Predictions for OC/FT Live Letter

[Voidmage]

Cost doesn't only mean money. Development costs also include time and other resources. It could very well be that it wasn't in the monetary budget for that patch, or it could be that they were spread too thin between OC, CE, the graphical update, and other things, and they just weren't able to get it done this time. It's unfortunate but every team has limited time and resources no matter how big it is. He probably shouldn't have said anything since the average person obviously hasn't spent any time in that sort of environment and isn't going to understand what he's saying.

That’s bull.
It’s not our problem and he even said himself that that explanation doesn’t matter for customers.

The more casual players pay as much as the more intense ones and after two savage tiers, an ultimate, a not fine tuned chaotic, (not to speak of downright overturned criterion’s in EW) the thing to be cut shouldn’t be a normal mode.
Heck, Ultimate is repeatedly assured to be in development and coming out in DT.
Raids, Variant and trials repeatedly get a harder version and now deep dungeons will also get something similar and people would be rightfully pissed for ex to be cut.
So why is it now ok for a normal version to not be there and that we should understand that when even the producer said that is not a good enough explanation?
Where do we draw the line?

Even if people want to believe it, this isnt a small indi company.
When you plan resources you look at what will be successful with your customers and especially in an mmo you try to find a balance.
Even in a car production you produce different models for different customers.
But here they fumbled in completely underestimating what a good part of the playerbase actually wants.

They also had over an entire year to do that thing. Time is not an excuse they should be given anymore at this point.

This whole thing has nothing to do with people not knowing what they talk about but a part of the customers rightfully asking why their content was cut.
FFXIV is not known as the raiding game but as the chill mmo with a good story and hard content on the side.
I am really tired by people defending every single thing that these devs do and blaming the playerbase.

The devs screwed up in that area and are rightfully chewed out for it because the solution for all those people is waiting an entire year AGAIN!

[Volgia]

If you compare the amount of difficult raids to every other type of content dropping it's clear that casual players are still getting the lion's share of content. Could the more substantive casual content have come out sooner in the expansion cycle? Sure, I think that would have been a better decision than frontloading all the raid content, but ultimately the majority of content in this game is still casual content. Saying you're getting "slapped in the face" because you ate most of the pie but someone else got the last slice seems a bit silly. Plus they just said they're going to try to prioritize a normal mode for the next one so it's a bit of a moot point either way.

I think what they do is look at the raiding content and are angry that it lasts a bit longer than say, a 24-man Alliance Raid. They don't understand that for every version of savage and extremes they also get normal versions. The only exclusive thing "hardcore raiders" have is Ultimate, Chaotic and maybe DR/BA/FT. That's it.

[Voidmage]

I think what they do is look at the raiding content and are angry that it lasts a bit longer than say, a 24-man Alliance Raid. They don't understand that for every version of savage and extremes they also get normal versions. The only exclusive thing "hardcore raiders" have is Ultimate, Chaotic and maybe DR/BA/FT. That's it.

The question is why can’t non hard mode content last longer?
Why are the “fun” mechanics only in the harder versions compared to fights like in ARR which just tuned mechanics up? (Not saying that should always be the case and the last raid fights were a good direction).
Normal modes feel like afterthoughts and if we look at the door bosses who are more or less the “true” fights like with not-Lahabrea they actually are.
Why not have something like chaotic where you can actively farm a normal mode?
Why not have titles to get of you dodge all mechanics for example?
Why have things like Faux hollows be only for one specific type of content instead of doing something similar for normal mode?
We don’t even get a non shiny weapon anymore from normal fights or gear at all for trials.

I’m not saying you are wrong but I think the problem goes deeper than them only being angry because of that.
In the case of FT we even have actively gotten a normal mode cut and that gives people just more the feeling of “I just get the leftovers” and given that normal modes are hard fights with mechanics stepped down more or less, that’s not entirely wrong.

[Valence]

Ive completed all DD minus POTD, I'm actually happy they're adding another fight for players who clear the dungeon. Either way, I'm not opposing the idea to dedicate an extra fight for whatever reason.
Just don't act like deep dungeons aren't meant for the casual audience, cause they are. The bosses barely have mechanics and memorizing 3 mechanics per Boss, isn't difficult.

Have you played through the latest bosses of EO? They definitely have a lot more to them and failing anything tends to insta kill you. They're completely different from the potd and hoh bosses and more in line with current pve extremes.
I'm just annoyed that everything in this game is slowly turning into bosses. DD doesn't need more of those. That's not what's fun in DD.

[Volgia]

The question is why can’t non hard mode content last longer?
Why are the “fun” mechanics only in the harder versions compared to fights like in ARR which just tuned mechanics up? (Not saying that should always be the case and the last raid fights were a good direction).
Normal modes feel like afterthoughts and if we look at the door bosses who are more or less the “true” fights like with not-Lahabrea they actually are.
Why not have something like chaotic where you can actively farm a normal mode?
Why not have titles to get of you dodge all mechanics for example?
Why have things like Faux hollows be only for one specific type of content instead of doing something similar for normal mode?
We don’t even get a non shiny weapon anymore from normal fights or gear at all for trials.

I’m not saying you are wrong but I think the problem goes deeper than them only being angry because of that.
In the case of FT we even have actively gotten a normal mode cut and that gives people just more the feeling of “I just get the leftovers” and given that normal modes are hard fights with mechanics stepped down more or less, that’s not entirely wrong.

Savage takes time to clear, it's why it last. It takes time to gear up, it takes time to learn the mechanics and beat it, and if you don't clear it within a week, you have to try again next week.

