Quote Originally Posted by DonC View Post
One thing I am concerned that is never really mentioned is how SP/EXP is gained..

I have played a few MMOs and they all do it slightly different but in FFXIV I am concerned that there is no viable way to realistically level up.

If a new player logs on, they should be able to grind to Rank 20 (I think they changed the SP nerf to around 23 now?) by soloing/partying on world mobs, guildleves and Behest. This is what I did at first.

Since then I have managed to grind to Rank 30 with a friend doing Leves and Behest. What else is a player to do after 23? If you grind world mobs the SP becomes awfully low and you can only do 8 Leves a day solo, if you are lucky you may get a party to do them. After the 8 leves are done you are left with Behest and that is pretty much it..

In Rift you can mix grinding with quests, Rifts and grinding world mobs all day, in FFXI you can party up, do some campaign, fields of valor etc all day, whereas in FFXIV you are stuck with Leves and Behest where Leves do not last all day. You can't party up and grind in FFXIV as the SP needed to level up is extremely high compared to how much SP you gain grinding world mobs.

The above suits some people which is fine but when the influx of new players comes and everyone is stuck doing 8 Leves a day with some Behest they will get bored and quit again..

I am hoping the Devs can do something further to maintain player interest. It appears they are scrapping Surplus which is great but now they possibly need to make adjustments to how much SP is needed to gain levels or boost SP from world grinding to make parties viable again. This will require a new method to LFP, which I think they are implementing? I really want to see this game get a real boost from the PS3 launch and I can see the need for 'content' being worked on but I think another look at leveling is needed to hold on to them new players that may come.

Its good to have the 'carrot' but let the players feel they have a decent chance to get to it..
As far as overworld mob grinding is concerned, I described the specific problems with it and proposed solutions that would not be very hard to implement in an earlier thread.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-How-to-Fix-it

There are, actually, decent ways to get SP when not doing leves, but it's hard for new players to know.