Future direction of FFXIV

[Arzalis]

Honestly the devs just have weird priorities. Instead of fixing housing, glamours, the half-done races, etc. they focus on other things. While stuff like the new ARR trust-style system is great, I have no idea why that was prioritized over things that affect the majority of players. New player experience is important and all, but talking about doing a large overhaul to be more solo-friendly early game is a weird thing to prioritize over other issues. Especially when this is probably going to tie up a lot of their resources for the rest of this expansion cycle.

I've suspected for a long time the devs do listen to feedback, but the feedback they see is flawed. However they aggregate player comments isn't being done very well. This seems particularly noticeable with feedback from the EU and US. It leads to devs seeming a little out of touch with their playerbase.

It really is starting to feel like FFXIV is being crushed by it's own weight in a lot of ways.

[Poporito_Popoto]

im on my own side, and the side the cold truth of things. To many people let the feelings and emotions cloud their judgement

[Jandor]

im on my own side, and the side the cold truth of things. To many people let the feelings and emotions cloud their judgement more so when they played the sympathy card on people making them pity them.. Humanity is weak and a disgusting species letting such things cloud them from the real truth and facts of things

lol it's just a video game dude, dial it back a bit.

[DPZ2]

This. I've been playing since Sophia came out and while Crafting was a pain, it was still very rewarding once you've set your mind to it. Now it's just as easy as pressing a macro, all the depth is gone.

I've been crafting since ARR, enough to be able to self-repair and make the occasional fun item myself. Crafting was indeed a pain, ameliorated by pressing a macro or two for which you could find examples on all sorts of websites and youtube channels. Eight years ago. I suspect you just weren't able to find them.

Dungeons are literally just corridors with bosses, and we're losing the flavour on the early ARR dungeons because they couldn't keep the concept engaging. They spared almost no thought in designing BLU as a serious class. Eureka was just mind-numbing with Bozja being a slight upgrade. Deep Dungeons will always just be the same reskinned concept with less floors. PvP is just bad, but that seems to be changing... you know... for the 3rd time. Reminds me of Diadem.

Dungeons in almost every single MMO I've played over the last 15+ years are corridor runs. Even the early ARR dungeons quickly became corridors for those entering Leveling Roulette. WoW dungeons were corridor runs, with the exception of the not-so-exciting Wailing Caverns and Maraudon, with their "you have to backtrack to get to where you want" mechanics. Don't get me started on Sunken Temple ...

Blue mage is not a serious class. It is a side-class for those who want to enjoy the power of Blue mage without the responsibility of actually needing to balance that power as a regular job. There's a reason you can't just join Leveling Roulette as a Blue Mage. I get it that some players wish it were a serious class. I can only guess how underwhelming such a class would be in reality.

I enjoy the current crafting methodology, since it enables me to create HQ gear while leveling alts, rather than paying ridiculous prices on the Market Board. I leave the high-end crafting to those who want to make gil, and gladly contribute to their efforts when it suits. Eureka, Bozja, Deep Dungeons, PvP ... not your cup-of-tea. Got it. They're not mine either, but probably for reasons different from your own.

But the worst for me is them simplifying older, challenging content. Content that was popular because it didn't treat players like children.

Having played since ARR, I don't find that older, challenging content has been simplified. I simply grew better at playing the game, potencies have increased over the years, and the iLevel of gear is never completely eradicated even when it is supposedly 'leveled down'. The actual content is challenging enough for those who haven't dedicated themselves to this game body and soul.

But every time you had those who felt okay with that and didn't want complexity. You have people complaining that others are complaining. Even for content they themselves will never play, look no further than Hrothgars. Not even casual players are okay with how muted the game is. People have lives, I do get that. But it's also an MMO. Not everything will be quick and easy. People should be realistic about what they can or cannot do. Not everyone is going to want to do Savage on-content with a limited life, just as much as how not everyone wants to do the same boring dungeon every darn day even if they have time for it.

