Encounter Design

[Bishop81]

Current FFXIV encounters are what I call WoW-type encounters.

"Classes" have a limited set of abilities.

Most of the challenge is "going through the motions". Downside is if you have bad ping ... well, you might as well not play.

The alternative is what I perceive as the old-school-FF-type encounters.

"Classes" can cross-class actions - sometimes everything.

Most of the challenge is configuring your character(s) to handle the bosses where some of the more hardcore bosses are just plain unfair - you pretty much have to configure your skill set around cheesing their abilities, even then the boss is still a PITA.

E.g. FFX and it's Dark Aeon encounters - from what I watch on Youtube; I have played it but never hardcore.

I wonder if there is a place for both in FFXIV. It would give something for Classes to do. For Jobs, might as well remove the ability to cross-class; it's not like you have much choice in skills anyway.

[Nicobo]

..."Classes" can cross-class actions - sometimes everything....

Sounds like crafting classes... i have same set of actions for each crafting classes.. ^^;

[Garlyle]

The deal with customization is that in order to provide a well-tuned challenge to players (and not ones that can be instantly reduced to ezmodo), you have to in turn assume they are going to be as well prepared as possible for it - whether that's in the form of elemental resistances, skills they've learned, etc. ; which then creates a problem that either you get excluded because you don't have it(*)... or you do have it, because you spent time grinding out the stuff specifically for this content, and the time for this other content, and the time for this other...

(*) See what happens to WAR that don't have Provoke trying to enter EX Primals or later Coils - and that's with the minimum we currently have.

It's not inherently a bad thing - but it does come with its downsides, and those are things Yoshi P's said he's deliberately trying to avoid.

(By and large by the way, Dark Aeons are not what I'd consider good encounter design in FF. They are by and large just raw stat/grinding checks. Ironically, the rest of FFX is actually pretty fantastic about that.)

[Bishop81]

...
It's not inherently a bad thing - but it does come with its downsides, and those are things Yoshi P's said he's deliberately trying to avoid.

Yes, I'm aware of the unfortunate downsides. I was just wondering if there is a place in FFXIV for such encounters along side what we have now.

FFXIV's current "dodge and roll" method of challenging the player has downsides of it's own. Without a good connection, you are pretty much excluded and there is nothing you can do about it - it's not like you can't "grind" to fix it.

PS:

Makes me wonder though, if Classes can be adapted for current content such that they can bypass "dodge and roll" encounter mechanics via "grinding" - i.e. stat stacking + proper skill set configuration.

It can be an alternative way to play.

Jobs are pick up and play with no customisation - they should just remove cross-class for Jobs; it's pretty much redundant with such a limited selection of skills. You dodge mechanics as you do now.
Classes are all about customisation to maximize effectiveness against the boss. Downside is you have to "grind" to customise for decent offence. The benefit is the same said customization allows you to bypass/ignore certain boss mechanics if you do it right.

[Bishop81]

They are by and large just raw stat/grinding checks. Ironically, the rest of FFX is actually pretty fantastic about that.)

The Dark Aeons are what I would consider Hardcore Bosses - unfair to the extreme.

The rest of FFX has much more relaxed requirements such that as long as you don't do anything stupid (e.g. use a water spell v.s. a plantkin), you will by and large beat the encounters.