Comments from the Devs

[Kaylia]

I see that view but I think the exact opposite. I think the first few levels in any game should be about seeing the game world, looking at the UI, the settings, the buttons, the controls, the low level spells/abilities and mechanics. Because of that, the first 10ish levels should be able to be completed by a 5 year old. Make the intro to the game appealing so by the time you are level 10, you've gotten a decent grasp on the very basic things and you can start to advance on to steeper curves.

I agree with you entirely, the first few hours should always be an involving experiences (story driven or awesome gameplay).

Sadly, it's too late to hope for such content at this point. Slowing down the leveling curves just mean you would have to spend even more time at the same camps, and sincerely, do we really need to stay more than 4 leves at the same place? You have seen the whole zone in the first 3 minutes in the zone, you don't need to stay there for a prolongated period of times.

[Hyan]

Except berserker is considered a traditional FF job.

I had thought about this being the case...

You think that will stop them though? It's like having the DRK use a sword instead of a scythe.

[Kurokikaze]

I had thought about this being the case...

You think that will stop them though? It's like having the DRK use a sword instead of a scythe.

See I never understood that because traditional DRKs used swords or great swords. Scythe was only introduced in FFXI and everyone seems to forget that.

[Corrderio]

Higher level leves need it imo, the lower ones really don't. Getting lvl 6+ in your 1st leve is absurd to me.

Pretty much. They really need to redo EXP growth for lower/higher levels.

[Lordender]

Making leveling slower than what it currently is would be bad, I still don't understand why people feel the need that it needs to be this mind blowing slow process. They just need to improve exp outside of doing leve's, I think they need to axe mob family base exp and balance it out better. I think level 1-15 should capture the player, it should make them want to see whats next and want more.

I would expect leveling to get even more nerfed once they start adding more content to the game. Quests hubs might end up giving out lots of sp for all we know. All i see happening if they nerf mob exp from 1-15 is people just migrating to behest @ drybone/blackbrush.

[solracht]

As things are, r1-15 or even r1-20 feels really out of control and pointless... making the overall experience longer is not the only fix though: they could move some of r30-50 exp to r1-30. Leave the total exp/time it takes to get to 50 untouched, but make us spend longer in the first levels than we currently do.

Leveling doesn't have to be slow, but there's certainly a lot they can do to make things flow better.

[Hyan]

I thought 11+ is pretty good. 1-10 just fly through though, lol.

[Tomino]

Going 1 -> 6 during the first leve is simply wrong. Not much to add really, it makes no sense. Going 1 -> 10 playing *tutorials* is a whole different thing, but I agree that won't be touched for now, they are busy elsewhere.

As for SP 10 - 30, I hope they will find ways to tune Behest properly because right now, it's a joke.
Basically, you camp (there you go, FF11 lovers!) a spot each 30mins : you win one spot, SP rains on you and in 10 mins you went from 14 to 16. You miss it, or are kept out of it because of a claim mechanic, you're struck with the same 6 leves and a much less efficent grind.

Thery're not even trying to make it fair for players. No queue system, no additional Behests when there's more than 10 persons, no cooldown between joinings.

[blythe]

Making leveling slower than what it currently is would be bad, I still don't understand why people feel the need that it needs to be this mind blowing slow process. They just need to improve exp outside of doing leve's, I think they need to axe mob family base exp and balance it out better. I think level 1-15 should capture the player, it should make them want to see whats next and want more.

I would expect leveling to get even more nerfed once they start adding more content to the game. Quests hubs might end up giving out lots of sp for all we know. All i see happening if they nerf mob exp from 1-15 is people just migrating to behest @ drybone/blackbrush.

I don't think it should be slower overall, it just needs to be balanced.

1-20 is a joke, 40+ is painfully slow. Just need to be evened out

[Lordender]

I don't think it should be slower overall, it just needs to be balanced.

1-20 is a joke, 40+ is painfully slow. Just need to be evened out

Oh, I agree, I mean its not that bad if you have a steady group to leve link post 22'ish and everyone has the good leve's with but having that as the only good way to get sp is retarded. They really need to buff sp means outside of behest/leve's, I think behest is great early on but it tends to fall off the map the higher you go.

[CrstyCptSteveWitherspoon]

Grinding is a total bore. You kill stuff in 10-20s and usually are stuck waiting on repops. Any 'strategy' that comes into playing is in the form of hitting the 'square' button instead of 'x' to que some abilities for a BR. If stuff takes longer than 30s to kill you're probably getting shitty sp/hr. If you're killing stuff in 30s it gets boring fast, especially trying to kill 100+ mobs an hour.

