RNG and luck or, how to lose motivation by trying to make overall progress

[Rst001]

There is a factor that is being used more and more every time, and on which one is more dependent the day to day, the RNG or the luck, whatever you want to call it.

From the beginning, all Primal mounts could be obtained by drop, or by tokens every time you win the Primal, today the primals of ARR can be solo done unsync, which were released with Heavensward, can still be a challenge for some players, and it is true that the Stormblood are not much more difficult nor by the way.

But the real problem is that the game is completely dependent on the RNG factor for a long time. Today you can find people who got their first mount from Tsukuyomi, for example, in their second or third run, while others have had to fight and win up to 99 times to get access to the mount. Personally I'm going to talk about my case, because in general view, I think I have enough "bad luck" or maybe my RNG has the same value as a plastic coin.

Just today, after defeating Suzaku for 99th time, I got the opportunity (now I must wait for the patch where you, SE, implement the trade-in option) to have the Primal saddle, and with this add up to 9 saddles obtained in the same way, overcoming wipes, people with bad attitude, and parties with good people, you can find everything.

I've been playing for many years, and every day it's harder to find energy and motivation to keep progressing in the game.

Palace of the Dead was added time ago, with limited items obtaniable just by luck, the formula was repeatead again with Heaven on High, including the rewards for RNG, and you also did the same with Eureka and the generation of random statistics by RNG again.

Now, with the Blue Mage, you have created a limited class that depends COMPLETELY on the luck / RNG factor, seeing people who already have all the spells learned in less than a day, and I completed more than 25 runs to Tam Tara and still don't learn Mind Blast, and I'm pretty scared to try to get all of them.

It's a real shame that all the content that is being generated, depends more and more on the luck factor, than on the dedication and time that must be sacrificed to feel fulfilled to get in the form of reward all the effort.

Thank you SE for the effort and work on this game, it's really awesome, but it really needs a rework.

[Deceptus]

Sadly, it seems that the Developers have determined to use RNG as a reason to pad out content instead of interesting content.

[SleepyNeko]

I too have cursed my own luck with the Primal mounts, 99 totems on 4 mounts already and rolls on average of 20-50. While my friend got all the mounts already with average of 20 runs each primal.

And what makes it worse is if you are performing very well and contributing more to the fight (not dying, know mech and not getting carried) but still get nothing.

The rolling RNG is really bad for the feeling of progression because you have gained nothing if you lose the roll.

I think there should be some mechanic in place that for every instance you were outrolled for a particular item, your next roll for said item should have a compounding value added until you get the drop, which then resets. Then you'll feel like you are actually progressing.

[Maleficent]

There is a factor that is being used more and more every time, and on which one is more dependent the day to day, the RNG or the luck, whatever you want to call it.

From the beginning, all Primal mounts could be obtained by drop, or by tokens every time you win the Primal, today the primals of ARR can be solo done unsync, which were released with Heavensward, can still be a challenge for some players, and it is true that the Stormblood are not much more difficult nor by the way.
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It's a real shame that all the content that is being generated, depends more and more on the luck factor, than on the dedication and time that must be sacrificed to feel fulfilled to get in the form of reward all the effort.

I can definitely empathize.

The game has added a "safety net" since ARR, now having trade-in tokens for some content to cap the max number of runs. It wasn't always like this. Some drop rates get buffed after a few patches too.

MMOs typically use one or a combination of 3 mechanics to increase content longevity: Trade-in Currency, RNG drop, RNG roll. I kind of understand because it takes months to produce content that is consumed in a couple of hours or less.

I'd definitely be happy if there's a new loot mechanic that keeps content active with less morale hit. I join sometimes late in the patch cycle so I appreciate active "old" content.

Till that day, I limit my runs and take it easy. If it drops, yay; if it doesn't I run again if I have time otherwise leave it for next.

RNG and I are have a kooky friendship; Roll dismal single-digits, only to have my legendary rarity 9X roll get out rolled. It's a running gag I think. Some private joke between RNG and me. I'm sure one of us is tickled pink.

[Rosentretter]

RNG in this game sucks, and it sucks even more that almost everything is locked behind it. Wasted several hours trying to farm a dungeon for a necklace (just for glamour) as Monk, then I told my bf "I bet if I change class the thing will drop". It sure did, but thankfully the melee was kind enough to pass on it. I remember having to get 99 tokens from Thordan to get the bird (even after the drop rate was augmented). Also it sucks rolling the miraculous 90-94 and still loose the item with 95+. Or perform like a God in content just so the shittiest player who kept wiping can get the mounts, weapons, or gear.

RNG is discouraging. SE should really revamp it, or replace it with another kind of thing that also keeps the people playing, the content active and that's not demoralizing. I mean, come on... in Orbonne Monastery EVERY SINGLE BOSS drops stuff for DRG/NIN when sometimes there's no single player using that job. We have 15 jobs to gear up, and even if some of them share the equipment, the RNG is just stupid.

