Gearing Systems need a revamp.

[Shurrikhan]

Solutions:
1. Increase the Tomestone cap to 900 or I'd argue 1350. What this achieves is actual choice for some people. If someone want's to blow all 1350 tomes on one job, and get gear to go ham in raiding, let them. If someone want's to allocate X amount of tomes for 1 job, and the other Y tomes for another job, let them. This allows them to be flexible in their jobs, and not shoehorned into one job. This would actually help the PF's fill faster. I can say as anecdotal evidence, due to me playing multiple jobs, I can always fill a role in PF, this leads to more PF's filling, more raiding going, and not so much sitting around waiting for a PF to fill.

Increasing available resource neither increases nor decreases our agency over where to spend that resource. PFs that increase ilvl requirements to the greatest amount that can feasibly be had without relying on direct Savage drops would simply adjust accordingly, still requiring that all time-gated currency be spent on a single armor class.

2. Make it so books aren't worthless. Let me trade my books for other books. Example as follows. P1S books. 1 P2S book = 2 P1S Book. 1 P3S = 3 P1S Books, 1 P4S books = 4 P1S books. Given That you have cleared the fight!

This merely moves up the timeline for one's first purchase, assuming they wouldn't simply wait to buy the higher value-per-page item. By generalizing the currency, one can purchase a chest-piece, for instance, in the first week, accelerated from the fourth.

Now, I do think that'd still be fine, especially if it allows us to trim the inventory bloat of having multiple page types per tier (with purchase choices instead simply being locked out based on clears), but I don't see how it would ultimately change what you seem to find a problem. Getting to full BiS would likely be no shorter except on jobs with minimal BiS from raids.

3. Make our BIS worth getting. Our bis is simply invalidated the moment the next tier drops. This feels terrible, and imo a bad design decision.

While, honestly, overmelding should probably be removed altogether -- thereby giving the previous tier a fighting chance at maintained relevance when a new tier drops since the unique benefit of crafted gear would thereby be removed -- you still definitely want people to go and do the next raid. The only room for adjustment then, is that crafted gear.

You note this yourself; I just think simply dropping overmelding altogether would be the far simpler and accessibility-favoring solution.

4. Make Savage loot work like the normal raid loot. Keep the loot tables. But make savage loot work like normal raid loot.

As in using coffers instead of direct drops? Not only would that remove some of the traditional RPG vibe (of little value, imo, but notable to many), but such would slow initial gearing, given that 2-4 coffers may be required for a single item, especially for non-static groups.

There's no reason to Timegate gear like this. The fact as a raider.. the most fun time raiding a tier, is week 1. And Months later when you unlock the loot. Cause i can log into the game, raid and have fun, and have it not feel like a chore. That is a problem.

By your own admission, since you've sunk time towards getting your BiS (or at least max ilvl), the more sub periods that would take you, the more sub periods you're likely to play. While there's doubtless a breaking point that'd cause you to forgo a tier altogether, it's worth remembering that the game is funded primarily by subscription revenue and will make decisions largely based around that fact.

*End of critiques*
________________________

My own $0.02:

I think we should be doing more to make a feature, rather than a counterintuitive weakness, of "all jobs on one character" and to attempt to delay burnout even for players who want to level and gear up as efficiently as possible.

At present, one can only spend time-gated loot towards a single armor class, until reaching BiS in that tier, if not wanting to hold one's party back. Do otherwise shortchanges one's progression job. That should not be the case, and there is an easy fix:

Suggestion 1: Once armor for a given armor slot has been purchased via weekly currency, allow that same slot to be purchased for uncapped tomes. For instance, if I were to buy the weekly-tomes' chestpiece of Casting, I could thereafter buy any weekly-tome chestpiece with uncapped tomes. The first purchase for the given slot acquires and unlocks that slot, such that I could by the same slot for all other armor classes as soon as I'm able to gather the uncapped tomes for them.

Reducing burnout, however, is far harder. Primarily, this comes down increasing the efficient means of acquiring (time-gated) currency or other worthwhile resources. What counts as an "efficient means", however, is itself a matter of balance. No single means of acquisition can be so significantly ahead of others as to outweigh personal preference for the typical efficiency-minded player -- at least, without essentially turning all other means into "non-choices".

In this regard, I favor the idea of investing the time, in the short term, to create a procedure, for long-term gains, of easily scaling up content. Thereafter, I'd suggest making further use of such systems as Challenge Logs, Wonderous Tails (or some new, similar system), or the like, while decreasing the efficiency-lead of choices like Expert Roulette. For that matter, Expert Roulette should perhaps itself be repurposed, with the strict "last 2-3 current level-cap dungeons" being absorbed into the "Level <Cap> Dungeons" roulette.

