7.0 MMO to a Single Player Game

[Zarkovitch]

ez method, save enough gils then play the lauch of 7.0 afterward quit and wait for 7.55 then play. Congrats you save hundreds USD of dollars. The best part you can use the free login to catch it up content for story, just play tank or healer to make it faster. EZ GAME

[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...

[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.

[IkaraGreydancer]

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...

SE defense? Why is it that anytime someone else expresses they see what SE may be doing its called knighting or defending? You give the same company money so you look just as dumb as youre trying to make me look. Difference is you give them money while disliking whats going on which arguably makes you look worse. People DO in fact opt for the quickest option in this content. No reason for them to design intricate things because of this very fact.
People "hurt" by this aren't any more or less valid than myself.

I mean, they've been systematically ruining and stupidifying job design for two going on three expansions now. I'd say that affects everyone, since we all have to play these jobs in all content.

Opinions are nice. To you they've been ruining things. To others they have not. No real right of wrong there. I have an issue with healers and healers only. Rest of the jobs are fine imo.

[Ath192]

No reason for them to design intricate things because of this very fact.

This is all we need to know about your arguments here. You don't really want good games.

[IkaraGreydancer]

This is all we need to know about your arguments here. You don't really want good games.

And with this you've showed me you aren't just ignorant. You're far more than that.
Cherry pick all you want but the FACT is most players want speed. This is seen everyday. And I personally wouldnt spend time making super intricate dungeons if I were a dev if I know most will skip most of it for the optimal route. It's called working smarter and adjusting to the playerbase. But yeah, I don't want good games...Jesus christ the logic of some of you people is wild asf.

[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.

[fulminating]

Nothing in the new castrum meridanium has felt as satisfying as when the party brain cell aligned and pulled off the triple stun on that robot it took cid ages to reach. Mmos rewarding a modicum of teamwork. Who would have thunk it.

[sagacious]

I dislike the idea of taking an MMO and catering to the single player community. If you wanted a single player FF, then don't make an MMO. A lot of people play 14 because it is an MMO with a Final Fantasy skin.

I don't like being gated in anyway so providing a way for me to pass gates is very good game play style. They won't single out the game and you can play with family and friends. Don't overreact ....

[Jojoya]

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.

It might also be that they've decided that they want to leave FF as a single player franchise going forward and so they're trying to get current players used to a single player experience.

Let's face it: MMOs come with a set of problems that single player games don't face, with one of the big ones being the interactions within the player community and the frequent requests for changes to content style "because other MMOs do it this way". There's greater pressure to appeal to a wider audience to keep a steady stream of players online for the sake of the multi-player experience even if other players are sometimes just seen as background noise while someone plays alone. They may have decided internally it's just not worth it anymore.

Personally, I'm not certain how I feel about the announced plans for the game. It's their IP and their right to make the creative decisions they want for the game but I'm taking a wait and see approach. As long as I continue to have fun playing, I'll be here. If too much of the social aspect ends up feeling lost in the middle of the solo focus, I may not stick around. I've never played other FF games so I'm not carrying any emotional baggage that chains me to the game just because it's a FF title.