Bozja is extremely disappointing (especially the 5.45 update)

[Vahlnir]

It wouldn't be so bad if at max level you lost the ability to lose mettle as a reward.

Same in Eureka, Max out for the zone, remove the exp loss on death.

I think that would be a good approach. That way you kinda feel like you earned that battlefield mettle for more than just having an arbitrary number.

"So what if I hit the floor every once in awhile? Or 100 times but I totally wouldn't do that! *nervous sweating* I've proven my worth!"

[Frigidchick]

Seriously, all the work and resources used to make that boring, FFXI-esque content could've been put to making headgear & hair compatible for Hrothgar and Viera--- OR creating Female Hrothgar and Male Viera.

We gave SE a pass long enough. I want to get out of the 1990s, and and have updated race choices.

[TaleraRistain]

The mettle penalty is one of the worst features this game has introduced. A similar loss of item level feature was one of the reasons the Aion playerbase deserted the game (and I was there). I hoped never to see anything like that again. Yet here we are, with Bozja doing it's best to mimic a penalty that kills player numbers.

Not to mention that we older MMO gamers put up with that crap back in EverQuest and FFXI because those were the only games on the block. With the varied options we have now, they'd have to want to tank their game to start going that route. They need to boot their obvious former XI devs off the team or stop letting them make decisions.

And I agree with your next point, that this is where they test features they make more widespread. We've seen a lot of that in XIV, usually with good things.

[Packetdancer]

Seriously, all the work and resources used to make that boring, FFXI-esque content could've been put to making headgear & hair compatible for Hrothgar and Viera--- OR creating Female Hrothgar and Male Viera.

While everyone's entitled to an opinion, one thing I think I should note is that developer resources are not interchangeable; a battle designer who is, for instance, doing battle design for Delubrum Reginae is probably not going to be able to sit down and do all the development to make male Viera or female Hrothgar work. Soken and the musicians who compose all the music for Bozja, for Castrum, for Delubrum... they aren't going to be able to go design hats if they aren't composing and/or recording the music. Someone who directs voiceover work for in-game cutscenes is not suddenly going to be able to go design hairstyles for Viera if they don't have any Bozjan cutscenes to do. Someone who designs the mechanics for new Lost Actions in Bozja is probably not the same person who would need to figure out how best to handle creating an appropriate animation rig for female Hrothgar. The people writing the Resistance storyline are, in all likelihood, writers rather than artists and animators who could fix up headgear.

So no, honestly, they could not have used all the resources that went towards Bozja to just expand on Viera and Hrothgar.

I genuinely do get the gut feeling of "they did X that I don't like, but if they didn't do that they could've done Y instead, which I do like", but that's just not always true. Simply because developer resources aren't faceless wholly-interchangeable cogs.

[LaylaTsarra]

Seriously, all the work and resources used to make that boring, FFXI-esque content could've been put to making headgear & hair compatible for Hrothgar and Viera--- OR creating Female Hrothgar and Male Viera.

We gave SE a pass long enough. I want to get out of the 1990s, and and have updated race choices.

Some of the new content is pretty special. It is certainly not something that should be scraped in lieu of additional races or genders and I'm a big fan of racial additions. What is boring is listening to all the relic complaints regardless of xpac.

[Iscah]

The thing we are undeniably missing out on in favour of Bozja is other battle content like dungeons.

Personally I would prefer the dungeons, simply because they are mainstream content that you will get to revisit in the course of usual roulettes instead of being tucked away in its own exclusive corner. Plus there's the issue of expert roulette's dwindling pool of recent dungeons to pick from.

[RyuDragnier]

The thing we are undeniably missing out on in favour of Bozja is other battle content like dungeons.

l wouldn't blame Bozja on its own. Adding Hrothgar and Viera was down to the wire, meaning both races pushed the game back as well. They also added flying to the old ARR maps, which likely took quite a bit of work too. They likely went down to 1 new dungeon in order to make up for it and play catch-up this expansion.

[Doozer]

Seriously, all the work and resources used to make that boring, FFXI-esque content could've been put to making headgear & hair compatible for Hrothgar and Viera--- OR creating Female Hrothgar and Male Viera.

We gave SE a pass long enough. I want to get out of the 1990s, and and have updated race choices.

There's already a thread for that, mate.

[TaleraRistain]

The thing we are undeniably missing out on in favour of Bozja is other battle content like dungeons.

Personally I would prefer the dungeons, simply because they are mainstream content that you will get to revisit in the course of usual roulettes instead of being tucked away in its own exclusive corner. Plus there's the issue of expert roulette's dwindling pool of recent dungeons to pick from.

Deep dungeon, too. Give me dungeons and deep dungeons since they're designed to stay populated over non-future-proofed exclusive zones any day.

[Ramesses]

This is completely uninspired and, frankly, disappointing content.

Hold up a second-- you are disappointed in the Bozjah storyline even after seeing this...?