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

[Velhart]

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You see, you are saying this, but you are not actually giving suggestions on how they work in this game without tearing down core elements of this game which does not happen just like that. It is called destructive criticism and I rather offer criticism or ideas that work in the context of the game already established, because that is more realistic than saying drop what the game is now and copy/paste a game from 13+ years ago in here. Also yes, Diadem does absolutely count. If you cannot tell that was clearly inspired by people on the forums wanting FFXI exploration like content in here than I don't think you played FFXI.

If this game at 2.0 was straight out FFXI with a new coat of paint, I would still likely be playing it. I don't have anything against FFXI itself and still like the game for what it is, but you have to realize that concepts from that don't translate well here. Each time the developers try to make it work, it always falls flat on their face or not working as intended. Largely because the community has a different mind set in general on how to approach content as oppose to how FFXI presented it.

Also, you are speaking of the same community that gets bored of content within it's patch. You can't rely on making long lasting content through an expansion without people getting sick of it. It also limits the ideas and amount of content that developers are capable of giving us. Them being able to make new content every few months gives us new goals and new mobs to kill. This is significantly harder to give us on a pure horizontal method. On vertical, you can at least make the reward greater to influence people to go. The style of gameplay you seek does not match the community mind set. This is not fifteen years ago anymore. Yes this game is absolutely different from FFXI.

I'm not so much defending the current relic quest line as stating why it is. I'm also realistic in the resources available to produce it and am happy to have it even as it is rather than not have it at all because they didn't have enough spare resource toproduce unique content for it.

By the same page I will point out again that there are things like puzzles that many players are very much against. Even the very simple puzzles of the Broom quests were too much for some people.

I had not met anyone who said they hated the broom quest nor do I believe was a big deal here. When we got our last major quest puzzle, we had threads of people joining together to unlock parts of the code and helping people with theirs. It did bring community together and it would again here. You are basically saying that developers should not ever make interesting content for anything and go by the same tropes. The lack of resources is just a convenient excuse to not put the effort into quest. It is sad they constantly give us quests at a half-ass state and then give us the excuse that lack of resources made it this way. They can't even try to come up with something interesting within the budget/time they have. It doesn't hold water, especially with a AAA company.

I do however think more variety in ways to progress the quest would be a good thing. However this wouldn't lower the amount of grind, simply what you chose to grind because the grind is part of the justification for the reward in the first place.

Grind will always be a thing in MMO's, you cannot prevent it. However, developers in other MMO's have gotten much better at making it that at least the grind does not feel so tedious and make interesting ways of going through said grind. FFXIV makes no effort on this part. It is one blatant grind after another.

Im very much keen to see them experiment with quests and puzzles and such. I don't however think the relic/anima questline it the place for it. Too many people who will be attracted to the anima weapons won't want to see content like that or find it fun.

And they find it fun now? The amount of people who find the quest fun are very, very few. It is the ideal place to experiment with. If developer's at least acknowledge that most people don't like this approach, then they have to admit there is some failure on their end despite saying this is how they like it. If they are heavily intent on making the content for people who are so casual that not even the slightest challenge battle wise can be put in it, then they need to offer challenge elsewhere in the quest line.

Again, I will post this a third time:

[Alahra]

The amount of people who find the quest fun are very, very few.

I suspect the number that do is larger than you realize. People play and pay for this game primarily because it provides them with entertainment, and there are numerous reports of servers that are experiencing more active PF participation lately, much of which can be attributed to the Anima questline. While there are players who will indeed do things they don't like to in order to achieve a goal, I'd be willing to bet even those players at least find the goal for its own sake fun.

The wealth of criticism on the forums is slowly dying down when nothing has really swelled up to replace it, which suggests that there's not really a continued disappointment with the quest from the larger playerbase to me.

[Velhart]

I suspect the number that do is larger than you realize. People play and pay for this game primarily because it provides them with entertainment, and there are numerous reports of servers that are experiencing more active PF participation lately, much of which can be attributed to the Anima questline. While there are players who will indeed do things they don't like to in order to achieve a goal, I'd be willing to bet even those players at least find the goal for its own sake fun.

The wealth of criticism on the forums is slowly dying down when nothing has really swelled up to replace it, which suggests that there's not really a continued disappointment with the quest from the larger playerbase to me.

It is a ilvl210 weapon, it is an upgrade, especially to people who are still trying to tackle Savage. Of course people are going to do it if there is a reason. It doesn't make it more fun. When people are dedicated to a character, or wanting any type of advantage to get content they cannot clear done, of course they are going to do it, no matter how poorly designed it is. It doesn't make my point less relevant that they need to focus on the fun factor as much as the grind.

Everything dies down eventually because people usually give in or quit the game. You can only beat a dead horse of a topic but so much. I am very sure that most people would vote that the quest line is very disappointing, uninspired, and lazy.

[Alahra]

It is a ilvl210 weapon, it is an upgrade, especially to people who are still trying to tackle Savage.

Folks working on Savage are probably more than capable of getting the Thordan EX weapons, a number of which are pretty close to the Anima weapons in effectiveness, though, especially given the work to reward ratio. I really doubt getting a leg up on Savage is a reason a significant number of players are doing the Anima grind.

But regarding fun factor—how would you actually make the grind more fun? Keep in mind that you can't rely on harder content to do that. What kinds of grinds are fun to you and why are they more fun than the current Anima grind?

[RiceisNice]

The wealth of criticism on the forums is slowly dying down when nothing has really swelled up to replace it, which suggests that there's not really a continued disappointment with the quest from the larger playerbase to me.

