I was sick of tomes in 2.0 now I loathe them in 3.0

[Warlyx]

I still would rather they just raised the cap every week and removed the reset altogether.

So instead of going from 450/450 on a Monday to 0/450 after reset rinse repeat,
you go from 450/450 or say 230/450 to 450/900 or 230/900 and then 900/1350 and like 460/1350, that way you are always in a position to "catch up" as you have the ability to get the maximum amount of tomes as everyone else currently playing for that tome cycle and you still have the time gating its just not punishing anyone for taking a week off.

that i can live with it

[Kaurie]

I really am hopeful for these new solo-challenge dungeons we can do. I hope we can take our birds into them, 'cause then I can rock my R20 bird into it and have some fun.

As a side note, I am pretty sure they said the content is balanced around a 4 person party. You can enter solo, but it will be very hard.
-http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/291208-Letter-from-the-Producer-LIVE-Part-XXIX-Update-Thread/page2

[Ilitsa]

I don't view the tomes and lockouts as a necessarily bad thing, I think they could have adjustments to make them more enjoyable, for sure, but they aren't inherently terrible as is. Personally, I've leveled several classes in each role category, so that keeps me from getting overly bored, cuz I can just constantly change what I run my roulettes on day to day or whatever. Playing only one class will get boring to even the most avid player of said class, imo. That being said, the "take a break" response is pretty bad, but not without merit, there's no harm in taking a day or two off to play something else from time to time if you're that bored and miserable. let your "FFXIV batteries" recharge, so to speak. A little trip OUT of Eorzea will do us all good from time to time. I find it lets me appreciate the small things in this game a lot more after I leave to play a single player game for a day or two.

[Cnidarian]

snip

You are choosing to play a game that has a vertical progression model, no amount of you or other players wanting a horizontal progression system will change that fact. Those type of MMOs are a dying breed and the current model is what is generating business. Adding more gear selections for each item level tier isn't going to change the fact that people will map out what is BiS and go for that only. There are plenty of people out there who only look at ilvl and gear accordingly which is detrimental to their performance. With the i220 crafted gear, some of those pentamelded with IV materia are better than the i230 lore gear. Even some of the i220 Midas gear is better than i230 lore gear for some slots (slot varies by job). There are multiple options out there if you manage to look past the item level. I am leaving out i240 gear on purpose because the topic of this discussion is tome gear which in it's current state is limited to i230 (only way to upgrade at the moment is through raiding and that is not part of this discussion).

As far as things like Diadem go, they are working on changes. You can't expect them to take the system, do a complete overhaul and magically have it out on your timeline. They have made announcements regarding Diadem already stating that they have heard the player feedback and are working on changing it. I'd rather they take their time to rework it into something more enjoyable than just make knee jerk changes sporadically leaving it unrefined.

We are getting 8 man dungeons as well in 3.3 in the form of the treasure map dungeons. Palace of the Dead also has the potential to be something fun to do that isn't locked behind max level (i.e. max level players can now play with friends and novices alike without steam rolling the content).

As for people taking breaks and not coming back, everyone will have different experiences with that. I personally know a lot of people who come back after every content patch, play for a few months then take a break again. I know people who took a break and did not come back for a year or not at all. I also know people who have been playing since 1.0 launch and still play this game regularly. It's a situation where each person will have a different experience and takes on whether it is beneficial or not.

[MomomiMomi]

I still would rather they just raised the cap every week and removed the reset altogether.

So instead of going from 450/450 on a Monday to 0/450 after reset rinse repeat,
you go from 450/450 or say 230/450 to 450/900 or 230/900 and then 900/1350 and like 460/1350, that way you are always in a position to "catch up" as you have the ability to get the maximum amount of tomes as everyone else currently playing for that tome cycle and you still have the time gating its just not punishing anyone for taking a week off.

This. This is what I came to post.

[MugenMugetsu]

Abolishing the weekly cap just takes the gap between hardcore and casual, drives a wedge into it, and levers it wider until it's completely insurmountable.

That's not true. The reason I say this is because there are only a certain number of pieces of gear that can be acquired. If someone wants to grind until their eyes bleed that's fine, in my opinion. It's their prerogative. However, there are those of us who have multiple 60s that we would like to fully gear and the weekly cap makes this seemingly impossible to do before the gear we're working to obtain because obsolete, via planned obsolence, when a new, higher, tier of tome gear is released.

