Originally Posted by
Fornax
I would like to add that the problem of HNM monopolization, where relatively unskilled groups with unlimited playtime and a large member base camp Tiamat, Cerberus, Khimaira, Ixion and Sandworm with scouts and holding parties in perpetuity to sell the drops also distorts the relic upgrade system.
The current broken HNM system allows these players to extract and concentrate large amounts of gil from the general playerbase which is then mostly used to buy currency and upgrade relics. Since currency is essentially a finite resource, this means less relics for everyone else.
Overhauling the HNM system to prevent monopolization and profiteering would level the playing field for relic upgrading and make legitimate and socially desirable means of making gil, such as crafting, farming instanced battlefields or HELM more competitive as a source of gil for upgrading. Relics would again be mainly a reward for great service to the community, rather than for exploitation, grief tactics and cheating.
So I'd like to make another suggestion on how the HNM system could be fixed. Leave the system as it is, but make monopolization impossible.
Let the servers keep track of how many times every player has fought every currently monopolized HNM (kings, Tiamat, Khim, Cerberus, Ixion, Sandworm). Essentially, this requires 8 numbers stored per player, a negligible amount of storage on the server. Every encounter with the HNM (= being on its hate list at least once) increases that claim count by 1 . Every missed spawn (= NM has died but you were never on its hate list) decays it by X, where X could typically be set to 1/10.
The heart of my proposal is that with claim count > 0, you cannot take offensive action on the HNM, or support anyone who is or was on its hate list, or lot drops from its treasure pool for 12 Earth hours after it has spawned. Short of killing adds, there is nothing you can do to contribute to the fight.
Example: Let's say some group has killed Tiamat. All their members who were involved in the fight now have a Tiamat Claim Count = 1. This means that when Tiamat spawns the next time, all these members are out cold, giving other groups abundant time (12 Earth hours) to detect the spawn, to mobilize and claim. In fact, they cannot fight Tiamat again for between 30 and 50 days, unless no one is willing or able to kill it, in which case they can go kill each spawn after 12 hours have passed.
Of course, very large groups can send other members with claim count = 0 to claim the next spawn, and then still others to get the claim after that. But due to the fractional decay value X of 1/10, their effective membership available to claim and kill for every spawn would be divided by 10, making monopolization practically impossible. Very large groups skilled in low-manning could attempt to get every second spawn of an HNM, but that's about it. For extremely highly contested HNMs like Fafnir, the X value could be set even lower.
With this system in place, Dragon's Aery would be comparatively empty every day. There would be a rotation of HNM linkshells, where today linkshell A gets an uncontested claim, tomorrow, linkshell B, and the day after that, linkshell C. Botting becomes irrelevant. Yes, you could go to Fafnir only every 10 days. But your chance of claim would be extremely high. Tiamat, Khim and Cerberus would again be up and roaming, waiting patiently for people to discover them. You could find Khim in the morning, and go kill it with your linkshell in the early evening, when enough people have logged in. Hardcore camping becomes irrelevant and unnecessary.
With this system, everyone wins. It's like a game-mechanic enforced version of the sky pacts that some servers used to have, where HNM shells agreed not to compete for pop NMs, but rather, to cooperate so that every group had 1 day in sky to themselves.