Alternative Servers

[Calevr]

Like lv1 Ladybug hit you with 1/3 of your max. HP?
Or increasing the level of every open-word enemy by 10? (the lowest enemy would be at level 11 and the highest at level 60)

I don't mind something like this but at the moment I can solo three maybe four lv1 Ladybugs at once with a class lv1 and win comfortably. This is okay for me at low levels but I would expect after lv20 they got alot harder, like increasing the level of every open-word enemy by 10?

[gornotck]

Why not have level 2 enemies be as strong as 2 level 1 enemies, so your level 50 enemies would be as strong as 50 level 49 enemies?

[JayCommon]

snip

Pre 2.2 maybe. Not sure what you have been playing since 2.2 but the economy boomed and has showed no signs of stagnation in my server (which is much smaller than Sarg)

This has happened because it is a severe time-sink to have all of these crafts at "Master" ability now. How many crafters do you know that have all 8 DoH classes with their ilvl 70 weapon? If so, that person is most likely sitting on a 9 digit bankroll (or broke themselves spending as much gil as they needed to penta-meld every bodyworn piece of every class so they could actually meet the reqs to craft the 3 star recipes)

Either way, the economy right now is absolutely NOT non-existent. I sell a total of like 6-7 items regularly and make no less than 1-2 million a week. Not all of that is from crafting, but people sure love glamouring Giantsgall weapons.

[Lithera]

I don't mind something like this but at the moment I can solo three maybe four lv1 Ladybugs at once with a class lv1 and win comfortably. This is okay for me at low levels but I would expect after lv20 they got alot harder, like increasing the level of every open-word enemy by 10?

Rose tinted FFXI glasses...The difficulty ramp in the open world in FFXI was there to literally force you into partying to exp. not a bad thing persay but that isn't FFXIVs exping style. It would end up just being a pain in the ass. It's already wipe city if you try to do dailies as a sub-50 class. Run into the depths of the Mines and see how long you last at 47-48 with all the Elite kobolds.

[Kimikryo]

Ugh, some people seem to be sith only talking in absolutes to a level of trolling stubborness.

As it is, there is very little on the "overworld" that is challenging. Some fates for soloing maybe when on the "wrong" class, with soloing I also mean without Chocobo. If you disagree with that and say it is difficult, maybe upgrade your gear or eat some food (what a NQ food can change for those instanced story fights is insane).
Everything feels so awkwardly easy, that you barely need to use your brain, crying "To Hard" over something like this really brings me pain.
Some Mobs hit insanely hard though, while others, while you expect to hit them like a truck, just tickle you.

I REALLY would love to be able to hunt for rare mobs again. OUTSIDE of fates. Challenging, and fun to beat. Remember that NM outside of Bastok you had to beat as alliance full of (i think) max level 8? It didn't drop anything that good if memory serfs me right but LS did this for fun.


The crafting as it is now, is what I wished for, a mixture of FFXI and WoW. A list of all your recipes, possibility of chain crafts, but a "rather slow" level progression.

[Calevr]

Why not have level 2 enemies be as strong as 2 level 1 enemies, so your level 50 enemies would be as strong as 50 level 49 enemies?

Haha that would be tough. What about this?

Levels 1-5 To remain as present
Levels 6-10 Rises 3lvs higher than present
Levels 11-20 Rises 6lvs higher than present
Levels 21-30 Rises 9lvs higher than present
Levels 31-40 Rises 12lvs higher than present
Levels 41-50 Rises 15lvs higher than present

[Calevr]

Rose tinted FFXI glasses...The difficulty ramp in the open world in FFXI was there to literally force you into partying to exp. not a bad thing persay but that isn't FFXIVs exping style. It would end up just being a pain in the ass. It's already wipe city if you try to do dailies as a sub-50 class. Run into the depths of the Mines and see how long you last at 47-48 with all the Elite kobolds.

Lol yeah with the glasses With a group well equiped though I think you could run into the depths of the Mines, this could be managed. For me I see this style to be more sociable than how it is already.

[HeroSamson]

I wish they made a lobby where you couldn't trade but people from different servers could go into that lobby and hang out maybe do some party finder.

[necrosis]

From what I hear the Chinese Servers are gonna be different...

Chinese servers are "different" by law. And probably will not allow anyone outside China to connect.

I remember reading a bit ago that any game or service that operates in China must have its servers in China.

[Pandastirfry]

to actually address in the initial post:

Many developers from Blizzard to SE have explained why "Pre-Patch/Expansion X" Servers or after-the-fact "Hardcore" Servers are a complete no go.

IN the Case of the former it is a two fold reason, First, the population of players that would want to play on these servers is too small that maintaining different iteriations of the code is not cost effective. Second, as Blizzard pointed out, when a new iteration of the code is implemented onto the live servers, the old version is discarded...there is no rolling back to "Pre-Whatever" because the base code for "Pre-Whatever" doesn't exist and may need to be completely rewritten in order to reimplement it, which brings us back to the first reason of population being to low to justify the cost.

As to "Hardcore" servers, when none had existed before, well again it's a case of Population would be too low to justify the cost of coding and maintaining them, is the primary reason most developers say "No".