Request: Can we go back the old patch model? Content is now spread too thin

[Anselmet]

I don't understand them pushing Pagos out after HoH. I really think if they are spread thin and they had to make a choice, then HoH should have been the one to get pushed back. Now, I understand that Pagos is more work to make, but seeing how its the way we get our relic weapon it needed to be at the start of the patch not a few weeks out from the next patch. But I honestly don't mind them releasing stuff here and there. Because my issue with HW was I'd beat everything that I was interested in (I wasn't doing savage like I am now) and then have nothing to do for a month or two. Now I get a few weeks where I don't really play then I'll play for quite a bit until something else is released. Which is nice cuz I got sick of Tsukuyomi and my classes that needed her weapon have it. Took a few weeks off then HoH came out and i grounded til I had what I wanted.Got sick of doing the daily grind on savage for gear that is about to outdated and took some time off then Ratholos and Pagos came out now I am playing again. I don't think this is a bad formula. I just think they're catering to an audience than those who make this game their main squeeze with little breaks in between. Don't get me wrong, I play this game the most, I just can see why and how this formula works vs what we got during ARR/HW.

[Alleo]

The ludicrous part of what you're saying is that the whole reason why eureka exists is because people kept complaining on doing old content over and over, and that feedback likely got to them via one route or another.

I don't care either route for the relic, but seeing the community flip flop like this is both a reason to laugh and facepalm.

Or there could be different people in the community with different opinions and not one hive mind. Or they wanted new content thats interesting and still give people the chance to go at it in a different way. If people wanted something better than old content but then the solution for that turns out to be worse for them, its no wonder that they want the lesser devil of the two back. Heck they could have given us the choice of doing it two ways. One way to get it through or Eureka and another through old content. Or they could have made one part of it through Eureka and another through other ones. In the end Eureka is just the fate part with a new skin and at the same time also remains the only part of it.

[Clover_Blake]

I don't know what the best course of action might be, but I do remember back in the day, when they released everything at once. After a week or two, people would have devoured the content and would start complaining that there was "NOTHING ELSE TO DO", mad at how Yoshida dared to tell them to have a life or play other games between patches. I understand why they'd want to try the spreading out content formula, so people have something to look up for every month. However, this method is also making people unhappy.

In the end, you simply can't please everyone. There'll be complaints.

The ludicrous part of what you're saying is that the whole reason why eureka exists is because people kept complaining on doing old content over and over, and that feedback likely got to them via one route or another.

I don't care either route for the relic, but seeing the community flip flop like this is both a reason to laugh and facepalm.

This too.
I personally enjoyed Eureka a lot, it's the first time I completed a step of my relic with two characters -laughs-. I haven't tried Pagos much yet (engaged in MHW at the moment), but I'll get to it eventually.

[Alleo]

I don't know what the best course of action might be, but I do remember back in the day, when they released everything at once. After a week or two, people would have devoured the content and would start complaining that there was "NOTHING ELSE TO DO", mad at how Yoshida dared to tell them to have a life or play other games between patches. I understand why they'd want to try the spreading out content formula, so people have something to look up for every month. However, this method is also making people unhappy.

In the end, you simply can't please everyone. There'll be complaints.

You can never truly please those that really rush through content. I mean if you no life the game there wont be enough to do. But even if you play casually you will have done most of what the patch had to offer in max a week and with the splitting of the content maybe even faster. In the past people that rushed through content that normally takes some time for casual players could also just unsub and wait for the next patch. Now they have to sub again and again for each splitted patch content (which they will go through even faster) thus they are kinda waisting money on this. But you will also have casuals that will go through this fast because there is nothing much else new so even they might have nothing to do. (Other than giving yourself other tasks, doing achievements and stuff like that) So any more content that is not seen as that good for quite a part of the community is another point where people will just unsub..combine that with the release of WoWs expansion and you might lose quite some subs..

So the big problem imo is that even the more casual playing gamers go through new stuff too fast or have something that is too much..we need a better middle ground. Something that might still be cleared fast by no lifers but still be achievable by casuals.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

The ludicrous part of what you're saying is that the whole reason why eureka exists is because people kept complaining on doing old content over and over, and that feedback likely got to them via one route or another.

