The Savage loot system fails on nearly every level

[Zebraoracle]

Final Fantasy 14 is an MMO that YoshiP wants you to take breaks from and unsub when you need to... unless you're a savage raider or a home owner!

It's so funny when I see people say there's zero point in making alts in this game, when there very clearly IS a point. A very sucky point at that.

[RobynDaBank]

Homeowner? Hasn't demolishing been off for 7-8 months now or something?

[ForteNightshade]

It is quite annoying when you want to help friends with prog and clearing, but they want a 2 chest. You either have to have an alt account that hasn't cleared for the week to help, or they have to sacrifice a chance at loot for the week. I sadly don't know what the solution is here as the reasoning is clear for why they reduce loot if you've done your weekly.

My initial proposal would be to have two or less players not cause a penalty to occur. Unfortunately, that has the averse effect of making it optimal to always bring two players who have previously cleared so you're only rolling against six players and not eight. Granted, I don't know if that is inherently a bad thing as it would increase RNG for everyone else. Which is part of the OP's argument.

Nevertheless, if they didn't want to go that route, a solution could be the game auto rolls any player who has previously cleared and should they have the winning number, the coffer just disappears. Kind of like how if you roll on the same unique item and "win" both, you get an error message saying you can only have one and the second item was discarded. Bit of a feels bad moment but it would preserve the 1/8 roll.

Books in general need more value across the board, and i've been saying for awhile that if you don't win any loot for your weekly clear, you should just get another book. Lower the cost for accessories, legs, chest, and weapon, and also make books tradeable downward to be used on previous turns' gear.

I feel this may speed up progression too much for SE's liking. If they could implement a system where every two weeks you don't win something, then you're rewarded an additional page, it'd probably be the compromise SE would entertain.

[Raoabolic]

Homeowner? Hasn't demolishing been off for 7-8 months now or something?

It has been off for a while so I guess it's oka-
Oops, my WT is going to expire!
Uh oh, I haven't done my Faux retell yet!
And I haven't finished the Omicron beast tribe questline yet, missing a day is missed progress you know!
Shoot, I still am one blade short before I can a sweet 620 weapon. Need to run that P8 this week~!
...Oh, and I forgot to set my Island Sanctuary's tasks for the week
*looks at the daily roulettes with the daily bonus unclaimed*
Aww man!

[Knot_D]

My beef with savage loot is how lack of tome accessory to upgrade into 630. Like it only drops on 2nd floor and only 1 each week while my entire static need it for ring and other accessories...

[Yukidaore]

It is quite annoying when you want to help friends with prog and clearing, but they want a 2 chest. You either have to have an alt account that hasn't cleared for the week to help, or they have to sacrifice a chance at loot for the week. I sadly don't know what the solution is here as the reasoning is clear for why they reduce loot if you've done your weekly.

There are a bunch of solutions, really. It just requires personalizing the loot. One simple solution would be to just remove coffers entirely and halve the books required per item; we would go from approximately 5 loot items generated per clear to 4, but with fewer wasted drops so it'd roughly balance out with current rates. It would also remove even the small element of randomness in drops from world first races, and remove the benefit from running split groups with alts to gear up your mains faster. The only downside is it would be harder to gear an individual person more quickly since you can't pass all loot to them, but then there's no need for reducing loot since everyone is limited to the same income each week no matter what. If you really want to retain some element of randomness, leave the costs where they are but award a random number of books per clear between, say, 3 and 5.

Or we could reduce the cost even further, get one item per clear. Yeah, people could gear up way faster, but then they could actually gear up alt jobs too. Especially for the final floor, where oh god do you need a lot of clears to get weapons for multiple jobs if you aren't lucky with coffers.

