Future direction of FFXIV

[HyoMinPark]

That's called you need to take a break...You are the .01% that consumes content way too fast.

I’m with ForteNightshade. I’m a non-WoW player; I’ve been playing this game since late 2015. And while it always seemed like there was a lot of content when I was first going through the MSQ, unlocking old Extremes, farming those mounts, etc., there is actually very little to do at endgame when you’re caught up. And this has been the case for a while now.

During ShB, I took a 6-month break, came back, and caught up within the span of a week in terms of missed content. I’m playing now for a couple hours in the evenings (usually due to a heavy work schedule) during the week, and I am purposely dragging out leveling my jobs to 90 because once they reach 90, that’s one less thing for me to do. And one less thing for me to have to stretch out content.

I participate in hardcore content (I raid Savage, I’ve cleared all three Ultimates, I’ve cleared every Extreme except for Diamond weapon since I took a lot of breaks during ShB due to heavy work schedules), I participate in casual content (I’ve been to floor 200 in PotD multiple times, and Floor 100 in HoH multiple times; I do the relics—with the exception of Bozja because the content just wasn’t enjoyable to me). I do just about everything in this game in some shape or form. And I run out of stuff to do. I entertain myself by making alt characters and doing the MSQ on them.

And inb4 “you should take a break”: I took one. I actually took a lot during ShB. And I don’t play with nearly the same amount of time per day that I did during HW and SB. I play maybe 2-4 hours a night now versus playing 8-12 hours before. And I’m not even logging in every day. I haven’t logged in since last…Thursday, I believe it was.

If you are insinuating that FFXIV’s endgame has any sort of longevity to it, then you are sorely mistaken. Any longevity is from artificial caps (e.g., Tomestone caps) or from drop RNG (e.g., EX Mount farming). Patches don’t have enough for people to stretch out the entire 4 months of relevancy unless they just aren’t logging in and playing for extended periods of time.

I don’t want anything that requires logging in every day to stay caught up. But it would be nice to have more content that lasts longer than a few days to a week (I don’t count things that have weekly lockouts or caps as content with longevity, since the content itself is completed very quickly). I think it would be wonderful to have the relic steps coming out in the x.1 patches again. I don’t like that they come out in x.2 or later now. It’s just another thing that makes the x.1 patches feel empty. I’ll never forget 4.1, where there was basically Rabanastre, Shinryu EX, and UCoB. And if you were a casual player who wasn’t interested in extremes or raiding, you basically only had a 24-man. All because they delayed Eureka and the relic. It was boring.

[AziraSyuren]

People aren't complaining about the removal of things like Blood of the Dragon or Enochian.

No, people are complaining a lot about that. As a matter of fact, it's one of the things they complain most about. Boring upkeep gameplay is the first thing a lot of people point to when they talk about jobs being simplified.

The proportional difference between the high and low end has remained very similar since StB, with the major exception being healers and tanks (and even then, healers are the only really egregious example); that's what I mean by skill ceiling. The capacity to push your job's output higher than the average has not changed much. Nerfing the skill ceiling would be something like how they changed BoTD from HW to StB more than anything they did in ShB onwards.

If you are insinuating that FFXIV’s endgame has any sort of longevity to it, then you are sorely mistaken. Any longevity is from artificial caps (e.g., Tomestone caps) or from drop RNG (e.g., EX Mount farming). Patches don’t have enough for people to stretch out the entire 4 months of relevancy unless they just aren’t logging in and playing for extended periods of time.

They can't do that! Everyone knows that giving content longevity automatically equates to the devs making it mandatory to compete (or even get involved) in a high end raiding environment!!!!

:')

[ForteNightshade]

That's called you need to take a break...You are the .01% that consumes content way too fast.

The irony is I did. In fact, I sat out almost the entirety of 5.2 after clearing the Savage tier week 2. All I did was cap tomes and log out. I still managed to BiS an entire separate role and begin getting caught up on Primal mounts when I came back. I got caught up much like HyoMin in little under a week despite there being a whole patch's worth of content.

You also assume everything I listed has been done over a short duration. I've been playing for seven years now. Several of those Ultimate weapons were all farmed in Shadowbringers despite two of said Ultimates releasing in Stormblood. I didn't "rush" them nor did I rush anything else except leveling my crafters. Not as though leveling crafters is difficult. Spam some leves and you'll go from 80 to 90 in an hour. Most of my TEA weapons came from my second group which ran 9 hours a week. No exactly hardcore grinding now is it?

The problem is content simply doesn't last. Hence my example—of which you conveniently ignored. What does 6.1 offer with any longevity? This is the fourth attempt at PvP, thus you'll have to forgive my lack of optimism. Otherwise, I have Ultimate to look forward to. If I weren't into raiding at that level though, I'd only have a 24 man and an EX to last me four months. They could be the best versions of those respective modes in the game's history yet will eventually run out their shine.

No, people are complaining a lot about that. As a matter of fact, it's one of the things they complain most about. Boring upkeep gameplay is the first thing a lot of people point to when they talk about jobs being simplified.

The proportional difference between the high and low end has remained very similar since StB, with the major exception being healers and tanks (and even then, healers are the only really egregious example); that's what I mean by skill ceiling. The capacity to push your job's output higher than the average has not changed much. Nerfing the skill ceiling would be something like how they changed BoTD from HW to StB more than anything they did in ShB onwards.

This is simply false. Unless you're going to provide citation, I've seen almost no real mention of those two specific abilities. What is talked about even to this day are things like Foe's, Heavensward job design and even tank stances—make what you will of them.

