Should the feature release order be reconsidered?

I might be wrong about this, but I was trying to remember what features did we get exactly at the very release of Dawntrail?
Besides the usual stuff (MSQ with dungeons and trials & role quests) we got:

• Two new Jobs
• The graphical update
• 2 channel dye system
• Blacklist improvements
• Some changes to the actions for the hotbar
• Facewear
• New 8p Raid (2 weeks later) with Savage difficulty (2 weeks after that)
• New Treasure Hunt (4 weeks after)

The fanfests also advertised many features that players are expectant of:

• New Limited Job (Beastmaster)
• More blue mage content
• New Field Operation (Occult Crescent)
• New Deep Dungeon (Pilgrim's Traverse)
• New crafting activity (Cosmic Exploration)
• New relic weapon
• Raid whiteboard tool
• New Ultimate
• New Variant Dungeon

(Note these lists might be incomplete, so please correct me!)
A lot of the features listed above were added several months after the release of the expansion and some are not even in the game yet.
I am not against peppering features of an expansion throughout the lifecycle of it to keep things from getting stale too quickly, but is it correct for many of the exciting new things to not be a bit more frontloaded and instead be pushed to weeks/months after the initial release?

I'm not sure if this can be considered a hot take or not, but I'd love to hear your opinions on the current release format for FFXIV expansion content and what would you change (or leave it as is)? :)

It's not about whether it's "right", it's about whether they have developed it yet. They were going to release the raidplan feature in a previous patch but decided to delay it so that they could make it even better.

In theory, if you wait until the .55 patch to play the expansion, then it is all frontloaded. Since that's obviously how long it takes them to develop all that.

With how atrocious everything in DT was:

They need to throw the entire dripfeed plan into the dumpster and put out more content of better quality.
Make sure each patch has the content on release, not 2-3 months after.
Patches also need to stop catering to one section of players only and make sure everyone has something to do (no, 1 hour of MSQ is not content for the casuals, it's nothing).

All in all they need to completely reevaluate.
Chances are slim they do tho.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

It's not about whether it's "right", it's about whether they have developed it yet. They were going to release the raidplan feature in a previous patch but decided to delay it so that they could make it even better.

In theory, if you wait until the .55 patch to play the expansion, then it is all frontloaded. Since that's obviously how long it takes them to develop all that.

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I don't even know why they're bothering with the raidplan feature since it already exists out of the game and that tool is probably going to outperform whatever ingame version we have anyway, ESPECIALLY regarding CBU3's abysmal track record with UI/UX features. If just because it can actually be displayed on a second monitor without any issue.
Such a waste of development resources..

They need to shuffle stuff around. The first half of the expansion was literally barren of stuff to do other than Savage raiding prog.

The field operation (when properly made) or the Deep Dungeon, or something of similar replayability - need to be released at x.1.5 at the latest.

They also need to consider moving at least one side activity to the patch releases (or at least 2 weeks after), ESPECIALLY the actual expansion release.

"7.2 is adding the Field Operation! Hooray!... wait, not until 2 months in."
"7.3 is adding Deep Dungeon, hooray!... Oh, gotta wait for the .5 for it."
"7.4 with BLU update, nice! Not until after 2 months."

This was less of a burden when patches released faster, but that 1.5 extra months that have been added in with time is really meaningful.

Yes, moving stuff around requires resources, but I hope they consider how big of a cash cow this game is. And I know it also takes time, but if something starts today, we can hopefully see change in not a far long future.

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Originally Posted by Raikai

"7.2 is adding the Field Operation! Hooray!... wait, not until 2 months in."
"7.3 is adding Deep Dungeon, hooray!... Oh, gotta wait for the .5 for it."
"7.4 with BLU update, nice! Not until after 2 months."

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This one hurts so much, it always robs me of hype for any patch release because I know in the back of my mind that the new feature is actually always 2 months away from whatever date they give us for the patch :(

Well, yes. Long form combat content should release earlier in the expansion. OC and PT shouldve been here before 7.3. Like why is BLU taking so long? Why is BST coming at the end?

Also 90% of my glams are still not double dyed so im still waiting for them to release that lmao.

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Originally Posted by Mecia

Well, yes. Long form combat content should release earlier in the expansion. OC and PT shouldve been here before 7.3. Like why is BLU taking so long? Why is BST coming at the end?

Also 90% of my glams are still not double dyed so im still waiting for them to release that lmao.

