COVID showed why the Developers need to release Relic content sooner.

[ForteNightshade]

Should they have released the relic content earlier? I mean, maybe, but to tie it to the current situation is really silly. How could the developers have known there would be a global pandemic in enough time for them to plan a relic grind long enough to occupy players through (hopefully) the worst of it. Once again, the only reason this later release of the content really feels noticeable and notable is because of the delay. If it had come out on time almost nobody would be batting an eye.

I mean, what if the pandemic had struck before the release of 5.1? Does that mean they should have released the relic content in 5.0 instead as something to keep the players busy?

You're misinterpreting. No one is faulting SE for the delay but merely using it to highlight why the current design philosophy is extremely flawed. A two month delay should not have the game crumbling under its own weight. People already complain content simply doesn't last long enough, and the staggered releases make it especially worse. For argument's sake. Say Covid never happened and 5.3 released on schedule. Almost everything in that patch can easily be done within a handful of hours; a couple days tops if you're slow. That patch is supposed to last six weeks following an already lengthily fourteen week cycle where content longevity is once again quite sparse. Releasing the relic earlier and not making such a paltry step at least gives people something to focus on should they choose. And had they done that, then this delay wouldn't have felt nearly as bad.

Look at the Heavensward relic and how much better spaced out it was. Sure, it had problems but the dev team should be working on improving the criticisms people had not cutting them out entirely.

[ItMe]

A two month delay should not have the game crumbling under its own weight.

Is it though?
Because whenever I log in there are still ques.
When I go into hunt trains there are still enough people to lag my setup like it's frying.
Everything still seems to be popping in game.

[ForteNightshade]

Is it though?
Because whenever I log in there are still ques.
When I go into hunt trains there are still enough people to lag my setup like it's frying.
Everything still seems to be popping in game.

Because it's attracted new players. I never said the game was dying just that content cycle is flawed. Of course new players will have tons to do. They're new after all. 3.1 is routinely cited as the worst patch in this game's entire history yet for me, I never felt its impact. Why? I had just started playing. That doesn't mean 3.1 wasn't a bad patch. I just wasn't far enough yet to notice the severe drought in caused.

Veteran players also want to enjoy stuff to do once they've reached endgame. Hence why people are frustrated over the relic being shifted so late into the expansion.

[Gemina]

175 Days.

That is how long it took to drop 5.3 from the previous patch.

And during that time we could have been working on the more grindy bits / stages of our relic.

Simply put: Relic content needs to be released MUCH sooner than it currently is and has been in the past, IMHO it should be released on the X.1 patch.

Releasing it earlier provides a safe, reliable fall back in cases where there is a lull in content. That's the point of relic, to be grinded out. Something to keep players busy.

I totally understand where you're coming from, but this world we in right now is all cray cray. I won't even begin to try and understand what they've guys have gone through to still provide the new content and also keep to the adjusted schedule to avoid any further delays. If that content was ready to go before covid hit, we would have likely got it. Best to make sure it is right than to rush it and then have to do kinds of fixes.

[ItMe]

Because it's attracted new players. I never said the game was dying just that content cycle is flawed. Of course new players will have tons to do.
[...]
Veteran players also want to enjoy stuff to do once they've reached endgame. Hence why people are frustrated over the relic being shifted so late into the expansion.

If it was something they let people start working on earlier, doesn't that just mean they'd ultimately have to give the relic weapon more steps so the content still ends at the point they want the relic to be fully relevant?
And thus, wouldn't making more content for the relic weapon mean they'd be making that instead of the other stuff we got in earlier 5.x patches?
No matter how I look at it, it doesn't shape up into more content. It's like cutting one end off of a blanket, sewing it onto the other, and saying you have a longer blanket.

[Deceptus]

If it was something they let people start working on earlier, doesn't that just mean they'd ultimately have to give the relic weapon more steps so the content still ends at the point they want the relic to be fully relevant?
And thus, wouldn't making more content for the relic weapon mean they'd be making that instead of the other stuff we got in earlier 5.x patches?
No matter how I look at it, it doesn't shape up into more content. It's like cutting one end off of a blanket, sewing it onto the other, and saying you have a longer blanket.

Honestly the first steps of this relic were pretty much a joke. I'm not complaining because it was extremely easy to get a 480 weapon (which are generally supposed to be the hardest things to get). But in doing so made so much content irrelevant.

[LuciferNacht]

Totally agree with the original post here. I hope this is something the dev team considers in the future in regards to what kind of content gets released when.

[ForteNightshade]

If it was something they let people start working on earlier, doesn't that just mean they'd ultimately have to give the relic weapon more steps so the content still ends at the point they want the relic to be fully relevant?
And thus, wouldn't making more content for the relic weapon mean they'd be making that instead of the other stuff we got in earlier 5.x patches?
No matter how I look at it, it doesn't shape up into more content. It's like cutting one end off of a blanket, sewing it onto the other, and saying you have a longer blanket.

Depends how they go about it. The Anima relic essentially had us going through old content which doesn't require much in the way of development work. Instead of starting off the relic in Bozja they could build towards it. A prime example would be borrowing from say, the Wondrous Tale system to incentivize content on an evening playing field; something that was an issue with the Anima relic. If in the end, it meant we still lost something like the solo instance for Memoria. Honestly, I'd be fine with that. While it's cool and all, the problem is like so many things in this game. It's one and done. They spent a lot of time developing that instance for us to go their once and never again on the same character.

Ultimately, the excuses need to stop. FFXIV severely lacks in content longevity. There needs to be a focus on making at least a few things have a longer shelf life than a couple weeks.

[Evergrey]

I understand that people find these long periods between updates quite annoying from time to time.
But like others have already mentioned, the state everything is at right now we can't really blame SE that it takes longer to make the updates.

Personally I have always done so that when I log in and there's nothing to do (for me) I just put the game on the side for now and play something else while waiting for an update.
No one is forcing people to keep logging in and play if they find it boring from time to time. It's ok to do something else while waiting and then come back when there's new content.
Don't make it a bigger issue than it really has to be.

[Fevermoon]

I leveled all classes and calling it a content is just stupid, this game is sucks at long-lasting content and people have all rights to complain about that, being triggered and reporting people are not helping, GCBTW.