We Really Need To Talk About The State And Path Of FFXIV

[Acelyn]

nothing will change, the game will just get easier as it's been doing.

blame the players, sure a small handful want more quality but the majority will smack them down and hush em up cause theyre fine with the design as is.

[Magic-Mal]

nothing will change, the game will just get easier as it's been doing.

blame the players, sure a small handful want more quality but the majority will smack them down and hush em up cause theyre fine with the design as is.

Not necessarily true... One can always hope. I made a thread for SMN back in 4.0 with me and many others asking for specific changes in specific ways. And they happened when 4.1 came out!

[The-Real-Link]

I'll bite OP.

But really I simply just have to question if this remains the right game for you. Yes sure, many things are now predictable about the development cycle, maps, fights etc., but if that is not enough then I'm not sure what to suggest short of SE being able to change things up.

If you want a more dynamic gearing system and dangerous world, go to WoW. But the RNG there is getting so bad that I much rather prefer FFXIV's system right now. Currently WoW has many of the things you're looking for. Total lack of flying? Check. Go on ground mounts everywhere in BfA. Dangerous zones? Yep. Die and go find where your body is. A more filled world... Yep. Of oh, NPCs you can't really interact with. Lots of flora, fauna, and life but not really different than here in a sense.

Raiders influencing all other gear? That happens in WoW too. Except in WoW you're now having to grind repeatedly to get gear to go forward to unlock fewer powers so you go backward to again, go forward. Capping tomes too much of a hassle? That's fine. For raiding in Wow at a relatively serious level, go do normal and heroic clears, your M0s, and work up to getting a M+10 key done in a week, your weekly expedition, 3x-4x a week emissaries, and grind whatever professions you choose to stay on top of the raiding market. Free time? Go grind your neck piece or hope dungeon RNG gives you gear you want since nothing can be targeted more or less.

Boss fights in circles or squares? Easiest for them to avoid exploits. Rather, maybe focus on the enjoyabilty of the fight itself? Who cares what arena shape it is? Even some of more WoW's dynamic rooms (Star Auger for example) we'll marvel at a few times but then have to focus on the fight at hand. Would I love SE to do a raid in the style of say, ICC? Sure. But short of a 24-man realistically it's probably not happening soon, but that's not to say it ever won't.

I'm not denying that hey, XIV does have challenges and potential issues, but as someone who's played both games for a long time (5+ years in FFXIV / 8+ in WoW), let's keep it in perspective. I love being able to log into XIV and look at what gear I can earn this week with tomes, or plan with my static on who is getting what, when. In WoW, you pray to RNGsus that you even get gear. You're purposely kept on the treadmill and it feels like them cheating you.

[Dirwen]

No I don't like that.. but I do enjoy being completely unable to do anything or find anything underwater. And using my wind-up Gloria underwater is one of the reasons why I stay subbed!

Diving seemed so cool to me until like you said there being nothing to do in it. Aside from the beast tribe quests.

[Zojha]

Diving seemed so cool to me until like you said there being nothing to do in it.

In fairness: It's functionally a complete copypasta of flying and everyone seems to love that one. Can't blame the devs here, they were building on a success.

[Magic-Mal]

In fairness: It's functionally a complete copypasta of flying and everyone seems to love that one. Can't blame the devs here, they were building on a success.

Well also in fairness.. we can't deny that flying is used for pretty much everything in terms of travel, it doesn't require a loading screen to start flying, and flight space is literally just air. With diving there are entire landscapes down there fit with tons of plants debris, randomly placed schools of fish, sharks, land bubbles, visual screen effects, and more. It's obvious diving probably had 4x as much resources put in compared to flight.

[The-Real-Link]

Hopefully we can have more done with diving or underwater type activities. But then, aside from Blitzball or something else, what would we do? Haven't seen any other game do underwater stuff too well save adding in combat.

[Magic-Mal]

Hopefully we can have more done with diving or underwater type activities. But then, aside from Blitzball or something else, what would we do? Haven't seen any other game do underwater stuff too well save adding in combat.

Well next time they could just.. not add some kind of new travel feature next time. Should save them a heck of a lot of resources. You can kinda delete diving from the MSQ and nothing will be missed.

