Famitsu Interview - YoshiP 3 Year Anniversary Interview

[Lorielle]

For the Steps of Faith argument. It is fine to put slightly more difficult content in story quests. What you shouldn't do is put complicated fights in there. Steps of Faith failed to explain to players how the fight worked and what needed to be done. NPC's screamed things but it was pretty vague for the most part. The complications is why people did not like doing DF for it. If you make something that is harder to some extent, but very easy to understand, then I think that is the balance of later story quests that you need.

There was nothing complicated about SoF. The issue is people do not know how to put 1+1 together. All the mechanics were told to you by the NPC except one(Snare and Dragon Killer). Cannons have been in use elsewhere(Stone Vigil HM) as a means to kill adds(ohhai SoF). The game isn't complicated at all. People just need to...Well, get good. It only comes through trial and error. That is what this game is all about after all. But hey, if you want to remove the fundamental of your game away, have at it.

[aesteval]

There was nothing complicated about SoF. The issue is people do not know how to put 1+1 together. All the mechanics were told to you by the NPC except one(Snare and Dragon Killer). Cannons have been in use elsewhere(Stone Vigil HM) as a means to kill adds(ohhai SoF). The game isn't complicated at all. People just need to...Well, get good. It only comes through trial and error.

You know...isn't Stone Vigil HM a side dungeon and MSQ. Is it possible that people are now running Steps of Faith before Stone Vigil HM in an effort to get to Ishgard? A solo duty as a tutorial introducing the stage and the tools would go such a long way towards discovering the mechanics while not under fire. Because you know...some people start to panic in that setting. :-p Try following NPC prompts during panic, some people start yelling "but I don't know what the snare looks like." 8 player PUG isn't the best time for trial and error except on day one.

[Lorielle]

Snip

PUG is always a time for trial and error. It just depends on who you take. People don't go into DF to practice. They go into clear. That is why people often left the duty because of impatience of clearing. Stone Vigil HM is just one example off the top of my head. Cannon Fire didn't make its debut there. Honestly, I feel like a Solo Duty would just have the opposite effect. I look at that suggestion the same way I do Normal and Savage Alexander. It just takes the surprise and fun out of it. But that's how I feel about it.

[aesteval]

You know...isn\\\\'t Stone Vigil HM a side dungeon and MSQ. Is it possible that people are now running Steps of Faith before Stone Vigil HM in an effort to get to Ishgard? A solo duty as a tutorial introducing the stage and the tools would go such a long way towards discovering the mechanics while not under fire. Because you know...some people start to panic in that setting. :-p Try following NPC prompts during panic, some people start yelling "but I don\\\\'t know what the snare looks like." 8 player PUG isn\\\\'t the best time for trial and error except on day one.

***and not MSQ

[Ametrine]

Even with the knowledge, SoF was such a mess. Up to that point, we never had a fight like it, so even with some awareness about the cannons, it was a shitstorm of blind guesses and prayers.

This was also the first time we saw an instance that didn't reset on a wipe. You were forced to keep fighting until Vishap hit the final gate even if the fight was truly a lost cause. It was, still somewhat is, terribly unfriendly to parties where most players are new.

[ADVSS]

I was really hoping that steps of faith was to prepare us for some new unique mechanics based content that didnt require us to just dps the boss and win, but considering how hw ended up i can see where steps "could" be a hindrance for those trying to enter the expansion, though the fight wasnt faceroll easy im glad i had cleared it a couple days after release,full df pug. Maybe these players have long quit and were just getting the influx of nerfed content trained players, which will only get that much better with a skip everything potion, if that becomes a reality. on a side note:

Q. In other words, it relies to much on player skills?
Y.Yes. Basically, the 2.0 rotations were simple so it made it easy to maintain that rotation while you busted mechanics. To add to that, excluding monk, there weren't many actions where "If you drop or lose this buff, your DPS plummets". Back from those days, Greased lightning was the key for monks and that was what the job design was supposed to be like, but now almost every job has that sort of element. That space is left for contriving, but i think the difficulty was too high.

I can get down with this: The "cooldown timer stances" have a massive pull on the newer dps rotations and they tend to have clunky ways to refresh them or fall off at inopportune times unless one just masters the job completely, which for people who play many jobs might be a bit difficult.
I can see them doing things like making botd a stance, or enochian even, not entirely simplified mechanics but the fall of stachs/buff thing seemed to be entirely a mnk mechanic, the idea apparently to make jobs output higher had to be put under timers. 2 different timers for some, though mnk has always had like a billion buff timers, but going by what i had read from this thats a mnk thing. It sounded to me like they want to make jobs feel more like they did, and less like caster monk, jumping stabby monk, bow using caster monk, etc

[Xiomara]

A really simple tweak to BLM that probably would have stopped a lot of people from complaining was to disconnect Fire 4 & Bliz 4 from enochian and just have enochian as a straight DPS buff, which could be refreshed. That way if enochian drops off, you should still do decent DPS rather than it cratering until enochian come off cooldown.

[Mature]

This is exactly where I am. I have approximately 2-2.5 hrs to play 5/6 nights a week. Once you remove the time needed for Expert Roulette, weekly 24 mans, weekly crafting Red Scripts, some revenue generation time. I am left with only 1 maybe 2 nights tops to work on any end game. Add to the fact that I have to go to bed at a reasonable time finding a static was neigh impossible. I just gave up looking for one a very long time ago. I am just not reliable enough (due to RL) to waste that static's time.

This is my point not just for you and me and many others BUT this is the actual reality of the raid scene here.

It's not about the skill or rotations or overload of skills, it's about the lack of time and the lack of people wanting to form a static. Without static you CANNOT improve in the fight because you won't be able to PRACTICE. Without them and them without you, nothing will be clear able.

People clearing Savage is not due to their "incredible" rotations "incredible" skills "incredible" minds. They are clearing it because they have the people AND the time to practice. They can take as long as they want practising each floors and will eventually clear it ! Could be a week could be a month could be a year BUT they can practice and get better. Something that people like us cannot do.

Like I pointed out before. Let's go back to COIL level and remove savage completely. This will encourage people to create more PFs and more pug like practices runs.

[StrejdaTom]

Oh so, the raids need to be nerfed, so people can finish them faster and trough PF, but the people who are clearing it now aren't better, don't have better strategy and rotations, they just have more time.
Okk... I guess. If that makes you feel better..

I thought that in MMO it is normal that people who pour more time in get further. I was probably wrong. Lets make everyone equal no matter how much time they spend in game, that will motivate long time players to play more.

[Jetstream_Fox]

I'm more interested in this new battle system idea, with them saying the clear rates of Alex potentially being higher if the level cap was 50, has me thinking they're going to take away positionals and maybe even cast timers, at least on BRD. Also on the note about the "dancing" through AoE, makes me believe even more positionals and cast times are on the way out. There are many instances where combat takes a backseat to said "dancing" and it's just silly to me, like Thordan EX meteor phase, dodging orange AoE circles that follow you, while dodging a ever growing bigger orange AoE circle, just to kill orange meteor circles. I feel that part of the fight could have better implemented, like maybe an all out fight between the knights, jumping in and out of the arena while Thordan charges ultimate end, that would have been something.