Current State of End-Game Contents - A Blog Post from A Japanese Player

[rwyan]

I would say that the current end-game is very casual player friendly (well, kind of). I took a break back in December and recently came back.

From what I can tell, the end-game mostly revolves around myth and soldiery tomes as well as item level. These are acquired by defeating bosses in a variety of instances (light, full and raid party sizes). The roulette feature gives us a handful of dailies to boost our gain even more. We can also acquire these from the treasure hunting activity as well.

The main scenario has been extended to unlock additional primal trials. Other quests unlock additional dungeons and progressively harder versions of those trials. Duty finder makes it very easy to participate in all content that rewards these tomes. For the casual player, progress is more than manageable. It may be slow at times depending on play schedule but it really is just a matter of time. This is a FAR CRY from 1.0 where all end-game content was 8 man based. It also lacked a duty finder which made it exceptionally difficult. Some times I would spend my entire play session just getting a rag-tag group of players together to do something. In that same time, I can run 1-4 end-game instances depending on the skill and experience of my fellow party members.

This much is good. I also appreciate that crafters can make what appears to be i90 gear. So as a player, you have a few options, at least through i90. You have crafted, dropped, and myth-bought gear. My only issue is that right now, the crafted stuff is gated by myth or gc seals. Why gatherers weren't given end-game gathering content is beyond me.

I am okay with this setup. But... I would like to see some end-game gathering content. I would also like to see additional content that rewards tomes (preferably content that does not have a lockout timer).

The one thing I like about WildStar is the elder system. At level 50, your exp bar turns into an elder bar. When you "level up" you get elder gems to spend on end-game rewards. The system provides a large number of rewards for a variety of players. Doing something similar and giving us myth (doesn't have to be a lot) would be kind of nice. Essentially, any activity that results in exp could now reward myth indirectly.

Right now I'm still in that scatter brained phase where I have plenty of things to work on so the tune can change as my list gets checked off and a I start to rely more and more on myth.

[Gormogon]

Everything in 2.3 is casual content except for (probably) Ramuh EX. That's pretty straight forward. Maybe you have a different prerequisite for "catering" but then you clearly have a different threshold than the person I was replying to, who actually thinks there's too much catering to elitists in this game, the most casual MMO launched in 10 years and winner of a handicap accessibility award.

CT2 isn't casual catering. They are also releasing the prototype version of coil which is harder than normal coil and they are calling it brutal mode as well as EX primals Ramuh and Shiva.

Those mode are more rewarding than main scenario, beast tribe dailies, and hildebrand.

Yet way to call a MMO that can actually understand and tackle casual content as "handicap".

[silentwindfr]

The only thing I can discern from your post/rant is that you don't like mechanics, and then you basically complain about what an MMO is. It's unclear what you even actually want.

you know that the mechanic of FF14 are not the norm? it's a bad way to make content... it's the easier way to make it actually.
you make the fight doable with 1-2 strategy, the setup so far are easy to balance. and as only real difficulty it's... if you miss a step of pattern of the boss... you are dead, and if you die, the group is dead.
is not a challenge! the challenge it's to beat a hard boss because you need to stay focus, not because you will die if you are touched. too much dev have recently make game like this. thinking because game like Dark Soul did work they need to make insta kill boss technique.
that not a challenge for a group, it's only inviting toxic community. and it barely test the capacity of the player. you are only test the capactity of coordination and memorization. human have far more capacity than this.
Worst, all the content feel the same, even if the fight is different we always do the same thing... we are memorizing the pattern of the boss and pray that no one of the team will mess up and die. because with the dps check one dead is often equal wipe.

why people leave, because is boring... we are not doing anything new... it's not hard to add stuff that are new, to add content that will force the player to use all them capacity... not only 2. but actually we have always the same stuff...

dungeon are a line that you must follow, killing boss that will open the next part of the dungeon until you reach the last boss and kill it. the worst example is bray flox hm, you simply gather the monster and blast them, fight boss, repeat and victory. you will say, it's the norm... but mmorpg it's an eternal evolving genre... exept dungeon have almost not change for age... we always do the same thing.
and now raid are the same in a way, the only one that was a nice try, was the T2 with different way that lead to a different boss... until the enrage method was found.

let me ask something, what do you do when you log in?

