More Horizontal Progression please

[midnitdragoon]

Can we have another calamity SE.

[Xatsh]

FFXI capped out around 600-700k right before WoW launched. Then fell 50k with WoW launch. And had a slow decline of ~5% sub loss a year until abysea then the subs crashed over 50% in 1yr.

Those were actual subs as well. Per what SE said back then. It was over millions of character created.

The daily login count was fairly static for years. (since there were no true instances you could actually /sea all and get the total online on a server at one time.)

Can look at old VGchartz for the estimated sub counts sustained over most of ffxis life.

The number of subs honestly does not matter much. The main judge of a mmos longevity is the games ability to hold them. Because eventually new subs will stop coming as new mmos launch and the game gets age to it.

[Svalitz]

It would just be nice if the damn dungeons weren't limited to 2 friggin Expert runs of the same crap over and over and over again.

We have a HUGE selection of dungeons and trials to choose from and we're constantly limited to the same ones for months.

It gets old.

I miss the variety.

[Nadirah]

Actually the numbers have been given in SE annual reports, as they were back in the day. And we re talking about subscribers.

Every number I've seen is "registered accounts", not " concurrent subscribers". Sorry to burst your bubble. They do release that number.

[Nadirah]

Gearing with horizontal progression works really well with a diablo 3 (or FFXI) style of itemization, eg items that alter how your spells work. It wouldn't work very well in FFXIV, where gears only have flat stats increase on them. But well, glamour could be the point.



FFXI had like 700 k subscribers back in 2006, which is the same amount that FFXIV had in april 2015 (last time we had numbers).

Don't think they've ever given subscriber count for 14, only accounts registered.

[FizzleofHyperion]

Hi all! I'm Skizzles irl friend who is also in this thread. He convienced me to leave FFXI for this. Sometimes I enjoy the fast progress of this game and how easy it is cause it makes me catch up really fast. I'm level 18 in like a few hours on my first job?!? So Im guessing the game will still be just as fast levling everything else. Many people in this thread are saying the negative sides with Horizontal progression. Again there is no need to dumb the situation down. Instead explain to SE how it should be done to maintain a balance. I don't want a new FFXI I don't have time to spend my life to a game but I do miss the challenge and when stuff is rewarding. I'm not that type of person that appreciates handouts and I can see how alot of people on Hyperion are kinda pissed on this Vertical Treadmill progression.
There is no balance atm imo it just caters to one side and thats the new players/casuals. I'm not sure this has been mentioned before but I don't think someone is doing anyone a favour with Alexander Savage (I've watched my friends play AS1-3). Original content needs to be a bit harder aswell so it feels you earned your level and the gears atleast. Ofcourse not some mindless korean grind fest but again some sort of balance.
I like this game but I don't want it to turn into the MMORPG thats like everything else but with a FF theme. The open world really feels empty compared to FFXI. I feel like I don't fit in Eorzea since I spend more time on DF and at my FC house than actually doing in world content (gathering/fishing/mining doesnt count).
I would also just like to add that I think SE might be underestimating the players too. The gear stats I guess are fine when you start out playing FFXIV but I wouldnt mind some -10% damage taken etc like in FFXI. I understand you need to balance a whole game around that too so it might not be possible but its a suggestion. Prefering more gears for one job would be nice too. Like an item could be used by all jobs endgame (not glamours spare me the troll replies).
Ofcourse some of these things are wishful thinking. I also heard from my FC members that the relics are really easy to obtain in FFXIV? The question to this if someone can answer this is why? If this game is so easy like everyone else says it is why is there no gear an items that can actually be enjoyable and rewarding horizontal progression wise?

[Nadirah]

Why do I believe that's just Skizzle on another character?

[FizzleofHyperion]

Nadirah feel free to come over to Hyperion and see for yourself

[Astral145]

Agreed I would rather have horizontal progression than vertical progression. I just wish they did something more with the current gear. Its too bland and it gets outdated way to fast. I would rather have 3 types of gear. Tomes, raid and special gear. The special gear is for you to gain new traits or upgrade old traits and skills by spirit bonding the special gear.

The Tome and raid gear/weapons would have special slots kinda like materia slots so you can add special enhanced stats like a % boosts to dmg to bards when not singing a song or increased heals on certain skills and increased potency to songs on bards....ect. You would have to grind out dungeons and other content to get these special materias to add to your normal gear.

They can give sub roles to each job by implementing certain special materias for the normal gear progression. For example they could turn bards into rangers while not in tp/mp battery mode. By simply adding a special Ranger materia to a bow it will boost the damage of the weapon to even out with other dps's but if you sing a song the weapon damage will drop back to normal.

There is so much more I can add to this but what I'm trying to say is the devs need to stop with the vertical climb and give us something worth grinding for.

[Nadirah]

I highly doubt they're going to up and change how the *entire game* works because some of you want it to be something it isn't.

And I'm pretty sure that if they did, sub numbers would tank.

I do this quite often, but I'd like to again refer you to the Daedalus project:

http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/

This man spent *years* studying who plays MMOs and why, as well as what and how.

The sheer time investment required by the type of progression you're asking for simply *will not* work with current players.

The very reason content lasted that long was because desirable drops had shitty drop rates. Most casual gamers don't have the time or desire to invest in that.