Why not abolish the Class system entirely in favor of Jobs? [@ Devs]

[Kyra]

you really think that archers still getting bard? lol it be funny and dumb if they do.

Lol I would rage quit so fast you wouldnt believe.

[Ronik]

you read right

jobs are specialties, youll basicaly lose all non job related abilities when you do it(no more healing unless your a healer for instance) and this can make it extremely difficult

classes are gonna be the new low man/solo methods
and jobs are gonna be meant for raiding when you can afford to specialize(that archer doesnt need healing during a raid for instance, he perhaps needs more damage and such)

This is a design choice which was made in order to accomodate both the job and class systems. They could just as easily make the jobs capable of soloing and eliminate classes entirely. Frankly, it would be a lot less work than trying to balance around some kind of in-party, out-of-party role identity. Why should we have to switch? Why would it make a difference if we wanted to solo as a Paladin vs solo as a Gladiator?

For example:

A Paladin could just as easily be given all the tools a Gladiator has for soloing, and then we don't have to worry about switching roles when we're soloing or when we're partying. We will simply be a Paladin the entire time around, regardless of what we're doing. This seems far more elegant and practical than dividing the entire game into "solo vs group" role dynamics. You simply give every Job some way to heal a little in a solo situation, and suddenly they're all perfectly viable for leves/solo grinding.

[Shiggysonson]

This is a design choice which was made in order to accomodate both the job and class systems. They could just as easily make the jobs capable of soloing and eliminate classes entirely. Frankly, it would be a lot less work than trying to balance around some kind of in-party, out-of-party role identity. Why should we have to switch? Why would it make a difference if we wanted to solo as a Paladin vs solo as a Gladiator?

For example:

A Paladin could just as easily be given all the tools a Gladiator has for soloing, and then we don't have to worry about switching roles when we're soloing or when we're partying. We will simply be a Paladin the entire time around, regardless of what we're doing. This seems far more elegant and practical than dividing the entire game into "solo vs group" role dynamics. You simply give every Job some way to heal a little in a solo situation, and suddenly they're all perfectly viable for leves/solo grinding.

I think we'd get the lack of solid, unique roles of jobs if they went with one job system where each job is able to solo just as well as the current classes. Paladins and white mages will have to be able to do decent damage in order to solo efficiently, and the DD classes will have to be able to heal in some way in order to kill efficiently. Wouldn't balancing actually be harder in the sense that they would have to make sure the solo abilities of each job weren't too powerful in parties? Having two separate systems is a good idea imo. This way we'll have a job system similar to ffxi where there are jobs that can't solo well but have very unique abilities, and an option to solo when we just wanna play casually.

"Why would it make a difference if we wanted to solo as a Paladin vs solo as a Gladiator?" Because they're two completely different playstyles............ do you really not see the difference in having one job with both great soloing and party abilities vs. one job with only good party abilities and a class with only good solo abilities?

[Shikyo]

I wanna see main/sub the ish just works lets you have a specialization with some resrticted versitility IDK why they wont use the main/sub method =/
Crap that method was perfect it let you have a specific role while giving some but not too much secondary ability options.
Plain and simple main/sub is much better then the damn mix and match crap that makes everyone able to use any skill

[Quills]

I wanna see main/sub the ish just works lets you have a specialization with some resrticted versitility IDK why they wont use the main/sub method =/
Crap that method was perfect it let you have a specific role while giving some but not too much secondary ability options.
Plain and simple main/sub is much better then the damn mix and match crap that makes everyone able to use any skill

Because it's restricting... and old. I'd rather pick and choose my abilities from everything I've learned rather than be forced to play SAM/WAR. This is just how life works, you cannot and will not satisfy everybody. To each his own.

[Rustyhagun]

I think I also read somewhere that its made to be difficult to solo with the jobs. idk tho

I solo'd fine on PLD and Drg in 1.0. And never took on a class role, for the year they were implemented.