[Melithea]

CT2 isn't casual catering. They are also releasing the prototype version of coil which is harder than normal coil and they are calling it brutal mode as well as EX primals Ramuh and Shiva.

24-man content is easier than 8-man content by both design and definition. CT2 will be easier than Coil 1. People will be starting new characters and running CT2 two weeks later. Brutal Mode and Shiva aren't 2.3.

Yet way to call a MMO that can actually understand and tackle casual content as "handicap".

AbleGamers names Final Fantasy XIV accessible mainstream game of the year

[silentwindfr]

AbleGamers names Final Fantasy XIV accessible mainstream game of the year

you realize that accessible don't means easy? or casual? worst it don't even make your point valable... it say, people that have handicap can enjoy the game!
god you want the game to be hard that only 3% of the community will complet the challenge here? like Naxx 60, because WoW have already did this only giving content for hardcore... and they have themself change them way... maybe because they have understand that was idiot to use money and time to only care for 5% of the community!

i will be cruel...Even the pvp community have more people into it. yoshida have said they want to touch 15% of the community with the pvp

[Melithea]

you realize that accessible don't means easy? or casual? worst it don't even make your point valable... it say, people that have handicap can enjoy the game!

You're trying really hard to miss the point for the sake of your dogma, and in that I suppose I should commend you. The point is that this game is even especially physically easy to play, even before you get to the content. All of this out-of-control difficulty that people are complaining about is restricted to a very small portion of the game and complaints about it are highly exaggerated. And again, this is coming from someone who doesn't even clear Second Coil.

god you want the game to be hard that only 3% of the community will complet the challenge here

When the hell have I ever said anything like this? What I've actually said, is that it is already true that only a small part of the community is capable of tackling the highest tier content. In fact, I don't believe I've even given my opinion on whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, other than expressing my frustration with assembling people who can run it with me.

Loads more easy content is coming, and it sounds like that's all you really want. You want a young game under 12 months old to have 3 years worth of content because 5% of the game is too hard for 90% of players. Guess what? If 100% of players could access 100% of content right away, that would ALSO result in everyone getting bored and leaving. We actually have something pretty close to an acceptable middle ground right now with the way that old content becomes more accessible with every patch. Given everything we know about what is planned for this game, it sounds like you just need to be patient and realize that content doesn't develop itself overnight.

[Asra]

AbleGamers names Final Fantasy XIV accessible mainstream game of the year

The flaw with this argument is that Ablegamers rates mainstream titles for accessibility by disabled gamers, and by accessibility they mean the ability for a disabled gamer to enjoy the main portions of the game's content. This includes the ability for colorblind players to determine mechanics or hazards and clearly read text and for deaf players to do the same, so they can enjoy what the game has to offer despite disability. I doubt Ablegamers has thoroughly gone through the endgame content.

[Gormogon]

24-man content is easier than 8-man content by both design and definition. CT2 will be easier than Coil 1. People will be starting new characters and running CT2 two weeks later. Brutal Mode and Shiva aren't 2.3.

24 and 40 man can be way harder than 8 man by forcing 23 or 39 players to play at their best.

Only reason why CT is easier is simply because the mechanics are forgiving. If they made them unforgiving then there would be no difference in difficulty between Coil and CT and that really is what difficulty is here.

[Melithea]

The flaw with this argument is that Ablegamers rates mainstream titles for accessibility by disabled gamers, and by accessibility they mean the ability for a disabled gamer to enjoy the main portions of the game's content. This includes the ability for colorblind players to determine mechanics or hazards and clearly read text and for deaf players to do the same, so they can enjoy what the game has to offer despite disability. I doubt Ablegamers has thoroughly gone through the endgame content.

My argument doesn't hinge on this. It was more of a side mention. This is also still the most casual MMO released in the past 10 years; consider the award a "fun fact" if it bothers or distracts you that much. It certainly shuts down any arguments that the game is in any way hard to play or enjoy.

[Asra]

My argument doesn't hinge on this. It was more of a side mention. This is also still the most casual MMO released in the past 10 years; consider the award a "fun fact" if it bothers or distracts you that much. It certainly shuts down any arguments that the game is in any way hard to play or enjoy.

You can keep calling this game casual paradise as much as you want and keep quoting "fun facts."

The original argument is that the current design of the fights and of the game overall is not fun to many in the playerbase across every play style. The brewing toxicity in the playerbase isn't really helping that either