Gear Progression after 2.2

[Remilia_Nightfall]

like GW2? it has much much much more temporary content then XIV


I want a game filled with dungeons & storylines that can be done a year later & still be relevant, I want a game to ADD content, not take it away during a EXPANSION or make it irrelevant in a single patch

Please define "relevant".

[Fayto]

Useless as in its not the top any more. It's just throw away gear (Even though all gear until you reach the highest level the game is going to go is throw away gear) use it to get the next best set and then don't use it again.

This is a problem how? Didn't know we'll get the best gear in 2.2 on day one.

[Fayto]

ARR is almost following WoW verbatim. WoW had major content patches every 6 months or so and the item level of the gear in the dungeons/raids were raised in tandem. We'll have had access to i90 for about 7 months as 2.2 hits. Once the expansion comes there'll be a level cap raise, same as WoW.

Anyway, to the OP, this is how vertical progression theme park games work. Now you can spend that $45 collecting the new ilvl gear. Or don't. The choice is yours.

Also what the hell does this even mean? Hmm... You go to theme parks to have fun, are you saying video games are meant to have fun?

[Jandor]

Also what the hell does this even mean? Hmm... You go to theme parks to have fun, are you saying video games are meant to have fun?

Themepark MMO, where the dungeons and instances function as the 'rides'.

The opposite is the Sandbox MMO, where players create their own (usually rubbish but sometimes incredible) rides.

The general problem being with Themepark MMO's is that players can visit all the attractions before the developers can make more. In theory this patch will make this problem even worse than usual by making several older 'rides' less relevant.

[Remilia_Nightfall]

Themepark MMO, where the dungeons and instances function as the 'rides'.

The opposite is the Sandbox MMO, where players create their own (usually rubbish but sometimes incredible) rides.

The general problem being with Themepark MMO's is that players can visit all the attractions before the developers can make more. In theory this patch will make this problem even worse than usual by making several older 'rides' less relevant.

"True" sandbox games are more than what most of the people defining themselves "hardcore" (and bashing on theme park MMOs) could handle.

Try EVE Online: fully player-driven, completely sandbox, and horizontal progression.
Of course, being fully player-driven means it's also the most harsh, cruel and trollish gaming environment currently in existence.

Good luck :P

[Skyhound]

I never understood this complaint. Aren't ALL RPGs built upon vertical progression? Getting that next piece of gear to upgrade to from your starter is what RPGs have always been about. From Elder Scrolls to Final Fantasy, this has been true of all RPGs. Maybe you should play a FPS instead of an RPG if you don't want gear upgrades to matter.

[Taika]

I never understood this complaint. Aren't ALL RPGs built upon vertical progression?

Pre-Abyssea FFXI was a MMORPG with horizontal gear progression (in addition to vertical progression). New content added new gear which was wanted for alternative sets and to replace old pieces but new endgame didn't make old irrelevant: new content meant more things to do instead of ending doing content A and moving on to content B. The system worked mostly because 1. all important gear took ages to get and 2. all classes needed several gear sets because of gearswap system.

[Sotek]

If the developers are smart they can have vertical gear progression without old content becoming irrelephant.

Future content just needs to be more like CoP/ToAU endgame gear; rather than doing content for a piece of gear, you do content to get several drops, to eventually get the gear. That is what I think the game needs more of... Limbus and Salvage were great. Arguably content is already like that, but it's far too simplified; For Limbus you did several zones to finally challenge a boss, for Coil you do Turns 1~4 to finally challenge Turn 5. For Salvage you did several zones for drops which you trade for armor, for Tomestones you do several dungeons for Tomestones to trade for gear. Difference is, Limbus let you challenge zones in pretty much any order, and the zones themselves were much better than Coil 1~4. For Salvage, you had to do this zone for this drop, then that zone, and so on, then you take all those drops to get the gear. For Philosophy/Mythology you just spam whichever zone is easiest to farm tomestones and trade them for gear.

Guess that goes against the theme park mentality though, who'd want to jump through engaging hoops when they can just wait in line? Sigh...

Main thing I think they should do with the upcoming Allagan Tomestones of Newness is have them turned in for an upgrade item (like the Relic Zenith item). Trade that to a NPC with a piece of Mythology gear gives you Newness gear, if they're really smart they throw a mini-quest ontop of that, rather than just "Trade to Furnace"... Either way, if provides a reason to obtain the old gear, even though new gear is available.

[Tuln]

WP 100 philo/15 min. 90min=600 philo.

Myth gear in 2.2 will be what philo gear is in 2.0/2.1 => will take longer to full myth gear in 2.2 than it is to full DL now

I've sort of assumed with the new tomestones that it would be similar to how it is now with Myth replacing Philo as the larger currency and the new Allagan(?) being what myth is now where you get 30-50 per run. Meaning it would be something like 100 myth/30 allagan per dungeon run in Ruins of Amdapor/Halatali HM/Brayflox HM unless they're planning to keep the new HM around the difficult of Copperbell and not giving allagan tomestones there.

[Dhex]

Pre-Abyssea FFXI was a MMORPG with horizontal gear progression (in addition to vertical progression). New content added new gear which was wanted for alternative sets and to replace old pieces but new endgame didn't make old irrelevant: new content meant more things to do instead of ending doing content A and moving on to content B. The system worked mostly because 1. all important gear took ages to get and 2. all classes needed several gear sets because of gearswap system.

Horizontal progression was an unhappy accident of gear swapping.

You min/maxed and created a gear set for each and nearly every ability. The content lent itself to this style of play initially and eventually content development centered around it. If you had to wear a single set of gear for the duration of an engagement much of FFXI's "content" would have been nullified to "which build is best now?" - it contributed to several of the games more annoying and obvious issues. Primarily the lack of inventory space - especially as the player base established 8+ BiS sets for X actions on Y class, and there were 23 classes.

It was still a constant gear grind that never truly ended - just old things were kept unnecessarily relevant because of a developer oversight - haw. People just don't like the idea of throwing away old stuff in FFXIV - even though its a natural enough habit in human society; example -> Cellphones, Vehicles, Computers, Gaming Systems, and other technology. We upgrade - new stuff comes out, and we move on.

You rapidly couldn't play once you were established at endgame with multiple Jobs without spending a majority of your time muling, sorting, and shuffling gear around - unless you deigned to play only one or two Jobs.

Abyssea threw all of this out the window. After years of gather all that gear much of it was simply worthless. Which I think put the final nail in the coffin for a lot of players.