More Options for Character Growth

[ThePatriarch]

XIV is not dead. Just very broken but that's old new to everyone here. We sure are not fooling ourselves into thinking XIV is any kind of success. S-E knows it too that is why 2.0 is being built. If S-E does it right, then we will turn that 10k into a million.

Just curious about something tho', that 325k number.... where did you pull that from?

http://users.telenet.be/mmodata/Charts/Subs-2.png

Here is one chart, I have a couple more. I'll post when I find them (come to see, its showing more like 318,000 at the near end of 2011, so im sure its down a few)

http://www.brighthub.com/video-games...les/35992.aspx

[syntaxlies]

I feel that we don't have enough options available to make our characters stand out from the rest or to customize them to fit our personal style. Let's say you have a L50 BLM. It won't be any different or play any different from any L50 BLM out there. It will be an exact copy minus the equipped gear.

Even when equipping spells from other classes, you are pretty much forced to chose the best spells to fit your job. So in the end you still end up with the same setup as everyone else and as things will go on, it will be like XI where you need a specific combination to play with others or they won't invite you.

Other MMOs out there have come up with systems that let's you tailor your character to your linking and still make it that you are just as useful in a group then other players from the same Class but with a different setup.


We have been asking for such a system from the beginning, there is tons of threads on the subject and Yoshi-P's answer was the job system. But that is hardly what we asked for, it is just an advanced job/class system a la Ragnarok Online or the advanced jobs in XI. Yes you keep the skills from your previous job but that is the only difference.


WOW for example has the talent tree, you can chose from 3 different play style for each job. A single job can then fit different roles in a group, from Tank to healer to DPS. It's your choice. This approach makes it that you have more options available to you when searching for team mates. If PLD and WAR for example are the only tanks and are not too popular, then you will have a hard time forming a group. Same thing for healers, if only one class is a suitable healer then it will be much harder to find one.


There are many different systems out there in other MMOs and i think that it is time for XIV to have it's own. Take ideas from existing systems or make one from scratch but i believe we need one if we are to have diversity and prevent the game from becoming like XI where you need the perfect combination to even play.

FF14 has its own, its called the armory system. Its not to hard to find people for a party when all they have to do is change there gear.


They are adding some spells/debuffs to the existing mage classes in 2.0

[Phobos]

Things like this are great. It seems people are thinking XI didn't have this.

Did people forget about Merits? There was actually a great deal of customization between characters with merits, and while some jobs had a set couple of skills that were basically required, that just means a system of the like here would just need to be better balanced.

Heck, we even have a system in place that can be used for merit points... Acheivement Points.

[syntaxlies]

Things like this are great. It seems people are thinking XI didn't have this.

Did people forget about Merits? There was actually a great deal of customization between characters with merits, and while some jobs had a set couple of skills that were basically required, that just means a system of the like here would just need to be better balanced.

Heck, we even have a system in place that can be used for merit points... Acheivement Points.

We have job skills that are quested. I personally don't think we all need different skills, Its how you use them that matters. Having some awesome skill and being a terrible player may make you unique, but it wont make you any better.

[Phobos]

We have job skills that are quested. I personally don't think we all need different skills, Its how you use them that matters. Having some awesome skill and being a terrible player may make you unique, but it wont make you any better.

Merits didnt just add skills... a lot of them boosted existing ones or stats. I wasn't saying "do merits the same way they were from XI" I was simply saying it worked to a degree, but would need changes.

The job system removed some variety between players by restricting cross class skills. Something like this would just add that variety back in. You can use the argument " Having some awesome skill and being a terrible player may make you unique, but it wont make you any better." about any of the skills in this game...

[syntaxlies]

Merits didnt just add skills... a lot of them boosted existing ones or stats. I wasn't saying "do merits the same way they were from XI" I was simply saying it worked to a degree, but would need changes.

The job system removed some variety between players by restricting cross class skills. Something like this would just add that variety back in. You can use the argument " Having some awesome skill and being a terrible player may make you unique, but it wont make you any better." about any of the skills in this game...

I personally don't like the idea of merit points to boost skills. I don't want extra grind added to the game that takes away from actually having fun. I would be more in favor of an advanced type job that you can only pick one of that gives you enhanced traits and stats to that job.

If they added merit points for skills I wouldn't mind that much, I just don't see the need to add more grind to the game.

[Phobos]

I personally don't like the idea of merit points to boost skills. I don't want extra grind added to the game that takes away from actually having fun. I would be more in favor of an advanced type job that you can only pick one of that gives you enhanced traits and stats to that job.

If they added merit points for skills I wouldn't mind that much, I just don't see the need to add more grind to the game.

The grind is already there. As I suggested in my first post on the subject, simply using Acheivement Points would make the system unique and less mindless grind like SB'ing is.

[Travesty]

Individuality is really important in an MMO. Even if it's just via appearance. That's why so many games have dyes for gear and such.

I agree that FFXIV needs a little more individuality and customization. That was one thing that was good about being able to use abilities from other classes. Unfortunately that system, the way they did it, went a little too far and resulted in everyone kind of being whitewashed. But the idea was good.

It would be nice if there could be a system where there were multiple paths of customization that didn't result in 1 being the clear winner. That's what always seems to happen with talent trees, so I wouldn't say they are the solution. At least the way they're typically done. Another problem that you run into is that the more classes there are, the less opportunity there is for customization. You could give Conjurer a DOT focused path, but then maybe that means there's no point in a class that focuses on DOT's.

Really it just comes down to balance. If the devs provide 10 paths of customization, but 9 of them clearly suck compared to the 1 good one, then all that available customization is pointless. The options have to be balanced, and that's the difficult part.

[Jinko]

I thought WoW was removing talent trees or something.. ?

Besides haven't the dev team said that in future we will get alternative jobs for each class, the community will always find the best way a class/job works so customisation isn't that important unless you want to be some special snowflake of course.

Even in WoW there are specific talents you are required to take if you want to be sufficient at the role, its not uncommon for people to shun players based on the talent builds.

[Onidemon]

I thought WoW was removing talent trees or something.. ?

Besides haven't the dev team said that in future we will get alternative jobs for each class, the community will always find the best way a class/job works so customisation isn't that important unless you want to be some special snowflake of course.

Even in WoW their are specific talents you are required to take if you want to be sufficient at the role, its not uncommon for people to shun players based on the talent builds.

I wouldn't mind more advanced jobs as a system for customization. Like at 50, your PLD can chose 2 advanced jobs, one that is focused on tanking and one for DPS instead. Something in these lines sounds cool, a bit like RO and different from WOW's talent tree that so many of you seem to hate.