Proposal: Rebalance FFXIV Around Living Zones and Scalable Challenge

[Mawlzy]

Just because you are a casual doesn't mean you represent all casuals. This content is truly clearable by anyone. If you like story-mode content and don't like any friction, then you don't have to participate. The content may not be designed for you.

The point I am making is that there is a massive population of players who have no interest in any form of raiding. In NA/EU it may be a majority.

You don't "get you feet wet" if you hate swimming.

Now I appreciate that EX's may well be dull for those who want harder content, but trying to deny that DT content has skewed towards raiders is simply burying your head in the sand.

The good news for you is that the number of non-raiders is dropping as a direct result of these content choices made by SE. Since the trend seems guaranteed to continue into 8.0, you won't be troubled by them and their requests for something to do. There won't be any left.

[Altina_Orion]

The point I am making is that there is a massive population of players who have no interest in any form of raiding. In NA/EU it may be a majority.

You don't "get you feet wet" if you hate swimming.

Now I appreciate that EX's may well be dull for those who want harder content, but trying to deny that DT content has skewed towards raiders is simply burying your head in the sand.

The good news for you is that the number of non-raiders is dropping as a direct result of these content choices made by SE. Since the trend seems guaranteed to continue into 8.0, you won't be troubled by them and their requests for something to do. There won't be any left.

You're misunderstanding me and projecting. I'm a player who enjoys all forms of content, check out my lalachievements if you don't believe me. Big fishing, cosmic exploration, OC, raiding, you name it, i do it. I play on both sides of the spectrum here. I don't know why it would be good news for me that i want casuals to quit, but hardcore players also also quitting, especially those who know 7.3 will offer NO CONTENT AT ALL FOR THEM. The grass is always greener on the other side, and i've seen both sides close up.

[Chasingstars]

There is no reason why the concept of field operations and overworld gameplay need to be separate. By fully integrating field operation mechanics into the open world from the beginning of an expansion, each expansion can introduce its own systems and field mechanics that live entirely within that expansion's set of zones. Additional zones beyond the core six, such as a seventh, eighth, or ninth zone added in later patches, can still follow this model. These zones should not be isolated gameplay arenas but extensions of that expansion’s existing ecosystem. There is no need to retrofit older expansions or apply global systems across the entire game; each expansion can have its own identity and progression model without requiring a full reset. This would dramatically improve zone longevity and make the launch zones feel relevant long after the MSQ ends.

This shift would benefit everyone. Casual players get long-term, low-pressure content that encourages exploration and growth. Hardcore players get repeatable skill-based content that respects their time. Semi-casual players get a reason to log in outside of patch weeks. And SE gets to reuse existing assets more efficiently, investing in systems rather than burning dev time on one-off content.

There would be pushback, of course. Any systemic change invites friction. But learning from feedback and iterating is what will keep FFXIV thriving for the next decade. The solution isn’t to give more to one side or the other, it’s to design smarter systems that scale naturally and reward the full spectrum of players.

Could work.

Like we already know that Meracydia has very little contact with the outside world. And what we do know is the locals there are hostile to outsiders. So what if its an expansion focused on just Meracydia and each of its non-city zones are designed as field op zones. Where the higher level an outdoor mob is compared to the player, the more lethal it is. And how outdoor mobs aggro and utilize field op "senses", that of: sight, hearing, proximity, low health, or spellcasting.

Maybe with this hypothetical kind of content, like an expansion that would be part of the MSQ, there isn't any aetherytes or aethernet at first. And as part of earning the locals trust slowly over time, we the players and whatever other npcs slowly establish the aethernet system. And when I mean slowly gaining trust, I do mean slowly, as the locals should reflect the unwelcoming nature of Meracydia.

[Chasingstars]

Could work.

Like we already know that Meracydia has very little contact with the outside world. And what we do know is the locals there are hostile to outsiders. So what if its an expansion focused on just Meracydia and each of its non-city zones are designed as field op zones. Where the higher level an outdoor mob is compared to the player, the more lethal it is. And how outdoor mobs aggro and utilize field op "senses", that of: sight, hearing, proximity, low health, or spellcasting.

