Adjustments to Embrava and Perfect Defense

[tyrantsyn]

Actually, his translation is pretty accurate to the original JP post. I'm sure Camate is feeling just as bamboozled needing to translate it as we are needing to read it.

In context, it was more of a "We think it's okay if we make content that can't be beaten [by you]." The original post was made in response to someone.

I saw the other translation. And understand what was actually meant. Still funny tho.

[Leif]

Of course, that's not the case, but the development team does believe it's okay to have content that cannot be beat.

Only if taking a loss to said content is required to initiate a cutscene or other story event.

In any other case it should not be accepted.

[Hashmalum]

Of course, that's not the case, but the development team does believe it's okay to have content that cannot be beat.

I think this has been obvious ever since Absolute Virtue, but the question is: why? Why is the dev team wasting time creating content they think is impossible when they are already overworked and players are already fed up? In what world is this a sane use of resources?

[MarkovChain]

When it comes to content like Legion and Nyzul Isle Uncharted Area Survey floor 100, they were designed to be difficult without very good gear and a high skill level. As a result, those players who do not meet a certain level will have trouble clearing this content; however, that is the context of their difficulty. The development team believes that the rewards obtainable from such difficult content should only be available to a portion of players. (Based on the stats, not everyone will be able to possess it.)

It would be hard to call it very difficult content if just anyone was able to beat it.
(Frankly, the Hall of Mul is extremely, extremely difficult. However, we saw one group of players who went all out and challenge it and we were all relieved.)

With that said, we will not be lowering the difficulty because there are people who feel that the battle is too difficult. Instead, we would like players to collect better gear from slightly easier content, work out a battle strategies, and rise to the challenge.

Of course, because of this, there will be a need to help players gradually strengthen themselves and have a wide selection of moderate content to choose from, so we would like to do our best to fill that need.

Whether or not something is difficult varies from person to person, and this is where a lot of discrepancies arise, but when creating content we need to draw a line somewhere and balance things. We would like you all to be somewhat aware of where the lines have been drawn for highly difficult content.

*In the future, we will look into revamping the difficulty of older content when higher-tier content is added.

Yeah ok we got, the devs are clueless, and if we all complained about nyzul that because we are all gimp haha. No word on the recent nerf of the DAT of nyzul lamps ? So I guess pre nerf winners were all super awesome players I guess ? haha. I'm sure you also think very little ppl do legion because it's "omg too hard" and it's elite. No, if you played the game you'd know that nobody does legion because the gear is subpar, and stop explaining us that farming lower tier gear is helping winning legion or nyzul - it's wrong and player can estimate damage/per/second values alot better than you. The only reason people can currently win F100 nyzul is embrava and has nothing to do with gear. Get 4 DD with 2x embrava and full AF3+2 and you are good. It's the same for legion. The entire events relies on stunning, embrava, perfect defense and brd/cor. I mean last I checked you didn't annihilate perfect defense didn't you ?

[Muras]

Greetings,

Ever since the announcement about the adjustments to Perfect Defense and Embrava, there have been a lot of comments and feedback regarding content difficulty. Including comments from many of you that feel like the development team is creating content that they don't want you to beat.

Of course, that's not the case, but the development team does believe it's okay to have content that cannot be beat.

A friend of mine who's fluent in both languages tells me the original JP post said they believe it's ok to make content that isn't beatable 100% of the time (Which would include luck based content). So while not completely accurate and a little better than the official translation, it's still just as bad since hardly anyone wants luck based content as shown back in the Matsui "Tell us what you want" thread.

When it comes to content like Legion and Nyzul Isle Uncharted Area Survey floor 100, they were designed to be difficult without very good gear and a high skill level. As a result, those players who do not meet a certain level will have trouble clearing this content; however, that is the context of their difficulty. The development team believes that the rewards obtainable from such difficult content should only be available to a portion of players. (Based on the stats, not everyone will be able to possess it.)

Don't really agree with this design method. I think everyone should be able to obtain everything they want, just at different paces. Nothing should ever be out of reach of any player. Do you guys seriously like limiting your player base or something? Don't you, as a company, like profit and money? I have to ask, who exactly are you designing this content for? 51% or more of the player base can't possibly care THAT much about "prestige" when it comes to items...

It would be hard to call it very difficult content if just anyone was able to beat it.
(Frankly, the Hall of Mul is extremely, extremely difficult. However, we saw one group of players who went all out and challenge it and we were all relieved.)

It would also be hard to call it fun if almost nobody can beat it. I don't really care if some small group of people beat some difficult content. I don't care if they got nice gear or not. All I care about as a player is having something fun to do, and I'm not getting anything.

Did you remember to ask those players who beat that difficult content, if they actually had fun while doing it? Because I imagine most would be expressing feelings of frustration and annoyance. I'm sure a few might say they had fun, but I'd be pretty surprised if most/all said they did.

With that said, we will not be lowering the difficulty because there are people who feel that the battle is too difficult. Instead, we would like players to collect better gear from slightly easier content, work out a battle strategies, and rise to the challenge.

Only if I get to have fun in the process.

Of course, because of this, there will be a need to help players gradually strengthen themselves and have a wide selection of moderate content to choose from, so we would like to do our best to fill that need.

