the normal content is too easy

[LeonKeyh]

And yet there is still something of a struggle for players to clear some of these things, and by increasing difficulty across the board I guess you are going to tell them sorry you can't play anymore, find something else. I don't know if what we are really looking for is something more difficult, but something more engaging. All of this content no matter how difficult it begins becomes easy once the script is learned. Even the ultimates after players have cleared and learned the dance become easy for those players. It seems to me that to really engage the player base encounter design itself is going to have to be re-invented.

That's why in addition to increasing difficulty, the game needs to do a better job at fostering skill growth within players. A huge part of the reason that people have trouble with this harder content is because you can change every solo duty to "very easy" and get carried through anything that you play with other people. The game does a bad job at growing players by teaching them their job and fight mechanisms. Players don't question how they're playing as long as they're completing content and if they're easily completing everything up until 1 particular fight, they're going to just complain that the fight is overtuned and that it's not them who is the problem. You have to have a steady ramp of difficulty combined with things that teach players who don't go out and read a guide.

The game could absolutely use:

Job quests focusing on HOW to use your abilities every X levels
Hall of the Intermediate/Advanced/Master to teach you other fight mechanisms and role based responsibilities


People are way too afraid of failing in the game, whenever failing should be looked at as an opportunity to improve, even if you played adequately. I know it's a lot to ask, but anytime a group wipes everyone should be asking themselves what they could have done better, regardless of whether or not they "caused" the wipe.

[SieyaM]

That's why in addition to increasing difficulty, the game needs to do a better job at fostering skill growth within players. A huge part of the reason that people have trouble with this harder content is because you can change every solo duty to "very easy" and get carried through anything that you play with other people. The game does a bad job at growing players by teaching them their job and fight mechanisms. Players don't question how they're playing as long as they're completing content and if they're easily completing everything up until 1 particular fight, they're going to just complain that the fight is overtuned and that it's not them who is the problem. You have to have a steady ramp of difficulty combined with things that teach players who don't go out and read a guide.

The game could absolutely use:

Job quests focusing on HOW to use your abilities every X levels
Hall of the Intermediate/Advanced/Master to teach you other fight mechanisms and role based responsibilities


People are way too afraid of failing in the game, whenever failing should be looked at as an opportunity to improve, even if you played adequately. I know it's a lot to ask, but anytime a group wipes everyone should be asking themselves what they could have done better, regardless of whether or not they "caused" the wipe.

The player base could also do it's part to help underperforming players by actually teaching them things but there is often a lot of hostility when players are grouped with someone not performing up to their standards. I know people are going to be all "people report me for just telling them tips on their job" but what they think a tip looks like goes along the lines of "you're terrible and should watch a job guide or uninstall you're wasting everyone's time".

[LeonKeyh]

I'm saying that the decision maker, SE, has the proof that they themselves have gathered through random surveys that cover the entire population, and they've been making the decisions they've been making. Make of that what you will.


I don't need proof because I'm not the one asking SE to do anything other than what they've already done and are continuing to do. The proof is in the decisions that SE has made based on their surveys.

I've been playing for 2 years and have not seen 1 survey sent to me about the game. I doubt that I'm the only one and just like you claim the forums/reddit/Discord isn't an accurate horizontal slice of the playerbase neither is a survey.

The player base could also do it's part to help underperforming players by actually teaching them things but there is often a lot of hostility when players are grouped with someone not performing up to their standards. I know people are going to be all "people report me for just telling them tips on their job" but what they think a tip looks like goes along the lines of "you're terrible and should watch a job guide or uninstall you're wasting everyone's time".

I've seen plenty of people giving reasonable feedback/tips to players who go off the deep end; NOT "You suck go watch a guide" (because that would be against ToS). Things like "Hey, as a healer you might want to DPS while our health is full." or "As a tank you need to cycle your mitigations." or "You should be using X skill" and see the other player snap back with almost always some white knight there perpetuating the poor play. I'd love to see examples of lines that you say are common because I can guarantee that for every 1 that's like that, there's 10 that are the way I described.

I agree with the general idea of your post, the player base could be a lot better at giving suggestions. But the overall environment doesn't foster that, people are afraid of getting banned because someone takes it the wrong way (I realize that won't happen, but this is the flip side to the "aggressive" ToS, people are afraid because they don't fully understand it), or get into an argument and slow down the dungeon run, or get kicked from the party for "causing trouble." Given how short most duties are, it's better to just shut up and ride it out.