Regarding Firmament Titles For 5.3

[Kaiyoko]

As a Saint title owner, I hope they do not change the title and achievement. Based on Yoshida's statements prior to the original release, I went into grinding it with the assumption I would never have to put in that level of work again and take my time with the later periods of Ishgard Restoration.

I'd like to give others a chance to gain the title/achievement while also not feeling pressured to go after a timed exclusive title/achievement each step of the Ishgard Restoration process.
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Additionally, a concern I have is I've seen comments going around discord servers that bots have become more efficient with the expert recipes and push out legitimate players from competing as well. Giving the same title/achievement each step could be a deterring factor to this.

[NaiaLalita]

I talked to several friends during the Live Letter this morning about this sudden reversal on the Firmament Rankings.
None of us were happy about it.
Most of us feel like it's not even worth trying.
We trusted what SE said, and planned around those details being true, and that trust has been betrayed.
Like many other people expressed in this thread - those who placed, worked hard to get the achievement out of the way, and to allow others their chance to earn the achievement in following ranking periods.
Something I loved about the overall player attitude was precisely that - a pervasive sense of goodwill and community; where, unlike in PvP, most people seemed oriented towards spreading the rewards out rather than hoarding personal glory. That difference in community attitude also factored into my decision to participate in the first ranking period. I can't stand the copy/paste PvP winner lists and elitism and needlessly exclusive rewards in pseudo esport antagonism content - so seeing the crafters and gatherers handle their version of it so benevolently was incredibly refreshing and hopeful.
In that first ranking period, I didn't make top 12, but I did get a Beata title. I was proud of myself for managing that, and I felt fine - maybe even a little hopeful - because I was under the impression I'd have another chance to get the Saint title.
With the information in the Live Letter, however, I don't feel hopeful at all. I know I can't compete with those same leaderboard toppers, much less the bots (I've caught several in the act, usually the result of a ping spike and an action in their command loop being interrupted - usually it's a MIN or BTN in Diadem jumping, summoning a mount, dismounting, jumping, summoning a mount, dismounting, etc).
With how joyless and boring the gathering grind is, and how RNG-dependent and punishing Expert crafting is - and how utterly unrewarding the normal level 80 crafts are in comparison - I can't help but feel this content crumbled from an example of community solidarity into a wasteland of misery olympics.

[Wolfdog2k8]

Yes please do not change the titles of the achievements. Or if there are actually new titles and this is going to be a thing every restoration phase from here on out, please for the love of all that is holy have more title tiers. As someone who is still salty about getting 13th several months after the first rankings I find it to be completely garbage that someone who spent the effort to earn almost 400k points legit ends up with the same reward as someone who got nearly 100th with 5k points.

[shiraneko]

Just a friendly reminder to the Squeenix staff that not even crafting will be spared botting this new ranking period. A quick google search reveals that the most popular bot program already has a function to craft expert recipes with reasonable success and collectability. Many people also didn't go for the first season because they thought you could compete for the same title in later ranking periods. These two factors, along with expert crafting strategies being well established at this point, means this new season is going to be much harder to compete in than the first one. (read: many more hours of mindless mental conditional checks) (unless youre a bot)

Implements a ranked competitive crafting system where ranking is based on the quantity of crafting/gathering but at the same time extremely lax about banning high level bots

I guess I don't understand this logic...

[kittenlvl70]

I would like to have the same titles available as the previous ones purely as i wasnt subscribed at the time and i'd like to have a shot at getting the original ones. I agree with those who mentioned the period of time is too long as i know myself that i would also skip meals / sleep to try to get an achievement, especially if its a one time chance at getting it

[Tsumdere]

I would love the same titles because I did not compete the first season under the impression that we would get a couple more chances down the line. Knowing that they might put in different titles kills it for me. I don't want to compete against bots.

[Caerlona]

I am really excited for the new titles. I really want to try for 1st, I got 2nd in botany last time around. This is the exact kind of competition that I love, and I absolutely do not mind doing the grind again. I know some people have concern for bots when it comes to this, but I do my best to report them when I see them in the Diadem (they do really rapid gathering, even faster than quick gather, so it's super easy to spot). I did not lose any sleep last time and I don't plan on doing it next time either. My worry with other people during last season was that they were staying up all night to do things, then saying they only got x amount of points. I think that's more a problem with inefficiency than the grind for points.
I like feeling like I accomplished something in a video game, something that feels exclusive. Adding a new title really, really got me stoked to do the next season!

I think a few things to keep in mind are:
It's okay for minds and plans to change.
It is okay to "lose" the title to others that went in on it more intensely.
It is okay to not be able to participate if your real life demands your attention. For a lot of people, that is not the case - especially right now.

[Miminming]

im okay if the title change is minor, like idk maybe adding ii behind or something like that, a friend of mine said the probably changing the nest part since we are done builnding nest and i do agree to that.

[LunaJoy]

I hope they keep the titles the same. It seems to be the general feeling here, in game and on Reddit and Discord chats that I've seen today. The previous title winners don't relish in the idea of having to grind it out every time, and those of us who still want to earn the top 12 should have the chance to do so. Besides, that's what we were originally told would be the case. I think they should stick to their word.

[Liam_Harper]

I'm all for new titles and things to chase, DoH/L badly needs challenging endgame content. However, the current system isn't healthy, it's a test of hours spammed rather than player skill or knowledge and I'm amazed they didn't learn from it.

The ranking system should have been as follows:
-You get 30 sets of materials.
-The Expert collectibles have no collectibility cap or something like 999k.
-You can hand in 25 for the entire season. That's it. The 5 leeway is for very bad rng or dc's.
-Your scoring is based on collectibility rating.
-You can use the practice materials before you go for your final product.

With the above system they could easily allow continuous 10 day seasons throughout the patch, keeping Expert crafting alive. Spam crafting thousands of these in 10 days, never knowing whether someone will bump you down to 13th place at the last minute, is not healthy or enjoyable gameplay.

I know some people have concern for bots when it comes to this, but I do my best to report them when I see them in the Diadem (they do really rapid gathering, even faster than quick gather, so it's super easy to spot).

Great you enjoy it, but just wanted to point out that they very rarely ban player bots. They don't seem to be allowed to scan for third party software on individual accounts and unlike RMT sellers who basically announce they're engaging in RMT in open chat, player bots don't openly provide proof.