Increasing difficulty in casual content ≠ Savage

[KaldeaSahaline]

I'm just curious then what's been "lost" from the 8-man version? As I said, I can't really improve it past the 8-man version (which I personally thought to be boring and binary itself). Heck, at least you have all of 2 options more across the 4-man version than the 8-man permits, at the cost only of exchanging assigned cardinal/semicardinal positions for more general ones (left/right, close/far).I'll fully agree that wouldn't be satisfying content (or at least, no more than the 8-man serpentine pushover gatekeeper to SB savage tier 1 was), but I don't think it shows any evidence of an inherent design weakness in low party numbers.

Yeah maybe O1S was a bad example. 1 tank with current job design restrictions just feels awful in my brain. Regardless of really any fight.

Well, I'm sold. I can't agree more with the desire for such challenges, and for the means to deal with them.

Though it was just part of the larger picture for me, I wanted something very, very similar through a revised leveling system tentatively called the Ability Sphere.

Reading the leveling sphere I definitely see vibes of my design. I just chose the more modern approach while you took the more immersive approach. Both valid though.

The idea behind mine would be that you wouldn't really know what kind of skill you needed until you starting having issues and said, you know I really need a way to get an enemy off of me. XYZ skill isn't cutting it alone. Then you present the player with options to facilitate that goal. Do I empower an existing skill with a new effect? Do I create a new one? Do I design it as an offensive skill? Utility? Defensive?

Your design even reminds of one of my favorite games. Mana Khemia. It had a AP board where you crafted items that unlocked slots on these boards. You then would unlock new abilities, stat increases etc for your team. You needed to have adjacent slots unlocked though and the system kept me crafting items nonstop. It was a great feedback loop. My concept actually draws a lot of inspiration from MK as a game. it doesn't hurt that the game has probably some of the best turn based combat to ever exist.

[Shurrikhan]

Reading the leveling sphere I definitely see vibes of my design. I just chose the more modern approach while you took the more immersive approach. Both valid though.

Was about to say the same, just in reverse.

For 95% of MMO designs, especially these days, I'd say your version would certainly have more appeal, which is why I ended up moving away from the Ability Sphere grid over time. Heck, originally it was even supposed to work in a way that everyone's sphere looked, literally, different based on their experiences (even the node placements), so that there was never a question of "Hey, what should I pick?", nothing to copy directly in place of an actual, personal understanding of one's needs and preferences.

Yeah maybe O1S was a bad example. 1 tank with current job design restrictions just feels awful in my brain. Regardless of really any fight.

I think I can create more satisfying designs of my own for light or flex parties, if you'd be willing to read over another shot at it. I won't be able to do a full write-up until next weekend, though, in all likelihood.

My preferred content design (short of the very highest tiers of content) tends to be one where every member feels in some way connected to nearly every task, and where the mechanics require tactics-minded responsiveness, but work from obvious indicators and intuitively identifiable mechanics (e.g. It's obvious that the mechanic will be a series of chasing AoEs, but rather than just dodging immediately, the party is expected to identify and create a future safety line to keep clear with those jukes, which in turn means taking note of and perhaps standardizing your spacing in a way easily done through nonvocal communication -- sometimes stacking AoEs, sometimes spreading them over given intuitive routes; the procedural is so tried and true it can almost be considered mere reflex, but it still offers depth in its optimization as, after surviving it with reasonable ease once, you notice just how many AoEs are set in total, and plan around that for uptime, etc.)
Things will do as they appear they ought to; the only memorization components are in fitting those visible pieces together: How do we set up this readily apparent AoE chain such that we all arrive at the adds for immediate uptime on them before they get their casts off? How do we make best use of the collision boxes left by the stalactite AoEs against the next AoEs? Anyone should be able to guess at some, if not most, of the short term goals; only the best possible combinations of those ought to require learning over time.

But, there are very few examples of that in XIV that aren't wholly basic. Byakko Ex, for instance, meets the criteria for obvious and intuitive mechanics that rely instead upon number and frequency, but it lacks the depth or cross-role concern I'd also like to see. So, to really push out a flex-party design, I'd probably have to come up with something original...