Square-Enix: You BROKE your PROMISE on the Bozjan Weapons

[Jennah]

I absolutely despise Eureka and its later-day knockoff, but that is not what this post is about.

SE - the English Community at least was under the apprehension that you told us all we would not have to even enter the Southern Front to complete Gerolt's weapons. This morning, we have awoken to find that that is not the case; that Castrum Lucus Litore must be completed to advance beyond i500. Which includes quite a bit of grinding on the Southern Front as well.

Why? Why would you do this? In ARR and HW, Relics were the best (and pretty much ONLY) long-term solo-and-DF content; I will never understand your decision to change this.

But that's not the main point - the main thing is that your announcements to the English Community - as well as the quest chains in 5.25 and 5.35 - left us all thinking we would never have to enter the Southern Front. And now we have to nearly finish it if we want to progress - or more likely, stick our i500 weapons on a retainer, and forget that they ever existed. All 17 of them in my case. Which I would have never even started if you had not reassured us we would not have to do Eureka 2, Electric Boogaloo to finish them.

If I were in your position, I would be issuing a quick apology; and letting us know if the quest requirement will be removed in a hotfix, 5.48, 5.5, 5.55, or 6.0. And have some harsh words for the English translation team, who let this impression remain up until this morning.

If you are not going to do anything, I would still implore you to examine your own analytics before finalizing the 6.x relic plans. Look at the current number of completed relics owned by people with no or little Mettle. Then when 5.5 is released, compare the same number. Also look at how many people own 5.45's relic with the absolute minimum amount of Mettle versus having continued to participate in Bozja. I cannot help but imagine the numbers will pain a graphic and vivid picture of the community's distaste for all things Eurekan.

And if I'm wrong? At the very least, I am certain several people will reply to this telling me how Bozja is great - or more likely "that it's not that bad"? Well, like I said, I am FAR more furious about the broken promise than the terrible design decision. Not mad enough to unsub - or even to make more than one post - but still extremely angry. And disappointed.

[Anhra]

You can queue up with 48 people now into bozja content via partyfinder, so better start socialising if you want those fancy weapons.

People who want to get their hands on Baldesions Arsenal content also have to do so, and even formed a discord channel about it, so its probably only a matter of time until someone does the same on bozja, unless you find yourself enough friends and a FC that shares your enthusiasm.

But it is still Day 1 on Patch 5.45 so bozja should be quite lively.

[Ezina]

You can queue up with 48 people now into bozja content via partyfinder, so better start socialising if you want those fancy weapons.

People who want to get their hands on Baldesions Arsenal content also have to do so, and even formed a discord channel about it, so its probably only a matter of time until someone does the same on bozja, unless you find yourself enough friends and a FC that shares your enthusiasm.

But it is still Day 1 on Patch 5.45 so bozja should be quite lively.

As Jennah stated it's the fact they gave the impression on Bozja never being required once and to Jennah's credit I do agree that this was something they, my friend, and I were really not expecting. It shouldn't matter if Bozja is gonna be lively at 5.45's release it's the fact that they knew this decision was coming and some heads up or a fair warning at the start of the Relic story that Bozja would be required eventually down the line would have been great. They blatantly lied to those who hated Eureka back in Stormblood and are trying to force us to do it if we want to continue the Relic passed ilvl 500. Probably because Metrics didn't show that Bozja could be determined "Successful" in their eyes. This is a terrible design choice, because those like Jennah, My friend, and I have to now do "Eureka 2, Electric Boogaloo" (Love that name) to just continue this relic. I have stopped doing Relic as of this part of the patch, because I will not do content that is just a fate grind. That's not content in my eyes and it should not be considered content in anyone's eyes the way they implemented it. People may say it worked in FFXI, but that was over 15 years ago since it released. It worked back then, but it doesn't work now. Copying old content and revamping it to the style of your modern game does not give it a pass and should not be given a pass by anyone who loves FFXIV. Yes Bozja is lively right now, but that won't mean it will be lively by next week or in the next couple days. Once people get their relics complete it will be dead again and those who are trying to do multiple relics can't do that, because those who only focus on one job already have it done therefore it makes it unbelievably slow. That's not acceptable and should not be acceptable by anyone in the community.

