FF14 Becoming More "Solo Friendly" is bad, Maybe

[Serious-Cat]

Love the detailed response, I can agree and disagree on various things, but these are two that stick out that I would prefer to discuss in light of this thread topic at least. Sadly the reasons why I think the focal point of adding a more solo experience to the game to attract more JRPS fans into FFXIV is two big issues that I feel SE has not really thought through. A large majority of players choose not to play a MMO not because of a social aspect but because they do not like the MMO game play (tab target system). Another large majority of players and FF fans would also opt out due to the monthly subscription fee. So although it is possible to get some new players through this route, it is not going to be a large profit margin in the grand scheme, and would be a even better profit margin, if this game were in a dying state which it isn't. This sort of target market just looks like poor decision to try and make quick profit. If I really had to guess, I think SE is ready to try and milk FFXIV and dial back that budget very hard, at what would be the worst time to do.

Dark times my friend! if there's a way to get some money in for the business they gotta do it or risk an unhealthy career. I felt FF14 would be much better if it has been another episode in the FF universe, making it a monthly sub force it to diverge from its form. If FF7 or anything were to be made a sub based game, it would suffer the exact same problems as FF14. I can imagine Yoshi P is told to increase a certain metric by the board, that's why the team decide to rope in solo JRPG players since its not far off from the FF14 base, occasionally "forcing" xD content with other players hopefully to win them over to the MMO aspect of FF14. Core problem of everything really is corporations expect infinite growth with finite resources but that's another topic not suitable here xD

To the part I have bolded, you clearly have not seen this games player base.

Its evident thru this forum, ingame lore explained to me in detail in game and how there are Ultimate/Savage raiders looking to help people in party finder complete normal content xD The remaining few unpaid brand ambassadors is rare in the whole entertainment business tho as circles of friends downsize over time and new shiny thing keeps popping up lol

[Serious-Cat]

Correct me if im wrong but arent castrum prae westwind etc now only done solo?

Oof Im not sure really, my understanding is that Lahabrea is a solo instance, cape westwind is removed completely? and castrum + prae is downsized to 4 person duty? xD

[IdowhatIwant]

Core problem of everything really is corporations expect infinite growth with finite resources but that's another topic not suitable here xD

Sadly it is not suitable for here, but I do think for this thread it is actually pretty on topic.

[Serious-Cat]

I will say over time this game has catered more towards the casual and more solo oriented players, and classes have been changed to appease this. So both MMO and RPG elements have been taken away as the classes get more homogenized for casual play at the loss of class identity.

Well we know the reason why tho although I believe nothing really essential was taken away from the old ways since the button condensation is just to make room for more skills as the game code allows xD Mathematically, pressing 1-2-3 or 1-1-1 still takes the same amount of effort and repetition tho. 1 to = is 12 buttons but if 3 actions are condensed each, that's a whopping 36 button potential which would be important to maximize high end duties clears but to the average solo player for the story only where pressing 1 to = is sufficient shouldn't have bothered anyone really. Everyone wins actually? xD

[IdowhatIwant]

Well we know the reason why tho although I believe nothing really essential was taken away from the old ways since the button condensation is just to make room for more skills as the game code allows xD Mathematically, pressing 1-2-3 or 1-1-1 still takes the same amount of effort and repetition tho. 1 to = is 12 buttons but if 3 actions are condensed each, that's a whopping 36 button potential which would be important to maximize high end duties clears but to the average solo player for the story only where pressing 1 to = is sufficient shouldn't have bothered anyone really. Everyone wins actually? xD

Healers would disagree. To quote myself on the issue with button bloat and how it is being handled from a different thread.

Now you are right more buttons doesn't always mean more complex, but it also depends on what those buttons do. Remember my stance dance thing, it was one less button but it made a huge difference in tank identity and a huge cut to over all game play for tanks specifically. So yes you are right more buttons does not matter no one will argue this game just needs more buttons like why can't my combo be 18 hits instead of 3. It is more about what those buttons do and how they function in the class specifically that matters. Many of the buttons that have been getting cut have been very vital to many classes identity as a whole and that is where the problem lies. So stop talking about the amount of buttons that is not what the complaints are about, it's about the specific buttons.

