[90k error incoming] The Hunt is back...

[Nalien]

- add new levels of Alexander every patch so that the game has more content (of course we want more content, but this is unreasonable, the dev cost is too high).

You're not really comparing adding force pops to Alexander, are you? The development cost that would go into taking existing assets and restructuring them in a way that is more convenient and enjoyable to the player is no where near the cost of producing entirely new maps and bosses for Alexander... Taking existing Hunts and just adjusting them to completely remove server drama, and effectively let people just log on and work towards a S Rank, should by no means be considered a massive undertaking... I'd imagine more work went into Lord of Verminion, than would potentially go into adjusting Hunts so they're not terrible... Even new dungeons require more effort...

can you really not see my suggestion is a lot less work than yours? trying to get "the ideal" is not worth it, if it takes too much time. most of the times you try to get good enough.

I have no problem with your suggestion, I just don't think it entirely solves the problem... I also don't really get what you think would be so difficult about making force pops... Your initial argument was that force pops defeats the purpose of Hunts, now you're saying force pops would have some massive development cost... I completely disagree with both of those arguments for reasons I've stated... Hunts should be content first and foremost, and everyone should get to enjoy them how they want. World spawns mean you will miss spawns, and you're potentially at the whim of the server. Force pops means you can work towards spawns at your own pace. The purpose of Hunts was just to be "endgame" level open world content, and force spawns retain that purpose. Development cost? Making the encounters is the main hurdle there, and it's already been done, the Hunts already exist... It's just a matter of changing how they're encountered to better suit multiple types of players... It isn't something which should requires a lot of resources...

One way to make the world hunts stay relevant would be that you can only do so many 'personal' hunts per day/week (costs x amount of allowance). This way there would be x turns of Force Pop hunts, while for the rest of the time there would be world hunts. Which you would have to wait for them to pop, like it's now.

Provided they strike the right balance, yeah. Other than Mark Bills just simply being lame, the main problem with them was how pathetic the rewards were in comparison to following the swarm for A Ranks...

Another thing to perhaps consider is drops... Hunts were meant to be XIVs answer to XI style NMs, but they missed the most important aspect; actual drops. Why? Because they were world spawns that the entire server could get credit for... Shift towards a more structured design for Hunts and there is potential for some actual drops to be involved... Proof? The Diadem... OK the drops are random aetherial stuff, but it's a step in the right direction IMO. Why is that possible? Because the Diadem isn't just some open world zone with random spawns, it's an actual structured event.

That's perhaps what Hunts is lacking, structure. Heck, XI didn't even have NMs like this... Sure, some NM were on timed spawns, but most of the ones I remember were force popped... Heck, eventually SE even realized how terrible timed spawns were, and started offering different means to get the rewards... Granted, Hunts are only worth it for the upgrade items these days, not really a lot of diversity in their use... Kind of a shame actually, as much as I hated 2.#s Hunts, at least it had plenty of rewards to offer... Why not throw some Temple Knight themed gear in for the new seals?