Unofficial Census 2016 for FFXIV

[Ametrine]

http://www.mmorpg.com/mobile/feature...ame=446&ismb=1

Yoshi-P's recent interview with MMORPG, he had this to say:

MMORPG: What hasn’t worked as well as you would have hoped?
NY: For the most part, a lot of things fell within the range of expectations. However, adjusting the difficulty of high-level raid content always requires trial and error, and on top of that, balancing that content while taking the level 60 job actions into account can be difficult, so it’s always quite a challenge. This point is a big takeaway for us when we create our next raid, or when designing for the next expansion pack. We would like to make sure we leverage these learnings, and create future content that people can enjoy even more.

He knows what Savage is doing, it seems.

[Istaru]

http://www.mmorpg.com/mobile/feature...ame=446&ismb=1

Yoshi-P's recent interview with MMORPG, he had this to say:



He knows what Savage is doing, it seems.

Knowing what it is doing is one thing. Actually fixing it is another altogether.

Diadem take 2 may tell us a lot about their ability to learn from their mistakes since they have said Diadem 1 turned out to be an oopsie.

[Sparktacus]

http://www.mmorpg.com/mobile/feature...ame=446&ismb=1

Yoshi-P's recent interview with MMORPG, he had this to say:



He knows what Savage is doing, it seems.

He also knew what he was doing when he implemented it in the first place at HW launch. It was a big middle finger to the 20 people in the world that could beat FCoB within a few days. Meanwhile in the end (I believe someone mentioned earlier) the 6 month mark showed a 5% (?) completion rate), I wouldn't put much faith in CopyPastor Yoshi. Though I do keep trying as well.

I quit back right at 3.1 launch and resubbed right after 3.3. It took me roughly 6 weeks to get caught back up (to 230 and ex primals), however, a raider for the entire time of this game, I decided to stay away from Midas as there was very little point to it. I noticed a few QoL improvements, making top food 3to1 ratios, and fixing the horrible mistake they made with stat potions.

What I liked most was that I went in expecting a weapon to be handed to me for 1000 tomes. I learned that I needed 7 weeks of A8N, nothing hard just time gated, do Seph Ex for 220, or relic was an option but after doing 2.0 relic I said no more mind numbing grinds. I thought to myself, this was a step in the right direction because you had to do the battle content to get a better weapon. I worked my way up to get high enough ilvl for Nidhogg and beat him a bunch to get weapons.

No sooner that I do this, they release PoTD. 230 weapon would have been plenty. But no, they want to keep players til 3.4 so they make it 235 just so everyone will grind it out on different jobs. This showed me they really have not learned much. It also is a bit tiring to see all that work in getting my ilvl high enough to do the EX primals in the first place was pretty worthless. I am not saying that PoTD is bad by any means with that example I am simply agreeing with the well agreed upon point that in this game, the reward ratio is absolute garbage.

They don't want horizontal progression but what about set bonuses that only activate under certain conditions? Mostly something like Cleric's Doublet +10% healing *Only activated in Alex 5-8*

Thayos and Zosia also mentioned endgame ideas from 11, and what was so important about that was there were multiple outlets to get great stuff, and you did not need to do all of them to be a relevant player. Thayos mentioned loving Dynamis (me too), but not doing sea. I farmed sea and sky for triggers for our LS for hours so that the LS members could grow and we could take on bigger challenges. (Another thing 14 severely lacks in that FCs are nothing but social outlets).

With no form of progression endgame the game gets stale so quickly. I am capping to 240 and then who knows, will most likely quit again because what's the point of a game that gives you all this gear with very little content to do with it. They have locked themselves into a corner if all they have for best rewards is going to be a weapon.

This is a fantastic thread, and for the most part it is very refreshing to see so much constructive feedback in here without people ripping each other down.

