Reddit Interview with Yoshi-P and Yusuke Mogi

[DrWho2010]

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/wiki/pax_2020_interview

this particular answer satisfies me immensely. esp the last paragraph.

Reddit: Players are still interested in difficult 4-player content. We've seen the expansion of very large scale difficult content through Baldesion Arsenal, but is there any plans to take it the other direction and give us some hardcore 4-man content perhaps similar to Mythic Dungeons in WoW?

Naoki Yoshida: Right now, we are developing a raid that is similar in format to the Baldesion Arsenal, but we have not started work on any high-difficulty four-player content.

I feel there may be a disparity between the number of people actually voicing their desire for this type of content and the number of people who would actually play it. While implementing this isn’t out of the question, I will say I’d like to be very careful in our considerations of how we’d make this a reality.

[linay]

While implementing this isn’t out of the question, I will say I’d like to be very careful in our considerations of how we’d make this a reality.

I would like to say please consider keeping the current full clear design of dungeons, and if you are implementing Mythic+, please at least remove the timer aspect.

[frostmagemari]

Naoki Yoshida: Right now, we are developing a raid that is similar in format to the Baldesion Arsenal, but we have not started work on any high-difficulty four-player content.
I feel there may be a disparity between the number of people actually voicing their desire for this type of content and the number of people who would actually play it. While implementing this isn’t out of the question, I will say I’d like to be very careful in our considerations of how we’d make this a reality.

The only reason there would be a disparity between the two groups (people asking and people that would play) is because very few people want hard content for the sake of the content just being hard. There needs to be a carrot to go along with that stick, and the team has shown that they are not good at creating a reward that will entice people for more than a month or two before other rewards outpace those offered by the hard content; and then it falls into people simply not wanting to do it because they're not going to get anything out of it.
People didn't hate the original harder ARR 4-man content because it was hard, they grew to hate it because (A) Other dungeons gave better rewards (B) it found its way into the roulette and only offered the same roulette rewards as the other substantially easier 4-man content that existed.

I mean, take the Mythic+ from WoW (as this was mentioned in the framing of the question to Yoshida; The mythic dungeons become progressively harder the further you go on from the base mythic dungeon, adding in extra dungeon-wide mechanics you need to worry about (etc...) in addition to mob strength. Now, I found these fun, but at the same time they could be frustratingly hard if you're pushing the edge of what your gear could handle; but after you finished the dungeon, you got a suitable reward that allowed you to keep progressing.
Now, you can argue on how WoW has become systems ontop of systems, and the reward structure was a problem in itself at times; but you can't deny that you had a reason to do them outside of just wanting to do something difficult. You normally got something that could aid in the progression of your character.
The dev team here doesn't design things that way. They make one reward for the content, and thats all there will ever be; and when you outpace that reward, no matter who you are, you're not going to punish yourself (and friends) by wasting your time on something that gives zero benefit.

[EaMett]

I suspect the disparity they think there is is in part due to the monster hunter trial. That isn't touched anywhere near as much as the rest of the content. I can feel for their concern.

Another interview, another day where healers aren't mentioned. I would like to know if they've even acknowledged the bugs SCH's been having to deal with.

[Ramesses]

I found Yusuke Mogi's comments about the design intent towards new characters very interesting:

"...Relatively new characters (introduced in Stormblood and beyond), there would be cases where I would receive some basic ideas for the character and draft a design, and from there a story was added to provide more flavor."

Very interesting from a creativity standpoint.

[xxvaynxx]

no matter who you are, you're not going to punish yourself (and friends) by wasting your time on something that gives zero benefit.

Ultimate?
Ultimate gives you nothing but a title and weapon with no benefits other than to look pretty. It has the same ilv as the raid weapon and just adds I think extra mat slots which isn't much unless you like to parse and even then, it's not gonna give you a huge edge over people that just cleared savage.

[Theodric]

They chose my question:

Reddit: It's been mentioned Viera and Hrothgar will likely be the last races added to FFXIV. In the place of new races can we expect to see more variety of options to existing races instead? Players are really interested in facial hair options such as the one showcased by the Warrior of Darkness in the Shadowbringers trailer. Additionally, can we expect to see future helmets and hair styles added for Viera and Hrothgar?

Naoki Yoshida: The Hrothgar and Viera are designed with very uniquely shaped heads, which allows for them to preserve their race’s identity. As previously mentioned, this is the reason we are not able to re-purpose the hairstyles of other races.

However, we are working on adding more hairstyles for these two races little by little, but your patience is appreciated as we work to create and release these. In regard to facial hair, we attempted implementation, but ran into some issues, so it's on hold while we work to fix these problems. We are not giving up on this, so again, your patience is appreciated.

Well, since my main desire in the game at the moment is the stubble I'm glad they're not giving up on it.

[Solarra]

Reddit: Players are still interested in difficult 4-player content...

Naoki Yoshida: ...we have not started work on any high-difficulty four-player content.
I feel there may be a disparity between the number of people actually voicing their desire for this type of content and the number of people who would actually play it.

I'm a little disappointed by this answer, as I was hoping they might introduce harder content for smaller groups. However, I'm wasn't hoping for Ultimate difficulty but something more around the level of the ex-primals.

This game lacks of mid-core content. Ex primals are great fun and challenging but they don't last that long, once they're down, there is nothing similar for mid-core players to do. New content with a similar level of challenge would be a good addition to the game in my opinion.

[Genz]

It would probably just be another dungeon, except with more vulnerability debuff + one shot from debatable designed gimmicks, so not different from savage, thus it would be more or less the same players doing it.

FFXIV gameplay is too poor to create a wide range of difficulty.

[Sclair0]

Am sad about the 4man content answer. Its much easier to get a group of four together for me, and would love content specifically made for groups like that, even if we only got one per expansion.

I hope they're not basing the want for this kind of content on the numbers of people engaged with deep dungeon and rathalos. Because both of those contents were more gimmicky than something comparable to an extreme trial.