[Ezina]

If I were in your position, I would be issuing a quick apology; and letting us know if the quest requirement will be removed in a hotfix, 5.48, 5.5, 5.55, or 6.0. And have some harsh words for the English translation team, who let this impression remain up until this morning.

If you are not going to do anything, I would still implore you to examine your own analytics before finalizing the 6.x relic plans. Look at the current number of completed relics owned by people with no or little Mettle. Then when 5.5 is released, compare the same number. Also look at how many people own 5.45's relic with the absolute minimum amount of Mettle versus having continued to participate in Bozja. I cannot help but imagine the numbers will pain a graphic and vivid picture of the community's distaste for all things Eurekan.

And I believe this part too. SE should issue an apology and give us an alternative to do the relic that doesn't include Bozja like they said. I for one would like an apology, but getting anything from this team from my perspective is like trying to pull teeth with your bare hands. Just may not ever happen. I'm happy you won't cancel your sub, but that's entirely up to you. I won't, but SE should take note that they have done a lot of wrong to players who don't have a lot to do in terms of content that's not Eureka 1 or 2. I for one am getting kind of impatient with them slightly, because this isn't the first time they have made me a bit upset about their design choices. First one was when they started cutting back on "X" amount of dungeons per patch. Was understandable in HW to a point, but then in Stormblood I just saw it as them getting lazy and we don't get anything new above what they take away up to now.

So who knows. Maybe we'll get an apology for the misleading information we were given, but I doubt they will ever give us an alternative route to obtain these weapons. The lying is what starts the downwards spiral to a point where players such as you and/or I may end up canceling our subs and moving onto something else. I have kept my hopes up high for the XIV team to do something great again like with ARR's and HW's Relics, but that spark is slowly starting to just burn out.

[Nezerius]

SE has absolutely nothing to apologise for, nor have they broken any promises.

From the Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LVII:

In Eureka, upgrade materials could only be gathered inside Eureka itself, but for Save the Queen we’re planning to have other methods to obtain the required items outside of the specific content.

You're able to obtain the required items for the relic just fine, outside Bozja. However, it doesn't say that you'll be able to completely finish the relic without stepping into the Southern Front.

[RicaRuin]

They said back in the May Live Letter that while it's possible to gather stuff outside Bozja, you would always have to do the Save the Queen Quests to carry on with the weapon. People just chose to ignore that.

[Payadopa]

So now you have to go into Bozja? Nice!
Should have been like that from the start.

[Lesan]

The thing with Bozja is, it feels so...pointless. Boxes are nearly exclusively Indigo Prisms, Memory Mobs are just a means to farm assets to be better at farming, CLL is pretty much dead content, even more so with loot available in Skirmishes, plus it competes for players by being a CE that needs to trigger. Maybe moving CLL from a CE to a conventional queued Duty might help?

In addition, Bozja feels...unrewarding. Progression exclusively hardgated behind Skirmishes and CEs, and droprates on anything one could jump on for a quick solo round are atrocious, so if you go with anything but a party, to pull a whole mob type and AoE it down, tough luck.

All in all, Bozja feels......halfdone and terrible. The flair? Awesome. But you are pretty much forced to run in a party for anything that has a hint of a chance to provide any progress or output.

[Infindox]

My main complaint is I don't think they really fixed the Castrum issue. Now that DR is out, people are in Bozja to get mettle or do CEs for the relic again... And then again no one wants to do it. I know the patch notes say there's new rewards in there but I haven't heard to what extent those are yet. I only went in there today for the DR unlock and then to get the new emote with clusters, so I don't know if people are doing it again or not.

[Dogempire]

So now you have to go into Bozja? Nice!
Should have been like that from the start.

Or maybe they could actually make Bozja fun instead of making it feel like you're shopping at Wal-Mart on a Black Friday with all the crowds you have to fight against and running around you have to do