[Alahra]

Diversification of the endgame is going to be absolutely necessary for the game to retain players in the long run, yes. I've been saying for ages they need to make 24-man gear upgradable to the maximum item level, for instance, as it makes the content relevant not just in the sense of catch up, but actual progression. There's actually one area of the game where they are handling non-raiding progression, at least on the endgame end of things, fairly well, and that's weapons, and part of why is because there is a third option outside of Weekly Tomestones and Raiding, the Relic/Zodiac/Anima, and alongside that third option, there is a 4th path that is has a built in progression chain: EX Primals.

We can go round on how well the various RZE quest stages have been designed, but what they do unquestionably succeed at is providing something on which non-raiders can progress, and on top of that, the weapon has lasting value because you can always continue to improve it.

In an ideal world, there would be similar chains of progression for all gear. The framework for this exists most clearly at the beginning of the level cap's patch cycle (whether 2.0 or 3.0), when there are two sets of Tomestone gear and dungeon gear actually has relevance to players interested in progression (because they hit cap and actually, for the only time will ever be the case, have gear that isn't automatically better than dungeon drops).

This was the case at level 50 in 2.0 ARR. For those that were around back then, it was vitally important to get full or nearly full Darklight to tackle endgame encounters like Titan HM (which was tied into a questline that had very high relevance!). That progression was in addition to progressing toward Mythology (i90) and potentially Allagan gear, for folks interested in Raiding. What Patch 2.1 did was create more steps between initial level 50 play and high end raid play, with the addition of Crystal Tower and three EX Primals, all of which remained relevant for the entirety of that patch thanks to end-game level accessories and weapons through Primal Focus. The EX fights also served to make it easier for folks to take the step into raiding by helping them learn and become more comfortable with more difficult content. (It also probably helped that BCOB's fights were a lot more approachable than all future raid tiers, though, to be fair.)

Part of the progression disappeared in 2.1 since dungeon gear wasn't relevant any longer, but it was still largely in tact. However, as soon as patch 2.2 hit, any and all sense of progression vanished for any player who had already been interested in progression and was therefore collecting gear and probably had i90 gear. This meant that the new dungeons introduced in Patch 2.2 didn't matter to them, and the weapons introduced in Leviathan probably also didn't matter to them. From that point forward, their only form of progression was Soldiery tomes, since the i90 Mythology gear (now unlocked) was something they already had. That's markedly different from initially hitting level 50 and seeing i70 tome gear that you don't have (on unlocked tomes) and i90 gear that you also don't have. The first set of the gear helps you get the next one, but after the first raid tier, you no longer have a two-tiered stage of progression as a non-raider.

This pattern happened again in HW. 3.0 had two sets of relevant tomestone gear at the start (well, not immediately at the start, since Esoterics were delayed until the release of Savage), again allowing for non-raiders to have at least some degree of actual progression. And that sense of progression disappeared entirely once 3.2 hit for anyone who focused on gear acquisition in 3.0/3.1. Dungeon gear was made completely irrelevant, just as it had been in 2.1 before it.

Raiding progression still has a sense of progression since you're still literally progressing against the boss fights themselves. But as of right now, non-raiders only have a real sense of progression at the beginning of an expansion/game launch.

There need to be ways for non-raiders to actually progress throughout the expansion, not just at the start of it. It's understandable that there need to be ways to for folks to catch up, as well (new players joining the game on a friend's recommendation, folks who have to take a break for work or school or whatever else, and so on). I don't have answers for the best way to arrive at that, but between the RZE weapons, and the two-tiered Tomestone progression present in both 2.0 and 3.0 (but essentially, not later, since the lower tier tomestones are irrelevant except as a catchup mechanism) show that such things can exist.

[Keramory]

I agree the armor/weapon grind has become foolish, and has been so for quite some time. These gear sets don't even provide special conditions (cure buffs / skill buffs/ ect), so collecting anything but the absolute highest ilvl is pointless...and that same gear will be pointless in a few months, every few months. Why bother? I am sitting on god knows how much lore, the pennies and other turn ins for the top gear atm and I can't even be bothered to cash them in. Why? Whats the point? With the next update I'll give my main class the new gear and my side classes the soon to be meh gear.

