I was thinking about the way this SP system started in the beginning: the more you do a certain action, the more exp you get.

We all know that didn't work out pretty well so SE went back to the classic exp/sp per kill.

But what if you can adjust and polish that method melting it with the FFXI old days Party strategy?

What if you could get exp/sp according to your ability? But that ability is valued by your role?
And the role of each PT member is manually set once a PT is made?

I'll make an example with a 3-member PT, fighting:

A Gladiator, a Lancer and a Conjurer form a PT and the leader sets their role:

GLA = tank, LNC = Damage Dealer, Conjurer = Healer

Let's suppose that they're engaging a mob that now gives 200 sp

The % of exp increases to a maximum amount of +50% or so, and is related to a value that's tied to their role.

For example the Tank exp bonus is tied to enmity generated or to the damage received by the other members.

The Damage Dealer bonus is related to the Damage Made and the enmity (the less enmity the better)

The Healer to the amount of HP healed, debuff removed, enmity generated and so on.

And the sp are awarded only after killing the mob.

So the point is: roles and key values to gauge each member ability.

Of course this whole system could be easily replaced: "If your PT is good and does it's role: you live and get exp, if not you just die or you'll be too slow at killing and your exp does sucks"

I believe that if wisely applied this role system will make a decent and simple battle system deeper, pointing out the difference between a careful player who knows how and when to use his skills, and a player that just doesn't know what he is doing, or that's just mashing his attack out.

Of course several roles can be imagined, such as support or sub-tank, or even sub-roles can be assigned, maybe you can set pairs of DD on a Battle Regimen/skillchain and award them with sp bonus for a successful execution.

Maybe with this role system you can avoid the boring TP-burning Type PT, where you just gotta mindlessly kill the monster as fast as you can.

What do you think about it? Let's discuss.