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

[EaMett]

The pandemic could've hit before 5.1. Not sure how advancing it would change anything.
I will say that I would enjoy more content in between raid tiers that don't have ultimate fights.

[Euphares]

Not really sure why folks keep citing the same 'just quit during downtime' sentiment. If everyone did that the game would be dead.

The whole point of a subscription is that you pay monthly with the expectation that you will continually be fed content, this game isn't a one and done deal. It's an MMO and it needs to be at least somewhat evergreen or why even charge a monthly fee? Might as well just charge for patch entry and leave it at that.

I feel like the idea that the game isn't designed to keep you playing is just a weird excuse to be lax with content releases. You guys should expect more from the companies you give money to.

And as a side-note, no I don't think the devs should endanger themselves to work on the game, but they should definitely be a lot smarter/professional with their practices so events such as these aren't so damaging to the game.

[JohnSpawnVFX]

Not really sure why folks keep citing the same 'just quit during downtime' sentiment. If everyone did that the game would be dead.

The whole point of a subscription is that you pay monthly with the expectation that you will continually be fed content, this game isn't a one and done deal. It's an MMO and it needs to be at least somewhat evergreen or why even charge a monthly fee? Might as well just charge for patch entry and leave it at that.

I feel like the idea that the game isn't designed to keep you playing is just a weird excuse to be lax with content releases. You guys should expect more from the companies you give money to.

And as a side-note, no I don't think the devs should endanger themselves to work on the game, but they should definitely be a lot smarter/professional with their practices so events such as these aren't so damaging to the game.

The game was designed for people to keep playing. You'll find there's plenty of people here who never unsub. Some people just like to pretend content they don't like doesn't count as content.

To those people, the most logic answer is "Unsub and come back later".

[Hanayumi]

Yeah... 5.1/5.2 have definitely been lack luster for battle jobs, got Ultimate for raiders which is fine but... that's about it really, definitely would like to see relic grind stuff much much earlier in an expansion, especially if its suppose to be a replacement for deep dungeon. Also sucks that relic stuff is still a mid patch thing, by the time most folks finish their weapon, they get like a month or so till next patch drops and relic basically get replaced with the newer gear anyway... >.<

[ItMe]

Depends how they go about it. The Anima relic essentially had us going through old content which

... which is something they explicitly said they won't be doing for this relic due to player feedback.
That's why we only had relic quests heavy on reusing old stuff in ARR and HS. And since they've moved away from that approach they would have needed to take notable time and manpower from other content to make relic stuff happen earlier.

[Deceptus]

... which is something they explicitly said they won't be doing for this relic due to player feedback.
That's why we only had relic quests heavy on reusing old stuff in ARR and HS. And since they've moved away from that approach they would have needed to take notable time and manpower from other content to make relic stuff happen earlier.

Again, lets not act like the SE devs are going to re-invent the wheel here.

Eureka was nothing more than re-used assets (save Paz/Lou/Penny) in FATES.

I doubt Bozja will be different. I hope I'm wrong. I hope Bozja is amazingly fun, but with SE's track record I doubt it will be anything majorly exciting.

[ItMe]

Eureka was nothing more than re-used assets (save Paz/Lou/Penny) in FATES.

They reused monster assets, but there still a lot they had to make.
Big maps, quest chains, coding the magicite system, cutscenes, making and balancing all the logograms, etc.
There's a not insignificant amount of work that went into eureka, and it's looking like the Bozjan Resistance will have been no lighter on the devs than Eureka...

[Krotoan]

Forgive me if I'm taking this the wrong way or repeating arguments. But..

"Developers should plan for unprecedented global disasters (that are not over BTW) so we can play the game we like more." feels.. entitled.

Sure it'd be nice if they weren't trying to have big fancy patches and could instead release stuff slowly for us to do...

But that was really not the example to use.

Not only are we getting the revamp to ARR we've been asking for forever.. we're getting a bunch of other reworks and conveniences, mostly interlinked. It's possible the systems had to be dropped as a whole.

Yes more content would be nice, yes they could plan for minor delays and inconveniences. This was not one of them.

[Euphares]

Forgive me if I'm taking this the wrong way or repeating arguments. But..

"Developers should plan for unprecedented global disasters (that are not over BTW) so we can play the game we like more." feels.. entitled.

