Stellar Mission Scaling issue

I noticed there was an issue that came up with the Cosmic Exploration Stellar Missions and that is the scaling of difficulty is WAY too steep for certain level requirements, even at the best item levels past minimum. A friend of mine has the level 100 gear for crafting classes, melded and with crafting meals bonuses up, bought with the scripts and yet he's having difficulty finishing the highest level of the stellar missions and it just made it difficult for him to fully enjoy the Cosmic Exploration unless he gets the best max ranked gear from the market boards, as we expected it to be a casual and calm time like with the Firmament. He found it very frustrating and frankly I find it upsetting as well.

Can the devs please fix this to make it a more enjoyable time please?

Kinda necro post, but this has been my problem with Cosmic Exploration.

I find crafting and gathering, in general, fun. This was not fun. This was stressful. I especially hate the crafts with 20 durability and the crafting under time limits. At least with Expert crafts I can adjust with the effects, plan ahead, and so on. With these timed missions, I'm mashing buttons, making mistakes, I have no time to think and plan which is what I liked about crafting. I never used crafting macros, but I may just have to for this because they're faster and less stressful. I even went so far as to follow some BiS penta-melding suggestions, and it did nothing to alleviate the stressfulness of this content.

And I'm not even going to waste my time complaining about the difficulty of it. Expert crafts are difficult. What I'm talking about is the stressful nature of the crafting missions, the design of the progression system with time missions, the stress I feel if I don't crit a gathering attempt, the extreme stress I feel at those 20 durability crafts, all of it. It is not fun. I have three maxed tools, and the thought of going back and finishing the others is not at all appetizing. I'm an achievement hunter, and I have no desire to go back and gold star all the top level missions and sequential missions, etc. It's all just too stressful and not at all fun.

I was expecting something casual and calm like the Firmament. This is not it.

The question I’m asking is why are you doing short timeframe 20 durability experts if you just want a relaxing time?

Even amongst the A ranks difficulty varies wildly all the way from “this is only an A rank because all level 100 missions are A ranks by default” to “even with the BIS tools and gear a lucky byregots blessing may be needed to make up the deficit”

If you find the 3 star A ranks difficult then simply don’t do them. There are plenty of chill A ranks (the 20300 quality 65 durability one or the 3 times 15000/8000 immediately come to mind as examples)

The 3 star a ranks aren’t even efficient for relic progr soon; they are literally there for a challenge. I think that’s fine since both ends are serviced

Because to get the achievement, I need to gold star them all ... and sometimes, what I need to level my relic cause say I need level 2 or 3 upgrades, and that is the only one that will level my relic. It's not like you can just choose whichever each time. You only have four to choose from, and many times 3 of them are useless for what you need at the moment.

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Originally Posted by Rolks

Because to get the achievement, I need to gold star them all ... and sometimes, what I need to level my relic cause say I need level 2 or 3 upgrades, and that is the only one that will level my relic. It's not like you can just choose whichever each time. You only have four to choose from, and many times 3 of them are useless for what you need at the moment.

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I mean that’s an achievement and you only have to gold star them once

As for the relic if you don’t like the set of options you have simply accept one then immediately quit it. There is no penalty to doing so and it allows you to cycle other ones.

It would probably be easier to just give you all of them as an option but is it really a concern

Your arguments about "just don't do it" can literally be used against those complaints currently listed in your signature about the healer job. Just don't play it if you don't like it.

Of course, that doesn't solve or even address the problems raised.

Crafting, even high end Expert crafts, are generally laid back stress free ventures. Even Expert crafts can be logically mulled through especially with high end penta-melded gear.

Cosmic Exploration is not like that. The timed crafts, limited time for gathering, limited time between sequential missions, crafts with durability, quality, and progress requirements so out of whack with normal crafting recipes, are all extremely stress inducing events, where if one thing goes wrong with your gathering or crafting, you've blown the entire mission. It's nothing like regular crafting. It's not fun. It's just stressful. And just skipping one or two doesn't address the issue of the fact that the content as a whole is not fun, just stressful.

It's probably why, as we are nearing the end of projects on many worlds, we're seeing at best 15 people on the moon at any one time. The initial luster has worn off, it's not fun content, and people realize it's more a dredge than interesting content. The only people still there are probably completionists grinding through it rather than people there specifically for the enjoyment. Heck, you can find 15 people still in the Firmament and it's gathering zones and that content is several expansions old. Where will CE be in a couple of expansions? Probably completely abandoned.

But what I’m saying is that there is plenty of missions there if you don’t want the stressful missions. Cosmic gives you a massive range of missions to do. Of course if you seek out the hard missions then you’ll get the hard missions

I for one like that cosmic tried to challenge you in different ways but still has plenty of easier options. I get not liking the stressful missions and it’s totally fair but you don’t need those missions for the relic and if you want the Omni gold you can outscale it next patch. But it is fair to say some maybe went a bit too far

Which is different to healers because healers are 4 shades of the same garbage with no choice

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Originally Posted by Supersnow845

But what I’m saying is that there is plenty of jobs there if you don’t want the garbage ones. FFXIV gives you a massive range of jobs to do. Of course if you seek out the healer jobs then you’ll get the healer jobs

I for one like that FFXIV tried to challenge you in different ways but still has plenty of easier options. I get not liking the garbage jobs and it’s totally fair but you don’t need those jobs for the relic and if you want the Omni achievements you can level them through PvP and change your job to something you like after entering. But it is fair to say some maybe went a bit too far

Which is different to cosmic exploration because missions are 11 shades of the same garbage with no choice

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FTFY ... you seem to think the argument is different. It isn't. It neither solves, nor even addresses the problems raised. Completionists like myself, need to have all the boxes checked, all the achievements done, all the sidequests done. But this content is a miserable slog to gold star them all. And even if I give up on being a completionist, all of the missions have stressful parts due to time constraints, materials constraints, where making one mistake may mean having to start all over. It isn't crafting or gathering. It's more like (imagine loud, manly, gravelly voice announcing a monster truck rally) XTREME SQUID GAMES CRAFTING!

Perfect example just now ... needed to catch 18 fish in certain time limit. I accidentally missed my Chum macro before casting, had to stop, chum, and recast ... failed gold because of that one mistake. And god forbid rng gives you a !!! instead of the easy to reel in ! fish. Get too many !!! and you fail the gold. Every single mission has a time limit, there is no avoiding those. That's not fun, that's button mashing and stressful.