The Hunt - a game breaking feature

[ProstatePuncher]

Remove Hunts, bring back BCNM's.

[Vladislav]

The game doesn't look dead to me.

Highly depends from PoW , for me it does sometimes .
As for me SE created "trash" instead of hunt , i was hoped it would be "pop/trigger" system , like we used in FFXI (Abyssea areas) : kill low nm to gain pop item/items, kill big nm's to gain more pop items , kill Big nm to gain last pop , Kill SUPER INSANE BIG NM to finally get rewarded . While hunts no as i listed above , i better do weekly ones and daily time to time

[Nicobo]

Before we have hunting, I read ppl asking for open world NM, and the reason was sociable.
After we have hunting, I read ppl asking for open world NM, but exlcusive for his party. ^^;

[Roxinova]

Snip

As someone also from Excalibur who has been a participant in so called hunt groups over the last few days, I can say it has not torn the community apart like OP suggests, but has brought them together, at least on Excalibur. There's a TS server set up, running 24/7, with a system for Linkshell invites (the Link Shell has to be created daily and you have to leave when you log out because there's not enough room in a Linkshell for all of the people on the server wanting to participate), party invites, they have running timers on the mobs (because unlike what OP said, the S ranks actually have spawn timers limiting how often they spawn, as well as certain conditions that must be met to spawn them), and *gasp* all of them work together to communicate what area they should check because a spawn timer is about to pop, and where it spawned once they find it. They call a pull time and wait for people to get there. Yes, sometimes you get the jerk who doesn't listen and pulls, anyways, however, at least on Excalibur, it has brought so many people together that we don't have enough room in Linkshells and FCs to fit all of the people! Oh, and the groups usually get max rewards from every pull because not only do they wait, but they know what buttons to hit to optimize their chances of getting the reward. The only thing OP can really safely argue is whether it's better to wait in a queue to get your gear or socialize with some people while you wait for a spawn to get your gear.

[LavenderMilk]

So THIS is why Duty Finder has been so terrible lately. Before the patch, even as a DPS, I had no problem waiting 15 minutes to queue. Now my entire day is spent crossing my fingers hoping to get into ANYTHING. I have seen so many 2+ hours waits for all DF instances lately. It really disheartens me. Yeah, I got to ilvl 90 easily, but I still want to try all endgame content just cause.

Edit: Also thanks Yoshi for letting me get geared up completely before I hit 50.

[PenutButter]

There's really nothing SE can do at this point. Even if they decide to ignore all the QQ of the selfish and short-sighted whiners (which will have serious repercussions of its own), the damage is already done. All SE can really do is introduce the next tier of gear and NOT make them obtainable by HUNT or revamp the entire HUNT system.

[tocsin]

Alternatively, enable PvP for the area surrounding a hunt mark. Too much zerging? battleground time!

[Geist]

As someone also from Excalibur who has been a participant in so called hunt groups over the last few days, I can say it has not torn the community apart like OP suggests, but has brought them together, at least on Excalibur.

Roxi, I can only praise the hard effort (up to and including the TS server in question) some people have invested into the Hunts (I can think of Vandes who spent hours studying their behavior, same server as ours), but I daresay we still have a small way to go, even on Excalibur that, as you noted, is enjoying a fairly better situation.

The change in the way B-ranks are handled has lessened the problem, I'll give you that: but just as an example, I've seen that familiar sequence (large group of people occupying the zone -> casting ready skills while surrounding the mob -> announcing pull within a certain timeframe and then someone letting loose at a moment's notice) still taking place in East Gridania just the other day.

In that instance, the poor fellow who had initially sighted the monster and shouted its location to share it with everybody else didn't even get a party invite, and although it's certainly possible that most parties were full or late in replying because everybody was spamming actions (I know our party leader was, as sweet as she is, and that made getting the full reward a tad bitter), in my opinion that's reason enough to work harder on communicating and sharing with other players, since we have the kind of instruments and infrastructure you mentioned in your post.

In the same vein, I believe we'll have to find a counter to the early pulls. Explaining why it isn't astute but rather disruptive, even going to the extent of benching the jerks for a round or two so that they may get a hint... I think that was being discussed even before the patch hit.

By the by, this is meant as encouragement first and foremost, since you seem to be a honest believer in a better community - let's hope we can (hopefully!) avoid pack mentality and try to be as inclusive as possible. And of course, just my two gils.

[TiraelRosenburg]

As a part of a FC (with LS) that actively Hunts, and another Hunting LS, the best I can hope for is that I don't have a menu open when a Mark is spotted. Because in the time it takes to close the menu, it's already dead. And I'm on PC with an SSD.

[Holzmeister]

This weird system stands in conflict with the insanely random droprates of Atmas. I might've liked to hunt some more, but I'm either too late (most people really have a hard time waiting..) or the thing won't load for me. But the latter is prolly a problem of me still clinging to the PS3-version..
But yeah, I agree with this problem of not having to grind dungeons. ;\ Even though you can always decide for yourself how you do stuff. I don't care how others earn money, for example...