Leveling dungeons drop a piece of gear every time you clear them, so why can't the rest of dungeons do the same? It would make a favor to everyone, and you could still farm your tomestones or Savage drops to get better gear. And to not "abuse" of it, it can have some daily restriction, who knows, but something that makes our lives just a little bit easier.

Don't even wanna mention the RNG in Eureka or now with BLU... that's another story...

Or housing...

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

Suzaku and Seiryu were nice and gave me their mounts around run 20.

Byakko decided to be a dick and make me farm to 99.

At this point, I don't even know if I want to EX farm anymore and I've been extremely lax about doing Seiryu, only having about five clears presently.

[Shougun]

RNG in this game sucks, and it sucks even more that almost everything is locked behind it. Wasted several hours trying to farm a dungeon for a necklace (just for glamour) as Monk, then I told my bf "I bet if I change class the thing will drop". It sure did, but thankfully the melee was kind enough to pass on it. I remember having to get 99 tokens from Thordan to get the bird (even after the drop rate was augmented). Also it sucks rolling the miraculous 90-94 and still loose the item with 95+. Or perform like a God in content just so the shittiest player who kept wiping can get the mounts, weapons, or gear.

RNG is discouraging. SE should really revamp it, or replace it with another kind of thing that also keeps the people playing, the content active and that's not demoralizing. I mean, come on... in Orbonne Monastery EVERY SINGLE BOSS drops stuff for DRG/NIN when sometimes there's no single player using that job. We have 15 jobs to gear up, and even if some of them share the equipment, the RNG is just stupid.

Leveling dungeons drop a piece of gear every time you clear them, so why can't the rest of dungeons do the same? It would make a favor to everyone, and you could still farm your tomestones or Savage drops to get better gear. And to not "abuse" of it, it can have some daily restriction, who knows, but something that makes our lives just a little bit easier.

Don't even wanna mention the RNG in Eureka or now with BLU... that's another story...

Or housing...

One of the things I might polish and dredge up again I was hoping to get a solution to these item drops, increasing pools, and glamour woes in one fell swoop (hopefully). I wrote a post on it here, but the tl;dr was:

All items of a content could be converted into essence of "said content name" (like materia, but you don't need to 100% spirit bind it). After collecting a number concentrated essence of that place (based on the total number of items available from the content) you unlock the appearance of all items from that area. On top of that you can take any new orb you obtain and use it to "create" an item of your choice (for example you've unlocked that area, now you get a drop for paladin chest piece but you wanted bard shoes - convert the paladin chest piece into an orb that you can use to summon forth the bard shoes). Helpful also because you can stack and farm gear from a place a bit easier (it'll all take up one slot rather than each item is a slot, making seal farming easier too).

From that system you'd have a lot more glamour slots based off a single variable (completed "x area?" yes/no), people can have an expected maximum amount of attempts to get something, you can go as any job you like to get gear you want (given that you're prepared to unlock the zone), and theoretically it should all work under little extra added code (since part of the system is based off items and conversion like materia - the extra code being a log that just stores a bunch of yeses and noes). On top of that you could add more costly conversion of like 3 orbs = any item of your choice without having already unlocked the area (say you didn't want to get 20 orbs for the gear set from The Vault, so rather you bypass that requirement and just spend more to go straigh to what you were looking for). Also the primal tokens, and other side items like music rolls, could be managed through this too, just further reducing inventory clutter (cost to "summon" the mount and music rolls being different than the gear ofc).

As for housing.. lol... they should start /every/ player with an FFXI mog room (account wide if each character is too much of an ask), and then allow everyone to upgrade it over the story, quests, progression. To the point of large houses and further that we have now, so two room apartment, apartment with balcony, house with garden, etc, etc.

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

Another RNG thing I'm struggling with is getting On the Rocks from Pharos Hard. I've had to have run that dungeon 30+ times and I haven't seen the music roll. Only three have been sold on my server, too. That's just terrible drop rate, but I doubt it'll be increased.

[Marxam]

well technically RNG is a 50/50 endeavor. You either win it or you don't.

Seriously though RNG is sadly the easiest and cost effective way to keep ppl in the grind. While the primals/savage are an example of RNG done fairly, with there being a hard cap to you eventually attaining desired loot the worst case of RNG I've seen is in Eureka. Multiple RNG gates have no reason to exist in modern gaming period and any attempt at pushing it as hardcore content is just lazy imo.

[AppleJinx]

Yeah I understand the rng based reward for current and relevant content because there's only so much you can do to make it interesting before people get bored and stop doing it for the "fun" part of it instead of the reward it offers. The BLU rng is another head scratcher for me as well because it's a piece of content that's irrelevant on arrival so I really don't get gating things on the job behind rng.