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I don't understand either. If it was me, I'd make BLU x.1.5 and BST x.2.5... It would make them a little "less apart" than the normal jobs for a whole expansion cycle. Right now BLU is only one expansion away from x.4.5 until next expansion.

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Originally Posted by Valence

I don't even know why they're bothering with the raidplan feature since it already exists out of the game and that tool is probably going to outperform whatever ingame version we have anyway, ESPECIALLY regarding CBU3's abysmal track record with UI/UX features. If just because it can actually be displayed on a second monitor without any issue.
Such a waste of development resources..

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Because there exist more than pc players who are annoyed that they have to use a PC just for a raidplan.

If anything it's about high time that the decentralization of game features gets pushed back a little.
Raidplan is a nice start I hope is successful.
I really hope next is the social features and a reigning in of discord.

Not everything that is developed for others is a waste of resources and it's not like that team would have worked on battle content or such.


@topic
I think almost everyone would agree that things like the relic weapons should start way sooner.
The whole release strategy imo needs to change away from "patch for this crowd", "patch for that crowd" as Yoshida said.

Quantum is not bad per se in that way but imo still needs fine-tuning in starting difficulty and not being locked behind so many other things.
I think the next patch will show, what they have learned or not.

The increased time between patches has done a lot of damage to this game.

Yeah the long patch cycles really sucks for later in the game expansion, feels like forever to unlock savage these days even.
I wonder what people even do when there is content downtime that is spread across such a long amount of time.

I do suspect the actual issue is that the big pieces of content like field exploration, deep dungeons and limited jobs are resource intensive and hard to release just after a full expansion release. Considering that beyond the regular flow of content that comes out every patch or two patches (msq, dungeons, trials, raids), the two main biggest pieces of content are new expansions and post expansion endgame systems such as the aforementioned content, it's probably because putting all of those out at once is probably impossible. But! I do agree that in HW for example we used to have Diadem as soon as 3.1 was there.

Also, think about what you truly wish, because getting all of the biggest chunks of content at once, which means in the first half of an expansion, would leave the second half absolutely barren, and anybody that's played long enough already knows how the game has a hard time to sustain itself past the mid expansion point once the last tier of raids is behind and there is still almost a full year to go through before the next expansion.

However there is definitely long term, multi patch systems that definitely could come earlier, like relics for instance.

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Originally Posted by Voidmage

Because there exist more than pc players who are annoyed that they have to use a PC just for a raidplan.

If anything it's about high time that the decentralization of game features gets pushed back a little.
Raidplan is a nice start I hope is successful.
I really hope next is the social features and a reigning in of discord.

Not everything that is developed for others is a waste of resources and it's not like that team would have worked on battle content or such.

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I don't disagree with the feeling, and you can call me absolutely jaded if you want (because I am), but this feature isn't going to be used much if at all because CBU3's weakest point has always been on UI/UX (which verges on absolute incompetence, i'm saying this as someone that worked in the industry, they can come after my ass if they feel offended I don't care, it's not a word I use easily and will never use it for other parts of XIV) and everybody will still use the current player-made, out of game raidplan and will force console players to follow suit as it's always been the case. Especially since they can use their smartphones if they don't have a pc screen at hand.

Would love to be proven wrong though.

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Originally Posted by Valence

I don't disagree with the feeling, and you can call me absolutely jaded if you want (because I am), but this feature isn't going to be used much if at all because CBU3's weakest point has always been on UI/UX (which verges on absolute incompetence, i'm saying this as someone that worked in the industry, they can come after my ass if they feel offended I don't care, it's not a word I use easily and will never use it for other parts of XIV) and everybody will still use the current player-made, out of game raidplan and will force console players to follow suit as it's always been the case. Especially since they can use their smartphones if they don't have a pc screen at hand.

Would love to be proven wrong though.

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Then it will result in a rift between PC- and console players or simply in PF using the in-game raidplan that is a copy of the outside one for comfort purposes because to be honest I, and I guess others as well, don't take kindly to be forced into that (I miss the old macros).

I know they screw up often, very often but I would say we should at least give the raid plan a chance because what we saw last looked pretty good at least.
Even if only Japan uses it, it would have been worth the dev time.

If the in-game raidplan has the same things the outside one has then I see no reason why those who make the plans wouldn't jump over.
Who knows, maybe we see even more console players making them or even Japanese ones coming over depending how the whole thing works.