I don't care either route for the relic, but seeing the community flip flop like this is both a reason to laugh and facepalm.

So their solution to people complaining about tediously long grinds of the same repetitive things was to... make an more longer, more repetitive grind devoid of even the slightest mechanics despite having Notorious Monster fights which no one complained about? I, too, laugh and facepalm at the sheer incompetency. How about, instead, they make a grind that isn't stale and uncreative? What a novel concept!

I don't know what the best course of action might be, but I do remember back in the day, when they released everything at once. After a week or two, people would have devoured the content and would start complaining that there was "NOTHING ELSE TO DO", mad at how Yoshida dared to tell them to have a life or play other games between patches. I understand why they'd want to try the spreading out content formula, so people have something to look up for every month. However, this method is also making people unhappy.

In the end, you simply can't please everyone. There'll be complaints.

The difference is I can elect to space the content out more should I choose. I typically want to play FFXIV when a new patch launches. I should be excited for it, right? Well, 4.3 released and I was done with pretty much the whole thing in a day. I didn't rush, I simply had a one where I could relax and play a favourite game. In my particular case, Ultimate released to keep me occupied otherwise... there simply wasn't anything else. People disinterested in such difficult content would have nothing to do. A lot of casual players I know felt bored and unsatisfied. Is this how players should feel after a major patch releases? I certainly hope not yet plenty do. It's fine to say take breaks, but you shouldn't feel obligated every other patch to stop playing because the game has no content. Even at a casual pace, you'll complete most things in less than a week despite the devs trying to stretch it out for over a month.

[Mahrze]

Or there could be different people in the community with different opinions and not one hive mind. Or they wanted new content thats interesting and still give people the chance to go at it in a different way. If people wanted something better than old content but then the solution for that turns out to be worse for them, its no wonder that they want the lesser devil of the two back. Heck they could have given us the choice of doing it two ways. One way to get it through or Eureka and another through old content. Or they could have made one part of it through Eureka and another through other ones. In the end Eureka is just the fate part with a new skin and at the same time also remains the only part of it.

With as many times as they cite <limitations> I am hard pressed to believe people really think they'd give you two ways of getting the same item. They failed, just hope in 5.0 they learned and do something different or use "diadem" on something else. But saying "better go back to the old model" right now will do nothing.

So their solution to people complaining about tediously long grinds of the same repetitive things was to... make an more longer, more repetitive grind devoid of even the slightest mechanics despite having Notorious Monster fights which no one complained about? I, too, laugh and facepalm at the sheer incompetency. How about, instead, they make a grind that isn't stale and uncreative? What a novel concept!

There there, You'll learn soon enough that the only time they show competence is when they create stuff for the 1%.

[InkstainedGwyn]

Giving me content that lasts an hour, maybe four hours tops if you're counting first .x release, every month doesn't really make it any better than giving me 8 hours of content one month and then holding for 4 months. At least when I have everything at once, I'm more likely to alternate - an hour of Eureka here, a night of HoH there, some crafting for gil later - but when I only have one thing to focus on I'm going to burn out on it. Maybe more rewards from places like HoH, Eureka, Canals need to be bound. Give me a reason to run these things short of "the items are now 10 gil so I'll just buy what I want." I don't know. I just know that even Swallow's Compass, which I loved, got old after a few weeks of running it nightly.

[RTX3080]

Besides the fact that Pagos just isn't fun, a big factor here is that Yoshida delayed Pagos by an entire month and a week just to try to spread content over the patch cycle. If Pagos had come out with HoH we at least would have had some use for that weapon, but as it is right now we're ~4 weeks away from 4.4 with a 30 item level increase, how do we justify having people grind for 2-3 weeks just to use a weapon for 1-2 weeks?

This was a question actually asked in the last live letter and Yoshida's answer was that they always split content, but content was never spread this thin before, normally we would have 4.3 and 4.35 with every other patch being minor changes, now we have major content being split into 4.3 4.31 4.35 4.36, it just makes the content drought more visible and discourages people from sticking around to wait for new content.

Don't trust the live letter... listen to your heart and ignore the apologists. The answer is FF16.