Lack of content on patch release

[Vhailor]

Only when you get to the non-Casual (Savage) Content.

Duty Finder is very casual-friendly except for a few outliers (Shinryu, and maybe Fluminis).

I disagree, unless you define 'casual' as 'experienced gamer who is time-limited'. My girlfriend is what I'd call a casual gamer: she's got a fair amount of free time, but has never strayed beyond the friendly confines of mobile games and the occasional Nintendo title. She wasn't comfortable running dungeons on her own until she'd progressed all the way to 70. Think about that: she sunk in hundreds of hours over weeks of effort before she was comfortable queuing up a Roulette on her own. Now that she's got enough experience, sure - anything short of EX / Savage / Ultimate content, she can do. But there's a steeper learning curve than you're admitting to.

I've gotten NIN to 60, RDM to 59, PLD and WHM both on 70. Nothing about any of those jobs is all that hard.

There's more complexity to the jobs than you're admitting to, and very little help provided. Consider a Bard, for example: for even your standard, run-of-the-mill dungeon run, you'll need to be able to maintain uptime on songs, watch people's TP / MP as appropriate, and maintain enough DoT to generate Rain of Death procs. That's just for standard trash pulls. To make matters worse, many of these demands are seen almost exclusively within dungeons, meaning there's little ability to practice - because oh, right, those Squadrons require quite a bit of progress before you can really take advantage of them. Really casual-friendly, that decision was.

Oh, and all of this of course is combined with handling increasingly diverse boss mechanics. It's a lot easier when you're doing your second, third, fourth job: all you're focused on is the ability usage, because mechanics are almost on autopilot by then. That first one's not so easy, though, particularly for people who are more casual gamers.

I don't know of any casual player who NEEDS the Relic Weapons. The current "Relic" weapon is from Eureka, and that one isn't that bad, I hear players being able to do it in 6-10 hours.

Yes, Eureka is easier (so far). I exempted that one from my post, if I remember correctly, but maybe not.

However, it's not about need. It's about who this content is accessible to, and who it's targeting: casual gamers on up. And in the past, it's been quite brutal.

I'd also point out that you've kind of made my point for me with this response, too. Introducing long grinds is perfectly OK, so long as it's not to the exclusion of more friendly goals.

Everything in Duty Finder and outside of Savage/Ex is casual-friendly, lol. FFXIV is a game you can log on for just a bit and do your daily roulettes, any beast tribes you're interested in and still have a little time to do put into other things too (gathering, GC turn-ins, what-not). Now if you're a casual player, then no maybe you can't afford the most expensive glamours, maybe you won't have a mansion, etc, but you don't NEED those things to have fun in FFXIV.

Depends on the player. Some will, some won't. And, no, not everything in the DF is casual-friendly, as I explained in more detail above, with an example player for evidence.

If they did give things that were 10 hours per week of content, then casual players would get left in the dust because they simply couldn't keep up with that kind of ridiculous content release.

So... what about Relics? What about Savage? What about Ultimate? SE is already making content for players with more time and/or experience.

As it is, players have no control over themselves already, as evidenced by the relic weapon quests pre-Eureka where people would grind hour after hour after hour doing nothing but that grind and then burn out and then complain that they don't like FFXIV because it's too grindy. Nobody held a gun to their head and forced them to do that grind. Why do you think there's a 450 Tomestone Cap per week? Why do you think you can only do 12 beast tribe quests per day?

Because time-gating is the ONLY way to get players to limit how much they do, otherwise they would log on for 48 hours straight and gobble up all the content like greedy pigs at the feeding trough and then complain when it's all done and there's nothing left to do.

Players have no self-control, they've proven this in any MMORPG that has ever existed. They have to do it RIGHT NOW. They gotta have it NOW NOW NOW NOW. They can't proceed at a steady pace, oh no. It's gotta be ASAP.

Wow, bias much? Since when is a different play style / more available time a reason for getting defensive on behalf of a development studio?

Here's the thing: FFXIV shoots itself in the foot with this crowd because it is so fucking shallow. If it would stop its steeply vertical progression tree, this problem would disappear. SE releases tons of content, as I said before, but when they eradicate the relevance of all content six+ months old, they leave players with an awfully small segment of content to focus on. Is it any wonder that when something truly new comes around, people gorge themselves on it?

Hell, look at the game most people in this 'not enough content' boat pine for: FFXI. It had time gates all over the place! 2-3 day spawn timers on HNMs (with competition risks!); 72-hour lockouts for Dynamis; lockouts on Einherjar; lockouts on Salvage. Want to know why people weren't bitching? Because all of it was relevant at the same time, so you could space things out. Dynamis a couple times a week. Einherjar a couple times a week. And these were long events!

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One other thing to consider: this vertical itemization path SE is on, and the rapid depreciation of items, is inherently anti-casual. Personally, I felt FFXI was more casual than XIV. If I took a break for a few months in XI, which I routinely did, my gear was still roughly as relevant as it was when I left. My Mog House wasn't cleared out and destroyed. My SPs and Linkshells hadn't replaced me to make space for someone new, because most content was quite flexible in terms of how many people could actually participate.

