How to fix A and S rank Hunts

[Lostwind1783]

Let's have a serious talk about A and S rank Hunts. Before I start, I'd like to
say I currently do not partake in A and S rank hunts.

I'll cut to the point. Currently, A and S rank hunts are a mob scene of players
all trying to get credit for kills that were originally intended to be handled by
high level parties of much fewer than almost a quarter of the currently playing
population of the server. There are plenty of posts stating the problems that the
enormous level of toxicity that is experienced during these hunts with regards to
early pulls, players who are traveling to the location not getting credit for
taking the time to go to the hunt in the first place, full parties not being formed
due to players not inviting.

Yoshi-P himself has stated he didn't intend for hunts to be the way they are now,
yet they haven't really changed in the transition to 3.0. So I have a suggestion to
dramatically change how hunts work while still keeping the desired intention of the
content while not changing much about how players go through with getting their
credit.

My suggestion is to make A and S rank hunts acceptable on the Hunt board, like B
ranks. The A and S rank's would only be able to be accepted by parties of 4 or
more for A ranks and 8 for S ranks, you cannot accept them solo. You would have a
limit to how many you can accept a day, which would reset the normal time a daily
reset occurs. Let's say for now, 3 daily A ranks and 1 daily S rank.

When a party accepts one of these A or S rank hunts (a party can only accept one at
a time), they are told which target they are to hunt and must go to the area they
are in. An interactable "Destination" marker will be hidden somewhere randomly on
the map, unseen by the mini-map or any marker, and the party will need to search the
zone to find it. Only the party can see their specific "Destination" target.

When the target is clicked, their target spawns, and must be defeated to claim the
prize, (which now that there would be a limit to how many can be done in a day,
would give somewhat increased rewards). S ranks would require some kind of
specific mechanic in order to trigger, but as long as the S rank hunt is currently
underway and the party is together, the mechanic would be readily available to
trigger.

I feel this to be a suitable replacement for the current way hunts work, for the
following reasons.

1- No more inclusive Hunt LS's, which, let's be honest, for the most part (because
not all are unfriendly) are kept only to inform other players of Hunt locations and
the occasional party invite. I feel that a lot of players actually just keep them
or try to find "active ones" only to respond when a call is made, but won't
actively hunt themselves.

2- No more early pull drama. Due to each A and S rank being semi-instanced to the
party, and no other player being able to attack their Hunt, we no longer have to
have the issue, which is obviously causing a massive number of players to have a
distasteful experience with the game.

3- No more having to drop what you're doing to respond to a Hunt. We can now do A
and S ranks on our own time, and the teamwork element is now highlighted as a major
factor.

4- No more players speeding ahead in terms of gear progression. As it is, if a
player wanted to hunt all day, they can, and will get plenty of Law and Centurion's
and will gear themselves faster than anyone who didn't get to participate in the
hunt. These players "may" (I stress may, because not everyone is elitist) go on to
set the standard for new content thanks to their gear that anyone not geared on
their level is lesser and may exclude them from content clears.

5- Gets rid of the lingering leecher mentality. A lot of players do not actively
hunt, but still want the rewards from the Hunt, hence they respond to shouts, but
will also complain when the hunt was killed early or if they didn't get there in
time to gain credit. With this new system, everyone pulls thier own weight.

6- Hunt monsters can be challenging again. A and S ranks can be adjusted in order
to be harder for a party to handle, but not impossible, as opposed to a quarter of
the server banging on an A and S ranks as they are now and killing it within
seconds, bypassing most intended mechanics.

TL;DR, make A and S ranks acceptable on the hunt board by formed parties only and
levequestize" the encounters for the party in question in order to facilitate the
better execution of the Hunt.

[Kyomagi]

or just take the seals out of hunts and put it somewhere else. like pvp for example. You can still have hunts for seals, but have it give less, then put the bulk into pvp

[Vaer]

This is like the 3rd time for hunts and it hasn't really changed much. I don't think SE really cares at this point.

Doing the daily hunt bills gives a decent amount of seals so it isn't completely terrible.

[Arixtotle]

or just take the seals out of hunts and put it somewhere else. like pvp for example. You can still have hunts for seals, but have it give less, then put the bulk into pvp

I like the OPs idea better. Semi forced PvP should never happen.

[Teryaani]

This is like the 3rd time for hunts and it hasn't really changed much. I don't think SE really cares at this point.

Doing the daily hunt bills gives a decent amount of seals so it isn't completely terrible.

It also awards experience to level alts which is a nice addition. You're right that nothing has changed. This is nothing new and they know that in a few weeks the fervor will die down as everyone gets to cap and gets their main geared.

[Dement]

or just take the seals out of hunts and put it somewhere else. like pvp for example. You can still have hunts for seals, but have it give less, then put the bulk into pvp

Because when I think of things less toxic than the hunt zerg, I think of PVP. /sarcasm off.

[Dement]

This is like the 3rd time for hunts and it hasn't really changed much. I don't think SE really cares at this point.

Doing the daily hunt bills gives a decent amount of seals so it isn't completely terrible.

This is what has changed and it's the single most important change they could have made. The big problem with 2.2 and 2.4 hunt zergs was that daily hunts gave a pittance of seals while you needed a minimum of 500 seals to even upgrade an accessory. It would take long into the next major content patch to even upgrade half of your equipment only doing the dailies, not to mention that half of your daily seals were locked behind FATEs that could take hours to spawn. Now daily hunts give 110 seals and a weekly bonus of 100 seals, are easily completed without waiting on FATEs, and the required seals are vastly lower. Under the new system you could never touch an A or an S rank mob and still fully gear a class in i180 in 3 weeks. As long as this doesn't drastically change for any esoterics gear, hunts are a working system now.

That being said, while hunts aren't the same horror that they once were, I personally would like to see the A and S ranks go more towards a BCNM style from FFXI. By killing mobs in the overworld, you have a chance at a rare drop for beastmen seals (for A ranks - 4 mans) from weaker mobs or Kindred Seals (for S ranks - 8 mans) from more difficult mobs (of course the names could be changed, I'm just using the old names to draw parallels). You can then pick up special bills from the hunt board with these seals which would allow you to access an instanced fight for the hunt with just you and your party. This is very similar to the OPs suggestion but I feel it should be gated behind something more than just a daily/weekly allowance.

[Arkista]

I really like the idea of hunts, but trying to get into the right instance zone and seeing a mob die right before I can smack it sucks.

I think next week hunting won't be nearly as bad, once players are doing Alex.

[lololink]

Unfortunately since they implemented hunts they didn't seem to pay attention to any modifications ideas to the hunt system...

[Lee-Akira]

Hunts are fine they way they are, HUNTS should feel like you need to get there fast or they are gone. It adds an awesome layer of competitive spirit to the game. If they dumb down the hunts that'd be a sad day.