So yeah changing 1-2-3 to 1-1-1 isn't really the what many players are upset about, it's when buttons that made the class diverse and gave it an identity are removed which causes the issue. Believe me I have complained about why devilment does not turn into starfall dance like technical finish and tilana, hypercharge to heatblast, ikkoshoten to ogi namikiri the list can go on. But instead we are getting other skills tapered off that gave some of these classes an identity? They also have made weird decisions where some skills upgrade and replace skills while others do not, good example is shoha and shoha 2, hissatsu: gurren can and hissatsu: senei could have easily had it's level swapped and been a simple upgrade. And yes these are single target vs AOE, but so many skills now do X amount of damage to your target and Y amount of AOE damage to everything else.

[GrizzlyTank]

Developing solo-friendliness even for an mmo should be a standard. Because as much as people would like the game to be endless there will always come a point where there is suddenly too few players to consistently participate in cooperative content and/or the servers gets shut down and therefore they already got a backup system they can use to still sell this as a product and art-piece.

[Serious-Cat]

Healers would disagree. To quote myself on the issue with button bloat and how it is being handled from a different thread.

Since I started this game as a healer where I don't get the to experience the difference in muscle memory I think its ok so far and accepted as is xD I guess SE could improve the heal potency and cooldown of some skills to change more gcd heals to gcd dps skills? Maybe a compromise of when used on friendly target = heal, on unfriendly target = damage? I guess I cant see the issue yet on my end since Glare, Dia and Afflatus Misery seem smooth in normal play with cleansing, mitigation and healing but maybe in a perfect play comp where there's not much healing needed unless raidwide its super boring xD

So yeah changing 1-2-3 to 1-1-1 isn't really the what many players are upset about, it's when buttons that made the class diverse and gave it an identity are removed which causes the issue. Believe me I have complained about why devilment does not turn into starfall dance like technical finish and tilana, hypercharge to heatblast, ikkoshoten to ogi namikiri the list can go on. But instead we are getting other skills tapered off that gave some of these classes an identity? They also have made weird decisions where some skills upgrade and replace skills while others do not, good example is shoha and shoha 2, hissatsu: gurren can and hissatsu: senei could have easily had it's level swapped and been a simple upgrade. And yes these are single target vs AOE, but so many skills now do X amount of damage to your target and Y amount of AOE damage to everything else.

I dont know any of those skills nor have been here long enough to know a job's identity I saw on the ff14 site there's pure healers and barrier healers, are these the identity thing? I've only play summoner as a pure dps class so far and it does summon stuff to deal damage lol Hmm might it be nostalgia?

Too many similar skills would be boring to play, so far I've only really play the following jobs.White mage vs Astrologian and Darknight vs Gunbreaker, every skill feels different tho? No doubt every job have their basic single and aoe rotation. Although I notice darknight get's their aoe combo at a later level from the average tank skill :/ is this a remnant from the job identity you might be referring to?

[hagare]

That is true! I regret approaching the game initially to just "defeat" it with the goal I can beat the game before my leave ends and now I am the same with people that complaints there's nothing to do in game except wait for 6.1 xD

just like how people have said. It's okay to play other games when you're bored.
It'll be here when you come back.
*looking at my backlog*
yeah.... I should probably do that too.

Well we know the reason why tho although I believe nothing really essential was taken away from the old ways since the button condensation is just to make room for more skills as the game code allows xD Mathematically, pressing 1-2-3 or 1-1-1 still takes the same amount of effort and repetition tho. 1 to = is 12 buttons but if 3 actions are condensed each, that's a whopping 36 button potential which would be important to maximize high end duties clears but to the average solo player for the story only where pressing 1 to = is sufficient shouldn't have bothered anyone really. Everyone wins actually? xD

the amount of objections in the other thread shows otherwise.
Even though doing it this way won't change rotations. Won't change APM. Only the placements.
Hell, it might even have saved kaiten xD

But eh. SE's gonna streamline anyway.

[Serious-Cat]

Developing solo-friendliness even for an mmo should be a standard. Because as much as people would like the game to be endless there will always come a point where there is suddenly too few players to consistently participate in cooperative content and/or the servers gets shut down and therefore they already got a backup system they can use to still sell this as a product and art-piece.

That would be good business sense to continue monetization of their products and its always the deep lore of the world that ensure it continue to be profitable eg D&D, LotR, SW and more xD

[Serious-Cat]

just like how people have said. It's okay to play other games when you're bored.
It'll be here when you come back.
*looking at my backlog*
yeah.... I should probably do that too.

IM GUILTY. Part of me is nooooooo 24 hour maintainence and part of me is like phew its finally time to play warhammer3 that I preordered a few months ago xD