Another idea that removes penalties and enables horizontal progression is to make it so each clear unlocks an equipment slot for the job you queued as for purchase at a vendor. Only allow one clear to count per role per week. Randomize the slot if you want for content longevity; yeah, maybe the player doesn't want that terrible piety/sps helmet as a healer, but it takes it off the list for next week so you're still progressing towards BiS. Want to unlock another role? You can go back in on a job in that role for another clear, unlocking a piece for that job for the week as well. Want to delay progress further, or randomize somewhat? Each clear gives some amount of progress along a track for the job, with the reward coming from reaching milestones. Added bonus for the devs; it creates another incentive for people to play more jobs to tick more boxes on the giant spreadsheet that is achievements. Added bonus for players; you don't have to go back in years later for that glam piece you accidentally destroyed.

It's not an intractable problem on any level, they just have to want to fix it instead of maintaining the status quo.

[Yukidaore]

To be fair, part of the problem is also the PF community gating groups from not getting clears due to their restrictive ilevels.

In part, I agree. People often go way overboard on their min ilvl expectations. That said, it's not entirely unreasonable, either. Someone in 610 pentamelded gear certainly can clear any fight in the tier, but all the AoEs are far more lethal to them and require the mitigation be much more perfect. The enrage check is far tighter. If that 610 player goes in with anything less than near-perfect play, they're a liability that has to be made up for somewhere else, and not everyone fully clearing the tier is that good. Some people only manage it later on, when their gear makes the checks a little bit lighter, and there's no real way to filter them out and only get those week 1 chads in your group... assuming those week 1 chads haven't gotten lazier in their BiS, too. I don't blame people for wanting to make their runs as smooth as possible, especially later on in a tier.

Yeah, I got my first clears early for the challenge and the fun, but now I'm running it for the loot I need to approach other content, and for glamours. I'll be stuck here a long time yet, and I don't want want it to be excessively difficult at this point. I think most people feel the same.

[LianaThorne]

It has been off for a while so I guess it's oka-
Oops, my WT is going to expire!
Uh oh, I haven't done my Faux retell yet!
And I haven't finished the Omicron beast tribe questline yet, missing a day is missed progress you know!
Shoot, I still am one blade short before I can a sweet 620 weapon. Need to run that P8 this week~!
...Oh, and I forgot to set my Island Sanctuary's tasks for the week
*looks at the daily roulettes with the daily bonus unclaimed*
Aww man!

I know you're being sarcastic but I genuinely feel bad for anyone who looks at the game like that.

[Atelier-Bagur]

It has been off for a while so I guess it's oka-
Oops, my WT is going to expire!
Uh oh, I haven't done my Faux retell yet!
And I haven't finished the Omicron beast tribe questline yet, missing a day is missed progress you know!
Shoot, I still am one blade short before I can a sweet 620 weapon. Need to run that P8 this week~!
...Oh, and I forgot to set my Island Sanctuary's tasks for the week
*looks at the daily roulettes with the daily bonus unclaimed*
Aww man!

And people say this game doesn't have lasting content that keeps them subbed. It all there!

[Rithy255]

I can agree with the post mainly.

I think my biggest issue is how RNG gearing can be, if you're lucky you will gear quicker then everyone, you can get onto gearing alts a lot sooner then most people.

In a raid static situation it punishes Tanks and Healers because you will discourage/not allow lower DPS such as tank or healers to roll on gear before you gear out all your dps, people then complain they can't find healers in PF but surprise surprise they make the requirements to high for Healers. This is a big reason why we have a "healer shortage" with other reasons in my opinion.

Also talking about the "gear reduction" (when someone whos cleared plays with other players) couldn't they just make people who are helping someone else clear (who's already cleared this week) just I don't know... Not roll? Almost as if that pretty much solves the issue and doesn't punish players wanting to help others.


I generally want the system to:
1. Be less RNG, mostly for PF where everyone can roll for loot, I don't like the idea of gearing progress being RNG in the first place personally. (some people might find it more exciting?)
2. with people in a static situations shouldn't punish Tank or healer players.
3. Allow people to gear alt Jobs faster, I think gearing should take a while but it should also encourage going in as a alt job, that might help with "healer shortages" ect. While I don't think the solution is "just go healer lol" at least let people (who don't main healer) gear for healers in the first place...