Difficulty format for Normal and Savage will remain in 4.0

Well SE never really expected XIV to be a big success, I think Yoshi-p even said something about that in a interview that it turned out having more players then they expected it to have.

But why not make another savage raid beside alexander nm ? With his own story, and bis loot :(

And then comes with the differentiation between Normal and Savage...

Mosuu-chan: For Gordias, bosses from floor 1 to 4 saw no changes and therefore visual wise there were no fresh changes, but for Midas floor 4, bosses saw an additional wings and that added a little motivation. These changes are a welcome addition, so it'd be nice if we can have them.

Yoshida: We thought of wanting to do this for Alexander Creator (Tendou-hen, "The Celestial Chapter") as well, but since we have made this to be just a conclusion to the Alexander chapter, we did not get that involved into those changes. Although, for that portion we're still putting in some adjustments (as in making it as flashy as it can be). Although, there will be some slight changes (between Normal and Savage in terms of something that was mentioned by Mosuu-chan above). People who went through Savage should know this by now but the real battle starts when "entering a certain phase", and that was what I meant by that.

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Originally Posted by zosia

Whelp, I guess we are getting no extra phases since this the "final" tier of alex.

He just does not get it. Why does SE keep Yoshida on as the lead producer? The heart of the question was what will be the differences between normal and savage versions. Yoshida just gave a "pitty us" response. No, Tell us. Tell us what you are going to do to make things right.

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My interpretation of Yoshi's comment there was "Alexander Savage will have Wings when he uses Holy Judgement on you. NM will not. Extra phases are too expensive at this time"

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Originally Posted by HaelseMikiro

My interpretation of Yoshi's comment there was "Alexander Savage will have Wings when he uses Holy Judgement on you. NM will not. Extra phases are too expensive at this time"

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Yea, those funds could be used for things like Lords of Verminion!

I won't pretend to understand FFXIV's financial situation, but I would be putting my money towards the most relevant content first and make sure they meet a level of quality and standard that balances the currently unbalanced content. Then if funds allow it, create new ideas.

I am sure people would agree they want their current content forms in balance and check before getting new content. Again, they need to stop looking at numbers and go by quality standard. Even disregarding Story Mode and Savage, these arenas and passageways to the bosses are extremely unimaginative and safe. Put boss in a circle or square? Check.

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Originally Posted by Velhart

I am sure people would agree they want their current content forms in balance and check before getting new content. Again, they need to stop looking at numbers and go by quality standard. Even disregarding Story Mode and Savage, these arenas and passageways to the bosses are extremely unimaginative and safe. Put boss in a circle or square? Check.

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Here's the problem: How do we define "relevant content"? For some players, crafting improvements is relevant, while for others its raids. For some, PVP might be most important, while for others glamour is beyond critical. The reason the Devs focus on "looking at numbers" is to gauge what the community is most interested in, and focus their development time toward that. For every person interested in a new raid, there are just as many people craving more different content. The push for content like Diadem, Palace of the Dead, and more Open World content comes from the desire for more differing types of content. SE doesn't want to focus entirely on Raids.

Is that to say raids aren't in need of improvement? Of course not. However, SE wants to make sure development time goes to content that can be enjoyed by a wide variety of players, and, sadly, "hardcore" raids aren't that. I agree the passageways that the raids and dungeons use are boring. I would love to see more winding, branching pathways and the like...although many prefer the fast, streamlined nature instead. It makes speedrunning faster, which is why you'll notice later dungeons don't feature optional rooms for the most part. Even simple puzzles have been all but removed from dungeons, since players would (seemingly) rather skip them anyway. I can only assume that's why the current Raid Tiers work this way. They want them to be easily repeatable, so they minimize the number of trash packs. I agree that I would like to see that changed, though I can also understand why they'd rather keep them on the shorter end.

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Originally Posted by Istaru

Then you are OK getting rid of brain dead easy story mode for a middle difficulty version since it can be watched on YouTube? Jk

Seriously, there should be some kind of real reward for raiding. Right now, there aren't any of significance.

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Hehe, almost took you seriously there, until it started sounding like sarcasm...

You are right and I agree with: there're no real rewards in raiding. You work hard for the gear, what for? Story? Can do it in easy mode with somewhat less headache.

Coils difficulty were good, my FC ran it and helps out other FC members that still needs to finish it for the story (when majority of my FC mates were still active).

However, they eventually started becoming inactive even before easy mode was introduce, cause there're no real lasting rewards.

At current, any kind of difficulty changes made to Alex will not solve the problem, it is but just a bandage fix.

