Current State of End-Game Contents - A Blog Post from A Japanese Player

[Clavaat]

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I think there is a misconception about content in general here. It could just be General Board being General Board, but I don't know anyone in my LS/FC who is actually bored or out of content. We run the endgame stuff at our pace statically, but the rest of the time we collect tomestones, atmas, books, sightseeing, RP, leveling alt jobs, crafting, gathering, gardening or pickup EX, HM's, BC. I don't know, I find all of that stuff very fun to do, but I can understand why others don't.

[Melithea]

what is this magical content you speak of? grind the same dungeons for atma/novus/sold/myth/sbing? so much variety.

yes, i know there are other things to do, but it comes down to "do the same thing in a slighty different coat of paint".

I think there is a misconception about content in general here. It could just be General Board being General Board, but I don't know anyone in my LS/FC who is actually bored or out of content. We run the endgame stuff at our pace statically, but the rest of the time we collect tomestones, atmas, books, sightseeing, RP, leveling alt jobs, crafting, gathering, gardening or pickup EX, HM's, BC. I don't know, I find all of that stuff very fun to do, but I can understand why others don't.

The fact that I got both of these replies in the same minute is hilarious beyond words.

[Clavaat]

The fact that I got both of these replies in the same minute is hilarious beyond words.

He actually had one I forgot about which was SBing :P

[Lemon8or]

I don't know anyone in my LS/FC who is actually bored or out of content. We run the endgame stuff at our pace statically, but the rest of the time we collect tomestones, atmas, books, sightseeing, RP, leveling alt jobs, crafting, gathering, gardening or pickup EX, HM's, BC. I don't know, I find all of that stuff very fun to do, but I can understand why others don't.

I happen to be one of those people that is getting bored actually. Besides turn 9, there's nothing that I can work on for this patch, well good thing 2.3 is coming but not many stuffs there neither. Tomestones? 1 expert roulette per day. Atmas? Books? Meh when I can have a legitimate shot at HA weapons. It's a boring grind. RP? Not my cup of tea. Leveling alt jobs? Crafting? Gathering? Look at my signature. EX? Cleared all, have everything from them except the Garuda/Titan/Ifrit ponies but farming parties for these EX fights usually fail so yeah.... A large number of people in my FC is growing bored as well and haven't logged in for days on end while we used to log in everyday with things to do.

[Melithea]

I happen to be one of those people that is getting bored actually.

You only have 2650 achievement points. That alone tells me that there is a lot that you COULD do. You just choose not to because it doesn't seem to interest you. From the sound of it, that's because none of it appeals to your sense of "progression". And as I said before, there's nothing wrong with that.

But this is a completely different problem than "Second Coil needs to be fixed because less than 100% of players can beat it." Second Coil adds 3 hours of content per week for people who can clear it, so if everyone was clearing it they would still be bored. This is a distraction from the point of the thread and should not be confused with the idea that Second Coil is designed badly because it requires people to pay attention and deal with interesting challenges. I brought up the overall lack of content to SHOW that it was a separate issue, not to derail the thread and make it the main topic. Making Coil accessible to everyone will not solve the late-patch cycle doldrums.

[Lemon8or]

You only have 2650 achievement points. That alone tells me that there is a lot that you COULD do. You just choose not to because it doesn't seem to interest you. From the sound of it, that's because none of it appeals to your sense of "progression". And as I said before, there's nothing wrong with that.

