An example of why the ARR Hunts need an adjustment

[HazyAssaulter]

On my server there is a small group of players who solo or kill with a very small group all the S/A ranks in ARR zones. It wouldn't really be a big deal, but they don't even report the deaths, so nobody knows when the spawn windows are up. So it's not a case of " if you want the hunt, do the work and spawn it yourself," these players are behaving in a way that literally excludes the rest of the server from being able to participate in a game feature that is one of the only ways to get mount speed upgrades for ARR zones.

Just because something is possible in the game doesn't mean it isn't exploitive. These hunts need some kind of adjustment to where this isn't possible.

[KageTokage]

There really should just be some way of knowing when a S rank's spawn window is open, because even with the spawn time variance, you're still at an advantage in finding the hunt before anyone else a second time if you know when it died due to how well-documented the respawn times/windows are at this point.

[Oakley]

I saw some great suggestions a while back that could make old S ranks more fun overall:

1. Sync them all to 70, sort of like reverse FATES. This would ensure multiple people can participate like with SB S ranks or Ixion.

2. More transparent spawn windows. Right now the most efficient way to track S ranks is with third party tools. When nefarious players mess with those timers (as they have been doing) then other hunters have no idea when the spawn windows are open or when to attempt S rank hunting. Integrating spawn timers into each zone's hunt NPCs, even if it's just a simple "XXX S rank is far away..." or "XXX S rank is nearby!" alert for when the window is up, would really help so hunters don't have to rely so much on third party timers that can be tampered.

Hunts, when done properly, are a great community activity. They're also basically the only reason to leave town anymore. I really hope there are some improvements to hunts so everyone can benefit from them.

[BillyKaplan]

1. Sync them all to 70, sort of like reverse FATES. This would ensure multiple people can participate like with SB S ranks or Ixion.

And to hell with all the on-level charas in the zone, right?

I'd love for the hunter npc chara to tell you if a hunt is open or not, as most of them have random elements to their timers. Just because a thing is open on Ariyala doesn't mean it's actually open, which isn't just a waste of time if you try to spawn it, you're wasting valuable items that are a pain to get like Agrippa and Rider's maps.

So a group of players are actively spawning and killing hunts before you have a chance to come and claim credit for killing it?

That's really not what this post is about. The problem is people don't even have the chance to spawn them because said players aren't even reporting the deaths in the tracker. They create an unfair advantage for themselves by keeping that information secret. Yes, it's using a 3rd party tool and they're not doing anything strictly against the ToS, but given that those things do exist and are well known in the hunting community, they're being selfish and unfair. That's why adding this sort of information into the game would level the playing field.

[NovaLevossida]

And to hell with all the on-level charas in the zone, right?

Absolutely right. Far better for it to be that than a hunt that dies in 5 seconds.

[BillyKaplan]

Absolutely right. Far better for it to be that than a hunt that dies in 5 seconds.

They're not going to put an SB leveled enemy in an area where people who don't even own SB and therefore cannot get that high level go. They'd sooner do a straight FATE system and sync everyone down with both a level and ilvl cap.

[Felis]

Absolutely right. Far better for it to be that than a hunt that dies in 5 seconds.

I mean, let's be honest here. What level 50 player is doing hunts? Even if they join a hunt party, the higher level players will squash it in seconds.

Better would be a ilevel-synch down to ilevel 70 to the players instead of level up the hunts to level 70

[Canadane]

To those players defenses, there's no rule saying you gotta report a death of an overworld mob.
Especially if they went and spawned an S rank themselves, they're realistically more than entitled to do whatever they want with it.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

To those players defenses, there's no rule saying you gotta report a death of an overworld mob.
Especially if they went and spawned an S rank themselves, they're realistically more than entitled to do whatever they want with it.

I would agree... if the devs haven't billed hunts as open world content intended for large amounts of people. They keep adding things to incentive hunts yet S ranks are incredibly inconvenient for even active spawners. The fault isn't with the group the OP mentioned but the system itself. If S ranks spawned more consistently, you could argue people can just farm Stormblood ones since those require a lot of people. But they don't.

And to hell with all the on-level charas in the zone, right?

I mean, let's be honest here. What level 50 player is doing hunts? Even if they join a hunt party, the higher level players will squash it in seconds.

[BillyKaplan]

I mean, let's be honest here. What level 50 player is doing hunts? Even if they join a hunt party, the higher level players will squash it in seconds.

That's not even what I was getting at. I'm saying a player who's at the maximum level for that area's expansion (50 for ARR, 60 for HW) has a chance to survive running into that hunt by mistake, not so much if you scale them up. A ranks, and especially S ranks, popping on unsuspecting players is already bad enough with how the system is currently implemented. Let's not make it worse.