FFXIVCore.com - Final Fantasy XIV Fansite: My personal thoughts on how SE should "Adjust SP" - FFXIVCore.com - Final Fantasy XIV Fansite

Hello all, I just wanted to take this time to post my thoughts on what I feel SE can or should do to make adjustments to the current SP system, I have sent these into their feedback forum but wanted to share here, because I see the term "fix SP" thrown around a lot and that term implies that SP is broken. I'll argue that SP in fact is working and working well and the previous system was broken, but the fact that the system needs adjustments is hard to deny.

My first point is that I feel that XIV is trying to walk the line between Solo, small party, to mid to large party groups... It's a hard line to walk and the current build favors solo/small party groups. While this isn't bad, it isn't great ether (in my opinion).

Prior to the update, after Rank 20, the only real way to level was to get into a large group, and go try to kill really hard things thus giving everyone the chance to get SP, since it was random based off of skills, the fights were just zerg feasts with no real (or deep) strategy and there were lots of players who would get 0 SP after a long fight, while others would max out. This was the big issue that shifted the system to what we current have and that's a static system. In this system, everyone is awarded an amount per mob, and as such the idea becomes to kill as many mobs in as little time as possible.

Currently this system favors solo to small parties because mobs that are higher level and that would take a large amount of time to kill aren't getting any incentive to kill those big mobs as it would be quicker for them to solo on smaller mobs for smaller amounts, or form a small party to kill faster and share in the rewards.

Currently there is a bonus applied to being in a party, but there has been confusion in the term "bonus" and how it applied to the two systems. In the old system SE implemented a "bonus" to give extra SP to the party which solved some woes when players wouldn't get any SP, they still might get some bonus SP. And I think that crosses over into the system we have today, when players feel that they should get more SP for killing a mob in group vs killing a mob solo... The current system applies a bonus to SP on the mob so if a mob was going to give you 90 sp, and you were in a party sharing that SP with another player instead of getting 45 (divided evenly between players) a bonus is applied and both players get 65 SP (this is just a made up example)

The issue here is that fighting a hard mob that takes five minutes to kill in a party of six people might only doll out 600sp divided among its members to give each player 100sp for the fight. This is what has caused players to stop parting in large group 6+ as the benefits to solo outweigh the benefits to grouping.

Now that the history lesson is over, here are my thoughts in how you can adjust the system to both keep solo viable and incentivize party play to help people be social. While these are just my thoughts, I recognize that adjustments and balancing would still need to be made and that my ideas aren't perfect, their juts my thoughts. :)

• Party play needs to have a greater focus in this game, they don't need to nerf solo players, because solo can still have their blue and green mobs that reward SP as they currently do and they can also get SP buffed while running leves, this system should be key for people with little time to play each day or whenever their time permits. But parties should be the best way to get SP, they shouldn't be the only way, just the best.
  
• Hard mobs need to have their SP adjusted up in ways that make it worthwhile for players to want to best them. I think SP rewards for yellow mobs should start at 200SP for a player in a party, orange 250sp, and red 300sp... And then would vary depending on the mob... These mobs should be harder to kill but with a group of six players getting 300sp to start on a kill would be a good jumping off point. They should even have mobs that are there just for 15 man groups, where the rewards for each player are large but the numbers will always be debatable. Perhaps these will be some NM fights in the world.
  
• A mob chaining, or kill chaining system needs to be introduced. Going off the numbers before the first mob will give its base SP reward, chaining the mob to another would give its base plus a chain bonus.
  
• - There are two types of chain bonus systems that I can think of:
  
• • Each kill increases the chain for that of a kill chain so kill mob 1 fast enough and then mob 2 soon after that chain level 1, mob 3 soon after that, level 2... each level grants an additional level of SP to the player. (much like FFXI)
    
  • Mob chains, kill the same mob in a row and your chain count increases, get your chain count high enough and it levels up thus increasing the rewards. Much like FFXII chain system. With each chain level players get additional bonus' to their SP gain, as well as a random chance for cure, or even MP heal (small amount 50 - 100) and increased drop rates on HQ items
  
  
  With ether system there would be a max upper limit but it would be fun for players to see how they can raise this level up. :)

Heck, both systems could even be used in this game, I would just like some kind of information on screen.
The chain would break by killing a different mob (depending on which chain) or letting too much time expire before fighting the next mob, and thus being reset back to level 1.

This would I believe open up the game to party play in ways that both add strategy and ways to max out SP gain.

Are their issues with my solution? Yep, balance would always need to be applied to my thoughts here, the numbers I used are just numbers, they might be too low, or too high, how will this effect solo players? No idea...

Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying XIV very much, but with all the topics and debate and people saying "Fix SP", and others say no... really shows this is a hot topic. I feel my solutions would really open up the game and bring the focus back to parties. And one way to limit high level parties from running around killing in low level areas would be to make the chain system only apply to yellow, orange, and red level mobs.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the topic, I plan on sharing them when we record the podcast this weekend, I'm interested in any constructive feedback, thoughts, both in addition and subtraction to what I have posted here today. :)

Thanks for reading. :)