This is getting ridiculous. (Endwalker MSQ and post MSQ spoilers)

[KizuyaKatogami]

I'm going to counter that with 6.0 being the end to so many story threads that this initial portion of the expansion had to be narrative-rich to finish things off. I'm hoping this means they'll put more resources into other aspects of gameplay for the rest of the 6.X cycle while giving us some good set up MSQ tidbits going forward.

If you mean that they put too much emphasis on narrative on the whole, I'll need to disagree. The game's always been story-driven with the other things expected of MMOs being additional, if important, content. I don't believe we're seeing a death flag that's foreshadowing the beginning of the end of the game.

That doesn’t excuse this though, especially when enjoyment of msq is subjective and this one seems to be the most controversial expansion to date. Irregardless though, people are always giving them excuses. First it was covid, now it’s Endwalker taking up too much time. What does the outfit design team have to do with the msq anyways? Are they not different departments/teams? It was like this for shadowbringers as well i brought it up earlier, the new jobs were missing all primal weapons. This very much seems like it’s a lack of effort issue, especially with the non existent transparency of the issue. I think they did put too much emphasis on the story, this is an mmo. It should be 50% story/rpg and 50% mmo. Putting all your eggs in one basket is not a good move especially when there’s a large portion of the community who doesn’t care for the story period. They delayed the expansion 6-7 months. There’s no excuse for this.

[Illmaeran]

That doesn’t excuse this though, especially when enjoyment of msq is subjective and this one seems to be the most controversial expansion to date. Irregardless though, people are always giving them excuses. First it was covid, now it’s Endwalker taking up too much time. What does the outfit design team have to do with the msq anyways? Are they not different departments/teams? It was like this for shadowbringers as well i brought it up earlier, the new jobs were missing all primal weapons. This very much seems like it’s a lack of effort issue, especially with the non existent transparency of the issue. I think they did put too much emphasis on the story, this is an mmo. It should be 50% story/rpg and 50% mmo. Putting all your eggs in one basket is not a good move especially when there’s a large portion of the community who doesn’t care for the story period. They delayed the expansion 6-7 months. There’s no excuse for this.

Your forum join date is Feb 2021, may I ask when you started playing the game? If you started playing around that date, I'll classify you as a new player. Let me be clear, there is nothing wrong with that. In my experience playing this game since 2014, any time there's a wave of new players leaving Game A for XIV, they bring their preferences built on their experiences with Game A, B, C, D, etc with them and find fault with aspects of XIV that don't fit those preferences. I started playing LotRO when I quit WoW in 2011 and certainly brought my preferences built on my 6 years of near-daily playing WoW. Is that wrong? In no way. Is it natural? Absolutely.

I love to craft and had all crafting and gathering classes at max in WoW. Going to LotRO I initially HATED the crafting system because it was so complex. I preferred the simplicity of WoWs system. Was that wrong? No. I did, however, have to realize that it was a different game with a different design philosophy, and it was my responsibility to adjust to how that game played. The same thing happened when I gave ESO a try and then going from ESO to XIV.

I understand and agree that enjoyment of various parts of any game is subjective; we all have our tastes and preferences. I'm not sure what you mean by "most controversial expansion to date", would you please expand on that? I'm also not clear on what you are meaning by Endwalker taking up too much time, would you please clarify?

You're 100% right, different aspects of the game are handled by different teams of people; the quest design team are different than the clothing design team, etc. With that in mind, I think I can see the point you're trying to make: since they have different groups of people working on different aspects of the game, all aspects should receive sufficient attention and resources. Am I correct? If not, please clarify so I can understand better.

If I am correct, I'll make the point that the initial purchased expansion content has been story/MSQ heavy from ARR onward. After that, the various patches, ie 6.1 etc add more non-story content, such as the current release of the Pandaemonium raid. I think you'll see a greater emphasis on "MMO content" as the patch cycle progresses.

My overall point is this: different games have different design philosophies and emphasize different aspects of game play. XIV happens to emphasize story over content other games my spend more resources on. It's not a matter of lack of effort, it's a matter of resource prioritization to meet certain deadline goals. If that allocation isn't to your preference, that's perfectly ok. However, it's up to you to adjust to how the game's designed, not the other way around. I realize the MMO market has few quality offerings right now and XIV is filling a want on your part. Perhaps it's not for you for the long haul. There's nothing wrong with enjoying a game for a while until something else more to our tastes that we can invest ourselves in comes along. If you find yourself unable to adjust to the way XIV's made and the progression of additional content during the patch cycle, I truly and without malice, hope something comes along that fits you better. Until then, I hope you're able to enjoy XIV enough that you're able to derive happiness when playing it until the game that's better for you comes along.

[Silver-Strider]

My biggest complaint really is the level 87 dungeon gear being the same as Hero's Gauntlet gear. I mean given the location, one would think it would be more thematically appropriate.

