The Hunt - a game breaking feature

[RunaRugar]

snip

People will cry about nearly anything that nullifies their fake feeling of superiority, I'm just happy I'm getting i110 faster for my secondary classes, I don't get why special snowflakes care so much whether other people are getting gear or not, since they still have shiny High Allagan gear.

[Verun]

People will cry about nearly anything that nullifies their fake feeling of superiority, I'm just happy I'm getting i110 faster for my secondary classes, I don't get why special snowflakes care so much whether other people are getting gear or not, since they still have shiny High Allagan gear.

The problem is not only that other people get their gear faster. This is also a problem of course, because an MMORPG is always about competition and SE always tried to balance the game for people with a life (or work as you may call it) and people without in the past. Right now people who play the game 24/7 are rewarded more for just being there and clicking one button over and over again like a zombie.
The reason for this is the main problem of the hunt:
The marks are not weekly limited. People just go on with their mindless, stupid, no skill requiring, game ruining mark farm. Which leads to another big problem:
All other parts of the game come short. Duty Finder queues take extreme amounts of time to pop now. FATE's are mostly empty. Even the Coerthas FATE people are almost absent now.

The game is not for skillful people anymore. Only silly childish trolls that want to get everything fast and then move on to the next MMO.

[Geist]

The problem is not only that other people get their gear faster. This is also a problem of course, because an MMORPG is always about competition and SE always tried to balance the game for people with a life (or work as you may call it) and people without in the past. Right now people who play the game 24/7 are rewarded more for just being there and clicking one button over and over again like a zombie.

Verun, let's agree to disagree, at least on some of these points.
There's no doubt that the Hunt system needs further tweaking, and that the situation might be ameliorated by curbing the amount of Marks one can tally in a single istance (I'd suggest a daily quota on the elite targets, not unlike the Beast Tribe quests) and other adjustments, both to the mechanics and the creatures' prerogatives.

Also, simply mashing on a button doesn't take skill, and it's just dull. We're on the same page on that.

What I think isn't helping in this context is the slant on competition disjointed from cooperation. I'll elaborate further on it.

The reason for this is the main problem of the hunt:
The marks are not weekly limited. People just go on with their mindless, stupid, no skill requiring, game ruining mark farm. Which leads to another big problem:
All other parts of the game come short. Duty Finder queues take extreme amounts of time to pop now. FATE's are mostly empty. Even the Coerthas FATE people are almost absent now.

The game is not for skillful people anymore. Only silly childish trolls that want to get everything fast and then move on to the next MMO.

Just trolls, I wonder? Just a problem with the new bloods?

I'm on Excalibur, so that might also be a server thing - but the hordes (they've been slimming down during the past two days) I've been occasionally running into are also comprised, more often than not, of people already boasting their high-spec gear.
Welp, I can even make out (when the client isn't buckling before the massive input) a few familiar faces from Mor Dhona and other supposedly elite areas of the game, not to mention players I've been familiar with since 1.0 -- at least some of them are undeniably organized, prepared, and in some cases outright excellent at anything Yoshida and Komoto might throw at them, Coil(s) included.

So what they're doing there? I don't know, honestly. Unless speedrun-crushing the top ranked Marks until they literally disappear into light amounts to skill, too.

There we have a problem, and I think RunaRunagar and Arctic have a point in asking that at least sometimes, we all get off our respective high horses and think beyond raw stats and ranks. What makes me willing to issue a recommendation isn't just how good Person A is with cooldowns and skills, which might be awesome in itself, but how they resonate with other people. Teamwork, a sincere willingness to help, learn (or teach); being assertive while also practicing humility. And a little kindness even to complete strangers.

Gear should be a commodity and a tool first and foremost, IMHO, something that allows us to get further into the game.

You're correct in saying that good rewards should come through effort, but that shouldn't undermine fair play and diversity. Just my two gil coins.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

People will cry about nearly anything that nullifies their fake feeling of superiority, I'm just happy I'm getting i110 faster for my secondary classes, I don't get why special snowflakes care so much whether other people are getting gear or not, since they still have shiny High Allagan gear.

Let me put this in perspective: I FINALLY cleared T5 2 weeks ago. I'm excited to run Second Coil and get gear/sands/oil there. I also just recently got a Weathered Soldiery weapon, so I'm done with Relic anything. It took lots of time, effort, and failure to get good enough to be where I am. . . And now a system has been implemented to allow people to get what I have if not more than that with FAR less time, effort, skill, or failure. It's not about feeling superior, no, but as it stands I can just go get my UAT from Syrcus Tower (and I did, actually. First drop I ever got), then do enough hunts for Sands/Oil. And voila, best sub-raid level gear in game. Why bother with Second Coil?

