Gaining SP/EXP - Moving forward

[Betelgeuzah]

I don't think gaining a rank in a few hours is a problem, but encouraging us to take part in various other activities is important. The time it takes to get a rank should be so much that you feel like it is worthwhile to take part in these other activities, but not so much that you feel like you aren't getting anywhere once you want to rank up.

This is going towards personal opinion-sector, but IMO leveling with the progression method designed for that purpose should feel fast and efficient enough, and the other content should not have anything to do with leveling but achieving other things related to character advancement and progression, or lore, or whatever. When you get down to it and start leveling it's rather fast process, but there is so much else to do that you simply won't exp as much as you could.

[Naylia]

....This is going towards personal opinion-sector, but IMO leveling with the progression method designed for that purpose should feel fast and efficient enough, and the other content should not have anything to do with leveling but achieving other things related to character advancement and progression, or lore, or whatever. When you get down to it and start leveling it's rather fast process, but there is so much else to do that you simply won't exp as much as you could.

True, that could meet my concerns. I guess there just hasn't been enough content in the game that this is currently happening and it's really - up until the introduction of the mid-rank NMs, all just been a race to 50 because there is little other content to enjoy.

[Aion]

It's not MY problem. There is no reason to use the PT search tool. NONE! Thats FFXIVs problem. There is no repeatable content to speak of. Why not make guildleves frequently repeatable with the proper adjustments, just to give what player base is left something to always fall back on?

the majority of MMOs out there today have multiple things for players to do while in game. 100% of the time. Many with no restrictions on the frequency of participation on the players behalf.

FFXIV imposes 8 Guildleve quests per 36 hours on the player.
yes you can participate in someone else's guildleve, but thats not on your demand, thats by theirs.

FFXIV halts your Rank progression through fatigue.
sure you can grind through it, but at some point you'll each 0 progress.

FXIV halts your story line progression through fatigue.

currently it does more to keep the player out of the game than in the game.

Reducing guildleve timers is more than a bandaid . It's a round of atropine to get this game moving again.

What do you suggest SE do to improve the lack of repeatable content?
Develop new systems that will take months program, months to test and balance, and months to implement?
Continue on it's current path and continue to see FFXIV thready pulse finally sputter out and fade away?

You're like that fish in finding nemo "just keep swimming, just keep swimming" ........ Ignorant.

screenshot this with your character and we'll talk again

[Physic]

giving all monsters the same SP is a bad idea, because not all monsters are created equal. some things are just harder than others.
More overall content is needed, dungeons are good because it can allow you to level while also doing content.
The old SP system with less randomness party share exp option and some tweaks prolly would have worked best for making all monsters viable exp, or at least with the right setup, any mob is sweet. But it is gone and not coming back.

there are other ways to get decent exp, but maybe the answer is not to base the content so heavily around exp. Have other ways to improve your charachter, that are entertaining. More variety.

Anyhow to fix the sp, they need to come up with really good values to determin each monsters difficulty, I agree that the 10 level limit encourages you to smash crappy mobs really fast. However it is possible after they change battle we will be so weak that 10 levels will be hard. but that will prolly just slow exp, and make small parties suck.

[DonC]

Been reading through the thread and to me, it seems that most people who posted would like a different way to exp as opposed to doing Guildleves every 36 hours.

I can see the benefit of the system but it is alot harder to just log on and party all day on Leves and at the end of the day, alot of MMO players like to do that. Guildleves do benefit casual players who just want to logon and exp quickly though so I think it should be enhanced upon.

I don't agree with Betelgeuzah in that SE need to control the rate at which we exp, I think that this restriction is un-needed as leveling at a fast pace doesn't break the game. Also it is contradictory, if you can party and do other peoples Leves then there is no way to control it.

This game has failed at launch and I believe, as well as no content, that the exp system caused alot of the problems. Most people probably didn't get to level 30-40 and quit but likely around level 20ish, most people were probably unaware of the lack of content as they didn't get there. The people that have gotten to 50 early on managed to work the random SP system to their benefit which most 'standard' players wouldn't have done and everybody afterwards grinded on weak mobs (Coblyns), failed Leves to repeat the same ones over and over and probably camped Behest every 1 hour.

To alot of standard players that is just too much complexity, the leveling system should be natural, FFXI parties, Rift/LoTRO quests etc etc, whereas now it is restricted unless you can work the system and fairly boring when camping Behests.. I want FFXIV to be a success at PS3 launch but adding endgame isn't going to cut it when the new players quit in droves due to the frustration of leveling..

[Jinko]

Exactly the SP system is bouncing from one failed experiment to the next, at some point surely they must get it right, how is it that other MMO's out there get it right and SE can't, hell even FF11 had it partially right (solo excluded).

I don't see the problem with giving all monsters the same SP values, yes sure some monsters will be more difficult than other but that's part the experience of a game, not everyone will be satisfied killing coblyns again, I know that I for one want to have some challenge in killing a monster.

It is for SE to balance monster better and provide us with 1000's of quest that encourage us to fight a wide variety of monsters just like every other MMO out there.

I don't go and grind in WoW, Aion or Tera, an NPC asks me to complete a quest which includes the grind, FFXIV has some semblance of this with its sidequest but they need to expand on it, make many more quests and make them interesting.

Right now if you grind it isn't much different the coblyn fiasco except you now have several things to level on, but say I need marmot pelts for a recipe and I go kill marmots shouldn't I be able to gain decent SP at the same time.

[Betelgeuzah]

Exactly the SP system is bouncing from one failed experiment to the next, at some point surely they must get it right, how is it that other MMO's out there get it right and SE can't, hell even FF11 had it partially right (solo excluded).

Do they control the progression of the player through pre-determined questlines and instances? Or do they leave it up to the player to determine how to progress? I'll give you two guesses.

If the answer to the previous question was "yes", the next step is to think what SE does differently!

[DonC]

They do control the exp to a point but in what way? Do SE allow you to gain enough exp compared to other games? Also, in these games you can quest for days on end without the feeling of restriction but FFXIV makes you feel that you stop after your leves are done.

The game needs to be fun, right now it isn't fun and it shows in the lack of players. Exp'ing is the core of any MMO and it fails right now. I really hope SE realise this..

[Betelgeuzah]

"Enough SP" is subjective and depends on the density of content within all level ranges. We will only know whether they allow us to gain enough SP when masses start coming in, probably this year.

XIV is still a group-based game, which is why there is a restriction. It is restrictive by the very nature of the style of activity. If you were supposed to solo, there would be no restrictions. Since you are supposed to group, needing a group is the restriction.

[Jinko]

That's rubbish, the restrictions are obviously there to impede our progress (solo or not it makes no difference), the big problem is that in doing so they are making the game less fun to play as DonC said.

I don't know any other MMO out there that actually restricts its players from playing and enjoying the game.

Sure there is very little content to do right now, so the best we have is leves, quest, behest and grinding the last of which is miserably boring.