CON, LNC, and ARC. You go to Limsa Lomina for ...... MRD ? I like the idea, but LL is getting a little screwed here. Easy fix though. ACTIVATE THE OMEGA 13!!! (I mean activate Arcanist and Muskateer!!!)

[Eekiki]

Didn't we already have this debate several times already?

[Tsuwu]

Wow. My doubts are now much weaker.
This is great news.
I was so worried 1.18 was going to all be behind the curtain system changes.
But this letter genuinely showed several common misconceptions were (or at least, are now) indeed false. (See the segment about half-assing/cursory job something to rush it in)
I think 1.18 will see a lot more of me in game.
Excitement can once again be a part of my talks with other MMO players regarding XIV.