I guess it's time

[Dextro]

I'm not.
You fall behind the rest of the global playerbase with no means of catching up if you miss a weekly cap.

[RiceisNice]

I'm not.
You fall behind the rest of the global playerbase with no means of catching up if you miss a weekly cap.

Worst case scenario you're just behind players in the gearing process (which in itself is very shallow since it's only numbers). The ilvl requirement on dungeons are so lenient that it doesn't have any repercussions. If you were actively playing the game and gearing, this would not be an issue. Likewise if you aren't actively playing the game for progression and don't need the gear, I don't see missing the weekly cap as a big deal.

The XIV dev team is great at giving us new pieces of content to play with. Case in point, there is no logical argument to be made that Weeping City is the same as Void Ark. Each plays completely differently, all the way down to the emphasis on party mechanics in Weeping City.

While this is subjective, I hardly think anyone considers LoV and Diadem, while being "new pieces of content", is a great thing. As I mentioned before, a lot of their additions end up being throw-away content, and most of them ultimately fall back onto the same base gameplay of "Dodge telegraph", only with different rewards. It does not "play completely differently" for the most part, just look at the objectives for FATEs and they're all functionally the same, likewise with the mobs.

While it's not the "same" content, it's largely on the same gameplay that repeats the same cycle (specifically talking diadem here)... nor has the developers shyed from milking the aforementioned old content (2.x beast tribes and hunts specifically)

[Thayos]

I hardly think anyone considers LoV and Diadem, while being "new pieces of content", is a great thing.

LoV and Diadem were meant to serve two completely different purposes. I think LoV was a great example of the devs trying to "Tanaka" us by giving us content nobody really wanted. As for Diadem, I think that could have been incredibly fulfilling had it been more carefully designed (and the dev team is revamping it as we speak, so we'll see how that turns out).

Both Diadem and Deep Dungeons are meant to be content types that are expanded and kept relevant from here on out, as are the game's other dominant content types. So none of that is really "throwaway content." It's more accurate to call the various pieces of content within each type "repetitive."

And I do get your point about how a lot of the game is just song/dance while doing DPS. And there are downsides associated with that, for sure -- like battles being won based on memorizing patterns rather than using your job's skills.

But I don't view that as a deal-breaker. That's just the type of game this is. The upside of this game's design is that all the jobs are incredibly balanced, and we don't have jobs that are shunned by the community or excluded from certain content types like we saw in XI.

XIV punishes you for not capping out each week

I also don't agree with this.

As a longtime player of FFXI, I find this game to be incredibly FORGIVING for people who don't grind to stay on the bleeding edge of iLevels. In XI, if you fell behind it could take months to catch up... YEARS even if you fell out of line for certain drops in events like Dynamis. Damn, I had to grind dynamis for six to eight hours per week for TWO FREAKING YEARS just to get my rdm hat. And that was just the time spent in the same Dynamis zones.

In XIV, I could leave the game for six months, come back and have a high enough iLevel to succeed in most content within a month or two.

[odintius]

Both Diadem and Deep Dungeons are meant to be content types that are expanded and kept relevant from here on out, as are the game's other dominant content types. So none of that is really "throwaway content." It's more accurate to call the various pieces of content within each type "repetitive.".

I believe these content are catch up for gearing up other jobs or exp so then you can proceed to repeat the current content of what you would of been doing anyways on any other job to begin with just so people can take more breaks from the game I guess. /shrug

I say for those they could have introduce gear set bonus to armor and accessories as well as keeping the current reward for weapon. Say you do deep dungeon as whm your earn all the point needed at the end you can chose between say 2 bonuses only one can be apply from option menu for a piece of gear/ acc if this were the case and at same time fun to repeat would be a lot more rewarding. /shrug

[KitingGenbu]

I guess one could argue that fights in XI were more advance than XIV due to the TP system playing a bigger determining factor rather than just a resource in this game. The coupling of predetermined patterns with the ability for monsters to build tp made it so that certain fights couldn't be 'cheesed' by zerging unless you had a chainspell stun I suppose. Physical dps required a certain degree of subtle blow (lowering how much tp the monster got when hit) and store tp (increasing how much tp the player built when hitting the target). Then you had skill chains and magic bursts as opposed to this one man army that everyone plays in this game.

