Solo Accomplishments, Party Barriers, and Enhancing the Community

[Camate]

Hello,

We've been receiving a lot of feedback lately with the influx of new content in regards to difficulties joining parties, the ability to accomplish things solo, and other requests to make the game more enjoyable. I'd like to share the below comment from Producer Akihiko Matsui in response to this feedback.

Matsui here.

Thanks for all the feedback. Looking over everyone’s thoughts and opinions, I feel that there are three groups of players: those that want solo growth elements, those that want to join parties more easily, and those that want a way to be able to practice and learn content.

1. Reaching item level 119 gradually by spending time solo
   As there are a variety of different play styles, I understand that there are players who are not able to join parties, and as such we are currently looking into a route that will allow you to reach item level 119 solo by gradually spending time working towards it.
   
   Before we do this, we’d like to make some adjustments to wildskeeper reives. (However, please don’t take this as we will be adding item level 119 equipment to wildskeeper reives.)
   
   
2. Difficulty joining pick-up parties
   Due to the nature of pick-up parties, there is a trend of increasing the requirements for joining so that the success rate can be boosted, and I feel that this cannot be avoided.
   
   One role of linkshells and other forms of community is for situations like this so the players that are ahead can help support the players that are behind. I think the best thing players who feel it difficult to join parties can do is to play together with like-minded friends if you are trying to challenge content geared towards parties.
   
   While it’s a bit in the future, we are currently looking into enhancing linkshell features and other ways to support communities.
   
   As we are still in the planning phases I cannot say at the moment exactly how we will be doing this, but the development team feels this is something that needs to be addressed. Communities are not something that can only be built with a system, so we would appreciate your help and cooperation to make the game even more enjoyable.
   
   Besides this, we imagined job points to be content that would be enjoyed by parties, so with the addition of chain bonuses and other adjustments, I think the opportunities to form low barrier parties will increase.
   
   
3. Not enough opportunities to practice and learn content
   This is an issue closely tied with what I was mentioning about community.
   
   To start out, we will be making it so you can use Trust alter egos in party settings and we will also be increasing the content where you can utilize alter egos. With these adjustments, I feel it’s the first step towards making it easier to challenge low-difficulty content with groups that are just short of 6 players.
   
   We’ve also been receiving a lot of feedback about the high costs associated with entering content, and we will be looking into reducing entry costs gradually for content after a certain amount of time passes from implementation.

We’ll continue to focus on making Vana’diel even more enjoyable.

[Olor]

Great news! thank you! I am thankful the developers are aware of the issue where people get stuck because they have not done the content and people who clear it first only want to play with other people with similar gear. It's very frustrating for those of us with small linkshells who have fallen behind.

Also it would be awesome if wildskeeper gear was better than sparks gear. It really bothers me that I worked hard to get skirmish level 1 gear and wildskeeper gear but I feel like I need to wear UGLY sparks gear because it has a higher item level even though it was much easier to attain.

Could you also consider in the future not choosing the most ugly, noob-looking gear for things like sparks gear? I believe this further drives a wedge in the community because even though this gear is rather good in terms of stats, it looks so terrible people automatically think you are a bad player when they see you wearing it.

Please also keep in mind that systems like voidwatch, which reward players for taking many different kinds of jobs, are actually a great leveler when it comes to community. If you design content where there is room for people with less than perfect gear (or who have specialized skills/gear sets that are easier to obtain) can participate, it helps alleviate this problem

The only time in the game where I felt included with current endgame content was during the voidwatch era, because even though I did not have an ultimate weapon, I was still useful to the group as a blue mage working on procs.

Please consider creative ways of strengthening pick up group content.

Also please consider adjusting jobs like BST, SMN, PUP, GEO, RUN that do not really have a place in endgame. You can start by considering the plea from users of PET JOBS in the general forum.

Part what is keeping people from playing together is the inbalance in job strength. There are some jobs that are good at everything and other jobs that are almost useless. This leaves people who level those jobs out of current endgame content.

