Irrational, demoralizing, and uninformed developer responses

[Edyth]

The developer responses to some things have been soulcrushing lately, I am sure, to people they apply to.

For example:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/43326-Remove-jug-pet-caps-altogether!-Pet-Level-checkparam-item-level?p=516379#post516379

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/43204-Stormwaker-Y-700-Head-Haste-II-and-Automaton-AI.?p=516594#post516594

In the second post, the developers claim automatons can receive protect and shell. I learned when I was level 5 that I couldn't cure a random automaton I saw in Gustaberg. I also learned later that applies to all buffs and cure spells. WE CANNOT CAST ON THEM.

But the main thing is this: where are the developers who have been doing such an excellent job the past few months? These responses resemble the worst of the posts made by the old team, such as their claim that Assault rewards were too overpowered to allow players to enter with less than 3 people.

Please reconsider your stances on limiting BSTs to a select few pets (or a single, nevertheless unimpressive pet). Please, developers, go level PUP to level 20 or something. Or better yet, 99. Learn the jobs. See that they are not in a good spot. Listen to your customers. {{Please listen.}} You've been great and you've restored many player's faith in the game and its future. Please keep up the good work. Don't go down the road of "We are right and you are not," especially when the rationale isn't even accurate.

[Balloon]

This irks me so much, a great deal of though goes into some of the posts written here, and to get met with such facile responses... ugh.

Things that are utterly contradictory, too, wyverns def is too low! Automatons have high defense! Wyverns have 3 more def than a 119 automaton, that can get further boosted with Spirit Linked Prot/Shell, and Parameter boosts.. and wyverns rarely have an issue staying alive, what they need is a damage boost to breaths.. BUT NO. Let's address an issue that has never been brought up for Wyverns, and ignore a GAPING flaw in the pup and bst arsenal. It irritates me to no end.

And then there are the falsehoods they spout, it takes a very high degree of ignorance not to know that Automatons have never receive Protect and Shell. A very high amount.

The developers don't play this game, that much is evident, but I can't fault them too much for this. What I can fault them for is not having documentation, and a basic understanding of the Meta game that FFXI has developed. It means that our updates are usually antithetical to how we play. The RDM changes were a step in the right direction, but ask yourself, have you seen that many more people shouting for a rdm over a whm/rdm? Not really. We are at the behest of a dev team that has a mountain of problems, but refuses to solve them incase they rock the boat too far.

We are unlikely to see much change unless the developers learn their game, and make radical changes, not just half measures.

[WoW]

The communication between the players, notably pet jobs is awful.

Sam is not overpowered, but giving a jug pet yawn (Which will likely miss) is overpowered, and as Edyth alluded to, the recent bst and pup responses are quite head scratching/disturbing..........i mean....wow... SMDH. There is no clarification just some oblivious response.

Honestly, idk what to tell you guys, maybe they do have an understanding of the game, perhaps they do not care? Bst has been begging for powerful ready moves for years, to have them thrown to some useless side-content.

Ppl will just flock to the flavor of the month jobs, hence subs will be fine, so they do not care. It is all about their bottomline. Just toss bst a couple jugs every few months to give off the impression that "we are trying."

Imo, bst, pup, or drg does not need to be playable, ppl will just flock to other jobs.

[Mitruya]

.. and wyverns rarely have an issue staying alive, what they need is a damage boost to breaths.. BUT NO. Let's address an issue that has never been brought up for Wyverns, and ignore a GAPING flaw in the pup and bst arsenal. It irritates me to no end.


I can't speak for others (because I just can't remember who all said what), but I personally have been vocal about wyvern's lack of survivability in content like AA and Delve. And this is with using Empathy/Spirit Link and Steady Wing. No Dawn Mulsums though, because it was always "zerg! zerg! zerg! kill! kill! kill!" no time to dick around with items (that don't freaking stack). So I admit that flaw on my part. But I do think that I'm not the only one who has complained about the wyvern getting killed and therefore being gimped for 20 minutes.
Otherwise though, I agree on all points.