In FFXIV? None of that. My gear right now is significantly depreciated in three months, and almost what I'd consider baseline in six. Always. My house would be bulldozed, and I'd be left with a message along the lines of 'your shit's in storage, don't let the door hit you on the way out'. Any SP I had would have had to replace me, because every Duty in XIV requires exact group numbers for the most part.

SE can do better. They can build deeper content that stays relevant longer, and in the process silence complaints about having nothing to do, and make the game more friendly for people with erratic time needs. The only thing stopping them is themselves. And, the oddly defensive players on the forums who seem to think it's their job to defend problematic design decisions.

[Miyafuji]

Play FFXIV for awhile, get all the content, take a break and play something else for awhile and come back when the next major patch comes out.

That's what Yoshi-P wants you to do.

If that's what Yoshi-P wanted people to do, people wouldn't be punished for unsubscribing.
There also wouldn't be such a large amount of content that can only be completed weekly that lasts a short time.

If you weren't here for 3.1 then you have absolutely no idea what a true zero content patch looks like, just saying.

More serious answer, it's a catch up patch, they've always been thin on content. Yeah they might be spacing out releases, but why is it such a big deal? You'll only be done with it in a matter of days then sit and complain about nothing to do. Take up crafting and gathering, we have lots to do this patch. That might not be "content" in your eyes but it is something to do. Worst case scenario, just stop playing the game for a while until the content you like doing comes out.

I wasn't comparing 3.1 to 4.3 but sure, I'll bite.
I was around for 3.1 and 3.1 also had more content on release. Sure, it wasn't good content but it was still something new. They did try new things which could have been done much better to make the patch memorable.
However, my issue with this recent patch is that the content that I'm sure a lot of people were looking forward to: Heaven on High is set to be released to what I can only hope is less than a month from now essentially baiting players into subscribing longer.
Catch up patches haven't always been thin on content either, 3.3 for example had a ton of new things to do. We got essentially what has been released for this patch and more including aquapolis being introduced, relic weapon and a new frontline map. (this was 2 years ago and there hasn't been another frontline since.)

A lot of people who disagree with this thread have simply stated that I would just complete or get bored of any content within a few days and complain, which are just petty groundless accusations. I've been pretty happy with almost every patch that's been released, from joining in 2.0 I've only been unsubbed between the final patches and the expansion, with this being the first patch I've felt this way. Seems to me that you (and others) hurl these accusations to anyone that disagrees.

And yes, I have enjoyed what little there has been to do in 4.3 so far.

[XiXiQ]

not the meatiest patch I've ever seen to be frank. having everything to 70 no levelling to do, so I just do the lighthouse once a week and a few exp roulettes or a little eureka to make tomes. In both cases I would do more, but they're both capped. doing namazu, but that isn't going to last much longer (and takes a whole 10 mins anyway). mainly just catching up on the fishing now. The new eureka and deep dungeon cannot come fast enough.

[Eloah]

This is mostly a reply to a part of someone's post, I saw, when my page loaded in. It's not meant to stir the pot or anything.

ca·su·al

ˈkaZHo͞oəl/

adjective

1. relaxed and unconcerned.

"she regarded his affairs with a casual indulgence"

synonyms: relaxed, friendly, informal, unceremonious, easygoing, free and easy; informal,laid-back

"the inn's casual atmosphere"

2. not regular or permanent, in particular.

synonyms:temporary, part-time, freelance, impermanent, irregular, occasional

"casual work"

By it's own definition, the word casual has nothing to do with time invested, skill level, knowledge, or any other descriptors people like to mention. It just means something that is relaxing and done infrequently, without a set schedule. So by that account a good majority of us are casual, even raiders. The only individuals who wouldn't be casuals are the people getting paid to play or advertise the game.

Now, I know I'm using the literal denotation and not the more common connotation. But I just wanted to point out that we ate all in the same boat. A better way to say things might be to use the terms light, medium, and heavy, as those give a better feeling as to how much someone plays. Like you wouldn't expect a 2nd grader to know what a 6th grade knows, nor a 6th to know what a 10th grades would....

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Lol

[K1tt]

I find there's not a great deal for me to do on a daily basis. I don't need tomes as I've completed my mains gear, my off job has the eureka gear and sigma normal accessories. I just seem to do the namazu quests, cactpot and frontlines roulette (until I cap wolf marks), so im done in about 20 mins. Weekly its just the 24 man raid, dhoma and delivery turn ins. I cant wait for the next relic step.

[Alleo]

It was much worse because the side activities were a failure and there was nothing else to lean upon, which is not the case now, also we are waiting for content while the only new content coming for 3.1 was a grind (which everyone knew about).

