We have midcore content... just too little too late.

[Minarisweet]

I've noticed more people have been vocal about wanting midcore content in this game like me but I think there's another point most people don't seem to realize... we do get midcore content eventually its just not very repeatable and its very further into the expansion.

In shb we got bozja in 6.35 and people were already dropping it by the week since you didnt need to do much of it to get the relic at the time... its also ridiculously late for what should be content for everyone!

No this is not a covid thing because we are getting manderville weapons for the same patch cycle this expact too.

Relic content tends to feel more complete when its finished and even then when you already got a full relic it is VERY hard to want to do more of it just for the sake of it. So not only is the content very late but it also doesnt inspire much replayability.

I'm not sure myself what is the solution to the lack of rewards since not even gil is that desirable in this game, but I do believe we should be getting relic content and deep dungeons earlier in the expansions.

I appreciate your time reading this.

[Avoidy]

Mid-tier difficulty in this game is weird, because it's difficult for people to come to a consensus of what it is (I know a lot of people who felt like bozja was casual and see midcore content as EX-difficulty stuff) and there's not much incentive to run it repeatedly. Casual content and savage content has weekly incentives to do it, but ... for example, with barbariccia EX, I noticed that interest in it dried up after the first week. Not saying people completely stopped doing it, but there was this weird perception of like, if you didn't get it that first week, all the groups still running it would be awful and nobody else would want to run it. And in my experience that's how it went. For the newest EX, I noticed that getting people to run it was like pulling teeth since unlike barb ex you didn't have the savage raiders running it to get their weapon before the new raids came out, since there weren't new 8man savages. Which just left people who wanted 525 weapons or people who liked the glams. I won't speak for everyone, but I watched people struggle to fill groups in the first week, which was kind of a feelsbad moment. Even I had like, 0 interest in getting it done personally.

idk. I wish devs would experiment with (Unreal) stuff in more than just old trials. Unreal alliance raids would be cool as hell imo. The high difficulty 24-man stuff we have now is all gated behind some of the most tedious grinds in the game and then you basically have to join a discord server just to get a reliable team to go in with you. Imagine if we just had a tweaked harder version of dun scaith that anyone could just go in and do after unlocking it, complete with weekly incentives to get it done. idk dude.

[Thi]

For the newest EX, I noticed that getting people to run it was like pulling teeth since unlike barb ex you didn't have the savage raiders running it to get their weapon before the new raids came out, since there weren't new 8man savages. Which just left people who wanted 525 weapons or people who liked the glams. I won't speak for everyone, but I watched people struggle to fill groups in the first week, which was kind of a feelsbad moment. Even I had like, 0 interest in getting it done personally.

This is honestly a major problem the dev team has with XIV. Many times the rewards for doing the content are not worth doing said content for.

The new EX is a great example, oh a weapon worse than what I have even on my alt jobs because I do savage content. I'm not even going to bother unlocking it unless the skin looks nice, which in general the EX weapons are meh. Plus next expansion they will release a nicer looking crafted version I can just buy on the market board.

Same issue happened with the criterion dungeons. Not going to be arsed to do something for absolute shit tier rewards.

Meanwhile, as an exception as a player I have no interest in Island Sanctuary style content, but the rewards for it are worth the time investment to get it up and running nearly automated, so I pushed through and got my island setup to farm the currency with minimal input and collect rewards.

Basically the content needs to have rewards equivalent to the time spent and relevant for the patch cycle if they have stats attached.

[PredatoryCatgirl]

Mid-tier difficulty in this game is weird, because it's difficult for people to come to a consensus of what it is (I know a lot of people who felt like bozja was casual and see midcore content as EX-difficulty stuff) and there's not much incentive to run it repeatedly. Casual content and savage content has weekly incentives to do it, but ... for example, with barbariccia EX, I noticed that interest in it dried up after the first week. Not saying people completely stopped doing it, but there was this weird perception of like, if you didn't get it that first week, all the groups still running it would be awful and nobody else would want to run it. And in my experience that's how it went. For the newest EX, I noticed that getting people to run it was like pulling teeth since unlike barb ex you didn't have the savage raiders running it to get their weapon before the new raids came out, since there weren't new 8man savages. Which just left people who wanted 525 weapons or people who liked the glams. I won't speak for everyone, but I watched people struggle to fill groups in the first week, which was kind of a feelsbad moment. Even I had like, 0 interest in getting it done personally.

idk. I wish devs would experiment with (Unreal) stuff in more than just old trials. Unreal alliance raids would be cool as hell imo. The high difficulty 24-man stuff we have now is all gated behind some of the most tedious grinds in the game and then you basically have to join a discord server just to get a reliable team to go in with you. Imagine if we just had a tweaked harder version of dun scaith that anyone could just go in and do after unlocking it, complete with weekly incentives to get it done. idk dude.