I don't really get why people are so convinced that removing normal will make "dem lazy casuals EARN their gosh-durned story" when in reality all I'd do if they took it out is just wait for someone from Elysium to put their first clear video on YouTube. Hilariously, just watching it on Twitch or something would let me see it sooner than 90% of the people who are complaining about normal mode in this thread.

Better ilevel gear might solve SOME of the problems re: raider attrition, but for me at least the Alexander raid just wasn't FUN. It had a crappy buildup, terrible boss music, drab arena design, roles more focused on meter-topping than supporting a group, and more of the same tired old unrecoverable lockstep mechanics that make raid members hate one another for making a single slip-up five minutes into the encounter. Fix all of that, and I might be back. Until then, the raid story could reveal the mystery of life itself and drop gear so powerful it pays my subscription for me, and I still won't step foot in there because I don't play video games to be effing miserable.

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Originally Posted by loreleidiangelo

I don't really get why people are so convinced that removing normal will make "dem lazy casuals EARN their gosh-durned story" when in reality all I'd do if they took it out is just wait for someone from Elysium to put their first clear video on YouTube

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Isn't that what people did for Coil as well? No one wants to do anything unless there's a guide and it's even spilling over to mainstream content like dungeons; I had one case where a tank got snappy at the DPS that were screwing up the boss mechanics (said DPS were new) and said they should have watched a video before coming in, yet the tank couldn't be bothered to explain the mechanics in a few sentences.

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Originally Posted by loreleidiangelo

Hilariously, just watching it on Twitch or something would let me see it sooner than 90% of the people who are complaining about normal mode in this thread.

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And that's why I said I would Youtube the story if they locked it behind a hardcore raid again. I don't think story is a good incentive to do hard content and if people can just watch it online, then they'll do so and never touch the raid while raid participation plummets. The devs don't want people doing that, hence we got a normal mode.

It is the right choice for the majority of the player base.

If they implement impressive unique armors for savage, more people will be incentivized to at least attempt the new one in 4.0. Current state, there is no reason to do savage outside the challenge.

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Originally Posted by Claymore65

Here's the problem: How do we define "relevant content"? For some players, crafting improvements is relevant, while for others its raids. For some, PVP might be most important, while for others glamour is beyond critical. The reason the Devs focus on "looking at numbers" is to gauge what the community is most interested in, and focus their development time toward that. For every person interested in a new raid, there are just as many people craving more different content. The push for content like Diadem, Palace of the Dead, and more Open World content comes from the desire for more differing types of content. SE doesn't want to focus entirely on Raids.

Is that to say raids aren't in need of improvement? Of course not. However, SE wants to make sure development time goes to content that can be enjoyed by a wide variety of players, and, sadly, "hardcore" raids aren't that. I agree the passageways that the raids and dungeons use are boring. I would love to see more winding, branching pathways and the like...although many prefer the fast, streamlined nature instead. It makes speedrunning faster, which is why you'll notice later dungeons don't feature optional rooms for the most part. Even simple puzzles have been all but removed from dungeons, since players would (seemingly) rather skip them anyway. I can only assume that's why the current Raid Tiers work this way. They want them to be easily repeatable, so they minimize the number of trash packs. I agree that I would like to see that changed, though I can also understand why they'd rather keep them on the shorter end.

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Relevant as in already implemented features/content structure in the game that are core parts of progression on your character. It still goes to my point that keep your already established content in check, then go to newer domains. Say for example that Feature/Content A was released and it does not reach a certain level of quality it should. You should focus your resources on getting that to the level of quality it deserves. Once you are more in a satisfactory state, then spend resources on the new Feature/Content B. I won't ever deny new ideas and new ways to engage the game and a huge supporter, but not in the expense of leaving something in a stasis.

Again, not saying that is what SE does or how they manage their money, but if that was the situation, then it seems misguided to me.

Also kind of need to look at the big picture. It isn't simply about raids itself. Raids benefit many other things like boosting the economy and making crafting more relevant, people engaging content beyond it's first time to get items to be able to raid. Raids do help drive and motivate people to do other content to be able to tackle the content. All people may have different end game goals, but keeping something like raids into check and making them as long lasting as possible is good for not just the raiders themselves, but the people around them also. This is why I don't completely believe in just looking at numbers. Certain content even if not engaged by the majority still make ways to drive other content around it. Which has myself in the mind set that quality standards need to be met before going to something new.

Of course quality standards is subjective, but it is easy to tell when a lot are not happy with how you handle certain content.