Where does SE lack when it comes to casual content, or do they lack at all?

[bswpayton]

So I was just reading a post on here , that was talking about the games census and clears. I was pretty surprised at some of the clear numbers for some of the harder content really more so potd than anything because people tend to love potd up to floor 100. . So my question is for the more casual players , where do you feel the game neglects somethings that you've been wanting to see more of, but have been sacrificed in the name of harder content.


Like potd floor 200 clear numbers was pretty surprising to me ,because I always see people at potd, but I think that one maybe more so, the fact of the fixed party part of it. I feel like I,ve gotten the wrong perception of the game , simply because many people in my linkshells , fc, or other mentors on the nn are always talkin about raiding. But clearly its such a small percent of the games base. So I just wanted to write this thread to see where the silent majorities thoughts where. Do you want more crafting features, more social features like more dev into better player interaction, more glamour or housing. What are features you feel the game is lacking for you, that it gets right for raiders.


Of course I know people who raid have some of the same wants as people who dont btw. But Id like to just know some of the people's thoughts whom dont do the hardest content in the game, do you feel like SE has gotten it wrong with the end game for the majority of the player base. IF you like hard content you get, extreme primals, 24 man raids, and raid tiers. Outside of beast tribes and roulette whats there for everyone else, would you like SE to cater to your needs more, or do you think the game is doing enough. Not trying to start,and argument but just a question out of curiosity and please dont say dungeons, because thats content that everyone in the game consumes.

A9S 82,078 cleared players.
A10S 67,240 cleared players.
A11S 38,614 cleared players.
A12S 19,725 cleared players.

Assuming the unofficial census's lodestone parse of ~357,000 currently active level 60 characters is accurate, that's a ~5.5% clear rate as of now.

PotD Floor 200 has a 13.1% clear rate amongst characters who've progressed past

[Kosmos992k]

The clear rates of raid content in FFXIV have always been low for the general population - just check the public PSN trophy data for FFXIV ARR and the first Coil. That's why it's always so funny to me when people make sweeping statements about everyone having already geared up with X gear.

For casual players who do not aggressively farm content (thus burning out on it), the game has plenty of content. For players more towards the 'mid-core' who do more aggressively farm content, much of the dungeon and older primal content is stale because they have ground it to dust with their relic grinds and so forth.

IMHO the solution is to upgrade all dungeons with respawning monsters and patrolling monsters. Also fix level sync so that dungeons cannot be steamrolled through over-gearing. We already have the option to run unsync'd, so why not tighten up the rules for level and ilevel sync? it might not fix things for players already burned out, but it would maintain the level of challenge of dungeons better, and discourage people from mindlessly grinding them, which may in turn help prevent burnout.

[bswpayton]

The clear rates of raid

Im still on the fence on whether unsync is a good feature or not in the first place and especially with skip potions coming will there really be a need to do the same to hw content like arr content. I just dono tbh I get both sides of it , why people would rather do the steamroll , and how it could also be a negative thing as well. I really think they should up the social interactions, I think with the emotes , dances and things this is something that's so unique about this game compared to others that Id like to see it taken a step further. So many people really do stand around and talk and just hang out as if they were hanging out in real life I see it so often it would be nice to do more with that system I think its one of the biggest draws to the game once you start playing.

[HyoMinPark]

One thing to consider for PotD is that floors 101-200 require a fixed party that suffered no deaths on floors 51-100.
Since so many people complain about how they can't just DF it, or how they have to have a "mini-static" in order to progress past floor 100, the clear rate only being 13% doesn't really surprise me that much. Also, the prizes waiting for you after floor 200 are extremely lackluster. Floor 151-200 sacks are good, but once I heard about the prizes for actually clearing it, I was kind of disappointed, and didn't feel any rush to actually progress past floor 100. Decent rewards at the end of a piece of content encourage more people to run them.
However, I will do so eventually...someday. Just its not on my list of things to do at the moment.

I know a lot of people complain about the "if you die during floors 101-200, you have to start over" thing as well. Something that I'm fine with, because it makes one actually pay attention, and be cautious and try NOT to screw up. But a lot of people complain about it. Because they can't just faceroll the content like everything else. They have to actually try. And a lot of people, I feel, don't want to have to try.