[Siviard]

One role of linkshells and other forms of community is for situations like this so the players that are ahead can help support the players that are behind. I think the best thing players who feel it difficult to join parties can do is to play together with like-minded friends if you are trying to challenge content geared towards parties.

The bolded section is the most inaccurate piece of blabber I think I've ever seen by Matsui. Sadly, the opposite is true. Players who have better gear and are "ahead of the game" do their best to REJECT players who are behind and won't allow them to come along for endgame content.

Don't have Aegis/Ochain on your Paladin? You're not wanted. Don't have Gjallarhorn or Daurdalba on your Bard? Leave now. Don't have Annihilator 119 on your Ranger? Don't bother responding. etc. etc.

[Puck]

As there are a variety of different play styles, I understand that there are players who are not able to join parties, and as such we are currently looking into a route that will allow you to reach item level 119 solo by gradually spending time working towards it.

That's cool, thanks. Maybe halve the sparks cost for all chapters, and more add ways to acquire expensive upgrade materials? A lot of the people who're being left behind and unable to play often also don't have steady sources of income.

Due to the nature of pick-up parties, there is a trend of increasing the requirements for joining so that the success rate can be boosted, and I feel that this cannot be avoided.

As was already pointed out, the devs still don't really understand the actual reason people are being left out. It's not because they can't get decent iLvl gear, sparks gear is good enough to get your foot in the door. No, it's about the restrictive nature of group content that encourages players to only bring certain jobs with certain gear. The community leaves them out because people don't like wasting time. Even among linkshells, groups tend to only bring jobs that give them the highest chance of success.

If you want a good chance at joining an event, you need to be playing one of a handful of desired jobs, and even then you need certain pieces of gear that are very time-consuming to acquire. Why spend hours collecting people for Delve and settle for a PLD that doesn't have Ochain or Aegis, thereby decreasing the chance of success? Or settle for a BRD with only 2 songs, when the BRD with Daurdabla is basically worth a BRD an a half or TWO BRDs just by having extra songs? Yes, success can be achieved with less-than-optimal setups, but with each concession the chance of failure increases.

Surely there must be a way to adjust content so group content isn't so restrictive. But no, I don't think Voidwatch is a good example. I don't think forcing groups to bring as many different jobs as possible is the way to go. All that did was made forming groups take longer and encouraged people to level jobs they didn't care about just to get those procs.

Content that rewards every player every time they participate is great, like the personal rewards chests in VW and WoE, or the guaranteed chapters in AA battles. Systems involving reward points are good, too, since it allows players to get closer to their goal even if they didn't get the drop they wanted, such as plasm. What if there were optional objectives that gave everyone in the party extra plasm or other rewards for bringing along a few people playing not-so-optimal jobs?

Or better yet, just adjust those jobs. Make them better. Make it so a job isn't completely useless without one or two specific pieces of gear. The devs should be studying pick-up /yells and gathering data on the party and gear set-ups used in every successful run, then look at that content and figure out why only certain jobs are used and adjust that content and those jobs accordingly.

[Demonjustin]

The bolded section is the most inaccurate piece of blabber I think I've ever seen by Matsui. Sadly, the opposite is true. Players who have better gear and are "ahead of the game" do their best to REJECT players who are behind and won't allow them to come along for endgame content.

Don't have Aegis/Ochain on your Paladin? You're not wanted. Don't have Gjallarhorn or Daurdalba on your Bard? Leave now. Don't have Annihilator 119 on your Ranger? Don't bother responding. etc. etc.

That's part of what he's talking about though. He's not saying that's what shells are doing, but rather that's what they're supposed to do. He understands the community is stuck in a rut where we're not performing that duty and instead players are being left behind the way you mentioned. Look at what he was talking about before that...

Due to the nature of pick-up parties, there is a trend of increasing the requirements for joining so that the success rate can be boosted, and I feel that this cannot be avoided.

and right after it...

As we are still in the planning phases I cannot say at the moment exactly how we will be doing this, but the development team feels this is something that needs to be addressed.

