The real problem with hunts; impact on the community.

[redisdrunk]

I'll keep the story short.

I joined a hunt party via Party Finder. Nice folks. We're all actively scouring the zones for Bs and As, it's slow going but we're having some success.

We're often running parallel to a zerg horde from a fairly well known hunt LS.

Our group stumbles upon an A, we're idling for a minute or two to gather, nobody else shows up. We engage the mob (Forneus), and about 50% into it's life the horde shows up. One of my friends is in this LS/Horde, and immediately became angry that we had pulled the mob. I'm not in their LS. I had no idea they were coming, nor did I have any duty to report the mob.

This is the problem with hunts. Everyone wants to be at every hunt, and becomes slighted/angry/whatever that they cant be. I felt genuinely bad that my friend was upset, and words were passed, but this content is bringing out the worst in people. I've seen so much nastiness passing between players over these perceived slights since the introduction of hunts, that I'm genuinely concerned about it's impact on the community.

Do I have a solution? Not really. Perhaps an Allied Seal weekly limit of 300 or 400, to take the pressure off of this rampant, break-neck farming people are feeling compelled to do. Anything would be better than the current system, really.

[wicked-one]

TBH - yesterday the S-Rank in South Thanalan showed up.


After doing the Trigger-FATE 2-3 Times, i was quite disappointed that someone pulled before I arrived (but enough ppl gathered so i couldn´t even target this enemy because it dissappeared from my screen - not being an PS3 player!). The community got really angry, and myself - I like this Hunter´s Code when you cast out a Pull Time to at least gather some ppl together...

But you have always someone who start´s before.

But there is always the other side, and as i got inside myself i was thinking - someone did really work on that, spawning it and i understand whilst some people want as much ppl as possible to share the reward, you really don´t want the whole server to gather together. What flipped the switch was another thread where the pull happened "before mr. happy arrived" - ppl seriously?!

I can clearly accept if people roaming around the world and spot for monsters, especially for B/A Ranks, it is ok if they kill them in their group and don´t wait for 200 people to show up. Because - let´s be honest - most people in Huntin LS are just sitting around in town idling or crafting, waiting for the spotters to announce a mob, and then rush up to it to snake some credits...

You notice already, that LS are getting quiter, and Groups keep their info for the dedicated group - which i am totally fine after rethinking it. If you wait for at least 20-30 people showing up, it´s more than enough.

Only thing that bothers me is those ppl who literally steal it... be it reseting it so the original group gets their credit reduced...
or by using this radar app to just port around, look up the minimap, next area, found one - zerg it down before anyone else has a chance...

[Ronyx]

The best solution is to make them force pop like Treasure Chest but with those papers you get from the Board. If you help someone you get X amount and if you had that paper you get a bonus. Simple. So those who wants a bit more reward than just daily/weekly then need to tag team with other players and help them.

[Immut]

The problem with hunts is that they're not competitive ENOUGH. All the drama comes from the intent and expectation to share them.

Decrease spawn timers, lock credit to the party that pulled it, and make them unleashable. Watch as all the drama and namecalling is replaced by sportsmanship.

[DoctaruRavenbe]

Decrease spawn timers, lock credit to the party that pulled it, and make them unleashable. Watch as all the drama and namecalling is replaced by sportsmanship.

My experience in FFXI proves the logic of that statement to be the opposite.

[PreetWilson]

I really wish they would do something with the hunts. If they can't improve them to alleviate this stress that they've put on the players then they need to just can the entire thing complelety.

It is not okay seeing people tearing each other apart in shouts in coerthas because Naul is dying every 2 seconds without people getting credit.

I have never seen so many arguments and bashing among players until this hunt system. It is disgusting and toxic.

[Kisshu]

My experience in FFXI proves the logic of that statement to be the opposite.

I remember Fafnir fights where a WHM from competing LS would stand behind the HNM and spam Cure IV on the main tank to force a Tail Swipe so the claim party died and the competing LS could grab it. When they created the /aid function where you couldn't receive outside help to eliminate the WHM strategy the compening LS' would all gather at the claim party, spamming abilities and bard songs in an attempt to lag and disconnect the claim party. And then all the other tactics for other HNMs.
If we had the "only claim party would get points" again we would see the same problems even though the NMs have much shorter spawn time simply because of the reward, we already see provoke reset being used by some parties.

[Symbiant]

It needs to go to pop items. As it stands now the amount of crying and bickering is absurd.

We have people using 3rd party tools to locate / track the marks. We have people yelling at each other in zone chat. We have people sending nasty tells to each other.

It's out of hand and needs to be reeled in. As it stands pop items will be the best solution.

[Yshnal]

That's why I'm not even bothering with this "content". And if I just happen to find a mark while I'm doing something else, I just kill it (or ask my FC and my FC alone). I'm not going to wait for the horde, I'm not going to shout, and I'm not even going to care if anyone gets angry or blacklists me.

That's what I did with Naul while I was doing the main scenario quests. There wasn't anyone in the vicinity, so I just killed him alone and moved on. I couldn't care less.

Too much drama around these things, and too much backfire if you try to do the right thing. I like being nice and all that, but this is not worth it because, no matter what you do, someone is going to be angry at you.

SE, if you somehow read this, implementing the hunts as they're now was a complete mistake. They're an utter disaster: they bring the worse of the community, and that's NOT exactly what we needed here.

[CassandraJean]

The best solution is to make them force pop like Treasure Chest but with those papers you get from the Board. If you help someone you get X amount and if you had that paper you get a bonus. Simple. So those who wants a bit more reward than just daily/weekly then need to tag team with other players and help them.

This is actually how I thought the hunt system would work when I first saw previews of it. I thought people would get mark bills from the boards, then could form groups with friends and go out and find the monsters from their bills and, like the treasure hunts, rewards were shared between the party while the person with the bill who spawned the hunt gets the highest reward.

Although I do enjoy seeing more people running around the open world, presumably patrolling areas for marks to appear, this really has been a toxic system.