Do not force level caps on content - You segregate the player base

[Andrien]

I'm curious to see how materia will be scaled in sync party. I remember back in FFXI I'll do a /sea to check for people seeking party invites. Most of the time I see "No level sync" or "level sync 50+ only" It defeats the propose of its function, but it does work well with friends, and it can be exploited like smn burn pt.

My feelings for level cap is... neutral. will most likely avoid it unless I really have to play it.

[Jokerz]

The only reason I liked capped level content was because I felt like my character was growing with the story. But my experience is pretty different than most people's, I was fortunate enough to pretty much level as I progressed through the story, and I had a static/friends helping me so I never felt that pane of waiting for a group to do it with.

I'd have to say...I'm against it if it's anything like FFXI where once people progressed they generally had no interest in returning. However if they offered rewards for returning to assist players going through the content, I'd be all for capped level content. Can be anything from synthesis materials for higher level crafts to maybe special pieces of gear or maybe even some aesthetic things for your character(for instance after clearing content a certain number of times can get a unique hairstyle or something) Hell, make it so that every time someone earns their first win in a pt, the group assisting said individual gets rewarded 100k.

[Dzian]

I disagree, its better if the content requirement is lv60 to begin with.

And then everyone who is level 50 has fk all to do.

Level capped content is fine. It gives people stuff to do other than grind levels. CoP was an example of this.
Level to 30 do chapter 1
Level to 40 do chapter 2
Level to 50 do chapter 3.
Not just level to 75 and trounce the bloody lot.

As for helping out, people just need incentives. Levels have nothing to do with the fact noone ever helps people.

The number of times I see people shout for into the dark / united we stand / to kill a raven for hours because noone wants to help.

It has nothing to do with levels and everything to do with incentives or rewards for helping people.

If I got 5k seals for helping someone do united we stand even though I've already done it I'd be much more willing to go help people when I see shouts.

That's the reason people get left behind or new players can't catch up. not level caps or anything else. as proven by people struggling to catch up in the current game. it's not level caps holding them back.. it's people having no incentive to go help.

[Antipika]

Incentive works, for max level content. For low level content, if the sync feature is as bad as on XI (i.e. you do need the right gear otherwise your stats are bad since the scaling is done wrong), then people wouldn't bother to help.

I won't keep a set of level 20 / 30 / 40 gear just to be able to help random people. Inventory is already an issue with lv max gear alone.

[Andrien]

And then everyone who is level 50 has fk all to do.

I don't think you thought this through. I doubt the dev team will leave that wide of a level gap with nothing to do. It is safe to assume in this scenario there will be content that has requirements for 50+. Besides 50s attempting something that is meant for 60s is something a leecher would try to do anyways.

Players will be gaining experience point while completing the main story, and questing in xiv, so I really doubt they'll implement caps for that, especially if the quest are all level and party difficulty appropriate.

[Kasathar]

Level caps were one of the worst shit ever done by SE.

[Valhol]

Players are already segregated (high level from low level) by current content. High level players are not gonna party with low level players merely because the content they are working towards isn't the same stuff. Only way to effectively make those two groups do things together is to create content that can be repeated for better or additional rewards. Such as: if non-speed run Aurum Vale dropped Darklight bodies, or if helping people through storyline quest gave you multiple elixirs, GC seals or large sums of gil. I think people that believe there should be no segregation between low level and high level players are just too lazy to put together their own groups, or seek out groups with the same skill level.

[RudyFails]

I usually don't agree with the whole "omg you don't like FFXI you want easy mode" stuff, and pulling the "everything in FFXI is a timesink, not a challenge" card is cool too, but when you bring CoP into it then someone better slap a bib on you right now.

You wanna know why no one helped anyone else? Cause that shit was hard. Most of the missions involved traversing through one of the new (at the time) areas dodging true sight mobs that used "death" abilities (remember that?). Not only would it take a decent amount of time to manage your way to the actual mission fights (in which most were instances, if I remember correctly) but you probably weren't going to win the first time... or the fifth time. That right there was 10x as "challenging" as any of the content at the endgame.

There are about 1,048,456,500 posts about people protesting time sinks and demanding "challenging", "skill based" content. Look at CoP. That is it right there, no doubt. And if you think about it, if there is content that people will do once and never touch again, and you know for a fact that it didn't revolve around time sinks, then I'd say you made some pretty damn challenging content. The only thing that annoyed me when I did it was that I remember buying all new gear to fit the level cap. That got aggravating.

Now even if this all became real and there was a level cap, who's to say you still couldn't solo it at the forced cap, or duo? I'm personally stuck on the R25 GC ifrit ONLY because it requires a party to enter and I can't find anyone who either needs it or is willing to help. In what universe is that not exactly the same tweaked concept? Whatever. If it was me and I was working hard making a game and people blew through the new "mission" arcs or whatever on their maxed ranks I'd feel foolish and insulted. And by the care and time they seem to be putting in 2.0's release, I've been put under the impression that they take some pride in what they create. But hey, that's just my 2 cents, throw it in your piggy bank.

[Dzian]

I don't think you thought this through. I doubt the dev team will leave that wide of a level gap with nothing to do. It is safe to assume in this scenario there will be content that has requirements for 50+. Besides 50s attempting something that is meant for 60s is something a leecher would try to do anyways..

But then if that content has anything remotely worthwhile as rewards then parties of level 60's would trounce farm it and make it effectively useless to any 50s. those 50s would just then get to 60 cos its easier that way...

If for example you were to keep av as level 50 content and the cap was raised to 60 how easy would it then be for those 60s to 17 minute and get there mythrils. the same with cutters cry the same with ifrit extreme. all you suceed in doing is undervaluing relic contents even more cos suddenly there easier to get. and all these people who find it hard at 50 will just grind to 60 to make it easier. and bam that level 50 content is never done by level 50 players. kinda like how toto-rak is now.

for the most part the gear scaling in xi was fairly accurate. people just got upset there byakkos hadiate only had 1-2 dex at 74 but 15 dex at 75. people forget that at 74 1-2 dex was about as good as you could get in a leg slot with standard gear.

[Kiote]

Not gonna read this thread, but I would like to throw out there. The only reason level capped content was hard to find a party for in XI is because they didn't have a content finder. If done right, FFXIV's will let you search for multiple contents at once and people will be able to find whatever they want.

Still wish it didn't auto teleport players to dungeons though..