Maybe with this hypothetical kind of content, like an expansion that would be part of the MSQ, there isn't any aetherytes or aethernet at first. And as part of earning the locals trust slowly over time, we the players and whatever other npcs slowly establish the aethernet system. And when I mean slowly gaining trust, I do mean slowly, as the locals should reflect the unwelcoming nature of Meracydia.

[continued]

And maybe also throwing in the means to start the relic weapon and even relic armor on the X.01 of that patch after completing the X.0 content and somehow tying that into Meracydia. That unlike normal relic gear we get, the new and revolutionary thing is we get very early access on the X.01 of the patch to fully customize the secondary stats of that gear. Something to really make the relic gear different than the normal gear. Like players doing silly things with their relic gear such as hitting the spellspeed cap for this expansion by devoting as much to spellspeed as possible. And that as gear keeps getting upgraded, more primary attributes and damage, but also it gets more secondary attribute points to allocate.

And that maybe the dungeons in general just come with the equivalent of affixes for their normal difficulty? Obviously some variant of M+ could still exist, yet just having the affixes at normal difficulty just to get players accustom and familiar with it. Harder dungeons give better rewards and still come with those affixes. As these affixes like rot or gloom could play on how Meracydia is a very inhospitable and even hostile place compared to much of the star that we as the players have visited except for rare instances like as you said, deep dungeons or the coils. As we do know that parts of Meracydia are just complete wastelands because of what the Allagans did.

And Meracydia would be perfect because of its varied peoples and how much of it connects to the warring triad. A Centaur people who worshipped the god Zurvan. A treefolk people who worshiped Sephirot. A group of unified people who worshipped Sophia. And then we have the first brood dragons and also the miqote who originally had come from there.

We even know some details about Meracydia flora such as aloe and sesame, and fauna such as hippos and kangaroos. Which yes, makes it sound like fantasy australia, but given how australia is usually referred to as a very inhospitable and deadly place, having outdoor field ops mobs fits.

[Jeeqbit]

EX/Unreal is HARDLY raider content. Most EXs can be done in one to two sessions in party finder.

Extremes are not meant to be done in one-two sessions. They are meant to be farmed 99 times. The entire reason they are easier than Savage, in my opinion, is because they are meant to be farmed, whereas Savage is done once a week therefore it's designed for "clutch clears" (depending on the party obviously).

I get a lot of people don't consider things like the mount or weapons as "rewards they care about", but many other players do. And either way it's clearly their intention or they wouldn't add a mount to it - I've seen them say many years ago that this is how they get people to do content in most cases. It likely stems from Yoshi-P's observation in old MMOs where people would be drawn to get the latest mounts.

These are for casual players to get their toes dipped into some harder content.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. A very high percent of players are afraid to even try Extremes, or don't want to deal with it. I agree that they can be done casually and are really only a little tougher than CEs (1-2 vulns maybe rather than 4) except they wipe the whole party if a few key mechanics are done wrong. So it's kind of a case of SE not helping casual players overcome their anxiety somehow, such as with a little talking companion in the corner that reassures them and guides them to try it out, getting their toes wet with a guildhest-like version of Extremes to build their confidence, joining as a spectator, etc.

High end raiders are generally not entertained by these.

I disagree but it depends on the person. You see, not all High-End duties have to be the same difficulty for them to be entertaining. For example, a person may prog savage, then take a break to do something a little less stressful (but still engaging) and that can be extremes.

I know many savage raiders view extremes as a joke. But quite equally, I have met plenty of people in extreme trials who will socialize a lot and discuss their savage prog and say what floor/mechanic they're up to, so they are obviously using extremes as a way to add variety to what they're doing and the ones I've met in them seem to enjoy them a lot.

Really what do you think raiders are doing now? Reclears on tuesdays and then nothing.

