/r/ffxivdiscussion: A stricter ilvl sync is the solution to casual content being easy

I no longer care which method they use to breathe some life back into this stale and dead old content, just fuggin fix it already. They act like they need to make this game playable by 4 year olds yet nobody is complaining about casual stuff being too hard , at all, ever. Everyone agrees we need more challenge in our daily casual content and to stop creating piss poor players who single pull and don't use mits , or just ignore mechs cuz there's no consequence. I'm so over it lmao

I've been saying it for 10 years. They're not gonna do it. They think it's GOOD that old content can be cleared by doing absolutely nothing. They think it's "accessible", because they don't want to make a video game, they want to make a movie, and that's been Square's MO ever since they got addicted to FMVs on the Playstation 1. That's why hard content isn't canon, that's why every fight is a static script, that's why jobs are just animation showcases. Because they want to tell a story, not to actually make an interactive experience, that part is a chore to them and they don't want to do it so they've made the game such that they can bang out all the actual gameplay in an afternoon and get back to making more tacky particle effects.

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Originally Posted by Johners

Counter point but the point of gearing in an MMO is to make older content easier otherwise there's no point in the progression curve existing. If you're just going to tightly item level sync everything, just give us stat tables and make all gear slots purely cosmetic. You're meant to skip mechanics and even entire phases with gear, especially in normal mode content.

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False. The point of ilv is to incentivize progression because you will be locked out of higher duties until you do. BiS or close to it is to help make the game's difficult content easier to clear. Normal content is already designed in a way to not prevent progression. There is no reason for these encounters to be made easier than their intended difficulty upon release. The echo already exists to assist groups who do have trouble clearing the content.

Enemies becoming weaker because you become stronger is just fine in a single player scenario. This is absolutely not the same case in a multi-player situation. There could be new players who deserve to have the same experience as the players before them, and there simply could be players who need somewhat of a threat level from enemies to find the content engaging and fun to do.

Games are supposed to be fun, and how players find braindead content where the opposition has zero chance of defeating the players fun is beyond me. You're not even playing the game at that point. Might as well replace yourself with a drinking bird and fix yourself something to eat.

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Originally Posted by Immut

I've been saying it for 10 years. They're not gonna do it. They think it's GOOD that old content can be cleared by doing absolutely nothing. They think it's "accessible", because they don't want to make a video game, they want to make a movie, and that's been Square's MO ever since they got addicted to FMVs on the Playstation 1. That's why hard content isn't canon, that's why every fight is a static script, that's why jobs are just animation showcases. Because they want to tell a story, not to actually make an interactive experience, that part is a chore to them and they don't want to do it so they've made the game such that they can bang out all the actual gameplay in an afternoon and get back to making more tacky particle effects.

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10 years ago the problem was nowhere near as prevalent as it is now. It wasn't even ten years ago when I joined the game and encounters like Ifrit and Titan HMs had full wipes, and these bosses went through their entire rotation of mechanics. Ifrit's charges would easily one shot you. Now you can take all three without dying even as a non-tank. Weeping City of Mhach was nicknamed Wiping City because the bosses actually were capable of defeating all three alliances. Their mechanics could not be ignored like they can now.

There is no question that how things are is a massive oversight by the dev team. It was their intention to not makes things too difficult, but I know it wasn't their intention for things to be this easy. Like I said in my last post, you're not even playing the game at this point. I don't even know what it is. I just know it's not a game. Even free mobile games are more challenging and engaging.

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Originally Posted by Immut

I've been saying it for 10 years. They're not gonna do it. They think it's GOOD that old content can be cleared by doing absolutely nothing. They think it's "accessible", because they don't want to make a video game, they want to make a movie, and that's been Square's MO ever since they got addicted to FMVs on the Playstation 1. That's why hard content isn't canon, that's why every fight is a static script, that's why jobs are just animation showcases. Because they want to tell a story, not to actually make an interactive experience, that part is a chore to them and they don't want to do it so they've made the game such that they can bang out all the actual gameplay in an afternoon and get back to making more tacky particle effects.

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Difficult (> extreme) content shouldn't be canon. In a game like ffxiv, it's actually the worst idea you could have.

That said, synchro should be reviewed - but the forums are going to have to make up their minds at some point. And yes, this is a bit of a random rant, but between all the complaints about the current content, the glamour, the story that's going to suck (< nobody knows, but some people are prophets), the graphical renewal for which some people manage to complain because there's a 5-degree discrepancy in the curvature of the upper right lip under zenithal light, the classes that have to be perfectly balanced BUT retain a polished identity... The list goes on. Damn, you're going to have to choose.

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Originally Posted by Gemina

Ifrit's charges would easily one shot you. Now you can take all three without dying even as a non-tank..

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BS, I see non tanks killed by the charges all the time, especially if they are a squishier job (any casters or phys range). I've also seen sprout tanks eat dirt taking all three charges. As far as making lower stuff harder, I strongly suspect it's advocated mainly by those who only do rouls w/ their friends/fc, I solely solo queue and exactly zero desire for dungeons to be harder. Why you ask? Because it's hard enough trying to herd cats as it is, yes you can get vets that make the run "boring" but you can just a easily get an all sprout but you group that makes it a nightmare (crap gear, poor/no use of skills, won't listen). For me that randomness is what I like about roul (even if I grumble about poor play sometimes), never know if it's going to great or terrible lol.

