There's been lots of talk around what they'll do with jobs after level 100. And so from my boundless font of good and objectively correct ideas comes the solution.
The key points:
- Levelling stops at 100. The EXP bar is replaced with a Mastery Bar. When the Mastery Bar is full, it grants you a Mastery Point and resets back to zero. You can spend these points to unlock...
- Optional Actions; these are added each expansion and can replace certain existing actions, allowing you to customize your job. Some optional actions could affect the job's playstyle, while others are just cosmetic changes. The damage wouldn't vary too much.
For example, DRG could swap Rise of the Dragon for two charges of Spineshatter Dive which deal an equal combined potency. Same damage, but now it's two jumps instead. DRK could swap Souleater's animation with that of Power Slash.
This idea also allows the devs to add more actions and mastery points to unlock them between expansions if they want. The number of available points for each job would be fixed per patch, and once maxed out you'd stop gaining Mastery until more are added.
- Horizontal gear progression. Current gear stats stop increasing, and we begin a new iLvl system which goes from 1-100 before resetting next expansion. This ilevel increases a special stat which only affects current expansion content. When next expac comes out, its gear will also have a "Legacy Stat" which offers no benefit in current content, but gives it close to max-ilevel stats (around new ilvl 90) in all previous expansions.
- Stop increasing potencies, and don't be afraid to nerf them in the name of balance. Do a big re-balancing patch on old content so bosses don't die too fast, and keep the jobs around this established baseline.
- Materia grades stop increasing after 8.0, with the maximum level being Materia XIV (haha get it).
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This system addresses the following issues:
- Levelling base-game jobs to max becoming untenable due to increasingly high level caps
- Newly added actions making jobs bloated.
- Old actions being removed, making players unhappy (rip kaiten)
- Old bosses dying too fast due to power creep.
- Stat numbers and levels becoming absurdly high and warranting stat squishes.
- Old content becoming totally obsolete because you can one-shot it unsynced. This way you'd only ever be one expansion ahead in damage when unsynced, so at least a little effort remains when farming old rewards.
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(Maybe) If we expand upon the Optional Actions system such that jobs deal a bit more damage when higher difficulty actions are equipped, we could also create a rewarding system of job difficulty scaling that accommodates players of all skill levels, assuming content could be balanced around this.
If there are any holes or embarrassing oversights in my ideas, I'm open to hearing them.
Continue reading...
The key points:
- Levelling stops at 100. The EXP bar is replaced with a Mastery Bar. When the Mastery Bar is full, it grants you a Mastery Point and resets back to zero. You can spend these points to unlock...
- Optional Actions; these are added each expansion and can replace certain existing actions, allowing you to customize your job. Some optional actions could affect the job's playstyle, while others are just cosmetic changes. The damage wouldn't vary too much.
For example, DRG could swap Rise of the Dragon for two charges of Spineshatter Dive which deal an equal combined potency. Same damage, but now it's two jumps instead. DRK could swap Souleater's animation with that of Power Slash.
This idea also allows the devs to add more actions and mastery points to unlock them between expansions if they want. The number of available points for each job would be fixed per patch, and once maxed out you'd stop gaining Mastery until more are added.
- Horizontal gear progression. Current gear stats stop increasing, and we begin a new iLvl system which goes from 1-100 before resetting next expansion. This ilevel increases a special stat which only affects current expansion content. When next expac comes out, its gear will also have a "Legacy Stat" which offers no benefit in current content, but gives it close to max-ilevel stats (around new ilvl 90) in all previous expansions.
- Stop increasing potencies, and don't be afraid to nerf them in the name of balance. Do a big re-balancing patch on old content so bosses don't die too fast, and keep the jobs around this established baseline.
- Materia grades stop increasing after 8.0, with the maximum level being Materia XIV (haha get it).
------
This system addresses the following issues:
- Levelling base-game jobs to max becoming untenable due to increasingly high level caps
- Newly added actions making jobs bloated.
- Old actions being removed, making players unhappy (rip kaiten)
- Old bosses dying too fast due to power creep.
- Stat numbers and levels becoming absurdly high and warranting stat squishes.
- Old content becoming totally obsolete because you can one-shot it unsynced. This way you'd only ever be one expansion ahead in damage when unsynced, so at least a little effort remains when farming old rewards.
------
(Maybe) If we expand upon the Optional Actions system such that jobs deal a bit more damage when higher difficulty actions are equipped, we could also create a rewarding system of job difficulty scaling that accommodates players of all skill levels, assuming content could be balanced around this.
If there are any holes or embarrassing oversights in my ideas, I'm open to hearing them.
Continue reading...