To me it sounds like he understands the issue entirely, and while they're not sure exactly how to address it, they understand it is something that does deserve some attention. It's not inaccurate to say that's the function they're supposed to serve, rather it would be if he were to say that's the function they are currently serving, at no point during that did I get the feel like he meant they're doing that right now.

[Demonjustin]

Something that caught my attention.

We’ve also been receiving a lot of feedback about the high costs associated with entering content, and we will be looking into reducing entry costs gradually for content after a certain amount of time passes from implementation.

You're looking into reducing entry costs gradually for content, but what content? Adoulin content is all fairly unchanging. You need 3 items to create the KI for entry to Skirmish, you can't really remove any of the 3, nor can you reduce the cost since it's market based. Delve requires a single stone, similar situation. The only current content I can think of with a variable cost are the Merit Point fights. But to get to my point, what content is being thought of here? Merit Points? Assaults? I'm interested. Assaults, Meebles, and a few other events could very much use these and the time past implementation is far gone.

[Raydeus]

It's good to see they have these issues in mind. And hopefully Fellows will be included in future plans to allow Trust in battlefields for solo players and small parties.

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The bolded section is the most inaccurate piece of blabber I think I've ever seen by Matsui. Sadly, the opposite is true. Players who have better gear and are "ahead of the game" do their best to REJECT players who are behind and won't allow them to come along for endgame content.

Don't have Aegis/Ochain on your Paladin? You're not wanted. Don't have Gjallarhorn or Daurdalba on your Bard? Leave now. Don't have Annihilator 119 on your Ranger? Don't bother responding. etc. etc.

That's a community issue, not a gameplay/design one. And he already understands the attitude players take and how they try to minimize risks as much as possible, he said it right there in his post.

In the older days when more people were playing and the community was much stronger it was not rare at all to have higher level players helping the LS. But nowadays with how sparse the community has become not many have the will or patience to help others. That is precisely why he also says he needs the help of players to make a better community with a better attitude, because mechanics alone are not enough at all.

[Byrth]

It's being cast as a community issue, but really it's not.

* You want a job that can survive essentially anything? You want an Ochain and Aegis PLD.
A PLD with a 50% shield block rate has a 50% chance of taking the same damage as any other melee. A PLD with a 100% block rate experiences a massive decrease in the odds they'll be oneshotted. Similarly, a PLD with -87.5% magic damage taken... well, doesn't really take magic damage. Pirwen is pushing towards closing this gap, but it's not really there yet.

* You want to fit two buffers into one party slot? You want a Daurd/G-horn BRD.
This is important because things like Delve bosses scale based on number of players. Daurd/G-horn BRD has a big advantage. The recent update where they let songs overwrite regardless duration and added an easily obtained 3-song instrument that went a long way towards closing this cap. It widened the gap between BRD and every other buffer, but that hasn't been a serious competition in forever.

* You want a competitive DD that won't pull hate off a Paladin? Your options are either a Yoichi RNG or Anni RNG.
OR THE DARK HORSE, PUP! (jk) If you don't have Yoichi or Anni, you're going to substantially gimp your DPS on Ranger to avoid pulling hate. Is it still possible to avoid pulling hate without these weapons? Sure, but you miss out.

[Kraggy]

Hello,

We've been receiving a lot of feedback lately with the influx of new content in regards to difficulties joining parties, the ability to accomplish things solo, and other requests to make the game more enjoyable. I'd like to share the below comment from Producer Akihiko Matsui in response to this feedback.

How about foloowing through on something which was brought up two years ago .. make the level 95 limit break soloable?

Still stuck at 95 because I don't have the gil to pay what people demand to 'help' and I'm damend if I'm standing in Jeuno for months shouting. Make it possible for me to get past 95 and I'll re-sub.

[Sapphire]

How about foloowing through on something which was brought up two years ago .. make the level 95 limit break soloable?

Still stuck at 95 because I don't have the gil to pay what people demand to 'help' and I'm damend if I'm standing in Jeuno for months shouting. Make it possible for me to get past 95 and I'll re-sub.

You can bring unlimited weakening items AND three trust NPCs to that battle. How much more soloable do you need?

I'm just curious.