FFXIV Bitter Sweet

[Amiantos]

-snip-

I agree partially. I always tell first timers and expect wipes the first couple. After the third I start to get annoyed and if they still haven't gotten it by the 6th wipe I apologize and leave as I don't want to waste 2 hours mashing my face into a boss only to die over and over. It's a complicated balance I feel that does need to be addressed.

[Soukyuu]

I agree partially. I always tell first timers and expect wipes the first couple. After the third I start to get annoyed and if they still haven't gotten it by the 6th wipe I apologize and leave as I don't want to waste 2 hours mashing my face into a boss only to die over and over. It's a complicated balance I feel that does need to be addressed.

I don't have a problem with that, my point is that they don't even try to play with new players, the just silently turn and leave. Last time that happened, we got another tank, cleared the dungeon with 0 wipes and 3 tank pieces dropped. Too many instantly think that new players = wipefest.

[Starfox71rt]

I agree on your point about the elements and crafting. The fact that elements have literally zero change in damage/effect depending on what mob type you use them on is disappointing. Further, why did they feel the need to separate earth, wind, and water from fire, ice, and thunder? Almost every FF game I've ever played, those elements were kept together on one job. If they were worried about CNJ/WHM solo viability, they could have just brought back something similar to Dia/Diaga and Banish/Banishga (not saying they have to be the same just providing example). Second, crafting is in a sad state which I won't get into because you said it well.

[MistressAthena]

What dungeons need is a harsh penalty for experienced players leaving the moment they see the "one or more players are new to this instance" message. I had multiple tanks leave the moment we entered before even having one battle, because apparently, giving a few hints in chat is too stressful. Just confirms what I was saying about the players.

That confirms also what I said in the OP, which is its a terrible idea to lump casuals with Elite. Things like that happen, self entitled Elitists see that message and instantly quit. Or you'll as you always do saying "Party of blah blah, looking for blah blah -MUST KNOW FIGHT-" messages being spammed. Can hardly get into something new unless I do it first with my FC because of the Elitists not wanting anything to do with casual/new players. Which is causing yet more rifts in the player base, because of how simplistic the leveling is, causing nobody to know their job. It's an endless spiral downwards.

[Indecisive]

Note: Please keep in mind that while this is a rant...

I read through your post and while i agree on a lot of points, i do have trouble finding words for others.

Just wanted to clear up this one as you mention "You have to understand what makes a good game."
I guess that seeing as you mention "a game", it´s just games in general. And that statement makes the entire section your opinion and not fact.

I can agree that a good game has certain qualities where balanced difficulty could be one of them. But never does it require everything you said.

You might have worded it, "You have to understand what I think makes a good MMO game..." for better clarity.



The combat system:

I agree it´s not as deep as i´d like it to be. But what is the fix here really? I have played my share of MMO´s and when you get into the systems of those, most, if not all have some kind of rotational system when it comes to min/maxing potential class output.
Some games shake this up with procs where you do a rotation and PUFF, something shines and you can click a magic button which activates a stronger skill or buff, -afterwards it´s your normal rotation again.

So while i´d like to see more depth in the combat system, i´m not really thinking in terms of changing the whole rotational paradigm as thats a lot of rework. But make the initial skills a little more appealing and more fun. Simply having 10 abilities with different potencies and names is a little lackluster.

As mentioned with elements, i´d have liked for them to mean a little more in combat.

Balance between levels:

I don't see the reason why players should be forced to focus on End Game, when games can be just as enjoyable between levels 1 to max and enjoying everything else

To the quote above.. It was pretty much stated before release that the teams focus was on Endgame. That is their philosophy. I agree a game can be enjoyable during the leveling phase. But it shouldn´t have come as a surprise. Hell i like being at the top level and while questing and getting involved can be fun, i personally, do not have a billion hours to spend on that in an MMO. I´d play singleplayer games where i can save here and there for that.

Immersion and the sense of adventure

I dont know how big a zone needs to be for it to be "huge and lush". Neither do i think a huge zone is required to make the immersion. That could just as well be deeper story telling or other mechanics. It does not have to be pure scale. I honestly would get bored if it took 2 hours to get from one point to the other by just running, my life is simply too short for that. And yes, that is my opinion and that doesn´t make it right, but neither does yours. Oh and what is great forms of exploration and adventure? Other quests or do you want a built in farming simulator?

I can see that you want this huge explorable world. But that just isn´t this world.

Fates:

Oh boy, i agree here. I like the point of them where a huge monster can pop here in the zone with a little story tied to it, and people show up to kill it. But the grinding on these is so annoying. I leveled my second job more or less on FATE´s and i hate them. I´d much rather have a little more quest hubs here and there which opens after your first 50.

The "nothing to look forward to.." that you close off with is a little funny. Because beating a raid boss would be an achievement, no? Is there nothing at the end of the current end-game for anyone in this game?

[Soukyuu]

That confirms also what I said in the OP, which is its a terrible idea to lump casuals with Elite.

I don't see how you can avoid that though. DF is meant to be casual, so if they're such an elite, why are they using it? I have to clarify I'm talking about Dzemael and Vale mostly, so it's not a story dungeon you have to clear to continue with the game. All "elite" players used to be newbies at some point, so even if you separate into "casual" and "elite" player servers, it won't solve the issue.

