[Maksimum_Fire]

PvE isn't totally blah, absolutely boring from the get go, but I think it gets kinda bland, eventually.  Especially since people always need grinding for their new characters, or you need to grind to eventually hit that 15th legend extension some day in the future, or what have you.  It can be pretty spiced up by having a friend with you, but- then-

...Where'd all my money go?

Even if you just have some level 1 lad hanging out way behind you in the back, not participating in your fight, your money per battle gets CHUNKED to an exceedingly low amount for having a friend in the party- and it doesn't really all go to the other person, either.  You both get something like less than half, or worse, than you would grinding monsters alone.  While this doesn't prevent you from gaining EXP at the same rate, which, arguably, is the most important part of grinding...  it DOES make it feel kinda vexing to grind with someone, to jump in and help a newbie when you could just be grinding alone.  Four-man team hunting, especially, just gets absolutely shot by this less-murai-per-fight effect, and honestly, I think that's the biggest reason we don't see people grinding IC very often.

Now, it's understandable that not everyone gets full money per fight, or else it'd just be.  A ton of extra money in the economy, and stuff.  May as well just tag along with some dude who's going grinding if he's not losing anything, right?  But there's a solution that can be made to this, without compromising either side.

Scaling monsters up by number of player participants.  Probably not by just level, since that could get out of hand easily, or would just make for exxxtra strong mercenaries for anyone using those- or, for people who the level doesn't matter that much for, it wouldn't really affect them.  I think more dynamic changes to the monsters might be a bit better.  My initial idea is this:

At two party members:  50% more enemies spawn.  Enemies get a status that gives them +2 Mov.  Miniboss prefixes become slightly more common.(25% chance+ per monster)
At three party members:  Two party member effects, and enemies have a chance to spawn closer, as if they performed a back attack.  If players back attack the monsters, then they instead spawn far away.    Miniboss prefixes become much more common.(50% chance+ per monster)
At four party members:  Two and Three party member effects, plus:  Enemy spawns are increased by another 50% from base(for a total of 200%).  Enemies get a status that makes them Regenerate half their level HP per round, for the first three rounds of combat.  Miniboss prefixes become extremely common(75% chance+ per monster+guaranteed for at least one enemy per fight).  Appropriate boss encounters for the area have a (5 times floor level)% chance to replace half the enemy spawns.

These are not set in stone ideas, just the things that came to mind as I came up with this post- I'm open to more suggestions from other players on the topic!  But the idea would be to apply these boosts, and because of the ramp up in difficulty for playing as a group, there'd be no need to split up murai gain; instead making it an amount each player would gain, since more than one player will need to contribute for these ramped up encounters.

To make things a little more safe for people who need help grinding up through early levels-  My suggestion would be that this 'party scaling' effect only happens for each member of a party that's within 15 levels of the highest level player.  To demonstrate:

pewpew is level 60.  If he teams up with timtim, level 30, party scaling will not go into effect.  If he instead teams with Dwarf Lord, level 45, they will trigger party scaling.  And, if Dwarf Lord teams up with timtim alone, because he's level 45 and timtim is level 30, they will trigger party scaling.  If pewpew, dwarf lord, and timtim team up, then the fight receives rank 2 party scaling bonuses, since dwarf lord is within fifteen levels of pewpew, but timtim is not.

Alternatively, this could instead be a unique effect applied to Static dungeons, or it could be a new Prefix for dungeons; I'm personally in favor of it being something relatively easily accessible, but easy to dodge if you don't want to fight souped up monsters.  Joining fights late wouldn't impact this system, is my thinking, and murai would be split as it is right now.

Boss fights would also need to receive some buffs, under this system, but I haven't come up with what changes would be best to make yet, so I'll probably think that over, see what other people think, then make an addendum here later today.

In summary, though:

This would make PvE quite a bit more challenging, interesting, and rewarding for playing in a group with other players.  It might make things more difficult for low-level players looking to be grinded up fast by a high-level player, but some allowances can be made(the within 15 levels idea, or making it only statics that receive this effect) in order to make sure they get along fine.

One thing I can see being brought up in relation to this-  "50%/100% more enemies?  Isn't that just watered down crazy dungeon?"  Kinda, I guess?  But I imagine it'd stack with Crazy Dungeon effects if it was implemented as a dungeon modifier or standard system.  I'm open to other ideas for how they could be boosted, too!

To get an easy gauge on what you think of this idea, even if you don't have much to add to the topic, I'd love to see some basic responses to the poll!  For anyone who's interested in this idea, I'd love to hear your suggestions on how to buff bosses for multiple players, critiques on the system, and anything else you think might be important!