Unpopular opinion on island sanctuarys.

[Kaurhz]

I love it, but like every system they do seemingly develop, they only carry it halfway and do not execute on its fullest potential of it.

I think personally for me the biggest thing I'd like to see is:

1) Underwater or underground ruins which embed some form of combat to acquire rare items from monsters that you cannot tame, in addition to rare monsters.

2) I appreciate it's a lone island, but some form of multiplayer component to help people with their island would be fantastic.

3) I know it's already tied to the MSQ of finished Endwalker, but given how independent it is from actual game progression, there is no reason this couldn't have been tied to Level 50. It would give lower-level players something fantastic to progress towards, and in reality, would likely help with retention.

4) In the same vein that it is independent of actual game systems (e.g., crafting and gathering), this is also one of the biggest drawbacks as it cannot, and nor does it have as substantial systems as gathering and crafting - I think if it weren't independent then they could have introduced more depth to it -- They already have the baseline systems in Diadem that would work well. It would help to incentivize people to stick around more after initial progression,

5) I think it's pitiful that there are only 2 challenge logs, one associated with gathering, and another tied to the workshop system. There should have been additional challenge logs for expeditions and the collecting monsters, and even the farm. Overall the challenge log needs to have a lot more, and this is not a plea for wanting more tokens, for all I care they could reduce the reward, but increase the number of log entries.

[Atelier-Bagur]

3) I know it's already tied to the MSQ of finished Endwalker, but given how independent it is from actual game progression, there is no reason this couldn't have been tied to Level 50. It would give lower-level players something fantastic to progress towards, and in reality, would likely help with retention.

I support this 100%, while I understand the reason why they locked it away behind EW msq due to lore reasons, I think the eventual growth of this side content will warrant enough for new players to want to experience it and start progressing on their island development much earlier while having a place to chill as they continue to go through their journey to reach endgame.

[Raoabolic]

I support this 100%, while I understand the reason why they locked it away behind EW msq due to lore reasons, I think the eventual growth of this side content will warrant enough for new players to want to experience it and start progressing on their island development much earlier while having a place to chill as they continue to go through their journey to reach endgame.

They probably don't want to make it a lv 15 thing that everyone can unlock right off the bat because then people won't have to buy all the expansions and that's lost profit for SE. It's not that hard to understand why they did what they did, lol.

[Atelier-Bagur]

They probably don't want to make it a lv 15 thing that everyone can unlock right off the bat because then people won't have to buy all the expansions and that's lost profit for SE. It's not that hard to understand why they did what they did, lol.

No I totally get why they locked behind it. And we meant lv.50 as in complete ARR msq not just "fresh off the carriage you get personal island you small time adventurer you". In terms of alternate lore, it would still make sense for your character to have enough fame and notoriety to obtain island sanctuary at that point.

And I seriously doubt IS is big enough to warrant new players not to buy all the expansions when quite literally this game lives and breaths in its story content that also is required to unlock everything else. The argument here is if IS is supposed to be this feature that is as far removed from the main game as possible, then why not loosen the unlock requirements a little. We'll just have to see how the devs approach this in the future. Right now IS is fun and its a decent start but doesnt nearly have enough meat and potatoes to be its own big thing yet.

[Raoabolic]

And I seriously doubt IS is big enough to warrant new players not to buy all the expansions when quite literally this game lives and breaths in its story content that also is required to unlock everything else. The argument here is if IS is supposed to be this feature that is as far removed from the main game as possible, then why not loosen the unlock requirements a little. We'll just have to see how the devs approach this in the future. Right now IS is fun and its a decent start but doesnt nearly have enough meat and potatoes to be its own big thing yet.

I would say the opposite considering how much the online tabloids (Sorry game journalists, just about every video game news site is borderline tabloid tier, lol) were hyping up XIV and their new IS that is dropping I can see a number of people buying the expansions and probably the level/story skip potion once they realize it's gated behind the story. A lot of this mess can be blamed on hype by third parties and rabid fans, but hype sells copies. /shrug

[Atelier-Bagur]

I would say the opposite considering how much the online tabloids (Sorry game journalists, just about every video game news site is borderline tabloid tier, lol) were hyping up XIV and their new IS that is dropping I can see a number of people buying the expansions and probably the level/story skip potion once they realize it's gated behind the story. A lot of this mess can be blamed on hype by third parties and rabid fans, but hype sells copies. /shrug

You know what, you have a point there.

[Kaurhz]

They probably don't want to make it a lv 15 thing that everyone can unlock right off the bat because then people won't have to buy all the expansions and that's lost profit for SE. It's not that hard to understand why they did what they did, lol.

I'm pretty sure they could incorporate a feature lock on it if they so tried. I don't see people playing exclusively for Island Sanctuary, but that being said there are already quite a few feature-unlocks that are included within the free trial that offers about as much of a time investment as what Island Sanctuary would.

I'm fairly sure people can see where the developers are coming from, but equally, it's not exactly a revolutionary process to exclude a piece of content from free trial, if they so wished.