Ultimate hiatus feedback

[Bandia]

Dear development team,

The 2018 Dengeki interview revealed there are no plans to continue the “Ultimate” series until the next expansion. The community’s concern over the pace at which Ultimate released was cited as the reason for its hiatus. We feel the opposite and would like to take this opportunity to give our feedback. This statement is a collaboration between many players.

In Heavensward, you reached a compromise between the general player base and raiders by introducing “Normal” and “Savage” variations of each encounter. Savage requiring more time and effort to complete than the previous raids unintentionally alienated the mediumcore raiders. Towards the beginning of Stormblood, you reapproached this divisive topic with a new compromise: the introduction of an “Ultimate” series aimed at hardcore players. This allowed the Savage series to be targeted towards mediumcore players, providing much needed revitalization in Final Fantasy XIV’s raid scene, while continuing to challenge veteran raiders. It was a solution that managed to satisfy all.

That is why some of us are perplexed, if not disheartened, by the decision to halt further Ultimate releases until the next expansion pack. Those anticipating the third installment in the Ultimate series feel as if a third of Stormblood’s content was taken from us. Although Savage is fun and more accessible than Ultimate, it does not challenge hardcore raiders the way Gordias and Midas did. Thus, Ultimate remains the primary motivation to enter Savage.

Hardcore raiders are far from the only ones affected. Streamers, and the fan base surrounding those streamers, are also affected. Both Ultimate releases generated the largest viewership of any other content released by a significant margin. This speaks to the inclusiveness of Ultimate even though few players actually clear it. It inspires upcoming raiders to invest in the game and awes players without time or ambition to tackle it themselves. Such enthusiasm is critical to the health of the game.

We appeal to you to reconsider the decision to halt Ultimate development in Stormblood or, at the very least, request a challenging piece of 8-man PvE content is added in its place. We are very passionate about Final Fantasy XIV and want to see it succeed and continue to provide amazing content that can be enjoyed by everyone. However this news leaves us with no content to look forward to for a very long time and has many of us questioning whether this is where we want to continue spending our time.

Thank you for reading!

Bandia Solas - Ragnarok
Layla Bell - Gilgamesh
Gouka Mekkyaku - Gilgamesh
Xenosys Vex - Sargatanas
Aqua Rain - Ragnarok
Sfia Pirion - Gilgamesh
Zachy Pillowfighter - Ragnarok
Kirk Hammer - Exodus
Solitary Flower - Gilgamesh
Jubei Mitsurugi - Ragnarok
Emileigh Beastslayer - Excalibur
Sindalf Sindalf - Gilgamesh
It's Ryder - Ragnarok
Una Puna - Moogle
Firana Windsong - Ragnarok
Sasaro Saro - Ragnarok
Rab Astrasza - Sargatanas

[Silvertongue]

I'm curious as to who exactly they pulled comments from to say that odd patch releases was "too rough" when its been near nothing but positive remarks from a majority of the players who are attempting the ultimates.

[Miunih]

+1

This is one of the best content SE has made, and they made quite a lot of good content so that's saying something on its own. Not only do I love going in and clearing probably one of the msot epic and cool fights made in most MMO's, I just love watching the community coming together with a common goal, seeing twitch bloom with XIV content, watching people clear, it's great. Whoever made UwU is actually a god, it was the most fun fight I've seen in ages.

Miunih Evans - Gilgamesh

[Rockette]

Agreement here also.

[yun0]

Also, I hope they will not lower the difficulty of ultimate or allow unsyncing after 5.0 will be out. It is attracting already alot of raiders, but not everyone can clear it and it should remain so. The trophy by getting an ultimate clear simply should never lose it worth and can serve as content for future generation of raiders.

[HyoMinPark]

I fully agree with this post. I am aiming one day to clear both UCoB and UwU, and currently and actively progging the latter. I really enjoy these pieces of content and they keep the game interesting for me, as well as give me additional motivation to do Savage. If there are only going to be 2 Ultimates per expansion, I request something additional during the final tier before the next expac so that raiders have something to fill in the time gap with. I would not like a repeat of Creator where it was the only content we had for 8 months.

