Rank cap increase every 1-2 years discussion thread

[Rentahamster]

level cap increases every one or two years is fine.

The only reason why level cap increases suck in other games is because of bad design.

They are only designed to be balanced for endgame, so endgame is the only part of the game that matters. This is why when there is a level cap increase, and endgame is no longer endgame, all your previous stuff turns into crap.

Just have the entire game balanced from ranks 1 to 50, so that when the level cap is raised to 60, the impact on game balance and item worth is less severe than in other games.

[Enma]

I think that the changes that we'll see in the game will be so huge that at this moment it's difficult think about the future. Yoshi didn't say anything about the "number of leves add", so maybe it could be just a 5 rank increase every 1-2 years, till to reach, I don't know, rank 75 like in FFXI. At that point I also think that will be important develop a long-time end game, focused on that rank cap...

[Delmontyb]

I have to say that I'm all for this and excited by this, in XI, going from a level 50 cap to a level 75 cap didn't make since to me and thus made it to where content then had to be designed for 75 and thus the race was on to reach 75. For those who were already 50, that's a 25 level gap, and a lot of opportunity was missed by doing that.

Here is why I think that.

Let's say that every 1 to 2 years they raise the level cap by 5 to 10 levels. So the first time, it goes to 60, two years later 70 and so on... When they are developing content that means that they only have to focus on 10 levels at a time, and as long as they pack so much content, quests, dungeons, raids, battles, classes, jobs, into those ten levels, then it's worth it, so when you hit 50, (with the cap at 60) there will be all this content designed for you to do, rather then hitting 50 and seeing cap at 75 where all the content has been built (not saying this is always the case).

I guess to sum up, I'm all for this if that means that they are going to make a lot of content for that level range, and as long as we can still enjoy it after the cap is raised down the line, all the better.

My hope is that with each level cap raise, that new players aren't ignored, and content is released for all ranges of levels.

[Ceons]

Isn't it a bit early to discuss level cap increase anyway? I mean look at the condition of the game; how much is changing and how much still needs fixing and stuff added (like content). That in itself might take 1-2 years. By then everyone's opinions would have changed anyway.

[Sol_Aureus]

Isn't it a bit early to discuss level cap increase anyway? I mean look at the condition of the game; how much is changing and how much still needs fixing and stuff added (like content). That in itself might take 1-2 years. By then everyone's opinions would have changed anyway.

I can see why you'd think that, however like I said in my original post:

First off, I'm aware that Yoshida has said that this is only in the concept stage at the moment, and is quite a long ways off, however, I believe it's an important enough topic to discuss now, before they start working on content with this in mind.

[Picoman]

I feel like i need r60 by around patch 1.21.

As a Botanist i would really like the Grade 6 and 7 trees at some point. Ebony, Rosewood, Spruce and Teak.

[Physic]

game definately needs a level cap increase soon, and if its 1-2 years between, id ere to 1 year, and 10 levels at a time. just speaking about now.

The endgame model of MMOs in general is a bad idea. sure you should probably minimize early levels, but later on, you should have interesting gear options while you play and enjoy content. Id give better upgrade options for hard to obtain gears, and honestly you do want progression.
Take a look at ffxiii, all gear could be upgraded to an ultimate level, with different status spreads, some gear needed more upgrades than others, but some you only got later in the game. none of your gear was really worthless, except the pieces you didnt want or need.

the idea should be progression. as in, the stuff you do as you level matters for the next progression. So gear wise you would have the new gear, that looks new and exciting, has a slightly different stat spread, or special effects on it, and the old gear which you could update to be competive with the new gear, but offering different stat spreads special traits, or even just a different look.

by having that type of model, your mid level acquisitions matter more, thus making the game less endgame heavy, and making it so content of various levels matter, over all i think it makes the whole game better at all levels.

[Sol_Aureus]

game definately needs a level cap increase soon, and if its 1-2 years between, id ere to 1 year, and 10 levels at a time. just speaking about now.

