Thread: 1.0

I remember doing an aetheryte run on about a lv30 since it was my highest at the time and having to home point everything on route incase of death (of which there was lots). Was a fun challenge trying to get the 2 in mor dhona. Came from the thanalan side and that just a challenge to reach the zone line since it was all narrow cliff paths there. Once we got them both (since a friend joined in on getting these 2), we got on a lv1 character and played chicken with the lv90 basilisks round revenants toll. Had a lot of fun with that.

Both sides have valid points, and (unsurprisingly) some people are resorting to extremes to make the other side of the argument look ridiculous.

I understand the appeal of having monsters present a threat to players, it can generate excitement to not be detected. Look how successful this year's All Saint's Wake event is- an event that encourages stealth-based gameplay among objectives. I don't think very many rational players are asking for the whole dang collective Eorzea to be peppered with zones specifically to look like a giant deathtrap, but I think it's somewhat even healthy to have a specific amount of areas where there is legitimate risk in being detected by monsters if you are alone. This doesn't have to be in levelling/FATE/newb areas, or popular quest hubs. But I feel that the open-world outside of instances (that's right, it exists) could stand to use a handful of areas that are protected by monsters 10 levels or so over the level cap (so Stealth doesn't work), without flight, that either can be carefully navigated by loners or possibly require strangers to, I dunno, help each other (gasp!) to get to the other side. These areas wouldn't even need to be mandatory to standard progression and are out in the middle of nowhere. But there could be gathering nodes with materials needed for some end-game equipment, loot, or even just something glamour-related past these areas. 1.2x had something similar with Amalj'aa and Kobold strongholds for players at level cap, both of which have been trivialized significantly now.

I don't know if they could ever get away with sticking danger like that in areas meant for beginners as normal occurrence, right outside of the city gates that could camp the zone line like the Peiste mob from 1.0... But I don't particularly see the big deal with a mercifully rare hunt mob being visible out in lowbie areas; the only people who'd realistically take issue are the incredibly inattentive, which I think a part of this whole discussion originated from in another thread. Especially since death is a slap on the wrist in this game. But the thought of high level monsters being a hop-and-a-skip from the town gates and the idealistic view of frequently grouping up to kill them (or high level players in shining armor saving the day) really isn't so simple nor practical in practice.

I think a majority of the people posting "that sounds way too haaaaaarrrddd, or too painful" probably haven't played much of the oldschool MMO's that had this as a core concept. Most of the time you didn't have to rely on high level players to get your business done. Sometimes you did though, and having to form social interactions based around helping people was what formed real guilds, not ones that are glorified chat rooms.

This is just going to be the same song and dance over and over, but nothing will change on this front it seems and the devs are sticking to their guns. I mean, aside from one or two out of the way areas, most FF games had most of the dangers in dungeons while the overworld was just peppered with foes to help you grind. It's really not much different here.

Originally Posted by MilesSaintboroguh

I dunno if having to ask for groups every single time you want to walk from camp A to camp B is really any fun.

Certainly wouldn't be for me. Part of what put me off FFXI as a whole is how it forced parties onto you at early levels because you could barely go anywhere without getting killed by trash mobs.

Originally Posted by Bourne_Endeavor

Certainly wouldn't be for me. Part of what put me off FFXI as a whole is how it forced parties onto you at early levels because you could barely go anywhere without getting killed by trash mobs.

In a lot of cases it wasn't that bad at all. You could get from a to b with very little danger if you stayed in the beaten paths and followed the signs. Running from Bastok to jeuno for example with a level 1 alt wasn't a challenge if you stayed on the trails you'd hardly encounter a thing. Mobs were often placed well away from the beaten path.

Getting to exp camps was a little more dangerous but that was fine because that's why you were going there to find and kill dangerous stuff and get exp.