Why not make the preferred world bonus permanent?

[Aryalandi]

I will start off by saying: yes, I'm spoiled because of this system at this point, i frequently end up making new characters and I will be doing so again when Shadowbringers comes out so I can have a Viera from the start, I've never been all that comfortable with fantasia because I put a lot of thought into what I want my main characters to be >.>;; any time I've changed one I've ultimately ended up going back to their original appearance.

Anyway..
At this point we are on the verge of being three full expansions in, that's a massive amount of content for new players to catch up on all on its own without the massive amount of extra dungeon grinding that you have to do in order to cap all of your jobs, so why not makes the preferred world experience bonus just a feature of the game (that you can choose to turn off) so people can get caught up more easily?

Honestly it would be much more efficient than "hey, go buy a level skip book that robs you of all the experiences you get to have actually playing your class and join us in the brand new storyline you skipped everything else to reach with that other thing you payed real money for."

I enjoy this game, but I'll admit that I've always had an aversion to going through dungeons over and over (and over and over) again, it's the only part of starting from scratch that I'm not looking forward to.

I was honestly thrilled when SE announced "we will be giving this bonus on different worlds that need more people so you can start there and play through content more easily" because it meant getting to actually sit down and enjoy the story without having to spend hours grinding in between main scenario quests to get back to what I actually wanted to be doing: playing through the story

Now though all but exactly one world has lost the bonus (i checked, because I wanted to remake a character I used to play) and after being spoiled by double exp leveling up normally is going to feel that much more painful DX...

[OcieKo]

Would defeat the purpose. It's primary purpose is to guide/encourage new players/groups of players to worlds with lower populations. Some server should always have the buff up, and if none qualify it's probably time for new servers. Tho if there truly only is one world period that has it atm, (and not one per data center) then that would be problematic and need some rectifying.

[van_arn]

I really don't like double/quad xp systems because of the issue expressed in this scenario: it's too demoralizing once that system is turned off.

If a new player bonus should be granted, just raise the base level. Start players at 30-50(5.0) on everything as an incentive to roll on these servers.

It won't guarantee players know how to use these jobs, but they'd progress as if they're the typical clueless starter sam/rdm/drk/ast/much. Moreover, there's no rush to get all leveling done in a certain timeframe or disincentive to specialize and properly focus on learning a "main."

I've caught myself thinking it's not worth leveling if I'm out of rested bonus; this is worse. I've seen sprouts freeze their msq at level 30, never leaving potd, because they don't want to "waste" their bonus.

[Hasrat]

Now though all but exactly one world has lost the bonus (i checked, because I wanted to remake a character I used to play) and after being spoiled by double exp leveling up normally is going to feel that much more painful DX...

They're turned off right now largely due to the data center split/shuffle and free transfer period. Devs just want to wait and see how things settle out before determining which worlds, if any, should be set to preferred.

More to the point, there's always an awful lot of "I'm out-leveling the quests" complaints already. Due to the nature of MSQ gating, it's probably for the best that faster leveling isn't permanent. Just sets up a bizarre consideration of "Why am I leveling up so much despite quests still being so far behind?"

[MistakeNot]

The exp bonus on Preferred worlds is great for people leveling alts, or trying to level their fifth job on an existing character, but it is actually very bad for new players and I would strongly recommend new players not to start on a Preferred world.

Unless the player know how to spread out all the extra experience over two or three classes - something which few new players will know, the Road to 60 buff will cause you to rapidly outlevel quests. At which point you either outlevel everything very quickly, making all landscape quests trivial, or you start skipping a lot of quests - leading you to be undergeared due to missing quest rewards and possibly having to go back later to do various quests anyway for unlock purposes.

The argument about helping new players to "catch up" is not a good one, since there is absolutely no need to quickly catch up with the latest content - the content is not going anywhere. Far better to enjoy all parts of the game than to rush through 95% of it, missing all the good stuff.

In short, the preferred world exp bonus should absolutely not be made permanent. Better would be to remove it completely.

[Kaedan]

Couldn't disagree more.

We already level extremely fast compared to MMOs in general. The preferred server bonus is incentive to populate low population servers. If you gave it permanently, there'd be no more incentive (or they would have to come up with something else and add to the bloat).

Also, as mentioned by MistakeNot, the exp bonus can be detrimental to new players.

To be frank, if you don't like running dungeons over and over, buy the level skip potion (that doesn't skip quests, you can still do them at 60).

[Nyvara]

Permanent no, When I started Siren had preferred world bonus and man we leveled so fast! being the kind of person I am I do all the side quests as well. I was 50 before I got to the level 30 MSQs!

But they could use the same technology to grant a week of dbl exp every 3-6 months or for special occasions like Christmas for example, with the caveat that you have to already have one job at 50 or max level.

[Aryalandi]

They're turned off right now largely due to the data center split/shuffle and free transfer period. Devs just want to wait and see how things settle out before determining which worlds, if any, should be set to preferred.

This I didn't know about, good to know that the option isn't dying, for the rest that's the importance of making it an option and not forcing it down peoples throats. Personally I know I'll be hunting around for a preferred server for the boost when Viera comes out

I'd rather just have all my characters in the same place though with the option to have my alts level more quickly even if i happened to miss the window to make one with the buff

But that's exactly what it should be, an /option/ don't like having more exp? Turn it off

I can certainly remember how people responded to the exp changes in ffxi when those happened (man i miss useful exp rings) so i guess I can't be surprised by anyone being totally against it

I do have to say though if the reasoning is people won't learn their job i have to say.. it would still reduce the number of people buying level up books to an extent, since a lot of the reason to buy them is based around not wanting to have to spend time grinding as much as you do

I honestly prefer the road to 60 over people spending money to instantly blow past 60 levels when they've never played their role before

I can't understand why people would be complaining about out leveling quests honestly, especially if you are still getting double exp until you reach 60 anyway, since gear scales down in dungeons all you'd be losing is temporary access to moves, you can buy appropriate starting fear for your level relatively cheap from vendors

But that's from the perspective of someone who likes to be several levels ahead so I don't have to stop playing the story to grind agai, I am aware that I don't speak for everyone

[Aramina]

Anyway..
At this point we are on the verge of being three full expansions in, that's a massive amount of content for new players to catch up on all on its own without the massive amount of extra dungeon grinding that you have to do in order to cap all of your jobs, so why not makes the preferred world experience bonus just a feature of the game (that you can choose to turn off) so people can get caught up more easily?

That's not the purpose of Preferred Worlds though. You do level faster, and that is certainly a bonus, but the point is to populate less populated realms.