The endgame model of MMOs in general is a bad idea. sure you should probably minimize early levels, but later on, you should have interesting gear options while you play and enjoy content. Id give better upgrade options for hard to obtain gears, and honestly you do want progression.
Take a look at ffxiii, all gear could be upgraded to an ultimate level, with different status spreads, some gear needed more upgrades than others, but some you only got later in the game. none of your gear was really worthless, except the pieces you didnt want or need.

the idea should be progression. as in, the stuff you do as you level matters for the next progression. So gear wise you would have the new gear, that looks new and exciting, has a slightly different stat spread, or special effects on it, and the old gear which you could update to be competive with the new gear, but offering different stat spreads special traits, or even just a different look.

by having that type of model, your mid level acquisitions matter more, thus making the game less endgame heavy, and making it so content of various levels matter, over all i think it makes the whole game better at all levels.

This is also something I've seen brought up a few times, and I completely agree with.

The level cap raise in and of itself I don't really have a problem with, it's the rendering old events and gear useless that I am very strongly against.

If they were to go with something like this with constantly upgradable gear, to me it'd be almost as good as keeping the cap the same. While the prospect of being able to have almost complete gear customization is awesome to me, the old content would become laughably easy to do (since it would be built for lower levels). While people might still run through it for the gear, there would be no challenge, unless they upgraded the dungeon as well. And over time, upgrading ALL endgame events EVERY level cap raise is a lot of work.

[Physic]

This is also something I've seen brought up a few times, and I completely agree with.

The level cap raise in and of itself I don't really have a problem with, it's the rendering old events and gear useless that I am very strongly against.

If they were to go with something like this with constantly upgradable gear, to me it'd be almost as good as keeping the cap the same. While the prospect of being able to have almost complete gear customization is awesome to me, the old content would become laughably easy to do (since it would be built for lower levels). While people might still run through it for the gear, there would be no challenge, unless they upgraded the dungeon as well. And over time, upgrading ALL endgame events EVERY level cap raise is a lot of work.

not exactly, they would have to make the gear that is upgradeable be gear obtainined from level caps, as well, making some of the drops for upgrading come from new content, or some other thing, like buyable from beastcoins, or with a certain level of fame.
the idea is you can upgrade your old gear, or save a step and get new gear. The idea is certain special gears gotten with great difficulty, become upgradedable.
you could go back and do the level capped stuff, but it will always be capped, and thus should always be somewhat difficult. then youd have to upgrade, you may need to do a quest, or craft it, but it will involve some of the new content, or using some resource you built up over your playtime.

no need to remake the dungeons, just make use of level caps.

[Sorel]

Ideally, with each new increase in level cap, it would be accompanied by new content AND new Classes and/or Jobs. That way, it's not only about getting levels 51-60 of your current Class, but also about possibly going back to get 1-60 of a new class, and going through lower level content as that Class if you want.

Just off the top of my head (so don't expect balanced classes or specifc items)...

1st Cap Raise:

• Add Musketeer, Arcanist, & Fencer Classes.
• Add Sniper, Scholar, & Red Mage Jobs.
• Add more Level 30 content (quests, NMs, rare equipment).
• Raise Level Cap to 60.
• Add Level 60 content.

2nd Cap Raise:

• Add Whip-User (Lasher), Tachi-user, & Mace-User Classes.
• Add Summoner, Samurai, & Ninja Jobs.
• Add more Level 40 content.
• Raise the Level Cap to 70.
• Add level 70 content.

Rinse and repeat every year or two for 5-10 years.

As long as the cap raise has:

1. New Classes
2. New Jobs
3. Max Level Content (calcuated after raise)
4. Mid Level Content (calculated after raise)

There shouldn't be a problem with veteran players racing to the cap, and thus making their old gear obsolete, as long as new Classes/Jobs/Content/Recipes are introduced that can make use of that gear at the same time.