Rank cap increase every 1-2 years discussion thread

[AuctionGirl]

Ichi,

I played XI from NA release in 2002, to the point I capped most jobs at 75, did all the dungeons we had and quit before TAU. I simply got bored of the game, there was nothing new to experience. I came back to XI a couple years later, started a brand new account and did the same as before, repeated to 75's did the same content as before, but this time didnt take me 2 years to get to 75, only took me 3 months for 2 classes to 75 with sub jobs and other stuff. WotG was released and I loved the campaigns, after doing those for a couple months, the game was again stale. Nothing new to do, no reason to grind, no reason to party, no reason since I already had everything I needed. FFXI wasnt releasing anything NEW that interested me or I had to have to continue in the game. I eventually fully merited my PLD and then quit again. I told myself I would never go back to XI, but I went back when abysmal was released. Abysmal ruined what FFXI was. FFXI did well at horizontal progression, but in the end horizontal progression killed the game (slowly made players quit, due to lack of new stuff to do/goals to set).

You cant stay at a cap for too long, this makes people too attached to the items they have, and this creates fear in players that the items they worked hard for will no longer be good. But if you know every 4-6 months, there will be new content and new items, you wont be as attached to those items, but will strive for the next ones. You will want those new items/armors because they will help you with the newest content.

Edit:

There are ways to keep existing content relevant and that is to put caps on it, like CoP did, along with making drops from those part of the upgrades to the newest armors/weapons. This keeps people going back to the older stuff, cause it now has newer stuff in it. And having the CAP on it, will prevent the content from no longer being challenging.

[Sol_Aureus]

Ichi,

I played XI from NA release in 2002, to the point I capped most jobs at 75, did all the dungeons we had and quit before TAU. I simply got bored of the game, there was nothing new to experience. I came back to XI a couple years later, started a brand new account and did the same as before, repeated to 75's did the same content as before, but this time didnt take me 2 years to get to 75, only took me 3 months for 2 classes to 75 with sub jobs and other stuff. WotG was released and I loved the campaigns, after doing those for a couple months, the game was again stale. Nothing new to do, no reason to grind, no reason to party, no reason since I already had everything I needed. FFXI wasnt releasing anything NEW that interested me or I had to have to continue in the game. I eventually fully merited my PLD and then quit again. I told myself I would never go back to XI, but I went back when abysmal was released. Abysmal ruined what FFXI was. FFXI did well at horizontal progression, but in the end horizontal progression killed the game (slowly made players quit, due to lack of new stuff to do/goals to set).

You cant stay at a cap for too long, this makes people too attached to the items they have, and this creates fear in players that the items they worked hard for will no longer be good. But if you know every 4-6 months, there will be new content and new items, you wont be as attached to those items, but will strive for the next ones. You will want those new items/armors because they will help you with the newest content.

Edit:

There are ways to keep existing content relevant and that is to put caps on it, like CoP did, along with making drops from those part of the upgrades to the newest armors/weapons. This keeps people going back to the older stuff, cause it now has newer stuff in it. And having the CAP on it, will prevent the content from no longer being challenging.

I apologize if I'm being rude by interjecting here, but I feel like something's odd about that statement.

It seems to me that it's incredibly unlikely that you would have "everything you need." Even for only one class, you had AF2 sets, Salvage sets, Cursed Gear, NM and HNM gear, Limbus gear, not to mention Relics and Mythics, and other stuff I'm probably forgetting. You mean to tell me that you had obtained ALL of the best pieces of gear for every situation?

Maybe a few pieces of gear were outperformed in every way by other pieces of gear, and you decided you didn't need them, that's perfectly fine. I doubt there were that many that were rendered completely obsolete by other gear that was better in every way. There were so many different situations, and since you could gear swap in XI, unless you had the best gear for every situation, you still had something to strive for.

Relic/Mythics, I can understand not going for. They're definitely not for everyone, they require a HUGE investment. But you cannot say that you had nothing to do just because you didn't want to do it. The options were available to you but you chose not to do them because you thought they weren't worth your time.

But the fact remains that you still had that carrot to chase, you just chose not to chase it, and you can't try and pass it off like there was nothing to do, because there was ALWAYS quite a lot to do in XI.

Unless you had all 75s, every relic, every mythic, all the best gear for every situation, and have completed all content in XI, you still had things to do, carrots to chase. The notion of having all of that done is absolutely ridiculous, the amount of time, gil, and effort it would take would be astronomical, and THAT'S WHAT I WANT. Enough content that it is an absolutely ridiculous notion to be able to complete it all.