7.1 Preview Update - Chaotic Alliance & Custom Deliveries Reward glamour

[Jeeqbit]

I like difficult games. I do not like the kind of difficulty current Savage demands of me as a player any more, which is mostly remembering 12-15 minutes worth of "stand in position X", as I have trouble with my memory.

Well that's fine but obviously a lot of content in this game is memory-based. That's not to say you can't play it reactively sometimes despite that; depends what it is.

It is equally okay for a player to be frustrated when the only player group getting fun things to play are those that enjoy "room with boss" level content with a certain difficulty that is "remember where to stand".

Tbh, anything with more than 4 mechanics in this game is going to be like that. If we get technical, the 4 mechanics in many fights are scripted or have limited possible combinations too. As I said, it doesn't mean you can't play them reactively still but it's gonna be easier to if it's content with a limited amount of overall mechanics.

How would you regard the latest Alliance Raid's approach to this?

[ovIm]

Well that's fine but obviously a lot of content in this game is memory-based. That's not to say you can't play it reactively sometimes despite that; depends what it is.

Sure, though once Square Enix has decided that the difficulty in the game was not job gameplay anymore, but purely in the fights, things have shifted.. There are reasons PVP is more engaging to me, considering the current state of the game.

Tbh, anything with more than 4 mechanics in this game is going to be like that. If we get technical, the 4 mechanics in many fights are scripted or have limited possible combinations too. As I said, it doesn't mean you can't play them reactively still but it's gonna be easier to if it's content with a limited amount of overall mechanics.

There is of course a reason for that: the McDonaldization of the game. (there is a good read about it here)

Currently, my 2 favorite examples of mechanics I enjoy are the heart phase of M2N (getting 100% melee uptime with 2 hearts is pure endorphin for me), or the "left right" cannon attack from M4N. They are not overly complex, but require more of a short term reaction based on tells. Square also used to experiment with Rathalos Ex for a more tell-based/randomized approach. Sadly, this was never expanded upon. Square Enix has proven that it knows how to do it differently, they are actively choosing the current approach.
Again, this is fine. People enjoy it. And I am happy for them. But that is not the only thing this game should offer players imho.

How would you regard the latest Alliance Raid's approach to this?

Whats there to say, its as expected. Introduce mechanics in an isolated, safe way, then combine mechanics. Second boss was the most fun to me.

[SkankyRoe]

So once again, aiming gear looks nothing like aiming gear. As a dancer, we get such CRAP.

When they showed off the two sets in the LL I was excited because it seemed like it was gonna be split into DoW/DoM and we'd get that sleek sexy Diabolos armor for Dancer. Instead we suddenly have this hideous "demon-moth" set that wasn't shown in the LL and of course Aiming gets the ugliest of them. All my interest in this raid down the drain in an instant, I don't care about the mounts and I'm not expecting the hairstyle to wow me nearly enough to incentivize bothering with it.

[Iscah]

This game has an overabundance of "room with boss" level content with a certain difficulty that is "remember where to stand". that is okay. I think it's nice that people who enjoy that kind of content have things to play. Truly. I'm happy that they are happy.

It is equally okay for a player to be frustrated when the only player group getting fun things to play are those that enjoy "room with boss" level content with a certain difficulty that is "remember where to stand".

Ultimately, this is why it's a recommended thing to play multiple games. If you don't like the style of fights that this game centres around, there will be other games that do it differently and may give you the combat style you want. Come to FFXIV for the parts you like about it, play other things for challenge.

A car racing game doesn't need more platforming levels, a fast-paced shooter doesn't need more turn-based combat, so why is it a failing of this game to not provide other styles of battle?

[ReynTime]

Realistically, if you can clear an Extreme trial, you can clear a Floor 1 and 2 of an average Savage tier. It usually gets more rough after that, especially in PF, but the first 2 are usually trivial enough to get done casually.

In any case, there are a lot of reasons to believe it'll be casual enough:

• It's technically possible to do it with 12 (although they may not have enough damage). That means only half the players should have to do mechanics correctly.
• The announced incentives appear randomly on different data centers and all seem to be designed as if this will be a heavily PF'd fight.
• If it's not PF'able, the BA/DRS discords will probably pick it up and just do callouts - which if you've done those raids, they call them out so well and smoothly that all you have to do is exactly what they say, and it's a clear.