The majority of content in this game is made for the 99% of the playerbase that does not do the super hardcore that Ultimate is. I understand wanting to provide content that is accessible to everybody, but the playerbase also includes this 1% that do Ultimate--is it really so wrong to continue to have something just for them when their Savage content has already been watered down throughout the tiers to make it more accessible to others?

I really liked that something was made for us, and I urge you to reconsider a 4.51 Ultimate. Thank you.

Hyomin Park - Cactuar

[Arthars]

There is a huge void between 4.5 to 5.0 unless SE have something REALLY great lined up..... Pls give 4.5 ultimate

絶もう1回４．５に作ってくれ！５．０までに多分なんもなかったら暇になるかもしれない・・・・・
よしださんが「ほかのゲームやってもいいよ」といったけど、FF14が大好きでもっと考えてほしい！
よしだああああああああああああああああああああああ

[kirigawa]

Nothing but agreements here. As a further proof of that content being really good for the health of the game i've pulled the Twitch numbers for the past year (Stormblood's release date) and you can see that the highest viewer spikes corelates to the release of patches and ultimate fights.

[shepardcommander]

I've never entered UCOB or UWU a single time, yet I love that its in the game. Aside from having a lot of fun watching streams in the background at work and keeping up with the race, it enables a more fine tuned spectrum of content to help more players find their niche in the game. The more players who find a niche, the better the whole ecosystem/economy operates. I've been playing the game since 1.0 days and the UCOB to UWU stretch of time is the healthiest I've ever seen the game. More people are active for longer stretches of time. All in game activity has markedly increased. Without Ultimate in 4.5, a critical piece will be missing from what we've had for the majority of Stormblood, and a huge section of the game that's been active and generating a lot of excitement will be gone.

I remember the stretch of time between 2.5 and 3.0, as well as between 3.5 and 4.0. Those periods of time have been amongst the WORST for in game activity and fun. Because its not the normal 3 and a half months between patches and more like a five month break, the boredom and lack of fresh content really took its toll. the 24-person raid's final entry isn't enough to capture folks' interest for more than a week or two, same with the ex primal. Stretching out the main scenario over X.51 and X.55 patches doesn't really do much either because its a pretty naked attempt to just arbitrarily prolong things to make it seem like we're getting regular updates leading into the expansion. Even big streamers and content creators stopped paying much attention to the game. That's a critical time for the game because its the lead up to a new expansion. A company's best marketing is positive word of mouth from current players, and in both pre-expansion doldrums you'd see and hear a lot of "its boring, don't come back right now, there's nothing new to do. There's no point in gearing up any more. There's no challenging, new, or interesting content to do. come back like a week before expansion to slog through the main scenario quests."

That's not great marketing, and that is not a healthy MMO environment. Having an Ultimate in 4.5 would flip that script on its head. A few months before expansion you'd have fresh excitement generated for the game, streamers get active, and potentially new players have a lot of things visible for them to imagine themselves doing one day. The more players in the game doing Ultimate and other stuff the more people that are populating roulettes and wonderous tails and party finders and hunts and treasure maps and keeping that older content a bit more relevant for the new players I presume SE wants to get. I thought we would get that, and I'm really disappointed the dev team reversed course. I think they will miss a really major opportunity to do a lot for excitement in the game leading up to the next expansion. I hope the post these folks worked on garners some attention and hopefully effects some change, or at the very minimum some more information into why this decision was made or what plans the dev team has in store to keep the game interesting and feeling updated for that inevitably long stretch between 4.5 and 5.0 beyond the final ivalice entry or the final four lords ex trial.

[aesteval]

Random thought that popped into my head (not directed at anyone.) All the recent discussion about run / clear selling leaves me pondering if there could be ulterior motive in supporting this sort of content / having a desire to keep its challenge intact.

Don't get me wrong, I support the content and keeping it challenging and I don't have any ulterior motive. But I have to admit, I can't help but have colored ponderings given recent discussions about the game and run selling.

Again, not directed at anyone. I don't know anyone in here or anything about any of you. But, it makes me wonder.