And this is also false. Player skill was abysmal in Heavensward; leading to a far wider gap than we have nowadays. The difference is player numbers have substantially increased alongside player skill throughout the years. Don't get me wrong. Plenty of players have no idea how to play their selected job at even a half way level but it's better than the days of ARR and HW.

[Ransu]

I don’t want anything that requires logging in every day to stay caught up. But it would be nice to have more content that lasts longer than a few days to a week (I don’t count things that have weekly lockouts or caps as content with longevity, since the content itself is completed very quickly). I think it would be wonderful to have the relic steps coming out in the x.1 patches again. I don’t like that they come out in x.2 or later now. It’s just another thing that makes the x.1 patches feel empty. I’ll never forget 4.1, where there was basically Rabanastre, Shinryu EX, and UCoB. And if you were a casual player who wasn’t interested in extremes or raiding, you basically only had a 24-man. All because they delayed Eureka and the relic. It was boring.

Sounds like you do want something to require you to log in every day to me.

This game isn't built like that and as far as I'm concerned that's a good thing. As I said to the other person, go take a break. This game isn't designed to keep you logged in 24/7 and I appreciate that about this game.

[HyoMinPark]

Sounds like you do want something to require you to log in every day to me.

This game isn't built like that and as far as I'm concerned that's a good thing. As I said to the other person, go take a break. This game isn't designed to keep you logged in 24/7 and I appreciate that about this game.

No. I’d like content that doesn’t have the shelf life of a quart of milk. I shouldn’t be able to take a six month break, come back, and catch up in less than a week. Running Expert Roulette only has so much staying power. I haven’t even capped my tomestones since Week…5? We’re in Week 12 or 13 now? I’ve been raid logging because there’s nothing to do outside of farming the two EXs. But sure. Tell yourself this game has a plethora of endgame content.

I literally said I don’t want to be forced to log in every single day. But I also don’t want to take a break every other month because there’s nothing to do outside of playing on different characters doing stuff I’ve already done on my main.

[IdowhatIwant]

No. I’d like content that doesn’t have the shelf life of a quart of milk. I shouldn’t be able to take a six month break, come back, and catch up in less than a week. Running Expert Roulette only has so much staying power. I haven’t even capped my tomestones since Week…5? We’re in Week 12 or 13 now? I’ve been raid logging because there’s nothing to do outside of farming the two EXs. But sure. Tell yourself this game has a plethora of endgame content.

I literally said I don’t want to be forced to log in every single day. But I also don’t want to take a break every other month because there’s nothing to do outside of playing on different characters doing stuff I’ve already done on my main.

Expert Roulette only gets worst when it is one dungeon for 8 months as well. I can agree though if I take a 2 to 3 month break I should not come back and be ready for a break again with in a weeks time. It is hard to say that is respecting my time or my money.

[Liam_Harper]

Sounds like you do want something to require you to log in every day to me.

You know what, yes.

Obviously a game forcing you to "log in 24/7" is an exaggeration and no one wants that, but I'd love if the game that had lots of rewarding things that required some time investment. I'm tired of pretending I don't and the game is amazing because I can mostly ignore it and do something else since so little is worthwhile. In FF it's either 10 minute worthless throwaway content, or a soul crushingly long grind for hundreds of hours for a single item that doesn't even look good.

Yes, I'd like worthwhile crafting and gathering that takes effort again, proper seasonal events, a proper achievement system, mount/minion tabs, a glamour tab, dungeons worth farming, normal raids worth running, rep systems that are more than 5 min a day dailies, real minigames such as pet battles instead of gimmicky verminion and "farm an EX 100 times for a card" TT, FC activities, a rework to Hunts, Relics that are actually relevant for more than the end of a patch, things to spend gil on and so on. Just anything to draw me into the game and make me feel like investing into it a bit.

I know, flithy no-lifer attitude, get that out of our game, Yoshi wants us to take breaks and so on. But that's just honestly how I feel.

I also feel job design has been rather boring this expansion with many classes almost feeling exactly the same as in ShB, just with a new button and 2 traits. I don't get how anyone can play the same class for 2 years, then feel hyped to play the exact same thing for another 2 years.

[Jandor]

I also feel job design has been rather boring this expansion with many classes almost feeling exactly the same as in ShB, just with a new button and 2 traits. I don't get how anyone can play the same class for 2 years, then feel hyped to play the exact same thing for another 2 years.

Reworks are very 50/50, they've sometimes made jobs that I like even better, and sometimes made jobs I like so much worse. I'm fine with just getting a few new abilities and traits, I don't fancy rolling the dice on the jobs I enjoy.

[HisShadowX]

Reworks are very 50/50, they've sometimes made jobs that I like even better, and sometimes made jobs I like so much worse. I'm fine with just getting a few new abilities and traits, I don't fancy rolling the dice on the jobs I enjoy.

Right, instead of a stat squish or level crunch we the job abilities to merge more. Well some classes are great on a gamepad others are not and can be overwhelming.

If they ever did a One Tamerial or made all enemies level to your level I'd be gone and never come back and you'd see this game lose subs. But he they got rid of the unpopular but popular with the hardcore players the Cross Class System so hopefully they keep doing things the majority want.

[Liam_Harper]

Reworks are very 50/50, they've sometimes made jobs that I like even better, and sometimes made jobs I like so much worse. I'm fine with just getting a few new abilities and traits, I don't fancy rolling the dice on the jobs I enjoy.

You're completely right that reworks are 50/50, but that just makes it worse. We'll accept one ability and a few traits every 2 years because the developers are so bad at class design we have no faith they wouldn't ruin a job entirely if they tried to make it fun.

We don't even dream of asking for exciting class changes that aren't a mess.