ARR often feels very contradictory in its design (long)

[Zeno_McDohl]

From reddit (credit goes to GrahamBelmont):

ARR has a number of strengths (Primarily from a production value standpoint) but the more I've played it and the longer I've been exposed to the direction of the game and Yoshi's standpoint and design philosophies...I can't help but feel that he's not sure what he's doing. Not that he's a poor director, but more like they don't have any clear direction for A Realm Reborn.

I'll give some examples:

The biggest is the Armory System. One of the game's major selling points. The idea is (at least how it's described on the main website) that, one, you can play every role on a single character, and two, can mix and match skills. But as we've seen at every point, they're intent on designing content lockouts (Coil once a week, Crystal Tower once a week, Extreme Primals once a week, treasure maps once a day, beastmen camps once a day) around individual characters. Not role based as would compliment this design choice. You're actually punished in a sense for making use of the Armory System in that having alt characters per class avoids the lockouts.

Additionally, the idea that classes can 'cross class' skills from other classes is greatly stunted in numerous ways. For one, classes are built around a very central rotation. It makes it hard for cross class skills to function beyond fairly generic buffs like Raging Strikes because you can never differ from the core idea of the class. In 1.0, ignoring the critical reception for a moment, the class design was built around the idea of cross classing skills. People felt that characters became too samey and ended up not caring for it, but the point is they had a vision and designed around it. In ARR, it feels like they simply disliked the armory system but felt obligated to keep it. It doesn't mesh with the game well at all.

And then you have crafting and gathering. Compared to most MMO's, these systems are really fleshed out in ARR. There's a lot of depth there. There's almost more crafting classes than battle classes, they have their own skill sets, their own gear, hundreds of recipes and materials... yet they are intent on making crafting and gathering have no place within the game. They don't want players forced into it, they feel as if they don't want players to avoid running dungeons for gear, they feel as if a strong player market promotes RMT abuse, so they've made it completely arbitrary and bypassable. Why put all of this effort into their crafting and gathering systems if they don't intend people to take full advantage of it? In my own world, if I were directing ARR, I would take this massive strength and roll with it. I would push the game heavily around crafting and gathering and player economy, simply because, hey, I have this really well done crafting and gathering aspect of my game.

And taking that further, I'll bring up Dye and Materia. Both systems that form the game's biggest fountain of potential depth and customization, both visually and mechanically. They designed these systems and advertised them heavily...but pigeonholed them into an aspect of the game they clearly don't want people to use. Both dye and materia only apply to gear that is crafted (Mostly), and since they don't want people to progress their characters with crafting and gathering, both systems are doomed to go widely unused. Why take the time to develop three massive concepts and purposely build them to be unusable? Crating, materia, and Dye together have such a massive pool of depth. The game could be designed around crafting and materia with the systems they've built and could truly work. But they didn't.

And finally I'll talk about the open world. The biggest, or second biggest complaint about the game's original release was its world design. How there wasn't much to see or do and it was visually uninteresting. So they literally made a new one...and then decided they didn't want people to play in it. They don't want players 'monopolizing' open world content, so they want everything instanced. The open world loses all meaning once you finish the story by design. I adore the open world in this game, but from mounts and teleporting, to cramped maps and numerous camps, and the complete lack of threat from mobs, the entire game's world comes off as even more sterile then its predecessor. While 1.0 was heavily copied and pasted, there were elements in its design that made it a tangible experience. Mobs were dangerous, there were rare things to hunt, you had to travel it to reach content. Why, why take the effort of making something as visually rich as ARR's open world when you don't want players to spend time in it?

Does any of this make sense? Does anyone agree? Am I the only one that feels ARR's design comes off as incredibly backwards? I'm open to discussion and appreciate any civil comments whether they agree with me or not.

[PallasLloyd]

I'm open to discussion and appreciate any civil comments whether they agree with me or not.

Oh dear, then you posted this on the wrong website.

[Skyhound]

The game hasn't fully fleshed out, we barely have half of the total jobs meant for the game. Give it some time, sheesh.

[Gramul]

The game hasn't fully fleshed out, we barely have half of the total jobs meant for the game. Give it some time, sheesh.

3 years isn't enough?

Joking aside, I really do hope they can balance out these mechanics and give more purpose to things that aren't just dungeon runs and boss fights.

[ArcheustheWise]

The game hasn't fully fleshed out, we barely have half of the total jobs meant for the game. Give it some time, sheesh.

I wish i had a dollar, literally, a dollar for each time ive heard this "phrase" mindlessly spouted on a mmo forums before the mmo itself became a sinking ship. *eyerolls* I would be one hell of a rich guy.

What i'm REALLY getting sick of around here is the white knighting to SE's rescue. Let me ask you "knights" a question.. what does it hurt if our complaining actually nets something good? You know.. something positive and nice that would be benefit to all? What if the OP's message is heard due to the number of upvotes and the devs stop and think and say, you know, hes right, we really need some consistency. And wham, more open world content.. or wham, changes to make crafters more viable in what they are supposed to be doing, crafting whatever they are SUPPOSED to be crafting... not just furniture that no one can use becuase no one can actually BUY the house...

