What, no levels?

[Ryoii/Nonomii]

Has it really soaked in what it could mean to have no levels? Just think about starting FFXI with RSE and all jobs at Lv75 with all skills capped.

Gear and something similar to merits would be the primary way of growing your character. Mob families will vary in difficulty, but there is no need to repeat them throughout the world. This is a major reason why the world could be smaller.

[Acruvond]

Re: What, no levels?

It has worried me since they first announced there wouldn't be a character leveling system. Doesn't bother me enough to lose interest though, that's for sure.

[Reavis]

Re: What, no levels?

Your character levels through weapon progression, its not experience in the typical sense if you've made the mistake of believeing theres going to be no leveling, so you do have a type of progression which is similar to leveling up.

[Acruvond]

Re: What, no levels?

Indeed, and when you think about it that way, and compare it to skilling up and merits in XI, it isn't that bad of an idea. It's just taking away the caps you'd have from reaching a max skill at a certain character level. Now you can keep skilling up certain items without having to worry about leveling up your character prior to.

[Ryoii/Nonomii]

Re: What, no levels?

Yes, but think of the possibilities. In FFXI, there are fights where strategies with mages work much better than with melee. Now everyone would have the opportunity to switch to a poorly geared and unmerited mage with capped skills for this fight over a well geared melee job.

[Reavis]

Re: What, no levels?

Yes, but think about the possibilities. In FFXI, there are fights where strategies with mages work much better than with melee. Now everyone would have the opportunity to switch to a poorly geared and unmerited mage with capped skills for this fight over a well geared melee job.

thats the thing we have to wait on, job switching on the fly has many ppl concerned but it also holds great potiental for changing the way we play the game dramatically.

[Ryoii/Nonomii]

Re: What, no levels?

Your character levels through weapon progression

I'm actually suggesting that there is no significant leveling period (outside increasing faction). Nothing more significant than merits at least.

[Malacite]

Re: What, no levels?

It's an entirely skill-based system. Your skill more or less represents your character level now instead of defined job levels etc.

[Armando]

Re: What, no levels?

Now everyone would have the opportunity to switch to a poorly geared and unmerited mage with capped skills for this fight over a well geared melee job.

Come on. They're not going to make you as effective at a job that you've barely touched as someone who's spent several hours on it.

They can call it whatever they want, there will be a grind, and each "job" will have its own grind.

[Cyprius]

Re: What, no levels?

It sounds promising. I mean, in FFXI if there was a gap of like 4 levels between two people, then questing together for exp is out of the question.

But maybe this will be different... Obviously the lesser developed player will find it more tough, but there might not be so much level discrimination. Like, "LF 52 BLM". Now it will be "LF BLM skillzzzz".

[Ryoii/Nonomii]

Re: What, no levels?

Come on. They're not going to make you as effective at a job that you've barely touched as someone who's spent several hours on it.

I'm simply suggesting that a brand new character in FFXIV might be as effective as a poorly geared Lv75 player in FFXI. That doesn't make them as effective as one which has good gear and merits, but it would make them effective enough to join friends who have been playing continually for a long time.

They can call it whatever they want, there will be a grind, and each "job" will have its own grind.

I still would expect some grinding for each job similar to merits in FFXI, but I see now that level and skill grinding could be removed in favor of faction related grinds similar to Conquest Points, Allied Notes, Assault Rank, Campaign Medals, etc. The main thing about removing the levels and skills is that new players would be able to join long time players.

[Armando]

Re: What, no levels?

I'm simply suggesting that a brand new character in FFXIV might be as effective as a poorly geared Lv75 player in FFXI.

Again, I find this highly doubtful, as the grind is part of what hooks players and keeps them busy. There needs to be a sense of progression for the player. A power gap that small does not allow for enough character growth.

[Ryoii/Nonomii]

Re: What, no levels?

I seriously hope the developers go outside the box and find ways to keep players interested without mandatory grinds. Augmenting comes to mind. There could be long, story filled quests which grant augments.

Picture FFXI where each piece of gear can accept a maximum number of augments based on a point system. One quest might give you +1 STR which costs 1 augment point. Another quest would grant +1 ACC which costs 2 augment points. These augments could be repeated and stacked on gear until it reaches its augment capacity.

The difference between merited and unmerited players in FFXI is significant enough to make grinding merits worthwhile yet small enough to let unmerited players participate with their friends. I think it is perfect.

My primary concern with the idea of removing levels and skills is the loss of time to learn a job before needing to use it in a challenging group setting.

[Kailea]

Re: What, no levels?

Instead of Player or Job levels, there will be weaopn levels and skill points for them... how hard is that to guess?

The grind will be there, just in a different fashion

[Ryoii/Nonomii]

Re: What, no levels?

Did I miss something in the videos or interviews? Will there really be a huge grind related to your weapon? Hopefully it is short enough that you're only doing it to get used to the abilities associated with it.