Atma would bother me less...

[skho01]

Just completed my Atma today. All my whine posts etc, sure. But i stand by my original comments, the atma system sucks.

I wish you all the best of luck, i'm not touching another single atma until there's an adjustment to atma lol.
*side-comment* keep going, the measurable progress of the animus books are a goddamned godsend after atma grinding.

Congrats man. At least it sounds like there's a flicker of light at the end of a VERY LONG WINDY/DANK tunnel that is ATMA FATE Grind.

[Divine_Intervention]

Thanks dude. I can honestly say i hated every damned minute of farming those atma crystals. I'm glad it's done with, and i can only hope more players luck turns good so they can get this done.

[Jobefuzz]

The current Atma system is to slow people down. the 2.0 Relic system was too easy to get. After I got all my relic, it's even easier.
I'm in between "Yes, need to fix the Atma drop system" and "it's ok, for now"

[Sonofbaldo]

I am not so sure about FF14 not surpassing FF11, nor do I believe FF11 was a groundbreaking success within its first year.

FFXI was very ground breaking and at that point SE had guts. FFXI came out in 2002, long before the invention of the iPad helped make any 4 year old or 90 year old a gamer.XI was the first MMO to go cross platform and required PS2 users to buy a separate attachable hard-drive. Pay-to-play and playing online like that was still just gaining interest. At that time it was still taboo to be a gamer, especially in the RPG market.

World of Warcraft dropped in 2004 which really started the coming explosion of the whole online gaming world and they did that buy making everything easier. Death carried no penalty. Recovery downtime was basically eliminated. WoW also introduced rested bonuses and all manner of cheap ways to make sure players who played 5 hours a week could keep up with people who played 25...etc...etc.

This murdered the definition of MMO's as Massive, Multiplayer, and Online were stripped of their meaning. Instead we have Call of Duty but with swords and wands. Short bursts of content that take little time, little effort, and little skill yet carry huge rewards so that person who plays 5 hours a week is equal to the person who plays 25.

I've hit max level and blown through every dungeon I've had thrown at me (including CT and CT2 and the first few levels of Coil) in less time than it would have taken me to complete one expansions storyline in XI, and that doesnt include getting to the level required to be able to do it.

XI also established a real community. Something XIV can never accomplish. Gear was not handed to you. Crafters had to make it. You couldn't buy everything you ever needed from NPCs or receive it through quests. Your server was your world. You didnt enter a Duty Finder to be paired with people from any world. Acting like a d-bag meant you could establish a reputation around your world as a d-bag meaning your attitude had consequences and players would develop reputations, be it good or bad.

This was accomplished without Youtube Videos or today's dependence on social media connections and apps. It was an actual world.

These are things XIV have never been and will never be.

[skho01]

The current Atma system is to slow people down. the 2.0 Relic system was too easy to get. After I got all my relic, it's even easier.
I'm in between "Yes, need to fix the Atma drop system" and "it's ok, for now"

I wouldn't say it was too easy at first. It only got easier because people learned how to beat titan. Which was awesome because progression was gated behind ACTUAL content that requires some skills.

Farming myth and weekly myth cap was still a time sink, but at least it was measurable AND acceptable as a way to slow people down. At the end, the length of time for an upgrade is the same for everyone.

[ZhycranaDranix]

Atma requires no skill

yet its the unskilled that are complaining about it
in my server are the ones I see day in and day out in T5 complaining there group can't pass it either.
Atma is for the hardcore not the casual so to say lack of skill I see it as disrespect, just because we chose to grind it out and get a weapon that will obviously be best In the long run seeing as it gets a upgrade every other update I would see a reason to have it

so HA and Weatherd/ UnWea are yes for skillful hardcore
Atma/Animus/Novus are for the hardcore skillful players as well

[skho01]

Funny to run into you again here. Good breakdown/analysis. I couldn't agree more, FF14<>FF11, EVER. I had 3yrs of FF11 in me back when it first launched in NA. Everything back then was BRUTAL, from the UI, Leveling, gear progression, crafting, resource gathering, camping NM, story progression, everything. It was so difficult that it took months to get anywhere. There was definitely an odd sense of accomplishment getting gear upgrades. Gear upgrades were long and tedious too. It took them years to introduce AF2. I think I stopped about then. Looking back, its hard to imagine I spent so much time on that. That was likely because there were few comparable alternatives that I played.


Your assessment is correct, WoW did simplify a lot of the mechanics. But I argue that simplicity drove adoption/acceptance of MMOs in our culture, which in itself is an awesome thing. The truth is, people simply do not have 25hrs/wk to play online. Especially for the people that grew up on MMOs and are now working adults.

The metaphor that I'd use is this. Back in the days, we had to survey the ground for water, dig a deep hole, figure out a way to pull water, carry the water to our homes in buckets, and heat it up with fire wood. Now we have running hot water because we've simplified the old method and made it more efficient. I don't think anyone would want to go back to lugging water.

[skho01]

Fair statement, but I think the issue is that the casual skillful players are left out to dry. I cannot say I'm the best player out there, but I think I play my job in the 80th to 90th percent quartile. I just don't have the 20-30hrs required to get either HA or ATMA/Animus/Nouvs in its current state. This is the part that frustrates me, personally. A supposed casual route to prep for higher tier challenge actually significantly more grueling than learning the mechanics to higher tier challenges. Especially when Animus is by default 2 tiers lower than HA.

[Ahzarhuuk]

The current Atma system is to slow people down. the 2.0 Relic system was too easy to get. After I got all my relic, it's even easier.
I'm in between "Yes, need to fix the Atma drop system" and "it's ok, for now"

If the intent was simply to put the brakes on progression they wouldn't leave it up to the dice.

But it wasn't to put a break in progression-the fact they had to withold Novus one patch due to unexpected lack of progress shows this.

[Ahzarhuuk]

Atma requires no skill

yet its the unskilled that are complaining about it
in my server are the ones I see day in and day out in T5 complaining there group can't pass it either.
Atma is for the hardcore not the casual so to say lack of skill I see it as disrespect, just because we chose to grind it out and get a weapon that will obviously be best In the long run seeing as it gets a upgrade every other update I would see a reason to have it

so HA and Weatherd/ UnWea are yes for skillful hardcore
Atma/Animus/Novus are for the hardcore skillful players as well

It doesn't require skill. It requires enormous amounts of patience and tolerance for ill conceived design.

There is no skill in acquiring atma. If there was then being more skilled would allow you to get it done faster. Alas, that's not how it works.

Anyone who thinks themselves more skilled for having completed it are only being self deluded.