RNG, Why it exist, why it sucks, and how we can fix it.

[McStagger]

Group 1: I want tokens and no loot lockout. I hate RNG and only getting 1 piece of gear.

Group 2: I want RNG because I hate not being able to get at least 1 piece of gear. I'll deal with loot lockout.

Group 3: I want to gear my characters in a week in 2 runs. RNG and loot lockout suck.

Groups 4-100: I want granular differences of all of thee above.

Regardless of what the devs do, some subset of people will not be happy. May as well piss everyone off depending on the content they are running and the drop scheme involved.

[Edellis]

PSO never appealed to me on the basis of alts; it was all the toys I could collect on my main that made it addicting. And finding a group of others to pass items we needed/wanted back and forth was great. I really do miss the bartering-based community that game had (granted, playing legit drastically reduced the number of people I could trade with).
:-(

I believe we've talked about this before, but the plasticity of your character in PSO was wonderfully designed. It's a real pity more games don't take from it. FFXIV would be perfectly fine (RNG and all) if they would just stop making the equipment set progression so linear.

I'm nowhere near Bahamut Coil but I can already feel the void PSO ripped open rearing its head when i get something cool looking that I might as well discard because i'll never use it again.

[Ri_ri]

To me, getting gear wouldn't be satisfying if not for RNG.

[Mazi]

To me, getting gear wouldn't be satisfying if not for RNG.

See that is messed up to me, getting gear should be about beating a hard boss not being lucky. The sense of "HELLZ YEAH I GOT IT" should be from downing a tough encounter you have been working on not because "HELLZ YEAH I DOWNED THIS THE HUNDREDTH TIME AND NOW IT DROPPED YEEE"

[SirGazuntai]

I don't like the token system. It provides a steady rate of progress that makes a game very bland.

I prefer RNG where I can go into a dungeon and maybe get the loot I want. It's a system I'm used to due to single player games and a crapload of other games using it (the majority of RPG's out there use it).

Do I enjoy running the entire dungeon to get nothing? No, of course not, but I don't want gear handed to me either. MMO's are grindfests. There are MMO's out there that tried to remove the grindfest and give the kind of progress you're asking for and they failed and everyone went back to their grindfest MMO's.

As for what Ri_ri said, I capped my Myth every week I played. Every time I got a new ilvl90 piece of gear from it, I was no satisfied in the least. I didn't work for this at all. All I did was run WP more times than I wanted to. The very first time I got my first piece of Allagan gear, I was very satisfied. It took me 3 weeks, but I got it eventually.

If you don't like this kind of progress, either find an MMO that does it the way you like it or don't play MMO's if you don't want a grindfest.

EDIT: If beating an encounter got you a piece of gear, so many people would have it and never go into the content again. None of the fights in this game (or any MMORPG for that matter) are difficult enough to make this a thing. Not to mention selling runs is a thing.

[Thunderz]

it is what keeps players logging in and some people do not want to gear all 8 jobs in coil gear

what does it mean when someone has all 90 BiS + weapon from coil for his main class? They get bored and unsub until new content comes out

Content is designed to last x period of time before the next patch so people don't max out and get bored ($$$)

and I don't think you want a token system for Coil.... if you noticed how much PvP items cost i'm relatively sure the cost of certain pieces would be pretty bad

[Neralyte]

never liked token systems, they detract from the sense of accomplishment present in having loot from bosses. If you're in a PUG and your item doesn't drop it's definitely annoying because you have to wait another week to try it again and you feel no sense of progression. However, running in statics is a different matter, everything that drops helps you and helps your team. There really is no issue with RNG loot systems, there is, however, issues with MMO's promoting self gain before group gain which gives people the mindset that if their loot doesn't drop then it was a waste of time.

SE has considered all this already and offers multiple ways of gearing. By giving you a token system in philo and myth stones, a weekly lockout hardcore raid in coils and a gated loot system without a lockout in CT. RNG is and will always be present, but that doesn't mean other gearing methods aren't available if you don't want to deal with it.

[Dyvid]

You already have a token system. They are called Tomes of Mythology.

[dejavutwo]

Too much RNG and the game becomes frustrating, too little and the game becomes very boring. Making a game fun is about finding a good balance between the two, and like many games, FF:XIV has adopted for a dual system by having mythology gear.

[Edellis]

The downside of no tokens is being at the complete mercy of RNG which, as any long-term MMO player will tell you, has a very real diminishing return on excitement the longer you go without actually finding anything.

Constant progress is key to me logging on and doing things in MMOs. There is nothing worse than coming to play a game, and logging off 3 hours later with literally nothing gained or accomplished because all progress in Endgame is determined by something you have no control over.

That said, RNG is part of the game and despite how people claim they hate it, it's really needed for an online game. If gaining all content was algorithmic then you'd quickly lose interest after everything is done.