All content is worth a try, but realistically a lot of people won't due to anxiety or other reasons, so that's just how it is.

That's a good point.
They've said in past interviews 24-player duties are designed so that players having difficulty might get carried by the more experienced. And in all of this game's existence that has been the case.

[Iscah]

So once again, aiming gear looks nothing like aiming gear. As a dancer, we get such CRAP.

When they showed off the two sets in the LL I was excited because it seemed like it was gonna be split into DoW/DoM and we'd get that sleek sexy Diabolos armor for Dancer. Instead we suddenly have this hideous "demon-moth" set that wasn't shown in the LL and of course Aiming gets the ugliest of them.

I don't think it looks that bad for dancer? Besides the self-stabbing pauldrons anyway. It feels much more dancer-suited than the Diabolos outfit and I'm not really sure why you'd think that would be better for it.

Personally my criteria for a dancer outfit are mainly that it has long-but-open skirts that will fling around dramatically in motion, a preference for long loose pants and light shoes. They've certainly made some disappointing style divisions on that front previously (Palaka shoes, Zormor pants) but I think this top will do the dramatic twirling part nicely, although it's a bit revealing for my taste. The mage sandals would have been nice dancer shoes for my Viera though.

[ovIm]

Ultimately, this is why it's a recommended thing to play multiple games. If you don't like the style of fights that this game centres around, there will be other games that do it differently and may give you the combat style you want. Come to FFXIV for the parts you like about it, play other things for challenge.

A car racing game doesn't need more platforming levels, a fast-paced shooter doesn't need more turn-based combat, so why is it a failing of this game to not provide other styles of battle?

Counterpoint - when a game used to provide a different variety of content in the past, why is it wrong for players to ask for that kind of content again? This game used to be more than just "room with boss" stuff, and has slowly removed other avenues of content, or pushed them backwards in their content pipeline.

Lets take your analogies. Imagine Need for Speed Underground 2 - it featured (iirc) circuit (looping tracks), sprint (get from A to B), drift (slide sideways for extra points while racing), Drag (straight line acceleration race), and free roam game modes.
Now imagine NFSU3 came out, and it only featured Drag races, with the promise of other modes maybe coming a year (or longer) after release. Would you truly ask people to just play NFSU2 until said patch releases, whenever they complain about only being able to play Drag?
How much fun would Quake be where you, instead of playing CTF, King of the Hill, InstaGib, Deathmatch, TDM on a plethora of maps its only InstaGib on one singular map? Welcome back to Smash Bros Melee - "final destination no items fox only".

In terms of the chaotic raid - most people I have talked to have asked for an actual harder 24 man instance in the vein of what we got in Bozja or Eureka. Square is more than capable of doing good creative content like that, they have proven that they can. Instead, its another room with boss, because those are easy and cheap to make compared to other content.

I am sitting here wondering why people are okay with this game giving us less variety instead of more every patch, and playing apologist to a multi billion dollar corporation instead of holding them accountable. Why is it that in the forum, people are openly antagonizing players asking for different game modes that we used to have?

And lets not forget that Yoshi-P himself has figured this is an issue, to the point of actually asking people not to retire from FF14.

Been playing since 2.0, and I really don't want to retire, but if the game decides that this is the only content that we will get going forward, maybe I will.

[Valencienne]

So as for the aesthetic basis.
- Fending and Maiming are Diabolos (original Red/Black and alt Blue/White respectively)
- Casting and Healing are Succubus (original Black/Silver and alt White/Gold respectively)
- Striking, Aiming, and Scouting are... ??? (Red/Black, Black/White, and White/Green respectively)

... so what's the basis for the latter? Most creatures with wings and feathers are Cloudkin, and what few aren't are mostly Spoken or some other non-Voidsent.
It'd be passing strange for them to be so specific in creating two to just make up a third.

[Hypnotic13371337]

Cool, more helms i cant wear. Why do they even design helmets anymore? :V

[Reimmi]

Cool, more helms i cant wear. Why do they even design helmets anymore? :V

I hate to be rude but, for the other 80% of players

not that its acceptable, but there's still plenty reason to make helmets