[dev1028][dev1136][dev1132] The Fair Compromise on PL & Strongholds: Sync & Restricti

[Vaer]

Strongholds:

The xp given here is beyond ridiculous. Either xp should be nerfed or mobs should not give XP. Drawing on FF11 again, dynamis did not give xp. It should be the same here.

Current “End Game” content is not part of the Grind. Therefore there is no reason for it to give xp at all. Mobs could either give no XP or they could give some kind of other points on death that can be used to exchange for things (think like Einherjar in FF11, the mobs you killed gave cruor to spend on items at an npc).

Another suggestion is to limit access to strongholds. Either put them on a timer (hours? Days?) or to require faction credits for example.

Not sure when the last time you played XI was, but the strongholds now and Abyssea in XI are completely similar in exp gain just using different terminology to describe and rack up bonuses.

My only problem with power leveling is that playing the game without "exploiting" gives a drastically lower amount. If normal play gave similar, even 25% of the amount of exp from power leveling, I wouldn't care. There needs to be a balance between the two somewhere. Normal play is on one end right now and power leveling is on the extreme other.

This. A thousand times this.

Since it's a popular thing to do around here, let's take another game as an example: Guild Wars (even though it isn't a true MMO, it has MMO elements). The max level in Guild Wars is 20. It's always been 20. You can get there in a day. Yet that game was and still is popular, even after several years.

Different kind of game. The PvE economy and gameplay systems in general mostly revolve around aesthetics and experiencing the world/story/lore. Anyone could and can still get capped weapons, armor and buy skills with no effort from NPCs. The more expensive things like mini-pets and special skinned rare weapons don't give you any advantage except for aesthetic purposes.

Now the economy revolves around the title grind that give very little benefit in the game (there are some skills linked to title progress but the difference is negligible when you compare what the title(s) provide just playing the game normally and increasing it as intended vs. a fully capped one from grinding) and a system that unlocks rewards for GW2. (These unlocked rewards/titles for GW2 will also give no real advantage according to ANet.)

If what I'm reading in this thread is correct, FFXIV on the other hand is about grinding materia to get the best gear evah and show off. If leveling isn't a grind, why does it take so long to get to cap just playing how it was intended? Let's just up the EXP across the board.

- A painfully long and slow grind will not attract new players. MMOs have been around for a while now. So the first thought in a non-FF-fanatic's mind is "why should I ditch my powerful character in another game to have to grind to a cap all over again?" I think XIV's current character progression system is a good response to that. 1-50 is now just long enough to serve as a tutorial for those unsure of how a class should function. Otherwise, it allows folks to get to cap at a reasonable pace in order to start gear hunting.

It's actually quite painful as it is now in the lower levels unless you beg for a PL or somehow pull a party out of your hat when people are being PLed and new players that get PLed hit 30 in a couple of hours.

A good compromise is to accelerate L1-25 and leave everything as is. That way, new players can join a GC and don't feel like they're playing a single player game with NPCs with weird icons next to their names that seemingly have incredible AI and sometimes chat if all the planets align.

[Alhanelem]

The community isn't divided on power leveling, they're simply against ridiculously fast and easy powerelveling, the ease of which has never been seen in any game before it. Powerleveling in FFXI doesn't go this fast.