EXP Parties as an option please!

[Fynlar]

EXP parties already exist in the game. They're called dungeons.

let's face it, most people dont talk in dungeons or Fates.

So what makes you think this will be any different?

[File2ish]

I wouldn't mind if traditional EXP parties returned, so long as it wouldn't become the only way to level up. (Obviously it would never be the only way in this game).

As others said, even getting an EXP party was hard in FFXI. Could take at least an hour to get enough people, let alone actually get a good camp to kill everything. On top of that, if the party wasn't relatively balanced you were gonna have a bad time. Couldn't just have 6 DDs (DPS) in a group, a single mob could destroy that sort of party (because if the mob didn't check at least an Even Match, it would give like no EXP because of the amount of party members). But in XIVARR there are fate groups that can just zerg everything without the absolute need for a tank or healer (some fates excluded of course, particularly level 40 and higher level ones, plus like Svara and Cancer and whatnot).

And story time! My first EXP party in FFXI outside of Qufim worm/crab parties was in Y'tuhnga Jungle fighting Mandragoras outside of Kazham (so like level 30?). Worst experience I ever had in the game. I was a Red Mage, and I wanted to melee to help kill faster because A) it's what I was told to do in Qufim, and B) we had a WHM in party and a lvl 75 RDM healing us. But guess what? "RDM ONLY HEALS/HASTE/REFRESH!!! [derogatory remarks]!!!" That was always the response I got while on RDM (even before I was a high enough level for Haste/Refresh...).

So I switched to Dancer, which I mostly soloed up to like 60 in using Fields of Valor pages because "Sorry, already have a dancer", "Dancer damage sucks, already have a sub healer/support", or even just "No DNCs". From like 30 to 50/60 I was mostly in Altepa Desert... I hate that place so much even now.

Now I wanna resub to XI for some reason... lol. Upgrade my level 99 RDM and DNC Empyrean gear past +1 finally haha. Will give me something more to do until Heavensward XP

[Luvbunny]

If they want to create something that is far far far superior alternative, perhaps they should go back and look at what Blizzard did...with Diablo 3... yup. Just make it so that ANY combination of ANY jobs can clear ANY exp dungeons. You want 4 healers? you got it, 4 tanks? sure, 4 dps? you betcha! Diablo 3 + Phantasy Star Online + Monster Hunter + Borderlands 2 style, grab anyone, any friends, any jobs, any roles, go smash for xp and contents. Randomized loot with randomized bonus stats, you don't get the ones you really want? go farm again, and again. At least you are not restricted to jobs XYZ only!

[KisaiTenshi]

If they want to create something that is far far far superior alternative, perhaps they should go back and look at what Blizzard did...with Diablo 3... yup. Just make it so that ANY combination of ANY jobs can clear ANY exp dungeons. You want 4 healers? you got it, 4 tanks? sure, 4 dps? you betcha! Diablo 3 + Phantasy Star Online + Monster Hunter + Borderlands 2 style, grab anyone, any friends, any jobs, any roles, go smash for xp and contents. Randomized loot with randomized bonus stats, you don't get the ones you really want? go farm again, and again. At least you are not restricted to jobs XYZ only!

Sorry No, that's a horrible generic design that is just "re-skinned with different monsters." The "new thing" that Diablo brought to the table was procedurally generated dungeons (not straight up "random" like you think.) This ensured that you could keep going into the same dungeon and pick up where you left off. If you switched to multiplayer, you were given a completely new version of the dungeon so that you and your friends would get a clean dungeon that neither of you have completed or explored, and had it's own loot table.

The point of classes and jobs in Final Fantasy is that they do different things, not just "here's the 100 point damage skill, here's the 300 point healing skill, here's the 500 point AOE, have fun you need nothing else." Playing the BLM and playing the SMN are completely different things, and playing SCH and WHM don't play alike at all. For all the crappy things I've seen in MMORPG's FFXIV's are the most fun and balanced way of doing dungeons, where every MMORPG I've played before you were either left begging to join parties or you could solo everything (thus not needing a party) at a high enough level because there was nothing equivalent to a level sync. Only Blizzard and SquareEnix even bother with nice animations and visuals. All the WoW clones are just "click on NPC glued to the spot, receive wall of text, go to place on map, kill everything until the quest goes 'ding', go to next NPC", where you can basically get to the maximum level on field monsters alone.

[Maikal]

The open-world exp parties are exactly the thing RMT bots would, and did in V1.0. In fact someone found what I think was an exploit in V1.0 -snip for character limit-

I remember very well the bots in 1.0, but they weren't near the issue that they currently are in 2.0. My point is that bots are going to exploit any system they can, no matter what you release. You don't design around the fear that bots will exploit, you design around players and the kinds of content they want.
And I absolutely don't want the option for every mob I target to become a 24 player Zerg faceroll. That's completely opposite of what I'd like to see. If you're interested in my thoughts there, they're a few pages back.

[AreeyaJaidee]

For obvious reasons I'm not posting a link, but a google search easily finds proof that bots exist that can even play the mini games in the golden saucer.

For the sake of this argument, does that mean that golden saucer should be removed from the game?

Bots can grind fates, should fates be removed from ffxiv? Bots can grind dungeons, should dungeons be removed from ffxiv? Bots can grind low exp mobs in nearly any zone, should SE remove mobs from every zone.

The bot argument is weak.

[Twilite]

And what generation would that be? COD? WoW?
You're comment is absurd.

I stopped reading there because I know the rest is you insulting me at length.

FFXIV is not the entire FFXI fanbase. I've never played WoW.. I've never played CoD. When I made my comment, I had the generation of FFXI players in mind. Not the players now, but the players back then. There is a huge difference. Example, I am not the same person I was 11 years ago. At 22, I had a lot of patience for that stuff. I cannot say I do now at 32. What worked back then, will not work so well now. Different mind sets. The era of FFXI has passed, as I said. This wasn't meant to offend. If you hang on to the past, it will be hard to accept the present, and impossible to move into the future.

I personally didn't benefit from exp parties. I didn't make any friends. All it did was show me how nasty people choose to be on the internet.

For the record: You don't know me. Everything you've said(as I had to read it all anyay) are assumptions. I have no "FFXI bias", and I am not "anti-FFXI". I don't know this bandwagon you speak of. I miss how things used to be more than you can ever bother to know.

[AreeyaJaidee]

I didn't assume to know you. That's not required to read or comprehend your post and see you're biased.

You stated several reasons for your bias, as if they defend your stance in refusing a feature based on its relation to FFXI. Once again ppl are using it as a reference amongst other games, XI is the only one you key in on though

Either way, my interest isn't you, its the topic.

I'll step out by saying that i support this option being added to the game either in pve or as pve added to a persistent PvP zone as stated in some other threads.

Good luck in your journeys!

[MageBlack]

I don't think people that are "against" this are actually trying to come up with reasons it should not be implemented but are instead simply understanding some of the reasons the Dev team has outright said no to this. I know that's all I was doing. I can understand some of the reasonings people want this in but it seems the people wanting this choose not to understand why its not in there. As you guys keep saying if "its simple to add in" then it would have been done by now.

[Maikal]

-snip snip-

Speaking for myself only(which I really hope I've been able to make clear from the start), I don't expect exp parties to ever make a comeback. I completely understand that gamers are different now than they once were. I do reject the idea that the devs are so worried about Bots and RMT that they couldn't include exp parties in the game, however. Otherwise, yeah, while it'd be a dream come true for me to be able to jump into the game and level the way I enjoy levelling. But that's me, not everyone has to agree for my opinion to stand.

5 different people, 10 different opinions- it's just the nature of the internets these days.