[Brannigan]

Tomestones from dungeons buying max ilvl gear was the biggest mistake the dev team ever made. It instantly killed any dungeon gear that comes out after the expansion launch and takes away a lot of the impact of 24 man and 8 man raid gear. Instead of something like "oh well I got this belt from hunts, this helmet from a dungeon, these pants from Ifrit, and this sword from the 24 man" you get "I ran the same two dungeons 6 times a week for 6 weeks to buy all of this gear."

GG SE plz god no RE in 4.0

Here's a hint for 4.0 SE: not all drops in a certain zone need to be equal and you don't have to put FULL SETS EVERYWHERE. It's okay if a dungeon or even a raid doesn't drop helmets. You can put them on other content. I did Nidhogg EX once when he came out but I had no reason to because even if I did play alts I already had weapon tomes and upgrade materials coming out of my ears. It's also okay if some items in a zone are better than others! Oh, this dungeon drops level 250 swords but level 260 rings, etc. Similarly, if a few top end slots can't be obtained without entering the a raid that's alright too because it might entice people to go try it out when it gets easier. If you do it right, it also means you don't have to completely eliminate the entire previous patch's content every time you patch in something new.

Also give us some interesting gear. Speed/Crit/Det are so bland.

[Hyperia]

Savage raiding and its extreme difficulty has scared away (quite literally) most of my friends who used to play the game. It should have been reserved for the final tier of raiding to give extreme hardcore raiders something to do in the down time. I have always said that they should do raid progression more like this:

* Patch X.0: Hard mode raid is released, tuned at midcore raiding.
* Patch X.1: Hard mode raid is nerfed to normal mode so casual player base can experience the raid in story mode.
* Patch X.1: Hard mode raid is buffed to Extreme for the players who want to amp things up and get cool titles.
* Repeat cycle of new raid at X.2 released at hard mode.

Replace "Savage" with "Extreme" for the harder raids for players. Savage has become tainted by bad memories and hard feelings in the 3.X series and should be avoided. Ask your marketing people if you don't believe me, once a word is tainted, it should be avoided.

[PandaHugs]

I always wondered why they let content die or gear become worthless.Give 2 weekly quest like the one in 2.0 EX with the exception of you get a primal catalyst. This catalyst can be used to bump up a primal item level by 10. Quest one would be 2.0 and allow you to take old primal weapons/acc to 180. Quest 2 would be able to take you from 180 up to 235 and you would need to clear up to latest primal. Then as new ones come out they can add new catalyst. I think this is simple and give lots of goals to work towards. older primals become more casual and gives midcore something to work towards outside of raid. Also allows for multiple gear sets to run different content if you wanted. they could also add glamor or materia or whatever else people want.
Also would make Midas NM crafted level should be at 240 this gives hard core more options to fill slots as needed to push content and keeps old Midas with echo worth going into. I would also only make new times 245 and then upgraded 250.

[Tanathya]

I got back for the free login (of which I used a total of 2 hours, if that), and it was almost literally empty everywhere. Now I'm not saying the game is in bad shape, but it's been on this path for a long while now. I left 3 months ago, and I tried to miss the game, but I don't. I want the game to be as successful as it was when it came out, but I just don't see it happening if they continue with this mentality.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

While I still have misgivings towards horzonital progression, as it is more often just an illusion of choice, the devs do need to do something to combat gear stagnation. Take dungeon gear, for example. It's wholly worthless outside glamour since Alexander Normal offers better and its minimal ilvl entry requirement is only 200; esoterics get you that. If they want to keep vertical progression, they can't keep handing out gear left and right that renders other avenues pointless because people will just ignore that content. Even the Anima weapon suffers from this. Someone in one of my linkshells pointed out how the effort required compared to say, farming PotD or even running Nidhogg EX for a near equivalent weapon just doesn't compare properly. I mean, I'm all for multiple options for gear progression, but there just seems like a lack of balance to it sometimes. Stat or proc bonuses would at least feel different even if it didn't change the dynamic a whole lot.