Mahjong is the most depressing mini game you've added to XIV

[Sida]

I agree collectable content should not be gated behind ranked content, it's not a new thing. I seem to recall at least couple minions have been in the same position for years now.

[Rufalus]

You start at 1500 points, and you slowly gain them if you win, or you lose them pretty damn quickly when you have a loss. The one time I came in second place I gained 9 points. The first time I get 4th place, I lose 29 points. This is beyond depressing if this is just an inkling of what kind of BS I'm gonna have to see just to try to get one damned item.

Oof. This saves me time even trying for this one. Unless they make the gains bigger and losses smaller when you're below 1600 rating to help you reach that first achievement then this will be the first in-game orchestrion roll I don't get. Until mahjong my collection was complete aside from songs that come from premium S-E store merchandise with codes.

[Krokov]

Oof. This saves me time even trying for this one. Unless they make the gains bigger and losses smaller when you're below 1600 rating to help you reach that first achievement then this will be the first in-game orchestrion roll I don't get. Until mahjong my collection was complete aside from songs that come from premium S-E store merchandise with codes.

Same here I also collect orchestrion rolls and right now unless something is changed this is probably one roll I may never get.

[Berethos]

This is once again for the ranking aspect. Your RANK is a personal thing which starts at Novice and will level up as you get second and first places.

Rating starts at 1500 for everyone and is immediately able to be changed for better or worse. You can see this info under your Gold Saucer tab, but in any case right from your first match win or lose, your rating will change even if your rank does not.

Krokov is right.

Per this page: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...ong/#playguide

When queued for Novice Mahjong (Ranked), you should only lose points from your rating (-10 at a time) for 4th place if you are 2nd Kyu or higher. 3rd place should come with no change, and then +15 for 2nd and +30 for 1st.

Advanced Mahjong (Ranked) nets you +60 for 1st, +15 for 2nd, Nothing for 3rd, and -30 for 4th...

But neither of those were happening (I've not entered Ranked for a few weeks now, but I've not seen a notice of it being changed). Instead, 1st for Novice was giving +30 like it was supposed to, 2nd was giving +10, 3rd was a -10 drop, and 4th was a -30 drop (regardless of being 2nd Kyu or not).

Which meant that VERY quickly, new players unfamiliar with the game were dropping quickly away from the 1600 for the Orchestrion Roll...and it clearly does not look like that was intended.

[Spammer]

Harsh ranking penalties and locked collectibles aside, it's been incredibly depressing for me trying to play the game by itself. "Novice matchmaking" hardly feels novice at all, more than half the time I'm going into the negative and It just feels like the only people playing are experts or world champions.

I wanted to think at first it was just because I was bad/unlucky at setting up a winning hand but it's been consistent for quite awhile now and I'm even further away from unlocking that Orchestration Roll than when I started...I guess I'll just wait for a hotfix to how ranking works among other fixes until I try Mahjong again.

[Bacent]

You saw how they let LoVM go to hell. It's only worth doing for challenge logs with a friend, and then never touching it again. They haven't done a damn thing with it, just like any issues in any other side content. Att this point it's pretty safe to say they don't give a damn about the players who do said side content.

[Robert_Ilcri]

I honestly gave up trying to deal with this game. Why bother when any time you even come third is just pushing you further away from the intended goal? Dunno why the game even has this system when they could have made it so 4th just didn't give any points. Sure it would mean adjusting some things but I'd rather a slow constant progression rather than some ill luck causing you to go eight steps back when you barely managed to go forward two.

[Berethos]

I honestly gave up trying to deal with this game. Why bother when any time you even come third is just pushing you further away from the intended goal? Dunno why the game even has this system when they could have made it so 4th just didn't give any points. Sure it would mean adjusting some things but I'd rather a slow constant progression rather than some ill luck causing you to go eight steps back when you barely managed to go forward two.

It might be worth mentioning that I put in a bug report that pointed out how the Play Guide here on the Lodestone says you shouldn't be losing any points until you're 2nd Kyu or higher, and then that's only when you place 4th in Novice (Ranked) and starts out at a small -10 (meant to increase as you go up in rank) to your rating. You're not supposed to be losing points until then, and never for third, according to the guide of how to play on the Lodestone...

And it's now in "Accepted Bugs" so here's hoping that the -30 you currently get for fourth and -10 for 3rd is just a screw-up and/or oversight that will be fixed soon.

[NaiaLalita]

I just tumbled into this rabbit hole myself today.
5th Kyu and never been higher. I thought today I might grind some matches to get to 1600 points and earn that orchestrion roll, myself. I was already close from some early-implementation beginner's luck and wins!

Cut to... 10 hours later, and my score is barely over 1300 now. Still 5th Kyu.
(EDIT: I included my unchanging rank to provide context that I did not rank up and therefor qualify for rating point losses at some point in those 10 hours. I remained a low rank the entire time and, based, on the information provided by Square Enix, should not have been losing rating points at all.)

I'm really glad this thread exists, and that this point/score/rank/rating conundrum is recognized as a bug. I put in a report of my own, just in case SE reverses the erroneous point loss.

[ACE135]

Cut to... 10 hours later, and my score is barely over 1300 now. Still 5th Kyu.

A lot of people still seem to get confused between rank and rating. You are still 5th Kyu because you didn't lose ranking points, as stated in the description in the game. What you lose are rating points with every match you end up being 3rd or 4th. And that is not a bug.