If it sucks then yes, let's give them negative feedback after release so they can and should work on it but let's not shoot the dog before it is even born.
Being overhyped is a problem, being too jaded is also one though and I was there after the initial DT release...
I can at least see that they do try again compared to the past where they treaded the players loyalty as god given.

Something has to be said for subscribing for the x.0 and x.1 patch, then unsubscribing until x.5.

Genuinely if you feel there's not enough to do for the full patch cycle or you feel the features are released in an order that doesn't suit your preferences, this is an easy way to get more out of your time with the game. It doesn't solve the fundamental problem being raised here but I don't SE is going to reexamine their release schedule any year soon

Yes it should be reconsidered.

Teasing features as much in advance as what they do... You just end up with people that stop caring, even when they may have initially been excited for said feature.

Like by the time it releases... Many people have already stopped caring.

Not only features but some of the other things we get each expac too. Giving us a new zone in a .2 .3 or .4 patch instead of dumping them all on us at expac launch would be fantastic and allow for a bigger reveal with more build up. It would also free up a lot of story time for other things by not having to have a guided tour of 6 zones in the .0 msq. They could also add more interesting continuity fates in them too. Like we fight some boss in the base msq, the boss gets away but then becomes a fate in a new zone a couple patches later. Things like the Griffin in the lvl 52 dungeon becoming a fate in the Hinterlands in 3.4 then throw in some unique or fun rewards we could farm instead of just locking everything behind the bicolor gemstones, add a lil more lore and just had something different.

Also turning some of the dungeons into open world dungeons after we finish them would be great. Imagine the St. Mocianne's (sp?) being open and having exclusive botany nodes inside as well as some random mobs. The maps are already made, they exist, why not make some of the ones that make sense to be open, open after completion? I really miss the open world dungeons from 1.0.

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Originally Posted by MicahZerrshia

Not only features but some of the other things we get each expac too. Giving us a new zone in a .2 .3 or .4 patch instead of dumping them all on us at expac launch would be fantastic and allow for a bigger reveal with more build up. It would also free up a lot of story time for other things by not having to have a guided tour of 6 zones in the .0 msq. They could also add more interesting continuity fates in them too. Like we fight some boss in the base msq, the boss gets away but then becomes a fate in a new zone a couple patches later. Things like the Griffin in the lvl 52 dungeon becoming a fate in the Hinterlands in 3.4 then throw in some unique or fun rewards we could farm instead of just locking everything behind the bicolor gemstones, add a lil more lore and just had something different.

Also turning some of the dungeons into open world dungeons after we finish them would be great. Imagine the St. Mocianne's (sp?) being open and having exclusive botany nodes inside as well as some random mobs. The maps are already made, they exist, why not make some of the ones that make sense to be open, open after completion? I really miss the open world dungeons from 1.0.

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I think that's good ideas.

The MSQ spends too much idle time having you run around in every new area to make you visit it rather than actually focusing on story beats and highlights where stuff actually happens.

They could simply not announce stuff that long in advance. It serves zero purpose.

I'm not a fan of "grinding" content being released on x.x5 patches. If you're going to give us something to waste time with, give it to us right away, don't make us wait 2 months. Whenever a major patch comes out, I'm done with it before the end of the day because all you get is like, a dungeon and a trial, or maybe some normal raid fights.

Relic weapons should be introduced in the x.1 patch, even if we don't get an exploration zone right away. They can be grindy and then have that grind eased up over the course of the expansion so that those starting late can catch up quickly.

Multiple difficulties for all content, please. Reusing graphical assets cuts down on a lot of development time, and by having multiple difficulties it gives people of all skill levels something to do. People looking for "mid-core" content shouldn't just have trials and then be forced to wait until patch x.25. Also don't be afraid to add appropriate rewards for difficult content that isn't Savage Raids. Clearing Criterion (Savage) or Quantum shouldn't amount to only a title and a middle finger.

Content difficulty examples:

Dungeons: Normal (MSQ), Criterion
Trials: Normal (MSQ), Extreme, Savage
Normal Raids: Normal, Extreme, Savage
Alliance Raids: Normal, Chaotic

Ultimate Raids can be kept as is with it being extremely difficult. The idea is more to expand the regularly released content. This might require them to increase the amount of time between patches again, but if everyone had something to work towards each patch, it would feel much better than waiting every other patch or halfway into an expansion.