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Originally Posted by Johners

Counter point but the point of gearing in an MMO is to make older content easier otherwise there's no point in the progression curve existing.

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In other MMO's you also go into dungeons and face roll through them for rare gear drops and don't have to worry about fight choreography to get to them. I kid you not some other MMO's you can enter with your "prefix-gearname-suffix XII reforged x times, with y enchantments" that took months to make/afford, and will be destroyed if you try to repair it at the NPC blacksmith. If the content was fixed so none of that stuff mattered, then you wouldn't go through the effort of doing this.

I would prefer that "expansion" ilevel sync apply to all story content. Play 2.0 content, ilevel 90. Play 2.55 max ilevel 130. The "echo" on top already makes this content easy. If you have 6.0 gear and are dropped into a 2.x Alliance raid, then that 2.x alliance raid should be synced to whatever gear is normally rewarded. Even when this content was new, it was easy, it just took longer. It's quite a pathetic joke when players can knock down Bahamut or Phlegethon before their key raid-wiping mechanic can trigger, when you'd normally see it 3-to-4 times. I have not seen the full mechanics for Scylla and Glasya Labolas since Syrcus Tower's release in 2014. Glasya Labolas gets flattened before you ever have to do "get off the center platform" phase. Even on a minimum ilevel run.

Alternately, just create a bunch of "ilevel sync" queues with the original "as released" level sync, and make that the default for roulettes.

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Originally Posted by Gemina

False. The point of ilv is to incentivize progression because you will be locked out of higher duties until you do. BiS or close to it is to help make the game's difficult content easier to clear. Normal content is already designed in a way to not prevent progression. There is no reason for these encounters to be made easier than their intended difficulty upon release. The echo already exists to assist groups who do have trouble clearing the content.

Enemies becoming weaker because you become stronger is just fine in a single player scenario. This is absolutely not the same case in a multi-player situation. There could be new players who deserve to have the same experience as the players before them, and there simply could be players who need somewhat of a threat level from enemies to find the content engaging and fun to do.

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I don't understand what you feel you're arguing here. The poster is correct. The reason leveling and gearing exist is for the player to feel a sense of progression, becoming more powerful. Levels and gear is the RPG equivalent of mastering your art. It's been that way since the days of tabletop RPGs, and I don't see how anyone can claim D&D is a single player game.

If you must become stronger to take on the next challenge, then inevitably the previous challenge must effectively be easier. If the previous challenge you overcame isn't easier now, then the next challenge is effectively moot, you've gained no progression.

This isn't a single player or multiplayer situation, it's how a real world concept is translated into a video game. If every player is supposed to always have the same difficulty at all times, there's absolutely no reason for levels or gear at all. The SE team could effectively balance every single encounter around your base stats and damage of your abilities, change up the encounter mechanics, and just make all gear glam.

Having said that, I do understand the argument for say a level 50 player not seeing the whole fight, because gear and higher level players make the content too easy to blast through. At level 50, a level 50 encounter should be hard, at level 90, a level 50 encounter should be a joke. But how do you balance something in such a way that a new player enjoys the complete fight as it was intended, without making the player who's already completed that challenge feel like they're progression wasn't meaningless?

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Originally Posted by Gemina

Games are supposed to be fun, and how players find braindead content where the opposition has zero chance of defeating the players fun is beyond me. You're not even playing the game at that point. Might as well replace yourself with a drinking bird and fix yourself something to eat.

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And fun is subjective. I frequently have fun performing "braindead content" as you say, because after a long day of non-braindead stressful work, I want to sit back and relax with my entertainment. Perhaps on a weekend where I have alot more free time, I might feel an inclination for something more challenging.

What can SE do to keep higher level players filling the queues, while also giving lower level players a decent challenge? I don't know.

But as it stands, you do have the tools to experience harder casual content for yourself if that's your wish. Wear crappy gear, find the duty you want to do, set it to MINE on PF and play with people who have the same mindset as you.

I can see the point in something like the EW final trial with sprouts who might miss out on things. But I also remember how Shinryu was at launch. That one was commonly either a repeated wipefest or had multiple people bail on it the second they saw they had gotten it. As more people passed it and were able to access the gear upgrade behind it, it became easier and you saw less abandoning. So a tighter sync might be fun for some, but could also have a knock on effect of making it harder to help sprouts through content. I don't think there's an easy answer when they have to carefully balance difficulty with accessibility.

I still think they need to add proper ilvl sync to all of the MSQ final bosses for the sake of dramatic tension. No reason to play favorites and only have it in place for Ultima Weapon and Endsinger.

I think would also be better to just cap the ilvl sync at whatever the current cap was for the patch the content was released in overall as opposed to the current jank where anything post-MSQ permits syncing to whatever the ilvl cap for the expansion is.