Hello all,
I have noticed in my time in Kenji Beach, Arumic Valley and Mana Snowfields, where I currently am, that there is an overpopulation issue due to the popularity of the server. This can lead to instances of members from other parties "stealing" mobs at spawn from "your" area which in turn creates tension between members where there should be none. Note the quotation marks; I realize that despite bonfire placement and reasons xyz, there is no such thing as my mobs or your mobs or his mobs, they're just mobs, however this is still a source of tension which I have seen devolve into toxic behavior.
Comment below if you agree with this sentiment, just to get a vibe if I'm the only one who feels this way or not.
Also note that when this "mob stealing" occurs, if a member from a party that isn't yours gets the first hit, the quest item will go to that player, regardless of who kills it or who deals most damage. Below are some suggestions to this issue and the overpopulation issue:
1) Simply, have denser mob areas.
This would negate the need to "steal" other parties' mobs and also allow the tank(s) of the party to have more of a chance to do his job. A variant on this option, which I'm sure would not make the devs lives any easier (sry), would be to have mob density scale to player count on either a) the whole map or b) a specific area of the map. Mobs would spawn as they do now if there were <10 players in the area but once you get to 30+ players in the area, it would look like the prison in Eldeon.
2) Instead of first hit counting, have any hit count.
This implies that if anyone attacks the mob, that player and every member of his party would get the quest item. I understand that this could be used as an exploit, as one could just sit next to a party and attack a mob once or AoE to get quest items for little to no effort. A solution to this happens to be the next one which is...
3) Increase max party size even MOAR.
I know that it has already been increased but there have been multiple times where I could have made 20 - 30 member parties, based on how many people I turned down due to the party being full. Instead of having a small area (south Arumic Valley, near spawn, all Yeti Riders for instance) being occupied by 3-4 full parties, not giving each other room and the courtesy to leave the mobs near them alone, it could be 1-2 parties, 15-20 members each, allowing other parties to have their space while also allowing more members to be in one area without having to fight other members/parties for mobs, since quest items would be shared by everyone in the party.
4) Private map option.
Personally, this is my least favorite solution, but it would be a solution nonetheless. Have the option when you party to activate "private mode" (or whatever), which would make all other players on your current map "vanish" (and you + your party members would vanish to them), leaving the whole map open to you. Have access to all the spots without interfering with another party and their experience.
I don't like this solution as much because the game is an MMO and this would definitely take away from that aspect of it, as it would make the rest of the players inaccessible to you and vice versa.
These are all the solutions I have come up with so far, if any of you have any, please post them below.
Big thank you to devs for the work you do and the experience you bring to us players.
Big thanks to you players for keeping the community alive.
