Quantity vs Quality Updates

[Rufalus]

I do agree that a lot of development time/cost is spent on content that gets old fast, with the main offender being dungeons. To optimise cost efficiency they are made extremely linear, simple and repetitive. Participation in this kind of content is very high, but not necessarily for fun reasons. Many people do them reluctantly each day because we are encouraged by high rewards; they are easy to complete and are the fastest source of tomestones when entering via roulette.

My preference would be a reduction in the amount of instanced content, replaced by more frequent additions of fields zones like say Coerthas Eastern Highlands for example. Currently we don't get any field zones for 2 years, then get several at once in an expansion. So my idea would be to spread those across the patch series, giving more regular opportunities to go questing in new lands. In exchange the expansions would be more heavily focused on the introduction of new jobs, raids, pvp and new types of content.

[RiceisNice]

This game seems to have emphasized glamour as the true end game in 3.0 compared to 2.0.

As a MCH/BRD, I really disagree with this being the case, considering that our i160/180 crafted is the same model as a previous piece that was already available to BRD (which was also a shared model of the caster/healer)...while caster/healer, tank/drg got entirely new models and mnk/nin got the kirmu coat. ...then kirimu coat was made into a level 1 crafted glamour thats incredibly cheap to make.

[Belhi]

This is an interesting issue. On one hand they need to and I suspect want to make content that players are happy redoing. On the other hand they want to release content regularly enough to keep players interested. This is a sub based game so keeping people subbed is important. If they go 6 months between patches, they need to be releasing content that will keep people playing for 6 months.

But what content is actually going to do that and can it be made within FF14's system? I think that is the big question. They have tried some new things such as the Diadem, which haven't really worked so clearly they are looking. What do they release that will keep people consistently playing? Even if people only sub for a month ever 3 months SE will still be better off than if people only sub for a month every 6 months.

In sure people will have arguments on what would keep them personally playing but the issue here is wether that will appeal enough to large groups. The reason companies make linear dungeons is because a lot of people just want something they can run through quickly. They don't want to take time to wonder down side paths and such. Hell, I have people in my FC who are very happy with the current model.

If someone had an answer to this question I think every game designer in the industry would want to know.

[Reaperking386]

What we need is a middle ground. The problem with content is that it has to reward you with something or else no one will work for it. Gear is the main reason why people do anything now, but it is pointless if no gear is provided. Glamour rewards are also pointless since that is what gear turns into anyways.

We need more:


Side quests: Side quest stories are a great way to enjoy the game and take a break from all the dungeon grinds and raiding for gear. Final Fantasy excels in story and should take advantage of their strengths to make that a huge things.

Rework Diadem: Diadem was a great idea on paper, but fell through because SE did not account for players completing things for reward and ignoring the feel of exploring.Diadem also failed to be interesting to players since all it was made of was trees and rocks. Nothing in Diadem was really worth exploring. As soon as SE fixed the drop rate, Diadem became a ghost town. I Believe that it needs to be re-evaluated and suggestions from the player base should be heard in what they can do to give that hunk or rock life again.

Grand Companies: We know they are coming soon, but they need to get here faster and have amazing story and reward.

Hunts: Hunts have no rewards besides tomes and has not been updated since Heavenward first arrived. It needs new items such as, housing, music, pets, mounts, glamour, and character updates. We also need stronger monsters besides S ranks to fulfil our thrill for the hunt. Bosses that would require the presence of the entire server and even so possibly more.

Crafting: It is just as bad as grinding tomes. There needs to be a story in place to help crafters at least feel the are progressing in story rather than mindlessly getting someone scripts to update their gear.

[Belhi]

/snip

In the question of Quality vs Quantity it sounds like your asking for both:P

The problem there is it brings in the third factor: Development Resources. It takes time, money and people to make content. If they are going to produce more or higher quality work in the same amount of time there is going to need to be more resources to full that content. Story driven content in particular takes a fair amount of time to make. In a time factor side quests don't consume much time to play but take quite a bit to create.

That said its possible they could come up with new ways to tell story which require a higher time investment. Perhaps they could have tied the crafting disciplines in with the story of Idylshire's development and growth.

