FFXIV and Risk vs. Reward

[Saccharin]

This is a terrible misconception going on around in about why there's low savage clear numbers, and one that seems to be segregating to make the developers think this is the case.

Alexander isn't that hard, the fights is boring, people already knew what was happening, the bosses are extremely bland, people stopped raiding mainly because the new raid is incredibly boring and the boss designs being uninteresting and the fact that they recycled the mechanics as far as going to make the boss nearly identical to first coil snake boss didn't help at all, this alone ruined most of people's motivation to continue trying, the fact that all classes are now DPS, healer and tanks included, all this did make groups I know loose interest, and it did for my group.

OMG GUYS! REMEMBER THE MANIPULATOR??? WHERE YOU FOUGHT IN THIS ROOM THAT LOOKS THE SAME AS THE OTHERS!? so epic of a fight, what a memorable boss.

I recently for fun went with my group to do a full run of binding coil of Bahamut and remembered how amazingly designed the fights were, mechanic wise they were pretty awesome, and they did have DPS checks aswell but also ability checks which Alexander does not have, it's literally the worst raid I have played in any of the MMO's I have been, the fact that it's "Hard" had nothing to do with the actual reason the Alex clears are low.

SE haven't come up with these conclusions by reading forums they have access to sever logs and can see where, why and when people are struggling with it and they will direct any possible nerfs to address those roadblocks.

Boring is an excuse to give up. If this 'bored person' was progressing without any issues they'd stay but because no progress is being made then there's the litany of excuses. If you've been raiding for a while there tends to be encounters that are very similar to old one. FF14's combat system is fairly simple so it does limit the types of encounters you can make.

[ArchonCina]

Wow, so many replies. Thanks for all the different opinions. I want the discussion to be visible.

For those who shot down my ideas (weather/day/night-only mobs, mobs that aggro to different senses than sight, and mobs that are weaker or stronger than average) what kind of suggestions could you propose to increase the Risk/Reward dynamic for FFXIV 3.2 and beyond? Maybe I'm not on the right track with the solution, but I think I'm definitely on track with the problem description.

The recap of my suggestion is that some mobs aggro to different senses. Sound, low HP, use of magic in proximity, etc. And some mobs be stronger than average, some weaker. For example, a lv55 mob normally has such and such HP and such and such ATK/DEF stats. Randomly, when mobs in that area spawn, some could spawn with 10% higher or 10% lower stats. (Okay, maybe 10%ATK/DEF is not the right bracket, but this is the idea). They'd look the same and have the same skills, but they might be stronger than you expect, or they might be weaker. This makes running up and hitting it in the face more engaging, because you might be in for a surprise. In my own ideal case, I'd like the "stronger" ones to be able to kill you if you aren't careful. Or maybe 1 in 100 of them will just be strong enough to be able to kill you unless you run away or out-level it.

Does this break the "EZ FACEROLL" of open world encounters? Yes, yes it does. And I think that's a good thing. But maybe you've got other suggestions to add risk and reward back into FFXIV.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

The issue is you need to give a people a reason to WANT to fight mobs outside of dungeons, otherwise they're just a massive waste of time when people just want to get from A to B for a daily quest. Mobs were a bit dangerous when 3.0 hit because we weren't geared up. After finishing the main story and gearing up on esotreics, we're right back where we started in 2.0 where the max level mobs pose no threat to us, but still aggro anyway because we're in level range and the RNG Heavy spam when we're just trying to get away.

[Kaurie]

Wow, so many replies. ....

I like your overall idea, but I honestly have 0 reason to go to the maps (except flying in for a hunt, where I fight 0 openworld mobs), so I am not sure why I would want the map mobs to be harder.

I'm fairly certain the last time I fought an open world mob (non-hunt/non-fate) was on June 21st.

[Evtrai]

SE haven't come up with these conclusions by reading forums they have access to sever logs and can see where, why and when people are struggling with it and they will direct any possible nerfs to address those roadblocks.

That's true, SE has been amazing so far in interpreting the data.

[ArchonCina]

But server logs don't show emotion, just raw data. You have to interpret what that means to a person, or a lot of people as the case may be. I've seen a lot of threads about challenge/risk/adventure lately. I'm not on a limb here.

[Saccharin]

But server logs don't show emotion, just raw data. You have to interpret what that means to a person, or a lot of people as the case may be. I've seen a lot of threads about challenge/risk/adventure lately. I'm not on a limb here.

No, it doesn't you dont look at why bob and his friend quit you look at the bigger picture and see what you can do from that. People say AS3 is a dps check so SE can look and see what dps is needed to down it and then think ok, we'll nerf it just enough that half the tries we have in this data would have cleared it. Bob then downs, or gets to 3% and carries on and downs it next week. Made up situation but just to illustrate a simple case.

[Yuumei]

In my opinion OP is just trying to get FFXI mob mechanics pasted over here.
Keep in mind XI mobs were "challenging" because the solo player is so weak - even an "evenly matched" crab can own you if you do not know what you are doing. (that's before XI raised the lvl cap, and yes i saw a JP paladin in full abjuration gear died to a crab in kuftal tunnel solo)

Also, we are errand boys/girls of light, slayer of elder primals and saviors of Eorzea many times over. I certainly do not expect to get killed by a giant toad or some flying cabbage while taking a stroll thru a forest thank you.

[DenebPunkin]

Some do, some don't. Same can be said about casuals to. That isn't just a hardcore thing.

No actually in this game it is mostly ( and I might even say "purely" ) a hardcore thing. The "casual" player is someone that does not gorge, they play intermittently and take there time with the content, not only that but they actually engage in as much content as possible. Hardcorers seem to focus on certain content and burn through that content than complain about not having enough to do. That is just the reality of FF14 at this point.

[Callback]

snip

Good idea, but that only works in a game where combat is more than just beating your face against a wall and seeing which one, the wall or your face, breaks first.