A comparison of combat content in Endwalker.

[VelKallor]

Lets say they dont have the lockouts, the players then spam that instance and get all the gear they want. then they dont do it anymore and what will we hear?

"Theres nothing to do"

[LianaThorne]

Lets say they dont have the lockouts, the players then spam that instance and get all the gear they want. then they dont do it anymore and what will we hear?

"Theres nothing to do"

Personally I'd rather have this than have my progress intentionally slowed down because some random people want to whine. If I have the ability to pump through getting a set of gear in a week, why shouldn't I be able to do that and then just go focus on something else or play something different? Timegates are probably the stupidest thing to ever come to video games which are generally supposed to be "progress at your own pace".

[Jojoya]

Personally I'd rather have this than have my progress intentionally slowed down because some random people want to whine. If I have the ability to pump through getting a set of gear in a week, why shouldn't I be able to do that and then just go focus on something else or play something different? Timegates are probably the stupidest thing to ever come to video games which are generally supposed to be "progress at your own pace".

I can think of 2 reasons it doesn't happen.

The first is to help ensure that players hitting the content late will still find others doing the content.

The second, and possibly more importantly from a developer point of view at least in the short term, is to prevent Raubahn EX from happening every time a patch is released. Can you imagine what a mess the instance servers would be in if everyone could farm as much as they wanted as soon as content was released?

Whether gear is time gated or not, there will always be those players complaining about a lack of things to do before the next patch but that's their problem to solve.

Yep. Really. Doesn't bother me to have that option in a fully online multiplayer game. We already have RMT and paid services here for clears so not like it doesn't already exist in an unofficial form.

So yeah, personally, I'd welcome it if it meant I could have control over all areas of my progression tbh

Edit: I take it back, we already do have p2w here in an official sense. You can buy a mount that makes you faster than others (which is basically the "BiS" for exploring all new maps), you can buy a level skip to 80 (soon to be 90) and skip the majority of the story. The Menphina Earrings from pre-ordering can be considered p2w as well since they give you an xp boost.

Before anyone starts calling something pay to win, it's usually good to define what the win condition is.

So what is winning in FFXIV?

I don't see an XP boost from a pre-order bonus as pay to win. That simply gets someone to level cap faster. It doesn't confer the rewards that players usually set as win goals.

I don't see a mount with a speed boost as pay to win either. It also does not confer the rewards that players view as win conditions. It also becomes irrelevant once the player unlocks the ability to fly.

[GaiusDrakon]

prevent Raubahn EX from happening every time a patch is released [...] farm as much as they wanted as soon as content was released

Literally what? No one was farming the solo instance. You weren't even there for it to know what happened. It was a DDoS + poor server infrastructure (because they put all the solo instances into one bucket), and just underestimation of the required capacity. Did you think people were farming a story instance lol??

[TaleraRistain]

Literally what? No one was farming the solo instance. You weren't even there for it to know what happened. It was a DDoS + poor server infrastructure (because they put all the solo instances into one bucket), and just underestimation of the required capacity.

Everyone was trying to hit it at the same time and it was overwhelming the instance server. That's why they started having two possible areas to go with Shadowbringers onward so we're not all funneled to the same bottleneck point. DDoS and poor server infrastructure didn't help, but neither did all the Early Access players getting to that bottleneck point quickly and all trying to hit it at once. It was also back when we still had gargantuan data centers which made things even worse.

Some of these limitations do help maintain some balance with instances and it's a legitimate concern that not having these limitations might lead to overwhelming the instance server again. There are still instances where it lags sometimes even now.

[GaiusDrakon]

Everyone was trying to hit it at the same time and it was overwhelming the instance server. That's why they started having two possible areas to go with Shadowbringers onward so we're not all funneled to the same bottleneck point. DDoS and poor server infrastructure didn't help, but neither did all the Early Access players getting to that bottleneck point quickly and all trying to hit it at once. It was also back when we still had gargantuan data centers which made things even worse.

That is not "farming". Unless you think people "farm" the MSQ. Their argument is that timegating prevents Raubahn EX but no one is doing the MSQ twice in the first week of 4.0. Raubahn EX has nothing to do with timegating.

Also the Grynewahlt instance (or however you spell his name) came after the two branches of the 4.0 MSQ merged together. It didn't start with ShB, it started with HW.

Look, I'm for sensible timegating but using Raubahn EX as a supporting reason is just bizarre

[TaleraRistain]

That is not "farming". Unless you think people "farm" the MSQ. Their argument is that timegating prevents Raubahn EX but no one is doing the MSQ twice in the first week of 4.0. Raubahn EX has nothing to do with timegating.

They're not talking about the MSQ. They're talking about things that are timegated now like weekly drops. We can go run an MSQ dungeon as many times as we want for drops, especially with the Trust system. And while some do run 8 or 24 man content over and over, a lot only run it for their weekly drop. Which serves to help keep the instance servers from getting too overwhelmed.

[Jojoya]

Literally what? No one was farming the solo instance. You weren't even there for it to know what happened. It was a DDoS + poor server infrastructure (because they put all the solo instances into one bucket), and just underestimation of the required capacity. Did you think people were farming a story instance lol??

You missed my point. It's not what type of content it is, it's the number of players (whether in groups or solo) trying to open instances at the same time. Raubahn EX did not happen because it was MSQ content. It happened because too many players were trying to open up an instance at the same time and the instance servers did not have the capacity to handle them all.

Would you like me to use Island Sanctuary launch as a different example of what happens when too many players try to open instances at the same time?

For all we know, some of the long queue times players face when queueing for duties isn't due to a lack of players in the needed roles but a lack of room on the instances servers for new groups to enter. There have been times doing leveling or MSQ roulettes where I queue as role in need and end up waiting. I switch to the other role usually in need and continue to wait. And this seems to happen only in peak hours when as expected more players are online. It's something I only experience 3-4 times a year but it does happen.