How to Restore Confidence in FFXIV

[AwesomeJr44]

Here are some of the things that can be done to begin restoring my confidence in the game:

1) Admit that the recent content has been lackluster, and promise to fix things

If the devs realize and admit that the 6.x patches haven't been up to snuff, and they promise to do what they can to make things right, that would be a HUGE step in the right direction. Even just acknowledging that there is a problem is better than ignoring it like they're doing now.

2) Show that FFXIV is their main priority

Throughout these patches, it's felt like the main priority of the devs has been FFXVI. They need to show us that they still have passion for FFXIV, that they still care about this game. Why should I care about FFXIV if the devs don't?

3) Stop sanitizing the story, stop making it childish, establish proper stakes, and make characters I can invest in

The story as it is now is too clean and childish. The scions and their friends are objectively correct all of the time, none of the scions themselves are forced to deal with lasting consequences, they are all untouchable and invincible, and the story itself is becoming more childish. Gone are the times where you could view the story with nuance and make your own opinion. In Endwalker, the scions are portrayed as objectively correct perfect heroes in every situation, and if they ever get into trouble, they'll get out of it without any scars to show for it as Thancred put it in Ultima Thule. The only people to suffer any consequences are side characters and the villains. Let the heroes fail. Let them actually suffer the consequences of their failure for more than 5 minutes. Then their eventual return to glory will actually have impact and feeling behind it. Make the characters people I can actually invest in, and I will begin to care about the story again.

Also, stop making the MSQ childish. The kind of childish humor we've been getting with things like the lopporits belongs in the Hildibrand questline. Please keep it there.

4) Make better raids

I am a raider, thus the main thing I'm going to care about are the raids. However, both Abyssos and TOP have been terrible experiences to play through. Asphodelos was a really good tier, so if the third Pandaemonium tier is of similar quality, then I will be satisfied on this point. As has been said previously, one way to do this is to make the hitboxes smaller. Having to plan ways to get uptime as a tank or melee is part of the fun. I want to fight a boss, not a target dummy. The difficulty also needs to be fixed. P6S and P7S were way too easy to be fun. I also never want to see anything like TOP ever again. Ever. This is something that they could easily fix in 6.4.

5) Make better side content

The side content for 6.x has quite frankly been a dumpster fire. Island Sweatshop is dead, Criterion was DOA, Orthos is just a copy pasted PotD/HoH, and there is no sustainable content to keep people around. Where is the replacement for Bozja? I'm not even talking about a new exploratory zone, but where is the thing that is meant to fill that void? We're more than halfway through the patches and it's nowhere to be found. Something needs to fill the void left by the missing exploratory zone.

Relics also need to not be something you buy at a vending machine. Relics are SUPPOSED to be grindy. They're content that's supposed to fill the time between patches. I'm not sure where the idea came from that relics were meant to be for turbo casuals, but they are not. They are an alternative to savage weapons that require time instead of skill. Bring back actual relic content.

6) The community stops trying to shut down criticism

This one is different than the rest as it's not something the devs need to do, but the community itself. The FFXIV community is too steeped in toxic positivity. The community needs to accept that the game isn't perfect, that it can improve, and that criticism of the game isn't something that should be instantly shut down or derailed. Without criticism, the game cannot grow, it will stagnate, and it will eventually die. This is not purely an Official Forums thing. This change needs to occur not only here, but on other sites such as Reddit as well. The community at large needs to take a massive chill pill. Nothing can change for the better if the community tries to suppress it.

7) Listen to feedback and be more open with communication

I have saved the most important for last.

Listen. To. Feedback.

I cannot stress this enough. When the community is asking for something, listen. Why did people for years need mods just to see what kind of damage an attack was? Why do people still need mods just to have a proper death recap? Why did it take years for Living Dead to be a decent cooldown? It is very apparent that the devs aren't listening to the community if it takes this long for feedback to reach them. Yoshi P shouldn't be shocked to hear that the community has been asking for something when they have been for years. And something else that is just as important, be more open with the community. If there is a problem with implementing something, tell us. Don't act like the problem doesn't exist, hoping that we shut up about it.

