Shadowbringers starting to feel like a budget expansion

[Lonkkis]

I'm in the camp that does both battle content and craft content. Problem with this patch is the craft content has absolutely zero staying power. I made one of the tools in about an hour or so, realized they aren't worth the time, and just dropped it. Besides, as I've said elsewhere in this thread, that "content" is 1) Grind yellow scrips for the thousandth time 2) Hit craft macro 50 times. Yawn.

Taken from: Live Letter Part LVII Digest

This will be only the first stage, so it won’t be as powerful as melding the latest tools. However, the upgrades will continue in later patches, and it’ll become quite powerful by the final stage, so we hope you’ll give it a try!

So, while the tools currently aren't as powerful as pentamelded facet gear, there's a chance that they'll be better down the line.

[Arillyn]

They tend to be on par with top weapon in last patch of the expantion. Sort of "easy, but time consuming BiS", depending on its combination of stats ofc. Also glamour material. DoH/DoL can be the same I guess, but we'll see.

Which is nice for options. I see the skysteel crafting and gathering tools the same way. It's an option for people, and I think it's good to have various options. Who knows? Maybe I'll actually finish a battle relic for once!

[SpeckledBurd]

They tend to be on par with top weapon in last patch of the expantion. Sort of "easy, but time consuming BiS", depending on its combination of stats ofc. Also glamour material. DoH/DoL can be the same I guess, but we'll see.

They're roughly equivalent (if not slightly superior due to customizable substats) to whatever the final raid drop weapon of the expansion is, you just receive it later. I'd even say the time consuming bit is a bit of a misnomer because you'll probably spend similar amounts of time progressing through the fights of a raid tier as you'd have to spend grinding out the individual stages of a relic, with the relic taking a little bit longer.

[Gula]

You are making assumptions about how people will react without giving them a chance to make a choice. People like different things and that’s ok. This thread is specifically addressing the fact some people feel they aren’t getting their usual amounts of content. I am not saying the developers need to be transparent like WoW. I never even said keeping the secrets of what is to come is bad. I even gave examples of content they are working on and what we have received. You chose to pick the only things in my post that could be taken negatively and focused on that. How is that being positive or constructive?

New information is released, people speculate as they are want to do. But there's a vocal flood of "it's trash its trash its trash" which, even from a vocal minority, can harm company image and it's not in good practice to pander to those 200 out of 2 million.

And when players don't give the developers a chance to try out a new idea, content will stagnate because no one knows if it will actually work or not and it can't be integrated into better content for the future. Let the content come out, try it. If it's literally unplayable on release then everyone knows what went wrong. And overly negative speculation discourages any form of learning or evolution. Crawl before walking, no multi-million dollar company is exempt from this. Tripping is natural. See even apple and microsoft.

Some preemptive complaints hit their mark, others far from it. But if none of it was released from negativity ahead of time, people would still be complaining about a lack of [insert thing here] and it will never come to fruition the way they want it to.

On the case of little to no content, consider the following.

1. What kind of content is planned to be added.
2. What kind of releases Square Enix as a whole has planned.
3. What could possibly be going on internally to delay something.

And for 2, think back on E3 2019 and how Yoshi P acknowledged FF7 Remake's release. To which was supposed to be out by now but was delayed.

It is not a proven fact but I wholly believe this was a patch meant to consider FF7's sales and how many players would not be on. Like how there aren't any PVP releases on an expansion launch, because no one is playing PVP. This would be for the few still online. And I clearly remember Monster Hunter World's release and how multiple worlds had their active population decimated.

[REPROBEAN_CHILD]

Ishgard Restoration is just the same scrip system we've had for years but with a new coat of paint. 5.25 is just grind yellow scrips (again) and then hit your craft macro 50 times. I fail to see what is so revolution or engaging about this.

Fresh coat of paint? Diadem was reworked and you're literally rebuilding part of a city with the restoration. What else are you expecting? You can't strip away content down to it's basic functions (from anything that makes it unique), then complain about it

[Sesera]

Fresh coat of paint? Diadem was reworked and you're literally rebuilding part of a city with the restoration. What else are you expecting? You can't strip away content down to it's basic functions (from anything that makes it unique), then complain about it

Reworked?
That is the same place except now it's only for gatherers.

[Barraind]

DOH/L tools are dead on arrival because they don't give CP

I'd use the Gatherer MH's in a heartbeat if they had 40-50 less gathering and 40-50 more perception.

The crafting ones can be worth using if you dont NEED the 6cp, but yeah, non-meldable crafter weapons with no CP is questionable.

The producer/director himself has said on more than one occasion that he encourages players to take breaks. Imagine this. You take a break for 3 months. VOILA! You come back to more content!

You actually -cant- take breaks for that long if you have an FC or house, because those will be gone by the time you come back.

Its a game that says "you should take breaks" and then reminds you that you absolutely cannot unsub for that long, even if theres not content.

Also, if you tell players not to play your game when you're an MMO producer, it says more about your lack of knowledge of the genre than anything.

Savage fights designed by B-team

I keep thinking we can go a full content tier without a "DONT FALL OFF THE PLATFORM LOLOL" fight. And I keep being disappointed.

You do realize FFXIV is the only MMO that charges a rental service for additional inventory and has been notorious for not providing nearly enough given the sheer amount of glamour and crafting materials released? Not that I want to defend Bethesda and EA because they have garbage practices but lets not go pretending Square Enix hasn't dipped their toe in money grabbing tendencies either. They've simply avoided the more controversial ones, i.e. lootboxes.

