Response to Yoshi P: you can fix it.. but

[BabyYoda]

It will require more work.. it is more work than DT and EW content combined and you can compare it to 1.0, damage is done and it is good that you accept it, but it is not enough.

Ignoring the complains for years it will backlash you at some point and we are in it.. story was great before DT but here is the truth, DT shows that story can't save you and you have to work more to give people reasons to believe in you, damage is done but it is repairable.. but it require care to the community and people who still believe in you and your team, here is my feedback on what should be done to fix what you have been ignoring for years:

FFXIV suffers, there is no reason to sick in, most people who ignores a game for more than a 3 months will less likely to return back, unless there is an expansion so what to improve to make people stick in a game for fun reasons?

- Gameplay / Netcode:
server structure is holding the game potential for years and it is debt from 1.0 that you didn't pay for it yet, there is a clear latency and request response is less than other online games, even indie games fix their issues and that put a lot of pressure on devs to create a unique experience.

- Progression / Open world:
there is close to nothing to progress in open world/maps in this game, most other online open world games have 3 to 9 systems to progress in the world, it feels alive when there is lots of things to do in open world and then you can integrate the story with open world content and please don't mention fates they are just as horrible as other systems.
things I like is how aether-current grind is enjoyable but again it is creating a problem to give solution and it is 1 time and done never comeback.

- Gameplay / Jobs:
Jobs are one dimensional and the fact that we call non-crit stat as a stat is pathetic, there is no reason to care for a system that have no impact in the game, everything feels like it is calculated with a calculator and gives no room to WoL choices and that's a bad a horrible system.

here is a simple ideas to improve job system,
*Skills will be replaced based on stats: gameplay will change based on stats you have.
*Balance encounter instead of balancing jobs: this will give more room to play unique jobs instead of caring too much of how X job damage.
*Rework jobs that do not perform well and Jobs that do more than other jobs, make a clear guidelines when it comes to designing a jobs.
*Skills should have a higher impact and should feels rewarding, not with animations but on gameplay aspect.

- Story: focus on one theme:
the issue with dawntrail story is that it is focusing in lots of things without a care on player experience, SE isn't an indie company.. they released most successful story in games but I feel like it is just a bad decision by Mr. Yoshi P, focus on one theme get it perfect ask yourself this: do FFXIV players want this theme? will they like to be dragged down with wuk lamat in her journey? why we need WoL in her story? what they can add?


- Replayability: Content generating machine:
criterion dungeon is a perfect example of how you ruin a content in a worst possible way, also other old content there is no reason to play it, and if there a reason it will be one time done, replayability is 0 and even current content is still close to 0.
there should be a system that reward players who do play old content and the reward is most important thing that you do not fix yet.


it is just a multiple bad decisions by Mr. Yoshi P and I believe he is not giving FFXIV another chance to shine after ShB.. I think there is a lesson to be learned and there is a chance to change but if think that saying "Please do not retire" will fix it, you are just out of your mind, this cow will not milk forever, if you think people can't leave FFXIV because they attach themselves on the game you are wrong..

WoW exodus: there are players who play WoW for more than 20 years and drop it, do you think FFXIV players can't do it after playing for 10 years?



End.

[Jeeqbit]

- Gameplay / Netcode:
server structure is holding the game potential for years and it is debt from 1.0 that you didn't pay for it yet, there is a clear latency and request response is less than other online games, even indie games fix their issues and that put a lot of pressure on devs to create a unique experience.

Server structure is holding them back, yes, but that's a 2.0 decision, not a 1.0 decision. They've proven they can solve this too because they ran the Cloud Test DC.

Can't really comment on netcode because my ping is high. I've been more concerned with the animation delays personally.

WoW exodus: there are players who play WoW for more than 20 years and drop it, do you think FFXIV players can't do it after playing for 10 years?

I got a feeling a lot of them still went back after "quitting".

[lolnotacat]

I've been more concerned with the animation delays personally.

The worst part of this is mods have fixed it for years but XIV team refuses to address it. But considering they're finally adding chat bubbles (another thing that has been fixed with mods for years), I shouldn't be surprised I suppose.

[MisterNublet]

I got a feeling a lot of them still went back after "quitting".

Understandable. Player feedback is being heard and they've put out two good expansions back to back because of it.

I haven't played WoW since Cataclysm, but even I'm feeling like taking the plunge back into WoW to get away from YawnTrail and the trash combat system we've had for the last 5 years.

The worst part of this is mods have fixed it for years but XIV team refuses to address it. But considering they're finally adding chat bubbles (another thing that has been fixed with mods for years), I shouldn't be surprised I suppose.

Because it isn't an issue in Japan so it is not a priority to fix.

[Larirawiel]

It will require more work.. it is more work than DT and EW content combined and you can compare it to 1.0, damage is done and it is good that you accept it, but it is not enough.

Nahhh, i don't think so.

- Gameplay / Netcode:

Overall the netcode of FF14 is good. Yes, there are some delays. But you will never get rid of them because the physics says "no". And i know only one game, which has better netcode and it is WoW. And i played a lot of MMORPGs. If you want to see bad netcode then play Swtor or ESO.

- Progression / Open world:

Yes, i agree. There is a lot room for improvement.

- Gameplay / Jobs:
Jobs are one dimensional

The jobs are so dull and one dimensional because the players implicitly asked for it.