This is really the opposite of my experience. The main difference may be that I'm on Sargatanas, which is more or less the Mateus to Gilgamesh's Balmung in terms of raiding. If you're interested in doing some tougher content, it might be worth parking your character on Aether for a few days.

[Raoabolic]

This is honestly a major problem the dev team has with XIV. Many times the rewards for doing the content are not worth doing said content for.

The new EX is a great example, oh a weapon worse than what I have even on my alt jobs because I do savage content. I'm not even going to bother unlocking it unless the skin looks nice, which in general the EX weapons are meh. Plus next expansion they will release a nicer looking crafted version I can just buy on the market board.

Same issue happened with the criterion dungeons. Not going to be arsed to do something for absolute shit tier rewards.

Meanwhile, as an exception as a player I have no interest in Island Sanctuary style content, but the rewards for it are worth the time investment to get it up and running nearly automated, so I pushed through and got my island setup to farm the currency with minimal input and collect rewards.

Basically the content needs to have rewards equivalent to the time spent and relevant for the patch cycle if they have stats attached.

So it's about the destination rather than the journey. I guess I shouldn't be that shocked, that has been a trend since early WoW, lol.
At this point it seems more like a community issue than a dev issue. There should always be a carrot at the end of the hamster wheel we call xiv but you have to admit that the mixmax mentality killed a lot of content in the game. Why should you help with X when Y drops something that is 5 ilvls higher? lol

[Atelier-Bagur]

It wouldnt hurt to have better rewards for this kind of thing but also it feels like a community problem too.

[Deveryn]

It's definitely a community problem. Just look at how many threads we have right now disputing the definition of midcore and how much salt is thrown in either direction.

[Thi]

So it's about the destination rather than the journey. I guess I shouldn't be that shocked, that has been a trend since early WoW, lol.
At this point it seems more like a community issue than a dev issue. There should always be a carrot at the end of the hamster wheel we call xiv but you have to admit that the mixmax mentality killed a lot of content in the game. Why should you help with X when Y drops something that is 5 ilvls higher? lol

Honestly, yes. This has been a thing with MMOs from way before WoW. You put in the grind to get the reward. MMOs have always been Skinner Boxes from day one.

The journey is the MSQ, everything else is side content that is optional so it needs worthwhile rewards.

And the question shouldn't be why should you help with new X when Y drops better, but why doesn't new X drop at least equal to Y as a horizontal progression.

[Ransu]

The problem with midcore content is the lack of rewards. Just look at criterion dungeons. I really like them, but I have no reason to spend time running them as the rewards are not worth it. They have their gear progression pretty locked in and they are clearly intent on never disrupting it. Not necessarily a bad thing in general, but I would like secondary options to exist so I can gear my alts to at least be reasonably close to my mains gear. Hopefully with the criterion dungeons they can in the future figure out a mid tier progression that doesn't interfere with crafting and savage sets.

[Raoabolic]

Honestly, yes. This has been a thing with MMOs from way before WoW. You put in the grind to get the reward. MMOs have always been Skinner Boxes from day one.

The journey is the MSQ, everything else is side content that is optional so it needs worthwhile rewards.

And the question shouldn't be why should you help with new X when Y drops better, but why doesn't new X drop at least equal to Y as a horizontal progression.

"horizontal progression"
FFXI and GW1 miss ya~!
But obviously we can't have horizontal progression in this game for obvious reasons. Same reasons why classes/jobs have to be balanced to the point of homogenization. Besides, this is SE's yen tree. Why disrupt the formula when there are more than enough happy with the current situation. The forums are just a fraction of the actual playerbase, I would love to see the numbers of active players that use the mogshop and the active posters here. I would bet that the mogshop users outnumber the posters, it's just a situation of majority rules. Sorry. :/