You make sound arguments and seem to be very intelligent and I always enjoy your posts, but I must disagree with you on this particular point. Having a weekly cap is just more gated content. If I want, for example, to fully gear Drk, Brd, Nin, Blm, War, Smn, and Mnk in Lore gear, there would be no way that I could acquire all of the Lore gear for all of those jobs at 450 tomes of Lore a week until the next tier of gear is released. It's just not mathematically possible and this is the problem that I have with a measly 450 tome cap. It's extending the length of time gear and content are relevant for the sake of doing so while restricting the paying playerbase from being able to acquire all of the gear that they would like to acquire. It's not right, and I do not agree with it.

The tome cap should be abolished period.

[Cnidarian]

snip

I don't understand how you tell Ashkendor that his statement was not true only to provide an example of his statement being true. When he talked about hardcore, I don't think he was using it in a way to denote raid style, but rather play style. By wanting to fully gear 5 jobs with 7 different weapons, you would be considered hardcore in terms of play style. The point of the weekly cap isn't to stop people from gearing multiple 60s, it's to provide a progression curve that the devs have set in order to prolong content to match a timeline they have established for the average player base doing raid content.

On a side note, give it time and I'm sure once they relaunch Diadem, you will have your chance to gear up multiple 60s. Whether or not you choose to run it once it has been updated is your prerogative. Also, with the current patch cycles, you can easily have 3-4 jobs geared up via tomes and 2 jobs via the new 24 man before the gear itself becomes obsolete. While you might not be able to get into i230+, you also have the option of gearing to i220 with crafted (some of which is better than i230) and Midas normal. That's enough to be able to run Midas Savage runs with.

[MugenMugetsu]

snip

I was just providing an example as to how abolishing the cap on tomes, 1. Does not prevent someone from being able to catch up. and 2. Doesn't actually increase the gap between hardcore and casual. While the cap on tomes, 1. Hinders players from being able to gear multiple jobs in the amount of relevant current tier gear that they would like to before that gear becomes obsolete. and 2. Creates more gated content and is completely unnecessary.

Just because I casually play the game and over time earn far more tomes than what the current cap allows does not, in any way, make me hardcore. I do not participate in Savage. I have yet to try most of the latest Ex Primal fights, and I don't play the game for more than 3-4 hours a day most days. I'm lucky if I get 3-4 hours, a day, with a wife and 2 yr old. lol

All of this is not to say that I don't understand what you are saying when you say, "I don't understand how you tell Ashkendor that his statement was not true only to provide an example of his statement being true." I'm just merely stating the reason for my post, as well as providing an example of the fact that you don't have to be hardcore to grind tomes of Lore. The majority of content that rewards Lore tomes is faceroll content anyway. If I spam hunts, DR EX, Void Ark, and Lvl 60 Dungeons, just as an example, I would consider myself far from hardcore, but with abolishing the tome cap at least I would have the option of having the ability to acquire all of the pieces of Lore gear that I would like to acquire.

I've been against the tome cap for some time now. I'll always stand by my opinion that the tome cap needs to be abolished. ( ~.ø)b

[Skivvy]

Removing that weekly lockout doesn't remove the need for people to cap, though. People that don't feel the need to cap would be unaffected. People that do feel the need to cap would only have it worse then. Instead of a finite weekly amount you need to get to keep up, suddenly there's a situation where once you fall behind the frontrunners you can never catch up. Newer players come into the game far behind with no hope of ever catching up. That's a terrible feeling to have in any game. Abolishing the weekly cap just takes the gap between hardcore and casual, drives a wedge into it, and levers it wider until it's completely insurmountable.

The way content is released in this game prevents anyone from getting too far ahead. So what's the worst that happens? A more casual player may end up with only one or two jobs that are geared well enough to complete in the most current endgame while a more hardcore player may have 6 or so. Who cares? Outside of PvP and maybe crafting, I'm failing to see an issue with allowing people to gear their jobs at their own pace.

[Moomba33]

Its a means of being rewarded with the best gear for the easiest, most mundane content that is excessively repetitive.

Oh, so this is really about wanting the top gear to come from harder content?
SE already holds back tome gear by making the upgrade items exclusive to raids until a patch later. I don't see how keeping the top gear in hard content only will make things less repetitive as it would shrink the list of content worth running at any one time.