I'd like to see some other forms of getting SP aside from the same 5 leves every reset but until they make new ones they really shouldn't touch leves' SP. Dungeons, behest(multiple instances?), hamlet defense(lol remember this?).

[Alkar]

Are we supposed to get a new letter tomorrow? Next one should include a video of the battle system and more details.

[Hyan]

It's usually every 2 weeks but lately it has been roughly every 2 weeks and a half.

We'll get one tomorrow or sometime next week.

[Tomino]

The key point of the levelling experience should be to avoid players being struck in the same content (environment/monsters/usable skills) for so long it becomes boring.

"Wasting" 2 camps within hours to let players rot in the same place with the exact same arsenal for days is what makes a game.. bad.
No surprise, WoW has been tuned quite good came Cata : you move often, you change zones, you acquire new skills to use and that all works into making your own experience much more enjoyable.

A perfect world would allow players to never party in the same spot, with the same mob, more than 2 times. Endgame content aside, sure.

[Katlan]

The key point of the levelling experience should be to avoid players being struck in the same content (environment/monsters/usable skills) for so long it becomes boring.

This goes deeper then the combat system, it's a design flaw w/the game that will probably never be fixed unless this game does well enough to get an expac that also adds more low-high level areas to xp in.

[Hyan]

5 regions plus a town and several dungeons wait to be opened up. No need for xpacs yet.

[Tomino]

5 regions plus a town and several dungeons wait to be opened up. No need for xpacs yet.

this.

What's absurd is that they designed their own game to "nerf" their own content : Anima transport kills the idea of moving to different, equal camps in other regions simply because it's much cheaper to stick to the usual ones.
It should had worked the opposite : say I'm in LL, after the first leves in my r20 camp, the game/plot should make me move from there to Uldah r20 camp. First, by making the trip easy, second by rewarding this somehow. Then Gridiania and then, hopefully, I shouldnt be in need of any more r20 camp, off to LL r25 (just an example).

Funny thing is this *could* be techincally done today (sharing teles, sharing leves, party attitude) but this only applies to close friends or successful LSs, who are probably already enjoying the game themselves.

[Vuitton]

oh please every game has zones you repeatedly spend a lot of time in. the only reason it's a problem in XIV is because the zones are pretty but boring, and huge. the music isn't that memorable either. the problem is making the zones the size of regions (or, not diversifying the regions enough), with boring/forgetful transportation (teleporting that isn't earned through classes and ranks), and with sleepy music.

it doesn't help either that nobody in this thread probably ever leaves Thanalan (or plays the game at all). most people playing don't. so they spend all their time in this huge brown monotonous boring region with sleepy elevator music. nothing is breaking up the monotony. now and then we teleport to gridania and limsa briefly.

so, let's not confuse a slower (more balanced) paced 1-10 or 1-20 in the same areas, with a poorly designed world. making all 3 cities close to each other was bad design because it funnels all the players into the middle city (Uldah), for instance. and this just excacerbates the whole problem (players stuck in the same boring area).

[Kurokikaze]

It's usually every 2 weeks but lately it has been roughly every 2 weeks and a half.

We'll get one tomorrow or sometime next week.

I hope you're right. I've been wanting something to play for a while but everytime I log in I just don't have anything to do. Grind moar? Meh.

Anyways, what they should do with the intro levels is, as someone said, shift some of the 40+ TNL into the 1-10 range. Although just doing that wont fix it, they need to take it a step further by making long quest tutorials that span a few levels. In a sense you should do 1 through 10 in like 1-2 hours and feel like you're good and ready to take on the world of Eorzea. These tutorials need show all aspects of the game, from combat to UI to quest completion etc.

oh please every game has zones you repeatedly spend a lot of time in. the only reason it's a problem in XIV is because the zones are pretty but boring, and huge. the music isn't that memorable either. the problem is making the zones the size of regions (or, not diversifying the regions enough), with boring/forgetful transportation (teleporting that isn't earned through classes and ranks), and with sleepy music.

Absolutely. I remember this thread on the forums asking when they were gonna add flying (it linked to a vid from Aion) and my response was "I just pictured myself flying from LL to Iron Lake and not have the scenery change once. The same coastal cliffs with green and grey ad nauseum."

[Meko]

I've been playing here and there but it's hard because nobody is on Saronia it would seem. I need a shell..lol.