The Current Status of FFXIV Patch 3.1 and How to Address it Moving Forward

[Alahra]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post1587770 - Specifically mentions that the relic weapons are common (many people have it).

To be fair, the question mentions them being common, not the developer's answer.

The fights were not a huge barrier like we've been told. They were a barrier, but one that most players were able to overcome, so the "casual / solo players don't want challenging fights and we don't want to tie Relic / Zodiac / Anima weapons to them as a result" is nonsense.

They were for a lot of players though, or else Titan HM sells would not have been as lucrative as they were in 2.0.

And to be honest, even if the data the developers are referring to were in fact wrong in some way...telling them their data is wrong, without actually having access to it, isn't going to get them to change their minds.

I get that a lot of folks are dissatisfied with the way Anima right now, but so many of the posts about it aren't really constructive or helpful to the developers in any way. If you really want things to change, don't insinuate that they're lying or something--they're not going to respond to that. Take it in good faith that they do mean what they say--they have no good reasons to mislead the player base about their intentions and the reasons for the various design decisions that they make, so why not provide feedback that can work assuming that what they're saying is true. Remember, this whole game is nothing short of a miracle and they have every reason to feel indebted to the players that allowed it to happen.

Helpful feedback will be a lot more likely to result in the change so many players seem to want. And contrary to what some folks are probably starting to think, I'm not opposed to changes to the way the questline is structured (though I'm quite happy with it overall) and I honestly feel like SE made a lot of boneheaded mistakes this time around (that are the result of a lot of poorly thought out decisions), most of which Yoshi also seems to think were mistakes, judging by the content of his Letter.

I spent like an hour this morning typing all this out in the thread about challenging content, because I do think they can improve on the quest, and I wouldn't do that if I thought SE was some perfect little snowflake or something:

But I do think there would be a way to structure the questline that would potentially satisfy more players. I'll be using 3.0/3.1 content and the existing structure of the Anima Questline to illustrate the structure that I would suggest as a model for future raid tiers.

Anima Stage 1 (Animated Weapon)
This could have been released in 3.0, alongside the Law Weapons. Keep the first stage the same--FATEs were dead at launch for the most part anyway. This also gives Zeta players an immediate "connection" to their accomplishments in 2.xx by letting them get a fresh weapon right as they hit level 60. Given the available content, this stage probably could have been i180, rather than i170--not a top tier weapon (which was from Ravana EX at the time), but one step behind. One step behind is something that I think, for the most part, should always be maintained with the Relic quests. Leave the best weapons to the "challenge" crowd, until late in a raid tier's life cycle, as they generally have done so far.

Anima Stage 2 (Awoken Weapon)
This stage could have been introduced with the addition of Alexander Savage. But it would need something a bit more...time-focused to it, as it would also be competing with Esoterics weapons at the time. At minimum, we might expect a grind of some kind that would take perhaps 4-6 weeks of an average player's time--slightly longer than the time required to gather an Esoterics weapon. As a reward for their efforts, however, players would be rewarded with the ability to customize the weapon's stats at this stage, rather than sometime in the future (presumably in 3.25 or 3.3, if they follow the rough pattern established in ARR).

At this stage in the quest, we can perhaps imagine the inclusion of both Bismarck EX and Ravana EX as "midcore" options and ways to reduce the grinding time. They probably shouldn't allow the player to obtain a weapon faster than a one could do so with Esoterics, though--so some sort of grind (perhaps three clears of a weekly quest requiring an Expanse Totem and a Hive Totem, not unlike the old Primal Focus quest). That cuts down on the invested time while still gating the weapon in a fashion so as not to make the Anima option far superior to all other choices.

Anima Stage 3 (Anima Weapon)
Following from the inclusion of Bismarck and Ravana in stage 2, which were "slightly" outdated in 3.07, this stage could then keep its normal release schedule, coming in 3.15, but include Thordan EX. The current Anima grind would remain in place, but an additional option would be added as means by which to acquire the four items necessary for crafting the Anima weapon itself. A weekly quest is probably a good idea again (personally I thought Primal Focus was a brilliant incentive device back in the day and I'm still shocked they only did something like it one other time in ARR, with the CT/ST/WoD weekly). Since the Anima grind takes about 6 weeks of Daily Roulettes, make the weekly quest again take perhaps three or four weeks (four would make the most sense with the quest we have now, which requires 4 items, but three would probably feel better). Hardcore Alexander grinding would still be the fastest way to obtain the weapon, but for those looking to avoid mind-numbing grinds, they can instead work on Thordan EX at a more relaxed pace.

Future Stages
Following this structure, future stages would probably go something like this. Patch 3.2 introduces (let's say) i230 gear, available from the new tier of Alexander Savage. At this time, we also get Tomestone gear that's i220, including i220 weapons that take about 3 weeks worth of locked tomestones to gather. Upgrade items for the weapons and tomestone armor are locked in Alexander Savage as normal. Additionally available, probably in 3.25 would be a long grind (perhaps 6-8 weeks on average) to upgrade the Anima weapon to stage 2 (the glowy one!), at i220. The new Primal battle could serve, again, on a weekly quest structure, to shave some portion of the grind off for those that are interested.

Then, probably sometime in patch 3.3 (around the 3.35 mark), the next stage of the quest would allow for the Anima weapon to be upgraded to i230, with the primal introduced in Patch 3.3 also serving to reduce the severity of the grind. Around this time, we would expect the items used to upgrade Esoterics weapons to be made available, as they have been in the past.

That's about how I would structure the relic quest if it were to include more difficult content as an option. This example structure has the additional benefit of 1) using more 3.0 content, which is a common complaint against the current quest; and 2) giving "midcore" players some incentive to still engage with the "older" content (they could, for instance, farm up one of the 4 catalyst items through the "grind" method, shaving a week off of their acquisition time but also helping with queue times for Roulettes and the like).

What I always try to do when I'm dissatisfied is at least try to understand where the developers/Yoshi-P are coming from. Sometimes I don't completely get why they do what they do what they do, but even if I don't, the perspective is useful for constructing feedback. Sometimes, I can't fathom why they're doing stuff they do (I had a really hard time understanding many of the crafting changes in 3.0 and had a hard time providing constructive feedback as a result). But I still think trying is worth it.