Things are getting worse.

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Originally Posted by geekgirl101

^this. They only just recently added in the lottery system (again) and people only just got their houses yesterday, how is this getting "worse"?

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Youtube and twitter trained people to blow drama out proportion, so minor things like PvP disbalance or Housing bugs are inflated into game ending problems. Give people a week and a new shiny drama will catch their attention.

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Originally Posted by Kes13a

could some things be improved, always, but I wouldnt say its all "falling apart"

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I mean, Hrothgars asked for improvements for so long. What we got were the devs lying to us and begrudgingly updating the patch notes to include something we've been asking for years.

It's not "falling apart", but it's definitely getting worse. Just because it could get worse doesn't mean it's not a bad situation that needs addressing.

Housing is fine and new furniture is added regularly. The amount of wards needs to be increased by a lot, but we probably won't see that until the semiconductor and covid effects have been overcome. There isn't a major problem with the new PvP, at least CC and Frontline is going be balanced separately in the next patches. Whatever your problem is with class design, the game is more popular than it's ever been. I don't know what you are talking about with cosmetics/customizations.

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Originally Posted by EriShvakh

Youtube and twitter trained people to blow drama out proportion, so minor things like PvP disbalance or Housing bugs are inflated into game ending problems. Give people a week and a new shiny drama will catch their attention.

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I noticed the same thing in warframe. There are a few handfuls of perpetually online people who desperately need to touch some grass, whenever new content gets exhausted they get stuck, like their meaning is on pause, and the sky is falling

I would say things are the best they’ve ever been and are only getting better. Folks love the pvp changes and the new mode, there’s more houses then ever, job balance is tight (my static cleared week 1 with a paladin, ninja, dancer and whm) and there’s more glam options than ever before. I like nitpicking as much as the next gal but this just seems like whinging.

Also, props to the poster who correctly identified burning crusade as peak WoW and wrath as the beginning of the end. We may be in our own wotlk era, but at least this game went 10 years before stagnation whereas as WoW only made it to 4.

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Originally Posted by Equitable_Remedy

The forum/reddit/discord are getting worse.

The game is fine.

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I dont like to reply just to cheer on and agree but yeah. I wish there was raw data supporting but I think most people actually in the game love it right now. Outside media is where you would think folks were being forced to play WoW.

Housing has always been terrible and the band-aid of the lottery just made it so I don't have to waste time on the terrible system. PvP has always been meh to me and the changes are still meh with a new coat of paint. Class design is my biggest concern as I don't like the direction the are taking with every job being a 2 minute CD job, except the jobs that don't benefit from the buffs (which still confuses me why they made Sam benefit less from buffs). It feels like they don't have a design goal for jobs and are just throwing ideas at it and seeing what happens with the current changes. Cosmetics are a meh from me, I agree it feels like more armor designs are being repurposed but it isn't a high priority for me.

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Originally Posted by Rolder50

All in all I'm getting Wrath into Cata vibes from this. For reference, World of Warcraft hit their peak sub count in Wrath, but into Cataclysm and onwards, they started to go too far into simplification and metrics pandering, which degraded the game over time into the limping husk it is now. I'm beginning to see the same degradation start here and it does worry me.

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I think this is my sentiment with the game. It is fine right now but it feels like there is a trend downwards that concerns me.

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Originally Posted by Krotoan

There are a lot of complaints people have about the current state of the game..

However from the perspective of someone who has stuck with the game for 10+ years.. it's not particularly bad or some sort of event horizon.


Sky ain't falling chicken little, voice your complaints by all means.. but lets not foretell the end of the world.

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Going with this.

I can see some of the problems people mention, but like housing for example- it's been worse and unless they change the system itself it will, full stop, never not be bad for what some people want out of it (myself included). I understand the snaffu with lottery wasn't great but I still strongly consider such a system as a win due the alternative worse situation.

Similar words to the other bullet points, specifically on the concept of "getting worse". Of course I have caveats, not always sunshine and rainbows.. but I don't think we are on some new precipice of the end.

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Originally Posted by Necrotica

Just seems like everything is falling apart.

Housing.
PVP.
Class design.
Cosmetics/Customizations.

There is a lot good in this game. But the scales are tipping. Hope they get their shit together.

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The only thing that is falling apart is your opinion ....

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Originally Posted by Picker

I would say things are the best they’ve ever been and are only getting better. Folks love the pvp changes and the new mode, there’s more houses then ever, job balance is tight (my static cleared week 1 with a paladin, ninja, dancer and whm) and there’s more glam options than ever before. I like nitpicking as much as the next gal but this just seems like whinging.

Also, props to the poster who correctly identified burning crusade as peak WoW and wrath as the beginning of the end. We may be in our own wotlk era, but at least this game went 10 years before stagnation whereas as WoW only made it to 4.

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I guess an entire race getting their racial features cut off with new hairs is the best its ever been? I guess missing out on an entire set of dungeon gear is the best things have ever been? I guess an entire role continuing to get gutted and ignored is the best its ever been?

