Proposal: Rebalance FFXIV Around Living Zones and Scalable Challenge

[Jeeqbit]

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

Is it? Extreme weapons are a higher item level and have more weapon damage, and weapon damage is meant to add way more to the damage calculation than mere substats or even main stats do. Moreover, they make sure they have the "good stats" usually.

But as I said, this was always the intention of Extreme weapons - you basically had to get them in Heavensward because otherwise you were stuck with a weapon from the previous tier which is a massive disadvantage. And I've still met statics that will farm out the Extreme weapons first to gain the upper hand in terms of DPS.

Adding Crafted weapons was to help the average casual player who didn't even do Extremes and was stuck with previous tier weapons. Even after the 7th week there were alts that were just stuck wearing a previous tier weapon. It didn't seem that intuitive, but now the crafted weapon is so good you can ignore the Extreme weapon and get away with it too.

[Valence]

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.

As an ex raider I can't say that I can ever relate to raiders complaining about the lack of content. I've always had my mouth full, raiding took over weeks of prog, then weeks of reclears (in shc groups so we were done relatively "quickly", around a month for a tier, comparatively to the median/average). I was actually happy to have months of downtime else I'd have just burnt out, and when ultimates made their appearance for the first time in some of the odd patches, it felt already almost too much for me.

Fact of the matter is that, yes, raiders could get more, but let's not try and pretend that casuals can spend weeks and weeks doing engaging content that they like, like raiders do. That's just not true. Everything in casual is a one done deal except for some dailies like roulettes. That's it. If we're strictly talking about pve that is.

[AvoSturmfaust]

No they are not. - A Casual Player

Dont get me wrong but do you not think that Singleplayer Games are more suited for you then?

I mean i can understand if someone doesnt want to do Savage/Ultimates, im fully fine with it, but now even Extremes? Why are you playing a MMORPG which is based on Endgamecontent like all MMOs then? Im really curious, i dont wanna blame you or anything dont get me wrong im straight up just curious

[Raim]

I have been saying this since Eureka. I wish they would go in and overhaul Fates. Make all the older fates have newer, more engaging mechanics. Give all Fates from previous expansions bicolor gemstones. Give way more turn in rewards for gemstones like the hunt currencies have. And if you have trouble getting enough players together, consider a cycling "zone of the day" that gives 2x gemstones and maybe awards tomestones too. That would get people running Fates again.

[Valence]

Dont get me wrong but do you not think that Singleplayer Games are more suited for you then?

I mean i can understand if someone doesnt want to do Savage/Ultimates, im fully fine with it, but now even Extremes? Why are you playing a MMORPG which is based on Endgamecontent like all MMOs then? Im really curious, i dont wanna blame you or anything dont get me wrong im straight up just curious

Does endgame content have to be all about challenging content?

[Khryseis_Astra]

But obviously the Forked Tower issue suddenly asks them to be progression raiders in a way that CEs don't, and CLL showed a way to do it where the entry system is good, the challenge is there and sometimes the run fails or has loads of full wipes but casual players clear it a lot still, and where the confident raider types fought Lyon which had more reponsiblity riding on it. They just need to replicate that format but inject other fresh ideas in place of the prisoners that involve teamwork.

They should have made room in the schedule for a Normal mode… and I still think they should make one, even though it’s after the fact. If it was like CLL or Dalriada, or even DR Normal, the cipher entry would be seen as story immersion, rather than the pain it is now, because it would actually make sense to run the content with whoever showed up. Anything that requires the level of coordination just to enter, let alone run, should be a separate entry with PF freely available.

The problem is that they’re going to fix the entry method for the Hard mode, to an extent. But there’s not going to be a Normal mode in zone, and there’s no other instanced dungeon equivalent for people who, as you said, are not or don’t want to be progression raiders.

Field op content is one of the things a lot of casuals look forward to, and after we level all the jobs and collect all the gear, there’s no way to get the rest of the zone story without having to schedule a run of content that many feel is over their heads.

What they should do is take the current Forked Tower, dub it Savage Mode, add their PF fixes, and let it be queued for directly outside the zone. Then make a Normal mode which will continue to use the in-game cipher entry, 1 per person, first come, first served. Dial down the difficulty by removing rez restrictions and any mechs where one player can wipe the entire group, but leave in some of the interesting parts to use phantom job skills. It would be about the equivalent of CLL/Dalriada/DR Normal. (And probably a lot of fun to run with both friends and randoms!)

Rewards? Savage keeps the mount, maybe higher drop rates for any field notes that are random (think a couple are just survey points?), more currency than it currently gets, maybe the addition of gold or upgrade materials as well. Normal gets field notes and TT card at whatever the current drop rate is, to encourage running it for more than just phantom xp.

It makes no sense for them to add a story mode next zone and leave this zone undone! I know this isn’t as easy to do as the PF hotfix they’re planning, but it absolutely should be done. If they have to wait and release it alongside the next zone, that’s fine, but it needs to be there so that there’s no break in story continuity for those that either can’t or don’t want to prog a 48-person raid.

[Nadda]

Inspiring proposition Orion I like it!

[Jeeqbit]

They should have made room in the schedule for a Normal mode… and I still think they should make one, even though it’s after the fact.

I'm not gonna lie. I think they could make a Normal Mode quickly by getting Forked Tower as it is and just nerfing some of the mechanics that involve coordination or role assignment, then removing the mount reward and reducing the gear-related rewards a bit. Then adjust achievement name to (Savage) and add a new category for normal. They just have a pride thing where they wouldn't rush something out like that since it's risky. If they don't have months or years to make adjustments, they generally don't do it, but it's something I would definitely do in their shoes.

[AvoSturmfaust]

Does endgame content have to be all about challenging content?

Actually yes, give me one MMORPG which isnt based on challening endgamecontent

[Chasingstars]

Actually yes, give me one MMORPG which isnt based on challening endgamecontent

Oldschool Runescape. The primary endgame is achieving the max cape which means both combat and noncombat related content.

They also have three raids but they are more secondary to skilling and are optional content.

The Chambers of Xeric (mix of combat and noncombat, randomized). The Theather of Blood (Combat but has three difficulties of easy, normal, and hard). And finally, Tombs of Amascut (Has three tiers of combat difficulty, but these tiers are based on what invocations you pick to make it either easier or harder on yourself. Can be soloed.)

Which the raids by the way don't require you to be at max skilling, even ToA for soloing.