The State of Feast: Collaborated 4.2 Feedback from Aether, Primal & Chaos

Dear SE Dev team,

In light of recent Feast PvP changes introduced in Patch 4.2, a large majority of the Aether/Chaos/Primal communities would like to address our major concerns. We feel these changes have compromised Feast’s competitive value and deeply wish for reconsideration before the season starts.

While we understand SE’s intent with growing interest and participation in the Feast, we feel the majority of these changes have stripped away any bit of depth this mode had left. The core gameplay changes in particular; the light-medal system, the removal of bases and the respawn change have lowered the skill-ceiling across all jobs as well as depth & strategy.

The introduction of Stormblood PvP opened the barrier for many new players and we did see an increase of participation. However, we feel rather than continuing to simplify the mode to increase this appeal, SE and the community itself should provide more educational tools & resources to allow players to learn Feast.

With team registration and hints of “tournament play” in the future- we feel the recent changes do not align with this goal. Spectator value is one of the most important aspects of competitive play and esports, and currently this is being compromised.

Many players across Aether/Primal/Chaos have collaborated to provide SE with consolidated feedback addressing these changes and we appreciate attention on this matter.

4.2 Feast Map/Rules

• Remove light medals and revert to old medal system.
  Justification: We felt that heavy medals was enough of a handicap for the winning team, but with the introduction of light medals, it has created a “double punishment” for the winning team. Players are also more difficult to kill now with higher health pools and shorter additional ability cooldowns.
  
  We feel that this new medal system did not essentially fix anything, only put more emphasis on medals and less emphasis on the battle (splitting medals between players). We believe tooltips should be introduced inside the feasting grounds that tell players how overstacking medals increases your damage taken so be careful how many you pick up.
  
  
  Revert respawn location back to homebase.
  
  Justification: Currently, respawning where you die does not encourage movement and strategic positioning. Fights have become 6 minute brawls in one area of the map. Players have stressed that this new rule has made Feast dull and boring. Kills no longer feel like they make a difference with quick respawns. This has also compromised spectator value and interest, as it is simply constant fighting in one area.
  
  
  Adrenaline Box and Wolf Heart kit health is too low.
  Justification: Boxes and kits no longer feel like an objective.
  
  
  Crystal tower map is too bright and tiring on the eyes.
  Justification: MY EYES HURT.

4.2 PvP Team System

• Players on teams should have a personal rating as well as the team rating. Player rating must be within X amount of rating to the team rating in order to qualify for rewards.
  Justification: This prevents teams with 4 players “selling” their open 2 slots to players for Team rewards.
  
  
  Enforce PvP Team queues to occur during certain times to keep PvP Team queue active.
  Justification: Light Party struggled to have active queues during seasons 1-4. Forcing teams to queue at certain times will keep it active. It will also prevent 2 teams to potentially cheat or “wintrade” against each other during off peak hours.
  
  
  Provide more information on incentive/rewards to queue PvP teams.
  Justification: If rewards are not lucrative enough for both top teams and casual teams, participation will be low.

4.2 Job Balancing

• If job adjustments occur, please communicate these changes by providing reasons as to why these adjustments were made.
  
  We are in favor of adding more skills and abilities to all jobs.

4.2 Rewards

• Add a new currency that comes from participating in solo queue and PvP teams (currency is capped each week). This currency can be used to purchase new PvP rewards. Example: “Hellhound Marks”
  Justification: To promote participation every week.

4.2 Spectator Mode (QoL changes)

• Increase visibility of CC buff/debuff icons on player frames.
  
  
  Provide an option to hide additional abilities of both teams.
  
  
  Allow spectators to see who players are currently targeting.

4.2 Quick Chat

• Allow players to type to each other in the starting area only.

• Justification: To allow players to talk strategy before a match starts.
  
  
  Add an official countdown macro.
  Justification: Countdowns are widely used by all data centers now and should now be added as an option for players to utilize.
  
  
  If a player targets a teammate and uses “Get the medals!”, this should now indicate which player should get the medals. Example: Player A targets Naoki Yoshida -> “Naoki Yoshida, get the medals!”
  Justification: This will help teams communicate which player should pick up medals.

As a closing note, we feel it is becoming apparent that as the PvP community continues to grow, the need for support is increasing. In order to see Feast succeed in FFXIV, we feel there needs to be more communication and involvement from SE’s side. While we don’t fully understand how the dev team is structured, we feel it would help immensely to have some sort of “PvP community representative” from the developers.


We cannot stress enough that these views are shared by some of the most passionate Feast players. We appreciate SE continuing to support Feast and their interest in flourishing the community. In order to do this, we implore you to reconsider the recent changes implemented in Patch 4.2. Thank you for listening!



Feedback Provided By:

Rinrin Heartlily (Cactuar)
Nikoza Envy (Cactuar)
Korihu Yanhu (Gilgamesh)
Thana Rah’thazel (Cerberus)
Suhr Zarek (Balmung)
Stefan Delumiere (Balmung)
Aviars Lightsworn (Exodus)
Scyn Sovereign (Gilgamesh)
Atreus Auditore (Balmung)
General Esudesu (Cactuar)
Kiri Aiga (Cactuar)
Straigus Reyist (Balmung)
Kana Chan (Jenova)
Miyuki Tsukiyomi (Excalibur)
Aqua Rain (Ragnarok)
Chicken Soup (Ragnarok)
Frosty Mogborn (Gilgamesh)
Marshal Renew (Balmung)
Xy Xx (Cactuar)
Joe Giunta (Gilgamesh)

I think adding "set key binds"to target each role on the enemy team would be helpful and provide convenience for some players that type in "targeting macros" before every match.

