More Horizontal Progression please

[Kaurie]

You don't have to, but you run into problems if you don't.

Under vertical progression, the developer knows that the items a player is getting within any tier will be made obsolete in six months. As a result, they can set a drop rate such that a player will, on average, get all (or almost all) the gear they need within that six month period, because there will be something new coming in by the time they're done.

Under horizontal progression, the developer knows that the items a player is getting from any particular event could remain relevant for several years. If they set the drop rates the same as they were in the vertical example above, then their player base is done with that particular event in that same six month time frame. So far that's not, in and of itself, a problem.

In both cases, the developer is adding new content at around the six month mark. But where the vertical progression developer doesn't need to pay attention to the old rewards when creating their new event, the horizontal progression developer needs a way to add drops that serve some sort of purpose, while not making the old items obsolete.

Just to counter that, you can have a mix of both and have horizontal progression within each tier. The gear becomes obsolete in 6 months just like vertical, but within that 6 months you have horizontal progression to wiggle around in

[Zarzak]

Just to counter that, you can have a mix of both and have horizontal progression within each tier. The gear becomes obsolete in 6 months just like vertical, but within that 6 months you have horizontal progression to wiggle around in

That is what XIV does already... There are 2 different gear sets at max ilvl each cycle. Now if only the group gear didn't totally replace raid gear each content cycle we could actually GAIN content instead of replacing it.

[Kaurie]

That is what XIV does already... There are 2 different gear sets at max ilvl each cycle. Now if only the group gear didn't totally replace raid gear each content cycle we could actually GAIN content instead of replacing it.

I guess I meant in a way that matters

[Ibi]

Just to counter that, you can have a mix of both and have horizontal progression within each tier. The gear becomes obsolete in 6 months just like vertical, but within that 6 months you have horizontal progression to wiggle around in

You can, but in addition to having to either reuse art assets or invest more time developing new art assets (and you'll get people complaining with either choice) that means you're either:
- increasing the loot pools of existing events (which has its own issues), or
- adding more content from which to obtain items (and if they were capable of generating content faster, they already would be, and we probably wouldn't be having this conversation).

[Kaurie]

You can, but in addition to having to either reuse art assets or invest more time developing new art assets (and you'll get people complaining with either choice) that means you're either:
- increasing the loot pools of existing events (which has its own issues), or
- adding more content from which to obtain items (and if they were capable of generating content faster, they already would be, and we probably wouldn't be having this conversation).

Legit concern. I'd rather this than any of Gold Saucer bth tho