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

[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.

[TheRealQuah]

You act like the developers can't multitask and develop multiple pieces of content at once. Besides, lets be honest, most of the content in FFXIV is re-using the same assets just in different ways. It's not like they're re-inventing the wheel here.

Have they been short staffed over the years? Yes, and that's 100% on them at this point. Since 2.0 they haven't invested in gaining new employees much, yet when things get pushed back it's "oh, they're short staffed".

Has COVID made it worse? Yes. But having the right people power to get ahead of issues is important for any company, SE is no different.

I'm well aware the developers can multitask. I know they can develop 4.4, 4.5 and 4.55, at the same time as developing 5.0. Do you want sub par content? Do you want quantity over quality because it seems like that's what you're advocating? Do you want the developers to crunch to give you what you want?

Being short staffed is one thing, working to a budget is another thing. Money is not unlimited. They've (COVID excluded) kept to the same strict schedule for 7+ years and that is admirable.

You haven't addressed my point that there's lots of content in this game that you could have done in the last 170 days. You can't chose to not participate in half the content in the game and also complain there's nothing to do.

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.

This quote right here just backs up my point. The first step of the relic had a lot of cutscenes, an interesting story, and a long and impressive single player instance, followed by an EX version of the final fight (yes before you say it wasn't part of the weapon quest, I know, but it was still part of the relic series). It was a lot of content, and if all of that was a "joke" to you then I don't know what else to say.

The alternative to this is a long and tedious grind, which it seems you want, but then you also complained about how bad Eureka was, so I really don't understand what kind of content you want.