Blue Mage and Summoner responses worry me

[MrSmiley]

Q22: Currently, the summoner job is a DoT-focused job, but I want them to be more of a pet-focused job. Are there any plans to change the design of the summoner job?

A22: Controlling the pet would require a lot of player skill so it might be hard to find a good overall balance.

Q20: I love the blue mage job that appears in the FINAL FANTASY series. Will the blue mage job ever be implemented in FFXIV?

A20: I personally think the blue mage job is an interesting job because it requires learning an enemy’s ability and it would probably be a lot of fun to play if it implemented. However, it’s difficult to think about what role they will play in a party so it will require a lot of thinking if we do decide to implement the job in the future.

I was hoping the upcoming expansion and suck would allow them to expand a bit more on some classes or move away from the extremely rigid system they use now (all jobs must have a single role, the exact same amount of skills, etc). I'm not expecting it to go all XI on us, or even near that but I was hoping for...a bit more.
'

These responses make me feel that the current rigid simplicity we have now, is there to stay forever and will be so on all future jobs/classes as well. Summoner can't be a bit more complicated to play by making the pet important, blue mage cant be flexible or fill multiple roles depending on skillset, it must have a single one.

I feel the system over time will start to wear thin, interesting or creative ideas ousted for simplicities sake. Even if we DID get a blue mage, it would have a handful of specific monster skills (one ever 5 levels) and a slew of generic class skills and likely wouldn't have the feel as a result. I feel they are throwing away a lot of opportunity.

Mind you we don't know exactly what is planned for the expansion yet and I may be surprised, but my initial feeling from these responses is it wont be anything major and everything will continue to sit on the same rigid path.

edit:
TLDR; I feel not everything needs to be equally simple, but apparently they do


Edit again: If your gonna argue about summoner's particulars or ideas on them specifically, please do so here http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...e-also-Bard%29

[Exstal]

In regards to Summoner, they can just make it really complex so much so that if you're good, you're crushing (kind of like SMN now). If you're average, you can still defeat Bards. If you're bad...well, balance isn't based on bad players.

[MrSmiley]

In regards to Summoner, they can just make it really complex so much so that if you're good, you're crushing (kind of like SMN now). If you're average, you can still defeat Bards. If you're bad...well, balance isn't based on bad players.

Removed, lets stay on topic.

[Dyvid]

Rather than talk about balance, its about class feel. A lot of people want summoner to be focused on their summons, which makes sense. Instead, we can't, because its not simple enough. So we get a "summoner" that's more of a "dot'er" with pets tagged on. They aren't willing to move outside of the box at all.

A lot of people feel a lot of things. You can't be surprised that the devs don't want to completely redesign a class simple because a few aren't happy with it.

[Exstal]

Feel is subjective so it's really dev's feel vs (a few) player's feel.　What happens if they change it up and anger far more people than they please?　It's not black and white.

[Magis]

snip

Yeah, my thoughts exactly. I kept saying to people complaining about the game that I'm sticking with it and see what the expansion has in store. With this answer... I am not to sure how long my interesting can be kept.

[MrSmiley]

Feel is subjective so it's really dev's feel vs (a few) player's feel.　What happens if they change it up and anger far more people than they please?　It's not black and white.

Removed, off topic.

In any case, arguing about the feel of a summoner isn't my overall points. It's that they wont change it because they refuse to make anything complicated, it all has to be equally simple for every class/job.

[SevValen]

It has been highly contested form the beginning though, and has less basis on the summons, as well as least impressive summons of every final fantasy ever. I know I personally feel they did not meet up to the franchises previous standards of the class is my opinion, but I see more agree to that than not, as well as people who aren't big into FF feeling the pet doesn't add anything.

In any case, arguing about the feel of a summoner isn't my overall points. It's that they wont change it because they refuse to make anything complicated, it all has to be equally simple for every class/job.

That's what you guys get the oh "I want all these old classes to return and nothing new" im tired of seeing the same old classes return over and over in each game. Wheres my gunblade class? Where's my magitek engineer doh class? Where's my mage class that relies on crystals?

[MrSmiley]

That's what you guys get the oh "I want all these old classes to return and nothing new" im tired of seeing the same old classes return over and over in each game. Wheres my gunblade class? Where's my magitek engineer doh class? Where's my mage class that relies on crystals?

I hope we see new jobs too, maybe he expansion will surprise us. When they make old jobs though, they should try to capture their FF feel.

OP,

Yoshi-P wants to create a simple game at first, and over time add to the complexity. We can't say for sure what we'll see in the future.

As of right now, he wants all classes and jobs to have a fighting chance. Meaning, if you want to play a certain job, that job has a chance to be included in content, instead of people saying "that job is useless" and never being invited into content. Everything is in a "balance" right now. Mostly.

I guarantee you years from now, the game will be so different, we'll look back at these days and say "wow there was like nothing going on."

My worry isn't for the simple game now, but with an expansion coming the responses don't seem to point to adding this complexity later either. We won't really know enough until october, but these responses gave me a sinking feeling regarding if the expansion will really move forward or not.

[PArcher]

How many people use Ifrit in fights with lots of movement/AoEs around the boss?

Anyone?

That's how making SMN into mostly a pet job will be...but worse.