Yuweyawata Field Station is so wrong

[Mawlzy]

This is correct, but buying a game, or any game, doesnt entitle you to also win at that game, you pay to own and play it, if you are unable to finish it, that is on you.

Why should the game be made so mindnumbingly easy that you should still succeed while doing everything wrong?
Every time i see someone complaining about the difficulty of the game, they are doing everything wrong to begin with, bad UI, bad Hud, clicking their skills, generally not dodging any mechanics unless there is a big circle under them. In general not giving a damn about their performance.

Here is what FFXIV SHOULD do, just a few examples.

- reduce the button bloat on all jobs (max 15-20 hotkeys instead of 30)
- consolidate combos to one button (optional settings, and/or custimization for combos like some plugins have it)
- add a dps meter for everyone, so you can see how you perform. (nobody knows how bad they are if they can't compare to other players)
- add more newbie Arena tutorials that teach all mechanics and different types of markers. *mandatory to progress MSQ.

I'm fine with all your suggestions. I think all would help players better learn their jobs and game mechanics. But the assertion made by some in this thread is that struggling players willfully refuse to learn their jobs and the game mechanics. While I don't believe this, your suggestions would do nothing to address this hypothetical population. Further, many struggling players care deeply about their performance and are painfully aware that in higher level MSQ dungeons it falls short of the median.

Your assumption that all weak players are weak because they don't try hard enough is simply wrong.

As to "winning" the game, that is a concept that simply doesn't apply to MMOs. Combat constitutes a tiny fraction of the overall available content. For many, that combat is very far from "mindnumbingly easy." You might as well claim the only way to win the game is to follow Cider Spider and get all available achievements.

[Arohk]

Combat constitutes a tiny fraction of the overall available content.

wrong, the MSQ is the tiny fraction of the content, Fighting Bosses is the majority of what the game has to offer, yes there are non-combat activities like crafting or housing, but combat is the main content that is repeatable, or is the entire goal to just beat the Story and then not play anymore until one new quest comes along? there are better or cheaper alternatives than waiting months for a tiny drop of new story that is done in half an hour(if you dont skip the dialogue).

Your assumption that all weak players are weak because they don't try hard enough is simply wrong.

I am not saying they aren't trying, i am saying the game does a terrible job at teaching how to play. And is also very inaccesible due to the overbloated amount of skills.
Those who don't even care to improve are the worst anyway.

Hence it even took me a whole lot of effort back in Shadowbringes(thast when i started the game) to learn how to play properly, only once i started to do Savage Eden i actually had to do it, because i never had to engage with the nuances and optimizations before that point, i really thought i am not that terrible at the game but i had no idea how shit i was.

[Mawlzy]

wrong, the MSQ is the tiny fraction of the content, Fighting Bosses is the majority of what the game has to offer, yes there are non-combat activities like crafting or housing, but combat is the main content that is repeatable, or is the entire goal to just beat the Story and then not play anymore until one new quest comes along? there are better or cheaper alternatives than waiting months for a tiny drop of new story that is done in half an hour(if you dont skip the dialogue).



I am not saying they aren't trying, i am saying the game does a terrible job at teaching how to play. And is also very inaccesible due to the overbloated amount of skills.
Those who don't even care to improve are the worst anyway.

Hence it even took me a whole lot of effort back in Shadowbringes(thast when i started the game) to learn how to play properly, only once i started to do Savage Eden i actually had to do it, because i never had to engage with the nuances and optimizations before that point, i really thought i am not that terrible at the game but i had no idea how shit i was.

Again, this simply isn't true. Most of NA/EU engage in no combat beyond normal and run most MSQ dungeons precisely once.

I mostly play PvP. As such, my time engaged in dungeons/trials is no more than 2% of my total engagement with the game. This is common.

I spend more time playing triple triad than in dungeons/trials, and I'm not that fond of triple triad.

[Arohk]

Again, this simply isn't true. Most of NA/EU engage in no combat beyond normal and run most MSQ dungeons precisely once.

i would like to see some hard data for that claim.

[Mawlzy]

i would like to see some hard data for that claim.

NA clear rate for savage on cycle is less than 25%? Thought that was generally accepted and similar in EU.

I'll solo EX unsynched occasionally if I want a mount.

Those numbers might increase if PvE in 14 was actually interesting, but unfortunately it's formulaic slop.

[Arohk]

NA clear rate for savage on cycle is less than 25%? Thought that was generally accepted and similar in EU.

that is quite a lot considering the difficulty, and "clearing" is not equal to participating, even if you only clear the first two bosses, it takes a lot of time commitment to actually finish the entire tier.

