4.2 Updates from Q&A with Yoshida

[LittleChickenNugget]

This train detailed at over 60 mph.

[GetFoesReqd]

I'm digging a lot of the translation. Not so much the insinuation that they are holding off on long hairstyles because of clipping when every in-game video I've ever seen them post has some of the most blatant clipping imaginable, but I had a sneaking suspicion they weren't ever gonna give us actual long hair for awhile. This just adds to it.

In regards to raid difficulty, you can never please everyone. The smart choice is to maintain variety for everyone (including super hards like ultimate and such) but not gate IMPORTANT story behind it. Making a side story for it should be fine, just nothing MSQ. This way it reaches the most people with the most balance over all. And, I think they've generally been trying to do that with varying success. I cannot really comment further, I am definitely one of those that does raid content at least one xpac late, and it suits me just fine, no complaints here. ^_^

[Aomine1992]

I think I had quit raiding during Gordias because it was a flaming mess that very few people could even do so no to that level of difficulty again lol, Midas was great until the fourth turn some of the statics I was in or subbing for would take days and even the whole week to get it cleared for the week...i think at that point it starts to get a bit ridiculous

Creator in my opinion was the best base line they had it was difficult but not over the top foolishness that only some people can do...so I'm all for raising the difficulty for a challenge but alot of raiders forget not all raiders are on the same skill level and you will essentially be killing your community and only leaving the extremely great players who are like perfect robots which are far from many

[steevyfox]

Buying just any old PC and complaining you cannot game well or at all on it is like buying a toaster and complaining you cannot bake a pizza in it.

Agreed alright & it's really thanks to my capability to never cry when the crow calls.

[Nezerius]

And Steps of Faith.

To me, the issue with Steps of Faith wasn't one of difficulty (even it was a trial that couldn't be facerolled through), but the fact that it was just badly designed. If you'd get into a DF group that'd either not have enough dps, or the ability to do the dragonkillers properly, you'd still have to wait until the dragon reached the end of the bridge before the fight would result in a wipe.

Plenty of raid groups came together during Gordias

Not really going to dig into this too much, but you really have no idea how bad Gordias was to the raiding community. The Gordias tier didn't have "plenty of raid groups" coming together, it actually reduced the active raiding population by quite a bit.
The group of players standing at the Gordias entrance, on reset day, would shrink with every following week (this was back when going to the entrance was still a requirement to going into Alexander), and the majority of the statics I knew about ended up falling apart on A3S.

You're probably right about Midas, but I stopped raiding for that tier, and didn't go back to it until the release of Creator.

OT: I'm happy with the fact that they're choosing to keep the difficulty of Sigmascape similar to Deltascape, if they're using v3/4s as a baseline. I do think they could make the first two floors a tiny bit harder, though.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Not really going to dig into this too much, but you really have no idea how bad Gordias was to the raiding community. The Gordias tier didn't have "plenty of raid groups" coming together, it actually reduced the active raiding population by quite a bit.
The group of players standing at the Gordias entrance, on reset day, would shrink with every following week (this was back when going to the entrance was still a requirement to going into Alexander), and the majority of the statics I knew about ended up falling apart on A3S.

You're probably right about Midas, but I stopped raiding for that tier, and didn't go back to it until the release of Creator.

OT: I'm happy with the fact that they're choosing to keep the difficulty of Sigmascape similar to Deltascape, if they're using v3/4s as a baseline. I do think they could make the first two floors a tiny bit harder, though.

Plenty relative to what was available. I'll concede how successful they were... leaves something to be desired. That being said, my rebuttal was more Riyah's insistence you couldn't raid in either Gordias or Midas without experience. You certainly could. I am well aware Gordias was a disaster for the raid scene, but no one is asking for that level of difficulty again. Frankly, that is what I find so irksome. Whenever difficulty or lack thereof is mentioned, someone instantly jumps to the tier virtually everyone acknowledges—devs included—was poorly designed. There's a middle ground between Gordias and Omega. It also cannot be stressed enough the impact cross world PF had. The absence of this feature severely limited recruitment pools hence why Gilgamesh became what it was.

Regardless, the crux of my reply dealt more with the fact someone who doesn't even participate in Savage was essentially assuming my position and opinion. Which I didn't appreciate.

