What would happen if SE adjusted the Level Correction for EP

[Jones]

In response to enhancing solo play, not so much level correction what if...

They had an anniversary-style ring that only works when youre playing solo. That is rechargeable, or has a self-regenerating timer of 20-24hr or something like that. It would allow players with limited playtime to get some decent xp in the time they can play, without breaking PT xp, etc.

I personally think this idea would be great.

[arus2001]

Unless they give us some options to improve the AI of Adventuring Fellows, I can't really see them improving soloing. They just wind up with slightly larger MP pools, hit a little harder, and can maybe take another hit or three. They'll still be silencing crabs, casting worthless buffs like Aquaveil, Hasting only themselves, and otherwise just being morons when in the majority of all situations, it will be the PC with the mob's attention and dealing the majority of the hurt on our foes.

As for BST pets, SE kind of messed them up in ToAU. I'm sure we've all fought the Mamool BSTs. Their raptor pets are practically normal mobs. The wyverns from the Dragoons are still pretty wimpy, but they don't get resummoned as quickly as a BST pet would to make solo worthwhile. Just adding a few more non-elemental pets to existing areas with safe camps would help people out. The early 40s felt like a bit of a dry spot when I was hunting for such mobs on my BLU. Teriggan was good from like 46-50 (though I swear they moved a raptor into the camp with the OP adjustment), then Gustav offered a few levels before another dry patch, too.

I guess part of me wouldn't mind repeatable grind quests in WotG, either. Go kill 15 uber-orc MNKs, 10 BLMs, and 5 PLDs, then come back for your EXP reward. Do the quest again, this time you'll have to kill 15 DRKs, 10 PLDs, and 5 MNKs. Just kinda vary the pool some. You'd get a bit of actual EXP out in the field, and people could help, but if easy enough then people could work on one or two while LFG and not feeling like their butt just warmed Jeuno pavement. It's not at all revolutionary or exquisite, but it's just simple effort yielding reward.

[Excalin Garisk]

anniversary-style ring would be so pimp for soloing. Be able to knock out a merit while waiting for invites. I still think they should give NPCs gambits of some kind.

[Zalius]

i solo'd/duod around 7.5k exp/hr consistantly on blm at wamouracampa camp. it honestly was the most fun that id had playing the game in forever, due to the fact that i was actually enjoying using the utilities of my class rather then mashing thunder/blizIV

[Dustybrown]

I don't see the point in paying to play online with other people and choose to play solo.

Just my 2 gil here, just because MMO's are geared to group play, I really don't like how the -only- viable way for me to get to 75 in FFXI is via partying. Partying is one of the best aspects of FFXI for me, but waiting around for 3 hours doing /sea all for a tank or healer really takes much of the fun out of it. Having the option of being able to solo or duo a few mobs for a decent amount of experience while waiting would be much preferable to me... and anyone who's leveled DRG I imagine.

One thing I do find, however, on allowing viable solo play is that it would greatly discourage parties. Addressing the OP, if SE did correct it so EP mobs were easily soloable for a decent amount of experience, the effect we would see here would be the same as it is on WoW. People would opt for the solo option, I believe, even if it were slower than partying. If you could duo for 4-8kxp/hr why would you ever bother wasting time looking for a party? Asking people, looking for specific jobs (which aren't always actively seeking), having your healer go AFK for 30 minutes, travelling, having someone leave the group just as you get to camp, etc, etc. Also, to address your point about opening up the world, I really don't believe it would. People would, as they do now, find 'the best' areas which would bring in the most xp/hr solo or duo and go exclusively to those spots. As there is only 1-2 people now the areas would become busy faster and you would probably still see overcrowding.

I, personally, would like the option of more solo type content aside from those previously mentioned here (besieged, crafting, etc). However I am wary of such a change because one of the most enjoyable things in this game is getting a party or meripoing. If solo xp/content was encouraged I really believe we would see a vast decline in the number of people seeking for groups. Why bother with the hassles of a party when you can achieve the same thing with just a little more time?

[LD]

Lots of Stuff.

No, because I'm not asking you what you think about solo itself. I'm asking a technical question about the game's design. What you interpret it as is not my problem, but this was the topic as I wrote it, and you cannot argue against that. You can discuss a topic without touching its parent topic, people just usually don't have the ability to do so (well, they do, but that's usually just a full on derail.) Which is why I'm being forced to discuss it now. Also, true balance is not an opinion, it's harmony. If you have harmony, no one's complaining, so everyone see's it the same way.

