ARR often feels very contradictory in its design (long)

[Raestloz]

What came from 2.1 that we, as a community, DIDN'T want? It may not have been the most optimal content for the 1% of people in full i90, but I wouldn't say there was no content that we didn't want.

There are no new FATEs to spam. FATE students are sad

[NefarioCall]

I agree with everything in OP.
This game has completely failed to grab be so far.

But no other major MMO i've tried, and i've tried mostly all of them, has grabbed me either, except for Final Fantasy XI.
Plus, i'm a Final Fantasy lifer since the NES days. I'm most comfortable in this world.

So for better or worse, i'm riding this train out its course.

[frostmagemari]

That's completely untrue. It would be true if Yoshi & Co. were completely oblivious to our wants and needs, but they DO read these forums. I do admit that we are just playing catch-up because patch 2.1 is just an extension of the release, and now they're taking their time with the PS4 version, but I know that they know what we want.

But how many second chances are we giving them? When are people actually going to hold this company to some sort of standard instead of just endlessly spouting "it'll get better" to everyone that wants SQE to try to improve themselves.

And as for knowing what we want, i can consider that true when they start -giving- us what we want; I'm not talking pipe-dreams or mail-order epics, i'm talking real solid content and reliable upkeep to content that's here (ie. Odin's still a cluster that brings down servers...)

[Nadrojj]

What came from 2.1 that we, as a community, DIDN'T want? It may not have been the most optimal content for the 1% of people in full i90, but I wouldn't say there was no content that we didn't want.

Did the community want the same three primals some people struggled on to be rehashed with extreme mechanics instead of new HM Primals? Did we want two new HM versions of Copperbell and Haukke Manor? Dailies? A raid that currently drops lower ilvl gear than most of us are wearing? I for one did not want any of these. Give us new hard mode primal fights, new dungeons and higher tier gear instead of the main raid dropping ilvl80 stuff.

[CHunterX]

Someone give this guy a medal.

Crafting should allow the creation of high level gear. I DO NOT, however, agree that the absolute maximum level gear should be available from crafting. Crafted gears should be one tier lower than the currently available highest tier.

This is because the gears should complement gameplay experience, not the other way around. You don't want people to faceroll new contents because they can overgear themselves relatively easily.

Crafted gears should be that stepping stone from your current gear to the next best one

"Easily overgearing" via crafting would not be an issue. From the current market standpoint, possibly, but once (if) every piece of armor accepted materia and crafted armor/weaponry was actually in demand? Prices for both would jump tremendously, and overmelding wouldn't be as prevalent because of said increase. It would also put spiritbond parties back into the mix, giving DoW/M a way to profit (but not generate gil, which SE is purposely avoiding) off their class.

Crafted gear would be equal to everything else and in demand, DoH (and potentially DoL) are now useful and in demand, DoW/M now have a method of making a profit. Can't get much more complementary than that.

[Jubez187]

Give us new hard mode primal fights, new dungeons and higher tier gear instead of the main raid dropping ilvl80 stuff.

I wanted those things. What you want IS coming (Leviathan, Shiva [rumored]). SE had a lot on their plate with a buggy launch and whatnot. I don't think you understand the time it would have taken to:
1. Think, create, write the story for the new primals.
2. Create the quests leading up to the battle.
3. Design the primal's art, then RENDER it and its arena/battleground/stage/whatever.
4. Design the fight, think of the mechanics etc etc.
5. Code the fight into the game.
6. Write and record the music. (I'm a musician, this takes a while)
7. Playtest the fight, make sure all things are working as intended and that it's a good difficulty.

But you seem like a shiny-new-toy raider. So chances are you would rather have new primals right now at the expense of having 0 story. You want to log on, see "Leviathan is now available via the duty finder" run it, loot it, desert it. Then you know where you'll be? Right back on here begging for the next shiny-new-toy raid.

You just sound irrational, honestly. You're looking for Expansion-esque content out of the first major patch. I was actually wow'd at how much stuff they did in the patch. To read everything in the patch notes takes about 15 minutes.

[Gucci_Charms]

Thanks OP for the epic read link.

Definitely agree with a lot of the points that were brought up on that Reddit link. This game more potential for greatness, but a lot of it is being heavily underutilized currently. I'm pretty sure the developers are well aware of these contradictions though lol.

[Nadrojj]

I wanted those things. What you want IS coming (Leviathan, Shiva [rumored]). SE had a lot on their plate with a buggy launch and whatnot. I don't think you understand the time it would have taken to:
1. Think, create, write the story for the new primals.
2. Create the quests leading up to the battle.
3. Design the primal's art, then RENDER it and its arena/battleground/stage/whatever.
4. Design the fight, think of the mechanics etc etc.
5. Code the fight into the game.
6. Write and record the music. (I'm a musician, this takes a while)
7. Playtest the fight, make sure all things are working as intended and that it's a good difficulty.

But you seem like a shiny-new-toy raider. So chances are you would rather have new primals right now at the expense of having 0 story. You want to log on, see "Leviathan is now available via the duty finder" run it, loot it, desert it. Then you know where you'll be? Right back on here begging for the next shiny-new-toy raid.

You just sound irrational, honestly. You're looking for Expansion-esque content out of the first major patch. I was actually wow'd at how much stuff they did in the patch. To read everything in the patch notes takes about 15 minutes.

I love assumptions. Sweeping generalizations after reading two of my posts about my playstyle is exactly what I expect from this board. Carry on champ. Continue to be WoW'd (see what I did there?) at how much stuff they did this patch and happily pay your monthly fee. I believe in SE but I'm disappointed to say the least with 2.1.

I've contributed plenty to this conversation if you read the whole thread, what ideas are you bringing to the table to make the game better? Or are you just here to play mr super cool guy white knight?

[Orophin]

I think this is a well written post and has some good points. I'll highlight a few things:

The biggest is the Armory System...In 1.0, ignoring the critical reception for a moment, the class design was built around the idea of cross classing skills...

I agree that the Armory System seems limited due to the certain lockouts in place. I also realize that without these lockouts that they'd lose subscriptions. There are several players that only want to play the content once and they're done with it. If people could get geared up within 3 days by spamming CT, Coil or Extreme Primals all day everyday, these people wouldn't be back for the next couple of months due to exhausting the content.


In terms of the cross-class skills, the lack of true choice was even evident in 1.0 because you were more or less pigeon-holed into having a specific set of abilities to optimally play your class. Wanted to play a tank but didn't have a THM at 50? Well, you were screwed because you were expected to have Emulate. It wasn't until the large class overhauls and job system was implemented that classes seemed to gain some sort of purpose and didn't require you to have everything leveled to 50. (because not everyone wants to play everything)

I'll bring up Dye and Materia.

I believe they should let all gear apart from job specific stuff be dyeable. The job specific gear is iconic and should keep its looks. I agree with your sentiment though; the dying system is largely useless because it can only be used on crafted gear, which is pretty limited to crafting or gathering specific gear in the grand scheme of things. There are some people of course that like to make different gear sets for town gear and stuff like that, but this doesn't affect the majority of players I think.

And finally I'll talk about the open world.

I feel they did a great job re-creating the world. They're starting to put more things into it (starting with daily quests this patch) so maybe this will continue to improve as time goes on. I really don't want to go back to the days of HNM camping though. It just isn't fun having to wake up in the wee hours of the morning, or competing against people to see who has the better bot.

That's just my two cents.

[Lukahn]

Keep in mind that this game was one thing, and had to be made into something different to find success. Yes, they "rebuilt" the game, but there still is going to be a bit of a transition.