FF14 has a quantity problem

[Skiros]

I both agree and disagree, really.

I agree on the premise that in some areas of the game they focus a lot on the quality which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when the said content is treated as what would effectively be a 1-off experience then it can be a bit of a flaw.

The part I disagree on is just the quantity, I don't think the game should focus on quantity too much as it will inevitably come at an expense to the quality in certain other areas of the content, this will lead to a lot of content which doesn't really have the substance that it should, and would possibly just end up being 1-off experiences. The main issue they have and should work on going forward is the replay-value of the content they already do have, in addition to the systems too.

If they actually significantly revamp how the gameplay works in this game, I can definitely concur with that. Unfortunately jobs have been dumbed down so much that replayability in most content is just non-existent and the way they add replayability is often through pure tedium and grinds. I do not consider stuff like killing 3000 A-ranks as good examples of replayability.

Bozja actually had very solid replayability because the Lost actions actually significantly changed how a lot of jobs worked, and in particular it made Warrior one of the most complex jobs if you wanted to maximize its output due to Blood Rage. That's the kind of replayability I can get behind, allowing players to experiment with new stuff.

Pure grinds simply don't entice me no matter the incentives and I've not done any content for the rewards in a long time: Ultimate weapons are ugly, PvP ranked rewards are ugly, I don't care about mounts or minions, I don't care about getting BiS beyond speedrunning, etc. I do content for itself. Sadly it feels like a lot of FF14 players feel differently. I don't understand how people can say that FATEs have become so good in ShB/EW, when it's literally the same type of content, just with an insane grind checklist now. I feel like a lot of players in this game will praise a piece of content even if it's dogshit, so long as the incentives/reward behind that content are great.

[Kaurhz]

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I don't think job simplicity really would hinder their ability to actually make replay-able content. In many circumstances they've already had the foundations for it in long abandoned pieces of content, some of them being related to the creativity of the content itself - One of the areas I'd really draw scope here that relates to myself is probably crafting. It's been a dumbed down system, and yet for all its flaws they did show that they could incorporate something fairly interesting, fundamentally (with experts), it just had some really weird execution in that all conditions were beneficial as opposed to detrimental. - I don't really consider that extent of a grind to have some replay value. - All I can really look towards in this direction with Deep Dungeons. It's a fairly simple system that just creeps with difficulty on each subsequent flaw. - Now I would argue this could be improved if they were to not really limit the floor count, but to essentially have the floors much less limited, perhaps 400, 500. They could borrow many mechanics from already pre-existing extreme or savage counters.

Now with this second point I really would be interested to hear your response in that.. What if lost actions and essences weren't necessarily just limited either to Bozja/Eureka. What if this were expanded and introduced with areas such as deep dungeon? They already have the foundations in the game for both of the systems, which in reality by your own admission already effectively addresses the job simplicities you took issue with. The simplicity is only as inhibiting as the creativity of the people creating systems, really. Personally, I wish content like deep dungeon or even Eureka/Bozja would be more akin to something like Dungeoneering from Runescape, where it'd effectively draw from multiple other areas of the game such as fishing for a key or crafting for an item.

The FATEs themselves haven't gotten better, really. But the incentivisation on them has improved significantly, courtesy of the gemstones system, which should also be expanded on. Grinds for better or worse are considered as content, it just depends how superfluous those grinds are as to whether it is detrimental. I don't think the game is quite there yet. They are necessary in some shape or form, especially for subscription based MMOs. For better or worse development time is always a limiting aspect, especially for content and creativity. So you more often than not need to lean on grinding-related activities to keep people enticed.

[Skiros]

Now with this second point I really would be interested to hear your response in that.. What if lost actions and essences weren't necessarily just limited either to Bozja/Eureka. What if this were expanded and introduced with areas such as deep dungeon? They already have the foundations in the game for both of the systems, which in reality by your own admission already effectively addresses the job simplicities you took issue with. The simplicity is only as inhibiting as the creativity of the people creating systems, really. Personally, I wish content like deep dungeon or even Eureka/Bozja would be more akin to something like Dungeoneering from Runescape, where it'd effectively draw from multiple other areas of the game such as fishing for a key or crafting for an item.

I'd be all for this, this would massively increase playability. I hope this is the direction they go for the next deep dungeon and relic zone. Eureka/Lost actions have been one of the best additions to side content in this game in a long while. BLU has also been a great piece of side content, and I'm looking forward to a BLU DF.