Seems like the Devs are insulting your gaming skills if you believe that.

While I do agree with you that jobs should just take over, I also doubt that the class system will be taken away. There are too many people that enjoy the idea of the Armory System (gaining the skills from other classes).

I am interested to see how they manage to marry the Classes and Jobs in the future. I guess we'll see with time.

If not, I imagine it will be somewhat like FFT eventually:

Start off with standard classes and eventually there will be Jobs available based on the combinations of classes you have leveled.

I.E.:

CON + THM both level 30 will make RDM an available job to switch to.

At least, I'm hoping for something like FFT.

This I would also like... FF:Tactic way of distributing skills and unlocking Jobs.

They are thinking about cross class = 1 job for later, too
Class A + Class B = Job Y

Again, Tactic Job system.

If the dev team needed to re-write anything concerning guilds & classes now is the time. 5 years have past and a new era has begun. Things can definitely change for the better, to make sense of any changes they might do in the future.

What ever the Dev team comes up with Im sure its going to be great though.

[Kailok]

While I do agree with you that jobs should just take over, I also doubt that the class system will be taken away. There are too many people that enjoy the idea of the Armory System (gaining the skills from other classes).

I am interested to see how they manage to marry the Classes and Jobs in the future. I guess we'll see with time.

If not, I imagine it will be somewhat like FFT eventually:

Start off with standard classes and eventually there will be Jobs available based on the combinations of classes you have leveled.

I.E.:

CON + THM both level 30 will make RDM an available job to switch to.

At least, I'm hoping for something like FFT.

[TheVedis]

The problem with that Ronik is the selling point of the game changes completely.
Also, by "forcing" jobs on people, you go against what Yoshi has stated to begin with, how no one will lose their progress due to changes

an option al job system(which is what we are getting) goes right along with what hes stated
we get to keep what we leveled, and add on to it if we so choose


there is really NOTHING wrong with the classes we have now, especialy since they are working on diversifying the classes in themselves on top of the addition of the job system

[Ronik]

The problem with that Ronik is the selling point of the game changes completely.
Also, by "forcing" jobs on people, you go against what Yoshi has stated to begin with, how no one will lose their progress due to changes

an option al job system(which is what we are getting) goes right along with what hes stated
we get to keep what we leveled, and add on to it if we so choose


there is really NOTHING wrong with the classes we have now, especialy since they are working on diversifying the classes in themselves on top of the addition of the job system

I will address your points seperately:

For one, this game has changed so extensively in both design and direction that you can't really pull the "selling point" card. It will continue to radically change right up to the PS3 release, and everyone who is playing the game at this point both expects and understands that drastic changes ARE happening.

Secondly, nobody is losing progress because of this change. If you levelled a class to R50, you will have an R50 job after the switch. The only change is that you will have a more specialized set of abilities and your fancy name will be replaced by a traditional Final Fantasy job name. In some cases, the classes will barely change in the transition from class to job (Pugilist to Monk would be largely similar, as would Paladin to Gladiator and Marauder to Warrior). Again, nobody is losing any progress with my change.

Right now there is nothing wrong with the class system because it is the only system. Once we have a job system added on top of it, we are significantly over-complicating combat roles. We simply do not need two layers of combat roles which perform vaguely different tasks at any given time. We should keep things simple with the tried-and-true approach of having a clearly and solidly defined job system.

[Gennosuke]

Dang, i just wrote up a thread stating pretty much the same thing just a few mins ago haha.

I agree completely with OP. I just hate the idea of keeping classes and think it's completely redundant and really is just a relic of the past they are holding onto.

Bring back the Traditional jobs as they always have been in all FF's and add subjobs onto it to address cross class issue.
It works, its fun.

Im very troubled with this plan, i think it's a wrong decision. It just doesn't feel or sound right and will only cause further complications when it could very simplified and fun.

I hope they take this thread seriously!