It's worth noting also that with the above system, the relevance of uncapped tomes, too, would be greatly increased (at least for those who've leveled jobs in multiple armor classes).

To summarize, then...

Suggestion 2: Broaden, at fairly tight balance, means of efficient acquisition of useful resources (such as weekly tomes, etc.) through methods that offer those grinds more fun and flair. Ideally, this would not require players to (i)level sync down just to see more than a scant few instances of relevance.

[Anonicat]

snip--

1. PFs can do that too, but more than likely to their detriment. Agency in the sense, that if i gear a Samurai... im not stuck only gearing a samurai or im behind a week. Which is what happens with the current system. I had to PF the tier, on 5 different jobs to get close to a kill. And I was only in crafted gear.
3. I'd be okay with overmelding being gone, but crafted would still give a boost in main stat which is far more important which is i suggested making it the same ilevel.
4. No. Make it so you can get 1 piece of gear per boss a week. Like if i kill a boss the first time, I don't get loot. I can go back in and get a coffer or something.
5. Im unsure if the subscription revenue is the majority of Square Enix's income. If you can point me to a source that says it is. I'd happily retract a statement.

I simply wanna be able to play multiple jobs and not be behind in gear.. it feels bad.

[Shurrikhan]

4. No. Make it so you can get 1 piece of gear per boss a week. Like if i kill a boss the first time, I don't get loot. I can go back in and get a coffer or something.

In that case, unless you reduce the value of each drop, such as by turning it from a direct/whole piece of loot to a mere partial piece (i.e., via currency), see the comment below.

5. Im unsure if the subscription revenue is the majority of Square Enix's income. If you can point me to a source that says it is. I'd happily retract a statement.

Design decisions for separate entries under a parent company are made according to the revenue model of the entry itself, not the parent company as a whole.

My point, moreover, was simply that it's not worth hoping that they will design out any and all time-gating, a backbone of subscription-based MMOs. That they have plenty of whales on the side does little to change that.[/QUOTE]

[technole]

Design decisions for separate entries under a parent company are made according to the revenue model of the company itself, not the parent company as a whole.

My point, moreover, was simply that it's not worth hoping that they will design out any and all time-gating, a backbone of subscription-based MMOs. That they have plenty of whales on the side does little to change that.

Exactly, you know the bean counters above YoshiP would totally be woken up if he removed time-gating when it's this early in the expansion.

You can get one role to best-in-slot within two months, that's how they want it. Anything more is up to luck and how early you clear the tier.

People got used to 900 tomes when there was no content for almost a year, but that's what they always do at the end.

[Anonicat]

Exactly, you know the bean counters above YoshiP would totally be woken up if he removed time-gating when it's this early in the expansion.

You can get one role to best-in-slot within two months, that's how they want it. Anything more is up to luck and how early you clear the tier.

People got used to 900 tomes when there was no content for almost a year, but that's what they always do at the end.

This is a not so great argument. At that point. You know what they should do? Find a way to keep story players subbed. That might add a great deal of revenue. Considering the queue times are in double digits and not the thousands. Why can they time gate raiders, but not story players, all for the reason of money? Seems a bit far fetched.

[Anonicat]

In that case, unless you reduce the value of each drop, such as by turning it from a direct/whole piece of loot to a mere partial piece (i.e., via currency), see the comment below.


Design decisions for separate entries under a parent company are made according to the revenue model of the company itself, not the parent company as a whole.

My point, moreover, was simply that it's not worth hoping that they will design out any and all time-gating, a backbone of subscription-based MMOs. That they have plenty of whales on the side does little to change that.

[/QUOTE]

Right but do you not see how counter intuitive that is. They are timegating a smaller percentage of players (Raiders), and not the majority of players. If i was a business and wanted to keep most of the players subbed... Timegating Raiders would not be the way to go about it, while i lose a majority of players that play for story/rp.

And to counter forseeable argument. "They do timegate story in patches." Fam. I can unsub wait til end of expansion. Resub, clear the story content. Pay 15 dollars instead of the (5 x $15) story updates.

[Shurrikhan]

Right but do you not see how counter intuitive that is. They are timegating a smaller percentage of players (Raiders), and not the majority of players. If i was a business and wanted to keep most of the players subbed... Timegating Raiders would not be the way to go about it, while i lose a majority of players that play for story/rp.

How is it counterintuitive, in the interest of maintaining subscriptions, to time-gate elements which will affect at equivalent proportion those for whom, by typically having narrower interests, make use of proportionately less other content?

Such is simply a matter of maintaining with X resource both those with a broader span of interests, and who therefore make greater use of resources spent, and those who have narrower interests, and would therefore otherwise be less efficient to design for or would force development towards similarly narrow paths.