Please, Developers, Please! Put an end to Easy Mode thinking

[VeranRamaden]

"Your quest is to kill 5 Stuffed Dodos...! Oh... Yes... BTW... Here's the exact spot where they will be waiting for you to slaughter them."

That should've been enough to ring alarm bells, but, optimistically, I ran to the indicated spot, thinking that perhaps, on the way there, I would be overcome by difficulty and strife... but no. It was just a stroll in the park to get to the spot. Actually, that day, I didn't even cross a r1 mob, NONE!

But nothing really prepared me to what was going to follow: On arrival to the loudly marked point on my map, I encountered 17 fat, non-agressive, low-rank Dodos impatiently fighting each other for the turn to meet my deadly wand. I killed 10 of them with one AoE and the completion message appeared. I was r25 at the time, and the sidequest might have been a r5 one, but still... really, SE? Not a brief search, or some environmental puzzle, not even a brief wait for re-spawn???

Still, my optimist self decided "Oh, it's too early for complaints, they cannot be this obvious! They'll fix the spawn rate later, or something.... They just introduced the sidequests, there's tweaking to come, no doubt...! Besides, it's only a r5 quest!"

Ha!

Let's jump over the myriad other disappointments concerning challenge in this game that have slowly but surely set on since then. Let's turn to today's announcemets:

And now, you are introducing one of the most sought-after features to the game, one of the most desired items ever, and without any sense of build-up you announce simultaneously that any player (ok, not "any" but almost) will be able to both rent AND own chocobos. And I say to myself "Ah, but no doubt the quest to acquire the right to own them will be formidable... it will be peppered with peril, sacrifice and death!!"

Well, not really. You might as well have planted 17 grazing chocobos right next to the dodos, and made us go to the spot, touch one and have it instantly develop feelings of affection for us. For crying out loud!!!! We can still rent them! Do you really have to give us a title of ownership for meager 3k seals????

Is this how this game is going to be? For real?? I've wasted myself and my reputation defending, you, SE. Now, please, please... Deliver!

We come to these games to feel like heroes, not to pay you so that you stroke our egos by calling us one at the turn of 3000 seals. Just getting the right to rent chocobos, one of the great stimulating engines of low-level FFXI players was ten times harder (and more fun) than that!

Depth, complexity, challenge... not easy, breezy, hello-kitty stuff. I already own a Free Realms account, thankyouverymuch!

I just hope that this is just foundation content.

[Bled]

I just hope that this is just foundation content.

Foundation content? I hope to god we are past foundation content a year into the games conception.

[Jynx]

not on their second attempt ever at the mob you didn't.

Don't act like it took a eon for people to figure out. I seen reports of them being solod within a week of the NM's being released. The elite are always going to be on the up-and-up of strategy and if a quick and dirty way through the content exists you can sure as hell bet they will use it.

I wonder if developers even imagined that people would just "Skip" the enemies, one has to assume they did considering the way the dungeons were layed out especialy the darkhold due to the toads placed so precariously to screw up tanks just tanking the whole hallway without worry. While I think it was idiotic to have the "Speed run" in the first place it was one barier for even the most elite to overcome for a good bit.

We can't design everything to be so hard that only the top crew on the server can get anything done, and it's not like pickup parties just stroll into the darkhold and "Read a guide" and are assured victory. I find the darkhold to be a decent challenge nothing insane but it is something. I've failed a few runs as well, but I don't roll with a bunch of rank 50 jobs and the "Proper" skills to complete the dungeon, we are far from the best players in the game but we manage and I think content should be managable by more than the perfect setup.

One thing in XI that got my riled up more than anything was to find I couldn't do a fight or NM hunt because my job was "Useless" or "Harder to use" Why use a Thief when you can just Smn burn it?

[Murugan]

i could care less about impressing you. i was making a point. i could not trio the world nm's within a month of release, but i have been able to trio them within a month of this patch. that makes it easier now to me than it was then. i was not able to do all of the nm's within a week of release, even in 15 man parties, but i have beaten the dungeon within a week. that makes the dungeon easier to me now than the nm's were on release.

maybe you are just playing your class wrong is why you find the dungeon difficult?

People Trio'd them then, in fact RMT players were trio'ing them but you couldn't so it was automatically harder? I don't care about your personal experience and how bad you apparently were at the previous system (despite so often claiming to be an expert on it), you are trying to say that since Yoshida took over the game has become easier and that is completely false.

[VeranRamaden]

Foundation content? I hope to god we are past foundation content a year into the games conception.

I mean really though, besides the last patch..
what content has there been?
bells dont count.

[Bled]

I mean really though, besides the last patch..
what content has there been?
bells dont count.

Bigger Mobs!!!!

[VeranRamaden]

Bigger Mobs!!!!

thats about it lol

[ChronicalSin]

A challenge is nothing more then a test of your skills.

Generally if your skill is not up to par it takes time to achieve the desired skill set to complete said challenge. In dota, HoN, LoL, anything with a skill curve and the same challenge in store for the population, can you really argue that it is a time sink.

Drop rates are not challenges they are random number generators used to create rarity and exclusivity of an item, welcome to gaming economics. Last i checked FF14 had easy drop rates, and a poor economy are the two synonymous of each other.. no, however they do correlate.

arguing that a challenge does not equal time is a poor excuse for pro instant gratification

This should be sticky'd.
Let's play sometime on Selbina mate!

[Bled]

This should be sticky'd.
Let's play sometime on Selbina mate!

I don't play to often any more, however I'm always looking for friends and people to group up with ^^

I'm always on a great deal more when the patches hit, so see you then for sure!

[ChronicalSin]

I don't play to often any more, however I'm always looking for friends and people to group up with ^^

I'm always on a great deal more when the patches hit, so see you then for sure!

Same here. Waiting for 1.19!

See you then! =)