Concern on the current state of FFXIV, and future content

[KaldeaSahaline]

I agree with you but I don't think changing the basic formula in a huge way will make it better, it could but it has a high chance to make it worse. Smaller changes are what I would suggest. I was merely making a statement that the basic formula works.

I fundamentally disagree with this statement. I don't think you can say with absolute certainty that it "has a high chance to make it worse". Where is your data/insight/examples to support that claim?

While I think it's great you think the formula works, you'd be remiss to say there isn't a staggering divide in the community. There are those that think it work and those that don't. In all my years gaming (10+) I don't think I've ever seen such a stark divide in any community. Even in WoW the communities are generally pretty aligned when something is off. Whether or not that feedback is valuable or acted on is entirely another issue though.

Speaking strictly personally the combat engine is one of the larger issues holding the game back. It's too rigid and binary and holds back jobs from having other more in-depth synergies in their kits and encounter design from being nothing but jump ropes. More choice would go a long way and allow encounter design to better utilize deeper kits. I.e. let me make decisions about how much damage I want to take organically rather than by toggle. Let the flow of combat and party skill give me options to tailor my ability usage to support my team. I don't want to have to disband because both my healers sniff glue. Let me shift my resources to help bring the healers up. Make more soft enrage design than hard enrage, things that slowly overwhelm you as you fall behind, but allow for clever recovery.

That's not even going into the "formula" aspect, the thing that makes every iota of content we get predictable and stale on release.

Then there's gearing. It's probably the most boring gear I've ever seen in ANY game I've ever played. Secondary stats that don't actually tell you how much they improve by? Secondary stats that really don't mean anything? Gear that has so much "raw" data attached it to it causes server problems? Let's not even get started on the mess that is materia. The implemented materia system MIGHT have passed for decent design in 2004. Not good design, but decent design. It's 2018 though.

How about the "combat overhaul" where they managed to take cross class skills and turn them into something EQUALLY as useless and contrived? Cross class skills were an awful implementation (not an awful idea, but an awful implementation), and they managed to make an equally awful implementation in Role Skills.

How about side content? I mean I am not even a game dev by design (I do SDLC stuff though in the fin industry so I am familiar with dev). Side content needs to be robust. It needs to justify itself as a standalone piece of content that keeps people coming from other stuff is slow. Yet, every piece of side content is even more shallow than the main game, which is an achievement to be honest. And not a particularly good one.

The thing is, I could literally go on all day. That's not to say the game doesn't have GOOD aspects. It has a ton of those. Don't misunderstand my criticism for "hate" or tell me "this isn't the game for you then". I am passionate about the game and the universe that's why I'm so critical. It's because I care and want to see the game be better than it is.

[rangomals]

Closing patch 4.4 and still the same trails.Nothing changes just the same formula over and over.I started the game in the launch of Heavensward so i was fine with the formula since i didnt play ARR but seeing a Heavensward reskin into SB right now makes me frustrated.Yes Heavens on high is cool and that but Eureka?Worst thing ever happened.When i heard SB would improve way much more than HW in many ways i built hope and thought, new dungeon mechanics introductions?Got the same Linear trash /boss/trash boss route.Harder Savage mechanics than Alexander and more wide raid areas? Got only one arena in Omega with easier difficulty than Alex.Something better than Diadem? Got sth worse like Eureka.In the trailer saw people farming fates to spawn Ixion so i thought, hey they finally add Open world Content, still all Sb maps are dead no open world.I understand the fanbase is Immersed with the FFXIV world and Eorza in overall ( like me and thus the reason i still re-sub monthly) but the devs just doesnt care at all?They keep Funding other games with Our sub (FFVIIR im looking at you) and dont even bother investing in ffxiv anymore?after 3 Years of support as a player i demand from them in 5.0 a HUGE COMEBACK,like a whole New game seriously,because im done with this crap shoved in my face.They cant keep ignoring us anymore with their 2 dungeons/trial/4 raids/24man formula its grown sick.

[Fayth]

I didn't at first, but after reading through the whole post, I feel that I agree with some of what the OP has stated, and some of the statements made by other posters in this thread.

There are a great deal of things that could be done differently in FFXIV, but no matter what changes are made, there will be groups who disagree with the state of the game. I fully agree that new content could be made more appealing and original rather than a reskin of existing content. Personally, I think there's a lot from FFXI or 1.0 that they should've retained, such as the seamless zones and slightly less easy travel methods, have actual avatars instead of the ridiculous egi for smn, a more customizeable job and equipment system, etc. I understand Yoshi's reasoning behind most of the system, and respectfully disagree with a lot of it.

That being said, this game will never be what many people are hoping for, which is something akin SAO (hate the story, love the concept) or .//hack. A Final Fantasy that is truly immersive, expansive and limitless. Obviously, that's not a reality at this point. In 10-20 years, I have high hopes that we'll see those types of games starting to be developed. For now, we have this style of MMO. It's just like every other one out there because, believe it or not, we still have technical limitations. Be it in the way we interact with the game, or the fact that it's on a 2D screen, or the limitations of hardware on players' personal computers. There is nothing SE can do that will "fix" FFXIV. This is what they have made, and the formula works. They have over 14 million players and climbing; why would they even consider doing something differently? Because there are a few threads on myriad forums that no one with the ability to make any changes will ever read? I'm sorry, but I just don't believe that's a healthy way to think.

FFXIV is really not all that bad for what it is. It's a solid game, we enjoy playing it and doing whatever it is we do in the game. There will be times where you're tired of the existing content, or just tired of repeating the same thing every day. On days like this, I play that game I've been neglecting due to the timesink that is the MMO, or try to find something else to do with my time. Take a break from the game if it'll help. Go play some other MMOs and see if you enjoy them more. Don't worry, Final Fantasy won't disappear if you go play Guild Wars for a while. I spent many years playing all kinds of different MMOs, spent years of my youth playing FFXI, had a several year love/hate relationship with WoW, tried a lot of those "Action" MMOs like Tera. At their core, all MMOs are identical, and so are the companies that make them. You'll have a hard time changing that.

[RTX3080]

They had seventeen months of development time to do any number of these, or anything else, but they did nothing. Why it took seventeen months to test a Magia Board and create a grindable island with zero content is beyond me. Even the mob models aren’t new.

Can anyone be surprised when they were mostly focused on FFXVI? It's a miracle that something even got done with all the work they're putting into FF16.

[Ayer2015]

Can anyone be surprised when they were mostly focused on FFXVI? It's a miracle that something even got done with all the work they're putting into FF16.

Why resurrect a 2 year old thread....

[ItMe]

They're a troll mass necroing threads to spread the false accusations that 16 is stealing people from 14.
Just ignore them.