I was and never have been a completionist, more of a minimalist, so achievement points mean nothing to me. I do things that I feel as you say it "gives me a sense of progression", whether by playing different jobs so I understand what my group can do or progression on second coil. Grinding on 1 map to another to get a vanity tool or title is not what I think of as progression and this game has a lot of those side-tracking achievements but I was never big on aesthetic things, only when it stands out really badly like the monk boots I have. Different people have different taste as to what appeals to them so I was only speaking for myself and the people I know.
If you actually take a look at my achievements instead of a generic points system, you'll see that battle-wise, I have cleared everything up to turn 8 and relic every single job. The only thing I left out is animus/novus/vanity/chocobo achievements. Why? Because they are grindy and not fun. Crafting and gathering-wise, I have every single one of them at 50 and right where they need to be: being able to craft and gather things I need.
On topic, why not just make the boss simply strong? Because imo that is boring. There is one thing and one thing only that you're dealing with, the damage they deal. RPGs are fun because there are multiple scenarios you have to anticipate for. If wasn't for that, I would play generic FPS where the only thing that matters is seeing an enemy first and kill him instead.

[Gormogon]

I brought up the overall lack of content to SHOW that it was a separate issue, not to derail the thread and make it the main topic. Making Coil accessible to everyone will not solve the late-patch cycle doldrums.

That's exactly the issue and i agree that making coil more accessible wont fix the overall issue. Diverse rich rewards isn't spread equally across all forms of content.

In the time between major patches which is usually 2-3 months the first month is easily done for casual or mainstream players. Can also be applied to the top 10-100 groups, I assume.
Yet those doing coil have gear to grind across 9 jobs for that additional month. The overall experience is rewarding.
Casual or mainstream players don't really have much to look forward to unless a minor patch really introduces something but it isn't as rewarding as coil. So the overall experience is simply an experience and not only is the rewards small it's turning into a grind. Grinds and range are the worst possible ways to approach lighthearted content.

I have no clue if Golden Saucer will fix this. For sure the new class/job is gonna add another months worth for players to experience and gear.
Frontlines will tackle PvP players wanting to PvP but I don't know how that 24v24v24 is gonna affect the overall experience but at least we'll know soon enough.

Sorry for the late reply, post limit was reached.

[Yukiko]

Casual or mainstream players don't really have much to look forward to unless a minor patch really introduces something but it isn't as rewarding as coil. So the overall experience is simply an experience and not only is the rewards small it's turning into a grind. Grinds and range are the worst possible ways to approach lighthearted content.

Why dont you name it: Animus and Novus...
So many were looking forward to it and walling gear upgrades with rare drops behind Coil2 doesnt help anything either...
Its not even a grind, it is a massive timesink and gilsink too... Have you already forgotten Contentsellers? Those now not only selling Coil2 but also have enough gil for Materia to additional getting Novus...

It feels like an overall 5%-10% of the playerbase is getting progress/support and all others are left behind... CT2 is a drop on the hot stone because of upgrading gear with those reare drops we just gotten in Coil2 before...

You should never use all kind of possible restrictions to lock content away.
Only Timesink, or
Only Gilsink, or
Only grind, or
Only RNG, but never all at same time! Step by Step!!

[Grizzlebeard]

CT2 is a drop on the hot stone because of upgrading gear with those reare drops we just gotten in Coil2 before...

CT2 is already pretty pointless before it even launches. It'll drop gear of equivalent ilevel to Weathered sets which will once again locked behind a one piece a week cockblock. It doesn't drop weapons at all which is because they wouldn't want to introduce an alternative weapon gearing path that would undermine their Novus chain. I'm sure they'll still be patting themselves on the back at creating such a disgusting, unimaginative timesink that the players will be grinding for months yet.

Sure, it'll drop Sands etc but I guarantee that will count towards your one drop/week restriction.

This content-lengthening through the use of weekly restrictions needs to stop. It's about time we were given a huge update with enough content to keep us busy for months. When you look at the pathetically small world we're adventuring in compared to FFXI or even 1.0 with its reskin-o-rama you have to wonder the dev time is being utilised on. I'd like to believe the expansion will give us more content than we can shake a stick at but the reality of it is it'll most likely be a few zones with gating mechanics and subsequent content dripfed in quarterly cycles much as we have now.

[Gormogon]

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Because it doesn't start or stop at animus/novus. All content is capable of being victimized to some sort of ridiculous sink or lockout.

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Agree entirely.