Thoughts on Level Squishes

[Xatsh]

It worked in WoW, although I hate mobs that level up with you it removed the progression feel of your character getting stronger. If they do it they need to do it in a different way where the feeling of progression is still there.

In ffxiv I am not sure how it works. In WoW the story for each expansion is sorta a stand alone story, some minor ties ins but mainly standalone. IN FFXIV the story is highly linear and the expansions are sorta a continuation of the story, letting someone say skip heavenward or ARR would be like coming in on series 2 episode 8 of a on a tv show and saying ok whats going on now.

This is an issue of progression in general in a Themepark Game. I think they need to cap the levels and add other forms of progression. Why games with horizontal progression do not have the issue. But to keep ffxiv pure linear, they could cap the lvl but with the current gearing system it would be no different as you would be say lvl 80 in Ilvl 10000 gear doing 1million dps with 5million health. I do not see an easy solution for ffxiv. Horizontal Growth is the answer but the game is pure linear and I do not think a redesign would be worth it at this point in the games life.

[Equitable_Remedy]

I'd have no objections to a level squish, but I also don't think it necessary (having recently leveled my first character to 80).

What does concern me is each expansion adding more abilities without removing or combining others—this game already has a lot of buttons to press that don't need to be buttons.

[GeminiReed]

... and to placate people who are scared of big numbers. ...

Like new players?

Deep leveling grinds are a significant barrier to entry especially when a game does not offer a reasonable catch-up mechanic. XIV has the double whammy of layering a mandatory story grind on top of a leveling grind that's getting too close to triple digits. Just the story requirement alone garners a "lol, nope" when trying to convince friends to join, having to tell them they'll need to burn through 80+ levels is a deal killer.

And in before the inevitable "journey" whine: If we wanted a that we'd play single-player games.

Unless Square is planning an XI style maintenance mode for XIV and a follow-on MMO up their sleeve they'll need a far more comprehensive story compression than the recent effort along with any level squish. Or at the very least make story optional.

[Wyakin]

Dps has virtually tripled every expansion. It’s getting over the top now.

[Kaurhz]

I think we will hit an inevitable stat squish with 7.0 or somewhere therebefore, especially since they already had some 'minor' issues with numbers back in 2016 (HW), at least as far as crafting was concerned

[Morningstar1337]

Like new players?

Deep leveling grinds are a significant barrier to entry especially when a game does not offer a reasonable catch-up mechanic. XIV has the double whammy of layering a mandatory story grind on top of a leveling grind that's getting too close to triple digits. Just the story requirement alone garners a "lol, nope" when trying to convince friends to join, having to tell them they'll need to burn through 80+ levels is a deal killer.

And in before the inevitable "journey" whine: If we wanted a that we'd play single-player games.

Unless Square is planning an XI style maintenance mode for XIV and a follow-on MMO up their sleeve they'll need a far more comprehensive story compression than the recent effort along with any level squish. Or at the very least make story optional.

They could also repeat what happened with ARR where the 1.0 story and quests were made unavailable and a new story would take its place (with a means of access current dungeons/trials/raids, prolly via the echo as a story justification). Or have a new jumping on point with a new shorter prelude that leads up the new expac's story. For example, a story that explores what happens while the WoL and Scions were on the Frirst and Garlemald (Assuming that's the focus of 7.0)

[Absurdity]

My question would be, why exactly would that be considered "over the top" now, why not the numbers we had in HW or SB? What number you consider "over the top" basically boils down to subjective opinion. I don't consider the numbers anywhere near ridiculous until we get into the millions per hit range for example and someone else might consider anything above a thousand to already be over the top.

[Wyakin]

My question would be, why exactly would that be considered "over the top" now, why not the numbers we had in HW or SB? What number you consider "over the top" basically boils down to subjective opinion. I don't consider the numbers anywhere near ridiculous until we get into the millions per hit range for example and someone else might consider anything above a thousand to already be over the top.

It’s over the top because of two reasons. FF is known for the 9999 damage limit. Yes there are some games which had break damage limit but generally speaking. Secondly, from a balance perspective it’s much easier to balance numbers around HW than current levels

[Esmoire]

I am in favour of a number squish for sure. I hate games like Disgaea where the numbers really start having no meaning and you need to add "k" or worse "m" to end of everything. And like there's really no illusion of growing power when bunny rabbits out in the wild have a billion HP, you almost die from falling a modicum of elevation, or characters who apparently are pinatas to your party of 24 adventurers get fatal stab wounds from a spork in cutscenes. I want a level squish and a huge compression of numbers.

Asininely large numbers are a bit of a Final Fantasy tradition.

... Except when it is more tradionally traditional! "9999" was the highest damage number you'd get for the first half of the series, with player HP numbers being much smaller. It was only in rereleases or later games did we get gear/skills/engine changes to break the 9999 limit, though it can be argued the insanity seen with FFVII post game bosses favoured attacks that hit multiple times to get around it.

[linayar]

That said there are ways to avoid an ever increasing level. 99 or 100 is a good place to stop leveling and then move on to alternate forms of character progression. They can have lateral expansions with parallel storylines. Adding a manual level sync feature would help a lot here.

Actually, they don't need to move on to alternate forms of character progression because they already have it: item level progression.

With MSQ being mandatory (and I hope it stays that way), leveling can be removed and your character can progress via item level alongside story progression. The only unique things leveling progression still provides in this game is quest/instance requirement (which can be shifted to item level requirement) and threat immunity in the open world (which can be shifted to story progression).

That said, as long as the game and players' game devices can handle it, there's no problem with an ever increasing level and stats and numbers in general.