Level squish?

[Floortank]

FFXI stopped at 99 and went to a master level system. EQ2 has done similar.

They won't squish levels, but they'll probably look into a way to make it easier for people to get from start to finish.

Master level system, job level system, and item level gear system in FFXI's endgame all calculate your level up past 99, they just do so invisibly. It is worked into the calculations of the game against mob levels that sit at 130+ that you would by no means be able to fight at 99 under any circumstance.

It still has a level system, you just don't level up anymore. You get your level ups from gear and extremely tiny master / job level increments at 99.

[AnnaUK]

I'd like to see skip options available in game if you have at least one character that has done the content before. You'd have to be the correct level to skip an expansion. They can't be that against it when the store offers it.

I think if we get to a point where we have 120 levels that will be too much for new players.

[SannaR]

I don't think they would do this as that would get people to stop paying for the level skip. I do hope we either stop at 99 or 100 and then truly start in a horizontal progression.

[ReynTime]

I don't think they would do this as that would get people to stop paying for the level skip. I do hope we either stop at 99 or 100 and then truly start in a horizontal progression.

This would rekindle my passion for the game. But I can see Yoshi-P losing his shit about the mere notion of breaking from the usual patch cycle. The staff would glitch out IRL if they saw themselves unable to toss in another +10 levels in an expansion.
Also the average ooga booga player would have the wrong impression that he's not making progress if he stopped seeing enemies above his level in future expansions, even though ilvl and action learning can progress independently from character level, and new jobs to be leveled would always be a thing.

Me personally? Whenever a game breaks past the 99 or 100 levels mark it's when it gives me seriously bad impressions and expectations of number porn.

[SylvAlternate]

This would rekindle my passion for the game. But I can see Yoshi-P losing his shit about the mere notion of breaking from the usual patch cycle. The staff would glitch out IRL if they saw themselves unable to toss in another +10 levels in an expansion.
Also the average ooga booga player would have the wrong impression that he's not making progress if he stopped seeing enemies above his level in future expansions, even though ilvl and action learning can progress independently from character level, and new jobs to be leveled would always be a thing.

Me personally? Whenever a game breaks past the 99 or 100 levels mark it's when it gives me seriously bad impressions and expectations of number porn.

In my opinion, levels past 100 are sexy as hell, I am a fervent enjoyer of number porn and wish we had more online games with max levels in the thousands

[LianaThorne]

In my opinion, levels past 100 are sexy as hell, I am a fervent enjoyer of number porn and wish we had more online games with max levels in the thousands

Same lol. It's so satisfying seeing mine and my boyfriends shared Fallout 76 account sitting at level 472 atm. XD

Wish more games did this.

[Iscah]

Unless it's causing issues with data or computations (like the pre-squish stats were actually hitting the limit of what the system could comprehend) then I think a level squish would create too much confusion for minimal gain. An ilevel squish is somewhat more likely – perhaps to flatten down the layers of gear at each endgame level.

I don't think there's any need to offer skips on a new character when you get so much EXP from quests, but armoury bonus for second jobs could be higher, especially below level 50 where the longer it takes you to level up, the more times you have to drag everyone back down to your level in roulettes.

[Deveryn]

Unless it's causing issues with data or computations (like the pre-squish stats were actually hitting the limit of what the system could comprehend) then I think a level squish would create too much confusion for minimal gain. An ilevel squish is somewhat more likely – perhaps to flatten down the layers of gear at each endgame level.

I don't think there's any need to offer skips on a new character when you get so much EXP from quests, but armoury bonus for second jobs could be higher, especially below level 50 where the longer it takes you to level up, the more times you have to drag everyone back down to your level in roulettes.

The skips would be more for the story than leveling. Even with the ARR squish, there's a lot people have to go through and that's getting bigger and bigger. I'm pretty sure Yoshi acknowledged this somewhere in the last month or two.

[Cach]

With a lot of games hitting the 15+ years mark, it's weird how there doesn't seem to be a definite solution for the number bloat / skill bloat problem in a way that doesn't feel like a "kicking the can down the road" kind of solution.

For FF14 in particular, I would suggest an alternate leveling system, kinda like what we already have with Eureka/Bozja but on a expansion scope.
And for skills... I really don't know, we are already hitting the limits of skill bloat on several jobs. Sometimes I wish they would have stuck with improving cross-classing. I'm guessing a lot of passives are in our future.

[Ameela]

With a lot of games hitting the 15+ years mark, it's weird how there doesn't seem to be a definite solution for the number bloat / skill bloat problem in a way that doesn't feel like a "kicking the can down the road" kind of solution.

For FF14 in particular, I would suggest an alternate leveling system, kinda like what we already have with Eureka/Bozja but on a expansion scope.
And for skills... I really don't know, we are already hitting the limits of skill bloat on several jobs. Sometimes I wish they would have stuck with improving cross-classing. I'm guessing a lot of passives are in our future.

I think in an ideal world they'd put a system in place to restore and take away skills depending on your level range and have a little pop up message telling you how you're about to change expansions so some skills will be removed while others will be added - then just restore classes to the way they were during each expansion as if you were playing each one during their expansion release state.
Of course this isn't exactly ideal as some classes have been changed during those lower levels to be somewhat more enjoyable like tanks all having a two-hit AoE combo before level 50, so it's a complicated issue.