The simple solution: Don't do the same boring dungeon every day. Find other games to play in addition to this one. As an example, I currently have Guild Wars 2, Genshin Impact, Final Fantasy 1 (remastered), Blade and Soul, Lost Ark and ArcheAge icons on the right side of my desktop (and the free World of Warcraft loaded on my hard drive, although that Free Trial is as disappointing as one can get. I removed my paid subscription WoW from my hard drive back in, um, early BFA?) Right now I play FFXIV every day because I wanted the replicate Late Allagan Armor set from the Treasure Hunt. I'm also finishing up some crafter stuff that I've ignored since mid-2021. Real life does indeed mean you have to cut down on playing the games you love.

[Midareyukki]

Snip.

Oh I did find them, I'm just impatient really. But it wasn't a total bore-snore like it is right now, let's face it. Back then it meant something if you could craft high-tier stuff, because it did take effort to get there. Now anyone can do it with low effort.

The thing I meant with Dungeons is that there isn't much variety or anything to explore further in them. In other MMOs they are corridors as well, just like how any dungeon in any game is a corridor with bosses. But they have stuff to explore and search around regardless. They have flavour. FF14's latest dungeons are worse than FF13's Cocoon segments.

Yes, BLU is not a serious class, that's literally the point. You have BLU depicted as a serious class in other games, you even have people with frankly valid ways to implement it into the game. Everyone memes on Self-Destruct, but HP aside we have other resource bars. It being a minigame is obvious, it's why it's a minigame that actually is the problem. Or did you skip that part of the text?

"Eureka, Bozja, Deep Dungeons, PvP ... not your cup-of-tea. Got it.", oh they are. To some extent. I have the Seal Rock coat, I have completed Eureka and Bozja weapons, I've gotten to the final floors of Deep Dungeons. But I can say that there are flaws with them, and this is the problem: no one ever addressed those flaws. And when people pointed them out they were met with vitriol. That's the whole point of what I wrote.

"I don't find that older, challenging content has been simplified", I'm sorry but when certain content would once one-shot you and force you to get better no longer does that, yes, it has been simplified. Aurum Vale's Coincounter boss has telegraphs, Orbonne Monastery is no longer punishing. It's not "just skill", the game no longer actively pushes you to develop it outside of Extremes.

"Don't do the same boring dungeon every day." Ok. Then stop giving me Syrcus Tower on Duty Roulette. And before you say "but it's a roulette", yeah, the other numbers should be just as valid, not just those landing on Syrcus Tower. And when the system is designed to only land you these, it's not really a roulette. And before you defend it saying that it's because ARR ones are mandatory, you have runs where there isn't a new player in sight, but someone starts out naked.

...frankly, did you skim the text? Or are you that willing to white-knight the devs? You know it's okay to admit there are flaws, yes? And that when people pointed these out there was nothing done, and the community's take on it is to try and stamp comments out? Then people wonder why the game keeps having less and less effort put into it... "Play other games", gee, MAYBE I want to play this one and NOT feel like the game isn't taking itself seriously?

Guess what. It's by giving FEEDBACK that stuff gets done as well, not stamping it out and saying people protest too much. A lot of the content honestly has minor flaws, and that could be okay... if they weren't outright ignored and subsequently exacerbated.

[Lauront]

Lately a lot of these changes keep making me think "who asked for this? Who is this for?" Like, who asked for them to remove kaiten? I challenge the devs to find me a single smn main who was asking for a buff to searing light. Or a Hrothgar player who said "man, I REALLY wish I could wear the Karen hair with my ears hidden!"

And I've been thinking about this a lot since 6.0 was just being announced. Who asked for the removal of hq gathering items? Who asked for smn to be turned into a one button job? Who asked for the removal of brd procs? Who asked for housing to turn into a gacha system that lasts over a week?

I know the devs DO listen to feedback, but the problem is becoming how often and which feedback they're listening to. It just seems like they're listening to random minority opinions more than anything. People will surely say "at least we're not Other Game" but at some point we have to come to terms with the fact that there's a growing detachment between the devs and the players. Hell, Endwalker itself was a hot mess of a story that resulted from exactly that. Like, it's all but openly confirmed that they trashed the original plan of 6.0 being primarily about Garlemald. There was this false assumption that we would somehow be unhappy with a conclusion to a singular villain entity's end if it came about with stakes that felt lower than that of Shadowbringers. (And before anyone says "Well I would've!" no you wouldn't have, otherwise Heavensward wouldn't be as lauded as it still is to this day.) So I say again, who asked for them to do such a thing to such a prevalent evil force in the story? Who asked for Garlemald to get reduced to a single zone storyline?