[Roxus]

Balance in difficulty
I will agree on this point as battle feels very weak on most classes. The only ones that feel semi-rewarding is Monk and Bard. Even then Bard is just a spamfest. The skills could be much better and a lot of the moves feel very dissatisfying. I don't like how mana management is overly simplistic, especially on BLM. Paladins use one bloody skill rotation. Warriors get two but no buffs that are really worthwhile to weave in.

Battle Mechanics

The only thing I will disagree with here is the point regarding skill indicators. They didn't really exist in 1.0. Hell there was a mob that still exists in 2.0 called a Cyclops, one in Aurum Vale and in a Fate (Coerthas) that uses 100-Tonze Swing. The reason they added indicators was because of the ridiculous input time from client to server. Sure, the obvious dark red indicators could go, but something needs to replace it. Oh and also, a lot of mobs have "tells" before using specific moves. Some are just very discreet, especially when you're paying attention to the red lines. And the fact that a giant message balloon pops up to tell you something is happening most of the time, lol.

Balance between levels

I think FATE grinding is dumb and needs to be adjusted. Everything else is fine. Add some daily quests. Also Parley will be available in a later patch.

Immersion and the sense of adventure

I think the reasoning for the smaller areas is mostly due to the following:
- Time to release
- Did not want to repeat the same mistake of 1.0 where they cut and paste entire maps...it's like walking through a mirror.
- Did not want to overwhelm newer players

I also will have to disagree with the immersion aspect. While there definitely is something to long for, you can't seriously compare yourself to an NPC that dedicates his life (Teens to adulthood) as a level 30 Lancer when you're the Jack-of-all trades Adventurer with a mysterious power. You are the "Hikari no Senshi". It may be dangerous for THEM, but for you, of course it will be different. Besides that point though the areas are ridiculously easy and I would welcome places to be a little harder to get to.

Basically I would say wait for Ishgard to see how they handle land mass. I'm just willing to bet it was due to time. I mean look at how much trouble they had with other things in this game. It's a relaunch, mind you. Something far harder than making the game completely from scratch. There had to be a lot of elements 1.0 players could familiarize themselves with, so scrapping the entire thing for a new game completely wasn't possible (The funding came from legacy players themselves, but SE also had to pay a large amount). Regarding how easy it is to get around, no one is forcing you to use fast travel methods. Just walk then, and enjoy the game. The system is there as an option, it's not mandatory. Sometimes I just walk with absolutely no movespeed buffs around the map because I enjoy it. There might not be much, but you make what you can of it.

Again, I get the point and have agreed, battle mechanics are very boring and need work.

I think they should bring back the 1.0 AF questline. Even if Yoshi said that AF was free starter gear it doesn't make any sense. There needs to be less healing, or BYO partner with harder mechanics.

Side note: I don't want them to bring back the level 99 mobs that can oneshot you, but the current state is also far too easy. I can walk past zones 20 levels higher than I am (or was) and live (as anything that isn't a tank, too). I am sad the hearing/seeing mechanics are gone.

The Market and Crafting/materia

Yeah the markets are dumb. Too much free armor in circulation and starter AF defeats the purpose of getting prepped for anything. Darklight isn't hard to get either compared to 1.0. I have to HQ everything or I lose money, and even then it's a pretty hard market to survive in.

I think you could have trimmed your post a bit, you repeated a lot of points and the whole intro thing wasn't really necessary. I do think battle needs to be readjusted, but I do not want it to revert to 1.0.

[Vivik]

I want to be clear and say up front that I'm really enjoying the game right now.

I can see where the OP is coming from. As a hardcore FFXI fan boy I have a hard time being impressed with anyone's accomplishments in FFXIV. I started about a week after launch due to a move and was shocked to see people in AF already. Then I see people sporting full Darklight with relics and it makes me wonder what the hell the dev. team is doing. It took me longer to get paper for my level 50 limit break in 11 than it did for people to level to cap and get full AF in 14!

I understand they are different games and all but coming from 11 to 14 I was hoping for some of the same depth and challenge (and time sinks). At this point there does not seem to be any of that. I'm just hoping for some content that gives us something to work on for months instead of hours.

Here's to hoping they have some really huge plans and raise the level cap soon.

[Alpheus]

The lumping with elites and casuals was intentional though since Yoshida believed that if new players played with Legacy Players they'd be more inclined to self-improve or something. Since that basically is not what happened at all (general toxicity etc.) clearly he gave the community more credit than he ought have. Though granted I have been in DF groups where I witnessed it work how he had hoped (seeing someone answering questions about what gear drops from where etc.)

EDIT NOTE: Also I don't mean to in a obscure way, say it's Legacy players responsible for the toxicity rather them being mentioned was due to paraphrasing Yoshida.

[MistressAthena]

I don't see how you can avoid that though. DF is meant to be casual, so if they're such an elite, why are they using it? I have to clarify I'm talking about Dzemael and Vale mostly, so it's not a story dungeon you have to clear to continue with the game. All "elite" players used to be newbies at some point, so even if you separate into "casual" and "elite" player servers, it won't solve the issue.

I mean like I'm in the game right now, this is the first message I see spammed: GarudaHM Looking for members. healertankx2, BRD (experienced and decently geared please ) ... Now if I wanted to jump in, I couldn't if I hadn't done HM before. I'd have to sit and wait for duty finder for god knows how long.

I'm twisted on this though, while I know why they do it, they don't want to waste their time on a potentially completely fail player, but on the flip side if the game was more balanced out and focused on levels more we wouldn't be running into this problem at 50.