Thoughts on what the game needs to do

[RiyahArp]

We've had about a year or so with stormblood, and I think there are some lessons from it that the devs need to learn for future content. They are.

1. Core PvE and PvP content is the most important thing of them all.

Even with the serious balancing Stormblood brought to jobs, simplifying them and making them much more player-friendly, this game lives or dies based on its core content. If it is repetitive or uninspired, or balance issues are not addressed, the content can stagnate quickly.

2. Side content is not enough to keep the playerbase happy.

Ultimate is a failure. Bard perform is a failure. Squadrons are a failure. Fashion Report is a failure. Raid replay is a failure

They are failures because they are not strong enough to keep many players into the game. They interest a fairly small niche if even that. This sort of ties into my next point.

3. You cannot design solely for the JP playerbase or expect all players to act the same way.

Things like Raid replay fail because they don't add functionality to western players experiences, even if they fill the niche for JP audiences who don't have as robust third party support. The same thing with Feast; you cannot coast on being the only real MMO with PvP like you are in Japan.

You also have to realize westerners act differently. We have different problems and may need different measures taken. And we are the majority of this game's market; you would lose 2/3rds or so of revenue if we didn't exist.

4. You cannot repeat the same formula too much.

Stormblood is simply too close to Heavensward to be satisfying. It's the same general content as HW, just with a different wrapper. Progression is the same, leveling is the same, etc. You have to at some point vary the formula because people get tired of the same overall pattern. Some predictability is good, total predictability isn't.

5. You must let players test your content.

Doesn't even have to be western, get some JP players to focus group your content, so you can see how players will use it. Eureka in particular just screams "We expect you to do it this way" and we didn't. And the content suffers so much for it...it's just an afk-fest where you are handed gear.

Those are my thoughts.

[hynaku]

My suggestion add what FFXI had. FFXI you could do main story quests for each of the main cities also once finished current time line you could travel back in time for whole new experience. They should add something like that here. Never once did find FFXI boring like have FFXIV from lack of content.

[KaldeaSahaline]

I'll bite... If I didn't quote it, it's because I agreed wholeheartedly.

2. Side content is not enough to keep the playerbase happy.

Ultimate is a failure. Bard perform is a failure. Squadrons are a failure. Fashion Report is a failure. Raid replay is a failure

They are failures because they are not strong enough to keep many players into the game. They interest a fairly small niche if even that. This sort of ties into my next point.

I vehemently disagree that ultimate is a failure, and less adamantly, I think perform was not a failure. Ultimate gave SE the most publicity it's ever had on twitch, and if you think that holds no value, you're incredibly mistaken. It engages the entire playerbase into watching the race and rooting for different teams. Perform is a neat feature, and something that doesn't really exist anywhere and works pretty well and is robust.

I agree the other 3 are failures though.

5. You must let players test your content.

Doesn't even have to be western, get some JP players to focus group your content, so you can see how players will use it. Eureka in particular just screams "We expect you to do it this way" and we didn't. And the content suffers so much for it...it's just an afk-fest where you are handed gear.

Those are my thoughts.

I agree that testing controls need significant review, but wanted to respond to add some stuff here.

I don't know their current testing process, but if I had to bet, it'd be they probably have a QA team that's incredibly silod in that one probably tests sound, the other GFX, the other animations, etc.

They probably don't even have people who play the game or MMO's actively test the feel of content, which is easily more important than the easily identifiable bug testing.

[Liam_Harper]

4. You cannot repeat the same formula too much.

Stormblood is simply too close to Heavensward to be satisfying. It's the same general content as HW, just with a different wrapper. Progression is the same, leveling is the same, etc. You have to at some point vary the formula because people get tired of the same overall pattern. Some predictability is good, total predictability isn't.

Agree on this.

Enix play far too safely. When you get to lv70 your rotation and abilities are basically unchanged for the expansion. When a new raid tier comes in and you get that shiny new set of gear, your character just gains a slight flat increase in power. A lot of abilities, buffs and stats in general are only small increases so it's nice and easy to balance. You never get that powerful "I can take on the world" feeling from your character in ff14, you just combine lots of miniscule things and know it'll probably make a bit of difference even if you can't feel it. Fates are largely unchanged from ARR, quests are unchanged, the progression model is mostly unchanged.

It works, but it gets a bit dull. Nothing really stands out.

[Okamimaru]

If I was going to change anything it would adding in longer more involved sidequests with like personal dungeons and unique glams mounts and minions as rewards... scrap and redo Lord of Verminion so it's either pokemon or ff tactics-esqe... make underwater swimming interesting and give it more purpose .. make fates more active... a shopping list for recipes...

[Remedi]

Ultimate is a failure.

How ultimate is a failure? those that run it consider it the best encounter to date with some even considering it number one in their gaming carrer, not to mention it brought tons of visibility to FF14 as a whole

[NolLacnala]

I feel that it's the lack of permanency that's hurting the game. Everything we do is just temporary and fleeting. Gear is temporary, leveling is until next expansion, etc. The predictabilty compounds this feeling. Challenges like the centurio tiger are a long term goal, but other achievements are like

People are almost completing Honest Gillionaire?! Quick, implement Honest Gillionaire II!

Just makes players feel like they are chasing their own tails...

[KaivaC]

Ultimate is a failure. Bard perform is a failure. Squadrons are a failure. Fashion Report is a failure. Raid replay is a failure

They are failures because they are not strong enough to keep many players into the game. They interest a fairly small niche if even that. This sort of ties into my next point.

How in the world is Ultimate a failure? Is it a failure because casuals don't do it. That's the point. It's not meant for casual players or even PUG groups. The hardcore base got the challenge they've been waiting for, and from a lot of accounts, sounds like it was a huge success actually. The other points you made...I kinda need you to back up those claims about them being a failure. Any citations, any proof that these are failures?

[Dragon_punch]

There's too much content we have already that gets tossed aside after a few months that they could totally use instead of working from the ground up. An example would be stuff like dungeons.

There's too many great looking dungeons in-game that's wasted potential. I definitely hope they expand on them in the future. More paths, more activities, and explorable.

I think most of us are tired of Aoe > Boss > Aoe rinse and repeat.

[RiyahArp]

Ultimate is a failure because it was content 99% of players watched others try instead of be motivated to do. The streaming argument is dumb, because it did worse to raise visibility then Netflix's "Daddy of Light" series, which isn't even game content. It literally fell off a cliff in terms of community posts or mentions after the initial race, and neither here nor reddit ever sees any real posts about it one way or the other. It may have worked for some of the playerbase, though it need to be pointed out in nearly burned some of the world firsters out, and from what i understand needed add ons to even beat due to nael's voice mechanic. (being unable to see his callouts)

But my point in listing those is that you simply cannot rely on content that targets such a tiny part of the playerbase, because it dies as fast as mainstream content while reaching far less people and keeping them satisfied. You can't make a game where we all talk about what tiny percentages of the playerbase actually do, which is what this niche content is ending up being. It just ends up beign the same 2-week shelf life we always get, but the difference is most people won't even see that from it.