[Vantol]

The upside of this game's design is that all the jobs are incredibly balanced, and we don't have jobs that are shunned by the community or excluded from certain content types like we saw in XI.

This "balance above all" is actually killing game. All classes play the same. Nothinbg is unique. Zero theorycrafting. Why not make everything equally unequal? For example, trial A is best for blms, trial B is best for drgs and etc The game would get so much more depth in instant.

In XIV, I could leave the game for six months, come back and have a high enough iLevel to succeed in most content within a month or two.

And that's exactly the problem we are all talking about.

Actually those 2 things combined are the root reason of all problems.

It's either throw away any sights of balance, but keep gear raining with no effort, so everyone can play any job and have fun.

OR

Keep everything balanced, but gear hard to obtain and last 1-2 years/

But not both. Any of those ways will fix game for the most part.

[panderin]

This "balance above all" is actually killing game. All classes play the same. Nothinbg is unique. Zero theorycrafting. Why not make everything equally unequal? For example, trial A is best for blms, trial B is best for drgs and etc The game would get so much more depth in instant.

I have been keeping up with this thread partially because I am genuinely curious about what others think as I only log on to do my mog tribe stuff atm. Plus the mention of XI makes me all warm and fuzzy inside (I miss it so much).

Overall I just think this actually hits the nail on the head and would be so amazing to experience in this game.

[Thayos]

Now everything feels like it has to be done with a static because nobody interacts anymore. The game is not producing any new skilled players this way (unsyncing aside).

This is another reason why I'm excited about Deep Dungeons, and also another reason why I was so upset by the Diadem's failure.

A big weakness of this game has always been its structured 8-man content, which encourages statics and discourages more casual linkshell and FC groups, which is what people who came from FFXI were accustomed to. Given this game's emphasis on Free Companies, it has always baffled me that the game never had more meaningful content that pick-up groups in FCs could do without needing to form exclusionary statics.

Deep Dungeons should be more accessible by in-game friends who don't have the time to form statics. So should Diadem, if SE can properly fix it. When Diadem first launched, my FC was looking forward to regularly occurring runs for whoever could show up at certain times (with no static strings attached). But the content sucked so bad that everyone immediately lost interest -- it just wasn't fun.

The only people in my FC who kept up with Diadem were the people who were in a savage raiding static, and they only did it for the drops. But they absolutely hated the content.

4. Player interactions were a whole lot better. People were actually willing to teach and take you through instances/primals etc. Why? Because in the end you can get your relic and you would be a good candidate to raid with. What's the difference now? Its either you clear x primal once and pray to god your weapon drops, convince 7 other people to grind the same content with you (slim chance without a static), sit and wait for the relic to come out to get a good weapon, pray to god that a static will take you in with your current gear/weapon, or not raid at all.

Yes, yes, yes! Totally agree. And you do a great job of showing why SE screwed up by tuning this game's endgame too far toward raiding. In a casual/midcore game with a social infrastructure built around Free Companies, it makes no sense to have endgame be focused on eight-man content that's by far more efficient in statics with strict membership requirements. THIS is the game's biggest weakness.

[Zojha]

Deep Dungeons should be more accessible by in-game friends who don't have the time to form statics.

Do consider that Deep Dungeon will only have two save-states and in order to continue a save-state, the group members must be the same as when the save-state was made. Unless deep dungeon can be cleared within one session, it will be mini-static content.

[Thayos]

Do consider that Deep Dungeon will only have two save-states and in order to continue a save-state, the group members must be the same as when the save-state was made. Unless deep dungeon can be cleared within one session, it will be mini-static content.

That does kind of suck, but if you can re-enter with randoms without eating a save space, then that would be good.

Even so, just the option to have a four-person static will be a nice break from the requirement to have eight people. It would be much, much easier to find three other people and ONLY have to worry about scheduling without any job or iLevel requirements.

This "balance above all" is actually killing game. All classes play the same. Nothinbg is unique. Zero theorycrafting. Why not make everything equally unequal? For example, trial A is best for blms, trial B is best for drgs and etc The game would get so much more depth in instant.

And I think this is where you'll find so many people to be evenly divided (I happen to enjoy this game's emphasis on balance, even though I do understand its costs). But I totally respect where you're coming from and I'm not at all dismissive of this train of thought. It's legit.

I wish we had separate threads about this and the game's disconnect between endgame and social infrastructure.