A Disabled Raider's Review of Patch 7.0 Duty Design

[Aurelle_Deresnels]

I've read up to your Memory section currently which is something I can relate to as my short term memory is pretty bad. A lot of the Dawntrail memory mechanics, the latest Alliance Raid with it's final bosses Side/Up/Down memory based cleaves constantly throw me off because I cannot keep remember them well at all. This was made particularly bad with the Cloned cleaves later on in the fight.

I'm glad you find it relatable! My working memory is fine, but it's the principle of the thing - I want the game to be accessible in general, not just for me personally. That's why I hauled out up-to-date research on general human working memory for that section, rather than just going off of my own experience.

We didn't sign up for a memory game, and presumably you wouldn't sign up for a game that advertised itself as a memory game.

That's one example of a mechanic but I also want to talk about the latest Dungeon and how I have struggled with a single mechanic due to my Dyspraxia. Dyspraxia you might know is a condition that can cause signals from the brain to become disrupted, this makes fine movement quite tricky! I find every mechanic in the dungeon bearable minus the Redirection mechanic where you have to traverse through the safe paths.

I haven't done the new dungeon, but I have heard of dyspraxia! Chat away, I don't mind spoilers at this point. (My opinion of the 7.0 MSQ could be a whole other post, though not quite this long.)

Now combine that with the direction the game has gone? I'm also someone who would sometimes frequent Savages and I really enjoyed doing Extremes with the FC! But the added emphasis on reaction time, finer movement and memory based mechanics has made Dawntrail quite an unpleasant experience. My gameplay experience is being hampered by things out of my control and I'm happy to learn and get better but it only takes a mechanic or two per duty to completely wall a fight for me.

Yeah, I get that. It really only takes one mechanic that you can't improve at to ruin the experience and your motivation. What else can you do at that point?

If you've enjoyed Extremes and Savages without unsyncing them, clearly you are willing to learn mechanics and put some effort in to learn. You probably enjoy the learning process, not just the clear! "Fight, win, evolve" works great so long as you can get better at and eventually do all the mechanics in a fight, and terribly otherwise.

Learning is fun, getting stuck due to something you can't change isn't, and SE's design direction has been moving towards pushing on the latter rather than the former.

[Aurelle_Deresnels]

Oh, and for everyone who has been waiting patiently: I have all the posts up now, including the redesigns of M2N and M2S. I hope you enjoy the stinging surprises in my version of Honey B. Lovely!

[Toutatis]

And specifically, SE has moved towards pushing on physical characteristics over improvable skills.

I think this sums it up pretty well. For me it’s the over the top visual effects and play with heights and void spaces (yes acrophobia’s symptoms can be triggered by virtual heights and I never play platformers for that reason). For example, I cannot do the Sphene ex trial: it gives me vertigo and makes me feel very dizzy and unwell. They could have done the same thing with the X shape form and other platforms with an electrified field (or anything that kills you) around it instead of void spaces and it would have been a non issue. The lack of visual clarity in several fights is also annoying. These are new elements that are being introduced in the game and it’s very annoying as it has nothing to do with skill and understanding the mechanics.

[ExiaKuromonji]

Reading this entire post is way harder than finishing TOP. I have a pretty bad issue with being the slowest reader on the planet. So I was skipping to your overall boss impressions. But I couldn't help but notice the almost 30 paragraphs about a mechanic I never even considered remotely difficult (Great Labyrinth). I find it hard to believe that any dungeon mechanic in this game is that hard you needed to write all this.

That being said. From the boss mechanics breakdowns I did read you did pretty well at breaking everything down. But the further I got the more irritated you came off at some of the simplest stuff. You compared Alarum Pheromones with Grand Octet and now I can't take the rest of this thesis seriously...

[Toutatis]

I find it hard to believe that any dungeon mechanic in this game is that hard you needed to write all this.

Obvious you didn't understand a word from it, you just wanted to post regarding the length of it and use it as an opportunity to show gratuitous disdain. It's not about mechanics being hard. It's about mechanics not relying on skill and understanding them but on physical characteristics.

[ExiaKuromonji]

Obvious you didn't understand a word from it, you just wanted to post regarding the length of it and use it as an opportunity to show gratuitous disdain.

No. It just plain is ridiculous to write 30 paragraphs on a mechanic that isn't hard or punishing. You can dismiss it all you want. This is an insane write up of something so minor.

His post was so long he had to put it in 9 separate posts. And "for the convenience of Japanese speakers" he put the Japanese version of his post in the English forum section.

It's not about mechanics being hard. It's about mechanics not relying on skill and understanding them but on physical characteristics.

Sorry chief but...

Windwhistle

I do not love having to keep an eye on the resulting Whirlwind for so long as it pulses the snowflake of line AOEs. I find it doable, but it is definitely a visual stress since its movements are not cleanly predictable.

If you find it hard to keep an eye on a tornado moving around this is just a skill issue. And I can't take it seriously from someone who can raid and perform well in savage.

The mechanic isn't hard to follow in the slightest.

[ExiaKuromonji]

For what it's worth he cooked with the input on the 3rd trial's second phase. Wuk Lamat ruined that for so many people

[Jaxtaro]

No. It just plain is ridiculous to write 30 paragraphs on a mechanic that isn't hard or punishing. You can dismiss it all you want. This is an insane write up of something so minor.

His post was so long he had to put it in 9 separate posts. And "for the convenience of Japanese speakers" he put the Japanese version of his post in the English forum section.



Sorry chief but...



If you find it hard to keep an eye on a tornado moving around this is just a skill issue. And I can't take it seriously from someone who can raid and perform well in savage.

The mechanic isn't hard to follow in the slightest.

I find writing 3 posts consisting of 6 paragraphs devoted to being snidely dismissive that someone is being comprehensive to be a whole lot more bizarre and scorn worthy than a disabled person being thorough in their analysis.

[Valence]

"Because I have no problems with certain things, then people having problems with those things must be of bad faith, disingenuous, or not even trying."

[ExiaKuromonji]

I find writing 3 posts consisting of 6 paragraphs devoted to being snidely dismissive that someone is being comprehensive to be a whole lot more bizarre and scorn worthy than a disabled person being thorough in their analysis.

Where's the 3 posts an 6 paragraphs? Cause one of those was actually a positive comment.