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Suggestion: Past Master jobs
Issues being addressed:
~Inability for a player to ever revisit earlier Experience Party areas as they advance their job, without starting a whole new character.
~Lack of certain job-types available in Experience Party areas.
Basic Suggestion (rigid):
I propose that a player who has reached Level 75 should be able to acquire 'Past Master' status on that job. A Past Master job (PM job) will, in essence, be capable of joining ANY party in Vana'diel (that is, without adversely harming the XP that the party receives, ie. be a regular member) and will be able to do this with relative ease and convenience.
Here's how:
(1) Introduce a method whereby Level 75 players can temporarily reduce the level of their current job, thus allowing them to go back and party in levels they have already travelled through.
(2) Introduce new full sets of Level 75-questable, job-specific armour that adjust in statistics according to the wearer's current level, thus removing the necessity for a range of equipment pieces taking up storage space.
In More Detail (flexible)
(1)
At level 75, a new quest becomes available which, upon completion, grants the player a Spirit Gem (Rare/Ex). A player at Level75 may 'Use' the gem to produce a single Spirit Bead (Rare and 'Has no market value'). This bead may then be traded to another player who, upon 'Use' will Spirit-Link the bead to its parent Gem. In doing so, the level 75 player (the Gem-holder, or GH) will take on the level of the player holding the bead (the Bead-holder or BH). This is the essence of the Past Master.
Whilst the Spirit-link is active, the GH is inextricably tied to the BH - the GH's level will effectively be entirely dependant upon the progress of the BH. When the BH advances a level, so does the GH, similarly if the BH should delevel, as will the GH. Please note the 'direction' of this link. The GH is tied to the BH, not vice versa. This is important because the Spirit-link also extends to consciousness, meaning that should the BH be KOed, so will the GH. Because of the direction of the Spirit-link however, the BH won't be affected if the GH should be knocked-out.
This link will remain active until either a) the BH discards the bead, or b) the GH 'severs' the link through their Gem. The link remains when a player logs out. It must be manually removed by the GH or BH.
A GH will receive Merit Points totalling the Experience Points gained by the BH whilst Spirit-linked.
(2)
Upon completion of the Spirit Gem quest, a new sequence of five quests becomes available, each granting a single piece of job-specific Liquid Gear. Liquid Gear is relatively unique in that it doesn't have fixed statistics. Rather, in a similar way to how such pieces as Rajas Ring function, the statistics change according to the current job level of the wearer.
Liquid Armour pieces possess three distinct tiers of stats: Tier1 between levels 10-24, T2 between levels 25-39 and T3 between 40-60. The statistics granted by Liquid Armour would not be over-powered - rather they would just provide mere functionality, allowing the wearer to perform their job to a degree that doesn't reduce the party's effectiveness.
The Liquid Armour would be visually distinct, allowing a player instant recognition from other players towards what they are and what they have achieved: ie. a player with Past Master status in their current job.
The appeal of this armour set is therefore convenience above all else. (Convenience and, admittedly, bragging rights.) Convenience in that an end-game player will not need to store several pieces of armour to cater for levels and/or head to the Auction House every time s/he wants to Spirit-link. If they wish to help someone out and party in the dunes, it's as simple as visiting the Mog-House or an AF storage NPC.
And finally, why?
I believe this would bring more emphasis back to enjoying the regular party aspect to FFXI, as well as allowing more players to go back and experience more aspects of their job. Players who couldn't dream of equipping Peacock Charm and O-Kote in the 30s could go back and see what it's actually like at this level. More far-flung Experience Areas could be explored (Purgonorgo Isle at 31-35 is apparently both great and awesome). Full Linkshell parties that bring together the low and high level players would become commonplace. The lack of tanks and healers prevalent in the current game would become less of an issue. The common-place practice (almost necessity) of powerlevelling parties may in turn become less of a normal sight.
Basically I believe this would breathe new life and vigour into the game between levels 10-60.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's about it.
Thoughts?
Could this be abused? If so, solutions? Would this kill the ever-popular Guide Beret? (/sarcasm off) Would you, if asked by a LS member, ever go back to the Dunes?
