Thread: 1.0

Yeesh. Reminds me of the time when I first started, and I accidentally crossed into the fallgourd float area in gridania and got killed by higher leveled monsters. No thanks.

Can someone explain how having high-level aggressive mobs right outside of cities is "immersive"? It actually contradicts the lore. For instance, if Ul'dah had a gate with aggressive monsters that would kill literally any person except a high-level adventurer on sight, they would either a.) hunt that monster to extinction or b.) close that gate. If anything, logic dictates that aggressive monsters are too close to the cities already. I mean there's a group of relatively low-level Ixal a few hundred yalms from Gridania, why haven't the Wood Wailers permanently dealt with them? A level 35 guard from Fallgourd Float could do so by himself without issue.

It's a game. Having aggressive monsters that randomly kill people and offer no positive contribution to gameplay is bad design.

Originally Posted by Atoli

It wasn't as horrible and unforgiving as with FFXI where the game was basically just unplayable since you couldn't even leave the starting areas without a whole party/high level players coming back for you to pull you through.
That was absolutely horrible game design and made 100% sure I'd never delve into that game any further.

FFXI was rarely this problematic. While it was true that getting aggro from a mob even just a level or two higher than you pretty much meant death at low levels, there were very few aggressive mobs in low level areas. Pretty much just Beastmen, and Beastmen tended to be scattered widely enough that they were easy to avoid. At higher levels, characters had easy access to stealth items and abilities. There were very few areas in the game where you needed a party just to travel there - and those places, players rarely had any business being there solo anyway. By keeping an eye out for the few aggressive mobs, you could run as a naked level 1 character all the way from your hometown to Jeuno (a town in an area full of level 40 mobs that could kill you in one hit).

It was a different story, true, if you had a quest or something to do there. You typically had to drop stealth to interact with quest elements, and that left you exposed to possible aggression (at least, unless you waited until you vastly out-leveled the zone before doing those quests). SE clearly intended even open-world quests to be done in a party. But in terms of just getting from place to place? Trivial both as a low level and as a high level. High level, just use stealth items or abilities. Low level, keep an eye out for the infrequent aggressive mobs, and proceed by them carefully.

Players could even explore areas while vastly underleveled, thanks to those stealth items. One of my fondest memories from that game was the method by which I chose to make money early on: mining for Adaman and Orichalcum Ore in Ifrit's Cauldron as a level 30ish Red Mage. The area was hazardous even to level 75 characters, and swarming with Bomb mobs that would aggro from leagues away if you tried to cast stealth spells in their range (they didn't aggro stealth items - but I was cheap, and preferred to use spells over items). It was dangerous and exciting - and completely optional. And since even level 75 players were reluctant to mine there, I made quite a bit of money from the Ore I brought home - at least, on those occasions when I didn't get spotted by a bomb and murdered before I managed to dig some up.

Placing a few legitimately dangerous mobs in areas is not discouraging. It's exciting. At least, as long as the area isn't positively teeming with them.

Bentbranch(Savage)

On the subject title of 1.0

#makebattleregimegreatagain
#battleregimeindependentoflimitbreak

So I ask again, besides "immersion" and "challenge" why is this thing needed? Why does something so simple as traveling need to have a big risk? What about low populated servers that doesn't have as many players around to want to help?