A12 savage World first 3 days after patch

[Kaurie]

Early in HW life cycle there was an interview with Yoshi P where he was asked about the two difficulties and he said he would prefer 3 but doesn't have the manpower to do more than two. As a result he does one tier for everyone and one for proper raiding.

From a purely metric perspective the ultra hard teir of content would not be the highest priority as the number of players who would truly engage and invest a lot of time on it is relatively small. Case in point, a rough census using Loadstone data indicated that roughly only 1%, if that, of the NA player base actually finished Gordias Savage before Midas came out and while its likely higher, I suspect even Midas Savage wouldn't top 10% before Creator.

From that perspective Normal mode is a much better investment. The number of players actually completing and even regularly doing the Normal mode almost certainly massively exceeds those actually in the higher level progression.

Yeah, I remember that interview. I disagree that he doesn't have the manpower to provide 3+ difficulties though. They already have a lot of the work done (setting, animations, graphics etc.). Then, they also spend a lot of resources on content which feels less important (at least to me). For example, Aquariums seem entirely too complex for what should be a simple housing item. Things like LoV, PotD and Diadem are convoluted, unloved and likely took a lot of dev resources. Take those resources and re-allocate. Finally, I'd say that they waste a lot of resources re-inventing the wheel so-to-speak every patch. Each patch the difficulty is off, people complain, the analyze and re-design and put out something new - this is likely resulting in a lot of wasted time.

They also could probably implement a middle tier pretty easily. Design a hard gordias-style savage and then just lower some outgoing damage, lower dps checks and maybe remove a mechanic or two. You don't need to design anything new, just trim some of the stuff that makes it as hard as it is.

[Jynx]

Yeah, I remember that interview. I disagree that he doesn't have the manpower to provide 3+ difficulties though.

Eh even if they re-allocated staff to make 3 difficulty levels do we really want the same content in 3 different flavors?

I'd rather have two tiers and the content be totally separate things, but then the casual "but muh story" people would complain.

[Duelle]

Well I don't mind if the savage is easier to clear, because it will encourage casual-tier to do savage and that could increase the clear rate statistics

This is a key part of this discussion that people like the OP don't take into account. Gordias and Midas did a number on the raiding community in this game. That's not a good thing in the long run. That the top 1% of raiders cleared Creator as fast as they did should encourage the midcore people that shied away from raiding this expansion back into it seeing that it's not soul-crushingly difficult.

even if they re-allocated staff to make 3 difficulty levels do we really want the same content in 3 different flavors?

If it means people get the see the content they paid for, sure.

I'd rather have two tiers and the content be totally separate things, but then the casual "but muh story" people would complain.

It's a valid complain. Else you get things like the Isle of Quel Danas that was basically Blizzard's way of saying "not good enough to raid/don't have a raiding guild? Here's a bunch of dailies for you to do while the true heroes are running Sunwell Plateau. Have fun trolololol".

[Kaurie]

Eh even if they re-allocated staff to make 3 difficulty levels do we really want the same content in 3 different flavors?

I'd rather have two tiers and the content be totally separate things, but then the casual "but muh story" people would complain.

That depends on the other content that we are getting instead of 3 levels. If it is Diadem, LoV, PotD or Aquariums, I'll take the added difficulty level.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Yeah, I remember that interview. I disagree that he doesn't have the manpower to provide 3+ difficulties though. They already have a lot of the work done (setting, animations, graphics etc.). Then, they also spend a lot of resources on content which feels less important (at least to me). For example, Aquariums seem entirely too complex for what should be a simple housing item. Things like LoV, PotD and Diadem are convoluted, unloved and likely took a lot of dev resources. Take those resources and re-allocate. Finally, I'd say that they waste a lot of resources re-inventing the wheel so-to-speak every patch. Each patch the difficulty is off, people complain, the analyze and re-design and put out something new - this is likely resulting in a lot of wasted time.

They also could probably implement a middle tier pretty easily. Design a hard gordias-style savage and then just lower some outgoing damage, lower dps checks and maybe remove a mechanic or two. You don't need to design anything new, just trim some of the stuff that makes it as hard as it is.

To be fair, the difficulty in coding fight mechanics and aesthetics are substantially higher than Aquariums. It isn't really a fair comparison as the latter requires no balance tuning, situational awareness and just the sheer complexity that goes into even a single fight. I actually doubt PotD or Diadem did take significant resources due to their reuse of assets. Diadem is essentially a zone map with your typical trash mob and occasional hunt-esque bosses. PotD is largely similar corridors in a small cavern setting. None have much intricacy to them. Regardless, they can't just cater to the battle side of content. While LoV and Diadem were disasters, PotD has largely been well-received despite it still needing improvements. People in this game like fluff. Frankly, I don't necessarily think three difficulties is even needed. Alexander is a side story. It doesn't need to be faceroll nor should it. At the same time, it doesn't need to be extremely challenging. Just much more than it is currently.

Honestly, what I think would help people seeking a challenge is if they implemented a ilvl scale mechanic that premade groups could set. Think of it like sliders. You set it to whatever ilvl you desire (in increments of five) and your gear is scaled accordingly. None of this DF nonsense where even scaled gear laughs at low level content. If you said it to ilvl 210, it'll be as those any gear above that level were now the exact equivalent. From there, put challenges for players to accomplish. Beat Gordias/Midas/Creator at x ilvl, attempt it underleveled and so forth. They could build a reward structure around that. Maybe the harder you make the content, the highest chance pigeons or ponies drop.

[Belhi]

Yeah, I remember that interview. I disagree that he doesn't have the manpower to provide 3+ difficulties though. They already have a lot of the work done (setting, animations, graphics etc.). Then, they also spend a lot of resources on content which feels less important (at least to me). For example, Aquariums seem entirely too complex for what should be a simple housing item. Things like LoV, PotD and Diadem are convoluted, unloved and likely took a lot of dev resources. Take those resources and re-allocate. Finally, I'd say that they waste a lot of resources re-inventing the wheel so-to-speak every patch. Each patch the difficulty is off, people complain, the analyze and re-design and put out something new - this is likely resulting in a lot of wasted time.

They also could probably implement a middle tier pretty easily. Design a hard gordias-style savage and then just lower some outgoing damage, lower dps checks and maybe remove a mechanic or two. You don't need to design anything new, just trim some of the stuff that makes it as hard as it is.

Firstly its possible that the skillset required doesn't simply translate across.

More to the point all the content you mentioned is new things they have been trying and the playerbase as been very frequently asking them to try new things. Whenever you try something new there is always a chance it will flop. Diadem and LoV did. I suspect LoV is why they haven't added anything else to the Gold saucer since. I would argue that PotD is quite popular, at least from my corner of the community. Quite a lot of my FC do it, particularly when levelling alt classes/jobs.

Unless we are assuming that YoshiP is outright lying, I would say that the situation isn't that easy to fix. I am no game developer but from hearing IT friends talk there is a hell of a lot more that goes on behind the scenes.

We need to remember that players operate from a limited perspective and have little to judge the overall community attitude to content released or how used it is. SE has actual metric data as well as multiple sources of feedback. They would have staff who's whole job is to analyse this data and help draw an impression of the usage of content among the playerbase and the over all playerbases attitude toward such content.