Observations from a New Player

[Tsunenori]

snip

Definitely agree that potions aren't very potent, but I do feel like I get some okay milage out of the X-Ethers I pop. I mainly use them like an extra energy drain in case I spent Aetherflow Stacks on something else, or had to Resurrect someone and want to keep my MP number a bit more healthy looking. Not like Scholars have mana problems anyway, but that's maybe why I feel like I get a bit more out of them than a more mana hungry healer would.

Or maybe it's all just a placebo effect. Or they're an addictive substance, I'm not sure which is worse (I mean is it really healthy to consume Voidsent Blood?). It'd be nice to see those kinds of general use potions get a bit more of a boost though, because you're right in that they're not very impressive.

Also chiming in to agree on the Linkshell support. I can't imagine playing without them! I created mine to keep in touch with both IRL friends and in-game friends so we could all be in one place. I try to keep it active, and above all else keep it smaller and friendly so that people always feel comfortable talking, and we're always doing things together. Everyone has their own FCs and their own statics and responsibilities to having a place where we all talk daily and play together is great!

[fireslash]

The text that you have entered is too long (4349 characters). Please shorten it to 1000 characters long.

why? when working so hard in making a good reply ._.

[Ryans]

I'll never understand this request.

I mean, if you memorize the tactic, at the end of the day... isn't that pretty much the same? It works the same way here. If you face an encounter for the first time, you see what mechanics the boss can do, then you counter them with tactics. I guess you have yet to experience raid content. It's a different world compared to the bosses you find in dungeons. But in order to clarify the point I've quoted, can you please provide me an example in an existing MMO that has this system or the way you want it to be? Mostly because the dev team is always welcome to receive feedback on the forums.

The difference between seeing the move-set of a boss and memorizing a script is pretty simple. Stone Vigil (Hard) has a final boss that with a random attack pattern and no visual clues on the ground. It requires you to pay attention to how the boss is behaving. The majority of the boss fights in FFXIV follow a script. Boss does move A then B then C then B then A. At XX%, they use Z special. It has it's own layer of challenge, but it requires less skill to execute. But it doesn't matter either way as Yoshi has already stated they are going to stick to the scripted encounters so that every fight is the same for every party instead of one group getting lucky on random attack pattern bosses and getting a win.

[Kaedan]

I'm infinitely amused by the "Bosses that require tactics, not memorization".

At the end of the day, it's the same thing. Whether the boss has 3 special mechanics or 10 special mechanics that it randomly chooses from, it doesn't matter. People will eventually learn (read: memorize) what tactics are necessary for what and the result is the same.

[QiLymePye]

I'm infinitely amused by the "Bosses that require tactics, not memorization".

At the end of the day, it's the same thing. Whether the boss has 3 special mechanics or 10 special mechanics that it randomly chooses from, it doesn't matter. People will eventually learn (read: memorize) what tactics are necessary for what and the result is the same.

What i think this person means is that they want more randomness. Yes, I can memorize that the boss does this AOE, but if i do the fight 100 times, the boss will do the same attacks at the same time every time. What this game needs is better enemy AI. something to challenge. And actually, the bosses don't "randomly" chose from them. And to add to what ryans is saying, which I agree with, this is stupid. Tell me how you can get lucky with a random win when you don't know whats gonna happen? Do you know how many random wins are even generated right now the way its set up? It would be harder to carry people in fight s if it was more random. It would teach people to pay attention to how bosses are instead of remembering exactly when something is gonna happen.

[Destomius]

- Linkshells
- Irrelevant quest lines (Ultima's Bane, Relic Weapon, etc)

Ya ok, get rid of one of the common chat mediums that groups of players with a common interest or affiliation use. Wouldn't want players talking to each other now would we?

And extra optional content? Yeah get rid of those too. How dare they give us extra optional content!

