Squadrons are a let down for now

[Malzian]

I hate to judge before trying something, but with the new features, I too will go with the mindset that it is bad. FFXIV is great with trial bosses, MSQ, Side-quests and dungeons, but the new content always comes as half baked.

I honestly don't know what else you expect with new content, though. Yeah, they're great with Trials, MSQs and dungeons... but remember that those are the bulk majority of the game so they have a lot of practice and experience making those. Whenever you're introducing a new and novel system to a game, there are bound to be issues and problems with it since 1.) You've never made those types of systems before and 2.) You have no empirical evidence of how those systems will work once they're live.

Consider it like this... you have a baker, and all he makes is bread. He can make you any type of bread you want and chances are it's going to be good. He decides one day to make a cake... he's never made a cake before. It's similar to bread in some ways, but vastly different in others. The cake may come out decent, but you shouldn't expect it to be flawless. The difference is, the baker in this case (SE) is letting us try it out on the first attempt with no previous feedback. It's been said many times before, for new systems like this... SE needs a PTR. I understand they don't want people getting insider knowledge of things like EX Primals and Raids, so you don't include them. Imagine how Diadem would have turned out if a small group of select users, users who were known to be good at sussing out these issues, was allowed to see the content first and provide all the feedback they get anyway when they release the patch.

They're far too eager to try and innovate and throw out new features in every other patch. I'd much rather see them take a longer patch cycle on newer features to get actual hands-on feedback than rush this stuff out the way they do.

[Cidel]

Maybe they should try testing it in isolation on a legacy server and work on it and perfect it before launching it instead of releasing half baked content for the sake of releasing content.

Oh I agree about all the "half-baked" thing. My comment was only made sarcastically (I guess the eye-roll emoticon isn't telling enough) as it seems to be the battle-cry of people telling others to stop being disappointed in content previewed before it's released/ gets updated many months down the line. It just sounds ridiculous when used as an excuse for content we have had sitting like Diadem and housing.

[Stormfur]

I wonder how many people (actual players) have access to the test server. It's one thing to go at it from a development point of view, and an entirely different one to come at it as a paying customer.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

Consider it like this... you have a baker, and all he makes is bread. He can make you any type of bread you want and chances are it's going to be good. He decides one day to make a cake... he's never made a cake before. It's similar to bread in some ways, but vastly different in others. The cake may come out decent, but you shouldn't expect it to be flawless.

So what if we don't want cake and we want a cookie?

[Laerune]

I wonder how many people (actual players) have access to the test server. It's one thing to go at it from a development point of view, and an entirely different one to come at it as a paying customer.

Unless they have changed it, there is no test server where we can try out BETA versions of content. SE does (used to?) it testing in-house, compared to other mmorpgs who tend to have a test server and live server open for their players.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

Unless they have changed it, there is no test server where we can try out BETA versions of content. SE does (used to?) it testing in-house, compared to other mmorpgs who tend to have a test server and live server open for their players.

Test server reply:

Are there any plans to implement a public test server for patch content?
https://www.engadget.com/2014/11/12/...rs-and-post-f/

Infrastructure-wise, we have the system in place to make a test server public. However, if we were to set up a test server, we'd have to make sure to hide all "spoiler" content, which would in turn push back the major updates schedule by about a month.

A Realm Reborn has been in service for only about one year, so instead of implementing a test server, we have put priority on bringing major updates to our players as quickly as possible. In the future, we would like to find a way to shorten such delays and make it a reality.

[Malzian]

So what if we don't want cake and we want a cookie?

Well, they're making it... so you're gonna get it...

[FunkyBunch]

GC Squadrons are a big disappointment at least for now.
Turns out they are exactly what many people predicted to be.
They are just ventures.
They state they have plans so you can use them in dungeons in future.
Well this feature was a big disappointment for now. I wish it was something new and unique.

Oh look! New Feature Disappointment thread! How original!

[MaikoRaines]

Well, they're making it... so you're gonna get it...

Isn't a cookie just a failed cake that couldn't cut it?

[Welsper59]

I was expecting something fun. This is just another venture system. We didn't really need one more. We had the retainers and the airship missions already. Adding a 3rd was a bit pointless. And we really don't know how far int he future we will be able to use them. Airships supposed to get more functionality in future but they still didn't. Sending an NPC into the void and wait for a timer is not fun. They could at least think something a bit more fun.

I'm always curious about what people mean by "fun", since it nearly always comes void of examples. I mean, I guess it's possible that "I was expecting something fun" literally ends at that... an expectation of fun. Like someone waking up in the morning and thinking "ooh this should be fun" with absolutely nothing going on in that brain of theirs as to what, why, or how it's going to be fun lol.

I share the disappointment about the lack of use in dungeons or whatever else (temporarily), but we are at least told it will come later. If that's all people wanted, then think of this as the teaser or introduction for it, because that's essentially what the 3rd venture system is. I swear though, I am going to rage if this requires ventures to do for some stupid reason.