Will they ever stop with constant Vertical Progression?

[bass9020]

If you had a total of 5 hours to play "a week"...would you play a game in which you could accomplish nothing in that time? I know I would choose a different game.

If I put more time into a game I would like more out of it, just because someone else can't thats not my problem. But sadly games are catering to these people and we can't really do anything about it.

If you are only able to play 5 hours a week then maybe an MMO isn't the right choice to spend your time, plenty of single player RPGS out there that no longer require any effort to play like they used too. But if you are stubborn and want to keep playing an MMO for 5 hours a week then you shouldn't really be complaining if you are behind or don't have all the special loots everyone else has.

[Maero]

Thing is by the time you are fully geared and or upgraded, new gear comes out.

[Kaurie]

I'm having a really hard time find a reason to login anymore, and it has to do with itemization. Every single patch, it's new gear, higher item lvl, 5-8 more main stat per piece, no sets, no effects, nothing. Why is this allowed to keep happening? why aren't players allowed to have sets or effects on their gear? why does getting an upgrade have to feel so...bad ?

Player A) upgrades 220 gloves to 240 gloves, player A gains 14 int 7 crit. Do you see where I am going ?

Player A logs off,

I hope my point is clear to my readers, thank you.

Player A upgrades 220 to 240 gloves. Player A gains 80 accuracy, loses 120 spell speed and gains 5 crit and 14 int. Player A does less damage now.

[Darkside302]

Yes this topic has been brought up a million times on other threads...and that's a good thing. I say keep bringing it up and keep having more threads. Attention needs to be constantly brought to this topic. I'm so happy that there's plenty of other things to do in this game because the gear treadmill is absolute garbage. It's annoying how every high end player is the exact same gear and skill wise. I don't play this game for glamour. The crafting is far beyond other MMO's though, and combined with the multitude of other things to do it's just enough to keep me interested.
The itemization is absolute junk in this game. I'd LOVE to play this game with skills/gear variables such as Diablo 2 (or even 3 now that it's also good). Imagine what that would be like? If there is an MMO out there like that then please point me in that direction as I'd love to give it a try. I love FF14 don't get me wrong, I just hate the end game stuff the exact same way the OP describes.

[Theodric]

I'd definitely like to see more variety in terms of progression and in-game activities. Hopefully this 'Palace of the Dead' will be a step in that direction. I don't mind upgrading my character's equipment but I want to be able to advance my character elsewhere and through different means as well.

[Zojha]

If you are only able to play 5 hours a week then maybe an MMO isn't the right choice to spend your time[...]

Or maybe there are MMOs that are the right choice because they decided to cater to such people? Just like there are single player games in which you can dump a lot of time. It would present a market niché, no?

If such a MMO existed, maybe the other people would then be best advised to choose a more traditional MMO instead, since they are not the niché addressed with that particular MMO?

It's not like every product has to cater to the same people.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

The answer is situational traits. Stuff that's good in some fights, and worse in others. As an example, let's go back to the days of Turn 2 before enrage farming was an option and folks actually had to deal with Allagan Rot. Now, let's introduce a piece of armor with terrible stats, but reduces the recast for Blunt Arrow to two seconds. Suddenly, you have a BRD that can silence High Voltage every time - even if you kill the Quarantine Node to disable Allagan Rot, which makes the boss SO much easier. Now you have two pieces of desirable gear - the normal vertical progression gear for damage, and the Blunt Arrow gear for instances where things frequently need to be silenced.

Of course, this means that every BRD will be expected to obtain BOTH pieces of gear, but it does introduce gear variety - and it also introduces a piece of gear which remains useful for a long period of time, as that Blunt Arrow enhancement remains useful regardless of the other stats on the gear.

It bears mentioning, though, that this makes BRD pretty much indispensable for stuff where Silence is needed - and making one job indispensable is one thing SE is hoping to avoid. It's a tradeoff, and as someone who came from an MMO where jobs cycled through "flavors of the week" nigh constantly (some jobs must-have, others practically ignored, and which was which could change every patch) I know how bad this can be. It does make things more INTERESTING, though, and to me that's more important than ensuring that every job is included, always.

I don't know about anyone else, but I hate the idea of having however many weapons/gear that mostly sits in my already cramped inventory except for maybe one fight. That doesn't make gear interesting, just a tedious progress of running to your retainers depending on the fight you're doing.

[bass9020]

I don't know about anyone else, but I hate the idea of having however many weapons/gear that mostly sits in my already cramped inventory except for maybe one fight. That doesn't make gear interesting, just a tedious progress of running to your retainers depending on the fight you're doing.

Exactly why I keep bringing up the IX system of learning the abilities or buying them with guild marks rather than having them on gear. Or do it similar to spirit bonding where you wear the gear and over time you learn whatever on that piece of gear. This way the gear system will still be exactly how it is now boring but will allow people to not hold so many pieces for each fight.

[Moomba33]

I don't see the appeal of horizontal progression to be honest. I don't want to have to farm multiple sets of equipment for every job that I play.
With XIV's current pace of upgrades I can keep even my rarely played alts geared enough to do the content I run with dungeon drops and the uncapped tomestone.

What I would like to see is more varied content that is worth running. The Aquapolis was a good start and I now get a lot of my tomes from map nights with my FC instead of expert roulette. I'm hopeful that the Palace of the Dead will also prove to be fun and rewarding and that SE will be able to revamp Diadem into something more fun in the future.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

I actually take 3-6 month breaks quite often from this game. Why bother doing x when in 6 months, x will take me 1/10th of the time because it's no longer relevant, or will soon be phased out? I can take a 6 month break and then catch up in a week. This is a result of vertical progression. It doesn't even require me to play often. The thing is, I want to play. That's why I sub.

Apparently the game doesn't want me subbing often, though.

Let me ask, how do you propose horizontal progression will radically change this? You could put all the skill procs and stat boosts you fancy on gear, but people will inevitably map out what is mathematically better and that will become the new norm.