The expansion on the horizon

[Lyth]

I can appreciate having that sense of 'overworld danger'. It's difficult to achieve, however. For example, I didn't think that Endwalker's 'From the Cold' was designed in a particularly unfair way, but I did cut it pretty close on my first run (sub 5 min left on clock), and I really enjoyed it as a result. I'm also not surprised that there were a lot of complaints around it. There's always a trade-off between making content more exciting and making it less accessible to some portion of the playerbase.

While having max level mobs that oneshot you if you explore the map out of order is probably a step too far, there are story-driven ways that you can reintroduce that sense of danger. For example, let's say that you were designing the Ruby Sea with one lone wandering Emerald Weapon type mob that lurked in the depths. If it sees you it starts chasing you, and if it gets your health below 10% (let's say after a couple of hits) someone intervenes and you get escorted back to base. If it happened once you might be left with a sense of fear, such that you explore the depths with caution. It's not the presence, but the rather the absence of the mob that inspires fear.

Or alternatively, let's say you had an X-ATM092 wandering the center of a ruined town. Everyone can see it and that it looks dangerous, such that the average player is going to stay well clear of it. But it's not outright designed to kill you - it's really just there to bully you and scare you off until you pass a particular checkpoint.

One thing that I wish that they could do more effectively is create 'points of no return'. Like the bit after 2.5 where you're technically wanted in Ul'dah but nobody seems to mind you wandering the town. It's difficult to achieve in an MMO vs. a traditional single player RPG, but it would be nice if say, you had to go in incognito with disguises and beat a hasty retreat out of town if your cover was blown for a short portion of the story. I feel like this is something more easily explored with an expansion story than it is with a patch release, though.

[Vyrerus]

It'd be kinda ballin' if they took inspiration from Vinland Saga, and we had an arc where the WoL gets captured and enslaved. Carried across the sea and set to work on a huge farm.

Nah, I'm kiddin'. But I do still think an ocean based expansion would be cool. Give them an excuse to bring in new pirates, maybe some Vikings, and some longships!

Imagine how hard the WoL could row a longship. Phew. Also comedy for Lalafell rowers.

[kaynide]

Calling it now: Hollow Earth, a la FF4.

…eventually…

But realistically? Meracydia is the obvious choice, with “The Americas and the cities of gold” as a second.

[RyuDragnier]

Calling it now: Hollow Earth, a la FF4.

…eventually…

But realistically? Meracydia is the obvious choice, with “The Americas and the cities of gold” as a second.

Especially since we know little to nothing about the New World. Not to mention 7.0 will likely have us hit level 99/100, which is almost always the ending level for jobs in any FF game. I've said it before and I'll continue saying it, The New World is the perfect place for them to introduce a new leveling system if they want us to continue gaining levels.

[kaynide]

Especially since we know little to nothing about the New World. Not to mention 7.0 will likely have us hit level 99/100, which is almost always the ending level for jobs in any FF game. I've said it before and I'll continue saying it, The New World is the perfect place for them to introduce a new leveling system if they want us to continue gaining levels.

Agreed; I hope they cap at 100, then do so one other system to get better iLVL outside of actual xp grind.

Not saying it is the way to do it, but Guildwars 2 has a mastery system which unlocks other non-combat niche skills (think hang gliding/high-jumping or self resurrection out of combat). It also allows certain “buffs”, like a certain monster would near-insta kill you until you became “attuned” to its ancient magics. No ilvl boost or special gear needed.

I don’t know what FFXIV could do off hand..but surely there are alternatives to just xp grind.

[rainichan]

Agreed; I hope they cap at 100, then do so one other system to get better iLVL outside of actual xp grind.

Not saying it is the way to do it, but Guildwars 2 has a mastery system which unlocks other non-combat niche skills (think hang gliding/high-jumping or self resurrection out of combat). It also allows certain “buffs”, like a certain monster would near-insta kill you until you became “attuned” to its ancient magics. No ilvl boost or special gear needed.

I don’t know what FFXIV could do off hand..but surely there are alternatives to just xp grind.

FFXI had Merit Points at 75 (the original cap) where you grinded for Merits to dump into your stats. They raised the level cap to 99, people still grind for Merits, but now there's also Job Mastery and Job Points which... I think are similar to Merits but there's a LOT lol. Once you hit 99 you also get capped gear that is your endgame gear at i119.

I do have to wonder if we'll hit 99 or 100 and then the next area we go into, like the New World or something will make us start at like... Lv1* where we keep our abilities until then, but then they just upgrade as we hit each milestone, and then when we return to 2.0-6.0 areas, we're back to lv99 or whatnot.