Mind you, I'm not thinking that way. I WANT to try Second Coil, now that I can. But largely the hunts are so rewarding that many players have become lethargic. Why work harder than you need to or run instanced content when you can just hunt? ALSO, remember when Yoshida said he didn't want to increase Atma drop rates because it "wouldn't be fair to the players' hard work" or something like that? This is exactly what just happened to anyone who has been/wants to start running Second Coil.

And lest we forget, gear doesn't top skill. Many players have the misconception that getting good gear (via hunts, speed runs for tomes, etc.) will allow them to take on harder content. No, honestly, it only gets you in the door. You don't get to the Super Bowl by simply throwing on football pads and a uniform, you get there by being one of the best football players you can be, regardless of your equipment quality.

[Geist]

And lest we forget, gear doesn't top skill. Many players have the misconception that getting good gear (via hunts, speed runs for tomes, etc.) will allow them to take on harder content. No, honestly, it only gets you in the door. You don't get to the Super Bowl by simply throwing on football pads and a uniform, you get there by being one of the best football players you can be, regardless of your equipment quality.

Indeed, gear is a tool, the key or "pass" to get through the door, the point bonuses don't compensate for whatever else one might be lacking... and whatever might be lurking behind the door itself. Patience, perseverance and enthusiasm are the real meat and potatoes of one's growth.

[Verun]

That's such an extreme case of sensitive - I sincerely hope you never accidentally find yourself in the middle of a competition or confrontation.



That's so elitist and short sighted.

Yes, thank you for proving me right. You are one of the best possible examples of the people who ruin the fun in this game. You only log in to troll and can't contribute anything meaningful to any discussion. Nothing more to be said, really.

[Rebyl]

I think that SE needs to make copies of all marks but make the new marks FC specific. We can use our FC points to pop an even harder version of the marks we hunt as a group. That way people who are not a part of an FC can kill marks that roam while FCs pop their version of the mark w/o worrying about resets or people complaining that they pulled before the entire zone got there. FCs can summon an A-S rank mark and being able to down it as an FC; Like the leves but for FC members in party. It may even encourage people to join an FC instead of going solo. And I think that all marks.. roaming or FC specific should have a limit. If you kill them once, then you won't get credit for killing them again based off how many seals you earned equaling the max credit allowed for that rank, then you can't earn anymore for that monster after that. I think if you implement this, trolls will stop chomping up content and all of the shout wars will gradually begin to stop.

[Dalex]

Perhaps my server is just not as populous as some of yours, but from what I've seen of these hunts, it's gotten people out and exploring the world again. Pre-hunt, most high-level players were more like to stick around Rev's Toll waiting for queues to pop or god knows what, but now they are out and about. I figure that the novelty of the hunt will wear off soon, and you will see people gradually start to drift back to the more traditional content, but I don't see it as some world-ending blunder. Once people started to get more organized, we have people forming parties and linkshells, bridging free companies, and interacting with each other far more often than I did before. Occasionally there are trolls that pull early or ragers that scream about what's fair or not, but most of the time, we are willing to be considerate of others.

As for the gripes about how easy it is to get gear, maybe they do need to tweak some things, but it will always be the case that with patches and updates, "green is the new purple." Sorry that you feel it cheapens the game for you, but you can't expect the developers to allow the achievement gap between casual gamers and hardcore raiders to widen over time. Most of their income is going to come from the subscriptions of people who may not be skilled enough to complete the newest content within the first few months and reap the rewards of those raids.

As for the OP's assertion that most of his FC had quit, and that he was soon to follow; am I to understand that because other people have a new toy to play with, that you yourselves can't just play on your own? I thought the point of having FCs with static raid groups was that you could play through high level content without the worry of pugging with FATE-tanks and blizz-mages, or waiting on long queues. Can't you queue for dungeons with people from your FC? If the numbers in your FC are lacking for this, recruit, or join a new one with like-minded people. It seems silly to quit a game because of what other players are choosing to pursue.

[AerysDarkstrike]

I cannot understand why the devs do not see how making hunts the single best and fastest way to advance ruins the rest of the game content.

[rejaan]

well i had a run through on this with Amitaya Lumireis and some FC members last night ,i can honestly say this is one of the most broken systems ever and i truly cannot believe that yoshida will let all the hard work that he and his team have done til now just be ruined by such a stupid mistake

the zone where wen went was just swamped with players the enemy lasted about 20 seconds which i was told was quite a long time ,an utter waste of time and all the great features and systems this game has is all undone through 1 bad decision