Regarding cross-world visiting and Hunts.

[Xbob42]

Hi there, I don't post much, so forgive me if this is retreading well worn ground.

But to put it frankly, cross-world visiting has massively negatively impacted the Hunt organization on my server. I assume the same is true of other servers where trains are formed and scouting is done on a daily basis, where the Hunt is a part of your daily routine.

Now, A and S-Ranks, if not killed outright, are often pulled far too early, before people have time to arrive. These monsters are being treated as kill-on-sight, which is a nightmare for organization.

I like the cross-world system, this isn't a complaint about the system as a whole. In fact, I think the whole thing could be fixed with a simple tweak: Make it so that anyone with that <Wanderer> tag simply cannot attack an A-rank or an S-Rank monster unless the monster is already in combat or if they're in a group with someone native to that server. That way, they can fully benefit from the system without upsetting the entire ecosystem. They can help scout, they can join in trains, all that good stuff.

While I don't personally engage in too many hunt trains, it has been extremely obvious that this system had an immediate and tremendously negative impact on our server's ability to get things done efficiently, and has caused a lot of friction, has made people hostile towards anyone with the Wanderer tag, without really bringing in any positives in exchange.

You might think "Ah, well, it's only the first few days. It'll clear up soon." Maybe. Until 5.0 hits. I think this is an issue that should be remedied as quickly as possible.

[KageTokage]

The bottom line is that hunts are meant to be free-for-alls and there's no such thing as an "early" pull.

I do feel like they should still do something to mitigate how quickly hunts are killed due to the increased player activity, though, since that would benefit people overall while not going against the fundamental design philosophy the devs had with hunts, questionable as it may be.

[Xbob42]

The bottom line is that hunts are meant to be free-for-alls and there's no such thing as an "early" pull.

Maybe. I've not looked in to the specifics with regards to how Hunts are supposed to be according to the devs, but given that they have a specific slot in the party finder, I'd like to think Square intended a little order to the chaos. Yes, they can be free-for-all affairs, but it's so much better for everybody when things are organized. An hour-long hunt train just taking down every beast in the game is a lot of fun (provided you haven't done it enough to grow sick of it) and good content. Sporadically grabbing an A-rank you found and maybe killing it with 2 or 3 people just... isn't. Because it's not like an NM in FFXI where you have some high chance of getting a rare item. They have very "do this with a group" appropriate rewards. A few seals and tomestones each. A pretty lame reward for going out of your way to hunt one, but pretty good when you've got 10-15 lined up and are sharing the info so everyone interested on the server can get in on the action.

It's a very community-focused sort of thing, very inclusive as well, which are both becoming more and more rare as MMOs mature (or decay) as a genre. I'd hate to see them decline in popularity because of people frustrated over something that should by all rights make it even better. For example, maybe you're on a server where Hunts aren't organized at all, but another on your data center is. With this system, you now have easy access to proper hunts, and then the hunt group can move to your server afterwards and the fun doesn't have to end. That could be so good.

[Kieren-Dohla]

I don't agree with the idea that it's law that hunts are free for all. Some servers like ours have a community where (mostly) everyone works together to maximize the rewards everyone gets. World visits make it so our world is really our own any more so our way of handling things is totally ignored and we don't have any choice in the matter. We lose a lot and it damages our community and causes a lot of frustration for everyone. The who pull on sight are often trolls who like spreading grief and have no regard for others. Well if we all behave that way so many of use lose the benefits of working together. But my ultimate point is we lose our ability to do things as we've done so long before world visit. And I've never heard complaints from reasonable people how our hunt community works. We should still how a choice in this on our own world and not suffer because people on other servers have no regard for how we do things. They try to spawn S ranks on our server and have no intention of including us. They should run their community the way they want on their own server and not interfere with ours. It's totally disrespectful to not respect what others have agreed upon by general consensus and just charge in cuz they think they own everything. What if we go to other server who do thing differently and demand and try to force them to do it like we do, we wouldn't do that, but would that be fair either. Hunts have a social aspect for us beyond the simple free for all idea just cuz intended something supposedly. Look at how even in Eureka Anemos we had generally large levels of cooperation many times. I don't think SE intended that. And SE can't predict everything people will do based on a narrow vision of what they intended.

[LaylaTsarra]

They need to make them more like NM's in Eureka. Most NM's people can get to in time if they're not walking.

[Losara]

Buff the HP of hunts especially ARR ones. Its been suggested for awhile but nothing has been done i believe.

World visiting has negatively affected Behemoth as well. Especially when they tend to shout things such as 'Thanks for the S Rank Behemoth LOL' when instant pulling.

[Vnolan]

I think this is an issue that should be remedied as quickly as possible.

I disagree. You should wish for as much discord and chaos as possible. Better chance of an overhaul to the antiquated system.

Buff the HP of hunts especially ARR ones. Its been suggested for awhile but nothing has been done i believe.

It only attempts to address one of the issues with the hunts.

Especially when they tend to shout things such as 'Thanks for the S Rank Behemoth LOL' when instant pulling.

Instant pulling is allowed, but pairing it with messages like establishes a case to report for griefing.

[MsMisato]

I disagree. You should wish for as much discord and chaos as possible. Better chance of an overhaul to the antiquated system.

Sorry we are unable to overhaul the antiquated system because you know spaghetti code.

[KageTokage]

Hunts could be much better content if the devs actually cared much about it.

I'd like to hope ShB changes things for the better somehow, but I doubt it.

[Aristotle]

Hunts were always intended to be competitive content, but they were never intended to be solo-able. The reason why hunts are a category in PF is so people can create parties and actively hunt together. The concept of having a hunt linkshell network, calling hunts to anyone that may be online, and waiting for the entire server to show up is a player-created invention. This has bred a monstrous mob mentality where if you don't join and participate in these linkshells and just want to hunt alone or with your friends, you will get harassed. (This isn't directed at you, OP.) So now you've just got people out hunting solo and sniping everything from ARR and HW virtually uncontested because most people in these linkshells aren't bothering to look for anything.

Hunting is a lot of fun for me, but if they don't spice it up a little and make it more engaging for players, I don't see this dynamic changing. Buffing hunts and making their mechanics more punishing is probably a good start. Give these massive linkshell communities a reason to exist and make their contribution for showing up matter more.