The main reasons behind the dissatisfaction of job gameplay

People have been complaining about jobs for a while now, and I'm not going to get into an argument of how much of the playerbase it accounts for, it's not what this thread is for. I am also not getting into the battle system in general and what has been lost, although that definitely counts for a lot of the lack of substance jobs can actually feed on during gameplay.

However, the dissatisfaction for a lot of jobs stems from multiple axes:

• The lack of filler gameplay: while we still do have relatively engaging burst sequences for most jobs (but healers...) overall, and while those burst sequences also have their own issues (see next points), the main problem is that once the burst is done, the filler sequences of most jobs but a few are not truly mechanically engaging and tend to consist of simply pressing 1-2-3, sometimes by keeping up something.
• Compounded by the 2 min burst design: Every job must adhere to it strictly, which not only generate homogenization, but also dramatically moved a lot of jobs from a 60s burst gameplay to a 120s one, which egregiously reduced the pace of executing their rotations, and left a lot more empty space only occupied by their filler sequences.
• The slow shift away from resource management: this point is trickier to explain, but most of the design tends to move toward a gameplay where actions are gated behind long cooldown buttons that the player presses every 60 or 120s, which then lights up the big attack without any other consideration. This mostly impacts the burst sequences of each job, but not only. One of the immediate consequences of this type of design is that it tends to systematically remove failure states, and by doing so, completely destroys skill expression.
• A good design shouldn't rely on long cooldowns: as a corollary to the point above, I do strongly believe that a job where most of its recasts are instant or on the GCD is infinitely better designed, because what will gate the use of abilities is the job's resources (gauges, mp, etc), as well as its internal mechanics. This generates a lot more points of failure, which in turns introduces skill expression, and a rewarding experience when pulling it right.
• A rigid design forcing players into following a script to a T: recently put under light with the new BLM changes, this in conjunction with the 2 min meta and rigid "press a button, you get your 2min nuke", seems to indicate that the dev teams wants to keep an increasing amount of control over their rotations that can now be unfolded into a rigid piece of paper with a list of actions to do after another. The most egregious example of this is SMN, which is a rigid list of summons to cycle through by spamming the same button. I do not feel that this type of coercive design is beneficial to job gameplay at all because it removes all freedom and expression.
• The constant removal of player agency: one of the most rewarding elements of job gameplay is the amount of agency it gives to players, and the choices that stem from its toolkit. The problem with the current design philosophy of XIV is that agency is constantly being removed. One simple example among hundreds is found in some of the rphys roles where rotations are strictly regimented behind long recast GCD weaponskills that need to be strictly used on cooldown, which not only makes the jobs inflexible for downtime in some cases, but also require players to follow their script even more not tolerating any variations and choices resulting from encounters and context. It is, in my opinion, infinitely better when abilities can be delayed or moved around more freely, and when using them within the frame of the job's rotation rewards choice and brings agency, within laxer constraints tied to the job's resources like the gauge or other mechanics.

All of these points might be with the intent of designing the jobs around dps checks - that aren't present in the majority of content. If this is the case, I don't know that I'd say it was worth it.

Really couldn't have said it better, thanks for this :cool:

The thing that makes it boring is lack of flexibility or diversity.

Your rotation is the same in this fight as it is in that one and same again for the next one. You press the exact same buttons in every burst with little to no thought or consideration for anything...

If it wasn't for the fact queuing skills doesn't work you could macro entire rotations and be done.. if you went third party you probably could anyway. My keyboard let me create and bind some long ass excel scripts and key sequences to keys. So an xiv macro would likely be a piece of cake.

It's all brainless design choices and it all stems from a fear that players might make mistakes and that's not allowed.

Bosses every fight is 98% the same. There may be the odd mechanic that switches. Like it could be a or b. But you always no if it's b now the next one will be a... no randomness or diversity. If bosses were random this game would be brutal because of the jarring disconnect between what players see and what is actually happening.. which ironically would probably go a long way to helping healers out because there'd be a ton more healing to do. As it stands now you can dodge a mechanic sometimes a minute before it even begins.

Just makes things tediously boring and repetitive.

I'll be honest, i think a lot of this dissstisfaction is in the heads of players. Yes, some thing could be better or diffrent, but its not that serious as some people in this game want it to be.

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Originally Posted by Silberzerox

I'll be honest, i think a lot of this dissstisfaction is in the heads of players. Yes, some thing could be better or diffrent, but its not that serious as some people in this game want it to be.

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The thing is that people aren't asking for some fantasy that they made up in their head. They are asking for the skill expressions that we have already had in the past. Stormblood is the best the battle system has ever been and instead of looking back at what people enjoyed about the past, we are getting mechanics that double down on what players don't like.

It's not necessarily about specifics, it's about direction. I'm sure you've heard of the boiling frog analogy, well the water has been heating up since shadowbringers.

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Originally Posted by fulminating

All of these points might be with the intent of designing the jobs around dps checks - that aren't present in the majority of content. If this is the case, I don't know that I'd say it was worth it.

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Even in the content that has DPS checks, a lot of them are so lenient that they might as well not exist even when the content is current.

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Originally Posted by Silberzerox

I'll be honest, i think a lot of this dissstisfaction is in the heads of players. Yes, some thing could be better or diffrent, but its not that serious as some people in this game want it to be.

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Yeah yup. You're right. It's all in my head. I should be thankful that I'm going to be level 100 and spamming one singular button in broil or art of war again for another 2 years. Very fun and engaging for sure

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Originally Posted by Lambdafish

The thing is that people aren't asking for some fantasy that they made up in their head. They are asking for the skill expressions that we have already had in the past. Stormblood is the best the battle system has ever been and instead of looking back at what people enjoyed about the past, we are getting mechanics that double down on what players don't like.

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The issue is that "players" is an enormous group of people. What any one of us personally considers the "best" or "enjoyable" others could find the complete opposite. We're getting mechanics that double down on what certain players don't like...but others do. Times change, the playerbase changes, and the dev team goes with what works best overall. It's impossible to please everyone, so they go with the approach that pleases the most.

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Originally Posted by Striker44

The issue is that "players" is an enormous group of people. What any one of us personally considers the "best" or "enjoyable" others could find the complete opposite. We're getting mechanics that double down on what certain players don't like...but others do. Times change, the playerbase changes, and the dev team goes with what works best overall. It's impossible to please everyone, so they go with the approach that pleases the most.

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Will there be another CD key sold out?

So far there's no news about it, and the log in queues are so short for me and all of my friends.