So, does this mean more content that isn't luck based and doesn't require a small army to complete? If so, then good, that's fine. But with the overall tone of this post, I'm worried the rewards will be awful from such content too...

Whether or not something is difficult varies from person to person, and this is where a lot of discrepancies arise, but when creating content we need to draw a line somewhere and balance things. We would like you all to be somewhat aware of where the lines have been drawn for highly difficult content.

I know it can be difficult to gather information from forums since only the displeased people ever speak up. This always makes it seem like people are never happy, and you can never be sure which party is the majority.

So here, let me help you with this. Hold regular surveys that ask your players whether they like the content or not, like they did with FF14. Surveys that we can answer to only once through our Square-Enix accounts with simple questions like "Do you like Legion?" and "Do you like the difficulty of Legion?". Then release the results so your players also know how everyone else feels. Then when everyone is on the same page we can help each other make a better game. This is game design, not rocket science. We're all aiming for a better game, not Mars.

*In the future, we will look into revamping the difficulty of older content when higher-tier content is added.

You guys are seriously just adding more work for yourselves with this kind of policy. Just... Do it right the first time so you can focus on more important things rather than perpetually altering content forever.

At the end of the day though, from what the developers say and what I want seem to be conflicting. It's becoming more and more apparent that this game is not for me and honestly most sane people on this earth. I think Square-Enix is heavily banking on the possibility everyone is hopelessly addicted to the game therefore it doesn't matter what they do. Fortunately I am not, so if I leave I will be gone. I don't think I'm alone on this either.

My real question is what does it take to get you to stop making terrible design decisions? Will 90% of players really have to quit before we see any real results? Did you learn absolutely nothing from the failure of FF14? I don't care if you guys have been making games for 20 years or more, sometimes designs and ideas become outdated and previous accomplishments become meaningless, and sometimes you need to just retire so you can let people who actually know how the modern industry works have a chance. 20 year old game designs and business practices just don't work anymore... You'd think that SE would've figured this out over these past 2 years with the mess of FF14 among other things.

I may be saying harsh things, but I'm not trying to be insulting either. All I'm saying is what I feel is the truth, and of course, my own personal opinion. The only thing I can truly pass on as fact is that my relationship with FF11 is soon coming to a close...

[Monchat]

Now its clear.

How the DEV think we should play:

1-get basic gear from abbysea--> VW

2-once you have good gear you start working on the most recent contents (Nyzul) and since you got your gears you beat it.

3- do Legion and since you got good gear you win it.



Problem: there is no intermediate content. Abbyseea gear is still some of the best and very easy.

Nyzul gear is sidegrades to abbyssea and impossible.

Legion is impossible and side grades.

VW is sidegrades and easy.

What players actually do:

1. get your abbyssea gear.

2. do nyzul and pray. Gear has nothing to do with winning. Abbyssea gear is more than enough.

4. people wont try legion cause the gear is garbage compared to nyzul.

Lol.

Basically right now content is all or nothing: easy and good gear (abbyssea) or mediocre/moderately good and impossible (nyzul, legion).

The worse part is they shamlessly affirm that they tink having impossible content is ok. AV etc.

[Fynlar]

Of course, that's not the case, but the development team does believe it's okay to have content that cannot be beat.

Most of us already guessed that I'm sure, based on things like Absolute Virtue and Pandemonium Warden pre-nerf.

But to actually hear it straight from the horse's mouth is still mindblowing in a way. Like, this is what some people actually believe. Wow

[Riggs]

that statement is a massive throw back to pre abyssea level 75 stuff, i'm just not sure i have the energy for that anymore and i know i def don't have 18 people to do content with

[MarkovChain]

I'm sure they think we enjoy doing nyzul, man good thing FFXIV is coming soon. Still no word on salvage, cos at this point that's our only hope. Knowing them they will put bosses on the same scale of legion, with instant kill abilities and requiring PD. Hey gimps suck less and get better gear. Inbefore an idiot pops and asks to farm pdt gear.

[Rubicant82]

So... The Dev team wants us to have a challenge. That is okay, but there is a huge difference between a challenge with adequate awards, and rending jobs useless. By changing the mechanics of the game, sure we will be challenged, but more adversely two jobs are essentially getting their best attributes taken away. I've been playing sense NA release... and this seems to happen every time we as the players find a way to use the mechanics of the game to our advantage. It saddens me greatly that the game has fallen as far as it has. Maybe it is time to get a new dev team, we have a new project manager. At the rate this team is going, unless the new expansion is something that renders everyone speechless, FFXI will fade away. There are plenty of games that one can play that are FREE that have just as good if not better customer support, Devs, and content. One of the huge advantages that FFXI has over all these other games is the history and the fan base it draws on. As several people have mentioned in this thread that the gear from the new content is not worth the risk, they are partially correct. Everyone has their own style of play, but honestly not everyone has the skill to do the events. Does this mean that those players should have to go with out the good gear? What if someone falls in with a lower skill crowd, and can't get in to a higher skill group because those who normally have the higher skills tend to stick together and not include new people. The dev team has basically just given every casual player the middle finger. WAY TO GO TEAM! This sure is how you get people to stick around and pay you money every month. Tell them "well because you don't have the skills you can't do this."