Titan Extreme is NOT Fun

[Ri_ri]

I find the more difficult content in this game to be a tight dance you have to learn the steps to. There's no room for improvisation. You perform it without error for 10 minutes. If you make a mistake you have to start from the top. There is something not very fun about it. I don't know, maybe it's a cultural thing. It feels like a good time designed for robots instead of humans.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/134384

I Google translated this thread and it seems like the japanese players have the same exact complaint as you. So it is not a cultural thing, I think.

[Tano]

It's just a way to timesink.
i agree, fights should be completed with improvisation and skill, not "do it 10 times, so you learn the gimmick and execute it like a robot"

[Craiger]

So basically you want it be more carebear....

Not everyone wants MMO's to have an easy progression... While fights can get me angry, I'm still enjoying it, and it will bring a lot of joy when you finally beat it.

One of my favorite games outside of MMO's, is Dark Souls. That game was very challenging when you first went through the game. The boss fights in it, where a lot like you described FFXIV Primal fights to be... You mess up once, and you have to do it all over again (and usually a lot content before the boss too).

Dark Souls would've sucked if it was easier, and the same goes for FFXIV.

[Colt47]

I find the more difficult content in this game to be a tight dance you have to learn the steps to. There's no room for improvisation. You perform it without error for 10 minutes. If you make a mistake you have to start from the top. There is something not very fun about it. I don't know, maybe it's a cultural thing. It feels like a good time designed for robots instead of humans.

That's because it kind of is just that. In fact, the majority of encounters in contemporary MMOs are set pattern memorization games that test both the players reflex time and internet connection. The system is favored due to the sense of achievement players get from mastering the dance steps, but at the same time it makes the content static. Also, since their are only so many kinds of dance steps available due to the movement system, eventually it gets easier and easier to improvise and win, leading to situations where developers have to make the timing tighter to make the fights difficult.

However, this tightening of the patterns eventually leads to the same problem that some single player titles end up with, where the mechanics of a fight get explained in real time as it is happening and the player is forced to eat a death in order to learn a part of a fight. In short battles this isn't much of a problem, but at end game where there are multiple people involved and the fights are 10+ minutes in length, someone could mess up near the end and force the battle to start from scratch.

What a lot of people are probably getting at with this thread is that we've got people who want to see the story content, no matter how tenuous it is, trying to do a difficulty mode that is designed for players that love these 10 minute extreme learning segments, and now we have a massive thread of bickering going back and forth between the two parties. We need a better system than what is being used in this game and others for creating challenging content, but I don't think anyone really knows what that system should be.

[Calyanare]

So basically you want it be more carebear....

Not everyone wants MMO's to have an easy progression...

I like difficult things. What I don't like is a fight that is a straight-up latency check with instant death if you happen to have lag at the wrong time. Since the maintenance right after Christmas, instances have been mostly unplayable for me during primetime because of lag spikes making the constant Insta-Death gimmicks undodgeable (however, I just tried it a couple hours ago at 6am, didn't have any lag, and it was pretty fun). Things that are beyond the player's control should be recoverable, IMO.

[Craiger]

I like difficult things. What I don't like is a fight that is a straight-up latency check with instant death if you happen to have lag at the wrong time. Since the maintenance right after Christmas, instances have been mostly unplayable for me during primetime because of lag spikes making the constant Insta-Death gimmicks undodgeable (however, I just tried it a couple hours ago at 6am, didn't have any lag, and it was pretty fun). Things that are beyond the player's control should be recoverable, IMO.

That's another thing... If that's what the OP means, then I'm sorry for my post, but as I understood it, he was complaining about how he has to learn the fight and be able to react fast (kind of)

I have experience of delay too, I live in Sweden, and I normally had 160 ping... which is (or was at least) noticeable when doing Primals, but the after the 0.1 sec position update improvement (was 0.3 sec before) and with some other tools (WTFast)... I haven't had much problem. If you have high ping, I recommend looking up how you can lower that number by using different DNS server or using WTFast(easier choice) for example.

The best thing would be for them to change these kind of content in the future though... But NOT make it easier. You can have engaging fights that is really hard, without requiring very good ping.

They can't account for people with 200+ ping though (sorry if you live very far away from server), that would ruin the content for the people who have acceptable ping.

[Doo]

I find the more difficult content in this game to be a tight dance you have to learn the steps to. There's no room for improvisation. You perform it without error for 10 minutes. If you make a mistake you have to start from the top. There is something not very fun about it. I don't know, maybe it's a cultural thing. It feels like a good time designed for robots instead of humans.

Yup I hate this type of style of difficulty. It makes players feel like they have to look up guides to succeed and there's not much variety in tactics. FFXI wasn't like this so it's not a cultural thing.

[Quattrob]

Lag and latency issues will always be in any MMO, so I don't see any reliable way to fix this issue for players that cant seem to beat difficult contents with this issue. Sadly if it's latency/lag issue that is stopping pple from beating endgame content, best thing to do is just not do them. In any ONLINE game there will always be lag or delays, so this isn't just a FFXIV problem.

[Kevee]

Lag and latency issues will always be in any MMO, so I don't see any reliable way to fix this issue for players that cant seem to beat difficult contents with this issue. Sadly if it's latency/lag issue that is stopping pple from beating endgame content, best thing to do is just not do them. In any ONLINE game there will always be lag or delays, so this isn't just a FFXIV problem.

The thing with FFXIV, though, is that I, and many others, only have a problem with FFXIV.

I'm a good player.

I know I am.

But I have to use WTFast, and I've never had to do that with any other game.

[seriously]

There just isn't that much new content in 2.1, which is why everyone is looking at the extreme modes and wondering why it's not for them. If only the new dungeons had dropped new sets or CT could be looted more than once a week. Casual players would have more to do than wish the extreme primals were easier.