Solo itself isn't the discussion, because we already KNOW everyone's opinion; they're either for it or against it. If we're discussing it at all, it's a better use of time to discuss how it could be done, rather than throw pros and cons that neither side will really listen to.
Every time you hit something, you're using the damage formula. Adjusting level correction would affect the damage calculations depending on how far you took it.


You people and your solo BCs/assaults, exp rings, and exp giving quests. You fail to realize it wont create the freedom you really want from the game. Odds are they're all just as limited as the exp quests/ENMs we have now. You're limiting yourselves to the bone you expect SE to give us when you should be demanding what you really want; the same kind of accessibility every other MMO offers.

Dusty Brown, even with the changes I'm suggesting, it's impossible to make 5-8k solo. You COULD, however, make it in duo-trio more easily than you can now and make 2-4k more easily solo, 4k being reserved for the best of the best. The world actually has more EM-Ts than you think, a lot more, in fact, than exp level mobs. Of different makes and models, different places in a zone, all over the world. And you don't know about them, because you've never gone there or you just walked through to your next destination. In my boredom, I've been everywhere. People don't see how big the world is because they're not allowed to, they have no need to. If you really look around Vana'diel, you'll notice it has more potential than you think.

Just as different PTs would do well in different spots, so would solos, duos, & trios, and there are many more areas for them. If the 'good' solo spots are taken, groups, at least duos, would still make more exp an hour, since they are more able to kill EMs and Ts, so the community aspect is not lost. At low to mid levels, full PTs might be less popular, but a good group would have less down time than the average duo-trio. At high levels, where VTs and ITs can be killed more easily, PTs would still be the best form of gaining exp, and with toughs being 'weakened', it would be even better, but a good group of a few people could still make a decent amount, rivaling that of a shitty PT. Since travel and /sea are so simple to use, if you want better exp than soloing, you just need your flag and you could get ready in a flash.


This is why I only want to discuss the technical aspects, because most people don't understand how they work. Level Correction affects our attack ratio against monsters of a certain level (this is probably also be applied to TWs, but it's a different beast, so to speak.) When you go from a TW to an EP, you notice your damage takes a solid hit. For me, a MNK, it's around 20-40 points per hit, and that adds up. Your damage taken goes up also, sometimes even more sharply. These are both functions of the damage formula and not so much Level correction, but there's a problem with this. An 'Even Match' really isn't, because though your damage, accuracy, and evasion may be roughly the same, the HP difference is so large, if you blood tank, you will most likely die. Monsters tend to have 2-6x as much HP as us, so we're doing different relative damage to each other. Since you are being hit just as hard, just as quickly, and just as accurately, a fight against an EM is basically a stamina battle that you cannot win without Ustusemi or some other spell. That's what really got me started on this solo business, the fact that once you get to Lv.20 and higher, something called an even match is, in reality, so much stronger and is nearly impossible to kill with my own power, so I have to use Utsusemi as a crutch (even then, I need Signet to kill one reliably.) EMs shouldn't be killed quickly just by any melee, but they shouldn't be impossible for anyone without Utsu either.

By making the difference between our stats produce a slower and more gradual decline in our effectiveness, we could affect meaningful change without making exping too easy. Even with the slight damage enhancements, killing a monster takes a certain amount of time. If you do the same damage on a DC as you'd do on a TW, the monster's HP still keeps you from downing it less than ~100 seconds without having your WS ready. Depending on how fast you're able to inflict damage, you can still only make 2-4k solo. 4.5+ if you're really, really good, and that's all if you go non-stop. EMs have even higher HP, so they take even longer, but they have the slight advantage of chaining a few times.


This is all really posed to the people I acknowledge as understanding the game better than I do mathematically: Nny, Aurik, Nagi, Ruke, and to a lesser extent Sept and probably Wafik & Rico. The rest of you are just positing your opinions on how it should be done, and that's irrelevant to the topic, as denoted by the OP and the title. I’m aware that the topic was formed to posit my own opinion, but that’s the entire point, so tough nit, shiggas. %D

[Dark Vincent]

This is all really posed to the people I acknowledge as understanding the game better than I do mathematically: Nny, Aurik, Nagi, Ruke, and to a lesser extent Sept and probably Wafik & Rico. The rest of you are just positing your opinions on how it should be done, and that's irrelevant to the topic, as denoted by the OP and the title. I’m aware that the topic was formed to posit my own opinion, but that’s the entire point, so tough nit, shiggas. %D

Send them a PM then instead of vomiting a bunch of words and then asking everyone to stfu everytime they reply.