There are other things that can be done, but these are the ones I've thought of right now.

[aveyond-dreams]

...

Yes to all of these things.

[SieyaM]

Here are some of the things that can be done to begin restoring my confidence in the game:



The side content for 6.x has quite frankly been a dumpster fire. Island Sweatshop is dead, Criterion was DOA, Orthos is just a copy pasted PotD/HoH, and there is no sustainable content to keep people around. Where is the replacement for Bozja? I'm not even talking about a new exploratory zone, but where is the thing that is meant to fill that void? We're more than halfway through the patches and it's nowhere to be found. Something needs to fill the void left by the missing exploratory zone.

People spent all last expansion complaining about the lack of a deep dungeon, so now we have one and people are complaining that it's another deep dungeon.

[Absimiliard]

People spent all last expansion complaining about the lack of a deep dungeon, so now we have one and people are complaining that it's another deep dungeon.

Nah. Most people were pretty happy with the inclusion of a new Deep Dungeon. Unfortunately, it turned out to be something you could faceroll. Kinda stunted its longevity a bit there.

[aveyond-dreams]

People spent all last expansion complaining about the lack of a deep dungeon, so now we have one and people are complaining that it's another deep dungeon.

I'm someone who thoroughly enjoyed both Palace of the Dead and Heaven on High as deep dungeons when they released but I absolutely loathe anything and everything to do with Eureka Orthos. My reasons are as follows.

For one, nobody wanted to see yet more hideous allagan textures copypasted everywhere.

The majority of the playerbase despises Hermes yet a certain writer decided to one again take the opportunity to gush over him in this deep dungeon's writing.

The weapons are the worst ones yet.

The hairstyle reward is one that at best only appeals to players on the fringes and isn't something I've seen anyone use.

The mount is yet another recycled mob and another with more ugly allagan textures painted on it.

From what I understand new enemies roam around the levelling floors that can one-shot and then wipe whole parties, making this content useless as a less painful way of levelling alt classes.

If we had gotten a deep dungeon on the moon, Garlemald, or even Lea Monde with better rewards I probably would be playing it right now instead of posting on the forums. Instead here we are.

[SieyaM]

I'm someone who thoroughly enjoyed both Palace of the Dead and Heaven on High as deep dungeons when they released but I absolutely loathe anything and everything to do with Eureka Orthos. My reasons are as follows.

For one, nobody wanted to see yet more hideous allagan textures copypasted everywhere.

The majority of the playerbase despises Hermes yet a certain writer decided to one again take the opportunity to gush over him in this deep dungeon's writing.

The weapons are the worst ones yet.

The hairstyle reward is one that at best only appeals to players on the fringes and isn't something I've seen anyone use.

The mount is yet another recycled mob and another with more ugly allagan textures painted on it.

From what I understand new enemies roam around the levelling floors that can one-shot and then wipe whole parties, making this content useless as a less painful way of levelling alt classes.

If we had gotten a deep dungeon on the moon, Garlemald, or even Lea Monde with better rewards I probably would be playing it right now instead of posting on the forums. Instead here we are.

A lot of these seem to be personal complaints about the fact that the aesthetic of the dungeon doesn't suit you, as well as the weapon. I haven't seen hardly anyone with Ultimate weapons but that doesn't mean the content is dead and shouldn't have been developed, but that is considered more of an elitist thing to have so I guess it excuses it's rarity. Of all the complaints around here I don't remember a huge wave of them being about Hermes, but maybe the social circles you're in hates them so it seems that way.

