Ladies and Gentlemen, Noobs and Girls.
Groups and Leveling? Is there really such a thing anymore? I've been away for awhile now and I just thought of a great way to get the game more interactive again and to get more people playing on all maps. How you say? Fairly simple really. Limiting the Groups that a person can be in.
Before I left, the maps was rather empty, I currently do not know how it is now, but I'm willing to guess that most maps are still rather empty for the most part except for the people hitting the AOE spots in the game. Yeah you know those people. The level 230 Cleric and Knight, and a bunch of low level noobsters sitting around hitting the aoe skill to kill a bunch of enemies at one time. We all just love to hate them because they never answer when you ask for a party. Either that or they're always full if the do happen to answer. EWW!!! So you go on and on looking for a party right? HAH! Fun fun, but wait... There's no one else leveling? Why? Where are they? Seems like there's some people leveling over here!! What? 230 Cleric and Knight? Another group of people just hitting the AOE skills? Dang...
You've all seen it, you've all been there. It's the same thing just about every single time. You go out look for a party but can't find any except the AOE parties with the level 230 Clerics and Knights. The maps aren't being used as intended to level anymore. Everyone is just getting those 230 clerics and knights to do the work for them, to keep them healed, buffed, and the mobs off of you.
I would like to propose the groups be altered some. You know. Remember the party system from long ago? You had to be within a certain level before you could even join the party. I think in order to get the maps rolling again, to have more people playing through the maps instead of the aoe spots, the groups need to be limited by levels. This way, you don't have the level 230 characters doing the work of what should be done by players of the same leveling supporting each other. I'd propose a minimum of 20 levels, a max of 50 levels. For instance, Level 230 would only be able to group with players within 50 levels of them. So that'd be 180-230. Sounds reasonable enough for me, because by doing this, you're basically limiting the players ability to go from level 1, to level 230 in a matter of a couple of days. Sure it could still be done, but it would be a lot harder. It also forces the players to go from one map to another to level instead of standing in one spot spinning around in circles.
Another reason in doing this will allow players to actually level and experience their characters as they should by relying on team mates to support each other instead of the level 230's just sitting there taking all the damage and healing all the damage.
Thanks.