Never Make Your Players Have to "Find the Fun"

[Lexia]

I feel like I'm in a straight jacket juggling all these timers. Suppose I want to do everything in the game, what would my play routine look like?

- if it's 15 min past or before the real life hour, go to Gold Saucer for GATES
- if it's 8:00ish Eorzea time, go start the red/blue scrip node train that ends at roughly 2pm
- queue for something during or in between that
- try to fit in triple triad challenges in sometime in between that (oh wait, my Idle Imperial timer conflicts with my node timer - I can't do both until/unless I cap scrips)

Sounds more like a personal problem then a game problem, decide content you want to do and spend you time doing that instead of running around like crazy person trying to do it all at the same time.

[Purrfectstorm]

Sounds more like a personal problem then a game problem, decide content you want to do and spend you time doing that instead of running around like crazy person trying to do it all at the same time.

My personal problem becomes SE's game problem when I unsub because I don't find "running around like a crazy person" fun. Not that I at all do that tyvm. Let's say I find one thing I want to do, as some suggest. Ok, that's totally reasonable. Let's say that is farming Triple Triad cards. What am I doing in between NPC timers? Let's say I am only doing GATES. What am I doing in between timers? Let's say I am only doing Alexander Savage. What am I doing while I'm waiting for my group to fill?

It doesn't matter whether you do a single piece of content or some combination of content, timers restrict (unreasonably in my view) the ability to do the content you want to do when you want to do it. This is objective fact, not opinion, and it is completely inarguable by anyone w/ an ounce of sanity or intelligence. I understand timers as a way of slowing progress (understand, not agree with) but SE doesn't have to put a time restriction on every piece of content. Progress doesn't have to be slowed on everything.

[Moomba33]

You can buy most of them from NPCs as NQ mats, if you mean the lv51-59 timed mats

Yeah I remember seeing the tea leaves on a vendor for 1000 each or so.
I much prefer gathering my own materials though.

[Stormrider]

I just wanted to make a couple suggestions/comments.

1. I am not saying make a specific Fate spawn. But a zone should never have less then 3 fates up. In theory completing every Fate would make yours spawn faster, maybe. Unless we end up with the response [IMG][/IMG]

2. Why do we need timed nodes? Why could they not spread stuff better through out nodes adjusting gathering needed for an item. I am more ok with saying you need X amount of gathering then you need to be here for X time. Who hasn't went to a node then had an instance pop 3 mins before it spawns. Also they have enough items from 2.0 that was bought they could have spread into 50+ nodes with time gated items to have another full set. Adding a bit more variety. I do admit that this would probably require some more adjusting then a quick fix.

[Kitano123]

This is a false dichotomy. You're presenting it as if there are only 2 systems - lockouts or ridiculous grinds. I'm sure there is a middle ground...

What is the middle ground? Oh right you dont have any idea what that could be but still arogantly assert that it must be true despite not even being able to explain why you dont like it in the first place. Why are you trying to argue against something you admit you dont understand?

You're the one forcing yourself to abide by every lockout available. You're the one turing the game into a chore. You don't have to. Thats the point of themepark MMO's play them however you want to.

[Purrfectstorm]

What is the middle ground? Oh right you dont have any idea what that could be but still arogantly assert that it must be true despite not even being able to explain why you dont like it in the first place. Why are you trying to argue against something you admit you dont understand?

You're the one forcing yourself to abide by every lockout available. You're the one turing the game into a chore. You don't have to. Thats the point of themepark MMO's play them however you want to.

Your reading comprehension either sucks or you're trying to be deliberately misleading. I'm actually going with the latter since you cut off my suggestion by only quoting part of my statement. That feels pretty deliberate to me. I CLEARLY offered the middle ground - which is items costing more in tomes (specifically a body piece costing 1600 rather than 825 tomes). Point being items can cost more without being 100000000 tomes and we can have RNG without having .00000000001 drop rates. Everyone is acting like removing lockouts would send the game to some ridiculous, unplayable extreme.

For reference, here's my full statement:

This is a false dichotomy. You're presenting it as if there are only 2 systems - lockouts or ridiculous grinds. I'm sure there is a middle ground, the body piece you mention costing 1600 tomes instead of 10k.

So to say I didn't present a solution is just a lie.

Also, just a reminder but this thread isn't about removing lockouts on tomes and gear drops (although I would definitely be in favor of this change). It's about not going OVERBOARD with timers. Is there any reason we can't play Triple Triad NPCs whenever we want, for example? Everything in this game is coming with a time restriction attached and I'm just sick of it.

[xXRaineXx]

Don't you have friends to play with? Guildies? Static?

I only raid now and voice and voice chatting with my static alone everyday is enough fun for me to keep my sub going. What you say may have truth, but your opinion does fall into the minority. There are many people like me who enjoys the small things. I still got buds who continue to play the game when their main is still 50.
Trying to push your opinion onto the entire community as if it's the absolute truth is not the way to go.

[Zeonx]

Too bad there isn't any notorious monster's in FFXIV with special gear that people can sell or glamour.

My cousin used to tell me how fun it was to camp out versus other players to try and get these items to use or to sell and how competitive it was to try and claim it, he said also like rare items nobody would have for a while when they added a new NM.

I came to FFXI after they turned everything to rare/ex so nobody was really hunting them much, which lost its thrill of the hunt because he said RMT ruined it, though I don't think RMT could ruin it in FFXIV as long as they keep it in area's that they cannot reach like the heavensward area how its locked unless they beat something.

but yeah fates and all that can get a little worn out after a while.

I would like something else beside standing around or mining the whole time give me something I can hunt or keep track of worth doing.


Also I do get what the OP is saying just doing it but then again you still have to wait for stuff in other MMO's also, tossing party together is a wait, waiting for monsters to pop, also running to areas you need the quest, that's what MMO's are.

Though I do get what you are saying for some things like in FFXI you didn't have to wait for a tank to join if you were good at your job you just did it, no waiting needed or pop item or whatever you could solo to have fun more things to go after you didn't have to wait for it that I can understand.

[Nicobo]

...and use RNG instead of time gates to slow progression...

OMG. You pointed out the issues, however, above suggestion would be worse, I am pretty sure most players hate RNG here.

i.e The issue "Waiting for FATE" conuld be considered as RNG, this is one exmaple how SE implemented RNG ^^;

[Kaiser-Ace]

OMG. You pointed out the issues, however, above suggestion would be worse, I am pretty sure most players hate RNG here.

i.e The issue "Waiting for FATE" conuld be considered as RNG, this is one exmaple how SE implemented RNG ^^;

RNGesus already hates me as bad as I hate him, would prefure less RNG if possible but never more.

RNG removes all amounts of skill from everything it touches.