I realize my argument about Endwalker's story won't prevail much because of how unanimously praised it was on release, though I wonder if people still feel the same now that the new expansion hype has died down. If this was the vision the devs absolutely had to communicate with the world, then it was an abject success for them. But I stand by my previous points.

I'd agree with most of that, minus the SMN stuff. That's more a case of the job design being divisive amongst those who prefer the old version over the new (I am in the latter category because thematically it is much closer to what I wanted), and I wouldn't consider the new version a one button job, even if there's room for improvement. Also the buff is mostly a QoL improvement, so no complaints about that, though it needs more than that. With that said, I'd love to see a proper DOT caster added.

*snip*

Well said on all counts.

...frankly, did you skim the text? Or are you that willing to white-knight the devs? You know it's okay to admit there are flaws, yes? And that when people pointed these out there was nothing done, and the community's take on it is to try and stamp comments out? Then people wonder why the game keeps having less and less effort put into it... "Play other games", gee, MAYBE I want to play this one and NOT feel like the game isn't taking itself seriously?

Reading some of the responses here, that is the vibe I get from segments of this game's community.

[KageTokage]

I am slightly concerned that they're still leaning a bit too hard on their established formula/pattern of content.

We are slated to get something potentially refreshing and new with the Criterion dungeons and Island Sanctuary in 6.2, but if those fail to shake things up much, then I would be legitimately concerned about things going into 7.0 onwards.

As it stands presently, the only thing in 6.1 that's going to keep the bulk of the playerbase occupied for more then a couple days is the PvP "battle pass", as ultimates are extremely niche content.

[MisterNublet]

I am slightly concerned that they're still leaning a bit too hard on their established formula/pattern of content.

We are slated to get something potentially refreshing and new with the Criterion dungeons and Island Sanctuary in 6.2, but if those fail to shake things up much, then I would be legitimately concerned about things going into 7.0 onwards.

As it stands presently, the only thing in 6.1 that's going to keep the bulk of the playerbase occupied for more then a couple days is the PvP "battle pass", as ultimates are extremely niche content.

It's stated that Criterion dungeons scale for 1 to 4 players, so I'm not expecting it to be any harder than current dungeon difficult. Probably easier even. I'll be pleasantly surprised if I'm wrong.

They also told players to temper their expectations on the Island Sanctuary, so I'm not holding my breath that it is anything more than a place to AFK while I queue for roulettes.

Crystal Conflict is gonna be dead after a couple of weeks. Since, to be brutally honest, the playerbase is garbo and because they can't hide behind in numbers like they do in frontlines they wont play it.

The 6.1 LL wasn't very inspiring and didn't give me hope for the future of this game.

[sharknado]

They also told players to temper their expectations on the Island Sanctuary, so I'm not holding my breath that it is anything more than a place to AFK while I queue for roulettes.

I'm curious what features they pulled there. They started the feature long ago, mentioned during SHB if I recall correctly, people got hyped so they got afraid and delayed it to implement extra features. The cover art for it also has a lot of farming... so if Island Sanctuary does not allow for farming Thavnairian Onion then the feature is DoA If there will be option to use existing furnishing items then at least market will awaken a bit. But still Islands are listed for expansion in subsequent patches so it's surprising...

[MisterNublet]

I'm curious what features they pulled there. They started the feature long ago, mentioned during SHB if I recall correctly, people got hyped so they got afraid and delayed it to implement extra features. The cover art for it also has a lot of farming... so if Island Sanctuary does not allow for farming Thavnairian Onion then the feature is DoA If there will be option to use existing furnishing items then at least market will awaken a bit. But still Islands are listed for expansion in subsequent patches so it's surprising...

If they used any ideas from Wildstar's housing system, it could be pretty legit.

I have a feeling it is gonna be a place where you can select a handful of minions to roam around and /pet, and farming plots that only lets you plant seeds bought from the island sanctuary vendor which lets you grow plants used to buy/craft reskinned glamour.