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

[silentwindfr]

anyway, we all can say that something must be adressed in the way to make boss fight and end game content.

outside the overuse of the instakill technic, the rope jumping feeling or the extremely long fight forcing to repeat over and over and over our cycle and step for not die.
we can admit the jobs for try to give us enough content is not small.


however, the question is about the quality of this content now. say that it's bad will be insulting... that not the case, the quality is poor, since all the fight (outside specific mechanic) are based on the same trick, i means there, execute the strategy flawlessly or die. i feel is sad, to think that they can't come with something else...
i have said it a lot of time, i think they need to add replayability into the content. not in the fact that it will hard, but that everytime we go to do it, we will always have the thrill of the fight. that not the case actually, when your group have mastered a fight... no more thrill outside the ridiculous challenge that the group will impose at itself.

they need to devellop the AI of the boss, make the fight more challenging, not in the way that it can kill you in one hit... nor that they have tons of hp, but challenging and intense!
SE by the past have always create the surprise with them game, always trying new thing... and i'm really sad to see that is not the case with FF14: ARR. i still wait the small difference, the final fantasy touch ! even if is not perfect, even if it take 3-4 patch to be good... they really need to try new stuff!

finally, i will never say it enough, you can't make a content that will please hardcore and veteran... they will always crush it fast, the good example is BC2 less of one month for be beaten by BG, indeed they are only a small portion of the community, but Yoshida really try to offer them a challenge that will keep them busy, forgeting that this people are really good. most people can't compare to them and balance it for everybody become near impossible! the question is this, do they must still try to balance the content between the two extreme or simply try to make a game with difficulty over the average. don't get wrong, you can make game challenging even with something over the average, but for this you need to get the AI more strong!

ps: i feel the last part can be confusing, what i means by something above average it's a content that it's hard without be near impossible or ask to be almost a machine for do it. if you work on the AI of the boss you can make it more adaptative, some game like the witcher 2 have show it, you can use some gimmick for test the capacity of the group and adapt the power of the boss in function of this.
like this you have a content that stay hard for everybody all the time and for all. what they can do, is make the boss gain new attack or have new gimmick. by example, the number of time the people in the group have beat this content, unlock more harder pattern for the boss!

[Kuwagami]

finally, i will never say it enough, you can't make a content that will please hardcore and veteran... they will always crush it fast, the good example is BC2 less of one month for be beaten by BG, indeed they are only a small portion of the community, but Yoshida really try to offer them a challenge that will keep them busy, forgeting that this people are really good. most people can't compare to them and balance it for everybody become near impossible! the question is this, do they must still try to balance the content between the two extreme or simply try to make a game with difficulty over the average. don't get wrong, you can make game challenging even with something over the average, but for this you need to get the AI more strong!

This, if it ever were true, won't be anymore. In the E3 interview of Yosida by novacrystallis here, you can see that he is fine with people clearing the Coil within 3 weeks for future updates. The brutal versions will be here to provide challenge for those looking for it

[Gormogon]

the question is about the quality of this content now. say that it's bad will be insulting... that not the case, the quality is poor, since all the fight (outside specific mechanic) are based on the same trick, i means there, execute the strategy flawlessly or die. i feel is sad, to think that they can't come with something else

I know for sure that they can come up with something else. You can experience very nice and memorable fights outside of Coil. Sure their difficulty isn't at the instagib level that some Coil fights provide but the overall depth of those fight exist. For me overall Crystal Tower had way more memorable fights than Coil was able to provide.

This, if it ever were true, won't be anymore. In the E3 interview of Yosida by novacrystallis here, you can see that he is fine with people clearing the Coil within 3 weeks for future updates. The brutal versions will be here to provide challenge for those looking for it

Glad it's clear then, Coil isn't meant for mainstream players to go tackle day one but once they go and over gear it, per se. Yet it is sad that they made the token progression for players a grind to complete before they can go tackle coil. This will only result in mainstream players having to wait for echo to complete Coil instead especially how token gear is currently being handled.

Which is basically what I feared. A 6 months interval in which one can then expect mainstream players to have a sort of chance to be able to compete in Coil.

[dejavutwo]

The emphasis is on "can"...

I haven't leveled all my crafting classes to 50 because it takes to long, and is too difficult to manage all the different items. Some of the recipes call for 6+ different ingredients! SE give me all my crafting classes!

Its impossible for SE to cater to every demographic with every piece of content. If you hate it so much there is plenty of content outside of coil, and come next patch you will have crystal tower. CT will allow you get get sands and oils which will let you upgrade your weathered gear to i110, many of which are better than coil gear for a lot of classes.

[Gormogon]

snip

Sorry but it isn't an impossibility. It only takes time and if devs can't find a solution on their own, they never come to the community for suggestions and make poll regarding which would be the overall acceptable compromise or multiple solutions.

Also "over gearing" applies to a small group "df + lockouts removed + echo" covers way more ground.

[Grizzlebeard]

I haven't leveled all my crafting classes to 50 because it takes to long, and is too difficult to manage all the different items. Some of the recipes call for 6+ different ingredients! SE give me all my crafting classes!

I see what you did there.

P.S. You failed by the way.

[Archulak]

It seems that some people are asking for AI that "adapts" to the players that are fighting it. I'd just like to point out that this wouldn't work based on the idea that if a hardcore group noticed this they could act in a certain way in the early phases of the fight to make the later phases a joke, or if it was based on how long you were in the fight and previous wipes act deliberately to trick the AI into giving easy wins. Sure casual players would still face a challenge appropriate to them but the really hardcore would find ways to make every fight a joke that wasn't even remotely as challenging as it should be for them.

[Yukiko]

It seems that some people are asking for AI that "adapts" to the players that are fighting it. I'd just like to point out that this wouldn't work based on the idea that if a hardcore group noticed this they could act in a certain way in the early phases of the fight to make the later phases a joke, or if it was based on how long you were in the fight and previous wipes act deliberately to trick the AI into giving easy wins. Sure casual players would still face a challenge appropriate to them but the really hardcore would find ways to make every fight a joke that wasn't even remotely as challenging as it should be for them.

And why do you care if hardcores are in need of such tricks?
I dont care at all if "we" finally getting a FUN fight...
Again *sigh*: If you seek for a challenge you can even get it on a Level 1 mice! You do not cheat to look for a challenge, to cheat the content just proves there is somethng NOT fun in that content...

[Archulak]

And why do you care if hardcores are in need of such tricks?
I dont care at all if "we" finally getting a FUN fight...
Again *sigh*: If you seek for a challenge you can even get it on a Level 1 mice! You do not cheat to look for a challenge, to cheat the content just proves there is somethng NOT fun in that content...

Says he wants everyone to have fun, says he doesn't care if hardcores have any fun.

/thread

[Exstal]

I think people would troll groups and make the AI smart so latter phases are near impossible