With redesign and grinding motivation: Server merge?

[Jericho]

If there is already a thread on this, I apologize. Something popped into my mind today while I was daydreaming through Operating Systems class...

We all have our gripes about FFXI's grinding style of leveling. A lot of us enjoyed the challenge, but nobody ACTUALLY enjoyed it while it was happening, even if the frustration made it feel that much better when we were done. Regardless of this, FFXIV is starting to move that direction. Adding chain bonuses, making leves more solo beneficial, and adding jobs to improve party play are encouraging us to grind for our levels. And, obviously, the slow rise of grind parties is proof of that.

I spent some time reexamining the zone redesign thread and got myself psyched up to start grinding again. I started thinking about the pros and cons of grinding and slower leveling, and I'm trying to come up with a way to alleviate the negative aspects of grinding and help encourage it to be a more fun.

When examining the mock ups from that thread, there are a few issues I have. This mock up leaves the entirety of the areas surrounding the major cities dedicated to leveling 1-10, much like Ronfaure, Saruta, and Gustaberg. While Central Thanalan may not seem that much larger than north and south Gustaberg put together, this entire area being dedicated to leveling 1-10 is a waste of space, because leveling from 1-10 takes about 15 minutes. Level 1-10 in FFXI may have taken an hour to an hour and a half, but there was no waiting (besides resting) so you felt like you were doing something. Here, another 45 minutes to an hour and I'm at level 20. In FFXI, there was the oh so obnoxious dune grinding. I'm not at all saying I want that back, but lets chat.

So part one here is that, along with redesign, increase the curve for early levels to help keep us in these zones a little bit longer. Maybe the later levels, too, but probably not as drastically. Yoshi has already stated that he doesn't have plans to increase the difficulty of leveling. This game is catered to those with less time on their hands, and thats fine. But, the real problem with FFXI's leveling was the 2-3x longer you spent seeking than actually grinding. So, let's talk about removing that issue.

There were two reasons seeking took so long. a) There weren't enough players, and b) there weren't enough camps. During a more prime time on my old server, an average /sea all would result in anywhere from 2000-4000 characters logged in. A large amount were bazaar mules, another large amount were AFK, another large amount were doing events, etc. Bottom line, there weren't enough people seeking. 75 camps were hard to find sometimes, and countless parties started and ended when they couldn't find a camp. So it became common to see people seeking, but only wanted to be a rep, not join a new party.

Now, FFXIV has a huge amount of explorable area, and quite a few servers already. I understand server congestion, limitations, whatever, but I feel like technology has come far enough today that SE should be able to support many more times the users logged in at once on one server. Competition doesn't seem like it will be an issue the way things are going... Everything is going to be instanced. NM's are 5 minute respawns.

I'm rambling, lets get to the point, I have another class.

tl,dr:

I propose:
- Redesign zones to encourage zonal progression and definitive lines.
- Continue to encourage grinding parties.
- Increasing skill point / exp requirements for leveling.
- Make finding parties easier by cutting down the amount of servers available and increase the amount of players per server.

How does everyone else feel?

[BruceyBruceyBangBang]

Simply, no. This is the collective answer regarding every one of these kinds of threads and there are many of them. Why merge when you're creating a PS3 release? You're just going to overcrowd them again then have to reproduce more servers over again.

Also, things such as large scale PvE and PvP will have an effect on these condensed servers. They need them the way they are.

[Falcus]

Simply, no. This is the collective answer regarding every one of these kinds of threads and there are many of them. Why merge when you're creating a PS3 release? You're just going to overcrowd them again then have to reproduce more servers over again.

Also, things such as large scale PvE and PvP will have an effect on these condensed servers. They need them the way they are.

Pretty much what Brucey said.

[zaviermhigo]

Some could be merged, but ps3 people will take up slots on servers that are less populated. They should cut Selbina and other servers off from ps3 people at first cause we're already 3 chocobos on the population. Therefore they shouldn't think about merging at all for at least 3 years, instead offer server transfers.

[Rinoa]

I agree with what Falcus said that Brucey said about the servers. =)

[elreed]

i agree with what rinoa said about what falcus and brucey said

[syntaxlies]

i agree with what elreed said that rinoa said about what falcus and brucey said about the servers

[Commat]

I agree with what Syntaxlies said about what elreed said about what rinoa said about what falcus and brucey said about the servers.

[RemVye]

I also agree with what Commat said about what Syntaxlies said about what Elreed said about what Rinoa said about what Falcus and Brucey said about the servers.

[weeble]

i'd love some server merges, i'm sorry we been playing on empty servers for a year and there is probably another year to go, we need merges, if they get full then open up servers again later on after ps3 launches too. worry bout that later ...the problem now is emptiness and the people still trying to enjoy them selves can't with emptiness. ffxi opened up new servers when it was getting full, do it the same way. launch time give first month a choice then. or open some servers to move to new servers. either way empty servers suck to play on.

also agree with motivation of party grinds and better search functions, it is needed for this game to be an inkling of fun.