4Gamer Interview with Yoshi-P!

[Nalien]

Half-agree with the talent tree stuff... Merit points in XI we guilty of the problems he highlighted, but at least it kept EXPing relevant, I'm somewhat OK with certain things so long as EXP is involved. I think it is because they become more rewarding; Grinding Mark Bills in Heavensward for seals was not enjoyable for me. Grinding them for EXP and seals? A marked improvement. They became worth my time because I was getting two sets of rewards.

I'd certainly rather see new Jobs over new skills on existing Jobs though, I don't even think we need Lv70 for that exact reasoning. Jobs very much are the talent tree of XIV, I can completely agree with that. Still, having no customization because "people will just pick whats best" doesn't sit well with me, it's the same logic that gets us linear (boring) dungeons; "Speedrunners will just force everyone to take the quickest route", it's not that that isn't true, it's just that I don't like the idea of caving to a single group of players demands... This game is fairly guilty of building content around the lowest common denominator, we have times when the developers say "git gud", but for the most part they go to great lengths to make sure any Duty Finder group can clear it... It is not impossible to have non-linear dungeons, it just takes effort to design them well enough that speedrunning isn't the only real option. Slap something like a Treasure Map in a dungeon, or Hunt, and you've got an "optional" activity that can break up the current monotony of dungeons. People will do them if they're rewarding enough. You can have Path A and Path B, with Path A being worked out as the easier/faster of the two by the community, but if someone can spawn a Hunt in Path B, people will take it for that reason.

Likewise, with Job customization, if you work something like Final Fantasy IXs system into the game, you've got something which gives people something extra to work on and slightly customize with. If you work that correctly, stats like Man Eater (increased damage against humanoids) mean you've got a scenario where the optimal set up is situational. Just like taking Path B in a dungeon would be situational on someone spawning the Hunt monster, setting certain stats would be situational on what exactly you're doing. Doing Void Ark? Lots of Voidsent, Demon Killer (increased damage against Voidsent) would be absolutely useful. All you need to do is strike the right balance between how grindy it is to go out and obtain all the stats, and how powerful they are, and make adjusting your selection as easy as it was in Final Fantasy IX. The long term goal would be to unlock all the stats, because they're all situationally useful, long term goals being something this game lacks.

I'm sure some would hate the idea of such a grind, but IDK, we're getting stupid grinds anyway... I'd rather do FATEs for Atma and unlock stats in the process, than just do FATEs for Atma... We're doing dungeons daily. We're grinding the same raids over and over. I'd rather see their rewards have a slightly longer shelf life (since I'd want the stats off them) and have grinding that content work me towards unlocking said stats. I'd be happier doing Void Ark over and over again, because nothing I want ever drops, if just going through got me "EXP" on unlocking some useful stats, than I would be doing 10 runs for absolutely nothing.