Something Positive I've Noticed About Hunts

[Niamh_Rillemaugh]

Before the hunts were implemented I had never created a party with random people in the overworld outside of the Party Finder. There was never any need! Everything, except maybe a few of the tough boss fates (I'm looking at you, Cancer and Gorgimera), could be soloed or handled with the help of a couple of friends from my FC.

But now, especially since the hotfix, I've found myself inviting everybody possible to a party when we're waiting to pull. I've even invited a few folks that were really low-level and stumbled across the hunt on accident (that level 8 archer that tried taking on Phecda more than earned his place in the hunt). Besides, there's no better way as a healer to make sure that I can actually get something out of the hunt, and if I help other people get their seals as well? All the better. I'm loving the temporary partying that I've been seeing because of the hunts.

[Rydia13]

Couldn't agree more. I love the hunts and think it was a wonderful much needed implementation. A lot of people will complain and I understand their views but I still disagree. It could be vastly improved upon though but it's still a fun and refreshing break from PF duty spamming.

[TheUltimate3]

(that level 8 archer that tried taking on Phecda more than earned his place in the hunt).

Just want to point this one out, this sounds so damned badass.

[sarehptar]

Although I definitely still think there needs to be changes to the hunts, I did have this sort of experience last night. Went out to Bluefog just to pick up a treasure map, spotted a mark, and... there was no one there. What, a mark with no hoard?! I shouted then waited, expecting the swarm, and nope, no one... So for the very first time, I actually used the Party Finder and invited random people who started to pass by, got the correct number of people over to take on a mark, and tada, everyone got credit, everyone was pleased, and a random bunch of strangers got to help each other out. Afterward, I was just like "Whoa, so that's how it's supposed to work!" If all the hunts were like that, I would really, really be enjoying them.

[Rylock]

Hunts with a small group of random people are great (almost as if that's how they were designed to be tackled in the first place).

[BloodPact]

Before the hunts were implemented I had never created a party with random people in the overworld outside of the Party Finder. There was never any need! Everything, except maybe a few of the tough boss fates (I'm looking at you, Cancer and Gorgimera), could be soloed or handled with the help of a couple of friends from my FC.

But now, especially since the hotfix, I've found myself inviting everybody possible to a party when we're waiting to pull. I've even invited a few folks that were really low-level and stumbled across the hunt on accident (that level 8 archer that tried taking on Phecda more than earned his place in the hunt). Besides, there's no better way as a healer to make sure that I can actually get something out of the hunt, and if I help other people get their seals as well? All the better. I'm loving the temporary partying that I've been seeing because of the hunts.

The way Hunts are working now is that they are basically FATEs without the icon notification on the map. Development could have placed the rewards on the Grand Company pool of items purchasable with seals and voila, you'd see people spamming FATEs and you forming the exact same parties but now everyone on a more fair ground because everyone gets to see when FATEs spawned (instead of people abusing third party software). The Hunts system as of today is total and utter garbage. They way they made it seem in previews was that it would be little adventures in which you'd travel around the world searching for marks to defeat based on the board stationed in your GC; instead, we got Odin and Behemoth-like content scattered around zones.

[Welsper59]

The way Hunts are working now is that they are basically FATEs without the icon notification on the map. Development could have placed the rewards on the Grand Company pool of items purchasable with seals and voila, you'd see people spamming FATEs and you forming the exact same parties but now everyone on a more fair ground because everyone gets to see when FATEs spawned (instead of people abusing third party software). The Hunts system as of today is total and utter garbage. They way they made it seem in previews was that it would be little adventures in which you'd travel around the world searching for marks to defeat based on the board stationed in your GC; instead, we got Odin and Behemoth-like content scattered around zones.

I have to agree about the preview portion of it. It was always implied that there'd be some sort of trick to finding your hunt target, which initially seemed to be a treasure hunt sort of system where you go to a location/spot and discover your target (possibly with a command or S-rank type spawn condition). While there is apparently a trick to spawning the S rank, the others are just normal run-of-the-mill spawns.

It was a let down, personally, when it was revealed that the targets would all be open-world. S ranks would have been fine on that regard, but I really wish B and A ranks were reserved to the sort of style that S's currently are as far as finding them. Perhaps going to the NPC after choosing a location to hunt, getting what little details they give through text, then scouring the land for the spot that they might be located at and doing what triggers them to appear for you and your party. To prevent overdoing things, have a cooldown on access to them by only receiving X permits from your GC that allows you to hunt these targets, similar to leves. Honestly, I think that would have been a decent limiter and still keep the outside world interesting enough to learn about as you have to explore to know of locations to spawn. You could spend those permits/leves on B ranks to solo for minimal reward, or join groups to take on A ranks for a better reward total.

[Niamh_Rillemaugh]

voila, you'd see people spamming FATEs and you forming the exact same parties but now everyone on a more fair ground because everyone gets to see when FATEs spawned

Perhaps, but I've never seen random parties pop up like this pre-2.3, even when everybody was grinding for Atma. Party Finder groups, of course, but those groups have a set goal and I see plenty of hunting parties in the Party Finder already. What I was more interested in is the realization by some people that there's a concrete reasons to create a party on the fly, since everybody in the party will get more for it.

Granted, I'm on Faerie and it seems like we're not having a lot of the problems (we were, but things have seemed to calm down a bit) that other servers have been. I've seen most people waiting patiently for most of the map to gather for A's and B's (Naul excepted, of course, and I haven't had the good fortune to make it to an S yet), without the entire server zerging on a single B.

I feel like a sense of community acknowledgement has come about because of it as well. Pre-2.3 I hardly ever saw somebody shouting for help with a fate, but now that we can get seals from boss fates (yes, 2 is a measly amount, but I'm not going to pass on it, they'll add up), I've actually seen people asking for help. Heck, I've done it myself when nobody in my FC was on. Now that I know there are other players there who are willing to help out, I'll be more likely to ask for the help if I need it and to offer my own assistance.