JP interviews [pre-6.5]

[Arrius]

Yeah, how dare people feel good about accomplishments they sunk hours into and show the fruits of their efforts.

Absolutely none of this is about superiority. It's not about bragging that "I sunk hours into pixels on a screen and you didn't". It's "Hey I took the time to get this cool thing and I want to show you what it looks like"

It's the same with EX mounts and rare items from treasure maps and new glamours. You aren't doing it to feel superior to others, you're doing it to feel good about getting it and sharing it with others.

Nah. Some definitely will have those on day 1 so they can flex their 'success' in Limsa or through fashion screenies. Because that means you are ahead of them and let your smugness get the better of you.

[Rufalus]

They need to rethink the purpose of 'relic' weapons. It shouldn't be something that just falls on you incidentally while you are working on unrelated tasks. I also think by this point we should always be getting armor alongside it. I really like last expansion's bozja and law's order sets. Armor and accessory options in this game are actually more lacking than weapons, since extreme trials always give weapons. Dungeon armor is worthless, it's not a relevant item level to be considered.

[SannaR]

Running ARF, Shiva, Garuda ect X amount of times cause they're the quickest fight or dungeon for that step isn't an accomplishment. Not unless it's an accomplishment of showing of your will. Congratulations on not getting burned out during the grind or burnt out on the game all together soon after completing your last relic. Yes, I know some people thrive on that kind of grind. That it makes it feel fun. I do hope that 7.0's relic has more than just tomes. I don't mind some of the changes to the dungeons when it comes to boss fights when they made them do-able with duty support. I do miss some of the trash being taken out though. Even if some dungeon bosses were challenging before the change they were also the fights that made you wonder if people's minds were switched off or were just ignoring the advice you gave after the wipe. Or if the person who ran away from you rescuing them to understands why they died seconds later.

I am a little disappointed in that they either will put off the trials or think of turning them into 4 man content. Which I would rather them not do as then that just pushes it even further in how long a new player has to wait until they get to interact and learn how to do fights with more than a light party. I do hope that they figure out a way to keep them as 8 man fights that if someone wanted to could do them with npcs. I am a little sad that Island Sanctuary won't be continuing in 7.0 as it wasn't that bad and just needed a few improvements. Hopefully whatever the cozy lifestyle thing coming in 7.0 will take what they learned from Island Sanctuary and use it to give people a better experience. I guess those who insisted that we were going to be getting a 2nd Island were wrong. Part of its problem was a community problem in that we made it into a spreadsheet simulator and not deliver on things it never said it would be.

[ReynTime]

So Yoshida just completely forgot what the point of some of the content not being appealing to every single player was? Because if so it's a matter of time before he decides the completion rate for raids is too low.
Yeah I think it's time to move on from Instant Reward XIV.

[SerMicha]

The Manderville Relics have the highest completion rate of any relic so far. The more elaborate they make the relic content/grind, the fewer people make one.

Not a bad idea, Yoshi. Due to the disparity of clears between normal raids and savage raids, we will no longer be designing raids of the savage and ultimate difficulties for Final Fantasy XIV Online.
Saves me the weekly headache, I guess...

[Ivtrix]

Not a bad idea, Yoshi. Due to the disparity of clears between normal raids and savage raids, we will no longer be designing raids of the savage and ultimate difficulties for Final Fantasy XIV Online.
Saves me the weekly headache, I guess...

Honestly kinda wish I could Dr Strange it and view a future where this happens. It wouldn’t completely kill the game but roulettes would surely have more hiccups.

Biggest impact would probably be in the crafting market since several very stable items would tank, potion market would collapse literally overnight (I’ve personally never seen casual players use combat potions) and you wouldn’t see the exorbitantly high prices for crafted gear week 1 of release.

[Iscah]

I am a little sad that Island Sanctuary won't be continuing in 7.0 as it wasn't that bad and just needed a few improvements. Hopefully whatever the cozy lifestyle thing coming in 7.0 will take what they learned from Island Sanctuary and use it to give people a better experience. I guess those who insisted that we were going to be getting a 2nd Island were wrong. Part of its problem was a community problem in that we made it into a spreadsheet simulator and not deliver on things it never said it would be.

The improvements needed for the Island Sanctuary are so deep-seated that they really do need to start over to get rid of them. The unlikeable mammets who are the core of all the activities, the buildings explicitly designed to house mammets and not yourself, the lack of choice about covering your allegedly personal island with mandated facilities that take up loads of space, the emphasis on running your most profitable elements not through interacting with the island but by relying on a spreadsheet.

You can't lay the blame for "turning it into a spreadsheet simulator" on the players. The whole island channels into that spreadsheet – it's the way you convert materials into money and EXP so you can make progress, and the expectation to figure it out this excessively dense chart of supply and popularity for yourself is simply not fun.

The thing with these "side systems" is that it's not remotely the same genre as the action-RPG game we signed up to play, but things for the RPG (glamours, story interaction with characters) are locked behind this spreadsheet sim that has been dumped on us. Of course people aren't going to put the time into learning it unless this other gameplay style also appeals to them, which seems like a fairly limited number of FFXIV players.

