Yoshi-P on Character Growth

[Fevelle]

" This is just an imagination, but 10 years into the future we might shift into a team consisted of members who all truly love FFXIV and we might take our risk to release an expansion with that kind of character development involved in it, but at the moment it's impossible."

Well, I really hope this games last this much with expansions and all that!! I absolutely love FFXIV to let it go ;-;

[MomomiMomi]

Well that was a depressing read. I'm glad to get it though, because now I know to give up any hope for the game's future.

Maybe I'll be back in another 3 months.

[YakushiHinata]

I can understand that at start of ARR they wanted to play it safe, and it was a great game, easy to get into. Heavenswards rolls out and the hype is big, everyone levels up, figuring out lv 60 rotation and gets to endgame, aaaaand its the same formula as 2.X.
Fine, I can even accept that going safe for the first expansion is a good idea, why fix what aint broken right? New players have it easy to get into expansion, even more now with the QoL patches through 3.X series, Novice Hall, etc.

But one our wishes that I know have been asked for since 2.2 days, is still not being considered. I am talking about gearsets bonuses on equipement, Raid / Tomestone / Crafted / Dungeon equipments. Yoshida did say in a recent interview that the system for that type of thing is already in the game, pointed at the GC gearsets with the Sanction buff.

But he is afraid it will block people from entering content since players will go, "You don't have X item? Sorry but we cant take you with us", which is understandable but its already happening with itemlevel / have you cleared this content? (First time bonus).

I feel going safe most of the time is a good thing for new players, but when do we start focus on the longterm players? You have players that sub for a new patch, does the new content and is happy, maybe gives Savage a try, some even go so far to say its too hard, please nerf it since my casual playstyle cant beat it or dedicate time for it but then stops playing and waits for new patch.

Its the players that keeps their sub active that is asking for more growth content or something to work towards, like the relic weapons, maybe give us relic armor sets with its own unique gearset bonus.
Its the players that dedicate time for this game everyday, that maybe is part of a FC that chew through the major patch content in a week time, they are the main group of people that are the big income in a subscription game, we love this game and wants the best for it, we want challenging content but feel our voice is never heard because the casual voice group overdeafen us with, "please nerf x content, its too hard, i cant play enough or dedicate enough time to learn mechanics, I dont want to learn my class / rotation or read tooltips on skills, hand me items for free please" everytime they try to add more content that is more focused on harder, grindy, challenging content when we are finally heard.

Little extreme but you get the point, even in the interview Yoshida says it himself, over half of the player base have yet to clear Binding Coil of Bahamut with Echo buff which makes me sad since the difficulty on Coil was somewhat perfect and had fun mechanics, I wish everyone could have a equal fun learning time to work on their own class and draw out its full potential and work with a group to clear it.

[Ollieland]

But he is afraid it will block people from entering content since players will go, "You don't have X item? Sorry but we cant take you with us", which is understandable but its already happening with itemlevel / have you cleared this content? (First time bonus).

Exactly this. It already happens with iLvl, Exp and Job choice..
Give us set bonus on raid gear, make tome gear progression gear.

Raid Gear should always been the best for the job. Down with mix and matching.

[Welsper59]

Exactly this. It already happens with iLvl, Exp and Job choice..
Give us set bonus on raid gear, make tome gear progression gear.

Raid Gear should always been the best for the job. Down with mix and matching.

Yeah, I gotta agree on the matter. I mean to begin with, the arguments about not taking someone for not having unnecessary beneficial gear (which does happen, as has been pointed out) is kinda pointless. I think what a lot of people are imagining are the extremes, as in we're going full on early XI progression measures and stat implementing. Yoshi-P might also be one of those folks who are simply looking at it from the extreme angle, rather than from small increments of new and "fun" stats. For as strategy based as elemental properties to mob mechanics were in games like both XI and vanilla WoW, we really don't need to go that far, at least not all at once if wanting to.

With the example of fire properties to deal more damage to ice, we're not quite there yet with this game, and such a measure would be too "advanced" or difficult to implement properly. We don't have proper "type" resistances to actually make that a thing. We don't have "blunt" or "slash" or whatever resistances in 2.0+, though I believe some 1.0 equips still linger with slash resistance. Introducing resistance mechanics to a game that does not have it is probably more work than it's worth, exception possibly being for something on a grander scale like an expansion... but still a lot more work than they're likely comfortable with for balance sake.

Your mention of set bonuses are different however. Those can absolutely be introduced with only some degrees of additional balance work being needed. They could always go the easy route and make set bonuses more pertinent for solo or maybe more of a universal bonus (as in all jobs have the same set bonuses). Start small and gather data on interest. Throw in little unique job altering stats that make only small differences to balance (e.g. bonus stat that adds +5% Windbite damage or +5% increased chance to proc Bloodletter), if they still want to play it safe.

It's always a risk to add new things that change the current, but it's just as much of a risk to leave it as it is for the indefinite future. It just needs to be argued to Yoshi-P or the devs that they don't have to go head first into such changes. If the entire basis of MMORPGs is to be this ever evolving genre of game, then that also implies they can control how quickly it happens.

[Starkbeaumont]

I like how ppl always mention the grind for tomestones and how they dislike it, yet capping your weekly tomestones takes less than 3h per week, if you only do expert roulettes. But then the question comes up, what you need that gear for anyway, if you don't actually use it. And if you don't need it, capping stones or not becomes less of an issue.
the only time you actually grind for tomestones is when we get a new relic stage and you feel like having to finish it asap. but that's something everyone has to decide for him/herself

[SpookyGhost]

I like how ppl always mention the grind for tomestones and how they dislike it, yet capping your weekly tomestones takes less than 3h per week

The amount of time it takes isn't the issue - it's what you have to do in that time to get them. Maybe you love running the same faceroll 4man every day, but I'm personally not into it.

[Genaxx]

The amount of time it takes isn't the issue - it's what you have to do in that time to get them. Maybe you love running the same faceroll 4man every day, but I'm personally not into it.

This. I can't bare to run Sohr Kai or Hull hard again. Infact i've pretty much stopped doing expert 'roulette' all together since it melts my brain.

[Neophyte]

The amount of time it takes isn't the issue - it's what you have to do in that time to get them. Maybe you love running the same faceroll 4man every day, but I'm personally not into it.

You have to do 6 expert roulettes per week, if you're doing nothing else at all.
No 60 roulette, no trial roulette, no alexander, no savage, no PotD, no Diadem, no Aquapolis, no 24-man, no PvP, no ex primals, no hunts, no Gnath beast tribes.

[MomomiMomi]

I like how ppl always mention the grind for tomestones and how they dislike it, yet capping your weekly tomestones takes less than 3h per week, if you only do expert roulettes. But then the question comes up, what you need that gear for anyway, if you don't actually use it. And if you don't need it, capping stones or not becomes less of an issue.
the only time you actually grind for tomestones is when we get a new relic stage and you feel like having to finish it asap. but that's something everyone has to decide for him/herself

Once that question comes up, you should be questioning why you're even playing the game anymore. A question that the devs should be hoping their players aren't asking themselves.