Melbourne International games week Interview about content

[Jeeqbit]

And there is the crux of the issue

If you can’t figure out the “damage to up by 80%” with zero downsides then you should not be catered to

If they are wanting to change direction this is something for them to consider. Opening up a gap where players are disadvantaged if they don't read/understand so there is more sophistication for players to customize their playstyle, and more mystique overall.

They have been willing to go backwards with the dungeon design to where they don't explain the dungeon mechanics as clearly as, say, they did in Thaleia where you had those giant arrows saying where to go, and what to do, which was poorly received. Changing the rest of the game to not handhold as much would be a rather big step. It's hard to see it happening, but there have been statements (like the one at PAX) about changing things lately so we can hope.

[genuine_stranger]

In my opinion, DR and by extension Zadnor required too much involvement from the player.

I might be misremembering things, since I only spent the minimum amount of time in those instances, so correct me if I'm wrong.

We had the lost actions, essences, equipment, and the three buffs which could be upgraded to level 10.
A lot of people, me included, just didn't bother with those.
Why should I if I can participate in those duties anyway?
It made the experience miserable.

A better way would have been to give the player gear from the get-go that had to be worn to enter the zones and would gradually get stronger the longer you played.

- Finished 30 fates? Here you go, a 5% damage boost on one of your pieces.
- Killed 200 mobs? 5% more HP.
- Cleared DR? Congratulations, one of your gear pieces gets upgraded to +1/+2/...

The use of essences could have also been incentivized by giving players more and better rewards if they passed a damage threshold.

I think this would have been a somewhat better approach to Field Operations and would have mitigated the disparity between parties who used essences and those who didn't over time simply by playing said content.

[ovIm]

snip

The field operations are not as complicated as they seem at first - it may seem like it, but it is far from requiring "too much involvement" from players. They sit on top of what you should be doing already.

The three buffs you mentioned, for example, were only introduced at the end of the contents lifecycle, to give players an incentive to push even further beyond. Until you reach max level in there, they should be completely irrelevant to the player, really, and by the time they do reach max level, it all should click into place.

The lost actions you can carry with you are like an extra inventory of items, skills and buffs you can use to give yourself an edge - you get those by just playing the content and getting drops from the fates in there. And while it seems at first like there are way too many, you only unlock them bit by bit so whenever you feel like taking a break from the combat content, you can withdraw and check your loot bag for what kinda goodies you have received.

imho the devs should incentivize player growth and curiosity, not just hand out things that work in the background to be set and forgotten.

[Supersnow845]

In my opinion, DR and by extension Zadnor required too much involvement from the player.

I might be misremembering things, since I only spent the minimum amount of time in those instances, so correct me if I'm wrong.

We had the lost actions, essences, equipment, and the three buffs which could be upgraded to level 10.
A lot of people, me included, just didn't bother with those.
Why should I if I can participate in those duties anyway?
It made the experience miserable.

A better way would have been to give the player gear from the get-go that had to be worn to enter the zones and would gradually get stronger the longer you played.

- Finished 30 fates? Here you go, a 5% damage boost on one of your pieces.
- Killed 200 mobs? 5% more HP.
- Cleared DR? Congratulations, one of your gear pieces gets upgraded to +1/+2/...

The use of essences could have also been incentivized by giving players more and better rewards if they passed a damage threshold.

I think this would have been a somewhat better approach to Field Operations and would have mitigated the disparity between parties who used essences and those who didn't over time simply by playing said content.

I’m confused because that’s basically exactly how rays work. You earned Valor by doing near anything and you could turn in valors for health, damage or DPS up, 10/10/10 is 30% damage, 50% defence 100% healing. That’s nothing to scoff at

Then the armour could be upgraded from CLL then upgraded again with DRS

Bozja basically had what you want

[Valence]

And there is the crux of the issue

If you can’t figure out the “damage to up by 80%” with zero downsides then you should not be catered to

This is why the modern jobs are pure trash

I don't disagree but the real reason was twofold:
1) Actions were a pain to get for a lot of the ones that were actually worthy, and some didn't really come by actually doing what made you progress through the areas but by going all your way out of the road to look for them and farm them on purpose. Some had just abyssmal drop rates or were gated behind some awkward sources.
2) The UI was absolutely terrible. And changing them or leaving instance would remove all the ones you had as a buff, which didn't exactly encourage people to use the most valuable ones.

All of this was a little better in Bozja than Eureka, but still awful overall.

[Reinha]

"Do not retire"

This means the subscription numbers are dwindling. That's good, maybe then it will mean more effort into keeping the players.

If the devs actually waited until a noticeable unsub wave to react to feedback, they are already too late. Some of us are never coming back. Especially not after giving up hard-to-get housing. MMO veterans stay because of an emotional attachment to the game and the trust they have in developers and when those are severed, they are gone.

The time to listen to complaints is when players still care enough to pay for the game.

[CNitsah]

I'm glad they AT LAST talked about the elephant in the room, which is to me the biggest FFXIV problem, but with the all the bad choices of the last 3 years, I'm not gonna rejoice until I see the end result. Trust is not there anymore, and they can still fail the progression of that content. There is a big difference between a long running content with steps where you can see yourself progress and keep you engaged with rewards (those reward can be things like the bozja/zadnor medals) to those steps and a "farm 2500 - 3000 FATES to get one mount". I hope for the best and fear the worst.

[Naomi_Sinclaire]

This feels like too little, too late.

[Mortex]

I’m actually curious how long do you guys think this patch will be interesting content wise. Ultimate will only be interesting for a handful of people. Unreal will be a 1/2 times done per week kind of content. Alliance raid if to easy will be a short time enjoyment ride without fun after around doing it 2-3 times (also once per week for loot only). I would argue chaotic alliance raid depending on the reward (and if you need bis ilvl too just get in) and the difficulty of gathering 23 other people without a separate discord server so the casuals player base can even get in too learn the mechanics. New trial is gonna be a max 1-2 day effort. And story I will argue won’t catch or recatch a lot of people after the shitshow that was base DT story and if Wuk is in it a decent number of people won’t be in the mood for a “recatch”

[Daralii]

I’m actually curious how long do you guys think this patch will be interesting content wise. Ultimate will only be interesting for a handful of people. Unreal will be a 1/2 times done per week kind of content. Alliance raid if to easy will be a short time enjoyment ride without fun after around doing it 2-3 times (also once per week for loot only). I would argue chaotic alliance raid depending on the reward (and if you need bis ilvl too just get in) and the difficulty of gathering 23 other people without a separate discord server so the casuals player base can even get in too learn the mechanics. New trial is gonna be a max 1-2 day effort. And story I will argue won’t catch or recatch a lot of people after the shitshow that was base DT story and if Wuk is in it a decent number of people won’t be in the mood for a “recatch”

I don't think Boss on Platform(Savage but New Name) will be terribly enticing to anyone for more than a couple clears, especially if the rewards are similar to Ultimate or Unreal.