What has happened to my beloved FFXIV?

ARR leading to an even better HW, then down hill slightly with SB. Ok, HW was a tough act to follow.
But how have we come to the current situation?
Mindlessly walking past fields of mobs from one, no mechanic NM spawn, to the next. Meaningless one shot mechanics. Even if you are unlucky enough not to get a res, it just means you do more of the above.
Where has the depth gone? Where has the brilliant storytelling? Where has your drive gone SE?
When did you start to think ftp type content was a good thing in FFXIV?
What convinced you that it was fine to take your foot off the pedal, shift down into idle mode for this great game?
I ask you, please, get back to those previous heights. Hire fresh blood if necessary. Make this game as great as it was. A heartfelt request.

Even the story leading to Eureka feels clunky. The whole thing feels like another game which I suppose is the idea mechanic wise but lore wise? It feels so half-baked. Although I haven't seen how it will conclude, I'm not holding my breath given how our lore for HoH literally came to 1 cutscene from a tree. A TREE.

I've felt no heart or soul in any of the content pass 4.0
Everything feels lazy and disconnected/or loosely tied.

SE has either sent most of the game's resources elsewhere, or the devs have lost any sort of creativity they might have had. The increasing focus on the cash shop (and an obvious decreasing focus on the game itself) is also detrimental to the game's health imo. This leads into another thing...server limitations. They refuse to address the problem. And yes, it would take some time and money, but it would pay for itself in the end. Funny how they cry 'WE CAN'T BECAUSE SERVER STRAIN"...only to monetize the issue via retainers and the Companion app.

These are at least a couple things that are contributing to this game's fiery tailspin. It's not dead, but I don't see it lasting as long as people may hope at the current rate. FF XI will probably outlive it and it's in maintenance mode at this point.

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Originally Posted by MuseTraveller

Even the story leading to Eureka feels clunky. The whole thing feels like another game which I suppose is the idea mechanic wise but lore wise? It feels so half-baked. Although I haven't seen how it will conclude, I'm not holding my breath given how our lore for HoH literally came to 1 cutscene from a tree. A TREE.

I've felt no heart or soul in any of the content pass 4.0
Everything feels lazy and disconnected/or loosely tied.

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The HoH story was quite frankly appalling.

That was seriously the best they could do for the giant shifting mystery tower that reaches up to the heavens?

I personally feel OP is being to vague - what exactly are you missing from HW? Could you put things in direct comparison of what you liked in HW vs what you miss / what went different in Stormblood?

Because at this point I can't even tell if your post is about eureka at all.

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Originally Posted by Zephera

Eureka is not exciting in the least, hardly dangerous too, just tiresome and boring. I think if it was the basis for the overworld, FF14 would be trailing behind other MMO's

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I actually like the idea of Eureka as the overworld. XIV's current overworld has always been one of my complaints. It's just so damn boring. And safe. I've not played extensively in Eureka, but it seems like mobs trail you a lot longer (do they ever de-aggro?) and hit quite a bit harder at level.

Would be interesting if the overworld actually could spawn NMs, although with the way this playerbase complains about hunts and people stealing things, we may not be able to handle it.

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Originally Posted by Skivvy

I actually like the idea of Eureka as the overworld. Mobs can actually hurt you in there, and you can't just mindlessly run through an entire zone trailing mobs while remaining unscathed. XIV's overworld has always been one of my complaints. It's just so damn boring. And safe.

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I actually like the idea of a more dangerous overworld too, but the rewards would have to be there to justify it. Slogging through mobs for potentially hours for rare drops isn't really fun anymore, especially bad is the demotivating feeling of getting nothing out of it when you could have been doing something more rewarding instead.

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Originally Posted by Zephera

I actually like the idea of a more dangerous overworld too, but the rewards would have to be there to justify it. Slogging through mobs for potentially hours for rare drops isn't really fun anymore, especially bad is the demotivating feeling of getting nothing out of it when you could have been doing something more rewarding instead.

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Oh yeah, in general Eureka is quite dull as well (as far as standing on its own as content). I really don't know what they can do to fix that area. I did amend my post up above as I may be wrong about how the aggro works at higher levels - I've not spent much time there personally :X

I had this great idea that I would start leveling in there again so that I could eventually try and farm some of the new items. Spent an hour in there, didn't level, and have decided that I will just go without. It's not very fun to me:X

But for the main overworld, I think it would have benefited from having the tougher mobs, and also the random NMs that you could spawn. Although I'd much rather see NMs be something that can be taken down individually or in small parties vs. requiring huge groups like the big Hunts and Eureka NMs. I did come from XI, and for the most part I really enjoyed NM hunting and so I may be a bit biased there ;)

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Originally Posted by Zephera

I actually like the idea of a more dangerous overworld too, but the rewards would have to be there to justify it. Slogging through mobs for potentially hours for rare drops isn't really fun anymore, especially bad is the demotivating feeling of getting nothing out of it when you could have been doing something more rewarding instead.

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That is truly the hart of the problem with FFXIV, Player Motivation. They are really bad at incentivizing players to do anything when any rewards you get will be obsolete by next patch or poop-sockable a patch after that with dungeon gear. And I would agree with you if I was asking them to make the overworld like that now, it would have had to be in there from the beginning of ARR to be effective for leveling and exploring. To do it now, even if they did that with 5.0, would be very jarring and if you think people are pissy with Eureka now...

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Originally Posted by Skivvy

I actually like the idea of Eureka as the overworld. XIV's current overworld has always been one of my complaints. It's just so damn boring. And safe. I've not played extensively in Eureka, but it seems like mobs trail you a lot longer (do they ever de-aggro?) and hit quite a bit harder at level.

Would be interesting if the overworld actually could spawn NMs, although with the way this playerbase complains about hunts and people stealing things, we may not be able to handle it.

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If you haven't noticed, NMs have always spawned in the rest of Eorzea. They're the basis for S-rank hunts ...

XIVs current overworld has always been one of my delights. Those that consider it boring or safe are really looking for a different MMO than the one they're playing -- perhaps Conan Exiles would fit the bill better.