[rattles]

I definitely agree with at least the vast majority of this and it just makes wanting to try get the best stuff in the game feel pointless and not worth the grind because it will become irrelevant in the next main patch (basically every other patch). It would be nice if they had a clear gearing path which helps keep gear relevant for the expansion or at least most of it. I would love to see a system like Tomestone gear would be the base line (it never changes) primals drop all the best accessories and raids drop the best gear and if i new raid tier comes out rather than upping the item level it would change stats around or maybe even have a set bonus (although i know they dont like set bonuses). They could use something like Eureka for the relic but make it so the relic is always the strongest weapon so people will actually grind for it. They could still have crafted gear but at best it would be the same as the poetic or a little better if its HQ and a fair bit better if the player 5 melds and that could be the gate to having an edge while trying to get raid or primal gear. The system could be kept throughout the whole expansion they could add the new fights without making all the old gear irrelevant and people would actually farm content in the game other than mounts and feel like their character is actually strong.

[Imuka]

I know the Thread is old, but I would like to share my 2 Cents.

1: It is okay, if the best Gear is in Savage, but we need a Rework of some of the Tome Gear. There is a reason why a Part of the Non-Raiders are unhappy and that are the Substats of some Tome Gear, like Weapons. The Devs put the unwanted Stats on it pretty often and that makes them feel bad. A BLM wants Spellspeed and Crit on his Weapon and they put Direct Hit and Determination on it. Sure, many Non-Raiders will not really care, but for another Part of the Players, this just feels bad.
Enough Player have differrent reasons, why they don't Raid, but the Devs treat them like they are to dumb, to see the difference between good and bad gear. Not the best, just good and bad.

I think, there is no Problem if the Raid Weapon on 405 is slightly better, than the 400, those Players did the last Savage fight. But I also think, no Raider Blackmage would freak out if the Tome Weapon would also get good secondary Stats and is a little weaker on 400, than the 405.
The same goes for the normal Tome Gear. I would not even care if the Savage Gear atm would sit at 405 for all pieces and the Upgraded Tome Gear at 400, just give the Player an Option to make their Class work. Certain Jobs want certain Substats and a specific Number of Skillspeed to work well, but the Devs on purpose create this mix Gear and make some of the Tome Gear bad on purpose. And this feels bad for all the people who can't clear a Savage Fight like the last, but care enough to want to see some vertical Progress, because vertical Progress is the only Progress in this Game.
Maybe they should have picked to make to put the normal Omega Gear on 390 and also make it upgradable later. Raiders would sit on 405 and Non-Raiders at 400, but both can pick the wanted stats if it may be Crit, Direct Hit or Determination and the Skillspeed they need for their Rotation to work.
Some classes lose their Rotation, if just one piece gets changed, because of Skillspeed and they might need to wait 8 Weeks, before they can swap a single Piece of Gear. This feels bad for everybody and they need to change certain things about the Gear Progression. Nobody wants to carry around a 390 Tome Armor or 400 Savage Armor in the Inventory for 3-6 Weeks, because they need a specific Pants, because of the Skillspeed or Speelspeed. This is unfun for Non-Raiders and Raiders.
Maybe we need a slightly more linear Gear Progression, without bad Gear and a set for every Class per Patch. Just split the Monk and Sam into two Gearsets, it can still have the same look. And instead of direct Loot from Savage, people get a Token, they can trade for the Armor. Like a Medallion for the Sam and Monk another one for the Tanks. Sure, there will be no fancy drop anymore, but I think, this is a small price for a better worked out Gear System, without Stats on Gear the Devs clearly know are undesired by that class.
With Set Bonuses those Sets could feel unique and less like a simple +1 compared to the last one. Raiders would focus on combining Set Bonuses and other things, to get the last Drop out of it and Non-Raiders would see a steady Progress, instead swapping their BLM Staf with Crit and Spellspeed for another one with Det and DH, while the 405 Weapon clearly shows, which Stats are the ones to be desired.

2: For that heated Part about Raiders. I don't hate Raiders, but at the same time, Raiders were put in a bad Spotlight, because a Part of their Community is toxic as hell.
This is the same with Games like Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege etc. not every high Rank Player is toxic, but because those Toxic people get noticed the most, it gets attached to every Raider, High Rank Player etc.
And I think, the people who were so heated against Raiders met those people somewhere in their Time in 14. I also meet some of them and those people ruin the last fun you could have in the Game, by being Toxic and telling everybody that they are bad and should quit the Game. I had a guy, who absolutly freaked out after two wipes back then at Alex Savage 4. (the one with the 4 Legs etc.)
That guy freaked out, insulted people, that they should not raid, because they are shit and all that stuff. And people remember those Events for a long time and either get sucked out all the fun of the Game or start to get angry at Raiders themself.
The Months back, I would have liked to know, why they dislike Raiders so much, instead like some just answer in a way, that those people completely associate with Raiders: Sitting on a high Horse, acting like they are better than others.
(if somebody feels insulted by those words, that was not the purpose. If you still feel insulted after those words, you should maybe think, how you look on other people in the Game, who are maybe not as good as you are)