I'll grant you V3/4S, though I do wish they would stick to what they said originally and gradually built back up. Omega -> Creator -> Midas (Perhaps slightly easier)

[Nezerius]

Plenty relative to what was available. I'll concede how successful they were... leaves something to be desired. That being said, my rebuttal was more Riyah's insistence you couldn't raid in either Gordias or Midas without experience. You certainly could.

But you didn't start playing the game until months after Gordias, and didn't start raiding until Creator. How would you know about how successful Gordias statics were? While Riyah is wrong about Midas, they aren't entirely wrong about Gordias. If you weren't on Gilgamesh, or a similarly big server, or were part of a Coil static with a solid core, tough luck.

I am well aware Gordias was a disaster for the raid scene, but no one is asking for that level of difficulty again. Frankly, that is what I find so irksome. Whenever difficulty or lack thereof is mentioned, someone instantly jumps to the tier virtually everyone acknowledges—devs included—was poorly designed.

You can't really blame people for jumping to Gordias difficulty, when raid difficulty is brought to the discussion table. It was Final Coil feedback from a minority of hardcore players that SE listened to, that resulted in the difficulty of Gordias.

Besides, I'm sure there's still some (insane) players that would be asking for Gordias difficulty again.

There's a middle ground between Gordias and Omega.

Where exactly that middle ground is, is debatable. I think v3/4s is a good middle ground.

It also cannot be stressed enough the impact cross world PF had. The absence of this feature severely limited recruitment pools hence why Gilgamesh became what it was.

It'd definitely have helped during Gordias, but I don't think it'd have prevented it from being a disaster to the raiding community.

Regardless, the crux of my reply dealt more with the fact someone who doesn't even participate in Savage was essentially assuming my position and opinion. Which I didn't appreciate.

Understandable, though my replies aren't taking those assumptions in mind, since most of them were silly, aside from the Gordias one.

[akaneakki]

blah blah "savage is so easy why arent they making it harder"

...census shows maybe 5% or less of NA on most servers clear OS4, and maybe 1000 people total Savage coil. The whole raid puffery gets old after awhile.

Blabla, people post it's too hard. It comes from same people who complained about normal shinryu. Same people about nidhogg story mode too. What's your point?

[SuperZay]

I'm curious how the new housing will work.

He said he's pretty sure we'll be able to obtain plots. Maybe new wards will be auto created when old are filled?

[Bourne_Endeavor]

But you didn't start playing the game until months after Gordias, and didn't start raiding until Creator. How would you know about how successful Gordias statics were? While Riyah is wrong about Midas, they aren't entirely wrong about Gordias. If you weren't on Gilgamesh, or a similarly big server, or were part of a Coil static with a solid core, tough luck.

Because I know people who were playing throughout Gordias; dealing with the good, bad and ugly aspects all around. I also neither claimed they were successful nor that transferring to Gilgamesh basically became a requirement. Riyah's response bluntly stated I wouldn't be able to raid—an entirely subjective statement—without the eventual nerfs to Savage. Would I need to make concessions, including a potential server change? Absolutely. But she has no way of knowing how I would progress.

You can't really blame people for jumping to Gordias difficulty, when raid difficulty is brought to the discussion table. It was Final Coil feedback from a minority of hardcore players that SE listened to, that resulted in the difficulty of Gordias.

Besides, I'm sure there's still some (insane) players that would be asking for Gordias difficulty again.

Sure you can. It's an emotional fallacy; appealing to an extreme scenario that assumes the opposing person's stance without any context.

Oh, I have come across them. And promptly disagreed for the reasons stated. Granted, I do think A3S could have worked were it pushed to A4S and brought down just enough to not require tomestome gear.

Where exactly that middle ground is, is debatable. I think v3/4s is a good middle ground.

Creator, or slightly above. While I actually like v3/4, Cruise Chaser and Alex are better tuned fights. At least, I believe so. Per my edit, I would have preferred to see: Omega -> Creator -> Midas (Perhaps slightly easier). Admittedly, I can somewhat settle on just V1/2 getting a much needed bump. Alt Roite has no business being labeled Savage.

It'd definitely have helped during Gordias, but I don't think it'd have prevented it from being a disaster to the raiding community.

While I somewhat agree, I do think it would have curved the diaster enough to be better rectified. Personally, I feel had they released Creator's difficulty after Gordias and scaled up to Midas afterwards, it would have been better. I just dislike static progression, which Savage will become if it never increases beyond what it is now.

Understandable, though my replies aren't taking those assumptions in mind, since most of them were silly, aside from the Gordias one.

Fair enough. Perhaps I could have worded it better.