EXP Rewards After Hitting Level Cap

[Efrye]

I love the world and story of FFXIV. Seeing new places, meeting new characters, uncovering mysteries - it’s all good stuff. I even started reading the Encyclopedia Eorzea and getting into all the lore makes me want to dive into FFXIV even more. But I’m in a bit of a pickle. As much as I love the story 'n stuff, the gameplay kinda stinks. I think it's a big pile of doo-doo.

Now, before you start disagreeing with me, try to look at it from the perspective of a filthy casual who has no interest in endgame raids and can barely keep up with the main scenario. For hundreds of hours, I’ve been fighting basically the same enemies that require no skill, no strategy, nothing. They may look different in each new area, but they certainly don’t make me play differently. I can easily get through the vast majority of combat encounters by spamming one or two of my abilities. With my eyes closed. Quest objectives don’t fare much better in terms of design, as they’re mostly just a bland, repetitive mix of various fetch tasks.

Here’s the thing though: I think that’s actually fine. Or at least, it’s exactly what I expect from an MMO. However, what I also expect from an MMO, is some kind of reward to keep me going. Some juicy skinner box treadmill that keeps the degenerate part of my brain entertained so the other parts can enjoy the pretty graphics and intricate story. Some dopamine to make me feel like I actually achieve something by gathering flowers for some random kid. Story as a reward is nice, but I’m talking level-ups, abilities, weapons, armor - all that shiny stuff!

So… what’s the idea here, SE? Am I supposed to grind away dozens of hours to get another job up to level 65+ that I’m never going to play, just so I can dump the quest EXP there? Or should I stop treating FFXIV like an actual game and look at it as a semi-interactive novel?

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Tl;dr: Wouldn’t it be nice to get something for the EXP we gain after hitting the level cap? Maybe even just vanity stuff like mounts, minions, glamour, et cetera?

[SendohJin]

you're in too small a niche.

hunts are designed for you, more specifically hunt bills.

and other casual level cap stuff already give you tomes to buy things, don't see why it needs to do anything with XP on top of that.

[Shougun]

I've always felt there could be something from a cosmetic merit system, can even give it a cute sphere/crystal/XII grid - where you unlock these visual customization that allow you to look different than someone else without giving an edge that makes it painful to arrive late to the game.

Just in case someone is unfamiliar with what merit systems are. A merit system takes EXP you no longer earn at cap and adds them to a pool that you can spend on specific things like +5 strength, +10 seconds to burn, and so forth. Here I'm suggesting a cosmetic merit system where you take your exp and purchase unique things that don't affect gameplay but do affect how you present yourself (like changing an ability look or giving you very special equipment). Doesn't have to be limited to your character though, there could be a tab for general for emotes, mounts, etc. As for sphere grid, crystarium, and the license board (FFXII) they're just different ways to represent level progression - and since this is just for cosmetics the devs could have fun on presentation if they wanted.

• Did you want that smokey dark knight effect for tank stance? Well you can now.
• That female/male weapon stance, you want it? Go for it.
• Were you a huge fan of Golbez, that black mage with plate armor? We made a special exception on no heavy metal, just for you .
• Holy breastplate? Yes, whm you can have.
• Not enough praising the sun Paladin? Have some sunlight lance instead of shield lob (bolts of holy light being tossed at the enemy).

Etc

Could be other things as well like permanently unlocking a dye color, that'd keep some people going for literal days+ worth of time just so they could unlock all the colors lol.

The description of FFXIV gameplay made me a bit sad though, as an aside

Edit: Just to clarify - personally I have fun; although, I do think exp having a use past cap would be neat

[Efrye]

you're in too small a niche.

hunts are designed for you, more specifically hunt bills.

and other casual level cap stuff already give you tomes to buy things, don't see why it needs to do anything with XP on top of that.