[spooky]

God damn, could this thread go down hill any faster?

[Max™]

I remember, I was in Qufim tinkering around with my NPC to see what they could do, Blond Ponytail Hume named Charlene.

I engaged a Crab, she silenced it, I killed the Crab, slapped her, and broke her pearl like she was some newb in a linkshell.

That was the end of my NPC days.

"Oh no you din't"

[Gathzel]

As much as I agree it would be painfully nice to be able to solo exp when you either don't feel like bothering with pickup pts (at least 1 out of 6 random people is bound to suck after all), or just don't have the window to seek (I don't party with random groups unless I have about 2 hours or more available for actual party play since the whole replacement-thing is tedious crap everybody hates), changing the solo system in any dramatic way would have some serious game changing consequences.
First considering players who are level 75 and want to solo merits:
The mobs you normally fight in parties from lvl50 to the late 60s are EP-DC at 75, meaning if you upped the exp received solo or otherwise made them more desireable prey it would mean Lesser Colibris, Puks, Crabs and Eruca camps would be popular among solo 75s. This would mean the lvl50> people wouldn't be able to make a party of 6 to exp efficiently on IT even if they wanted to, they in turn would be forced to turn to lesser mobs for solo, and further down the scale it goes. And honestly, I recently leveled a new job to 75 and I think as it is, it is quite annoying that the best exp spots with the weakest mobs are in fact already frequently occupied by various people farming seals, skilling up weapons or getting some easy buffer exp. So from this perspective it wouldn't be entirely possible to enhance the 75 solo play without making it difficult for lower level party play.
The solution to this I frankly don't think lies in enhancing solo play but rather enhancing party play, making it easier to make smaller parties and exping for shorter durations. I'm mostly thinking instanced merit zones (which has been suggested many times), where you could enter 3-6 people for optional durations such as 30 mins to 2 hours. Mobs difficulty (mostly HP in this case) could be set to match the amount of people inside.

The bigger problem I feel is getting to 75, having recently leveled a new job from 1-75 I noticed there are dramatically less people allround to play with, meaning there really isn't much choice but to enhance solo, duo and trio play. I'm not entirely sure how do this, maybe enhancing signet effects further with an exp bonus, making adventuring fellows more reliable or some exp ring that only applies to solo play as someone suggested.

EDIT: Realized it sounds like my second point contradicts the first point, what I mean is that at peak hours there are plenty of soloers and a fair amount of lower lvls as well. At bad hours there are few soloers, but very few lower lvls to party with so... for the lower levels it means at some hours you have people to party with but nowhere to go, and at other hours you have plenty of places to go but noone to party with.
Also you can't enhance solo play for lower levels without enhancing it for the lvl75s, so if you want to make soloing lower levels more productive, you must at the same time give the lvl75s something else to make party play preferable.

[Lordender]

as the game gets older the less and less your going to find low level exp groups and the more your going to see people exping off bst pets. I think this reminds me best like Diablo II where everyone just rushes past everything until they get to hell level where the entire game population is.

[Siatdiat]

One thing I do find, however, on allowing viable solo play is that it would greatly discourage parties. Addressing the OP, if SE did correct it so EP mobs were easily soloable for a decent amount of experience, the effect we would see here would be the same as it is on WoW. People would opt for the solo option, I believe, even if it were slower than partying.

If you ever actually played WoW you'd know people actually opt for group instancing over anything else for leveling, as you get fast exp, kill NMs for gear, and make money all at once. Many of the best quests you will get soloing in WoW require multiple players to complete successfully. Soloing is just a viable option. People should know by now that comparing WoW and FFXI is like comparing apples and oranges, its pointless. I like apples but I dont assume everyone who eats oranges is retarded.

Edit: Additionally, If done properly, level correction can keep soloing somewhat challenging. And I would not mind more solo options at this point in the games life. Lately, every time I try to exp thf below 50, everyone I meet is a fucktard. If I had the option to not put up with these people I'd gladly take it.

