Thread: The Current Status of FFXIV Patch 3.1 and How to Address it Moving Forward

Originally Posted by RiceisNice

Depends on the person; if they're spamming Alexander to get it done, they have no reason to touch poetic, especially when poetic itself is in a vacuum (your only source of this is 50 roulettes and 50 dungeons) compared to law tomes.

Sure, I mean, you can do it without ever touching Poetics. But the 6 level 50 dungeons you do provide 510 Poetics, which is like 2/3s of an Unidentified item, which means you just need a couple High Levels (most of which can be blown through in 15 minutes or so) to save yourself 10 Alexander runs.

It hurts the perspective of players who are expecting play 3.x content in a 3.x patch cycle.

I get that you want to do 3.x content, but...the inclusion of the beast tribes isn't taking your ability to do that away. If you don't want to do 2.x content for the Anima, you don't have to, outside of the Stage 2 dungeon runs (which is something we're likely to see more of since they need to keep those dungeons relevant for players that are just starting the game, especially since 2.x MSQ is required for HW access).

I'm quite positive we'll see HW Levequests (especially the Temple ones, which were pretty much dead on arrival) and Clan Hunts factor into future stages. But since we have (presumably) at least 4 more major stages for the questline before 4.0, they can't throw all their eggs in one basket, which means dipping into 2.xx content some (I'd hardly describe the inclusion of Beast Tribe quests and Hunts as "severe") so that there's still 3.xx content left for them to use as time goes on.

At least the CT weekly hand weaves it as a "journey through your mind" and "reliving the experiences".

They could have done something like that for the dungeons in 2.x, too--some sort of structure narratively where you're recounting your adventures to your Anima. I rather liked that concept for CT, as I'm too much of a nerd to be completely happy running content that I should have no reason to run "in lore." But I get that the game needs us to run things more than once, so I try not to let it bother me too much. I appreciate that they made some effort to at least explain it in the quest log (compared to say, Animus or Zodiac part 1, which just sort of had us redoing things with no real context), though.

Originally Posted by Alahra

SI get that you want to do 3.x content, but...the inclusion of the beast tribes isn't taking your ability to do that away. If you don't want to do 2.x content for the Anima, you don't have to, outside of the Stage 2 dungeon runs (which is something we're likely to see more of since they need to keep those dungeons relevant for players that are just starting the game, especially since 2.x MSQ is required for HW access).

At the same time, it's not giving me "more" content to do (which is problematic given the circumstance and timing of the game, esp if it's been delayed for so long and the content and lack of polish doesn't show it). If that's how they're going to handle future updates, I'm probably not going to stick around past 3.2 because not only am I expecting content that's been given a new coat of paint, but content that hasn't been painted over at all.

And this is just semantics, but by their own admission, they're doing less of the "main" content such as MSQ, primals and dungeons to put more onto other side content, such as the side quests, diadem and LoV. Not to mention their constant mention of resources which makes it seem like they're already tight on what they can design and allocated what goes where.

Originally Posted by RiceisNice

At the same time, it's not giving me "more" content to do (which is problematic given the circumstance and timing of the game, esp if it's been delayed for so long and the content and lack of polish doesn't show it). If that's how they're going to handle future updates, I'm probably not going to stick around past 3.2 because not only am I expecting content that's been given a new coat of paint, but content that hasn't been painted over at all.

Honestly (and I promise I don't mean this dismissively), that would probably be best for you. This is, like WoW, a game that's constantly offering the same basic content models, retooled to be relevant for new raid tiers. That model isn't likely to change anytime soon, as it's the most stable structure for securing regular subscriptions in a market that's largely gone F2P.

We'll probably get one or two major new types of content each expansion (Maps and Hunts, for ARR, and so far, Exploratory Missions for HW), and that's likely going to be it. They won't be reinventing the wheel at all, I don't think, since the game still has a fairly dedicated subscriber base (which does seem to be growing, at least for now, although not at any rate like WoW's original meteoric rise). Massive shakeups to content structure are one of the biggest ways to cause player bleed (the other big one being an overall lack of content, which WoW's been dealing with for the last few years)--and this is something that SE probably knows all too well from how badly they mangled FFXI's final expansion launch back in 2013. Given that there was crossover between the two teams back then (I'm not sure how much there is now), they are likely pretty wary of doing anything drastic so long as the model they have is keeping people subscribed.

Looking to the weapon questline in particular for new content is only going to breed disappointment, as it's never given new content outside of the very first step, which they've said time and time again they don't intend to replicate.

And yes, the team and its resources are rather limited. That we get regular major patches every three months or so (with the exception of the recent delay of 3.1) is pretty amazing to me. I love the game enough that it's enough to satisfy me--most especially because the Zodiac/Anima questlines are the way they are. They are absolutely my favorite part of the game and while I think they can improve on the structure, I am largely happy with them the way they are. But if you're a player that wants more steady new content, this probably isn't going to be the game for you.

Originally Posted by Alahra

Honestly (and I promise I don't mean this dismissively), that would probably be best for you. This is, like WoW, a game that's constantly offering the same basic content models, retooled to be relevant for new raid tiers. That model isn't likely to change anytime soon, as it's the most stable structure for securing regular subscriptions in a market that's largely gone F2P.

Even WoW (at least up until WoD) doesn't follow the basic model this poorly. Each expansion (again with the exception of WoD in regards to the classes) came with new groundwork that would set the frame for future content. Heavensward lacks that and they're trying to said those new groundworks during the 3.x patch cycles (which makes it much more demanding as far as time constraints is concerned).

