Working EXP into endgame

[Xairos]

I had this idea while farming up Atma: Is there some what SE could develop a system to use post 50 (or post cap) exp as a currency system of some sort? Let me try to elaborate.

In FFXI we had the Merit system. This clunky system served to have us as the player kill time gaining xp in order to increase our battle stats, like healing and/or sword skill. The subtlety of this system is that it gave players something to do after they reached cap that wasn't too different from what they had already been doing for the majority of their journey to 50: EXPing.

Now in the scope of FFXIV (which is a completely different game, I'll agree), I think that we could benefit from a system that turned its eye on something that translates from FFXI's stat value to FFXIV's battle effectiveness: gear.

Now i'm not calling for a revamping of the atma system. I think aside from some tweaks, it is fine how it is. But to illustrate my point, I would like to use the atma quest as an example. Lets use the portion where you have to start. Collecting the 12 Atma stones.

Current system: 1 stone from fates under the veil of RNG.

Purposed system: 1 stone costs 600k (although that seems kinda low, maybe 800k) EXP that you accrue and then trade into an NPC once you reach that amount.

Reason: Basically, How many FATEs and how much exp would I have gotten from the FATEs I did to get the atma anyway? Can't I just pool that exp, while feeling like I am making progress and use it for the Open-world Content?

Current System: Fight Leviathan for a chance to see the mirror drop and then loot for it.

Proposed system: A Leviathan Mirror costs 1Mil EXP to purchase but you have to get the weapon from the fight itself.

Reasoning: This would support farm parties. Without putting the bulk of the stress on mirror drops and who claims it/gets to roll on it, as well as encouraging players to do the fight, but also to do other, older content and still make progress.

Caveat: A player would need to unlock and down the content that they would be able to purchase rewards for. Example, A fresh level 50 would not be able to purchase a Leviathan Mirror before first doing the quest to unlock the fight and defeating the Lord of the Whorl.

The benefits of this could be that people can choose how they want to collect EXP. Be that in FATEs, Big Boss Fights, Roulette, Maps, etc. While making this available to every player on the basis of "they can reach it eventually". This Opens the entirety of the Dungeons and content to all players instead of funneling it into specific dungeons like Hard Modes and such. Under our current system, the number one question asked after players run a new dungeon is "Can this be speed-ran for tomes efficiently". This limits the content and it develops a mentality of speed running among the player base. If EXP can be turned into endgame usable currency then Time is less of a factor in the average dungeon run, and basic kill and progress becomes more of the focus.

Will some reach this goal faster? Absolutely. But this could alleviate the jarring nature of EXP grinding to 50 only to shift the focus abruptly to statics and boss fights. A player might not get as pissed at the slow nature of a dungeon run if he/she is getting experience towards their goal as opposed to just looking to end the run to get their myths. Speed runs would still be a thing, but now the trash mobs are somewhat viable. My point is to transition the efforts we put into leveling our characters into the things we do at endgame. Currently the flow of play is to exp as efficiently as possible, then farm myths as efficiently as possible; similar in theory, but myths come from a percentage of the entire developed content. Well that and people hate to feel forced to do FATEs. If the option to do FATEs comes from the player then the salt on the wound might not sting as much.

I used atma as an example because, arguably, atma farming is one of the most laid back things in the game currently. Because of this I get the sense that SE wants everyone to do atma eventually. So why not put to use something that we all do anyway.

And this doesn't have to apply just to Atma. Could be applied to sets of armor. But this could be a system to avoid the phasing out of other tokens, like what we saw with Philosophy stones.

Now this isn't without flaws. Because it doesn't have a soft weekly cap like Sol. Tokens that means people farm like its Harvest Moon if they wish, so this might not apply to all bits of endgame content.

And for simplicity sake, we could just call this a Bonus Level System, where an Elemental Horse Mount could cost 1 bonus level (or 532000 EXP @ 50) where an Atma stone costs 2 Bonus Levels (much more exp than I proposed above, sorry I rounded up to make it a whole number).

IF Community Relations team members read this: I am not calling for a change to ATMA, rather I'm tossing out ideas for future content. If the Development Team decide to use FATE's and/or Tome collecting from specific dungeons again.

I look forward to comments.

[NyneAlexander]

Further more, theres lots of things that give XP as an award that can only be accessed at lvl 50, when you (currently) no longer need xp. Just feels wasted

[Macka]

Yes cause the one thing we need is.....more tokens.

[RaquelleAvarosa]

-snip snip-

Perhaps an item like 5% exp bonus scroll purchased using exp that is gained from a lv 50 class. Helps to level other classes ^^

[Xairos]

It's not so much a token system as in "lets speed run Brayflox for those sweet myth" but rather a token system as "X costs Y amount of accrued exp".

You can get the exp however you wish.

[Lithera]

They aren't likely to do anything with an impending cap increase. XI got merits because the Devs weren't planning to increase cap for a long time, if ever.

[Skander]

I can't say for sure how good or bad this would be for the game in practice, but I can say that for me personally, seeing the 'exp' I gain post 50 having some practical use would do wonders for my virtual quality of life.

[Shinun]

So much complaining about Atmas. I say without knowing what the final product is going to be, trying to make progress on it easier is too early. If it happens to become anything like XI relics theirs no way anything will become easier and later steps will be just harder or more grinding then it already is through novus.

But, I do like the idea about having different purposes for exp just not atma or in that regard anything quest related

And in regards to my "complaing about atmas" That was just directed for the fact it was brought up as an example. With how many threads are on about atmas already giving it as an example was a poor choice just because this thread could very well lose focus and turn into another thread of RNG.

[dracos9000]

I would love to see a similar merit system in ff14. That's what kept me playing longer was that you still accrued xp even after cap.

[Bushido_Brown]

On the note of wasted EXP after level 50, the easiest thing I could see them doing (which I'm surprised was never implemented in the first place) would be to have all that EXP get pooled in to your rested bonus for use on other classes you have not yet leveled, no?