To be honest, Alex Savage is a failure.

[Alien_Gamer]

But you'd hope a 3 year old would learn new things to become a better adult, no?

In terms of longevity, the average MMO lasts about 5-7 years. Some that are really popular last up to around 10 years. Most MMOs that stick around longer than 10 years are in just a maintenance mode and refusing to die. At 3 years this game definitely isn't young anymore. I'm sure the FF brand recognition will keep it going at least a few more years but the game really does need some better innovation and QOL improvements to keep it going.

[Cherie]

Did anyone else stop caring about the Main story quest since the raids got separated from the main story or is that just me?

I used to really like to do the main story quest to see what happens next in relation to the raid (bahamut) and etc but now I can't be bothered. It's a 'cool story bro' when doing the cutscenes but like, it doesn't really effect the gameplay anymore other than you get a cool emote. I cared more about the scions when I had a raid that had something to do with them. Now it's just like... well Y'shitola is there involved but just barely. She gets a cameo role in a side story that doesn't really even make a lot of sense in terms of the flow of the story of the game. Like why are these goblins even doing this atm and why is this the first we heard of it? Are we just Deux Ex Machina onto the scene at just the right time? What if we didn't get pushed into ishgard just at this moment, would everyone in Eorzea have died? We weren't even called to the scene with the goblins and Alexander. We kind of just happened upon it. It's pretty contrived as to why we are even involved. I guess I wouldn't really care if it hadn't been done so well with this game in the past. I really think separating the raids from the main story/gameplay was a bad idea...but that's just me.

I could understand them separating the MSQ from the raids if the raids were too hard for the average player to be able to see the story. However, they went and made easy modes for all the raids and it's possible for anyone to try them now with duty finder(Don't tell me it's not possible. I often go clear it in duty finder with a person dead on the floor. If you say you can't do it, you can totally be that dead person. Aspire for success! lol). Wasn't that the point of making and easy mode, so that everyone could see the story that goes with the raids? Then they went the extra step by making the raid's storyline irrelevant to the main story. They really went overboard to try to be inclusive...

[Moomba33]

Can't say I feel the same. 3.1 was disappointing to me for being short but I'd say it was still better than 2.1 which was bogged down by filler quests. I really enjoyed 3.2.

I do think Coil was stronger than Alex due to its connection to the main story but I still look forward to more main story quests every patch.

[Noxifer]

Or it makes it less accessible because groups that already exist would have to split themselves. They already exist as a group of 8, so going into the next 8-man raids is pretty accessible for them already, wouldn't you say?

The 8-man statics that already exist would be the ones totally screwed over.

The difficulty of the currently-existing 24-man raids is mutually exclusive to the idea that people want larger raids. If they made tougher 24-man raids I'd personally love it.

Yes, if there was no difficult 8-man content, there'd be trouble for static groups. But there still is. There's primals. So... if you're already in a static, you could go as the full static to primals, and for a 4-man raid you could split up into two groups and do it side-by-side, so to speak. It might even make it easier to schedule for some groups in case a few of their people have an easier time raiding on Wednesdays instead of on Thursdays (random days picked). Static groups today consist of 2 tanks, 2 healers and 4 dps. So that'd be pretty easy to split into two groups if there were 4-man raids or other Hard content.

There have been threads on these forums with a few people asking for bigger non-faceroll raids, some reminiscing with rose-tinted glasses back to EQ or Ultima Online and such... But those threads tend to give an overwhelming "No, thanks, we don't need that scheduling nightmare" response. Getting a serious group who are able to be online the required times can be tricky enough with 8 players. Trying to find, say, 24 people who are able to raid the same days...? @_@

[KarstenS]

Yes, if there was no difficult 8-man content, there'd be trouble for static groups. But there still is. There's primals. So... if you're already in a static, you could go as the full static to primals, and for a 4-man raid

Do you know how long primals last for statics?

Mostly 1 or 2 weeks.

Also you forget that the jobs are balanced around full parties.

When there would be 4 man raids, with the current job balance, every group would be PLD, DRG, BLM, SCH (maybe AST). The onliest solution would be making the jobs less different. Nobody really wants this.

[Colt47]

As a person who doesn't do the savage mode dungeons I'm glad they aren't walling story off anymore in the hardmodes. Yes, it provides motivation, but the kind of motivation and the people it tends to motivate when story is involved doesn't mesh all that well. Casual story buffs just want it over with so they know what the heck is going on and really could care less about how challenging it is to get to that story as long as the story is still relevant to the current patch. However...

Gear needs to be seriously glamour worthy in end game raids. Someone should see a guy who has done Savage Alex or coil and know just from a quick glance that they did it. Also, instead of depending on level sync to make content easier, if a new expansion comes out why not make a 4 man version of the older savage that has the gear and can be ran for historic reasons with a dye-able version? The fact is most raiders/HCers have two needs with gear they get from runs: The first is to have something really cool to show off, the second is to wear a trophy of their run that they can be proud of (because honestly, they just bashed their brains out on the hardest content in the game. Give the guys a cookie!)

Also, I personally enjoy the HM and EX primals more since they are shorter bite sized content, and wouldn't mind some kind of reward for just completing the darn things even once. Given the weapons are almost always a side grade, why the heck are we being forced to farm endlessly the same boss to get our one weapon? Just give the first one free and if people need to gear alts THEN fall into the token / random loot stuff. For folks that are a bit more casually driven ex-raiders but want a challenge the primals are the go-to.

[Klamor]

As a person who doesn't do the savage mode dungeons I'm glad they aren't walling story off anymore in the hardmodes. Yes, it provides motivation, but the kind of motivation and the people it tends to motivate when story is involved doesn't mesh all that well. Casual story buffs just want it over with so they know what the heck is going on and really could care less about how challenging it is to get to that story as long as the story is still relevant to the current patch. However...

There are these things called Single-Player Games. You might be interested in that.

[Destous]

They need to make the normal modes more relevant to the savage modes. For example, compare Seph normal to SephEx. If it weren't for the presence of Seph, you wouldn't ever guess that those two fights are related in any way. The normal version of fights should be easier to clear, but also go a long way in prepping players for the savage versions in terms of mechanics to remember. Too often savage fights are just completely different in most every way from the normal version for the sake of making the normal version completely faceroll.

[LadyVal]

There are these things called Single-Player Games. You might be interested in that.

This is also a Final Fantasy title, where storyline and narrative are the bulk of every title of the franchise, in case you haven't picked that up yet. SE values giving everyone the chance to experience a new story, without struggle, over making sure they keep your sword sharpened.

[Chessala]

There are these things called Single-Player Games. You might be interested in that.

This is one of the things why we can't have nice things (together with "you need to be forced into groups 24/7"). These kind of arguments need to die hard. It's why we have a wishy-washy system and constantly repeating content