My humble Feedback on Frontline after 3200+ matches in 1.5 years

[Mawlzy]

Frontlines definitely deserves a stronger incentive to win than just titles. More mounts and gear sets would also push at least a few people to try just a little harder, making games more fun overall.

This is a very natural assumption. One can imagine most gamers putting in more effort if it helps them obtain something they want. I wonder, however, if this applies to the subset of players in FL who are basically doing nothing at all.

For instance, if a player is "just here for the XP" (the problem players), one might hope that the current XP difference between first and third would encourage them to try and help their team win. On Shatter in particular, I often see team-mates and enemies alike running around the map on their mounts, apparently looking for a hiding spot.

I'm not sure how big this sub-population is, and suspect many of the FL allstars vastly overestimate its size, particularly since some of them assert it's everyone except them and their three friends. But if you're queueing exclusively for XP, and do nothing to help increase the XP the match awards you, I'm not sure smaller carrots are going to change the situation. Hence I prefer the stick of reducing rewards to the carrot of increasing them.

[Genz]

I think Frontline is fun, I really do, it’s all i do. But clueless rouletters and griefers are ruining it for me. personally i think this issue stem from how poorly FF14 introduces Frontline.

I fully share the sentiment.

The way PvP is introduced is horribly bad, indeed. It shouldn't be possible to queue while being completely clueless.
The minimum would be a mandatory quest, where the player has to use some skills on dummy, heal with Recuperate, etc.

The tutorial needs to be updated too, adding basic information like how many points are earned/lost per KO (I fear many new players don't know this and thus think getting KO 8 times is ok) or job damage adjustments (the current tutorial just says "go to Lodestone", they didn't even bother...)

At the start of each run, there should be a popup with a summary of basic informations : how many points per objective, how many points earned/lost per KO, jobs damage adjustments, Battle high, etc.

And maybe some opinionated advices, like "stay together, wandering alone is useless", "step back when you're getting low on MP", etc.

But there are many other problems, some can't be solved easily :
- reward too easy to get
- PvP just being too different from PvE, and many players just don't have the right mindset.
- default UI sucks
etc.

[Araxes]

Well, I think series rewards should come back, as players were under the impression they will come back initially. And so, they didn't want to feel under time pressure and complete it at a different time, that was kinda stolen from them, as they seem exclusive again?! But for Feast ranked rewards I would be against something that can be grinded.

This.

We were given to understand that the Seasonal stuff will return at some point but they haven't yet. Regarding the old Feat rewards: Yoshi P repeated himself quite a few times now that those will not come back. And in Terms of fairness: it is impossible to recreate the same circumstances players then had to go through to get those rewards without COMPLETELY reverting the PVP system to 2.X/3.X.

We had all our pve+additional pvp skills back then. Gear was also a thing so you needed a second Set of Gear for every Job to have optimal stats. They would have to bring back the old Arenas and so much more. That will just never happen.

[Mawlzy]

I fully share the sentiment.

The way PvP is introduced is horribly bad, indeed. It shouldn't be possible to queue while being completely clueless.
The minimum would be a mandatory quest, where the player has to use some skills on dummy, heal with Recuperate, etc.

The tutorial needs to be updated too, adding basic information like how many points are earned/lost per KO (I fear many new players don't know this and thus think getting KO 8 times is ok) or job damage adjustments (the current tutorial just says "go to Lodestone", they didn't even bother...)

At the start of each run, there should be a popup with a summary of basic informations : how many points per objective, how many points earned/lost per KO, jobs damage adjustments, Battle high, etc.

And maybe some opinionated advices, like "stay together, wandering alone is useless", "step back when you're getting low on MP", etc.

But there are many other problems, some can't be solved easily :
- reward too easy to get
- PvP just being too different from PvE, and many players just don't have the right mindset.
- default UI sucks
etc.

These are all great ideas.

The default UI is rarely mentioned, presumably because those of us posting here have gone though the pain of getting something useable. But I've heard it's a major speedbump for sprouts.

It'd be a huge advantage, for example, if before going into the instance, the UI could be fully displayed in the Wolves Den, along with gauges and bars, and a reminder you have 4 templates available. And maybe the PvP mavens here could even suggest what the default UI should look like?

[Commander_Justitia]

This.