It really depends on the person. There are many raiders that will also engage with the more midcore or casual content between their raiding. And this is one of the reasons the midcore and casual content needs to be good, otherwise they will actually feel they can only raidlog.

As I mentioned, many raiders will mix it up by doing extremes as well, but if the dungeons had a mythic-like system that would be another thing for them to shake it up. Sure it's not likely to be as hard as Savage, but it's probably going to keep them engaged more than a beast tribe or Island Sanctuary would. So things like Field Operations and varying difficulties or mechanics in dungeons are winning all sides of the playerbase, be they raiders or just people that want normal content to be not be the same every day.

[Altina_Orion]

Jeeqbit,

Yeah I agree with all of this. In terms of ex/unreal, i understand that some people have no interest in engaging with this. That's totally fine, i'm just trying to point out that the EX content isn't designed with savage/ultimate raiders in mind. They may engage in it, but it's designed as an in-between of normal and savage. Something maybe a casual player looking for more of a challenge could engage or or something for a raider to step down to and turn their brain off a bit.

[Chasingstars]

Probably last post from me, at least for tonight, but while still brainstorming based on your suggestions, what about including invisible traps? Like either the landmines from DSR and FTB or maybe the traps from Deep Dungeons? Or maybe both? Something that gives randomization to an otherwise fixed layout to the dungeons and the requiredness to have way to find traps such as with lost action lost perception. Of maybe mixing deep dungeons with normal dungeons. On normal difficulty, there is no limit to the number of times to be rezzed. But on higher difficulties there is a rez limit and hardest difficulty its a rez limit of 1 like, similar to criterion dungeons. As, like, if we are mixing and matching content with how an expansion is designed, why not extend that even deeper beyond just field ops? What if we merge more aspects of side content with the fundamental design of an expansion? Maybe to take another element from forked tower, harmless element, is locked doors, where parts of dungeon are locked and contain unique treasure/rewards/enemies for players.

Also maybe dungeon and trial bosses could also be secretly randomized for its "dance" based on which one is secretly chosen on say a pool of 5 different "dances". Same boss for all players, yet each time its done for the first time for a player or players, the order of attacks it does is different, creating a fresh experience that keeps the players guessing, even ones who already completed it before.

All done to greatly shake up outdoor content, story, dungeons, trials, and relics.

Someone might ask "But then what is the content for later patches if your baking deep dungeons and field operations into the expansion?" To which I have idea. What if, hear me out, what if we just made more dungeons? More battle content for players to do. Like you know Smileton or Stigma Dreamscape or Tender Valley or Strayborough Deadwalk? How they are not part of the MSQ? What if did more content that is that. Optional dungeons for the players to do.

[Jeeqbit]

i'm just trying to point out that the EX content isn't designed with savage/ultimate raiders in mind.

It actually is designed for Savage raiders and has a function intended specifically for them: a higher item level weapon than the one they start with. If they are still struggling to progress through Savage by the odd-numbered patch, they can get an even higher item level weapon (better than the non-augmented tomestone weapon) from the second Extreme of the tier.

This was even stated regularly by Yoshi-P in many broadcasts: that the weapon from those Extreme trials was meant to help you progress Savage. This was especially the case before we had crafted weapons (which did not used to be a thing in Heavensward). What happened was that, in practice, many raiders viewed Extremes as a joke even then. But technically, that is meant to be their actual function.

[Altina_Orion]

But this isn't really the case, is it? Crafted is still almost always better.

[BigCheez]

Now I appreciate that EX's may well be dull for those who want harder content, but trying to deny that DT content has skewed towards raiders is simply burying your head in the sand.

I don't think it has. They just continued the recent trend of putting absolutely zero consideration into the release schedule.

Between Cosmic Exploration, Occult Crescent and the new deep dungeon, Dt is slated to have the most casual content that we've seen in an expansion to date. The main problem is that absolutely none of it was present during the first year of the expansion.