8-person parties -- Good? Bad?

[Mikita]

Now that the 8-person party limit has been implemented for a few days now, I'm curious to know what people think of the change.

I haven't seen any discussion about it in the past few days, so I guess it hasn't really affected many people, or that everyone is generally all right with it?

Tonight I logged on a bit later than usual. My LS is off doing leves and am currently sitting alone in Ul'dah, because I was the 9th person. ><;

[Irondude]

I love it, you have to pay attention a lot more in behest. The 4 man party though works really well with a small group of friends and a Journal full of leves

[Adol]

Ever since they reduced the party bonus for parties over 8 people, I never went in a party containing more than 8 people anyway so I am indifferent to the change in max party size from patch 1.17. I do like the buffs though, it makes grouping up feel more rewarding.

[Arcell]

They're good. There was no real need for 15 person parties, plus it's easier for the developers to balance content for 8 people. Fewer variables means it's easier to predict what could happen.

[Grundy]

I do enjoy the 8 people parties though I've not tried Ureaus/Dodore/G Buffalo since 1.17, I've heard they are far too easy now and all the challenge has gone from the fight.

[AngryNixon]

Mixed feelings, not all bad.

The good:

Mecha Godzilla Buff for forming together with 8 people.

The bad:

I happen to like larger scale encounters with "alliances". While 15 man parties were too big for an individual party, they were kind of pseudo-alliances allowing for something larger than a party while still in the same connected grouping. 8-man is the right size for a party but now there is no way to form a larger connected group of people to do something. I'm not saying there is anything to do with 16~+ people in one group rather that it's not even an option anymore to get even close to it.

What this means practically is that when you do, let's say an NM for argument's sake, and... 12 people maybe want to come. You end up with 8 people on the A team, and the 4 other suckers who are there so they can "contribute" (read: stand around or play spot the NM for the A team). Yes you can swap people around and whatever but first of all that type of "fun rationing" is not enjoyable for the people semi-afk watching tv while it's not their turn, and also it would just be easier (not the NM, the doing something together as an LS part) if you didn't have to bench the spill over because there is no way to have more than 8 people doing something at once. Under the middle ground old system where it was no longer of benefit to have more than 8 in a leve party but the hard max was still 15, if you had a few extra friends you wanted to play with anyways and you didn't care because it was all LS people or friends, it was fine, you could still all play together.

Maybe I'm wrong but I thought playing together with people whose company you enjoy was part of MMOs. I always thought that the 18 man alliance in FFXI was pretty good but the old 40-mans from WoW were also good. So I can't (won't maybe) suggest a figure but whatever that figure that I won't suggest is, it's larger than 8.

Bear in mind this is just as it stands now. I'm sure Grand Companies will have some effect on max grouping size (not max party size) for an "encounter" whatever shape that takes.

TL;DR: Max party size ok, now need alliances.

[REDace0]

I like the new party size. The only downside is that we have around 10 end-game players in our LS, so people are having to occasionally sit out during big NM fights.

[Arcell]

If the party size was 8 to begin with no one would be complaining about being the 9th person, it would just be accepted that that's how it goes. That's how it is, just like if the game were capped at 8 to start, any past that will just have to find something else to do.

[Kazimir]

It doesn't effect SP parties for me but I really hate it since people are now being left out of my LS's NM events.

[Xatsh]

I have a very mixed feeling about it.

It is great for leveling in leves and partys, it is bad for everything else in my opinion.

As others said it is making organization of events alot harder with NMS and such as other said my members are simply having to sit out now at some events. Also I loved the larger endgame encounters with 15-30 people, gave it a real epic feel too it.

I am hoping they have some raid content that allows for alliances of partys similar to ffxi in the future.