This. Every game company is coming up with new ways to exploit the skinner box. GGG and Squeenix make it impossible to do content for too long with available inventory space. The big 3 (and the FAR more predatory mobile developers) have made governments go "we should probably ban lootboxes, huh?".

You cant just pay for a game and get everything you need inside it these days, theres always non-optional "optional microtransactions" to be had.

Diadem was reworked

Diadem had its node contents swapped out (so instead of being able to get decent amounts of timed and script mats, all of which are still being used in FC crafting, you get mats that are used for one step of the ishgard restoration instead). Thats about as much of a rework as if you went to N Than and could now mine Grade 5 Shouldershruggers Cobalt dust and Grade 5 Shouldershruggers basilisk brains (which can be turned in 10 for 1 herpyderp point, which can be exchanged at a 10,000 to 1 ratio for HIMOM scrips, which can be used to buy an in-game tshirt) and couldnt do fates or kill anything.

2 - People should really go play others MMOs and see if they get the same treatment as FFXIV.

I'd wager 14 is not the first MMO most of us played, nor is it the only MMO a good number of us play.

Other companies arent immune to nonsense by any means.

Daybreak "forgot to adjust their automatic settings for daylight savings time" back in March and it broke anything that used a timer for either a full day, full week, or (and we hope its actually fixed!) a full month.

But they will release as much content in their expansion purchase (once a year) as 14 will drip-feed over 2 years.


If you just want to raid and do group content in MMO's, you basically have to play multiple games.

I raid more in Everquest than I do in 14, because a 21 year old game has a better (as in, I have found ONE group there that raids on that time, vs the 0 in 14 since shadowbringers started) raid scene for what is essentially Hawaiian time than 14 does.

[AngelyLowell]

I see very good arguments in this thread.

But I see two things that some people are missing:

1 - This is patch X.2 we usually go until X.55 getting content, I think we should wait until there to make a statement about this expansion
2 - People should really go play others MMOs and see if they get the same treatment as FFXIV. Really, go there, play a lot and come back and tell me. If you find, please let me know, truly.

[Gula]

Fresh coat of paint? Diadem was reworked and you're literally rebuilding part of a city with the restoration. What else are you expecting? You can't strip away content down to it's basic functions (from anything that makes it unique), then complain about it

About that.

Giuseppe: The Ishgard restoration is certainly a new way to approach content for gatherers and crafters. Is it a concept you’d like to keep exploring even after Ishgard is completely restored? There are quite a few places in Eorzea and beyond that could use a fresh coat of paint. Also, can you finally confirm that (as the map pretty clearly hints to), the restored area will be the promised Ishgard housing ward?

Naoki Yoshida: We are still in the middle of the restoration of Ishgard, so I’d like to close this chapter and do everything we had set out to do, and then think about what comes next. We have made plans to a certain extent, but we have also received plenty of feedback, so I will have to thoroughly discuss this with the development team as we continue our planning. I would also recommend tuning in to upcoming live streams!

From: https://twinfinite.net/2020/04/final...medium=twitter

[zeylos]

from how little content we've gotten this expansion compared to previous ones is making me wonder why xiv is so underfunded. so let's have a quick review shall we

Au Ra could wear headgear at launch
Au Ra could wear all hairstyles at launch
Au Ra had both genders
SAM and RDM still got level 60 primal and tome weapons despite being outdated content, and everything from level 50.
They got: Bismarck, Ravana, Thordan, Sephirot, Sophia, Nidhogg, Zurvan, All tome weapons (Hellfire and Shire), All three Alexander raid tiers. On top of all the base primals like Shiva and Ifrit, etc.
SAM and RDM both had PVP weapon models right away.
SAM and RDM continued to have new models added through 60+ content
Stormblood had new PVP content and glamours shipped out the gate.
Stormblood launched with a complete PVP overhaul (not a good thing though)
3 dungeons per patch in HW
2 dungeons per patch in SB
Relics that took longer than an hour to get
Savages had unique and innovative mechanics
2 Ultimates
Deep dungeons

but in Shadowbringers...
Viera cannot wear most headgear
Viera cannot use all hairstyles
Viera are gender locked
Hrothgar cannot wear most headgear
Hrothgar have 4 hairstyles and cannot change that at the aesthetician
Hrothgar are gender locked
GNB and DNC have had two starting weapon models made for them (Shire and the steel one you start with)
GNB and DNC got nothing else in the level 60 range.
GNB and DNC got none of the level 70 weapons beyond Scaevan, Ryumakyu and Omega, not a single primal at launch.
No: Susano, Shinryu, Byakko, Tsukuyomi, Suzaku, Seiryu, UCoB or UWU, A SINGLE omega raid tier, and only 2 tome weapons. Not even the basic primal weapons from ARR that everybody has at launch.
GNB and DNC have about 20 total unique weapon models, the rest being reskins. Yes even the new ultimate alex weapons are just reskinned Shire and Forgiven weapons.
Shadowbringers PVP glams almost didn't happen but yoshida needed somewhere to put the contest design winner from Stormblood.
1 dungeon per patch
No crafted SB primal weapons at launch
1 ultimate
No deep dungeon
Savage fights designed by B-team

This feels like WoD. Great launch, very bad follow-up with lots of cut content, and to be honest, there wasn't much good content other than story and what was at launch. Even things like races glamour and moutns were the worst we have yet seen in an expansion. A shame that they released a great expansion but shot themselves in the foot with all of this patches. Can only hope this means that the next expac is bringing many surprises and fan requested features, like for instance (not necessarily this, or only this) Mythic +-esque systems, removal of genderlocks for races and gear, improval of the current races (specially female viera and male hrotgar) better glamour, hard 4 man content, egi glamour etc. We will see