The game is more dead than it was pre-3.1

[Gardes]

Actually, I was just about to get off the forum, but a thought struck me, so.....

Perhaps the biggest problem with the game faces is a two fold problem; SE is trying to satisfy two very different audiences with content for the end-game raiding scene and content for the more casual or mainstream players who are not heavily into end-game. So they produce a broad range of content.

SE is stuck between a rock and a hard place, when they do something to satisfy one group, it annoys another, and vice versa. SE can't really win in that situation. To be honest I think that Yoshi and team should stop trying to patch and develop the game by focus groups or popularity contests, and stick to their vision of the game. I think the game would be stronger if they did.

XIV doesnt have a dev vision. It has yoship's vision. To know what it is i invite you to read the 3.1 dungeon devblog post.

[Kosmos992k]

XIV doesnt have a dev vision. It has yoship's vision. To know what it is i invite you to read the 3.1 dungeon devblog post.

Considering the transformation FFXIV went through into ARR, I don't have a problem with his vision. The *huge* difference between ARR and HW is that the developers had the dubious benefit of player feedback. A lot of the changes coming into HW can be traced directly to player/fan feedback, both via forums and other means. Lets review, new loot rules, two difficulty tiers for the raid, open world free-form content other than hunts (diadem), more dangerous overworld, crafting specialist instead of mandatory omni-crafters, end-game content for crafting/gathering, no story gated behind raids, more accessible content that doesn't require a static, etc... All of thisis stuff that people regularly complained about and made suggestions about on this forum, other forums; and I would presume similar feedback at fan events and/or confidential survey/feedback.

Considering the relatively positive reception for ARR, and the lack luster raider response to HW, I'd say that Yoshi and the dev team are better off following their own vision instead of trying to satisfy the conflicting and sometimes contraditcory fan feedback.

You haven't actually answered the question, there really is NO reason for a catch up patch other than to satisfy entitlement

I think you are wrong there. Catch up patches are for mainstream players to prevent the playerbase from being spread too thinly across the game. I actually think that opposing catch up to protect the fragile egos of raiders who can't stand the idea that other players will have similar gear for less effort. I can't believe that any self respecting raider cares, or needs gear separation to differentiate themself from other players, or to validate their effort and achievement. Wanting that separation to be prolonged for ego reasons, which seems to be your point, strikes me as pure entitlement.

[AstralKaos]

Lets review, new loot rules, two difficulty tiers for the raid, open world free-form content other than hunts (diadem), more dangerous overworld, crafting specialist instead of mandatory omni-crafters, end-game content for crafting/gathering, no story gated behind raids, more accessible content that doesn't require a static, etc... All of thisis stuff that people regularly complained about and made suggestions about on this forum, other forums; and I would presume similar feedback at fan events and/or confidential survey/feedback.

Considering the relatively positive reception for ARR, and the lack luster raider response to HW, I'd say that Yoshi and the dev team are better off following their own vision instead of trying to satisfy the conflicting and sometimes contraditcory fan feedback.

I'd personally, and judging from various feedback that the problem with these things isn't that they did them... it's that they did them exceptionally poorly.

Good- They used feedback and came up with things from it.

Bad - They made bad or not thought out things from it, or had a misinterpretation of certain things.

One example, you still need to be an omnicrafter, and everything to do with the specialization either sucks or benefits nobody.

[RiceisNice]

Considering the transformation FFXIV went through into ARR, I don't have a problem with his vision.

I think that's the problem. It's always been his vision and it's not necessarily one I agree with going by the translation. He's happy with the clear rate of normal mode Alexander, but it's tuned to the point that you can clear it even with people afking. He's surprised with the very low clear rates on Savage, even though he had intended it to be as difficult as ScoB/FCoB Savage... which in itself also has very low clear rates before 3.0. He'd also say that players weren't familiar with MCH (and BRD) and thinks their damage is fine...then buffs GB/WM by 10% literally a week or two after-the-fact (and the same was done in regards to 2.0 warrior).

The dev constantly jumps between their stance on why BRD/MCH are naturally behind in dps, whether it's due to their mobility or their support aspect. Most of this ultimately comes from the lack of play-testing their content and overall it feels like they're cutting corners on the new features. It really feels like things like Diadem, MCH and non-combat features feel shallow compared to what it was previewed.

[Lambdafish]

I think you are wrong there. Catch up patches are for mainstream players to prevent the playerbase from being spread too thinly across the game. I actually think that opposing catch up to protect the fragile egos of raiders who can't stand the idea that other players will have similar gear for less effort. I can't believe that any self respecting raider cares, or needs gear separation to differentiate themself from other players, or to validate their effort and achievement. Wanting that separation to be prolonged for ego reasons, which seems to be your point, strikes me as pure entitlement.

shots fired or at least they would be if I had even beaten A1S. No, I'm talking from a game design perspective and the value of content. The balance that needs to be made in MMOs is that relevant content needs to stay relevant, and raid content is one of the hardest pieces of content to keep relevant due to difficulty and accessibility. The point is, if the reward for raiding isnt more than anything else in the game(with a few exceptions) then the raiding scene dies, because it really isnt worth the effort invested. This was seen in 3.1 when Alex Savage completely died as everyone flooded to get their gear from the diadem instead. This was seen in 2.3 to a lesser extent as well with hunts.

So, thanks for assuming that im ego driven and that I only care about my precious entitlement, when actually I care about the health of this game and the balance of gear progression and how the game handles difficulty/reward given, because how that is handled seeps into every part of the game, especially player mentality.

[technole]

So, thanks for assuming that im ego driven and that I only care about my precious entitlement, when actually I care about the health of this game and the balance of gear progression and how the game handles difficulty/reward given, because how that is handled seeps into every part of the game, especially player mentality.

I don't mind catch-up patches even as a normal raider. ilevel advantage in the game is limited in months during a raid cycle, we basically had almost five months of exclusive i210 gear.

Also have to remember even clearing A2S/A3S weekly there was one gobcoat/gobtwine to distribute among the raid weekly, and a month of clear pages to even get one personally. Depending on how early you clear, will depend on how geared out the raid could be a month or two later. With the A3S "gate" for a large majority of raiders, that would mean mainly only head, body, and leg upgrades for the most part being outstanding to fill out their gear and that's it. Thordan weapons added to the pie as well to help progression. Ways to help raids "keep trucking", which have proven successful for many. If that is what helps the clear rates without a direct "nerf" then so be it.

So a catch-up benefits raiders to easily fill whatever gaps were left, or even now gear up alternate jobs. Outside of raiders, they can start to upgrade their entire main which if they never raided which would take much longer. So there is still progression for both sides.