Difficulty format for Normal and Savage will remain in 4.0

[Lexia]

They just playing it safe and will most likely always play it safe and just repeat the same formula.

[Jynx]

Prefer coil much more. Having the story there gave it weight.

[Velhart]

Its the same old "But look at the numbers!" excuse. Principle of design, Yoshi-P. Story should be a reward, not something to be handed to you on a silver platter. If you are incapable of getting a group or lacking the skills to take on a raid tier, then wait till they put a echo buff and gimp the mechanics on normal mode. I am a broken record here, but the team needs to know when to make an MMO, and when to make a Final Fantasy. Nice to see also how enthusiastic his team is about making the raiding content. Almost like it shouldn't exist.

It is simple:
Even patch Tier 1: Normal(FCoB) > Savage(SCoB Savage)

Odd patch: Alternate ways to get gear to make checks on Normal easier.

Even patch Tier 2: Normal Tier 1(add in a echo buff and nerf mechanics, no ilvl sync) > Savage Tier 1(keep the ilvl sync on so it is always challenging)


And likely I am going to get those who say they deserve to get the story for the least amount of effort. If developers say that it is hard to motivate people to raid, then they need to find ways to do so that are not in expense of the audience the content is designed for, midcore and hardcore players.

[Fynlar]

I'll never agree with storyline content being locked behind difficulty, sorry. Getting through the story should never be extraordinarily difficult. Doesn't anyone remember what happened with Steps of Faith?

The high difficulty (and equipment rewards to match) should be for optional/hardmode content.

If you couldn't do Coil while it was relevant, that's more of a you problem, as there were plenty of pugs back then.

Yeah, and I'm sure most of those "pugs" actually won. Not.

Nothing would be stopping you.

Uhh, yeah, it would. 2nd coil in particular completely stonewalled me until the level cap went to 60, and even then it was still a pain to get through considering all the stupid instant death/wipe mechanics it had.

[Theplatter]

He just does not get it. Why does SE keep Yoshida on as the lead producer?

At this point it seems it's all about the money. He saved FFXIV (and possibly SE as a whole) with the release of 2.0 and people praised him as the saviour of the franchise. Unfortunately, he found that catering to the lowest common denominator is the most profitable business model, so why should they bother with another method at this point?

I'm pretty sure SE doesn't even know what to do with raiding anymore even though people have given suggestions.

Definitely seems like that's the case anymore; even looking at the stats in regards to how low of the percentage per server that have cleared Alex Savage won't sway his/their decisions.

At least I have many fond memories of Coil days that I will keep with me forever. Nothing in Alexander or 3.0 has held up the standards of early 2.0 and thats a shame.

I had checked out Ethys Asher's Binding Coils of Bahamut Explained video the other day, and oh man, the feels. Coil had a fantastic story that encouraged players to press on, if only to see the conclusion of the 1.0 storyline, as well as some of the most impressive-looking gear in the game. Alex is about goblins and cheese...hurray?

They just playing it safe and will most likely always play it safe and just repeat the same formula.

With raids and so much other content across the board. Would be nice to know whether or not FATEs will again be central to leveling, relics, seasonal events, etc., but I'm fairly certain we can predict the answer to that at this point.

[Sandpark]

Its the same old "But look at the numbers!" excuse. Principle of design, Yoshi-P. Story should be a reward, not something to be handed to you on a silver platter. If you are incapable of getting a group or lacking the skills to take on a raid tier, then wait till they put a echo buff and gimp the mechanics on normal mode. I am a broken record here, but the team needs to know when to make an MMO, and when to make a Final Fantasy. Nice to see also how enthusiastic his team is about making the raiding content. Almost like it shouldn't exist.

Bad Principle then. Are you saying the CoP story gate in XI was perfect and anyone un-able to find a good static should have been denied to experience the story? They later nerfed the content and group requirements after realizing all that hard work was what was preventing people from advancing.

I beat it in it's vanilla, but I knew many who just could not find the people, the time, or lacked the skill to progress the story line.

Raids are the least popular endgame not only because the difficulty is hard. It requires perfect harmony in skill and forming same schedule/skill competent groups for long play sessions on a regular basis.

The point here is watching the metrics. If 4-15% of the playerbase is getting new story completing raids and the rest aren't. Something is amiss. In a sub based game, isn't the point of a dev to try and get the most players possible having a reason to log in? If it's not, then the game should go full on hardcore and then they would have a couple of hundred thousand that never quit, but everyone else not in that category would fly the coop.

Normal should be pretty difficult, but not Savage difficult, more lenient towards pugs and mistakes. Savage should have the BiS and require statics, guild type content but just marginally better or you get a cry for content from both sides. The super elite saying the rest of the game is too easy and the other side who says the game is too hard.

[Istaru]

I agree story should be a reward. Kinda like playing on different difficulties or completing certain content in console games gives a different ending.

On a different note, so far, Alexander's story is not much of a reward.

[StrejdaTom]

I really don't mind the 2 difficulties even thought I loved Coil more, but I hate how things are being handled now.
The incentive to do savage is near 0 and nothing is being done about it.

[zosia]

Bad Principle then. Are you saying the CoP story gate in XI was perfect and anyone un-able to find a good static should have been denied to experience the story?

Think that is a bit of a false equivalency. CoP gates were not going to get easier, especially with level capped fights that can't be outgeared/outleveled.

We know that raids in this game get easier in three ways: direct nerfs, overgearing, and the eventual raising of the level cap.

Coil is a great example of this concept. Pretty much anyone, regardless of skill, can see the coil story first hand right now. Most of the coil fights are solo/duo/trio-able. I think the primary exception is Bahamut prime, but he is only one expansion away from being soloable by all jobs.

This was not true with CoP, the gates were not designed to get any easier.

So, yes, Velhart is right, you should not get everything handed to you on a silver platter. If you don't want to pony up the skill and time to see the raid story when it's current, you should just wait until you can do the fights on your terms rather than dragging down the entire game to meet your play style.

[Velhart]

Bad Principle then. Are you saying the CoP story gate in XI was perfect and anyone un-able to find a good static should have been denied to experience the story?

Difficulty was not CoP's issue, it was getting people to do it unless you went through it the first week. If DF existed during that time, 90% of CoP's story issues would of been fixed. Also the MSQ is not a raid tier. If it is raiding tier content, then it needs to retain it's difficulty and if the casual playerbase who already has 95% of the content in this game catered to them, I honestly believe they can wait a tier. Principle of design.

Again, midcore/hardcore will likely leave over casual with the constant dumbing down of content.