- Story: focus on one theme:

Seriously, it is very hard to predict, whether the players will like a story or not. In DT, they tried something new and they failed.

- Replayability: Content generating machine:

FF14 does a better job when it comes to reuse older content than many other games. That's a problem, which every MMORPG faces. And i do not know a good solution how to solve it.



Cheers

[Elkanah]

Seriously, it is very hard to predict, whether the players will like a story or not. In DT, they tried something new and they failed.

No--they told us it was a VACATION and has been anything BUT a vacation. It's just more work we have to do (and babysit at the same time). The Golden city was not anything at all worth mentioning because of how poor the direction of it was--and another world we have to either save or destroy because it wants to mess with the source. Japanese don't have a clue on what the word vacation is because they don't go on vacation. They work themselves to death and wonder where their lives went wrong since they turned 18 and could work for the first time.

[Gember]

No--they told us it was a VACATION and has been anything BUT a vacation. It's just more work we have to do (and babysit at the same time). The Golden city was not anything at all worth mentioning because of how poor the direction of it was--and another world we have to either save or destroy because it wants to mess with the source. Japanese don't have a clue on what the word vacation is because they don't go on vacation. They work themselves to death and wonder where their lives went wrong since they turned 18 and could work for the first time.

I believe at this current point of time, the "vacation" meant that we are not the main character of Dawntrail. Wuk Lamat is, and lore community is theorizing that she is apart of Azem's legacy, and we helped her with that legacy because we carry it too. I don't think advertising: "Hey guys, you aren't the main character in Dawntrail." would be a good tactic to get people to buy your expansion. Its just a theory, and yes... I know a lot of people won't be happy reading this. I am just giving out the deets since I tend to listen to the lore nerds.

[KurenXIV]

Seriously, it is very hard to predict, whether the players will like a story or not. In DT, they tried something new and they failed.

I wouldn't even say it was new. They tried to use elements from previous expansions which worked but failed to execute that at every level.

Largely this is because they tried to fit so much into what is really a "new start".

Doing something new would have been to not have a big baddie and instead have focused on building this new world, its people and the struggles they go through. Make it like ARR in terms of building the world through city states and its rulers and politics.

Even if it'd be like ARR I would have much rather us made a name for ourselves in this new world similar to how we did in ARR vs what we got.

There were so many ways they could have executed kicking off the next leg of our adventure and they just took the worst possible route and executed it in the worst possible way.

[Larirawiel]

No--they told us it was a VACATION and has been anything BUT a vacation. It's just more work we have to do (and babysit at the same time). The Golden city was not anything at all worth mentioning because of how poor the direction of it was--and another world we have to either save or destroy because it wants to mess with the source. Japanese don't have a clue on what the word vacation is because they don't go on vacation. They work themselves to death and wonder where their lives went wrong since they turned 18 and could work for the first time.

Maybe they meant with "vacation" vacation from Zodiark, Hydaelyn & Co. I don't know. Ans seriously, if it was a vacation addon then it would be boring anyway. Because vacations are boring.

I wouldn't even say it was new. They tried to use elements from previous expansions which worked but failed to execute that at every level.

Largely this is because they tried to fit so much into what is really a "new start".

Doing something new would have been to not have a big baddie and instead have focused on building this new world, its people and the struggles they go through. Make it like ARR in terms of building the world through city states and its rulers and politics.

Even if it'd be like ARR I would have much rather us made a name for ourselves in this new world similar to how we did in ARR vs what we got.

There were so many ways they could have executed kicking off the next leg of our adventure and they just took the worst possible route and executed it in the worst possible way.

Babysitting Wuk Lamat is pretty new in an expansion, IMHO. And they went away from Ascians, Garleans etc. So there are many new aspects, IMHO. But not in a positive way.


Cheers

[Raven2014]

Seriously, it is very hard to predict, whether the players will like a story or not. In DT, they tried something new and they failed.

Not really?

Quality of the MSQ has always been consistently good in FF14. Even SB was only bad because it's considered to be worse in relative to other expansion, rather than because it was objectively bad. So if your players have been consistently praising you for one thing, I don't think the "it's hard to predict" argument really fly here. The problem stem from a quality of the staffs problems, not because they're trying something news:

- They moved their top writer Ishakawa to other project, and handed the writing to a team that's much less talent.

- They moved Koji-Fox, who has been handling the English localization with a spotless record for 10 years and handed the task to someone who are far less competent and professional ... and it shows.

- Instead of keep hiring top talent - theatrical trained professional British VA, they opt for cheaper and much less professional American VAs ... and it shows.

- In EW, instead of giving us a full zone for relic, we got a a simple "just grind for tome" in the last relic.



And of course, the "copo" reason for all of these are: oh we're just trying something new, oh we're doing this to improve presentation, oh we thought players didn't like long and complex grind for relic so we made it easier. But do you see one common thread among all of these "we did it in the best interest of players"? Conveniently, each and every of those actions will result in saving them money and lower cost? So yeah, I don't buy it. This is like believing youtube's new "pause experience" is genuinely an attempt to improve user's experience, and not "we're just trying to jam as much ads down your throat as we can because it makes us more money".

So no, this is simply just them trying to cut cost and hope you will see it as them trying something new.