Why is it necessary to punish players for missing Vana'bout objectives?

[Zenion]

If failing to clear a Vana'bout objective one day means a new one is not given the next day, this is a punishment for the player. If they are for some reason unable to complete an objective, they lose not only that day's plaudits, but the next day's as well. This is hostile design.

The objectives should simply be replaced each day unconditionally, if holding an objective from one day must necessarily mean not being able to obtain one from the next day.

[Uroah]

Hostile design is on purpose. They know. We know they know.

[Dihlyte]

I can't say I even know what's being said here.

I thought today was the first day.

I also was able to do my daily objectives, so if today is not the first day, then whatever objectives were available the previous day, I have ones that are completable today.

So either you are confused, bugged, or something else is going on, of which I have no clue, sorry.

VBD means Vana'Bout Daily.

VB means its for the duration of the campaign. That's all the advice I can come up with. If you're unable to complete your VBD you're either doing the incorrect objective, or something else is wrong specifically to you and you alone.

[Uroah]

Today is day 2, if you did not do day 1, day 1 objectives remain and it is impossible to get day 2 objectives.

You are officially, permanently, behind.

[Dihlyte]

Today is day 2, if you did not do day 1, day 1 objectives remain and it is impossible to get day 2 objectives.

You are officially, permanently, behind.

I don't really see how that is a punishment.

Are there more rewards for subsequent daily objectives?

If not, then I fail to see how its a punishment.

Perhaps the poster doesn't want to do day 1 objectives? I don't really see that as a big deal honestly, but certainly not a punishment if there are no greater rewards for the subsequent objectives.

[Uroah]

Lets say your friend isn't behind, and you are, now you cannot ever team up for the objectives. Unless your friend skips a day.

Or, you only have 5 days available to log on, but you've already lost one of them. Now you can't get the gold tier. If there's an objective you can't complete, you lose more.

There are titles for doing the most objectives. So it does matter, to someone.

[Zenion]

I can't say I even know what's being said here.

I thought today was the first day.

I also was able to do my daily objectives, so if today is not the first day, then whatever objectives were available the previous day, I have ones that are completable today.

So either you are confused, bugged, or something else is going on, of which I have no clue, sorry.

VBD means Vana'Bout Daily.

VB means its for the duration of the campaign. That's all the advice I can come up with. If you're unable to complete your VBD you're either doing the incorrect objective, or something else is wrong specifically to you and you alone.

So, there was a roughly seven-hour window for "day 1" objectives. If you logged in during that, you got those objectives (and if you didn't, when you log in now you get all the "day 2" objectives; all of "day 1" is lost.)

If you flagged the "day 1" objectives, then at midnight any "day 1" objective you completed was replaced with a new "day 2" objective.

However, any "day 1" objective that was not completed, remains, and the "day 2" objective that would fill that spot is lost.

What this means is if there was a particular "day 1" objective that a player could not complete, or was unwilling to approach, that objective carries over for an extra day, preventing the player from earning plaudits from that objective slot for two consecutive days.

I can't remember if last time the pattern was based on days for the event ("day 1" into "day 2", then "day 3" is always new) or days for the player (if you start with "day 2", slots carry over to "day 3", but then "day 4" is a fresh set.)

What makes this punitive is that there is a finite number of available plaudits, and this can cause any incomplete objective to reduce that available pool by twice its face value. Should a player, for example, be locked out of ENMs when those are an objective, then this 30-point objective becomes a 60-point drain on the pool when it carries over to the next day.

Choosing to skip an objective should cost a player that objective, not the next one as well. Failing to complete an objective should not saddle the player with an insurmountable challenge for another day in place of what could have been an achievable goal. Daily tasks should be daily.

This design choice angers me as much as it does because there are only two ways to explain it: either it is an effort to let players "catch up" on missed objectives, in which case it does the precise opposite by having those missed objectives cause them to "fall behind"... or it is a deliberate punishment, withholding the new day's objectives because they didn't get everything done the previous day. Neither is good game design.

A solution would be as easy as offering players a "skip" option, to remove a day's objective without awarding plaudits, to open that slot up for the next day's objective. Then, at least, they have the choice to shed an unacceptable task without being haunted by it.

[Dihlyte]

I see, thanks for clarifying.

So if it’s a competition, then it does make sense that you would be punished for missing a day.

It’s like a race. If you fall behind, then that is of your own doing, and the person performing better has the benefit, and the only way you can “catch up” is if they also mess up.

This seems intentional, as was mentioned.

[Zenion]

Even putting aside the competition aspect though, there's the 1300 plaudit "target", which requires no less than 840 plaudits from daily objectives, more if, say, you don't anticipate earning 32000 hallmarks and 20000 gallantry in two weeks. That's about 6 out of 14 days you'd need to hit all the objectives - but if one day of objectives you can't clear costs you two days of plaudits, and objectives repeat on a four-day cycle like they did last time... if you flagged day 1 and couldn't do any of it, you now have days 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, and 12: three days of bad tasks mean you have almost no margin of error.

Yes, that's a bit of an extreme case since there are usually some trivial objectives (clear an ambuscade without dying, for 10 and 20 plaudits, seems to be a constant), but there are also some that are either effortless or impossible depending on the player: I've unlocked monster rearing, but if I just got access to my mog garden that objective would not be achievable no matter how hard I tried. I have crafts I can hit 50% HQ rate on, but what about someone who has only focused on battle content so far?

Saying "it's fine, there is lots of content, there are more than enough opportunities to earn plaudits" only works if players are actually given access to those opportunities, rather than having them locked away when they find something they can't do.

[Dihlyte]

Even putting aside the competition aspect though, there's the 1300 plaudit "target", which requires no less than 840 plaudits from daily objectives, more if, say, you don't anticipate earning 32000 hallmarks and 20000 gallantry in two weeks. That's about 6 out of 14 days you'd need to hit all the objectives - but if one day of objectives you can't clear costs you two days of plaudits, and objectives repeat on a four-day cycle like they did last time... if you flagged day 1 and couldn't do any of it, you now have days 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, and 12: three days of bad tasks mean you have almost no margin of error.

Yes, that's a bit of an extreme case since there are usually some trivial objectives (clear an ambuscade without dying, for 10 and 20 plaudits, seems to be a constant), but there are also some that are either effortless or impossible depending on the player: I've unlocked monster rearing, but if I just got access to my mog garden that objective would not be achievable no matter how hard I tried. I have crafts I can hit 50% HQ rate on, but what about someone who has only focused on battle content so far?

Saying "it's fine, there is lots of content, there are more than enough opportunities to earn plaudits" only works if players are actually given access to those opportunities, rather than having them locked away when they find something they can't do.

I think thats kind of the point of Deeds and Vana'bout though.

It encourages you to do content you otherwise wouldn't.

I never knew cooking Galkan Sausage was a thing, and I found it super neat that it existed and was able to experience it, all thanks to Vana'bout.

So if you never did Mog Garden, and now doing it, and find that you enjoy it (perhaps you don't but there will in fact be people who never have, and now enjoy it) then it would be because of Vana'bout.

Perhaps you find you don't like Vana'bout for this reason. I personally find I enjoy it for this reason.

"Variety is the spice of life" is a phrase I think fitting here.

If we all wanted to eat plane white rice, that is glutton free, animal free, etc etc, but super bland, uninteresting, but still filling, we would be playing FFXIV instead of FFXI I think.