I’m having a hard time believing that I’m a niche. I’m the poster child for pretty much every new player that gets into FFXIV. We go through the game exactly as we're told by the trail of quests, but then hit the level cap long before we reached the end of the line. I don’t know how many new players this game gets, but even if it’s not a lot… Well, all the more reason to look into making the game appealing to them, right? Otherwise FFXIV would die faster than you can say “Uhhh, look, a pretty new F2P MMO!”

As for hunts and side activities, that’s pretty much the opposite of what I’m asking for. All I want is to enjoy the main scenario as well as the associated side quests and get some kind of reward from them. I don’t need even more stuff to do on top of that.

[PyurBlue]

I've never liked the treadmill approach to retaining players. It just creates a long list of potentially boring things that you need to do before you can get an item that you might find interesting. I agree that the gameplay can be overly simple and this is where I would try to change things. I know that some people want more things to get, but I find that this just makes the experience hollow. I want to do things that are interesting, rather than slog through something generic for a pretty trivial reward and I would prefer if the devs put more effort into making the game fun to play in place of trying to motivate us to do things that we otherwise wouldn't care about.

[Efrye]

I've always felt there could be something from a cosmetic merit system, can even give it a cute sphere/crystal/XII grid - where you unlock these visual customization that allow you to look different than someone else without giving an edge that makes it painful to arrive late to the game.
[...]

Yeah, stat increases or other gameplay benefits would certainly be divisive, although I think it there could be a way to make it work. But even keeping it purely visual would be fine by me. The problem there, of course, is that every item that's obtainable in-game is one less item they can sell on the mog station. But, from my perspective, the game desperately needs something to keep players engaged until they reach the endgame.

The description of FFXIV gameplay made me a bit sad though, as an aside

Well, yeah, me too. But I don't think it's an unfair description. It's always fun to get into a new dungeon or one of the special story battles, but that's not what I'm doing for the majority of my playtime. What I'm doing 90+% of the time is as brainless as going through Diablo III on the lowest difficulty. Just without the loot and EXP.

[SendohJin]

I’m having a hard time believing that I’m a niche. I’m the poster child for pretty much every new player that gets into FFXIV. We go through the game exactly as we're told by the trail of quests, but then hit the level cap long before we reached the end of the line.

you are that niche because you're refusing for some reason to spread that extra XP out to other jobs. XIV is designed for multiple jobs and the MSQ + all sidequests is more than enough for 2 jobs.

[Efrye]

I've never liked the treadmill approach to retaining players. It just creates a long list of potentially boring things that you need to do before you can get an item that you might find interesting. I agree that the gameplay can be overly simple and this is where I would try to change things. I know that some people want more things to get, but I find that this just makes the experience hollow. I want to do things that are interesting, rather than slog through something generic for a pretty trivial reward and I would prefer if the devs put more effort into making the game fun to play in place of trying to motivate us to do things that we otherwise wouldn't care about.

I agree to your general sentiment, but my crystal ball tells me that they are never ever going to make the gameplay of the main scenario, or the battle system in general, any more challenging than it is right now. Maybe in FFXVII Online, but not in XIV.
I still want to see the rest of the story though, so I'll take better rewards over, well, getting nothing at all.

[Alestorm]

At most they should increase the rewarded Gil like WoW does with gold after hitting level cap. I'm reluctant to have the devs try to add anything more from FFXI, with things like Eureka trying to add XI's elemental resists and failing like it did... I'm becoming more of the mind of if you want stuff from FFXI just go play it. I'd rather they keep XIV it's own thing.

[Efrye]

you are that niche because you're refusing for some reason to spread that extra XP out to other jobs. XIV is designed for multiple jobs and the MSQ + all sidequests is more than enough for 2 jobs.

So, what you're telling me, is that the game is designed for me to go through the story until I hit the level cap, drop everything I was doing right there and then, go back to level 1 with another job, tediously grind that up to the level of my current main scenario quest, and then rinse and repeat once that new job also hits the cap?

Come on now, that's just bad game design. You know it, I know it, SE knows it. Why do you think they dropped the requirement to level up multiple classes to unlock jobs in the first place?