Patch Notes are up!

[AdamFyi]

The problem was the people who cleared day 1 and abandoned..

And also the people who don't communicate and listen to instructions. There were quite a number of players rerunning Steps of Faith on Cactuar on the first few days of release. No clue on other servers, but there were a crap ton of people willing to to SoF again on Cactuar. The problem was that when people realised how horrible some DF groups are with players not communicating, it isn't far fetched to see why players abandon the trial.

Sorry, forcing a low skilled player to redo a fight blocking progression will likely cause a rage-quit more than a sudden improvement in skill.

"Hey I'm impatient! Nerf the fight so I can get through!" - said low skilled player.
If they made the Heavensward content more difficult than what we have right now, I fear for the future of content.

Read and agree with whole post.

Ah, you're one of those guys.

[Chokee]

The problem was the people who cleared day 1 and abandoned..

wait how did i become the problem again?

[AdamFyi]

wait how did i become the problem again?

Apparently because you didn't want to help new players? Dunno. o_0

[Starcade]

Let me think......YES. Sorry Mr. Skills, deficient players make up the majority of the playerbase and they pay the same monthly sub fee.

I'm not claiming Mad Skills, Crescent. I am claiming that you could take most of these players and hit them with the Dummy Stick and it'd be an improvement!

If you are so hardcore, try clearing Alexander without guides and without echo when Heavensward releases. You'll see that there is plenty to do when you aren't mimmicking successful strategies you had to put no effort into figuring out.

I'm hardcore against players who need to either be completely handheld when it's clear they will ignore it in the first place, or couldn't kill a bee in North Gustaberg without illegal programs. We're getting both those types here.

[Ashkendor]

I think there has to be a real look, on the part of Square-Enix, as to what level of play they are willing to accept with respect to their playerbase as they enter 3.0 content.

It's clear we have a borderline-incompetent playerbase, if you take it as a whole. It's just time that SE has to take a real look at it and wonder if the $ and quantity so far outweigh the quality that the players who are good are going to have very little to really do.

This is a vertical progression themepark MMO. If you're going to stick around here, you're going to need to accept that most of the content is going to be tuned for a very casual style of player. Very little hardcore content will go into the game because that doesn't appeal to the majority of the players. The more hardcore players will have no problem absolutely facerolling the vast majority of what the game has to offer. Anything even remotely challenging will eventually be nerfed so that a bigger portion of the playerbase can be shuffled through the queue to their next month's subscription and eventually to the game's next expansion. Ultimately, SE is concerned about their bottom line and a casual player's money is just as green as a hardcore player's money.

No clue on other servers, but there were a crap ton of people willing to to SoF again on Cactuar. The problem was that when people realised how horrible some DF groups are with players not communicating, it isn't far fetched to see why players abandon the trial,

Yeah. When I land on it in trial roulette, I always give it a try if I have time and if the group isn't already falling apart when I get there. If it's got 4 DPS and one lone tank staring at each other when I queue in, screw that. SoF is the reason I stopped ticking the "In Progress" box for trial roulette, actually. But seriously, if I give it a try or two and people clearly aren't listening then I'm not gonna stick around. I have better things to do with my time. :|

[Krylo]

And also the people who don't communicate and listen to instructions. There were quite a number of players rerunning Steps of Faith on Cactuar on the first few days of release. No clue on other servers, but there were a crap ton of people willing to to SoF again on Cactuar. The problem was that when people realised how horrible some DF groups are with players not communicating, it isn't far fetched to see why players abandon the trial.

When was this? I literally haven't seen anyone unwilling to communicate in SoF since the first week. (First week is full of a lot of high ilevel players who take a 'lulIcanfacetankanything' attitude to all new content, in my experience, so I'll give you that).

wait how did i become the problem again?

When you rolled Trial Roulette, saw it was SoF, and immediately left the duty making it impossible for any new players to get a group.

Or when you stopped doing Trial Roulettes making it take ages for anyone queuing for their first SoF to get in--only to be faced with half of that group abandoning.

Or when you stopped checking 'in progress' on Trial Roulettes making it impossible to refill an SoF group after half of them have left.

That's the reason there's a lot of people who can't beat it. Hell, the thread on the forums isn't "SoF too hard! Plz nerf!" It's "People immediately abandoning SoF"

Edit: I am partially guilty of two of those myself. When I don't have a lot of time to play, I no longer trial roulette. I still do all my others every day, but Trial is like, twice a week now.

But, I mean, REALLY you aren't the problem. SE is. SoF wasn't too hard, it just doesn't give rewards. If you want to do anything with your game time then you would never do SoF more than once. THAT'S the problem. THAT'S what they need to fix. Nerfing the fight into the ground won't help anything, unless they nerf it so hard you can face roll DPS Vishap down in under five minutes.

[Chokee]

When you rolled Trial Roulette, saw it was SoF, and immediately left the duty making it impossible for any new players to get a group.

Or when you stopped doing Trial Roulettes making it take ages for anyone queuing for their first SoF to get in--only to be faced with half of that group abandoning.

Or when you stopped checking 'in progress' on Trial Roulettes making it impossible to refill an SoF group after half of them have left.

nah i didn't do any of those. i got my clear and went back afk'ing until 3.0 hits.

[Starcade]

If you're going to stick around here, you're going to need to accept that most of the content is going to be tuned for a very casual style of player. Very little hardcore content will go into the game because that doesn't appeal to the majority of the players. The more hardcore players will have no problem absolutely facerolling the vast majority of what the game has to offer. Anything even remotely challenging will eventually be nerfed so that a bigger portion of the playerbase can be shuffled through the queue to their next month's subscription and eventually to the game's next expansion. Ultimately, SE is concerned about their bottom line and a casual player's money is just as green as a hardcore player's money.

Then what's the use of ever making content difficult in the first damn place? Your goal, at that point, is access for all -- so why make it that difficult in the first place so that only maybe 10% of the runs end in clears?

[AdamFyi]

When was this? I literally haven't seen anyone unwilling to communicate in SoF since the first week. (First week is full of a lot of high ilevel players who take a 'lulIcanfacetankanything' attitude to all new content, in my experience, so I'll give you that).

It was pretty strange, truth be told. The PF was filled with a lot of parties for SoF which was also pretty cool. It died down after a while, of course. I personally queued solo and kept getting groups who don't listen to instructions, wipe, then vote abandon after a while. It was a wide range of players, so it wasn't just limited to a single group. I stopped for a week or two and now queue in-progress as a tank frequently. Got a bunch of players through which was nice. But I really can't help anyone who are impatient. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Nalien]

I think SE clearly OVERESTIMATED the skills of the playerbase

I don't really think this has anything to do with player skill, not significantly anyway.

Step of Faith is about communication. SE has designed a pretty great MMO, but the Duty Finder and relative ease of most content has breed a community which doesn't communicate, and on the off chance it does, it's a good bet that communication will simply be "Watch the guide" and/or borderline harassment. The whole cross data center aspect is great and all, but it just removes any sense of consequence. You'll go back to your server after and it's doubtful anyone you just played with will be there. Other people become tools to get you a clear rather than, well, people.

SE desperately needs to do something to encourage the community to stop ripping itself apart, 'cos the commendation system really isn't cutting it. This whole "We'll make casual content and hardcore content (and eventually nerf the hardcore content)" just segregates the community and creates more drama than it's worth. Give us some serious non-instanced content that might encourage people to be actual decent human beings and communicate with each other, rather than queuing for an instance solo and saying nothing all run - that has been an issue with the Duty Finder since day one.