4.1 - The emptiest patch yet.

[MyaValentine]

why are people offtracking on swimming? is simple we all wanted to go on those puddle of water we see worund the game pleayers like to swim is not a fuction and will never be something game breaking mechanincs just like flying swiming is for people who like it, we could take flying and swimming out of the game and the game will probably even feel bigger and alive but ultimately it wont change a thing. Just like any of you if you got sold by flying back in 3.0 there was people sold by swimming. that's it.

[Sandpark]

The issue becomes as FFXIV ages, new players replacing veterans will decline. On the subject of swimming, people aren't upset with its inclusion, but the fact nothing has been done with it. They sold swimming as a feature and it's little more than aesthetic. I like it for the same reasons you do, however I had hoped they might expand on it further. And no, that does not mean Blitzball.

Put another way, a friend of mine has repeated groaned they've spent so much time on Squadron AI and Perform. Why couldn't those be used for actual content? I can't exactly blame her either, especially seeing just how complex the Squadron stuff looks. Personally, I don't see running around with three bots as "new" and "innovative," even if it does have potential.

New players decline in any mmo with each passing day.

I imagine the swimming thing will be iterative just as most other non msq or raid stuff is. Changes and additions in upcoming patches. Expanding on swimming in the world and instances would add more replayability over Blitzball, which is why I would not want to Blitzball take priority over the former.

Perform will be a fun little venture for some as a break from the treadmill. I would have preferred Perform to be included in a redesign of Bard, playing instruments to wreck havoc, which would open up the path for a pure Ranger job.

Squadrons should be usable in all dungeons pre Stormblood to facilitate or enable more players to advance to endgame without excessive timegates in queues or copious amounts of stress when trying to play a role you are not comfortable with. It makes sense to make it somewhat more inviting to newer players and maybe in that process they fall in love with a certain job and hone their skill. Fellow NPCS in rpgs are not new or innovative, but that doesn't mean they are not appreciated or that they could not work somewhat differently here in context.

[technole]

But if the fight is even as hard as A8S then most of these people are not going to be able to get close to clearing

A8S clear rate at 3.3 was still at like 1%

You have to consider during Midas Savage we didn't have cooldown resets, nor the raise sickness changes we have now in 4.0. Progression is at a much faster pace now because of these things. Whereas every wipe in A8S meant having to wait for Hallowed/Living Dead to be ready each pull. So if a good group took most of the tier to clear, I don't hold it against them. So many one-shot mechanics, even today with echo and gear-overload you still need to know the fight the same way it was when relevant. Height and enumeration is 100k damage, you still have to do Gavel or you all wipe too (or be seriously good as a raid to kill Winged Justice before Judgment cast).

I'll also admit A8S was the most tiring capstone fight in Alexander, and even the game thinks so. You and your party look so long-winded when you kill Winged Justice for the first-time, compared to how happy everyone looks after first killing normal A8.

[Tracewood]

Well unlike another shooty online game I play, at least they're trying... it's tough to create content that everyone will like. Palace of the Dead and Aquapolis have been the most successful, Chocobo Racing and Triple Triad are also good time wasters if you're farming MGP.

Diadem... well, you'd think after the feed back from the first Diadem/Yokai Watch they'd listen. People were asking for a Notorious Monster pop system, or hell do something like Abyssea where aside from Savage raid you could get some good endgame armor from there, it had the potential but I don't get why they did it the way they did. I have a hunch Eureka would of been Diadem 3.0, and after the feedback from 2.0 the dev team had to of taken it back to the drawing board. Now, I know it's not fair to compare this game to FFXI but XI we had Sky and Sea, TWO very good options for endgame loot but they want to keep Savage at the very cutting edge. Variety is the spice of life, can't put all your best gear in one attraction. Give people options, people will still do savage content because min maxing will always be a thing. The kind of gamers who will complain that the "peasants" have other options besides savage raids are not worth listening to since they are the minority.

If they want to create more new content without burning up time and money creating new areas, they should consider more PotD style systems like Savage mode dungeons (Aurum Vale - Savage *because I'm evil like that) or Dynamis-Ul'Dah (fighting voidsent in the city states in an alternate Eorzea conjured by Diabolos or something). Also, increase the weekly tome cap a bit. 450 is too small, people have multiple jobs they want to gear to the fullest, now that we have new jobs it would take several patches to gear a fraction of them fully.

[Gravton]

There isn't less stuff than ever, some is just deliberately splintered off to the minor patches for a more even spread but overall it's at least as much as we've always been getting....