Issues being addressed:
~Inability for a player to ever revisit earlier Experience Party areas as they advance their job, without starting a whole new character.
~Lack of certain job-types available in Experience Party areas.
Basic Suggestion (rigid):
I propose that a player who has reached Level 75 should be able to acquire 'Past Master' status on that job. A Past Master job (PM job) will, in essence, be capable of joining ANY party in Vana'diel (that is, without adversely harming the XP that the party receives, ie. be a regular member) and will be able to do this with relative ease and convenience.
Here's how:
(1) Introduce a method whereby Level 75 players can temporarily reduce the level of their current job, thus allowing them to go back and party in levels they have already travelled through.
(2) Introduce new full sets of Level 75-questable, job-specific armour that adjust in statistics according to the wearer's current level, thus removing the necessity for a range of equipment pieces taking up storage space.
In More Detail (flexible)
(1)
At level 75, a new quest becomes available which, upon completion, grants the player a Spirit Gem (Rare/Ex). A player at Level75 may 'Use' the gem to produce a single Spirit Bead (Rare and 'Has no market value'). This bead may then be traded to another player who, upon 'Use' will Spirit-Link the bead to its parent Gem. In doing so, the level 75 player (the Gem-holder, or GH) will take on the level of the player holding the bead (the Bead-holder or BH). This is the essence of the Past Master.
Whilst the Spirit-link is active, the GH is inextricably tied to the BH - the GH's level will effectively be entirely dependant upon the progress of the BH. When the BH advances a level, so does the GH, similarly if the BH should delevel, as will the GH. Please note the 'direction' of this link. The GH is tied to the BH, not vice versa. This is important because the Spirit-link also extends to consciousness, meaning that should the BH be KOed, so will the GH. Because of the direction of the Spirit-link however, the BH won't be affected if the GH should be knocked-out.
This link will remain active until either a) the BH discards the bead, or b) the GH 'severs' the link through their Gem. The link remains when a player logs out. It must be manually removed by the GH or BH.
A GH will receive Merit Points totalling the Experience Points gained by the BH whilst Spirit-linked.
(2)
Upon completion of the Spirit Gem quest, a new sequence of five quests becomes available, each granting a single piece of job-specific Liquid Gear. Liquid Gear is relatively unique in that it doesn't have fixed statistics. Rather, in a similar way to how such pieces as Rajas Ring function, the statistics change according to the current job level of the wearer.
Liquid Armour pieces possess three distinct tiers of stats: Tier1 between levels 10-24, T2 between levels 25-39 and T3 between 40-60. The statistics granted by Liquid Armour would not be over-powered - rather they would just provide mere functionality, allowing the wearer to perform their job to a degree that doesn't reduce the party's effectiveness.
The Liquid Armour would be visually distinct, allowing a player instant recognition from other players towards what they are and what they have achieved: ie. a player with Past Master status in their current job.
The appeal of this armour set is therefore convenience above all else. (Convenience and, admittedly, bragging rights.) Convenience in that an end-game player will not need to store several pieces of armour to cater for levels and/or head to the Auction House every time s/he wants to Spirit-link. If they wish to help someone out and party in the dunes, it's as simple as visiting the Mog-House or an AF storage NPC.
And finally, why?
I believe this would bring more emphasis back to enjoying the regular party aspect to FFXI, as well as allowing more players to go back and experience more aspects of their job. Players who couldn't dream of equipping Peacock Charm and O-Kote in the 30s could go back and see what it's actually like at this level. More far-flung Experience Areas could be explored (Purgonorgo Isle at 31-35 is apparently both great and awesome). Full Linkshell parties that bring together the low and high level players would become commonplace. The lack of tanks and healers prevalent in the current game would become less of an issue. The common-place practice (almost necessity) of powerlevelling parties may in turn become less of a normal sight.
Basically I believe this would breathe new life and vigour into the game between levels 10-60.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's about it.
Thoughts?
Could this be abused? If so, solutions? Would this kill the ever-popular Guide Beret? (/sarcasm off) Would you, if asked by a LS member, ever go back to the Dunes?
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