Sure it'd be nice if they weren't trying to have big fancy patches and could instead release stuff slowly for us to do...

But that was really not the example to use.

Not only are we getting the revamp to ARR we've been asking for forever.. we're getting a bunch of other reworks and conveniences, mostly interlinked. It's possible the systems had to be dropped as a whole.

Yes more content would be nice, yes they could plan for minor delays and inconveniences. This was not one of them.

I'm not sure how its entitled. No amount of preparation can completely mitigate something to the scale of Covid(global pandemic,) however it quite literally looked like they had zero fail-safes in place. We truly don't know how deep the damage to the game's future content schedule runs but we can speculate.

In a game that has already skeletal content releases, their current methodology just doesn't work, and we are directly observing the consequences of the stubbornness from them, and I feel Shadowbringers will forever be tarnished as the 'what now' expansion which is such a shame because it started off so strong.

All the updates they are putting forth are extremely welcome and good additions to the game, I'd never say otherwise. But they are not worth a six-month content drought. I resubbed at the very tail-end of this patch and I'm still feeling the effects the lull is having(worth noting that I am someone who enjoys pretty much everything this game has to offer.)

Additionally, there is nothing suggesting that this won't be a pattern for 5.4, 5.5, and maybe even the next expansion. Sure people are okay with a one-time deal, but can we really say its acceptable if it becomes the new norm? Should we be okay with such giant gaps for content that rarely has longevity? In my opinion I don't think so and I think its valid to call it out as a flaw of the dev team.


If we are expected to still pay the full subscription during this crisis then its not unreasonable at all to expect the devs to remain somewhat on track during it as well.

[Evergrey]

Not really sure why folks keep citing the same 'just quit during downtime' sentiment. If everyone did that the game would be dead.

The whole point of a subscription is that you pay monthly with the expectation that you will continually be fed content, this game isn't a one and done deal. It's an MMO and it needs to be at least somewhat evergreen or why even charge a monthly fee? Might as well just charge for patch entry and leave it at that.

I feel like the idea that the game isn't designed to keep you playing is just a weird excuse to be lax with content releases. You guys should expect more from the companies you give money to.

And as a side-note, no I don't think the devs should endanger themselves to work on the game, but they should definitely be a lot smarter/professional with their practices so events such as these aren't so damaging to the game.

I understand that. But people also have to understand that creating content takes time and it's impossible to keep a steady flow of content without any downtime between.
Also, it's up to the players themselves to make something to do while waiting and not just sit and wait to get spoonfed content when they got multiple options ingame to do.
But if one might have already done everything there is to do, just take a break.
Even YoshiP have said to do something else while waiting if the downtimes are too much for you.

海外ゲーマー
ミスター吉田、俺は『FFXIV』が大好きなんだ。でも、ずっとプレイし続けるのが辛くなってしまって、いまはゲームを休んでいるんだ。すまない。何かずっとゲームを続けるためのコツや、モチベーションがあれば教えてくれないか？
"Hey YoshiP, I love FFXIV, but it's hard to keep playing your game (because of the lack of content) and now I'm taking a break here. Sorry for asking this but is there a way or a reason to keep playing? or anything that can you teach me how to keep my motivation for playing your game?" - A player asking Yoshida during Gamescom

Yoshida's answer
無理して毎日やらなくていいよ。ゲームなんだし、辛いならやめればいい。むしろ、いまはたくさんゲームが発売されるから、ひとつに絞るのはストレスだよ。だから、メジャーパッチがでたら一気にプレイして、飽きる前にパッとやめて。ほかのゲームをやればいいよ。またメジャーがでたら戻ってくる。僕はそれがいちばんうれしいし、結果、それがいちばん長くゲームをプレイするコツだと思う。
Yoshida "It's alright not to play it everyday. Since it's just a game, you can stop forcing yourself if it's hard on you to keep that up. Rather, it'll just pile up unnecessary stress if you limit yourself into playing just that one game since there are so many other games out there. So, do come back and play it to your heart's content when the major patch kicks in, then stop it to play other games before you got burnt out, and then come back for another major patch. This will actually make me happier, and in the end, I think this is the best solution I can answer for keeping your motivation up for the game."

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...otivation_and/