I really have to disagree that this game makes sacrifices when it comes to casual content for the sake of implementing more challenging content. This game is geared toward casual players. Just look at the current Expert dungeons, whose minimum ilvl is 210, which is the equivalent of the AF3 gear. That gear is outdated by a over a year. Players don't even have to try in any of the stuff you can get through roulettes, save for a few duties (Final Steps of Faith comes to mind, for some reason). In most content, the general thing to do is "ignore mechanics, burn the boss." And, frankly, I'm tired of such. I'd rather have content that forces you to actually pay attention and DO mechanics, not content where you can just burn through them and ignore them.
Of course, some mechanics you can't ignore, and they'll bite you in the butt. Which is fine, but it's so engrained in everyone to just BURN BURN BURN, they ignore the potential wipe mechanics anyways. I'm reminded of people burning the last boss in LotA, and ignoring the pads. And then wondering why we're all dead when he does Ancient Flare. But...anyways...

In my opinion, the endgame is kind of stale. If I'm not leveling an alt class, I pretty much log in for dailies (roulettes, Alex normal if I feel like doing it, beast tribes if I feel like doing them, etc.), and that's about it. There's not much waiting for those that hit 60, I feel. Expert roulette is the same 2 boring dungeons, both of which you can do with your eyes closed. I welcome EX primals, but even those I feel are easy (at least with regards to Sophia Ex; I cleared her fight below the minimum ilvl required...Bismarck and Ravana Ex are laughably easy now too...and even Thordan you can skip the last phase or so). I would welcome more challenging content geared towards "mid core" players, since I don't have a static to actually try my hand at Savage raids.

Personally, I welcomed things like Weeping City (when it was first released) because you couldn't just go on auto-pilot for fights like Forgall and Ozma. And I'm glad that SE said no to any nerfs. I hope they continue to release more content that actually requires one to participate, and not just semi-AFK through the entire thing. So I hope the final 24-man is like this, and that Zurvan Ex is challenging as well. And, hopefully, the devs will consider changing the endgame formula with 4.0. I really don't want another endgame of 2 Expert dungeons, 1 trial every other patch, etc..

I'm really hoping to actually find a static and raid in 4.0. I would gladly start now, if I could, though. Just because it would give me more to do when I log in, rather than just "do roulettes, do dailies, cap tomes, rinse and repeat next Tuesday." I'd really like to start pushing myself more, because the current endgame content just doesn't do that for me.

[Amariel34]

I have not played too many games, I will admit, but of the ones I have this game is the only one that makes gathering/crafting as big a grind as getting end-game gear. It's insane. Gathering and crafting is, usually, suppose to be relaxing. Not so in this game.

[Aramina]

I have not played too many games, I will admit, but of the ones I have this game is the only one that makes gathering/crafting as big a grind as getting end-game gear. It's insane. Gathering and crafting is, usually, suppose to be relaxing. Not so in this game.

That, to me, is the draw. If it were the same as other games I would have lost interest a looooong time ago.

[randysquirrel]

I don't think the game neglects casual content at all? Almost everything in the game is very casual.

Raid maybe receives a disproportionate amount of time being discussed, because it is the only content in the game that poses any sort of challenge at all

You're never going to see people discussing strategy on garuda ex or whatever, because those fights are just strong-armed now without the need to know/do any mechanics

[Amariel34]

That, to me, is the draw. If it were the same as other games I would have lost interest a looooong time ago.

Heh, I guess I am just different then. I'm used to just having to have a high enough skill level for stuff. I just think the gathering/crafting gear stuff is a little TOO much of a grind. Like either getting all the mats for Ironworks gear, which takes a lot of time. Or grinding tons of scripts for the script gear. And there being a cap on the red ones. It's just a little too insane. And THEN you have to grind MORE scripts for the folklore books and master books. It's just a bit overwhelming.

[Moomba33]

I wouldn't say casual players lack content.
Going by PSN trophies a lot of players don't beat the story of every game they buy let alone do extra challenges.

I haven't cleared floor 200 of PotD myself because the group I run with has been busy with work and other games. That includes me since I was busy with XV for awhile.

[Texa]

I have not played too many games, I will admit, but of the ones I have this game is the only one that makes gathering/crafting as big a grind as getting end-game gear. It's insane. Gathering and crafting is, usually, suppose to be relaxing. Not so in this game.

The real crafter endgame is playing hardcore market speculation and embracing the laissez-faire economy structure in your bid to control the price and supply of certain corners of the MB to the point where people name their retainers "yournamegivememoneyplz" because they know you are the big cash money dealer.

I've never really gotten involved with that circle of heck myself, but I knew a couple of people who did just sit around seeing how much gil they could make and it was very odd.