I'm re-reading the Siliconera article, and there's this one tidbit that worries me.

[SendohJin]

Adding materia slots to non-crafted gear was a big change that's positive. they still need to do more with itemization that's not straight up horizontal progression. this is still one of the biggest obstacles to meaningful midcore content. you can't have that if you're not going to be able to give meaningful rewards.

Adding Scrips was a positive change too imo. it's good to have DoL/DoH objectives.

[RiceisNice]

The point of Diadem was freedom, they were testing the waters with content that allowed players to set their own rules about what to do or where to go, turns out themepark MMO players didn't like the lack of an arrow pointing you what to do, and letting people decide whether they want to battle or gather after getting into the instance was a really short-sighted idea, because the battle guys now couldn't get proper credit without the people who couldn't care less about battle and are only there for gathering. It was a risk, and it didn't end well on the battle side, though I do love it for gathering and the fact that stealth doesn't work. Another honorable mention is the lack of rewards from actual exploration and just encouraging endless grind instead.

It's not even the lack of arrows pointing where to go, it's more on the lines of "there was no reason to do so". If you were going into Diadem for gear, no questions asked the best way to do it was organized genocide of island inhabitants. No exploration as it's labeled. Even exploration and teamwork is discouraged for gathering because there's no utilization for things like the no-fly caves, and the mobs are never really next to the nodes to pose a danger. Look at the trailers and none of that is present in actual practice. Theres no campfire resting for buff or even luxury (because of time limits), no one is gong to defend/escort gatherers because there's no need to.

Now the next diadem update will add a new map without this freedom, they're adding that list of objectives you must do to advance, because that's what the themepark MMO players seem to like, again we don't know if players will like this, so that's another risk being taken, as developing that content costs money and time, time they don't have.

If time isn't something they have, then honestly it feels like they're way out of their league when it comes to designing mmo content. The moment you start cutting shortcuts on content design and expansions, that's where it really starts to fall apart. I recall on record they said Diadem was rushed in favor of finishing LoV. Honestly, there needs to be a balance of risk taking and being cautionary. I'm fine with their ambition to what htey want the content to be, but more often than not they're pulling the horse without the wagon attached...or loaded...or the horse tamed. So much of the downfalls were blatantly obvious to the players (such as the match making for Feast which was present during pre-season, I cannot stress this enough) I quesiton what sort of feedback/testing the developers actually look at or do when it comes to quality checks.

As for the OP, they never even hinted they would change the formula, you can be sure the tome grind and gear with a 6 months expiration date will stay here until the game closes. Transitioning from fast vertical progression into a slow one is an overhaul and a massive risk a game that failed once shouldn't take, specially when other games with slower vertical progression aren't doing that well, slow vertical progression like XI is considered a thing of the past.

Honestly, if they have the actual census on the reception, player retention, and player gains of heavesnward, if there is more of a downward slope than an upward slope, then something needs to be done rather than keeping the same over and over. As I mentioned previously, it feels like they're adding new content for the sake of adding it. It doesn't feel like there's future plans for it down the road that isn't arbitrary (like hunts where they just make it give the latest tomestone rewards, and changing the seal purchases consequentially) and feels more of a draw-and-discard. That ultimately feels like a massive waste of development time if they don't bother to expand on it, and likewise with the expansion that gave very little framework to expand upon.

Adding Scrips was a positive change too imo. it's good to have DoL/DoH objectives.

I would have been fine with scripts if gathering/crafting wasn't butchered in general. Gathering scrips were used to get crafting gear, crafting script is needed for both gathering and crafting. Craters only made things for crafters (not combat or gatherers), and favors were so absurd, it makes you wonder who in the right mind actually thought it was fun. Recipes like the nuggets were absurd in heavensward and only encouraged more monotonous grinding in lower leveled areas, and just in general what crafters could make for others. Even the glamour endgame for it was rubbish (speaking from a MCH/BRD perspective), and it just totally killed the mood for crafting/gathering for me.

[Kosmos992k]

Did Yoshi-P straight up say 4.0's formula will be the exact same 2.0 AND 3.0? Or am I missing something here in context? Or is there not enough information to determine that?

It seemed to me he was talking more about the cadence of content releases, not the actual content, the formula of the content is not the cadence of it's release.

[Morningstar1337]

It seemed to me he was talking more about the cadence of content releases, not the actual content, the formula of the content is not the cadence of it's release.

Can you explian? I kinda lost on the term "cadence" outside of contexts involving ponies or vocals

[Vexander]

I like the game as it is to be honest. It's not perfect, but no game ever is. There's a lot to do, almost too much if I'm honest. I log on and go, "Let's see... EX Roulette for Lore, 60 Roulette for stuff, Leveling Roulette for my class on it's way to 60, Trial Roulette for them for EXP, or for lore if I want a tiny boost... Mini Cactpot, Hunt Seals, Beast Tribe Dailies... maybe after all that is done I'll have time for a Midas/WC/VA run, or for the Crystal Tower weekly."

It gets repetitive, but there are enough changes every day to keep it interesting.

[Cakekizyy]

Cadence would rate content comes out, not what kind of content it is.

[Kosmos992k]

Can you explian? I kinda lost on the term "cadence" outside of contexts involving ponies or vocals

The pace of release, the schedule of release, the speed with which content is delivered to users.

Cadence would rate content comes out, not what kind of content it is.

Complaints I see are people complaining that there are dungeons, 8 man raids, 24-man raids, ilevel bumps and so forth and that it's 'exactly' the same as before, and boring.

So how do you add content to an MMORPG set in the setting we have without adding dungeons and 8/24 player raid/dungeons? All Yoshi-P said was that the pacing of content delivery would be largely the same. He didn't say what the exact nature of the content would be.

[SendohJin]

Can you explian? I kinda lost on the term "cadence" outside of contexts involving ponies or vocals

the 3 month cycle with every 6 month being an iLv jump and every 3 in between allowing for catch up. this pattern doesn't completely dictate how you catch up or how the iLv jumps.

[Morningstar1337]

The pace of release, the schedule of release, the speed with which content is delivered to users.

the 3 month cycle with every 6 month being an iLv jump and every 3 in between allowing for catch up. this pattern doesn't completely dictate how you catch up or how the iLv jumps.

Ah. Makes sense. Thanks

[Vespar]

Well if nothing is going to change, I likely wont stick around for much longer.
I love the story, but the constant repetition and grind has burned me out.