[LD]

Send them a PM then instead of vomiting a bunch of words and then asking everyone to stfu everytime they reply.

Why should I send half a dozen PMs when I could just as easily make one post that they can all see? Not only could I create an actual discussion on the damage formula, I could impose my will on the community.

You people really think I don't think this shit through, do you? :p

It's not a crime to create a topic with the express purpose of excluding 99% of the message board while asserting my beliefs as more powerful than others as long as I have a valid point and a reasonable temperament in regards to the discussion. Point of fact, most of you don't have the wherewithal to properly discuss such a topic, but that doesn’t mean you can’t properly digest the product that I had in mind. You don't have to say something to gain from a topic. There are many other topics with information where only a few people are actually contributing anything. Why do you have to take this off on a tangent when I have already clearly established the parameters of the conversation?

I'll say it as clearly as I can: Yes, I made this for my own benefit, but I also know others could benefit from the real discussion I had in mind. Speaking of the damage formula would be another edifying experience for you. No one will benefit from yet another "Better solo or no" discussion, however, since it would just be a repeat of all the others (I've already been proven right there.) I've seen how bad topics can get, so I made it a point to narrow the discussion as much as possible to the point that very few people would be able to adequately contribute to it. Since one can only discuss something like the damage formula in very limited terms, opinion will be less of a factor, since you can't go off on too wild of a hypothetical.

Now I'll simplify it: I know how you people think and operate, so I planned ahead. Unless you can properly discuss the damage formula, shut up and listen. It's for your own good.

[Saraphym]

I think someone mentioned earlier but the only real problem with exp pts will probably come later on when less and less people play FF and consequently it will be harder to make parties at lower levels. Fewer people will want to pick up FF since it will take them years to catch up to endgame material, and many endgame players may not even have that many jobs left they want to lvl. Obviously single play should never net more xp than pts but I definitely think SE could work on solo options just a bit more (they've done a decent job so far adding empress band etc).

[Dark Vincent]

stuff

You realize regardless of whatever your schizophrenia makes you believe, the last 3 pages have been composed by pure derail off your "will", right? So I will offer you your own words: shut up and listen.

By the way, a bit off-topic, but I think it's about time someone tells you this: Elitism is not for everyone. Quit trying.

[LD]

Your word use is cute, but I'd be more inclined to listen if what you said was A: grammatically correct and B: was relevant to the topic. Please stop doing this, I really did want something good to come out of it besides people chiming in with their trite opinions.

[Talisien]

I'm so sad I actually wasted time responding intelligently to this topic a few pages back.

[Ohemgee]

stuff

You realize regardless of whatever your schizophrenia makes you believe, the last 3 pages have been composed by pure derail off your "will", right? So I will offer you your own words: shut up and listen.

By the way, a bit off-topic, but I think it's about time someone tells you this: Elitism is not for everyone. Quit trying.

LOL did you quote me in your sig?

But yeah, I remember it was fun to level to 75 instead of making 75 an ultimate goal to get to. Honestly, more people need to play BST more often, not only to increase the amount of Gaudy harnesses, but to actually aim for a fix on an already semi-broken job. The more people bitching in this game the more SE will please them.

[Tulun]

The option to solo would be huge... it's why, at it's core, FFXI has problems.

The party dynamic is fine, but it shouldn't be mandatory (and it is, because solo exp is so pathetic, with few exceptions) for the most basic function of a game; leveling. Sometimes you just can't find a good party, camps are full, you are missing key members (party can't function without refresh, a good tank, etc...).

Soloing at a decent pace should always be an option, for any job. It's why WoW (as a great example) is so successful. The basic core of the game is relatively easy, and you can do it yourself; but it has lots of ways to combine with other people (and lots of quests require you to get at least 2 people to succeed, if not more, depending on your level). It does it in a reverse order, and it appears to be a more successful way of doing it.

I hope FFXI changes to make the basic core of the game easier, especially for casual player. A person shouldn't have to make the game a second job in order to get anywhere with it

[Plow]

I'm still convinced the original intent in the exp design was for *most* parties to be small, 2-4, groups of people fighting EM up to very low VT. It's just the human nature of wanting shit fast that brings about all the min-maxing. There's really not a lot they can do about it now without hurting the most popular format which is a full, min-maxed pt.