FFXIV is in a Prime Position to Make Some Drastic Changes

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Prepare for more Tome grinding cause 3.2 is adding new tomestones

[Cilia]

My thoughts:

1. Relic / Anima Weapons

-They're not strictly bad for what they offer. The main problem with them this time around is that they were released very late into the content cycle due to the difficulty of Gordias Savage, causing many players to freak out because 3.2 isn't far off and we've barely started. If we had the quest back during, say, 3.05, it wouldn't be so daunting because we know every even numbered patch raises the maximum iLv; here we have from 3.15 to 3.2 to get it done, while raiders have had from 3.05 to do Gordias Savage. In fact, they purposely delayed the Anima Weapon quest because raiders were having a hard time with Gordias Savage, and made it more difficult because of it.

For the most part, the grind would be far more bearable if it were released earlier, but to keep Gordias Savage weapons as the best and make sure people knew who had cleared the hardest content, they kept Anima Weapons shelved because you'll get the crazies who pump theyselves full of caffeine and get the equivalent iLv weapon in 3 days. (This still doesn't address the money issue most casual / solo players, the target audience of said Anima Weapons, likely won't be able to overcome.)

2. Horizontal Progression
-... is a waste of development costs. If you provide a greater variety of ways to progress, people will simply pick out the most efficient methods / paths and deride anyone who doesn't follow suit. As it stands the few ways of vertical progression we have get dull, and gear resetting every even numbered patch does get predictable and old, but adding in horizontal progression will not help - it's just going to annoy raiders who will need to run old content over and over again to gear up replacements / substitutes and scare away casual players because they can't necessarily make progress for a given amount of time.

Look at World of Warcraft's scrapped "Paths of the Titans" from Cataclysm: a perfect example of horizontal progression that was scrapped, most likely because if you deviate from the one that gives your class the most pluses people will not touch you with a 10 foot pole. This isn't much of a problem to casual players, but it is for people looking to get into the raiding scene... meaning so as long as the game is built around the raiding scene, vertical progression will continue to be a thing.

3. Competition

-There is competition among raiding Free Companies to see who can clear the content the fastest. There always is. Gordias Savage was just too hard for most this time around, leaving FCs to devolve into glorified chat rooms, but that's not the intended purpose.

I agree, there could be more done with Grand Companies (make branching parallel story paths for each?), but this game isn't built around PvP to the degree any other MMO is. There's no faction rivalry, and the PvP is given an excuse plot so people can go fite other players.

Either way, for every winner there must causally be a loser, and nobody wants to play a game to lose. Should there be more competition among players? Yes and no: it does help create an in-game identity and a group to identify with, but it also breeds a lot of negativity and butthurt if you aren't on the winning side. (I've not a competitive bone in my body, though, so take this for what you will.)

[DragonSlayer45]

They've already mentioned that they will be having the raid drop weapons be a higher item level similar to how it was done in 2.0 where Binding Coil weapons were i95, and the relic at the time could be as high as i90.

Don't know if you are aware or forgot to mention, but the weapons from Twintania were originally i90 on the same level as the Relic+1/Zenith but they were bumped up to i95 in a later patch. But that just begs the question why they didn't just do the same thing with the Gordian weapons, but I digress.

[Zojha]

You may disagree. I'm sorry you feel that way.

Why feel sorry for me? Please feel sorry for the losers of competition instead, especially IRL, where competition over ressources causes death, pain and destruction galore.

I'm not the one being worked to literal death.

[Klamor]

Why feel sorry for me? Please feel sorry for the losers of competition instead, especially IRL, where competition over ressources causes death, pain and destruction galore.

I'm not the one being worked to literal death.

I'm not an expert on governmental politics, but this sounds a lot like Communism or Socialism. A society where nobody really competes for anything, and the people are given only what they need. There's no reason to do anything above what is just required to get by, because fuck it; it doesn't matter. That's not any place that I'd like to live. Unfortunately, people die every single day. That's life. To live a life without striving for anything isn't a life I care to live. I enjoy working. I enjoy providing for my family. I enjoy working hard at what I want. If there wasn't anyone competing with me trying to do that exact same thing, why would I have to try at all? As much as it sucks that there's another guy next to me not able to do those things, I'll reach back to help him out if I can. But, I'll never let him surpass me, unless it's on his own merit, and have to hope he'll extend a hand when I need it. Because, that's life.

[Zojha]

That's not any place that I'd like to live.

On the bright side, in most religions, that's actually the place where you go when you die and lived a good life. The notion of "paradise" is characterized by abundance and thus a lack of competition.

So if any of those religions happen to be true by sheer coincidence, all you have to do to avoid such a place is being a jerk. You could learn that from some of the posters around.

That aside, people die every second, yes. The sad fact here is that so many people die needlessly because of competition. For example, delivery companies could easily hire two truck drivers that alternate shifts so one doesn't cause an accident because he's tired and falls asleep mid-drive (Or, allow them some longer sleep-breaks). That alone would save hundreds of lives each year. But it isn't done, unless the law demands it, because it is costly, limits your delivery times and thus, is detrimental to the competitive standing of the company. It's cheaper to just pay compensations whenever it happens. And that's just one fairly harmless example.

[Lexia]

He didn't mention housing.

[Mindylou]

That's life, kid. If you can't handle it...you might be in trouble. Btw, if anyone has convinced you of this intentionally, they are doing you harm, not looking out for you. Competition is healthy, it makes us aware of our potential, and where we need to improve to become better. Sometimes even losing can be a good thing.

you sound like the kid, grow up.

[Zadist]

I really hate the way relics were implemented into this game. Sure I love being able to actually get one and it is too far into the process to change it now. But. Relics or Ultimate weapons have always been hard to obtain in previous Final Fantasy titles and for good reason. As I stated before that it is too late to do anything with the relics they could implement Ultimate Weapons that are much harder to obtain and have the relics as the easy Oprah giveaway option.

[Cherie]

This game is a success at the moment. Everything is the way it is because it is what makes people pay to play this game. Like you mentioned how awesome Rift was, and all those other games. You know what happened to cool innovative games like that? Flops! Wildstar? Please, we all know what happened to that game. Don't get me started on rift though, I loved that game... but it probably was too unapproachable for some. Easy MMOs sell! That's the difference. If this game swapped up the elements so much, we'd have another Rift or Wildstar and it would just die a horrible death like those and probably go free to play.

This game is fine. Official forums always say their MMOs suck. I frequented Rift and WoW forums, same deal. Once they start going into death throes by putting the relics on the cash shop or something, I'll get worried. People don't want innovation, they want the things they like copied from other games. They want it to be easy and require little effort or thinking. Just look at how first person shooters or football games work (rehashed over and over)! :P Hey, FFXI went on for what, 12+ years? These guys have incredible drive and willingness to make this MMO their life's work. I think it's in good hands.