They're thinking about job identities for 8.0

[mallleable]

technically all they would have to do is smash the current 100 lvls worth of jobs into 50 lvls which would also make players happy because a lot of players dislike losing their skills in dungeons.

i will also say i dont see us getting too drastic of a change because at most we are seeing 2 jobs being changes at a time per expansion and magically we want us to be able to do it to 21 jobs in 8.0 which is over 10 times the work.

Things get weird in ARR if we get a level squish. Let's be generous, and say we get a level squish, and the entirety of ARR ends at level 20. Dungeons like Sastasha, Tam Tara, and Copperbell would become like level 2 dungeons. Every single job will need to be dungeon ready in 2 levels. Which means cramming significantly more actions into those 2 levels. The game will force the developers to make decisions on what's important for each job's gameplay.

We could have ARR stay ending at level 50, and every expansion is just 5 levels, but we've just pushed the weird leveling problem out of ARR, and into each expansion. And just aesthetically, 5 levels per expansion feels kinda off. Jobs will have to change to compensate a compressed expansion leveling experience.

Another possibility is to stop leveling at 100, and introduce horizontal progression, and give each job a 'spec.' How many specs could each job have? The devs will have to make different specs for each job. Jobs will have to changes.

[ty_taurus]

Another possibility is to stop leveling at 100, and introduce horizontal progression, and give each job a 'spec.' How many specs could each job have? The devs will have to make different specs for each job. Jobs will have to changes.

This is more along the lines of what Yoshi P mentioned will likely happen back when he was interiviewed about Dawntrail's level cap. He confirmed we'd be going to level 100, but after he wants to think about how to progress. Level 100 is a very iconic final level for the series (I'd say 99 is more commonly the cap but whatever), and going beyond that or reducing the max level would be "half-assed."

Personally, I'd like to see some unique interpretation of the sphere grid where each job gets its own visual progression system.

[Musashidon]

We could have ARR stay ending at level 50, and every expansion is just 5 levels, but we've just pushed the weird leveling problem out of ARR, and into each expansion. And just aesthetically, 5 levels per expansion feels kinda off. Jobs will have to change to compensate a compressed expansion leveling experience.

most likely what would happen is we would get arr 50 like normal as there is no reason to give more work than there needs to be and then all expansions will be lvl 50 and 8.0 will be 51-60 and restart the expansion lvling cycle.

this would also be the good time to do the story cut and allow people to go to the most recent expansions without doing 3.0-7.0 especially since 7.0 is a fill expansion.

with arr being the same basically there would be little to no work there and all they would have to do is adjust content to a degree to work with the skills that a lvl 90 would have basically just inflating hp to match being able to do the kind of damage our rotations can do.

i don't see SE making such a huge change going from vertical to horizontal progression especially after 10 or at that point 13 years of vertical progression we will always be growing and going up in lvls.

[Jeeqbit]

Things get weird in ARR if we get a level squish. Let's be generous, and say we get a level squish, and the entirety of ARR ends at level 20.

I think ARR should end at level 30. Here's why:

• The first 10 levels must always be "easy" to get ie. kill enemies. That feel at the start of the game is rather important, but then it should start to get steep up to level 30.
• The quests, regardless, should still assume the person is level 1 at first, even if they killed enemies to level.
• 30 levels is needed, as you said, because of how many dungeons ARR has.
• 30 is when jobs get unlocked, so it's fitting for that to be the end of ARR.
• 30 is when Heavensward new jobs begin, so it would be even more fitting.

This would allow the expansions to remain 10 levels and cap us at 80, and find a non-leveling solution for future expansions, or to find a way to branch the MSQ a bit.

Another possibility is to stop leveling at 100, and introduce horizontal progression

Tbh we move horizontal in patches already. The only thing to figure out is how to add new actions, but they could just be unlocked via MSQ progression directly the same way HW job actions are unlocked via job quests, but only usable in that expansion's dungeons onwards to achieve the same effect.