[KizuyaKatogami]

snip

My forum start date isn’t anywhere near where i started. I was just hesitant on interacting with the forum community based on my experiences in game. Irregardless though, most controversial i meant by both the way the story went and how good/bad it was and also the effort put into other things. I know how the patches work and yes things are added into the patches later but my entire point of this post was that, we are seeing the worst case of gear reusing than we’ve ever seen in the past despite the game being delayed 6-7 months and SE making the most money from ShB. With them making more money and getting new players we should be seeing more content not less. I know they prioritize story first, but that doesn’t change the reusing gear thing at all, because it was never this bad in previous expansions. Like not only did they not reuse gear a shitton, they literally reused a song for an expert dungeon instead of giving us a new song. That’s ridiculous, and yes the different team group is the point i was making although i do understand specific teams do work on different things. Like i just learned for example the same team that designs Ultimates is also the same team that….designs housing lol.

[BaconBits]

I'll never understand the point of undyeable dungeon sets, just make it dyeable 5head.

[Y2K21]

My overall point is this: different games have different design philosophies and emphasize different aspects of game play. XIV happens to emphasize story over content other games my spend more resources on. It's not a matter of lack of effort, it's a matter of resource prioritization to meet certain deadline goals. If that allocation isn't to your preference, that's perfectly ok. However, it's up to you to adjust to how the game's designed, not the other way around. I realize the MMO market has few quality offerings right now and XIV is filling a want on your part. Perhaps it's not for you for the long haul. There's nothing wrong with enjoying a game for a while until something else more to our tastes that we can invest ourselves in comes along. If you find yourself unable to adjust to the way XIV's made and the progression of additional content during the patch cycle, I truly and without malice, hope something comes along that fits you better. Until then, I hope you're able to enjoy XIV enough that you're able to derive happiness when playing it until the game that's better for you comes along.

This just reads as a giant excuse for a company not being consistent in the content they have previously done.

[Iscah]

My biggest complaint really is the level 87 dungeon gear being the same as Hero's Gauntlet gear. I mean given the location, one would think it would be more thematically appropriate.

It's Ascian robes coming from a dungeon set in their world. What more thematically appropriate thing do you propose in its place?

If anything, it seemed out of place in the Heroes' Gauntlet and I have to wonder if they were planning ahead in a sort of "reverse gear recycling" intent. They knew they wanted something ancient-themed for the dungeon set in the ancient world, but budget-wise it would need to be a recycled design, so they created the design early and put it in one of the 5.X dungeons that was scheduled to have original gear designs.

[KizuyaKatogami]

It's Ascian robes coming from a dungeon set in their world. What more thematically appropriate thing do you propose in its place?

If anything, it seemed out of place in the Heroes' Gauntlet and I have to wonder if they were planning ahead in a sort of "reverse gear recycling" intent. They knew they wanted something ancient-themed for the dungeon set in the ancient world, but budget-wise it would need to be a recycled design, so they created the design early and put it in one of the 5.X dungeons that was scheduled to have original gear designs.

I mean we easily could’ve gotten a dungeon glam set that was either greek inspired unique or something more based on the sophist robe designs. Glams have always been out of place tbqh. Like bonewicca in tower of zot. Also budget wise? They literally scammed us out of an 89 dungeon set. You’re telling me they didn’t have the budget to make another set in its place? Yeah sorry, but we’re giving them millions. Shb made the most money of any expansion yet and we had a major influx of players from late SB to early ShB. Budget issues should be non existent.

[Divinemights]

I mean we easily could’ve gotten a dungeon glam set that was either greek inspired unique or something more based on the sophist robe designs. Glams have always been out of place tbqh. Like bonewicca in tower of zot. Also budget wise? They literally scammed us out of an 89 dungeon set. You’re telling me they didn’t have the budget to make another set in its place? Yeah sorry, but we’re giving them millions. Shb made the most money of any expansion yet and we had a major influx of players from late SB to early ShB. Budget issues should be non existent.

That is not how gaming company works.
You are paying subscription to SE and it doesn't mean every penny goes back to FF14 team.
The budge usually based how well a department is doing.
I am pretty sure they will get more budget this year, but it doesn't mean they always get that much.
The only source that is likely 100% goes back to FF14 is maybe Mogstation? Even that is a big maybe.

[Iscah]

I mean we easily could’ve gotten a dungeon glam set that was either greek inspired unique or something more based on the sophist robe designs. Glams have always been out of place tbqh. Like bonewicca in tower of zot. Also budget wise? They literally scammed us out of an 89 dungeon set. You’re telling me they didn’t have the budget to make another set in its place? Yeah sorry, but we’re giving them millions. Shb made the most money of any expansion yet and we had a major influx of players from late SB to early ShB. Budget issues should be non existent.

I have no idea what their budget logic is. Do you think I'm happy with not getting anything from the 89 dungeon? I'd prefer another recolour to nothing at all.

That doesn't remove the fact that the Ascian robes make far more sense coming from an ancient research facility than they did from our epic trek across Norvrandt, so if they were created for a specific purpose then they seem more likely to be for the former.

It would seem strange to me if we got fancy clothes from the dungeon when nobody in the entire civilisation wears anything but robes.

And the Bonewicca set does make sense in the Tower of Zot, or rather in Thavnair. Have a look around the city: the healing/scouting top is one of the common pieces being used as Thavnairian attire (and coincidentally something I've been using on my Thavnairian Au Ra character since before we knew Thavnairian Au Ra were a canon thing, so I'm rather pleased with that). Additionally, the "Manusya" naming of the set points to the Thavnairian deities said to be people with animal heads, which fits with the animal skull masks from that set.