Normal content can't last like that, M4N and M7N are epic fights, but if you don't like the glamour / aren't gearing up for harder content, there's no incentive to do it more than once. If you make rewards like chaotic on content you can clear within 30 min it also won't last.

I think it's because the normal content isn't designed to be played for hours and hours, it's meant for people who wanna go in and play a few hours a week.

[Fawkes]

Savage takes time to clear, it's why it last. It takes time to gear up, it takes time to learn the mechanics and beat it, and if you don't clear it within a week, you have to try again next week.

Normal content can't last like that, M4N and M7N are epic fights, but if you don't like the glamour / aren't gearing up for harder content, there's no incentive to do it more than once. If you make rewards like chaotic on content you can clear within 30 min it also won't last.

I think it's because the normal content isn't designed to be played for hours and hours, it's meant for people who wanna go in and play a few hours a week.

Alliance raids and Normal raids already have loot lockouts, you could pretty easily make a chaotic normal that only gives a currency once a day or once a week, and price the gear/mount/hairstyle accordingly so that people don't just get everything instantly and quit. It would almost certainly be less dead than chaotic is now.

[Volgia]

Alliance raids and Normal raids already have loot lockouts, you could pretty easily make a chaotic normal that only gives a currency once a day or once a week, and price the gear/mount/hairstyle accordingly so that people don't just get everything instantly and quit. It would almost certainly be less dead than chaotic is now.

TBH I prefer Chaotic rewards to be behind difficulty content because it makes them feel valuable. But I do agree that the implementation of Chaotic was just bad. Organizing a large group of players for a single fight is just gonna have trouble down the line but I'm pretty sure you'll be able to circumvent that in future expansions.

When they were talking about Chaotic I thought they were gonna make a hard version of the whole Crystal Tower but was disappointed it was just one encounter.

[Voidmage]

Savage takes time to clear, it's why it last. It takes time to gear up, it takes time to learn the mechanics and beat it, and if you don't clear it within a week, you have to try again next week.

Normal content can't last like that, M4N and M7N are epic fights, but if you don't like the glamour / aren't gearing up for harder content, there's no incentive to do it more than once. If you make rewards like chaotic on content you can clear within 30 min it also won't last.

I think it's because the normal content isn't designed to be played for hours and hours, it's meant for people who wanna go in and play a few hours a week.

You can still give normal trials for example accessories that can be used as “catchup gear” to then go into ex or even savage or at least an alternative ti dungeon gear.
If you design it with weekly lockouts in mind you can make normal modes lasting.

There will also always be glamour hunters that try that content.
Savage doesn’t only last because of the difficulty but because the rewards are locked weekly and tbh like me I think many actually go for the glamour in the first place and not because it gives you bis.

There are absolutely ways to make normal modes into more than a one and done thing.
If someone says I don’t want to do it because I don’t like the glamour, that’s in them but there at least should be something outside tomestones.

Edit:
I would even go so far to say, with a weekly lockouts in mind normal modes would last longer than savage simply because the barrier of entry (difficulty wise and anxiety wise) would be lower.

[Volgia]

You can still give normal trials for example accessories that can be used as “catchup gear” to then go into ex or even savage or at least an alternative ti dungeon gear.
If you design it with weekly lockouts in mind you can make normal modes lasting.

There will also always be glamour hunters that try that content.
Savage doesn’t only last because of the difficulty but because the rewards are locked weekly and tbh like me I think many actually go for the glamour in the first place and not because it gives you bis.

There are absolutely ways to make normal modes into more than a one and done thing.
If someone says I don’t want to do it because I don’t like the glamour, that’s in them but there at least should be something outside tomestones.

Sure rewards are important (The reason Criterion is fun but there's no reason to do it cuz the rewards/character progression there are non existent), but why would they give you even more gear on Normal or a Chaotic Normal? Your gear, gameplay and expertise doesn't matter until you hit Extremes.

To me that's the crux of the problem. Even in savage, I am BiS, but I have nowhere to use it other than to clear savage faster. Since there's no Ultimate coming, this gear I'm wearing is just useless outside of it. I can go into a dungeon and clear it faster, but that's about it.

I wish we could have dungeon sets or other types of challenges that made gearing matter but at this point I would fantasize about another game lol.

[Voidmage]

Sure rewards are important (The reason Criterion is fun but there's no reason to do it cuz the rewards/character progression there are non existent), but why would they give you even more gear on Normal or a Chaotic Normal? Your gear, gameplay and expertise doesn't matter until you hit Extremes.

To me that's the crux of the problem. Even in savage, I am BiS, but I have nowhere to use it other than to clear savage faster. Since there's no Ultimate coming, this gear I'm wearing is just useless outside of it. I can go into a dungeon and clear it faster, but that's about it.

I wish we could have dungeon sets or other types of challenges that made gearing matter but at this point I would fantasize about another game lol.

That’s what I mean actually.
Alternative ways to get gear for attempting things.
A weekly locked normal mode could give gear on par with crafted ones (or even slightly below tomestone gear).
It would give you an option to gear casually up for a savage for example (if you aren’t interested in doing it right out of the gate) or if the weekly lockout isnt as strict even for an ex.
Those who want to do the other content week 1 can still uses crafted gear (it wouldn’t be invalidated).

Even if that gear was just augmented tomestone gear but with different stats and you had the ability to farm currency to augment it later with the a raid like we have now, you could have the same ilvl but with different stats.
Or give the normal mode trials a farmable currency that can be used to augment dungeon gear to be on par with crafted one for an alternative if more time consuming way to get ready for savage.
If that is out of t he question you could also just give out normal dungeon gear that has different dye-tables or makes it possible to dye it in the first place.

That’s what I mean. I just don’t really know how to describe it better tbh.