Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Reason for The Surplus System: Not enough content ... Yet
This discussion has been closed.
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Comments
I don't think they are trying to pad content really. This system has been in since alpha and is planned to be in at launch.
Hey guys just wanted to chime in with real data from beta.
It is not time logged in, it appears to be time in combat. I spent over 30 hours on my Pugilist/Fisherman/Culinarian during beta in a week and never saw that 8 hour mark where surplus starts.
Basically as it stands you have 8-15 hours of in combat time to gain full benefits, and once you start seeing surplus it is smart to change class.
They are thinking of doing something with surplus XP, but are not sure.
They are tweaking the times and times related to group content.
They are still tweaking numbers/times/etc.
I do not think they are trying to pad the content, but instead give a way for casual-mid level gamers to keep up with the hardcore.
Hardcore can advance numerous classes, but someone playing 100 hours a week and someone playing 40 hours a week can both likely max out their progression in a class keeping their main classes on a level playing field.
The amount of time required to max this out in a class, a gathering profession, and a craft seems to be pretty high and I am not sure any players would actually max this out in all 3.
I am not a big fan of the system. I only play 20-40 hours a week and based on my beta play I never even hit the 8 hour threshhold where you start to see surplus. I am not sure why they want this exactly.
The only thing I can see coming out of this that would make me really happy is a reduction or inverse effect on surplus while grouped. They seem to reference it as being more realistic because in real life you have to take breaks from training something to really grow at it.
It seems so, they should really call it "wasted" XP, after 8 hours of 100% , you start getting more and more "wasted" skill/xp until it reaches 100% "wasted" skill/xp and you get 0.
At that point you can either log off for the week or play another class, which will reset your skill surplus, but not the character xp, that will still be under surplus until the reset.
The problem is it's not quite as simple as that. It's such a "massive" bonus that it could easily be contrued as a penalty. It's like the difference between filling up a cup half way or taking away half the contents of a full cup. Either way you end up with half a cup.
In WoW you lose a relatively small bonus that takes ages to fill up anyway so it doesn't really matter. In FFXIV you lose a massive bonus and it lasts for a week. It's extremely generous yet extremely harsh at the same time.
As I understand it's considered a bonus, hence the term "surplus."
During those 8 hours you are getting 200% exp, the 100% stated being a bonus added like rest exp.
After those 8 hours it begins degrading, after an additional 7 hours your recieving 100% normal exp. You should never, not gain exp as I understand it.
Edit: Kind of makes me think of Aion's double exp weekends, gaining twice as much exp is a rather enormous bonus, more so if the game has a lengthy grind.
The way I see it, they are trying to trick us into thinking of surplus as a bonus.
I think they call surplus whatever you get once you get 0 XP. It's stored XP, not extra. Your XP gets stored away, there's no 200% mentioned anywhere, he clearly states you start off with 100%.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
Actually it is not referring to bonus XP. It is referring to XP gained. After 15 hours of combat time you will no longer increase your skills in a class.
This is in combat time. I spent over 30 hours playing my char and never hit this 8 hour threshhold.
I have no right to point fingers at the devs for such a decision, but don't they realize some of their customers will be fend off by this system?
Noone plays the same, some people have some insane working table, we play when we want for as long as we want.
This reminds me of parental control. Anything to do with the fact that some asian people fall dead after extended gaming sessions exposure?
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
Possibly, more likely though to gut powerleveling companies, or at least make them rethink how they operate. As stated before though in beta I managed to get to phys 22 before I even started seeing surplus phys, and class 16 (it happened on 2 of my classes, had no bearing on the others). Playing for 2-4 hours a night, and more on weekends (longest session was about 10 hrs).
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
I think what is unclear is, if you switch weapons (change class) does it reset the fatigue timer? Or just put it on hold? Being that many of us were in beta for only a couple weeks or less, Many people were switching classes to try and figure out what they wanted to play / what worked best / what they didn't like. I think once the game goes live this won't be as frequent as it was in beta (ie. People will be sticking to what they want to play more often).
I can say that, as playing a Conjurer / Thaumaturge, After a few days of playing my exp dropped significantly. The only way I could get decent exp was through guildleve's group xp bonus, and even then it didn't do much. When I switched to my melee character, though, my exp was skyrocketting. I think this was largely due to the fact that melee classes have a lot of skills that play off each other and use similar stats, so you can really benefit from switching often. With the caster you just have the two classes, with long stretches of grinding between skills (once you get to rank 10+). With a lancer, I was also lvling pug, marauder, and gladiator for the support skills (2 self heals + a defense buff = yes please). I also noticed a similar thing with the crafting professions. If you crafted professions that played off each other, you got exp a lot fast than if you crafted ones that were more self reliant. (ie. Mining, Blacksmithing, Goldsmithing, or Botany + Carpentry seemed to lvl quicker than cooking or alchemy.)
Let's keep this topic to a single thread.
Locked.
Fortune favours the bold.