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Originally Posted by Theox

I'm convinced that there are people on this forum who, even when they wake up in the middle of the night and see a burglar aiming a gun at them, would say "lol it's not the end of the world guess I'll go to sleep now!"

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They even say the "lol" part out loud.

The only thing I find truly worrisome, is that cosmetics feel like they're really suffering this expansion. So far, other than the Job AF sets, it feels like EVERYTHING is a recolor of past gear. The Dragonsong Ultimate weapons -- while totally subjective -- feel incredibly underwhelming, a feeling that SEEMS to be shared almost universally.

Then you've got Viera and Hrothgar still with minimal helmet support, and the Hrothgar hairstyles that were "added" look... I'm gonna be honest, they look bad. I don't know one way or the other, but they LOOK low-effort.

Now in fairness, I haven't really done much since finishing the MSQ, and I've heard the "Myths of the Twelve" content is some of the coolest content the team has ever put out. So I don't mean to sit here and pretend they aren't clearly working very hard.

But cosmetics are a huge driving force in the game, and I worry when it SEEMS like the cosmetic additions all seem like recolors of existing gear.

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Originally Posted by Theox

I'm convinced that there are people on this forum who, even when they wake up in the middle of the night and see a burglar aiming a gun at them, would say "lol it's not the end of the world guess I'll go to sleep now!"

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and people who sees a mote of dust on their shoulder screams "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I AM DEFILED!!!!!!! LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!"

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Originally Posted by Terin

The only thing I find truly worrisome, is that cosmetics feel like they're really suffering this expansion. So far, other than the Job AF sets, it feels like EVERYTHING is a recolor of past gear. The Dragonsong Ultimate weapons -- while totally subjective -- feel incredibly underwhelming, a feeling that SEEMS to be shared almost universally.

Then you've got Viera and Hrothgar still with minimal helmet support, and the Hrothgar hairstyles that were "added" look... I'm gonna be honest, they look bad. I don't know one way or the other, but they LOOK low-effort.

Now in fairness, I haven't really done much since finishing the MSQ, and I've heard the "Myths of the Twelve" content is some of the coolest content the team has ever put out. So I don't mean to sit here and pretend they aren't clearly working very hard.

But cosmetics are a huge driving force in the game, and I worry when it SEEMS like the cosmetic additions all seem like recolors of existing gear.

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Ultimate weapons have always been shiny versions of previous weapons with a special effect added to them.
UCoB: Bahamut weapons
UwU: Stage 2 ARR relics
TEA: Stage 2 HW relics
DSR: King Thordan weapons

I wasn't expecting any changes to Viera and Hrothgar as that's what they announced when they were released. I do find it funny that there's someone out there that has made a mod that allows them to wear most headgear. If a random person can do this in their free time, why can't SE?

You should check out the gear from the alliance raid. It's really nice, in my opinion.

Bait thread sure caught a lot of fish.

PvE design:
Encounter design - improving, albeit very slowly. The Alagia alliance raid has shown they were willing to experiment with arena layout in the enemy encounters. This is a good thing. The bad thing is that encounters are still so mechanically heavy that it barely tickles once you understand the mechanic correctly (but this is also partly due to high ILVL gear sync when this raid was released).

Class design - It's improving in some ways but getting worse in others.

For example, having skills like Macrocosmos on AST and Expedient on SCH is starting to really give a unique identity to the way certain healers should function. However, healers are also too bloated with healing abilities that they functionally still play the same for any content (you constantly press your single target attack button for 90% of the time and weave in one of the 20+ healing abilities in your toolkit between the 1.5 second cast and 2.5 second recast cooldown). This is very bad because... healers don't actually feel very unique when damage isn't enough to justify the use of these skills. This happens when players get better at mechanics that they don't take as much damage + when healers get into a solo instance and the instance's damage output is so low because it's designed for what a DPS can handle, so you get the feeling of just spending even more time pressing the same attack button that you always do in all content even more. Thus, healers can feel like a carbon copy of each other because they all spend their time pressing the same skill they unlock at level 1 without much variation from level 4 to 90.

For DPS in particular - some jobs have been suffering and other jobs have been improving. In particular, the change on Samurai's Kaiten takes away some identity and leaves a gaping hole in the feel of the job, as well as the skill ceiling (something players strive for when playing a job and keeps them interested in the job). The same goes for Summoner because it feels like they play the exact same from level 50 to level 90 with barely any difference. The good (and also bad) news is that there is some changes meant to make the job feel better to play at lower levels by introducing certain job skills much earlier (SMN's aethercharge -> Dreadwyrm Trance + the three crystals, Ninja's Assassinate -> Dream within a Dream). The bad news with these changes is that because they were added earlier on, the amount of skills and gameplay later on seems to be lacking because it doesn't feel like the job evolved much because you're still pressing the same buttons without any new form of interactivity.

For tanks... you can directly exclude a healer once you are familiar enough with the mechanics in most content. You can keep yourself alive and the party alive. In some ways, this makes a healer feel like an extra or a gimped DPS when everyone knows what to do.

