I feel this deserves a seperate thread to the live feed thread, as a lot of the other things they're announcing sounds very good.
Level Cap Increase
History is about to be made with the increase of the level cap in the March version update and beyond! The increase will take place in stages until the new maximum, level 99, has been reached.
Up until now, character strength has been limited to level 75, and additions to the game such as monsters, strategic content, and equipment had been designed to correspond to this.
However, with the game having reached a certain level of maturity and the bulk of existing notorious monsters having already fallen prey to tenacious bands of adventurers, the development team has deemed that the time is now ripe for the bar to be raised.
Level Cap Considerations
We are aware that players will inevitably feel concern over how in-game elements such as support jobs, experience camps, and merit points will be affected by this change. We would like to take a moment to explain the measures that are in the pipes to preserve game balance.
Support job abilities that are not expected to steal the limelight from main jobs as a result of the level cap increase will be allowed to come into play. Furthermore, there are plans to tweak certain job abilities, job traits, and magic spells on an ongoing basis in order to further accentuate the uniqueness of each job when used in a main role, as well as its versatility when playing a supporting role.
New camping grounds are scheduled to be added to cater to the anticipated rise in demand for experience parties. Furthermore, the redistribution of monsters in existing areas is also under consideration.
An increase in maximum upgrades is being considered for existing merit point skills and attributes. Preparations are also under way for the introduction of a new type of merit point for players who have reached the new level 99 summit.
I'm sure that I'm not the only one who views the level cap increase as a potentially very bad thing for game balance. The game has been designed for balance around lv75 for years, and changing this can potentially cause huge game inbalance.
They've explained that xp mobs and other various aspects like support job abilities will be tweaked about balance, but I'm more concerned with the current "endgame" content, expecially (H)NMs.
If the level cap was lv99, every HNM in the game, as it stands, would be less than even match. dynamis would be a zone full of easy preys. limbus would be solo-able by practically any job (including omega/ultima). anyone would be able to kill the lesser 24hr nms without breaking a sweat (cassie/serket/bune/etc). Kings would be laughable, especially NQs, where 2 of them are already soloable.
To get around this, SE will either have to:
-increase the level of all these mobs
-or inflict a level restriction upon the fight/zone
If they increase the level of the mob, it would be difficult to adjust it accordingly without adjusting the difficulty of the fights.
This brings me to my second point, equipment.
If the level cap is lv99 everywhere, and you're suddently slapped with level restrictions when you claim a (H)NM or enter a zone, it's likely that everyone will need to carry around gears sets for both lv99 and lv75.
I don't know about anyone else, but I have enough problems with level inventory space as it is. I physically can't carry around potentially the same amount of extra equipment for lv 99 situations ontop of what I already have.
It is also difficult to see how they will introduce another 24 levels of equipment without replacing most of what is currently accepted to be the best pieces of equipment. sky equipment, salvage equipment, cursed equipment etc. I'm sure they've said that salvage equipment is supposed to be the best equipment in the game (if only situationally) and is thus justifies the amount of time/effort/gil required to complete a set.
Will they make current "best" equipment obsolete with new additions?
Trial of the Magians
“Trial of the Magians” is the title given to a new quest series designed especially for level 75 characters.
The quests will be divided into a number of categories, and progression in each will allow players to earn different rewards. The following quest branches and more are being considered:
- Weapon enhancement.
- Armor enhancement.
Current weapons look to be upgraded, although new, lv75+ additions are most likely
I can only hope that this works on things like perdu weapons/hagun etc, to keep them at the best/near best weapons available for the jobs that use them.Enhancing a Weapon
A Trial of the Magians weapon enhancement quest can be initiated by first trading a suitable weapon to a Magian Moogle NPC, at which point a list of corresponding quests will be displayed. Players may choose a quest based on difficulty level and the enhancement they would like added to their weapon, which will be granted upon the fulfillment of the quest objective.
A single weapon can undergo numerous upgrades. By trading an already-enhanced weapon to a Magian Moogle, players can undertake successive quests to have it further improved. Multiple quests can be undertaken simultaneously.
By repeating the quests, up to 80 different features can be added to a single weapon. With figures such as Damage and Delay added to the equation, there exist 500 possible attribute patterns for a single quest branch!
have fun making relic+1sThere are also plans to make it possible to enhance Relic and Mythic weapons through Trial of the Magians. While players can expect quest difficulty to far exceed similar quests released thus far, we are confident the rewards will make it more than worth the while!
tl;dr: I see lv 75+ only being available in certain areas, designed for this increased level cap. the amount of reprogramming required otherwise would be immense.
Kinda lost track of what I was originally trying to say besides the lv99 in only some areas.
Was wondering what other people think on the whole lv99 thing.