AST Adjustments 6.2

[ty_taurus]

No offense, but that's exactly the reason why jobs are boring, I'm sorry. The second something seems remotely fun another one brings up a calculator. I don't play a fantasy game to have boring abilities because a spreadsheet says so.

On one end we have casuals so most of the game with eye contact to the MSQ needs to stay easy and on the other end the second an abilities threatens to make whatever job suboptimal (whatever that means) it's out the door.

I totally get both sides and they have a place, but XIV throws out the baby with the bathwater and the end result isn't all that appealing long-term. To be fair, PvP is a really good start.

The problem isn't specifically that it's suboptimal. It's that it feels shitty to play. No one who has developed a strong understanding of the game's mechanics want so sit there and wait half a second to be able to continue their combo. Skill speed and spell speed are just bad stats conceptually for an RPG centered around cooldowns. There are other effects that could be more interesting and usable that we continue to not explore, but just like accuracy, skill speed and spell speed should've died years ago. Speed up mechanics should instead be built into the jobs that need them because that way it can be realistically controlled.

If we got more than 3 cleansable debuffs across every ounce of content added to the game in the span of 2 years, maybe debuff prevention would be a much greater asset, for example.

[IllyaPrisma]

There are other effects that could be more interesting and usable that we continue to not explore, but just like accuracy, skill speed and spell speed should've died years ago.

Especially since Astrodyne feels like such a weak effort to keep the Seals mechanic. SE probably realized in ASTs current design that there isn't actually a need for more than 2 cards and quickly thought of some way to keep 6 cards. Standing VERY far back, the Job still appears to have RNG in card drawing, but when you take a closer look, it's simply the appearance of RNG with no actual quick thinking or decision making.

My favorite line: "All of the cards do the same thing, and somehow you still don't get the ones you want"

[ty_taurus]

Especially since Astrodyne feels like such a weak effort to keep the Seals mechanic. SE probably realized in ASTs current design that there isn't actually a need for more than 2 cards and quickly thought of some way to keep 6 cards. Standing VERY far back, the Job still appears to have RNG in card drawing, but when you take a closer look, it's simply the appearance of RNG with no actual quick thinking or decision making.

My favorite line: "All of the cards do the same thing, and somehow you still don't get the ones you want"

Well that's kind of the issue from the get-go. Trying to justify 6 different buffs in this game is highly challenging because you're inevitably going to have cards that are weaker and others that are stronger. With the old system, Royal Road helped a lot at creating a counterweight to grant value to the more niche utility cards, especially Spire who's effect was virtually useless but was the best card to burn. This ultimately wasn't enough to make it a fair and balanced mechanic, but there was logic to it.

The seal system was created as a response to this, enabling them to homogenize the cards into 1 repetitive effect, but it's a colossal failure. It actually highlights even more just how unnecessary the 6 different cards aspect is on a functional level and has felt stupidly clunky every step of the way so far. Even though it's been smoothed out since ShB's launch, it still feels like a mess because there's just no reason to have the system at all the way it's currently implemented.

What's more is the Cards are very heavily linked to the lore of job, and while lore-breaking isn't something they're too afraid to shy away from, foundational lore aspects aren't things they're going to eliminate. If we were to ignore the lore, the most sensible thing we could do would be to cut the card system entirely and just replace it with a single button, but that would get a heavy amount of backlash, and I wouldn't be happy with that solution either. What this means is if they really want to make AST enjoyable is they're going to need to bring the cards back to the drawing board once more and figure out a way to justify having 6 cards in a way that doesn't feel like ass and yet retain a level of consistency that inspired the ShB changes to begin with.

[QooEr]

Well that's kind of the issue from the get-go. Trying to justify 6 different buffs in this game is highly challenging because you're inevitably going to have cards that are weaker and others that are stronger.

i agree with your post. if we lost 1 or even 2 cards for a total of 4 or 5 different effects in exchange for the effects actually being interesting and meaningful i would definitely prefer that. i mean pvp only has 3 cards and its already a lot more fun (tho tbh defensive bole as a 4th card would be great to have too).

[TankHunter678]

Especially since Astrodyne feels like such a weak effort to keep the Seals mechanic. SE probably realized in ASTs current design that there isn't actually a need for more than 2 cards and quickly thought of some way to keep 6 cards. Standing VERY far back, the Job still appears to have RNG in card drawing, but when you take a closer look, it's simply the appearance of RNG with no actual quick thinking or decision making.

My favorite line: "All of the cards do the same thing, and somehow you still don't get the ones you want"

You know I had the long standing idea that through application of the Eureka Element system you could eliminate the RNG of AST and still kept the other card buffs. You could of turned Redraw and Undraw into Align Left and Align Right. The constellation you were aligned with was the buff you played. You could of then had turned the other card buttons into Extend, Expand, and Empower. Thus achieving the effects of the original HW/SB card system.

You eliminate the RNG so you always have the card buff you want available, while leaving in the utility belt.

Sure Spire would of still needed a rework but changing it to healing received would of kept the card in theme while being useful.