4.1 through 4.15 is...
> Alliance raid
> Light-Party Dungeon
> Main Scenario quests
> New PvP mode and map
> New housing area and updates
> First ever Ultimate raid
> Extreme trial
> Squadron dungeon content
> Hildibrand sidequests
> Beast Tribe quests
> Perform music feature
> Custom Delivery content
> Deeper treasure map dungeon with new mechanics
> Many major UI improvements
> Cross-world friend list, tells
> Raid roulette + adjustments to Labyrinth
> and the usual job fixes, new mounts, etc

Alliance raid - yeah it's new and I'm looking forward to it, but it won't last the patch cycle.
Light pt dungeon - yes it's new, and like other dungeons, will become tedious
MSQ - Standard, will last a week conservatively, don't know how many we are getting
New pvp - I'll give that to you. New map, objectives, and teams. Will last until 5.0
New housing area and updates - The housing area is already there, they are unlocking plots so it wasn't designed or implemented in 4.1. The updates are QoL and not content. Only a fraction of the population will be able to enjoy this.
Ultimate raid - stated by the devs that it is not content for everyone
New Extreme - changed some mechanics and made it harder, recycled old content
Squadron Dungeon - talked about since 2.0, still running dungeons we have run 100 times, if the dungeons were new and unique to squads I'd give it to you. It's old content with a new mechanic.
Hildabrand - only an intro so 2-4 fetch quests? 30 - 45 min?
Beast tribe - standard, 45 min to complete each day
Music feature - only for bard, if they gave everyone an orch. iPod to do the same then you might of had something. You already know ppl are going to ask for it. 5.0 new feature?
Custom delivery - exactly the same as now
Deeper treasure map - so my one map has a chance to become 2? Saves me from buying one I guess
The rest - UI and QoL improvements, not content. Yes even the 24 man raid finder. It's not new, we are still doing old content, it's just easier to access.

[Airget]

why are people offtracking on swimming?

It's because of the work that went into swimming and it's payoff. Zones took more time to produce because it was now Land-air-Sea instead of just Land-air however when you look at Sea what did it add?

All Sea added was "content" for DOL with having underwater nodes, past that Underwater content doesn't do anything else. SE should be trying to spend less time creating things for the sake of vanity cough Battle Replay cough and focus more on content people can actually play. Not content that is just a time sink as you go ok let me change my wardrobe then get a bunch of friends to fight Titan just so I can go on NIN and get a Battle Replay of me using Assassinate just as he uses Table Flip so it looks like I dodged it ina wicked cool way.

That's the current path SE is taking with some of it's content implementation, which is a fun novelty, but it doesn't add any challenge to the game.

[Rufalus]

Deeper treasure map - so my one map has a chance to become 2? Saves me from buying one I guess.

The second map leads to a new kind of treasure dungeon. Has some kind of gamble feature where you can risk your earned rewards for a chance at bigger loot. The fights will be different and new rewards. I think this kind of content is pretty cool if given a chance. Is not the same every time, has random elements and chance of high reward. My world Ragnarok is terrible for maps, it's a pain trying to convince anyone to do them. So there's a big problem trying to recruit for content that is not cross-world and doesn't have auto DF matchmaking, which is a shame because I think treasure dungeons are a solid filler which are fun to run sometimes.

[Gravton]

The second map leads to a new kind of treasure dungeon. Has some kind of gamble feature where you can risk your earned rewards for a chance at bigger loot. The fights will be different and new rewards. I think this kind of content is pretty cool if given a chance. Is not the same every time, has random elements and chance of high reward. My world Ragnarok is terrible for maps, it's a pain trying to convince anyone to do them. So there's a big problem trying to recruit for content that is not cross-world and doesn't have auto DF matchmaking, which is a shame because I think treasure dungeons are a solid filler which are fun to run sometimes.

Yes but they said we are trading a dungeon for "new" content. This was their words. Finding a map in a dungeon is just an extension from the unhidden maps in 2.0. This isn't new. We are getting the same stuff we were already getting in patch cycles plus new ways to access content we have done before, then claiming its "new enough" to justify the loss of the dungeon we would have got. Adding an additional door is like changing the first boss in hatali and claiming "new content".

[Savagelf]

this patch has much to be look forward too

[Voltyblast]

I just watched the trailer today after basically quitting the game a while ago from complete boredom (even though the sub is still going, but not for long) and I was curious about what's gonna be next in the game...I'm pretty glad I'm not renewing my subscription

Yup, this patch is just horrible: not only the stuff there is gonna be cleared within days, but there's a lot of stuff pushed back again! I really wish I didn't waste my money on the expansion...after HW I knew SB was going to be bad but deep within my soul I hoped to be wrong, I hoped SB would turn the tides. But no, it's even worse, and I'm tired of doing the same exact things I did in HW....wish I did like my friends and just quit back in 3.1, like half of the entire playerbase did.

But it's alright, I'm just another player ranting like many others so instead of starting a fight or needlessly rambling I'll just go back to the worst mmorpg ever.

Have fun waiting for the weekly locks!