3: A Problem with the Content.
There is a super simple Reason, why they make Raids more and more easier. If everybody Raids, they need to make less Content. The Game does not center around Raiders, it centers around the Idea to make everybody a Raider for the sake of doing it. But there are people who will not go into Savage no matter how they change it and those people lose Content, not because of the Raiders, but because of the mindset to make everybody a Raider.
And those people feel left behind over time. They don't want to play Savage and they will never do, but Yoshi can't force them into this, by thining the Activities outside of Raiding. It is not the fault of Raiders in any way.

Eureka sadly shows, how little the Devs listen or how much they don't want to let lose on something, they like even if the Community dislikes it.
Diadem 1.0 had things, people did not like and those things were carried over to 2.0.
Eureka is worser and became even worser over time. Anemos was not great, but because it made people play together, it was quite friendly there.
Pagos punished the Train Players and forced everybody to a Mob Grind and even punished people for having a Gap bigger than 2 Levels. Combine that with limited spot and people saw everybody as the Enemy there and you can still see this.
While in Anemos the Lvl 20 Players used their 2 Player Mounts to carry low Level Players, this becamse super rare in Pagos and in Pyros, you get rezzed by Partymember and then they sprint away, leaving you between tons of mobs, that just one shot you.
Why is there no Potion to become invisible like in 11? This would help low Level Players to reach certain Fates, a Bunny Treasure or the Questmarkers, without needing other Players to distract those one Sgot Monsters.
A lot of the Mobs are placed to Gatekeep low Level Players from anything and so they can just wait for a Fate close to them and then go back into mental AFK for another 40 Minutes, till another low Level Fate pops up, which can be reached by them or hope, that somebody will carry them on a Chocobo for the whole 3 Hours. Many people reached the max Level of Pyros shortly after the Release, but a lot of people stilll sit in Pagos with Levels between 38-45, because in Pyros so much kills them in a single shot and they can't use their Mounts.

Mentor Rework:
I liked how WildStar made their Mentor System. You got into a Party with a low Level Player and everytime, they cleared a Event, Quest, Dungeon etc. the Mentor got Points, for Rewards and the Mentor stayed with that single Player in the Overworld.
Sure, there would be people abusing the System, by creating a Twink and Mentor each other. But only because of a small part, would abuse the System, does not mean, that nobody would help. This would also mean, that the Mentor can't freak out in the Text Chat, because otherwise the other Player will just leave the Party. Unlike of RRoulette Mentor, were people freak out because they expect everybody to do Ramuh Ex on the first time, when there are 4 Bonus Players.

Crafters: I don't think, that we need a way for them to get the strongest Raid Combat Gear, but I think, they need their own Progress Gameplay.
At the moment, all they do is: Get the new Crafter Gear on Day 1, meld it like crazy, be done for 12 Months. That is just boring.
I have no clue, why they always make the crafted Marketboard Gear the better one, when they create Jobgear for the Crafter Classes.
Make the Jobgear the best and give them something to do, that come with a similar Progression Game, like for the Combat Classes so that very good Crafters get a better Crafter Gear over time.
The same goes for Gatherers.
I think, some want to get Combat Gear Progress with the Crafters, because of the lack of any Progress for the Crafters and Gatherers.
Back in HW it took several Weeks, to get the best Version of the Crafter Jobgear, but it was just not as good as the melded Marketboard Gear.
I did this for the Carpenter and I enjoyed the small Progress every Week. Upgrading my saw, upgrading my Chestpiece etc. I did it for the Glamour, but there was this bad taste in my Mouth, that this took time and effort to reach, while somebody who wants to get into high end crafting or gathering can also just buy 50 Millions from an RMT Service and overcome this in 20 Seconds. Sure he lacks the knowledge, but he got the betterr Gear for doing nothing else than having bought 50 Million Gil.
For my Gatherers, this meant to gather special Nodes with good enough Quality, to trade them for the currency to Upgrade my Gear and again, somebody could just buy a ton of Gil and have the better Gear.
And compared to buying Savage Raids, this is even supported by the Designers themself.