Honestly, it also gets to the point that like you mentioned earlier in a different topic, it runs into a full circle and ultimately exhausting. It can be both ways, but it's not nesesscarly that people have "gotten over it". Both sides gives their two cents and it only goes for so long until it gets to speculations.

[Kaurie]

I suspect the number that do is larger than you realize. People play and pay for this game primarily because it provides them with entertainment, and there are numerous reports of servers that are experiencing more active PF participation lately, much of which can be attributed to the Anima questline. While there are players who will indeed do things they don't like to in order to achieve a goal, I'd be willing to bet even those players at least find the goal for its own sake fun.

The wealth of criticism on the forums is slowly dying down when nothing has really swelled up to replace it, which suggests that there's not really a continued disappointment with the quest from the larger playerbase to me.

I guess I just don't see a point in posting the same argument over and over and over, when clearly Square Enix doesn't care. I complained a lot until they posted their response to criticism, and showed that they just don't give an F.

I completed my relic, grind wasn't so bad, but it was still beyond horribly implemented. Release timing was off, glamours suck, pre-glamorus are copy pastes, quest line is lack luster, stats on most are subpar, and duties to make you get it are uninspired and obnoxious (crafting/gil hole?).

Ultimately though, what I hated most, was that for the past 2-3 weeks, i wasn't able to do anything I wanted in the game. I mean outside of the desire to have my weapon before my raid met up this week (succeeded!). I had just started to do a bunch of 2ndary stuff, such as leveling my BLM, and quickly it was all tossed to the side. I'd even regret queuing for roulettes, because the second I got in an S rank would spawn and I'd leave to go kill it. I began to just stop doing most roulettes. When FC mates asked for help 'nop, must hunts'. I was just encouraged to do everything I could to be as unsocial to my FC, unhelpful to my friends and have the least amount of fun for the past 3 weeks. It's now over, and I can continue to enjoy this game.

[KaitlanKela]

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Hey girl, congrats!

I agree with your complaints about the grind but most of them are minor to me except the 1.stats issue (seriously, they better fix that with the materia/customization step) and the 2.crafting issue (I know they want to encourage crafting, but they should have made it faster or easier for crafters, not a gate for everyone). Hopefully they will respond to that criticism, but I'm not holding my breath.

You make a good point about having to postpone other things you like to do in game to focus on it. That is actually really sad and I bet you're thrilled that it's over (I would be)! BUT, at the same time you sacrificed those other things to meet your self-imposed time goal for raiding. It's not like everyone is forced to sacrifice things they love by DESIGN; they will just get the relic a little slower. Throwing your face against it (while I'm glad that's an option and it's not time-gated like eso) kinda is against the grain so-to-speak and there will be consequences for choosing to do it that way. Just a thought.

[Kaurie]

Hey girl, congrats!

I agree with your complaints about the grind but most of them are minor to me except the 1.stats issue (seriously, they better fix that with the materia/customization step) and the 2.crafting issue (I know they want to encourage crafting, but they should have made it faster or easier for crafters, not a gate for everyone). Hopefully they will respond to that criticism, but I'm not holding my breath.
You make a good point about having to postpone other things you like to do in game to focus on it. That is actually really sad and I bet you're thrilled that it's over (I would be)! BUT, at the same time you sacrificed those other things to meet your self-imposed time goal for raiding. It's not like everyone is forced to sacrifice things they love by DESIGN; they will just get the relic a little slower. Throwing your face against it (while I'm glad that's an option and it's not time-gated like eso) kinda is against the grain so-to-speak and there will be consequences for choosing to do it that way. Just a thought.

Thanks It's very true, the goal was self inflicted. That said, it was also strongly encouraged by the design of the game. They've made weapons be the most important factor in your DPS with weapon damage being value so much more than everything else. They then implemented a huge jump in difficulty on A3S and gated the weapons equivalent to the relic behind it. So, by their design, they made this a huge priority item.

Ultimately, this is how I can see the whole relic process being better, now that I've had a chance to complete it fully:
1. Provide more options to obtain items (GC Seals, WolfMarks etc etc)
2. Allow pre-items to interchange (i.e. allow one to make 1 item from maybe Alex 1 5 runs + roulettes or seals if they want etc) - this will help alleviate burnout on doing the same thing over and over.
3. Make the crafting an option to help speed up the process, but allow for you to grind out more items in it's stead.
4. More adequately balance the time investment for each alternative method. Alex was far faster than any other method. This will allow people to move around and do various things, again alleviate burnout.
5. Release the relic in a more appropriate time. 170 should have been 180 and released on 3.0. 200 should have been released on 3.05. 210 should have been released with 3.1.
6. Allow customized stats, but not with Materia. This just makes CRIT materia cost an arm and a leg.
7. Incorporate more of a story of how you are building your weapon. This could include part 6, i.e. in order to add crit you need to complete X objective, or DET complete y objective etc - and have the objectives make logical lore sense to the stat.
8. Just... make a better story. I know you can do it (see 2.4, 2.5, 2.55, 3.0, Hildebrand etc).
9. Being as we are building a weapon, it would actually be neat if we build it's design (at least in part) too. Allow us to modify it's appearance in size/color, addons etc.
10 (maybe?). Time gate it. If you want it to be a time investment, instead of making us run 620 runs of Alex - maybe make it that you run 100, but you can only do 25 max per week (or whatever). This will help alleviate burnout, make it a long term goal, and allow you to have time for other game interests.

EDIT: Just adding that I think the above would be modifications to the current system that would work; however, i think a completely different and more fun and engaging system would be better.