[NekoMataMata]

The last Alliance Raid might be stronger than usual this time.

Both the scenario writer and battle team for Myths of the Realm were made up mostly of younger/newer people.

They have adjusted the rewards of Alliance Raid Roulette to be consistent with how much time you'd spend in a given instance to make up for the ilevel-cheese removal.

Good. Obviously I think we're going to see a bit of an outcry though. People will definitely complain about the last a-raid being too hard, and we'll essentially have this awkward discrepancy between the first two raids and the finale.

The a-raid roulette changes are nice, but I'm already seeing people planning to bypass it. There's FCs advertising that they have alt characters specifically meant to join their daily roulette parties to queue people into CT.

Yoshi and some development staff did feel bad at times for changing/removing mechanics for Trust support, but felt that it was important both in terms of maintainability and playability in the future as well as giving a better on-boarding process should 4 new players all match into the same dungeon.

Trust implementation and management was very hard and usually took a skilled veteran on the development team to do.

No concrete plans on making old 8-man content doable with Trusts. It's easier to do Trusts for 4-man content, so some of those fights might have to be made 4-man if it ever happened, but Yoshi feels strongly about having the final boss trials always be 8-man. No firm decisions here yet.

I know these forums hate the trust system, but if anything we needed trusts for the trials more than we needed them for the dungeons. It shouldn't have to come at the cost of converting the trial to a 4-person duty or changing mechanics though. Pretty sure the simple fact is that it can be done but they don't want to waste resources on it.

Their data says a huge number of people have engaged with Variant Dungeons in their own way.

The 6.51 Criterion dungeon will receive an increase in rewards compared to the past two. They will consider feedback on this before determining the 7.x Criterion rewards.

There will be a title for clearing all 3 Criterion dungeons from 6.x, but they are considering how else they could reward that to see if they can get it in in time.

Yeah, this isn't really enough. Crit needs more in order for the rewards from it not to be locked later on in its lifespan. There's a reason why people interact with the Variant Dungeons and a reason why you're probably not providing us with the stats on how much interaction Crit has received.

6.55's relic step will be tomes again.

Not happy, but at this point they might as well keep going. Just give us a proper relic next expans...-

hey settled on tomes due to looking at data for how many weapons were made by players in past relic content. Yoshi acknowledges though that: "However, there are some people who say that this reinforcement method is ``sloppy'', so it's difficult... Some people may dislike doing elaborate things like the old weapon enhancement content, while others may feel that the enhancement methods like this one are not enough. I think this is probably not compatible."

They settled on tomes as these days playing multiple jobs is much more common, and they think tomes being something that naturally accumulates as you play makes it best suit your individual playstyle.

The Manderville Relics have the highest completion rate of any relic so far. The more elaborate they make the relic content/grind, the fewer people make one.

There is an inherent conflict between people that "enjoy weapon enhancement as content" and people that "want a system that makes it easy to obtain weapons". Satisfying both is very hard.

They will take feedback into account for 7.x's relic series.

Not entirely sure what sort of drugs they're on to come to this conclusion. Past relics were designed to be somewhat of a grind so yes, there will be less players with past relics. The average/casual players were never intended to own every single relic, and these relics were never intended to be your regular weapon to help you gear multiple jobs.

I've seen a lot of bad faith arguments before but this is beyond that.

If you want to make gearing up easier then you have other routes. If you want to change the relics because you want to appeal to a broader audience then just say so instead of attempting to provide a poor argument using cherry-picked data.

The Fall Guys collab will be limited time, periodic content and not a permanent fixture.

Why limited? Aren't we against FOMO over here?

[SweetPete]

why is this a challenge for them? this is a problem they already solved before EW even dropped. tomestone weapons are right there, make them easier to obtain more frequently if you must- but leaving literally nothing for people who liked grinding relics isn't a solution.

I actually enjoy the tomestone weapons. I don’t like grinding much so this relic tier was perfect for me. Someone who doesn’t have time to grind for hours and hours daily especially when you play multiple jobs.

I do agree with you though about leaving people who like the grind with nothing. I hope they can find a middle ground to satisfy both sides.

[NekoMataMata]

I actually enjoy the tomestone weapons. I don’t like grinding much so this relic tier was perfect for me. Someone who doesn’t have time to grind for hours and hours daily especially when you play multiple jobs.

I do agree with you though about leaving people who like the grind with nothing. I hope they can find a middle ground to satisfy both sides.

If you don't enjoy grinding then the relics weren't made for you. I don't understand why this is so difficult for people to acknowledge. Different pieces of content has different audiences, and that's perfectly fine.

Relics had a consistent audience for 4 expansions in a row, so obviously people are going to be upset when SE decides to change the content to a system that the general population can enjoy despite it traditionally being given to one audience that enjoys grinding. This was a betrayal.

This isn't to say that more casual groups don't deserve content. This is just stating that the content that was provided to you was essentially stolen from a different audience, rather than SE creating content for both.