How raids have hurt this game.

[Azurymber]

for one i want to start by saying raids are amazing, really fun, and a great addition to the game.... however...

Raids seem to have killed off almost all partying and behests. With solo now a complete joke, this has made rank 25-43ish nearly impossible on -SOME- servers. Just to be clear i have stood at some camps for 5 hours+ and not seen a SINGLE person do a behest (tranquil, em moss, humblehearth, mun tuy, most of the limsa areas, drybone)

I'll take this step by step.
1. most servers are still severely underpopulated
2. raids pull a huge part of the active population away from leveling and towards raiding
3. many servers have times where theres probably less than 100 people actively playing (approx 1am - 7am est)
4. the search system still fails epically
5. transportation still sucks and people keep using anima to get to raids thus running low on anima to get to party spots
6. there is really no incentive to level up
7. raids need all 3 ability bars essentially filled (to optimize performance) which makes it really annoying to switch to a low level job and have to keep shuffling abilities

and I could probably come up with a lot of other reasons as to why no one really parties (totorok on my server is essentially dead as well)

this could all be fixed easily if:
- servers get merged
- population increase (unlikely any time soon)
- incentive (such as a special hat or armor if you have all jobs at 50)
- level sync
- greatly improved party search features along with world population view


Right now Partying is still non-existant, solo-sp is pretty horrible, behests are no longer worth soloing + few people do them, gathering quests still send you into groups of rank 45+ agro mobs, autoattack takes 3 buttons with a keyboard, switching between ability-bars with a keyboard is troublesome, theres no way to save ability bars for multiple jobs, and many other problems still exist that SHOULDN'T.

My only point with this thread is that while it's great to add in new endgame content, all it will do is appease current players. If the party system can't get up to the standards of ffxi or modern mmo's, and the solo system is still as fail as it is, this game will -never- succeed. While i fully understand SE's focus on endgame at the moment, I really hope they don't lose their focus on making the game an enjoyable MMO for new players.

[Pulseczar]

Raids haven't hurt the game at all. People are shouting on my server, all the time now, for grind parties of all level ranges. SE added in a bunch of grind camps that span all level ranges in 1.18. If anything — it has increased partying on my server.

Unfortunately, it's probably just an isolated problem on your server.

[Sephr]

Right now...

There's your problem. They haven't added additional content outside the dungeons yet. We're going to be getting stronghold sieges/hamlet defence/chocobo escorts etc etc. It's not in the game yet, so be patient, when it is people will do more outside of the dungeons.

They aren't trying to balance the game around it's current state, they're planning for the future.

[Azurymber]

1. i said on -some- servers. some i noticed have a LOT more people than others. Also some are really jp heavy and others have very few.

2. they have been planning for the future for a year. At this rate by the time the future comes ff17 will be out and no one will be playing this.
If you can't fix -CORE- problems in a year but you have time to fix how pretty the action bar looks then you have a problem.

i can go on:
-Market wards fill up
-the whole "can only get skill points by doing leves in your nation" thing hasn't brought ppl back to the other 2 zones
-quests are nearly all text-based in a market of games with cutscene and voice acting heavy quests
-creating all the best gear as rare/ex stuff essentially makes crafting useless which in turn severely hurts gathering
-economy is still non existant with no real gil sinks and no chance for the future (any economist will tell you they can't gil-sink their way out of severe inflation).
-RMT are pretty well unregulated..
.... can go on and on and on. They can only fix -so- much. Most of these should have been fixed half a year ago and to assume they will just fix all this stuff in a few months is wishful thinking. These are all things that -shouldn't- be problems and will make the game seem fail if they still exist at ps3 release.

[Pulseczar]

2. they have been planning for the future for a year. At this rate by the time the future comes ff17 will be out and no one will be playing this.
If you can't fix -CORE- problems in a year but you have time to fix how pretty the action bar looks then you have a problem.

Correct. SE generally work at their own pace. If you are impatient about the changes coming, take a break from the game and enjoy something else.

[Azurymber]

Correct. SE generally work at their own pace. If you are impatient about the changes coming take a break from the game and enjoy something else.

SE is a corporation that needs to make a profit. So no i doubt they are working at their own pace especially when yoshi-p is barely getting any sleep. They need to fix the game fast or the game becomes unprofitable and there is no reason to invest in an expansion. Remember, MMO's only have a certain number of years before they are outdated.

[Junpei]

SE is a corporation that needs to make a profit. So no i doubt they are working at their own pace especially when yoshi-p is barely getting any sleep. They need to fix the game fast or the game becomes unprofitable and there is no reason to invest in an expansion. Remember, MMO's only have a certain number of years before they are outdated.

I think its amazing you think the art team responsible for superficial UI teams has any input or ability to change other aspects of the game, can you not imagine a 100 man team split into small teams with jobs of their own to accomplish, and to meet the needs of the players, they cant just move artists into coding.

so whilst you see "oh a ui change for the action bar, they are wasting time" what do you think that 20 minute fix by someone on the art team detracted from really?

[Azurymber]

I think its amazing you think the art team responsible for superficial UI teams has any input or ability to change other aspects of the game, can you not imagine a 100 man team split into small teams with jobs of their own to accomplish, and to meet the needs of the players, they cant just move artists into coding.

so whilst you see "oh a ui change for the action bar, they are wasting time" what do you think that 20 minute fix by someone on the art team detracted from really?

it was probably a lot more than 20 minutes, and the point is if you have something thats broken you don't pretty it up. You FIX IT, then make it look nice. Otherwise you get one of 2 things. Either future UI coders are limited by the artwork, or you have to do new artwork.

[Madoka]

I'm going to let you in on a secret.

They spent a year and a half fixing XI before bringing it to the rest of the world.

[Jennestia]

SE is a corporation that needs to make a profit. So no i doubt they are working at their own pace especially when yoshi-p is barely getting any sleep. They need to fix the game fast or the game becomes unprofitable and there is no reason to invest in an expansion. Remember, MMO's only have a certain number of years before they are outdated.

Thus why everyone choose to make a WoW clone.