[Shurrikhan]

How about simply... more foresight? Some inkling of a plan where small, individually interesting steps move us towards a final goal, rather than merely hanging on via hand-holds identical to the last whole cliff's worth?

[RiceisNice]

How about simply... more foresight? Some inkling of a plan where small, individually interesting steps move us towards a final goal, rather than merely hanging on via hand-holds identical to the last whole cliff's worth?

This is definitely something they could use and would've addressed a lot of the downfalls in 3.0 and 3.1. Their implementation of things like crafting, gathering and FC crafting has so little framework, you can't do much to add onto it aside from "add new recipes". Diadem could have definitely used more foresight in regards to having some sort of focus; Even with how open ended they wanted it to be, it doesn't encourage anything beyond killing mobs.

Same with class balance in general. To this date, I still don't understand how they expected BRD/MCHs to keep up with dps when WM/GB increases their damage by 20%, when auto attacks previously made up for roughly 20% of their dps. A lot of the PvP changes seem to reflect it too; some changes are incredibly short sighted and ultimately feel like a band-aid fix (which at the same time ignores the core setting of PvP...like having PvP specific attacks/materia not work in PvP)

I definitely agree that we need more mid-core content. For people who aren't interested in raiding but clear all the 'easier' content early on, there really isn't much to do. I realize that the new savage isn't quite as hard as the previous savage, but I do think it's still a step up from original Coil difficulty... and by the point it was released, many people already quit the game. Most people in my FC were mid-core players who lost interest soon after trying their hands at the first savage and realizing that they just didn't have the skill/damage to do it.

It's roughly the same in a different matter. The biggest point is that you need quite a bitof time commitment to make meaningful progress, espesically on a fight like A6s. Most players who don't/can't invest 3 hours of raiding per night would have trouble keeping up.

[Joe_Schmoe]

Do you want more updates, more content faster? Or slower updates with better quality content?

As one who grew up with games that were centered on this kind of stuff, it'd be kinda nice for designers to go all-in on quality over quantity for once. Heck, I've played idle games that were more creative than that.

Not to mention having constant updates sounds to me like desperation, having to keep players interested for fear of them packing up and leaving for another game, which just makes them look bad. Might as well do it good the 1st time.

[Ryuko]

I definitely agree that we need more mid-core content. For people who aren't interested in raiding but clear all the 'easier' content early on, there really isn't much to do. I realize that the new savage isn't quite as hard as the previous savage, but I do think it's still a step up from original Coil difficulty... and by the point it was released, many people already quit the game. Most people in my FC were mid-core players who lost interest soon after trying their hands at the first savage and realizing that they just didn't have the skill/damage to do it.

I also think the new crafting/gathering stuff has discouraged people from doing it unless they have a lot of time to commit to the game every single week. Binge playing every once in a while is one thing, but having to cap your tomestones AND red scripts (for gatherers and crafters) is quite a chore. But if you don't do it, you're behind (but that only really matters for battle classes IF you are part of the small percentage of people who raid). Furthermore, only two new dungeons per patch (as opposed to three) makes tomestone grinding pretty stale as it is. I agree that quality over quantity is the way to go, but I am disappointed that the new dungeons added per patch was reduced from three to two.

I'm not sure what the 'fix' would be for mid-core content. I could say make the next 'normal' Alexander more of the Coil difficulty, but I know they specifically want to keep that content accessible to all. I just don't understand why the had to make it SO easy that it's a pushover. Even more casual players would appreciate a fight that doesn't require more than a few pulls to understand. There's really no middle bracket for players unless they are hardcore, and once you do beat savage... now what? I felt like Thordan Ex was tuned a little too high for mid-core content, and Sephirot Ex's hard enrage was a little too unforgiving (when the fight was first released). Lots of raid groups had difficulty beating his dps check unless everyone was alive and it was a flawless run. With better gear, the dps check is a pushover. I feel like Bismarck and Ravana were more at a mid-core content level (when released). Don't get me wrong -- I love a hard fight, but I also like when my friends like to play the game, too. Haha.

[Korbash]

I'd rather prefer they keep things simple. They should think of the sick and disabled players who play the game, and pay their subs, and don't want to deal with too challenging and complex contents. I've been gaming since age 5-6 and now I play MMORPGs and I want to keep playing this game.