7.0 MMO to a Single Player Game

[RitsukoSonoda]

Again, I'll never understand the hyperbole here. We have yet to see anything change or really effect the core of the game. I'd be on board with this if they were talking about adding trusts to things like Exploration Zones, Extremes, Savage etc. But this has not been the case. The solo peeps having their own little space doesn't hurt any of us. If they wanna run dungeons solo so be it. Let them. It's slower so they're choosing to spend more of their own time on it. That hurts no one.
If so many people are against solo having a space then that tells me there's that same amount who will still be here for group content.

The gatekeeping is mad weird.

It's statistically impossible to make a game that appeals to everybody. Yet CBU3 has shown to continue with the pursuit of futility. Essentially the only thing they've really succeeded in doing is dumbing down this game along with FF16 to the point it requires a dozen or less functioning braincells to progress in it. You could argue that is well and fine for the offline singleplayer title FF16 except they basically forced everyone to play the game on preschooler mode just to access a somewhat normal difficulty setting on a second playthrough instead of letting us play it that way right out of the box. In terms of this game the issue is that these people progress the game and MSQ while not learning anything about how to play the game or do mechanics then jump into EX/Savage content and drag everyone else down diminishing the experience for those that did learn the game as they're just dead weight hoping to leech rewards because they want all the shiny stuff handed to them while refusing to make any effort to earn it. The frequency of this happening increased when easy mode was added to solo MSQ instances. The only reason the addition of duty support really didn't impact this is because those people were already using others to carry them through the 4 player and story mode trials before it was added. They're now taking it further and homogenizing older duties that had unique layouts or zone mechanics that made them stand out from every new duty they've added over more recent years.

[Heroman3003]

It's statistically impossible to make a game that appeals to everybody. Yet CBU3 has shown to continue with the pursuit of futility. Essentially the only thing they've really succeeded in doing is dumbing down this game along with FF16 to the point it requires a dozen or less functioning braincells to progress in it. You could argue that is well and fine for the offline singleplayer title FF16 except they basically forced everyone to play the game on preschooler mode just to access a somewhat normal difficulty setting on a second playthrough instead of letting us play it that way right out of the box. In terms of this game the issue is that these people progress the game and MSQ while not learning anything about how to play the game or do mechanics then jump into EX/Savage content and drag everyone else down diminishing the experience for those that did learn the game as they're just dead weight hoping to leech rewards because they want all the shiny stuff handed to them while refusing to make any effort to earn it. The frequency of this happening increased when easy mode was added to solo MSQ instances. The only reason the addition of duty support really didn't impact this is because those people were already using others to carry them through the 4 player and story mode trials before it was added. They're now taking it further and homogenizing older duties that had unique layouts or zone mechanics that made them stand out from every new duty they've added over more recent years.

If anything, its harder with NPCs than it is with players, because everything relies on you to take initiative and nobody can explain things to you, so you have to figure it out or fail. Also, reworked all dungeons of past have been not dumbed down, but actually turned into something that teaches players mechanics. They actually use markers that appear in later fights consistently now, making sure people have opportunity to learn what they do early on, which is a great change. It's the very fact that those older duties relied on 'unique' mechanics that made actual learning curve so steep, because all that early content did nothing to prepare players for mechanical aspect of later content. Its still not perfect and you still sometimes see players running away with stack marker in some lvl 50/60 duties, but generally, I've found all the early revamped story dungeons to be much better at demonstrating specific mechanics in non-overwhelming way by having one or two per major bossfight. Isn't that what people always asked for, early content that actually prepares people for later, more involved and difficult content? And now its terrible because its 'homogenized' in attempt to implement consistent mechanics?

[vetch]

If anything, its harder with NPCs than it is with players, because everything relies on you to take initiative and nobody can explain things to you, so you have to figure it out or fail. Also, reworked all dungeons of past have been not dumbed down, but actually turned into something that teaches players mechanics. They actually use markers that appear in later fights consistently now, making sure people have opportunity to learn what they do early on, which is a great change. It's the very fact that those older duties relied on 'unique' mechanics that made actual learning curve so steep, because all that early content did nothing to prepare players for mechanical aspect of later content. Its still not perfect and you still sometimes see players running away with stack marker in some lvl 50/60 duties, but generally, I've found all the early revamped story dungeons to be much better at demonstrating specific mechanics in non-overwhelming way by having one or two per major bossfight. Isn't that what people always asked for, early content that actually prepares people for later, more involved and difficult content? And now its terrible because its 'homogenized' in attempt to implement consistent mechanics?