[mallleable]

This is more along the lines of what Yoshi P mentioned will likely happen back when he was interiviewed about Dawntrail's level cap. He confirmed we'd be going to level 100, but after he wants to think about how to progress. Level 100 is a very iconic final level for the series (I'd say 99 is more commonly the cap but whatever), and going beyond that or reducing the max level would be "half-assed."

Personally, I'd like to see some unique interpretation of the sphere grid where each job gets its own visual progression system.

I remember going to level 110 being the 'half-assed' option. So I think doing a level squish will buy more time to have horizontal system ready for the next we hit level 100.

I think ARR should end at level 30. Here's why:

• The first 10 levels must always be "easy" to get ie. kill enemies. That feel at the start of the game is rather important, but then it should start to get steep up to level 30.
• The quests, regardless, should still assume the person is level 1 at first, even if they killed enemies to level.
• 30 levels is needed, as you said, because of how many dungeons ARR has.
• 30 is when jobs get unlocked, so it's fitting for that to be the end of ARR.
• 30 is when Heavensward new jobs begin, so it would be even more fitting.

This would allow the expansions to remain 10 levels and cap us at 80, and find a non-leveling solution for future expansions, or to find a way to branch the MSQ a bit.

Ending ARR at 30 actually makes more sense! Jobs will still have to change to compensate a compressed leveling experience.

[OgruMogru]

I can imagine a system wherein each expansion going forward has it's own separate set of 10 levels you progress through. Similar to the levelling systems in Eureka, Bozja and even deep dungeon. Maybe the skills/traits you would normally unlock and add to your permanent roster are only available in content for whatever expansion you got them in. Maybe each "capstone" [idk what to call the biggest flashiest spell we get at the highest level each expac soz] ability we get going forward could be like supplementary duty actions [again like lost actions in boz etc] and we can equip a limited number of those as duty actions to bolster our lvl 100 kits.

[ty_taurus]

I remember going to level 110 being the 'half-assed' option. So I think doing a level squish will buy more time to have horizontal system ready for the next we hit level 100.

I disagree. I think it would be kind of a spit in the face to the player after making such a big deal about hitting 100 now. It's really tacky imo, and also a very short-sighted solution to a greater problem.

[Asari5]

many people dislike the patchquests for not giving exp and therefore they miss the feeling of progress. so it might be better to give lvl ups to patchquests as well... we can still reduce the base expansion lvls

[Ephremjlm]

Ironically enough i'm guessing no one here has ever played FFXI. I really wouldn't be surprised if for the first time ever they actually took some advice from that game and instead the cap would stay the same and the item levels were the things that just kept rising. in reality it does solve the problem and keeps 100(or 99) a special level point. I mean lets be honest its not like gear matters or is individualistic anyways, and if they wanted to add more abilities they could be with new gear or in new job quests. And even though we have the "Job Mastery" firework items I highly doubt they would add in job mastery because it would require us to specifically pick what stats we want to add and abilities we want to upgrade, and FFXIV just doesn't work like that. Though idk maybe if it was more on the rails, everyone ends up at the same place, fights stayed easy, and the grind was short they could do it.

That or the new expansion areas could very well be a new starting point and basically we would have to get a whole new set of gearing options. Not sure how that's gonna really work either because as it is they cut corners with armor assets. That said I wouldn't even be surprised if they just went and reused old ARR assets for everything. Would kinda be funny in a trolling way.

I guess i'm just not expecting much. I like that Yoshi P's tone is drastically changing, but I just can't help but feel like hes trying to milk us by getting us to extend our subs longer. That and I truly don't think much will change unless subs from players who have these gripes start dropping like flies which would force leverage on that side of the aisle, but I don't expect that to happen........would be nuts if it did though. WOW, and even Diablo 4 as of season 4 seems to be doing better js lmao.

[Moqi]

They'll be doing lvl 110 after much consideration... They won't change the template.