We were given to understand that the Seasonal stuff will return at some point but they haven't yet. Regarding the old Feat rewards: Yoshi P repeated himself quite a few times now that those will not come back. And in Terms of fairness: it is impossible to recreate the same circumstances players then had to go through to get those rewards without COMPLETELY reverting the PVP system to 2.X/3.X.

We had all our pve+additional pvp skills back then. Gear was also a thing so you needed a second Set of Gear for every Job to have optimal stats. They would have to bring back the old Arenas and so much more. That will just never happen.

Realized a little late that it was you in that one frontline match lol.

I know it is probably the wrong game for me, but I absolutely like the idea of some items being very rare. If it is the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj world event mount of WoW or some special gear that drops from world first clears, if stuff like that would exist more frequently, then a lot more players would have something unique, so it wouldn't be really that bad but part of your characters history kinda.

[IvoryBadge]

But for Feast ranked rewards I would be against something that can be grinded.

While I understand that Feast rewards are special in their own way. It is still unfair for newer players to not get a chance to obtain such prestigious rewards from a Mode that is no longer ingame. Not advocating for rewards to be grinded while on auto pilot mode. It’s better that the rewards require skill, experience and consistency to get or in other words the hardest to get.

I also agree with Elfidan on making a Replica instead while giving the og ones some sort of a sign to differentiate.

[IvoryBadge]

I would like to hear more of this new currency you're proposing. I don't think it's needed. However, I would like to hear more about it anyways. What are your ideas regarding this?

There are multiple ways to go for designing how the currency work. And personally i think something like the Bozjan coins system would work well as means to give motive playing PvP.

Let’s say for example, HW af and the CT gear sets from WDP are earned by bronze medal (the currency you get from kills). In a higher rank there’s the Model and some wolf mark vendor rewards that require exchanging X amount of bronze medals for silver medals and so on. Of course Feast are in the top (Platinum?) followed by series rewards (Gold?).

The ideas may vary but the purpose of it is to make people treat Frontline more seriously, encouraging them to learn the mode, achieve prestigious rewards that are worth flexing just like raids, deep dungeons, crafting etc… and hopefully make more people enjoy the mode that we, a minority find charm in.

[Mawlzy]

There are multiple ways to go for designing how the currency work. And personally i think something like the Bozjan coins system would work well as means to give motive playing PvP.

Let’s say for example, HW af and the CT gear sets from WDP are earned by bronze medal (the currency you get from kills). In a higher rank there’s the Model and some wolf mark vendor rewards that require exchanging X amount of bronze medals for silver medals and so on. Of course Feast are in the top (Platinum?) followed by series rewards (Gold?).

The ideas may vary but the purpose of it is to make people treat Frontline more seriously, encouraging them to learn the mode, achieve prestigious rewards that are worth flexing just like raids, deep dungeons, crafting etc… and hopefully make more people enjoy the mode that we, a minority find charm in.

I applaud any attempts to drive engagement (and, more importantly, competence in FL), but this still feels very strange to me.

You're suggesting expanding the current bribery system that ensures FL queues pop. That may encourage people to take the mode more seriously, but typically in the resentful way that any grind tends to produce. I fear a further dilution of the competence of the player base through this approach.

I'd suggest if you want people to take the mode more seriously, then improve the mode. That includes refreshing the meta on a regular basis, as opposed to the SQEX approach of letting it first go stale, then rot.

[Araxes]

Realized a little late that it was you in that one frontline match lol.

I know it is probably the wrong game for me, but I absolutely like the idea of some items being very rare. If it is the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj world event mount of WoW or some special gear that drops from world first clears, if stuff like that would exist more frequently, then a lot more players would have something unique, so it wouldn't be really that bad but part of your characters history kinda.

I recently Went back to Play WoW. (I started WoW before FFXIV was even a thing and always played it on the side after i started FFXIV in 2015 except for Shadowlands)

They turned around things quite a bit since the Catastrophe that was Shadowlands and you know what? They have Seasonal cosmetic Sets for Rated PvP, for EVERY Class EVERY bigger Patch. I went as a Discipline Priest (Healer) and achieved the rating to get the seasonal Elite Set. It was so nice having something to work Towards in PvP that is not readily available to everyone.

FFXIV's current Rated rewards are literally the Same EVERY TIME. If you get to Crystal/Top 100 once, there is literally no incentive to do it again.