What's wrong with a little competition? Hunts need a claim system.

[MirielleLavandre]

I may get flamed to high heaven for this, but I think that one way to alleviate all the recent Hunt drama is to just make A and S rank hunts be on a claim system, ala FFXI's NMs. FF14 already allows for shared rewards of xp/quest completion and everything for all other things in the game. While I applaud GW2 for kind of leading the way in this 'everyone gets the benefit if they tag a mob or something' mindset, I also think it has taken away a lot of the competitive nature that MMOs used to have.

If Hunts had a claim system, then when a group found them, they could take it on with whoever they had with them, or make preformed groups to actually, I don't know, HUNT them down. Then, when claimed, they either kill it or they wipe and others waiting nearby (if any others are) get their chance to try to claim and kill. Seems fair to me - but I already can hear some of the people saying that they are entitled to any hunt that happens to pop anywhere in the world...just because.

[BigPapaSmurf]

Simple. Give everybody a "Tag" ability to unlock.

Once a Hunt is tagged, with minimal effort, your party will receive full seal/tome credit.

Once tagged, the Hunt could become invulnerable for 3 minutes to provide time for your other party members to assemble (or to form a party if it were found solo).

See at bottom for finer details.

This would solve:

1) early pulling drama (socially healthy)
2) finder's not getting their due cred (socially healthy)

Lastly, Hunts do need their HP% raised proportionally with average end-game ilvl.

That or having their defenses scaled with # of in-combat participants.

Hunts Solved.

And I don't wanna hear "people need to just stop whining about early pulls or getting 'cheated' out of credit"... this' a systemic, macro-societal issue similar to a "mob mentality" or riot group.

People's nature in this context will not change on the whole, the design of Hunts needs to change.

People aren't going to stop mass-zerging Hunts, for instance, so long as they're both relevant and viable.

The 'people' can only do so little, it's up to SE to do something in view of the fact the players' behavior won't change on a mass-scale.

What if its a solo player that claims it, and just sits on it, thus locking everyone else out? Abuse potential is high...

Once the 3 minute invulnerability expires, the mob would be fair game for anybody to attack; no way to abuse that whatsoever.

And if the finder/tagger leaves the region, the mob becomes untagged entirely (forfeit).

The tag's monster invulnerability effect & tag bonus/immunity could even be separate 'debuffs' on the Hunt Mark.

Tag Invulnerability Effect: monster is invincible for X minutes (suggested, 3)

Tag Bonus/Immunity Effect: full-credit is guaranteed & monster cannot be 're-tagged' for Y minutes (suggested, 6) or until force-expiration due to region-exit.

[Eye_Gore]

What if its a solo player that claims it, and just sits on it, thus locking everyone else out? Abuse potential is high.

Even if it was a group that does manage to take it down and they have others that claimed other hunts, they could potentially monopolize the whole system, hardly giving any others a chance

[MirielleLavandre]

I actually mean 'claim' as in the person/party has to attack the mob and get aggro (name goes red to that party/alliance/person). In this case, people wouldn't claim (attack) unless they knew they would win. If a solo person claimed, they'd die rather fast and others could come claim. Kinda like what would happen if someone solo attacked Simurgh in FFXI -- they'd claim it for a lil bit solo, then drop dead or run away so it reset.

@Yolanda - I know what you mean, and it sucked a bit sometimes in FFXI, but if a group CAN monopolize the system, then maybe they are just that good and others need to get on that level if they want to claim/win.

[DoctorPepper]

What if its a solo player that claims it, and just sits on it, thus locking everyone else out?

Then that player will die :P

Honestly though, I think it's a little late in the game to add a claim system. Not only that but I played FFXI for years and remember all the botting/drama that ensued over NMs. While I'm not against NMs that can be claimed, I never want to see them become the center of endgame attention again.

The hunt situation can be improved by adding better dynamic stats to the equation. The biggest problem with "early pullers" is that the monsters don't have enough hp or defense to last more than 20-30 seconds once the horde starts attacking. The increased ilvl since hunts were initially released also makes the situation worse.

Honestly, I would imagine A ranks lasting 2-5 minutes and S ranks lasting 5-10 minutes before dying. Not only would that increase the actual challenge but the hunt would be engaged long enough that nobody could cry about early pulling. When the monsters die faster than somebody can teleport to the zone and run to it, people will always cry "early puller".

For some reason SE refuses to add a dynamically adjusting system where the monsters can last more than a minute. I don't really understand how they think zerging something down in 30 seconds or less is fun for anybody, in fact I would go as far as to say that a large part of why people loath hunts is because of how quickly and easily they are killed. No other content in the entire game is as easy or as rewarding for the amount of time it takes to complete and that's the primary issue in my opinion.

[Zfz]

It's against a core design concept of FFXIV, that's what's wrong with a claim system for rare targets. Remember how you could get quest drops as long as you do enough damage to a quest mob which someone else tagged? Hunts work in the same way, to get people to just join in and fight.

[kyuven]

Then that player will die :P

Hi. I'm a ninja. I run faster than every mob in the game.

Kiting is a thing, folks.

[Eye_Gore]

@Yolanda - I know what you mean, and it sucked a bit sometimes in FFXI, but if a group CAN monopolize the system, then maybe they are just that good and others need to get on that level if they want to claim/win.

That could be an issue. people would still harass others.

Then that player will die :P

I don't mean they try and take it down, just lay claim and don't pull it. Would have to be a timer type thing, as stated above.

[gamesmart]

Hi. I'm a ninja. I run faster than every mob in the game.

Kiting is a thing, folks.

All hunt mobs have insanely increased movement speed. You're not outrunning them.

[Nyalia]

Actually, a tank + healer can lock down a hunt mob almost indefinitely. Certainly on an A rank, possibly on most S ranks as well. Many of them are surprisingly easy if you actually pay attention to mechanics. And then others would come and aggro-spam to pull so they can reset and go for the claim, and it would be a giant rubber-banding tug-of-war. That system would also encourage players to TPK grief the hunters by pulling in other mobs, since if the hunters with claim die, they lose claim.

I don't see how adding a claim system would improve hunts. I do see how adding an instance system would, similar to maps and leves. For instance, what if A ranks spawned much, much more often, but if you got credit for a specific A rank, you couldn't get credit for that specific monster again until after a reset period (daily for A ranks, weekly for S ranks?). That would vastly decrease the competition over hunts while also decreasing the rewards to more reasonable levels.