[Mitruya]

The developer responses to some things have been soulcrushing lately, I am sure, to people they apply to.

For example:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/43326-Remove-jug-pet-caps-altogether!-Pet-Level-checkparam-item-level?p=516379#post516379

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/43204-Stormwaker-Y-700-Head-Haste-II-and-Automaton-AI.?p=516594#post516594

In the second post, the developers claim automatons can receive protect and shell. I learned when I was level 5 that I couldn't cure a random automaton I saw in Gustaberg. I also learned later that applies to all buffs and cure spells. WE CANNOT CAST ON THEM.

But the main thing is this: where are the developers who have been doing such an excellent job the past few months? These responses resemble the worst of the posts made by the old team, such as their claim that Assault rewards were too overpowered to allow players to enter with less than 3 people.

Please reconsider your stances on limiting BSTs to a select few pets (or a single, nevertheless unimpressive pet). Please, developers, go level PUP to level 20 or something. Or better yet, 99. Learn the jobs. See that they are not in a good spot. Listen to your customers. {{Please listen.}} You've been great and you've restored many player's faith in the game and its future. Please keep up the good work. Don't go down the road of "We are right and you are not," especially when the rationale isn't even accurate.

You could perhaps also add the response that was along the lines of "we can't let BLUs be better support jobs or they'll be overpowered." And perhaps that was said about DNCs too?

[dasva]

I can't speak for others (because I just can't remember who all said what), but I personally have been vocal about wyvern's lack of survivability in content like AA and Delve. And this is with using Empathy/Spirit Link and Steady Wing. No Dawn Mulsums though, because it was always "zerg! zerg! zerg! kill! kill! kill!" no time to dick around with items (that don't freaking stack). So I admit that flaw on my part. But I do think that I'm not the only one who has complained about the wyvern getting killed and therefore being gimped for 20 minutes.
Otherwise though, I agree on all points.

Well it's not invincible so it's kinda hard on VD stuff but it's easier to keep alive than other pets tanks to it's native DT and quick and easy cures/level ups unless you go out and make dt sets for those other pet jobs which isn't really viable

[Vold]

Ya know, I think the MAJOR problem with developers and their games and them claiming to be players themselves, is that they are the developers. They know everything involved. They know the math. They know how stuff works. So when they sit down to play, if they do, they are falling back on the math. They know this, they know that, and they play based off of that. Insert the outsider i.e. you and me who don't know squat or even does know squat but not the finer details of what's going on underneath the hood and I guarantee the play styles are very VERY different, and that is why the developers have such a seemingly huge disconnect from the rest of us when it comes to FFXI.

To them this or that is fine, but to the rest of us who play the game from our unique perspective and style, not so much. They basically follow "the book". We do not. It's like a movie star watching their own movies. Usually they don't have any interest in it because they were there, they made it, they know what happens. There's no suspense or interest to watch. The developers may play FFXI, but they certainly will never be as we are with the game. So when we tell them that this or that needs to be done or that we want this or that because of blank, it's like speaking an alien language to them because as far as they are concerned with going by the book, everything is fine. And they should know better but apparently not. Apparently we have no one on FFXI from the original team so nobody knows what's going on. They don't know why we players made ninja's a tank with shadows, or why we gear PLD with damage in mind. They just see the book, and the code in the book. This is why they are trying to shoehorn THF back into an enmity control job, or PLD back into a turtle role, or ninja back into a DPS role(which helps them tank better actually but you know what I mean)

I guess one can say that well that's their book and how the game should be played because they want you to play that way soooooo... and they'd be right, I suppose. I'm just spelling out why there is a disconnect between dev and player. They understand the game like a machine would with numbers, or understand it on paper. We understand the game in practice.

[Balloon]

A lot of people know this games maths and mechanics, and when it comes to things like enmity, know what it means in execution much better than the devs.

I do agree with you though, I feel they have this antiquated design document from 2002 that just doesn't equal the game we play today. The fix for that would be to listen to the players (They rarely do) or to hire some people to actually play the game that they can consult with.