Because the mechanics themselves are boring. 'Boring' is not a word you want applied to your videogame. And it quite literally has been dumbed down, because unique mechs that used to require a bit of thought were replaced with the boss running to center and casting 'dodge this' or 'stack this', which requires none.

It would have been a coup to update the markers to convey the common mechanics better while retaining the unique flavor mechanics that make the fights interesting in themselves. Instead, all of the interesting older work was gutted and the fights made repetitive, because the game was already running on a skeleton crew and then they were given FF16 to work on alongside so it's all they had time to do. And it's still so forgiving and power-crept that you can ignore tankbusters and soak AoEs. What do you learn as a new player if a tankbuster marker appears for the first time and then the boss attacks your tank for not much more HP than he was already autoing for? Nothing.

[Heroman3003]

Because the mechanics themselves are boring. 'Boring' is not a word you want applied to your videogame. And it quite literally has been dumbed down, because unique mechs that used to require a bit of thought were replaced with the boss running to center and casting 'dodge this' or 'stack this', which requires none.

It would have been a coup to update the markers to convey the common mechanics better while retaining the unique flavor mechanics that make the fights interesting in themselves. Instead, all of the interesting older work was gutted and the fights made repetitive, because the game was already running on a skeleton crew and then they were given FF16 to work on alongside so it's all they had time to do. And it's still so forgiving and power-crept that you can ignore tankbusters and soak AoEs. What do you learn as a new player if a tankbuster marker appears for the first time and then the boss attacks your tank for not much more HP than he was already autoing for? Nothing.

Such unique mechanics as Ichorous Ire's 'literally just sit and wait for the lever cooldown because the entire fight is waiting for lever'. Just because something is unique doesn't make it interesting. Several fights that were basically non-fights are now actually fights, both because of adjusted scaling (looking at you, Aetherochemical Research Facility) and because of changed mechanics. I disagree that any fight became more 'boring' because most fights that were changed had basically no mechanics or had even worse mechanics before. I honestly actively prefer the switch from 'unique' boring mechanics to the 'consistent' boring mechanics that at least do barest minimum of teaching for new players throughout the story.

[vetch]

Such unique mechanics as Ichorous Ire's 'literally just sit and wait for the lever cooldown because the entire fight is waiting for lever'.

You think the fight was sitting and waiting for the lever because the spriggan meant to attack the bomb was so undertuned that he died in two hits and the lever is all that was left. Solve that and the fight becomes interesting. Change it to 'blorp blorp there are now small AoE markers on the floor' and it never will be.

I disagree that any fight became more 'boring' because most fights that were changed had basically no mechanics or had even worse mechanics before. I honestly actively prefer the switch from 'unique' boring mechanics to the 'consistent' boring mechanics that at least do barest minimum of teaching for new players throughout the story.

Graffias's arena is now empty, sterile, and boring instead of dangerous and claustrophobic.

Isgebind went from teaching about lingering AoE puddles to not teaching.

Livia's mech went from teaching about protecting NPCs to not existing at all. Also the pulls in Meridianum suck now.

Updated spread markers and telegraphs would have solved all the problems with old Einhander without turning him into a striking dummy that teaches nothing.

Midgarsormr went from an exciting rush of chaotic AoEs and adds that I enjoyed every time to a tedious bloated sack of HP casting fixed-pattern AoEs even more slowly than Ichorous Ire's.

Gyascutus went from teaching about exercising restraint to not kill an important add prematurely to teaching nothing.

This is not even to go into all the tiny, fun optimizations which were deleted from fights that superficially seem the same, like saving your pot during Myath in Sohm Al to Echo Drops your healer so you can ignore the green slime's silence, or having a phys ranged collect Rangda's tether from a caster in the Aery and complete the mechanic for them so that neither needs to stop attacking.

