Should FF14 take a new route? Discussion

[Dzian]

I've always hated the combat system myself it's just something I tolerate...
it's all flash bang sparkle and no actual substance or weight. The 1.23 one was much better every button you pressed had impact and was visually different also had a lot more depth with things like incapacitation break a bosses tail or something and the fact TP and MP actually materred... but in this game its all just flash bang sparkle and by and large every move is basically the same. and TP is essentially Infinite outside of AOE

sam for example I couldn't even tel you the difference between jinpu and shifu visually and I don't really care either. as long as that buff icon goes up on my buff bar that's all I care about.

Same kinda thing with paladin. savage blade and riot blade if you just showed me the animation I couldn't tell you which one was which there's no substance or weight to either of them... just slightly different flashes and splarkles... blurred in with everyone elses flashes and sparkles. You never get that oomph!! Like "holly hell my jinpu hit for x damage..." because its just a blur in the middle of loads of other blurs....

Regarding a change in direction though I sometimes think the devs often listen to what we say but they don't actually hear it...
Its like the stereo typical husband and wife sat at a dinner table thing. hubby is watching tv and the wife is talking to him about something...
"I tell you jane at work is lazy every day we all have to pick up her slack and yet the bosses never see it.... I don't know how she gets away it all the time"
and the husband is there going " mmhmmm, mhmmm mhmmm,"
then the wife be like " are you even listening to me? what did I just say?"
husband is like oh um " jane is your new boss at work???" because all he heard was "blah blah jane at work blah blah blah boss blah"

or in se's case.
Players: "here's a cool idea for a glamour catalog designed in such a way that wouldn't stress servers and had virtually limitless capacity"
Se hears "blah blah blah Glamour blah blah blah blah more capacity blah blah..."

or with eureka when players spent years saying there'd like structured engame like XI then we basically got an exp party crossed with fates that everyone hates. and has hated since like 2.0...

its amazing how many times they can get things soo wrong.

I do think though that if they were going to look into a change of direction they should do a mass survey thing and not just for current players. but for former ones as well. that would give a better set of results. you might find for example that the 500k current players love the treadmill / tomestone grind which might look great to devs. but it might turn out to be the reason 5 million players quit because they hated it and gear was meaningless.... suddenly it doesn't look so good..

Edit:-
On the topic of coding I don't even know what to say. I look at xi and the fact it's nearly 20 years old and often suffered lolps2 limitations. But they pulled out some real nice stuff with that code and had a living breathing dynamic world that was ever changing.... zones that had mazes that changed every hour. Puzzles and things all over the place. Constantly pushing the limits with various additions like tactics pearls and large scale battles like besieged. Managed to make virtually every new content feel few and fresh....

They could do all of that on code that's nearly 20 years old for heaven's sake. What the he'll is the problem in xiv

[Derio]

Something has got to change.

IMO ever since 4.0 the game has gone a sharp turn downhill outside of 4.0's QOL updates outside of Job changes.

The content in general feels rushed and not well thought out. Granted Diadem in 3.0 was something new that they have never tried before so I will give them the excuse there.

However 4.0 continues to be a complete downgrade when comparing to 3.0 with job changes, server issues, cold steel and the feel of overall less content but most importantly less quality content.

[Vaer]

I think they really should look at updating itemization in this game. To me, ilv lasting 6months is one of the larger issues in the game. I would prefer incremental ilv increase like in WoW. Basically a constant carrot on the stick system.

Current WoW? They do the same thing though, except there is a RNG chance you might get a higher ilvl but it is low (titanforge).

The big difference is that if you don't actually raid higher than RF your ilvl caps a lot lower (you don't even get near raider ilvl unless you get the RNG luck but that's usually only a couple pieces and maybe some legendaries). Non raiders don't get near the cap ilvl most of the time. They only increase the ilvl when the next tier comes out but the ilvl cap has gone up already so you are perpetually stuck halfway into the ilvl increase if you don't raid.

It'd be like if you were stuck at 360 this tier and only raiders got 370-375. Once the next raid releases they let you get the 370-375 stuff but the raiders would already be at 400-405 and then you would be stuck at 390, repeat etc.

FFXIV is a lot more fair in that regard to people who don't raid.

[Marluxia]

FFXIV needed to "take another direction" since patch 3.2 or so.

What makes FFXIV unique is the art, the setting, its focus on story (however slipshod that story is), and the music.

Gameplay-wise, it's been a low-budget World of Warcraft from Day 1 of ARR, and a dev team that has repeatedly demonstrated that they either can't or won't learn from their mistakes, or perhaps acknowledge mistakes at all.

[Tridus]

I tire of hearing "I can't". I want to start hearing about what CAN be done.

End of discussion.

When people suggest stuff like "change the genre of the game", there is nothing to discuss. That's totally unrealistic. There's been lots of discussion on what can happen, including netcode improvements, lowering the size, adding other things to do in there, etc.

[Okamimaru]

They should take the element system from Eureka and expand it outside of that instance and apply elements to armor and weapons or bring back element materia... that alone would give a more vertical progression feel to gear and add a new yet classic ff level to combat without having to change how skills work... it would give people a reason to grind for particular weapons and armors... also updating the world spawns based on weather and time of day like in eureka would make the world feel more alive... I see potential in what they started in eureka... it's just if they can manage to run with it enough to make it matter...

[Penthea]

Gameplay-wise, it's been a low-budget World of Warcraft from Day 1 of ARR

As someone who played WoW for over ten years, I strongly disagree.

Yes there is a considerable mechanical overlap but there is with most pve orientated mmorpgs. That sort of thing tends to happen when games are in the same genre. But does having some basic mechanics in common make several games the same game? No, of course not.

[Marluxia]

As someone who played WoW for over ten years, I strongly disagree.

Yes there is a considerable mechanical overlap but there is with most pve orientated mmorpgs. That sort of thing tends to happen when games are in the same genre. But does having some basic mechanics in common make several games the same game? No, of course not.

I've also played WoW for close to ten years, and I'm actually going to agree with you on this.

WoW at least has had major changes to the gameplay loop with every expansion, and hasn't recycled its formulas nearly as much as FFXIV has. The two are different games with vastly different dev cycles.

When I say FFXIV is a low-budget WoW, I'm specifically referencing WotLK-era WoW with its endgame loop of weekly currency caps leading into raids and daily roulette dungeon, peppered with the occasional new set of daily quests. In fact, I'm fairly certain (but not completely sure) that there's an interview somewhere of the dev team having played WotLK/Cata WoW as a reference.

Now as you rightfully pointed out, WoW hasn't been WotLK for close to ten years now, so the comparison is a misnomer, especially for people who have never played WotLK.

That said, FFXIV resembles World of Warcraft far more than it resembles any other MMO, and FFXIV desperately needs to define itself with something other than its WoW-style combat system and its WotLK endgame loop when it comes to creating new features, because the weak combat system is why FATEs and Hunts and Diadem and Eureka are incredibly dull and un-engaging, and repeating its formula is just going to make things more stale than they already are.

[Xlantaa]

Just no. I like how is it. Naoki Yoshida is better than anyone in SE in this moment. I think on Tabata or Nomura and, while I like their works, won't make any good to this game. Neither that guy form FFXI (sorry FFXI fanatics ,that game is outdated). I rather want current director stays rather than throw it to other guy and totally change things. Yoshida fix the game, now you want he stay away? That's very hypocrite. Could 6.0 being still that same, and I will be happy. I love the game how is it now, not how can be. If I want a different game, I play another game.

[Remedi]

No offense to whom likes Nomura but Imagine how long it'll take for something to be done by him