3.2 PvP: Feast Game Mode Discussion Thread.

[Teuciont]

4 on 4 - Light Party
I'm going to guess the lack of rewards for ranked parties is due to the prevalence of win trading in other competitive aspects of the game thus far. One popular method I've seen to win trade in XIV has been to queue up on a non prominent language, such as GE or FR on EN servers, at odd times, to ensure you go against who you plan to go against. My question then, is what is the point of the language options now that there are very clear EN|FR/GE|JP servers? Why not remove the language options and cut down on the possibility of win trading, perhaps even only allow ranked matches to occur during certain times, IE from about 3PMPST to 1AMPST? The second recommendation may be a bit extreme, but the first not so much, in my opinion.

[Serilda]

4 on 4 - Light Party
I'm going to guess the lack of rewards for ranked parties is due to the prevalence of win trading in other competitive aspects of the game thus far. One popular method I've seen to win trade in XIV has been to queue up on a non prominent language, such as GE or FR on EN servers, at odd times, to ensure you go against who you plan to go against. My question then, is what is the point of the language options now that there are very clear EN|FR/GE|JP servers? Why not remove the language options and cut down on the possibility of win trading

This. If you're queuing 4v4 Light Party then the language options are irrelevant; you aren't there to talk to the opponents anyway. Let French people fight Japanese people and so on. All that language restrictions for opponents do is penalise anyone with an unusual setting as it delays their queue time and allows win trading via a known exploit in the matching. It's silly. Other possibilities to reduce win trading would be logic to avoid the same people being matched up frequently, score/rank resets for anyone found to be doing it and/or diminishing returns from fighting the same people repeatedly (so people who play late at night can still progress, just slowly). We don't want anyone win trading, but we want to be able to play and compete.

Blocking 4v4 premades from rewards entirely sucks - day one of the new patch and my 4v4 couldn't get into a single match on Gaia. Nobody else even wanted to bother queueing late at night when the solo queue is where you progress.

I can't play with my buddies in FL because of GC restrictions. I can't play with them in WD because it never pops on Gaia at the time we play. I finally get a chance to introduce them to the gameplay mode I like, only to find that I still can't because 8v8 is for pairs only, 4v4 party gets no rewards (so people don't want to queue it) and 1v1 goes back to the same problem they have learning PVP alone on the enemy side via FL. Argh.

My friends are shy. They're casuals. They're not fluent linguists. They want to play and compete, and work up the ranks, but forcing them to do so and learn the ropes under very strict conditions (and in a language they struggle with) really, really kills PVP for them as casual players. And killing PVP for casuals kills it for people like me too because the queues end up so long I can never get in. Please, please be friendlier to these casual PVPers who are just starting out. Let them play with friends, in a way where they get encouraged and rewarded for trying their best and discover the fun of real teamwork.

Edit: It would actually be kinda fun to have an 'undersized party' mode for The Feast where you can join to train with friends too nervous to jump straight in with the chaos of 8v8 or the stress of rankings. Obviously no rewards would be given, but the level 50 dummies in WD Pier can only help so much. Or if it was out in the open world it would give us something productive to do while waiting for the wretched 4v4 queue to pop.

[Delmontyb]

It would actually be kinda fun to have an 'undersized party' mode for The Feast where you can join to train with friends too nervous to jump straight in with the chaos of 8v8 or the stress of rankings. Obviously no rewards would be given, but the level 50 dummies in WD Pier can only help so much. Or if it was out in the open world it would give us something productive to do while waiting for the wretched 4v4 queue to pop.

Private matches are a must, not just for practice, but just for fun with your friends.