PvP Design:

The best I've seen in ages. All jobs are now unique and fits into their intended job fantasy. Team composition will actually matter because each team with different jobs have different strengths and weaknesses. The key to winning is to take advantage and play to their strengths while reducing your weaknesses that the opposing team can exploit.

Healers feel unique, which is a breath of fresh air to the role. They are not so overpowered to the point that they can just undo any mistake a player makes on their team. Mistakes are properly punished - and this is one thing that makes PvP good because you're fighting against real players. You do not feel invalidated just because a healer exists, nor do you feel a healer is essential. Healers are simply just part of the game mode rather than an exception (compared to PvE in where you can just directly no longer need a healer since your tank can just heal themselves).

The design of Recuperation, Purify, Guard, and Elixir allows a lot of flexibility in job design because every job has the required tools to guarantee their own survival, but not overpowered because all jobs have their own way to circumvent them. It opens the way for a lot more tactics and strategies to happen.

Overall the balance is mostly positive. There has been checks to ensuring the balance is kept well in PvP without taking away of the fun of a job. I hope they just don't look specifically at winrates since a large portion of PvP is highly dependent on player skill too. Black mage is the most notable example - overtuned this patch (6.11a) but will be reverted and readjusted soon. Other than that, PvP is pretty solid and can be almost mainstay content. Especially for players who prefer a faster action-paced gameplay akin to a MOBA.

The most pressing[?] issues with PvP is
1. Server tick. Sometimes Purify or guard doesn't register as fast as it should before the next server tick. The good players take this into account and pre-emptively guard & purify as well, but sometimes it can still be an issue.
2. Rewards. Season rewards doesn't seem very interesting or unique after the attaining a tier beyond the first time (Ranked Tier Border for Portrait + # Trophy Crystals). This might not be a high incentive to continue playing PvP since you gain nothing out of it. All items in the trophy crystal store are one-time unlocks, which can prove to be an issue down the line when you have more trophy crystals but nothing remaining to buy.

Housing:

It was doing bad. Now, housing is doing better. Lottery system now works. Overall, upward trend. Still a problem for a lack of plots FC vs. individual player housing though, but at least it's not as bad as having the whole lottery system breaking down.

Graphic Design:

Doing well still. We still got amazing glamours and cool dungeon/raid graphics. The number has dropped considerably but the quality can be argued to be a lot higher. We also got a glamour dresser expansion coming soon (400 -> 800).
... Well... graphics are doing well overall, except for..

Character Customization:

Let's be honest here... Hrothgars and Vieras don't get all the new headgear moving forward, which puts them consistently at a weird place since it's no longer 'the issue of not having enough time to fix old headpieces'. The problem gets worse with Hrothgars being promised on new hairstyles for years without being shown any indication other than a promise they were being worked on. Then 2-3 years later, the implementation looked like a very low-effort result and thrown together at the very last minute for 3 hairstyles in total. Then, Hrothgars are being told they will have to wait even longer to get new hairstyles because they didn't want their ears to be hidden in a hairstyle. Hrothgars have to now wait more than an expansion's worth of time just so... they don't lose out on another character customization slot (earrings)? The dismissal of the race's concern felt really bad to me and many other players. That's just a huge red flag to me that this race wasn't given proper care at all.

Other than that, all the other races have been getting more hairstyle support consistently throughout the expansions, which directly contrasts the expectation further. We do know that character models will get a graphics update - which is something players can look forward to.
... Though they haven't shown Hrothgar or Viera when they shown character models in the liveletter during that demonstration. Now, normally I'd just leave it at that and we can be expecting to see Hrothgar/Viera later, but now that there has been a consistent and VERY noticeable contrast between how Hrothgar/Viera are treated with the other races, it's just something to consider... Will they get proper support? Or is this just an empty promise again? The damage to the trust has been done. Only time will tell.

tl;dr - They're working on improving the game, but they ended up neglecting other parts of the game as a result. And the neglected parts have been getting worse instead of being fully addressed, which drags the whole game down like a festering wound.

Housing.
PVP.
Class design.

I mean…if you’re not happy about them at the current stage, all i can say is that they were this bad since SB….

Housing isn't an issue on Crystal, that's for sure. On Bryn, our Empyreum ward only got 2 more people during the last lottery. The rest is like a ghost town.

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Originally Posted by LyraleiManagem

Housing.
PVP.
Class design.

I mean…if you’re not happy about them at the current stage, all i can say is that they were this bad since SB….

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Idk about that. PvP is more popular than ever now it seems

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Originally Posted by Anemoshi

Housing isn't an issue on Crystal, that's for sure. On Bryn, our Empyreum ward only got 2 more people during the last lottery. The rest is like a ghost town.

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Bryn is dead and hardly has a place to speak for the entirety of Crystal. Balmung is packed to the gills. Most servers on Crystal, in fact, seem the same after I've done my own sweep save for a select few like Goblin or, well, Bryn.