[Cleretic]

If it helps what people are speculating on, Yoshi-P did confirm early this year that 7.0 will end at level 100; there was an idea of ending it at 99, but apparently decided not to.

For what happens after that, they don't seem 100% sure yet; Yoshi-P thinks continuing to just add more and more levels sounds a bit half-assed (I'm not sure I agree, I'm a proponent of 'if it ain't broke don't fix it', but I get it), but it also didn't sound like they had a better idea yet. ...which, incidentally, means that there's not exactly existing clues as to what they're going to do for us to speculate on, lore or not.

[RyuDragnier]

If it helps what people are speculating on, Yoshi-P did confirm early this year that 7.0 will end at level 100; there was an idea of ending it at 99, but apparently decided not to.

For what happens after that, they don't seem 100% sure yet; Yoshi-P thinks continuing to just add more and more levels sounds a bit half-assed (I'm not sure I agree, I'm a proponent of 'if it ain't broke don't fix it', but I get it), but it also didn't sound like they had a better idea yet. ...which, incidentally, means that there's not exactly existing clues as to what they're going to do for us to speculate on, lore or not.

I'm hoping for the new leveling system, they look towards what they introduced in Eureka and Bozja. Essentially levels that aren't levels, but DO effect how much damage you take and do to the enemies (at least in the case of Eureka). Basically make ilvl the actual indicator of power.

[Kesey]

I'm hoping for the new leveling system, they look towards what they introduced in Eureka and Bozja. Essentially levels that aren't levels, but DO effect how much damage you take and do to the enemies (at least in the case of Eureka). Basically make ilvl the actual indicator of power.

Knowing that they've cut stats before, I think the logical answer is cut levels in half and have everyone log in to 8.0 at level 50 then level up to 60. That would give them 4 more expansions back to 100 (fitting the 10 year road map). I think an objective look at some jobs could argue for a better spread of skills across levels and a crunch would give them the chance to do that. Plus the new player experience wouldn't need altered at all, as catching up will be rather quick and let them level alt jobs too.

The idea of adding another system on top of what we have sounds cool, but the best thing for the health of the game would be the crunch.

[Alleluia]

This upcoming expansion seems like the perfect time to introduce a secondary starter experience. The first grand arc of FF14 is over and, while it will play into this second one I'm sure, I really can't see them continuing to require new people to go through the storyline of 5 expansions to get current.

And I think there's signs that they won't be. We have the Neverending Codex, which is currently only particularly useful for people who cutscene or story skipped. I mean, yeah, its nice to explicitly see how the devs want to frame the events I remember, but am I really the target audience for a recap of Alphinaud's character arc through Heavensward? Or is the person who missed it the target? I'd say it must be the person who missed it. Right now, that's just people who skip cutscenes or bought story boosts, the latter of which is not the majority of players cus extra money. Also, they might not care about the codex anyway, cus story skipping.

I think the real target audience for the codex hasn't manifested yet: new 7.0 players. I am willing to bet that you will be able to start from level 1 (in current or only new jobs, idk) in 7.0 and have the option to begin the game in story arc 2 and level through that. And the codex (all entries in it as of 6.5) is gonna be unlocked for you immediately so that, when you come across characters, you can look them up if you care enough.

And, per what Cleretic and Ryu are saying:

If it helps what people are speculating on, Yoshi-P did confirm early this year that 7.0 will end at level 100; there was an idea of ending it at 99, but apparently decided not to.

For what happens after that, they don't seem 100% sure yet; Yoshi-P thinks continuing to just add more and more levels sounds a bit half-assed (I'm not sure I agree, I'm a proponent of 'if it ain't broke don't fix it', but I get it), but it also didn't sound like they had a better idea yet. ...which, incidentally, means that there's not exactly existing clues as to what they're going to do for us to speculate on, lore or not.

I'm hoping for the new leveling system, they look towards what they introduced in Eureka and Bozja. Essentially levels that aren't levels, but DO effect how much damage you take and do to the enemies (at least in the case of Eureka). Basically make ilvl the actual indicator of power.

I think we're gonna end up with some kind of a level masking system for older players in these new zones that will attempt to put us all on equal footing. Either that or they just sync us down depending on what level new msq quest we are on when in those zones or something. Everyone hates having their kit taken away, though, so I think the easier thing might be level-syncing our ilvl down, keeping the kit, and then just allowing new players to start with only new jobs in the new expac. Kind of like how I understand Death Knight worked in WoW? Minus the requirement to already have a max level class to unlock it.