Originally Posted by Alahra

Looking to the weapon questline in particular for new content is only going to breed disappointment, as it's never given new content outside of the very first step, which they've said time and time again they don't intend to replicate.

I'm not even asking for totally new content (LoV and Diadem for example) from something like relic but for them to straight up not use old content that dates way back to 2.x. I mean I could be happy with it if it wasn't in a content slump beforehand, but at the same time I'd be disappointed that they didn't put more into it, and even moreso if they decide to do 2.x content again for 3.25's relic steps. Again, the expansion itself comes with a new set of expectations and standards that I honestly feel they don't fufill in alot of areas, and they're certainly not doing that by sticking to 2.x content. I would have been fine with them doing that for zodiac (using 2.x content), but not with anima (again, using 2.x content), if that makes sense to you. It's using the same house without a repaint versus the same house with a repaint.

Originally Posted by RiceisNice

Even WoW (at least up until WoD) doesn't follow the basic model this poorly. Each expansion (again with the exception of WoD in regards to the classes) came with new groundwork that would set the frame for future content. Heavensward lacks that and they're trying to said those new groundworks during the 3.x patch cycles (which makes it much more demanding as far as time constraints is concerned).

Honestly, I feel like FFXIV does a better job with the content model than WoW did, for me at least. We get more dungeons per Expansion than WoW ever did, at least for now--I'm honestly a bit worried about them going down to 2 per major patch. Are we going to be at 1 per major patch in 4.x? I sure hope not.

But I also don't generally enjoy Raid content, so FFXIV's focus on regular release of low-man/midcore content is much more appealing to me than WoW's Raid-focused model. I also prefer FFXIV's "smaller" Raid scale, which means that FFXIV has been the first MMO where I've actually been interested in raiding to a significant degree (current Savage Alex notwithstanding because of the difficulty level).

But as far as 2.x content goes, you're probably out of luck. They've already touched on roughly half of the content HW brought. We'll likely see a stage that touches on the Primals in some way, and one that touches on the Levequests in some way. Anima already interacts in a small way with Diadem (the crafting mats come from there), but they'll likely tap that in the future, too. If they were already using all of these things in this first step, we'd be retreading 3.0 content again and again in future steps (because there wouldn't be any 3.0 content we haven't already had to do for it), and personally, I'd much rather revisit a little of the older content in each stage so I'm not getting burnt out on the freshest stuff that much more rapidly. At least then, it's a trip down memory lane through something I probably haven't done in awhile (or at all, in the case of Beast Tribe quests).

Originally Posted by Alahra

Honestly, I feel like FFXIV does a better job with the content model than WoW did, for me at least. We get more dungeons per Expansion than WoW ever did, at least for now--I'm honestly a bit worried about them going down to 2 per major patch. Are we going to be at 1 per major patch in 4.x? I sure hope not.

WoW's dungeon stays more relevant as far as the gearing process is concerned, and you certainly did not outlevel them (or at the very least, exhaust the novelty of them within the first 2 weeks because of Expert Conflip) as soon as they came out or within 4 days after hitting level cap. They also have the achievement systems behind said dungeons which adds self-imposed challenge or dynamics, making it a lot more varied than FFXIV dungeons can achieve.

Originally Posted by Alahra

but I also don't generally enjoy Raid content, so FFXIV's focus on regular release of low-man/midcore content is much more appealing to me than WoW's Raid-focused model. I also prefer FFXIV's "smaller" Raid scale, which means that FFXIV has been the first MMO where I've actually been interested in raiding to a significant degree (current Savage Alex notwithstanding because of the difficulty level).

This is sorta where you need to hit both sides of the spectrum, and not hit the extremes of both ends (which they are doing consistently). My server population has significantly diminished because of the mass transfers off just for the raiding scene. Lower population leads to lower number of crafters, decreasing the supply of crafted items (especially with specialist recipes) and a dead open world, making for a really not so fun time.

Originally Posted by Alahra

But as far as 2.x content goes, you're probably out of luck. They've already touched on roughly half of the content HW brought. We'll likely see a stage that touches on the Primals in some way, and one that touches on the Levequests in some way. Anima already interacts in a small way with Diadem (the crafting mats come from there), but they'll likely tap that in the future, too. If they were already using all of these things in this first step, we'd be retreading 3.0 content again and again, and personally, I'd much rather revisit a little of the older content in each stage so I'm not getting burnt out on the freshest stuff that more rapidly. At least then, it's a trip down memory lane through something I probably haven't done in awhile (or at all, in the case of Beast Tribe quests).

As far as relic steps is concerned, they have not touched on level 60 content, trials or EX primals directly (sans the roulette), or ARF (which desperately needs attention, and it's not bloated with long cutscenes like praetorium anyway so I don't see a problem with it being lobbed into a lvl 60 roulette), temple guildleves, or centaruo marks (which can also be obtained from daily hunt marks if you wanted to take a daily approach on it). They've been re utilizing the content within the 2.x cycle just fine for the entirety of the relic steps.Your bolded statement I honestly don't have a problem with, that's the norm they had established with 2.x's relic questline. I just don't like the idea of going back to the 2.x cycle for anima quests again with that in mind.

There's also the matter of what the steps require. They could do something like Animus books for 3.x dungeons, FATEs and temple leves (and the eqvuilant of what we have now would be anima books that send you back to do 2.x fates and dungeons). Like not exactly doing the books, but similiar on concept like how step 3 mirrors the broad approach, open ended of zodiac

And don't forget that they are adding implementations to PvP (and I think diadem) in 3.2, so it's another perspective...something like obtaining Nacl compound from a random match making or frontlines in celebration of it.