[IkaraGreydancer]

It does hurt everyone. I’ll use an argument that has been used against me plenty here when I suggest a feature. That the development time could be better used elsewhere.

They’ve invested heavily into making it a good solo experience, imagine all the other things they could’ve done for the multiplayer experience if all this wasn’t going on in the background.

At the end of the day XI started getting these crutches towards the end of its peak and so I hope they’re planning on the next FF MMO as XVII. The changes would make a lot of sense if they are planning on transferring a huge chunk of the population to their next title. As it happened with XI.

I'm not hurt in the slightest. Nor is anyone I know. Dev time could be better used elsewhere. You only say this because you dislike it which makes the point go nowhere.
They've invested into both. Yall act like the mutiplayer side has gotten nothing when this isn't the case. Not even close. Oh they retooled old dungeons most don't care about. Oh the dungeon design will lack due to this going forward. Not like most give a damn about dungeon design when speed is the only factor that matters. Don't pull wall to wall and see what happens. SE has realized this and so they've made this move.
The changes already make sense without a new game being on the horizon. Why would this be the case when devs have outright already stated they want 7.0 to be a nice starting point for new players

It's statistically impossible to make a game that appeals to everybody. Yet CBU3 has shown to continue with the pursuit of futility. Essentially the only thing they've really succeeded in doing is dumbing down this game along with FF16 to the point it requires a dozen or less functioning braincells to progress in it. You could argue that is well and fine for the offline singleplayer title FF16 except they basically forced everyone to play the game on preschooler mode just to access a somewhat normal difficulty setting on a second playthrough instead of letting us play it that way right out of the box. In terms of this game the issue is that these people progress the game and MSQ while not learning anything about how to play the game or do mechanics then jump into EX/Savage content and drag everyone else down diminishing the experience for those that did learn the game as they're just dead weight hoping to leech rewards because they want all the shiny stuff handed to them while refusing to make any effort to earn it. The frequency of this happening increased when easy mode was added to solo MSQ instances. The only reason the addition of duty support really didn't impact this is because those people were already using others to carry them through the 4 player and story mode trials before it was added. They're now taking it further and homogenizing older duties that had unique layouts or zone mechanics that made them stand out from every new duty they've added over more recent years.

Sure its impossible to make a game for everyone. But it's not impossible to make a mass appeal game. Epic Games has done this with Fornite.
Also question, who exactly cares about these old duties? Because most player I see are "gogogo let's get this done" types. In SB and ShB I didn't see even 1 person taking these unique routes in older dungeons. It was whatever gets the group to the end the fastest. You call it homogenization, I call it them responding to the way most players choose to run dungeons.
How many of these folks are just hopping into savage n ruining groups? Because I rarely hear about this. Leeches don't get to do so without the rest of the group knowing.
That's on them to not kick these people. And the retool of these duties have reworked mechanics that do a better job at teaching than before which I'd think you'd be happy about but ig not.

[Ath192]

I'm not hurt in the slightest. Nor is anyone I know. Dev time could be better used elsewhere. You only say this because you dislike it which makes the point go nowhere.
They've invested into both. Yall act like the mutiplayer side has gotten nothing when this isn't the case. Not even close. Oh they retooled old dungeons most don't care about. Oh the dungeon design will lack due to this going forward. Not like most give a damn about dungeon design when speed is the only factor that matters. Don't pull wall to wall and see what happens. SE has realized this and so they've made this move.
The changes already make sense without a new game being on the horizon. Why would this be the case when devs have outright already stated they want 7.0 to be a nice starting point for new players

This is peak



The good news is that now you know a bunch of people in the forums who feel hurt, and more than the slightest by this stuff so I guess you can't say that anymore.

Maybe your personal friends don't. But good luck on the SE defense and stuff...

[OM3GA-Z3RO]

This is peak



The good news is that now you know a bunch of people in the forums who feel hurt, and more than the slightest by this stuff so I guess you can't say that anymore.

Maybe your personal friends don't. But good luck on the SE defense and stuff...

They are those kind of people that choose to ignore the otherside and has the mentality: "If I don't acknowledge other people that don't unconditionally love this game, then the issues don't exist." because them and their circle of friends = the entire community.