Progression path: Grinding VS Questing

[Onidemon]

Introduction

When playing an MMORPG one of the main goals is to get your character from lvl. 1 to the max lvl. How you do this is different from game to game. Some focus on one aspect and others on multiple options.

Asian MMOS will frequently be grindfests, where you grind monster either solo or with a party for hours to level up. Western MMOs like WOW take the questing approach(It did change for WOW a bit with the dungeon system where that's pretty much all players do now to level)Which is better? I think it is a matter of taste but if you do want to appeal to a larger crowd, i think choice is the key here.

Questing does seem to be more popular then grinding. WOW and other mmos taking that approach did prove to more successful and popular then Asian mmos going the grinding path.

As of now it seems to me that FFXIV is a bit of a grindfest (correct me if i'm wrong as i don't play that much) FFXI was the same and i have to admit that it was pretty fun at times but it does get repetitive. Quests on the other hand can be repetitive too, unless they are well designed and provide a bit of verity with quests that have different goals and play styles.

The problem with FFXIV is that i login, i do leves, once i finished them, i did the few quests available for my level and then i'm stuck. What else is there to do? I'm not a very big fan of grinding and after killing a few monster i get bored and log off. There's definately a gap between things to do and then you get to a point where you're stuck with 1 option only and if that's not something you like then you just don't feel like playing anymore.

This is what I'd like the game to be like.

Lvl 1-10: Tutorial quests, keeps you busy and shows you the game mechanics, tells you a little bit about the game's story, lore, region etc....

Lvl. 10: 1st story quest. Get's you deeper into FFXIV's story. Another story quest is available every couple of levels(which is already the case, but more would be nice)

Lvl. 10-max: A variety of miniquests and behests when available will help you progress through the game. The mini quests should not only provide you with things to do and help you level but also help you travel and discover the world. You start with a couple of quests in the main city and by the time you finish them, they take you to another area. They make you discover the camps and teach you about behest, they take you to small villages(if they add these) and the other main cities.

Questing should take you all over the world, from the low level areas all the way to the end game areas. Depending on which quests you do they make take you different parts of the world and your path from level 1 to max lvl may be different depending on which quest takes you to which area. Like that leveling multiple classes will be more fun and less repetitive.

Quests can be done solo or with a party. When doing then in a party, the game will automatically adjust the difficulty of the quest. Monster will be harder and more items will be required to finish the quest.

Dungeons. Lvl 25 is your first dungeon and then every 10 level you should have a new dungeon available.

Behests, Which have a 1h cooldown should be done between quests to help you progress faster.


Levequests. These i think should be changed completely. I fail to see the difference between these and mini quests besides the fact that they are repeatable. I don't think we should have a whole system/feature just for that tiny difference. I think they should be changed to something like the monster hunt system of FFXII.

Eache levequest/card represents a target posted by someone who needs that beast to be slayed. They are cathegorized by difficulty/level and someone targets will be party only. Once you accepted the leve, you need to go to the poster who will give you the details and the requirements to meet the monster. It should ask you to do different task before you can fight the target.

Example:

Leve Name: "King Bomb", Requirements: Level 20-25, difficulty:Medium. Details:Solo/Party, no time limit. Poster: Taru(location) Cooldown:1.5 days (rare leves will have a longer cooldown but provide better rewards)

Once accepting the leave, you go see the poster, who tells you that the target was spotted in a specific location but needs some "magic oil" to lure him out. He tells you that a certain monster carries that oil. So right there it's not just a matter of teleporting to a camp and walking to the monster location to finish the quest. Theres multiple steps before getting to the target. Harder monster will have more then 1 step like this one and when in a party, different party members can go and complete different steps so it is faster to gather the required items etc to get to the monster.

Goals and Rewards

it's nice to have a way to get from level 1 to max and make it fun but you also need a reason to do so. They should have some very cool looking and rare armors, weapons, mounts, materia etc to motivate players to get all the way to the end game content.

EDIT:

Grinding

Forgot to mention Grinding. Of course if that is the way you prefere to Rank up then you should have the option to do so. You can gather a party, setup a camp and pull high rank monsters to Rank up quickly with friends.

Quests Edit

Quests should indeed be repeatable per class. I fail to understand why they made quest for your character overall and not for each one of your classes. When you completed those and then want to level a new class you cant take these quest anymore and that goes against SE saying they want us to try as many classes as possible.