Side stuff being a failure is something that one can say in hindsight of it. (After trying it out; Eureka for example was a failure for me)

Right now I have not much more to do in 4.3 than I had in the 3.1 patch. I still can only run one new dungeon/raid/trial and the older ones, I still can only do daily beast tribes and the rest is all something that will only come later. The only parts that adds a bit more to the patch is the Doma reconstruction and the new delivery quest but that is nothing huge. Both of them together will take like 20 minutes per week.

It might be that more will come in a few weeks/months but that does not change it that for me the initial 4.3 patch was boring. They could have put the new palace in it and my opinion of the patch would be quite different, since the old palast was something that busied me for long hours and I can see the same happening with the new one.

Well for starters the MSQ in 4.3 blows 3.1 out of the water. The trial is actually farmable by pugs unlike Thordan, and the 24 man is relatively challenging this time around. Not only that but there's actually more stuff to do in general. Crafters and gatherers got a bunch of new things to do aside from the Namazu, we got a new roulette which breathes life into dead content.

4.3 is far greater than 3.1 in terms of substance, taking into consideration the dead on arrival Verminion and Diadem becoming Dino Island on day 2.

Just because the MSQ is better (which is subjective) does not change the substance much. Its still a once done deal. People could also argue that the trials are getting to easy and that Thordan might have been a nice challenge that could keep people playing it longer. 24 man is also subjective and something being a bit more difficult does not give the game more substance..because that would mean that creating a 24 man on savage levels would give the game huge amounts of depths.

Crafters and gatheres always have stuff to do if new items come out and the roulette is only just another way to run old content.

Again we are talking about real new content and there the 3.1 may have had more. Diadem 1.0 was new content and was even longer alive then the second version. It was a failure in the long run but it was something new, the same with LoV. So if we look at the patch without the hindsight of "x was a failure" and just pure content, 3.1 had still more.

If we compare the whole 4.3 with all the other still coming patches than this might be more than 3.1 but we are just comparing the original 3.1 and 4.3 without the .xx patches. And there I dont find more to do.

[Remedi]

That's your opinion, but facts are that you need to consider those x.x5 patches too because it means you have something to count on, while 3.1 had very few to count on AND coming 2 months late.
Also 4.3 MSQ blowing 3.1 is not up to opinions imho, the sheer amount of direction and care on it were much higher compared to 3.1. without even considering the content of it. Heck 4.1 was blowing 3.1 out of the water too as a story, the only MSQ of SB that is comparable to 3.1 quality is imho 4.2 since both are essentially setup MSQ, but then again 4.2 had 2 solo trials.

If ppl really think that 3.1 was better than 4.3 in any shape or form I'm afraid I'll say that they are simply deluding themselves, you are not putting things into context, 3.1 was a terrible patch much worse than this one and regardless what you think of the content having staggered release this patch has still things to come, while 3.1 had nothing and we also got an apology for that.
You can hate the staggered release how much you like, but honestly if you feel like you would have complained eitherway about the lack of content later in the patches at least admit that before complaining there's nothing to do now, because having HoH and eureka released earlier would have changed nothing.

And frankly in the past ppl on the forum have always looked down on ppl making lists because quality is better than quantity yet now some of those are doing lists, I'm very disappointed of this

[Rhus]

Feel a bit against the grain here but I thought there was more than enough. I only just got around to doing the MSQ yesterday and still am only on "Under the Moonlight" having completed the trial. I'm loving the namazu and though people are claiming it's only 10 minutes, I spend 10 minutes alone flying around Azim on my Mikoshi xD
The new Raid was super fun and I've had a great time learning the mechanics and trying to get better at it. It's also had me running Rabanastre more often now for the upgrade coins so I've spent a fair bit of time doing that. I'm levelling Dragoon up to 60 so I've got something to level once HoH comes out (yes it wasn't in 4.3 but it is in 4.3x and it's pending arrivial has given me a reason) The challenge Log addition to Eureka has made levelling there a lot quicker for someone who isn't just hitching a ride on the train.
I'm loving the addition of Swallows Compass to Expert Roulette and the design of the dungeon was great. The music in 4.3 overall has been fantastic from Swallows Compass, to namazu to the the mikoshi theme.
I've taken my time and enjoyed everything it has to offer and can benefit from a lot of the additions ad I know some of my friends have also loved this patch so far and been very complimentary about it and we still have Eureka & HoH to look forward to^^

[Maero]

I think had they released the Deep Dungeon this patch would have been so much better and lasted longer for players content wise.
1 single dungeon per is nothing overly exciting even if Swallows Compass is an enjoyable dungeon.
The Beast Tribe i rather enjoy but people are correct in that it is only 10 or so minutes a day, i would have enjoyed if it was longer tbh :/

[Anarnee]

Yeah I agree, I've felt that I don't have much to do this patch.

If Ridorana didn't have greed only and the other 24 mans too, I would do them more often, but as it is, I don't do Ridorana more than once a week per character, and I really don't enjoy the other 24 mans either. I use to run the 24 mans for fun, but the only reward I get is usually tomes, and that's just not enough. I'd rather go sit in Eureka if Imma grind tomes only.

When you're capping multiple characters and still feel like there isn't a lot to do... >>; ehhh