[Destomius]

No, frankly it's plain obvious that the OP is giving his input as a new player if you just stopped and read his posts, and the lot of you are just unfortunately acting like obnoxious assess. Something like this will uneventfully happen on almost any other forum but here. This community really needs to be able to handle some criticism, or you'll be your own undoing.
The OP isn't doing anything out of the ordinary, people just need to learn to argue/explain and discuss. Someone thinks something you like isn't good, don't throw a hissy fit like some creature that has just learned to type words. Explain your viewpoint, if it's a new player, even more reason. But no, the community here is out to attack him and brand him as a troll rather than accept that someone could possibly have negative views towards something in their loved game. You guys are so full of yourselves.

No. If someone's gonna go post a rather extreme suggestion to outright remove content from the game, they better be prepared to receive some "extreme" feedback from others. And being a new player doesn't excuse him from that.

I mean, just look at this crap:

- Linkshells: I do not know what these are for. I have my friends list and my FC. Why do I need a linkshell?

That's pretty much saying "I don't know what ____ is for, and I don't use one anyway, so I suggest removing them from the game!"

That's about as selfish, self-centered, and "full of yourselves" as it gets.

If I were to post a topic saying "well I don't raid, therefore it's not necessary and they should remove raid content from the game" can you honestly tell me I wouldn't deserve any of the inevitable negative replies I would get?

[Khemorex]

snip

well not all potions are potent , like the HP one .
But others can make a difference , like go to t5 with ilvl 85-90 gear.
U know what we did bk in time to kill the snake off fast enough ? our melees used str+ potions and the mages int+ potions , when ur trying to do content with gear thats not +20 ilvls,
that potions can make the difference in success and failure.

edit : i wished some people would use them like for bismarck HM , where people cant meet the dps checks and keep failing over and over again.

[QiLymePye]

I got an idea...get rid of potions and tp meters...give us senzu beans and scouters!!!!! please????? no????? damn...

[Cyrus-Wallace]

Snip

And there're random elements involved in some fights, but it's more visible in raid content, where the difficutly of said fights are for players looking for a challenge. Let's take T9, for example, which is a clusterf* of mechanics. Meteors target random members, Thermionic Beam targets random members, golems pop at random positions, Garrote targets random targets, Firescorch targets random members, Thunderstruck targets random members, divebombs target random members and the dragons dive in 3 possible combinations in NM and 10-ish possible positions in Savage.

You have random elements where you have to be reactive in order to overcome it. How you do it? You have possibilities: Either follow step by step the tedious Mr. Happy videos or develop your own method. You had random elements which people studied and found the best way to overcome them, despite the different possiibilities, however. They figured how divebombs work and it requires you to pay attention to where the dragons are. People sometimes will be needed to callout certain mechanics (Fire in, fire out, thunder). And even if these mechanics occur in a rotation, you can or cannot be victim of one of them. Or you can get affected by someone not excecuting them in the right way.

But if you want to pay attention to the boss: Ravana Ex is a good example of this. Either with the shields or what he is casting or which players are getting targeted. Bismarck Ex has 3 random weathers where the bubbles, which are the triggers for certain elements in such weathers pop at random places. Old bosses like Chimera required you to pay attention, to see which kind of voice it was using before you could determine what to do.

It requires memorization? Yes! Of course it does! Everything you learn is part of "memorization" because you understand how the mechanic works and you will follow the most efficient counter-measure to get over it. But when we talk about "level of skill", when people ask for weird ass encounters where the "skill is very important", allow me to tell you that these kind of encounters don't last and they are extremely difficult to balance, specially in 8-man groups. They require testing, they don't want overlapping of certain mechanics where you have no escape. They work better for single player games, where the player can get it down in matter of hours. The mechanics here are intended to make you wipe over and over until you get it. Why? because they don't want to run out of content on day 1.

I insist with raid content because the dungeons were designed for "casual" players, where they have to be very careful to not create a monster that might frustrate these players. That's why, the boss you quoted in SV, was super easy to figure how these mechanics work. If they ever do that again, I bet these bosses won't go ham on the players.