[aveyond-dreams]

A lot of these seem to be personal complaints about the fact that the aesthetic of the dungeon doesn't suit you, as well as the weapon. I haven't seen hardly anyone with Ultimate weapons but that doesn't mean the content is dead and shouldn't have been developed, but that is considered more of an elitist thing to have so I guess it excuses it's rarity. Of all the complaints around here I don't remember a huge wave of them being about Hermes, but maybe the social circles you're in hates them so it seems that way.

Indeed. The weapon looks like garbage and so did the area the content takes place in so I refused to engage in it. Allagan aesthetics are widely regarded as ugly if not painful to look at so asking me to tolerate even more of it after 10 years was quite frankly unacceptable.

I highly recommend you look into some of the criticisms, mostly valid, levied at Hermes. I do not care for the attempt at elucidating on the meaning of life/depression via that character, who ended up being even more widely despised than originally anticipated as per a post-EW launch interview. His inclusion in the story actively worsened it and I've made the decision for myself that after such wildly out of touch commentary through Hermes by that writer, I am no longer willing to play storylines written by her.

Any trust from the DRK storyline and Shadowbringers was torn to shreds by the 6.0 MSQ.

Hiroi, who is supposed to take charge for 7.0's MSQ, must restore the status quo and preferably not take out half the universe like what happened in Endwalker. Better handling of themes, better handling of characters, and above all - some deeper thinking and reflection that could have saved Endwalker's story from hitting all the wrong notes with people.

[SieyaM]

Indeed. The weapon looks like garbage and so did the area the content takes place in so I refused to engage in it. Allagan aesthetics are widely regarded as ugly if not painful to look at so asking me to tolerate even more of it after 10 years was quite frankly unacceptable.

I highly recommend you look into some of the criticisms, mostly valid, levied at Hermes. I do not care for the attempt at elucidating on the meaning of life/depression via that character, who ended up being even more widely despised than originally anticipated as per a post-EW launch interview. His inclusion in the story actively worsened it and I've made the decision for myself that after such wildly out of touch commentary through Hermes by that writer, I am no longer willing to play storylines written by her.

Any trust from the DRK storyline and Shadowbringers was torn to shreds by the 6.0 MSQ.

Hiroi, who is supposed to take charge for 7.0's MSQ, must restore the status quo and preferably not take out half the universe like what happened in Endwalker. Better handling of themes, better handling of characters, and above all - some deeper thinking and reflection that could have saved Endwalker's story from hitting all the wrong notes with people.

I am no expert, but I think maintaining the status quo for too long is what seems to be hurting a lot of aspects of the game. Particularly gearing.

[Alleluia]

Hiroi, who is supposed to take charge for 7.0's MSQ, must restore the status quo and preferably not take out half the universe like what happened in Endwalker. Better handling of themes, better handling of characters, and above all - some deeper thinking and reflection that could have saved Endwalker's story from hitting all the wrong notes with people.

Endwalker's story only hit all the wrong notes for some people. And seemingly not the majority. For many other people, probably most imo, it was good but had problems. And for the most vocal third of this pie, it hit all the right notes, not the wrong ones. Please specify caveats instead of talking in absolutes like that, thank you.

[aveyond-dreams]

Endwalker's story only hit all the wrong notes for some people. And seemingly not the majority. For many other people, probably most imo, it was good but had problems. And for the most vocal third of this pie, it hit all the right notes, not the wrong ones. Please specify caveats instead of talking in absolutes like that, thank you.

I refuse to engage with people who at this stage are still trying to derail things by turning the conversation towards semantics. This is the only time I care to address this topic in this thread and I will thank you kindly to contribute to discussions in more meaningful ways in the future. I found Endwalker and the way in which it went about its messaging to not meet the standard set in the past.

All Hiroi needs to do is not repeat the mistakes this expansion did with its story and 7.0 will be better by default. Though how in the world he or any other writer is going to try and pick up the pieces of FFXIV's world after Endwalker took a wrecking ball to everything is a mystery I'm not presently equipped to resolve.

I cannot imagine inheriting a project like this.