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

[Clavaat]

Because those people that leave aren't forced to make goodbye threads.

Huh?

Look, I don't think this is either of our place to argue about how many people are leaving or stay without hard numbers. Have I known people who quit? Yes. Have I known people who stayed, and continue seeing new players? Yes. Again, I'm going by what I see, but I also said I might be being naive. People are going to leave and join every day for a million different reasons. I don't think the OP nor any of us can actually provide any hard evidence as to the actual effects the mechanics have had on the playerbase size.

[Amberion]

Never said there wasn't good people. Yet I am taking into consideration that those people that aren't progressing is in no way fair to expect for them to stick around 3-6 months just so that they can progress and then be blocked again from content in a 3-6 month period and constantly repeating itself and potentially getting worse, which it kind of has.

Isn't that time period the same for all tiers players?

Those on COIL2 have to wait 6 months until the next turns are released.
Those on COIL1 have to wait 6 months until COIL2 is made easier.
And so on.

[Gormogon]

I'm going by what I see

And so have I and others as well. If you are or not naive isn't the concern here. There is an issue with gear + content and players reactions to it and it is a problem that I don't see being addressed but an issue that is being ignored.

Content is pandering to elitist and hardcore that do coil. Coil 2 is still giving the best gear and that's not a problem.

The problem is that lower content such as Primals, Tombstone gear, Atma, Animus, Novus, Cyrus Tower are all turning into grinds and costs for taking these routes over being rewarding experiences that help tackle Coil.

[Clavaat]

Content is pandering to elitist and hardcore that do coil. Coil 2 is still giving the best gear and that's not a problem.

The problem is that lower content such as Primals, Tombstone gear, Atma, Animus, Novus, Cyrus Tower are all turning into grinds and costs for taking these routes over being rewarding experiences.

OK but...what does that have to do with the OP? I thought we were talking about the difficulty in content and how/if it is balanced or not. I don't think you need to be elitist or hardcore to complete BC, as I have explained before. If you don't agree then I guess there's not much I can say to change your mind. I have given my perspective, and how I feel.

Best of luck to you, sir

[Gormogon]

snip

That was already discussed in regards to depth in execution not needing complexity.

[Melithea]

2.) No but continue to spin those words. I'm referring to leniency and change of atmosphere when you start forcing more and more players to play at a high standard.

I'm not spinning anything, this is literally what you just said. 25% of the group carries the rest = good; 60% of the group required to work = toxic. To me these numbers not only reek of being arbitrary and pertaining only to content for 40+ players, it also makes it look like you want to turn content into a free ride, whether that is your intention or not.

4.) Superiority complex much?

Lol. Sorry for trying to get you back on topic!

There are two separate conversations here. 1. "Purely mechanics-driven battles aren't fun for anybody" and 2. "Content that requires high levels of execution is too hard for most players." It's possible to have a purely mechanics driven battle that is so easy that everyone can beat it, but this would not solve one of the overarching problems. It's also possible to remove all mechanics and make a battle a gear faceroll, but this also does not solve one of the overarching problems. Your suggestions aren't doing many favors for EITHER side, and certainly not both.

Twintania is already much easier with the availability of i100/110 gear and the echo buff. She's just not "fun" to some people because they still have to respond to a number of unforgiving mechanics. Now, should 100% of players be able to kill Twin today? Some posters in this thread seem to think yes. Yoshi says no. If they wanted 100% of players to have downed Twintania today, they would have continued to increase the echo buff, which has been proven effective in increasing the number of players who kill her. So basically, what you're asking for here already exists. You just want it to happen faster than the Producer does.

Let me ask you this. Can you imagine people losing to Twin with a 500% echo buff? They'd pretty much have to be trying to lose, right? Now, would you want that much power bloat to be in the game already?

Instead of looking for ways to allow mainstream players to clear all content the day it's released, maybe it would be better to look for ways to make fights more fun for mainstream players without trivializing player skill and/or making victory RNG dependent, within the confines of the current battle system.

[kukurumei]

It boils down to

group 1: Boo content too hard is no content at all
group 2: Boo content too easy is no content at all

In the end it's WoW 2.0 in that it has the same directions and all the good and bad that comes with it. To appease all groups you appease none, and only good enough to keep people playing most of the time.

[Gormogon]

It boils down to

group 1: Boo content too hard is no content at all
group 2: Boo content too easy is no content at all

In the end it's WoW 2.0 in that it has the same directions and all the good and bad that comes with it. To appease all groups you appease none, and only good enough to keep people playing most of the time.

Yeah it's pretty depressing.

[Kiara]

Put some thought this morning into being a bit more in-depth about the whole "how do you think randomized bosses should work"...

However, giving skills that will have a 5% chance of being used, has a less likely chance of being used again immediately after. So your chances of getting that instant-death skill twice in a row is not very likely, but that does not mean it will never happen. It can happen, and one day it will happen, whether it happens to you or not isn't the biggest problem here...

Hi Xine,

Great writeup. I would note that in regards to your question above, it *definitely* is possible (and been done before in other games) to script in a fail-safe, so that a certain Attack (Instant Kill) can never be executed twice in a row (or whatever stipulation the developer wants). So you can certainly have something like a "5% Chance to use [Uber Attack]" *and* script it to never execute if it was just used (so no back-to-back accidents can happen).

[Meier]

I can say this much..the 1.xx battle system and fights did not feel scripted at ALL. Gear and skill meant quite a lot more then simple memorization in 1.23. Why they took what we had away for this..I'll never know.