Soloing old EX fights isnt even a challenge for the most part, dont know why you bring that up. I farm all the mounts when it is the current content, (or 99 totems in most cases),
i killed Chaotic Cloud 84 times to get both mounts, did you even kill it once?

I think you are talking about content you don't really know much about.

The MSQ is about 300 hours of playtime now , if you dont skip the cutscenes, that is about 5% of my total playtime.

[Mawlzy]

that is quite a lot considering the difficulty, and "clearing" is not equal to participating, even if you only clear the first two bosses, it takes a lot of time commitment to actually finish the entire tier.

Soloing old EX fights isnt even a challenge for the most part, dont know why you bring that up. I farm all the mounts when it is the current content, (or 99 totems in most cases),
i killed Chaotic Cloud 84 times to get both mounts.

I think you are talking about content you don't really know much about.

I was pointing out the only time I engage with EX is unsynched. So you're right, on cycle I have no experience of EX, and certainly don't have the interest or ability to attempt savage.

Progging just sounds like a boring, repetitive job and I'm happily retired.

Clearing CC 84 times sounds like a self-inflicted nightmare, but if you enjoy it, that's great.

[Mawlzy]

that is quite a lot considering the difficulty, and "clearing" is not equal to participating, even if you only clear the first two bosses, it takes a lot of time commitment to actually finish the entire tier.

Soloing old EX fights isnt even a challenge for the most part, dont know why you bring that up. I farm all the mounts when it is the current content, (or 99 totems in most cases),
i killed Chaotic Cloud 84 times to get both mounts, did you even kill it once?

I think you are talking about content you don't really know much about.

The MSQ is about 300 hours of playtime now , if you dont skip the cutscenes, that is about 5% of my total playtime.

Right, and MSW dungeons and trials are what? 10% of that? Call it 20%, that's 60 hours of MSQ required PvE.

In the last three years I've put in around 2500 hours of PvP. Maybe another 1500 on side quests, FATEs, Gold Saucer, hunts, Bozja/Eureka...

60/4000 = 0.015. 1.5% of my time was spent in required MSQ PvE and I basically do zero optional dungeons/trials/raids.

PvE is not the focus of FFXIV. At least how I play it.

[Yeonhee]

I'm fine with all your suggestions. I think all would help players better learn their jobs and game mechanics. But the assertion made by some in this thread is that struggling players willfully refuse to learn their jobs and the game mechanics. While I don't believe this, your suggestions would do nothing to address this hypothetical population. Further, many struggling players care deeply about their performance and are painfully aware that in higher level MSQ dungeons it falls short of the median.

Your assumption that all weak players are weak because they don't try hard enough is simply wrong.

As to "winning" the game, that is a concept that simply doesn't apply to MMOs. Combat constitutes a tiny fraction of the overall available content. For many, that combat is very far from "mindnumbingly easy." You might as well claim the only way to win the game is to follow Cider Spider and get all available achievements.

Not all weak players are weak because they don't try enough, that's for sure. But a good chunk of them are. You pretty much only singled out "lol Cure1 myth" to dismiss all my previous exemples. But for those, skill doesn't matter. So tell me, why a level 100 player wouldn't know to use AoEs on large pull ? All throught the leveling process, you have big messages poping on your screens saying "Hey, look at this cool new skill you just unlocked !" yet some people seems to never bothered reading what they do. Or still not knowing what stack markers ou buster markers are despite having seen them hundred of times up until then. How many times I was running like an idiot behind someone with a doritos marker yelling in my head "STACK WITH MEEEEE PLEAAAAAASE". Yes, some people play the game for the social aspect of it, for housing, for PvP or anything else and just doesn't give a damn about PvE combat and couldn't be bottered to improve.
.
However, I do respect people that are struggling but still trying their best. When I see someone that seems to have issues, I usually try to offer advices (And no, that's not "Stop watching Netflix" kind of advices). You offer dual-track difficulty as a solution and I might agree with it(Tho rewards should be limited for the "easy mode") despite thinking that Trust is already quite easy. But a lot of people on this forum are asking for straight up nerf of DT normal content, which is pretty bad. As someone else said, if devs balance the normal content around the weakest link of the chain, you end up with a very boring game for the vast majority of players.

There's also the issue that dying or wiping on normal content seems to have become such an unacceptable thing that should never happen and is shameful. Wiping while learning is completely normal and there's no shame to have with it.