I would think you would want to rally beside us, that would make the most logical sense. Of course what am i thinking.. people around here being logical. Lolz

"herp de derp! wait till they flesh out the game fully you guyz!" really? Looking at the games current state, i would love to see what this game "fleshes out" to be. Because i'm not quite sure myself.

/rant

Sorry, Thank you OP. Your post is on mark. Will say the game is fun in places, but lets all be honest, its still a cluster when you look at it lol.

[Luciano_Bozzelli]

I wish i had a dollar, literally, a dollar for each time ive heard this "phrase" mindlessly spouted on a mmo forums before the mmo itself became a sinking ship. *eyerolls* I would be one hell of a rich guy.

What i'm REALLY getting sick of around here is the white knighting to SE's rescue. Let me ask you "knights" a question.. what does it hurt if our complaining actually nets something good? You know.. something positive and nice that would be benefit to all? What if the OP's message is heard due to the number of upvotes and the devs stop and think and say, you know, hes right, we really need some consistency. And wham, more open world content.. or wham, changes to make crafters more viable in what they are supposed to be doing, crafting whatever they are SUPPOSED to be crafting... not just furniture that no one can use becuase no one can actually BUY the house...

I would think you would want to rally beside us, that would make the most logical sense. Of course what am i thinking.. people around here being logical. Lolz

"herp de derp! wait till they flesh out the game fully you guyz!" really? Looking at the games current state, i would love to see what this game "fleshes out" to be. Because i'm not quite sure myself.

/rant

Sorry, Thank you OP. Your post is on mark. Will say the game is fun in places, but lets all be honest, its still a cluster when you look at it lol.

My hat to you sir, I haven't really met that many level 50 fisherman, but I agree with you, and the OP's concerns. However let me shed some light on why people are a little optimistic for the future of the game called Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, and aren't just white knighting.

First off I have to say you are right. We should rally behind players with great ideas, and suggestions to make our game better than what it already is. And I do not condone someone being shot down at their suggestions with just a response of the game hasn't been out long enough. We do need these suggestions to be brought up and talked about to better help our foundation to move forward to the future of this game.

That being said... (and I know some people hate the refference, but...) One of my first great moments of FFXI was going with my linkshell for the first time, going through Rise of Zilart content, beating one trial after the next until finally the whole group reached this place called sky, where we walked around in awe as our feet lit up the floor, searching every area we could at the time. Putting the two games side by side, this moment couldn't be enjoyed in FFXIV due to the fact that the Rise of Zilart expansion came out about a year after the actual game, and the actual game I heard didn't even have an auction house, a function that I loved, and thought just came with its release.

Rise of Zilart FFXI's first expansion introduced Dragoon, Samurai, and Ninja jobs. Included a city called Kazham, Yhoator jungle, Ifrits Caldron, city of Norg, lots of new areas, airship travels, and of course the extended storyline. A lot of the things that we complain about not being in the game can be introduced in the first expansion and have the opportunity to blow our mines away, and this alone is why many fans like to say, its only been 3 months. Boat rides, NM's in the new area of expansion, and experience parties in the field can all become possible with an expansion. New boat to take us to the new land with a gigantic Pirate Fate on the boat, all this can be possible.

Think about it, expansion drops, new lands are everywhere, and someone finds out you can fight (lesser Calibri) by this new waterfall and get 800 exp per fight, and can link and chain up to 200 with the right party set up. Someone finds Diabolos in the field in some new area, expansion has 12 new dungeons a few 30 plus, and a few 50's, and a new gigantic area introduced where you have to do a quest to get the map, and the quest is at the end in a great city, and people ban together trying to fight the really high tier mobs to reach the city gates for the map. It's kinda like the possibilities are endless. New city, and area who are overrun by enemy strongholds, and people have to fend the city from the new expansion beastmen. The possibilities are endless, and I look forward to compare the first expansion we receive to the likes of Rise of Zilart.

It will be the only true comparison I will be able to give between the two games. For saying it lacks things FFXI had is unfair at the moment. Because my memories are heightened by expansion after expansion delivering many new gear items, crafted items, and a more stable economy. For all we know the first expansion may round up all of our current beastmen and their primals, and will give way to maybe a beastmen seal collection where we can fight in instances with those seals in order to secure great crafting items.

[EvokerKeii]

New boat to take us to the new land with a gigantic Pirate Fate on the boat, all this can be possible.

How you envision it to be: Exactly like the FFXI pirate boat battle.
How it will actually be: A FATE linked to a quest needed to be completed in order to be able to access the new area, spawns once every two hours, is an AOE spam fest and then immediately ignored after you attune to the Aetheryte crystal at the new land.

[EvokerKeii]

The game hasn't fully fleshed out, we barely have half of the total jobs meant for the game. Give it some time, sheesh.

You can only tell your paying customers to wait for their fancy shiny for so long before they lose interest.

[Maudieu]

The game hasn't fully fleshed out, we barely have half of the total jobs meant for the game. Give it some time, sheesh.

How many expansions will that take?

[KyoKunChan]

The game hasn't fully fleshed out, we barely have half of the total jobs meant for the game. Give it some time, sheesh.

"Give It Time."

1st thing I see someone say all the time lol They have had time and people told them what we would like and yet they pump out stuff we don't want. Yep, keep waiting.