Mr.Happy Interview with Yoshi P

[LittleImp]

Excerpts from the mogtalk interview linked above.

Naoki Yoshida: "I'd like to refrain from giving away too many specifics at this time, but I think the chances of doing large-scale, challenging content is greater than creating high-difficulty content meant for smaller groups. It's not that we are unable to create high-difficulty content for small groups, but currently I am a bit more hesitant with that direction overall."

Naoki Yoshida: "In the case of a four-player high-difficulty dungeon, there is much less room for players to work with when it comes to party deaths or mistakes. If even a single party member is incapacitated or makes a mistake, it will invariably lead to a wipe, with not much leeway to save the run or come up with a creative solution. Another major reason is because our community continues to grow -- naturally this is bringing in many casual players, and I believe that looking at the bigger pictures large-scale content will be easier for all players to get into."

[Vahlnir]

I think his guides before have been either rushed out and not the greatest or some.of his views with the game have cause ire. I don't dislike the guy but I usually find myself watching other people's guides.

My issue with his guides is that he goes off on a tangent repeatedly about things that no one is there to hear him talk about. People just want to hear about the mechanics and what they do. That's why I shy away from his guides.

[Infindox]

In short, more 48 man difficult content is coming, and may be even more group mechanic focused. Small group difficult content like standard dungeons is unlikely due to mechanic and role constraints, but small scale challenge like high floor Deep Dungeons is likely.

I hope it's PUGGABLE content and not what DR Savage is. I want harder content but I want content that I can just join up for.

[Derio]

Both Frosty and Mr. Happy had good interviews and questions. Hopefully they get to do another after fanfest.

[Vahlnir]

I hope it's PUGGABLE content and not what DR Savage is. I want harder content but I want content that I can just join up for.

This is how I feel as well. I want to be challenged. However, the hardest part shouldn't be getting in.

[ReynTime]

MogTalk/Frosty also interviewed YoshiP and also tackled some questions about higher difficulty content since that seems to be of interest here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C79Oc_HRo1U

In short, more 48 man difficult content is coming, and may be even more group mechanic focused. Small group difficult content like standard dungeons is unlikely due to mechanic and role constraints, but small scale challenge like high floor Deep Dungeons is likely.

On a related note, each DPS type is usually intended to serve a specific role in a fight beyond just giving that % bonus for a full team variety but they don't want to go into major details on it to not force certain job choices and to allow for flexibility.

Yoshida's response about challenging 4p content is infuriating to be quite honest.

I really hate how they want every 4p content ever to be DF-friendly because "there are a lot of casual players" as he puts it. No one is asking them to do harder dungeons INSTEAD of the usual easy ones.
It's not like players have been managing to form parties to take on challenging EIGHT player content for over 8 years or anything... Hell if he thinks 4 is too little, why not just make it 8? People only hate CM and Praetorium because of the cutscenes.

I'd take harder but not "savage" level dungeons too. Anything. Dungeons used to be my favorite kind of content. Now I find them so boring I stopped doing expert roulettes...

I don't care if this is an unpopular take but large scale content is a mess. I couldn't care less. Even the Ivalice ones felt more like being carried by a current than actually engaging.

[SturmChurro]

Yoshida's response about challenging 4p content is infuriating to be quite honest.

I really hate how they want every 4p content ever to be DF-friendly because "there are a lot of casual players" as he puts it. No one is asking them to do harder dungeons INSTEAD of the usual easy ones.
It's not like players have been managing to form parties to take on challenging EIGHT player content for over 8 years or anything...

I'd take harder but not "savage" level dungeons too. Anything. Dungeons used to be my favorite kind of content. Now I find them so boring I stopped doing expert roulettes...

I don't care if this is an unpopular take but large scale content is a mess. I couldn't care less. Even the Ivalice ones felt more like being carried by a current than actually engaging.

It's funny. Players are underperforming at such a level that they don't want to dedicate the resources and time to difficult small-scale content. If each player has to pull their own weight, it just won't work with the playerbase at large. The thing here is though, I suspect they are so tight with resources that a regular dungeon and a 'hard mode' just simply isn't feasible. It literally is one or the other. As stated in the Mr. Happy interview, the harder the content the more time and resources it takes to create.

. Another major reason is because our community continues to grow -- naturally this is bringing in many casual players, and I believe that looking at the bigger pictures large-scale content will be easier for all players to get into.

Here it looks like they'd rather use those resources to create general content, that players can be carried through, so that it is less niche. Probably influenced by Bozja CEs.

Unfortunately, I think the point is to be 'carried by the current'.

[ForteNightshade]

"Currently summoner as a job is reaching somewhat of a breaking point when it comes to the
overall play mechanics, so we’ve halted work on Egi glamour for the time being in order to shift
focus. There is a reason behind this, but we can’t share the details with you at the moment.
When the time comes, I’ll be sure to properly share that information with everyone."

Very curious. Is this the overhaul I've been waiting for? I hope so.

My going theory for Summoner is they intend to abandon Egis entirely and move towards Demi-Summons. Not only are they quite popular but the devs have routine said how much they detest pets. I wouldn't be surprised if said Demi-Summoners are more like Queen and Fray, where you don't control them. They essentially do their own thing and peace out.

It certainly fits the identity better than current Summoner who is more recognizable as a DoT mage half the time.

Why not mention how the current glamour system is just busted and extremely limited? I mean for god sake Yoshi P has played WoW so he has to know how vastly superior that system is compared to this outdated stuff. I mean come on guys.

Because Happy has no interest whatsoever in glamour. Since he has a limited amount of questions, he'll naturally pick aspect of the game he's interested in.

[Vahlnir]

My going theory for Summoner is they intend to abandon Egis entirely and move towards Demi-Summons. Not only are they quite popular but the devs have routine said how much they detest pets. I wouldn't be surprised if said Demi-Summoners are more like Queen and Fray, where you don't control them. They essentially do their own thing and peace out.

It certainly fits the identity better than current Summoner who is more recognizable as a DoT mage half the time.

This is what I've been hoping for. Summoner needs its identity back.

[StriderShinryu]

Here it looks like they'd rather use those resources to create general content

This is pretty much my take, minus the need to be carried through bit. Basically, they have dedicated the Dungeon space as more casual friendly content. They have roped off higher challenge level content into EX and S content, as well as side content like Deep Dungeon challenge floors and special 48 man raid encounters, and don't seem overly concerned with mixing the two. If you like content A, you have X. If you like content B, you have Y. Like it or not, the responses given so far seem to be clarifying that. I guess those who do want higher challenge content can at least take some comfort in knowing that YoshiP does seem to take joy in high challenge 48 mans and will be doing it again/more.