Hey Dio over here and just to add on to this personally i feel like wolf marks are just useless and the rewarding system need to be completely revamped
for example: Wolf crate spend 1k wolf mark to get a chance of a rare cosmetic item/gil/crafting materials or a rare mount.
It's random which it gives more of a reason for players to get into pvp learn and enjoy.

As someone who fell off the feast when quick chat was added, I do hope SE will see and at least consider the comprises listed here. I can see both pros and cons of limiting chat like this, but the lack of communication going forward will hinder competitive gaming, especially if it is going to be an e-sport.

Hey Dio? You may have to be careful of what you offer. The rewards could attract players who wish to only collect and not learn, or something else entirely. What I'm saying that not only should there be an incentive to play, but an incentive to learn. Let's see: how about having another novice hall but for PvP, such has the Pup Den (or something)?

Awesome ideas! I'd love to see a lot of these addressed in future patches and updates, however there are 2 in particular I'd like to share a conflicting opinion on.

Time restrictions for team queue: I feel like this is gonna do more harm than good. I can very easily imagine lots of people being frustraited because the only times they can queue with their team is times when they're working or have other preexisting obligations. There's a reason no games do this sort of thing.

New PvP currency: We already have a PvP specific currency that you can use to get PvP rewards. I don't think putting a weekly cap on Wolf Marks is going to make them any more appealing to players who aren't already PvPing. If I may suggest an alternative idea; the ability to trade in Wolf Marks (or maybe collars?) for Tomestones could do just that.

Other than these I love the ideas shared here and I really hope this thread builds up a bunch more cool suggestions and makes its way over to one of the devs' desk.

Not a bad Idea at all my friend not a bad idea.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RinrinHeartilly

Revert respawn location back to homebase.

Justification: Currently, respawning where you die does not encourage movement and strategic positioning. Fights have become 6 minute brawls in one area of the map. Players have stressed that this new rule has made Feast dull and boring. Kills no longer feel like they make a difference with quick respawns. This has also compromised spectator value and interest, as it is simply constant fighting in one area.

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Huge emphasis on this. This is by far the worst change they could have made to make Feast unfun, uncompetitive and just an overall 6-minutes brawl with little thought. The new map is huge, and yet there's no point in tactical moves, pushing up when you're losing and need a kill, trying to exploit such a move by killing the other team's healer and chasing them while they need to retreat all the way to their base, etc. People just end up fighting in one area, and there's no point to ever move the fight around because the dead respawn there, even if it's your healer you just need to kite for a few seconds instead of retreating. It's a small change, but it has a huge impact over the flow of the battle.

The worst part about it is that there doesn't seem to be any reason at all for this change. Previous ones you can agree or disagree with, but at least they had a clear goal and a rational connection to that goal. "We cut down job actions to 12 each because Feast was too complicated and hard to get into." I don't like it, but sure, it's fair enough and I understand. "We introduced a cap to the amount of medals any player can carry at a time." Again, I think this is way too much hand holding and takes a lot of depth away from the game (last-second 10-stack and run for the win, anyone?), but at least I understand. But who asked for this? Was anyone really complaining about dead people respawning at their base? Maybe it's just me, but I feel like everyone took it for granted and nobody had a problem with it. It just feels like change for the sake of change, and it's not a good one.

Great thread, i agree with all of what was said, but i want to put emphasis on light medal system.
No other competitive pvp game handicaps the team that is winning. This was the least fun part of 4.0 feast and they made it worse with the introduction of light medals. It is extremely unfun to be punished for getting the first kill or any kill.

Getting more players familiar with PvP concepts should be a goal for the devs. If you strip away too much of the game mode's 'complexity', the mode becomes unfun.

Burst Damage
The biggest paradigm shift players coming over from the PvE side of the game need to learn is that the current version of the game mode requires coordinated burst damage to score kills. Having high damage at the end of the match does not mean much if it wasn't coordinated.

In 3.X you had damage dealing jobs that could solo people. Since 4.0, a team needs to act as a team, it is very very rare a player can solo someone of equal skill.

How can this be taught?
- Creating a 'guildhest' that teaches DPS players to sync their damage. 4 DPS queue?
- Make the 'damage synchronization' easier. By default add a countdown to the 'Attack <t>' Quick Chat.
- Create a 'Burst Ready' Quick Chat (right now players use 'Hello' for this).

Medals
The medal system adds an extra layer of gameplay to the mode. Whoever is the most sturdy should pick up the majority.
- Medals should be picked up by the tank first. Another guildhest that has 4 players queue into could demonstrate this.

Map Objectives
Boxes are important map objectives.
- Having a clock type countdown on those objective's spawn areas, stating when they will spawn, will help new players learn that 'hey something is going to happen here in X seconds'.