Lack of End Game Content

[DynnDiablos]

I am never bored. Still plenty of stuff to do and the team delivers content updates on a fairly frequent schedule. It all works out in my opinion

[Kaylessa]

The thing is though, in the majority of cases, if we want something (or they make a new type of content) then they have to pull resources away from other things.

Asking for and getting more max level content will cause other areas of the game to suffer for it. Would you be okay with losing a Deep Dungeon in exchange for another raid tier? That's how you need to think about these things. We've been told time and again that resources and development schedules are really tight if they want to keep to the standard 3 month release pattern, which they don't want to change as it sets them apart from other MMOs.

Well Yoshida has already said he's not including any new races any more, which should free up resources for other things.

Also I would hope that as FFXIV continues to grow SE might provide Yoshida with a touch more resources, and if they are provided more resources then end game raiding content might be one of the options available to spend it on.

The last thing you'd want is for a game to remain stagnant. If the game can improve on its weaknesses then it's more rounded, will appeal to more people, and could potentially grow more.

[CorbinDallas]

Well Yoshida has already said he's not including any new races any more, which should free up resources for other things.

Also I would hope that as FFXIV continues to grow SE might provide Yoshida with a touch more resources, and if they are provided more resources then end game raiding content might be one of the options available to spend it on.

The last thing you'd want is for a game to remain stagnant. If the game can improve on its weaknesses then it's more rounded, will appeal to more people, and could potentially grow more.

I think I remember seeing/reading something where he says that money hasn't ever been an issue, it's being able to find talented enough content designers and other staff that can meet the quality bar the game has already set.

Edit: It may have been in the NoClip documentary, I'm not entirely sure. It was that or one of the many (cba to check all of them) interviews he did during the Shadowbringers press tour.

[Niyuka]

The thing is though, in the majority of cases, if we want something (or they make a new type of content) then they have to pull resources away from other things.

Asking for and getting more max level content will cause other areas of the game to suffer for it. Would you be okay with losing a Deep Dungeon in exchange for another raid tier? That's how you need to think about these things. We've been told time and again that resources and development schedules are really tight if they want to keep to the standard 3 month release pattern, which they don't want to change as it sets them apart from other MMOs.

Of course its like that. And I realize the idea that content creation is sort of a zero-sum game is what keeps the envy alive, and the jealousy of "they made something I dont like, so it automatically took away from something I do like", but not all content is born equal.

A player who doesnt consider savage content, or extremes, to be content for them is the most likely to cry for less of that. There are quite a few of those around. But these people farm stuff, play around with housing etc., its not the same kind of ressources these things eat up, at all. I worked in the industry for 6 years, but even to someout outside of it there is plenty of material nowadays to understand that , for example, new item models dont take away from fight design, which doesnt take away from cutscenes, which doesnt take away from music, because these things are done by different departments and teams. There is some crossover (for example, any primal with a full set of weapons requires a lot of art assets), but generally there are ways around this.

For example, I believe half of the "levelling" dungeons are wasted. They cause a lot of complaints about queues and blocking the storyline, they are usually done once or twice and then abandoned, and few people are excited. However, the 75 dungeon eats up the same ressources as an endgame 4-man hardmode dungeon! It has sets of visibily distinct gear, fight designs, geography, sound, music, everything! But its throwaway content for the most part, except for somebody unlucky enough to get it in a roulette.

Unless you re-use the dungeon for future content (they did that a lot in classic, see temple of qarn), its very inefficient content that doesnt have a particular fanbase around it.

However, if you take, lets say, the 73 and 77 dungeons out of the MSQ and replace them with a solo duty (using the same geography ) that tells the story, and then use the full dungeon experience and effort for a lvl 80 elite dungeon (same fights just tighter timing, numbers, maybe actually make trash pulls dangerous, but its basically 10% more effort, if even that) you just added TONS of hours to the game.

And dont get me started on reusing levelling dungeons from older expansions as ACTUAL hardmodes.

[Krotoan]

Well Yoshida has already said he's not including any new races any more, which should free up resources for other things.

The problem being that since we have more races the workload has increased permanently. The main reason for them stating they would not be doing more races is the workload has become so great for new content considering all the race options that they felt another race would knock them down the other way and force them to reduce content to meet release deadlines.

[Kaylessa]

The problem being that since we have more races the workload has increased permanently. The main reason for them stating they would not be doing more races is the workload has become so great for new content considering all the race options that they felt another race would knock them down the other way and force them to reduce content to meet release deadlines.

Larger resources than if they didn't have those 2 extra races, but decreased significantly from the resources needed to actually implement them.

In addition to this, they need to be capable of equipping all existing items—this alone requires a massive commitment of resources. Each race has a unique frame and body type, and so every piece of visible equipment needs to be carefully adjusted to display properly on Hrothgar and Viera models. A cursory search will show that FFXIV has around ten thousand equippable items already implemented, all of which must be manually modified by our designers. This is an immediate and unavoidable development cost incurred when adding a new race.

http://www.novacrystallis.com/2019/0...oducer-letter/

Also including all those emotes. So there are now resources available for the next expansion that had previously been spent implementing the two new races.

[CorbinDallas]

snip

Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but the designer of Blue Mage is the same one who designed the ultimate raid content, which was one of the various reasons why we didn't see an ultimate in 4.5.

They might have different departments, but they overlap in a lot of cases.

[Krotoan]

Larger resources than if they didn't have those 2 extra races, but decreased significantly from the resources needed to actually implement them.

In addition to this, they need to be capable of equipping all existing items—this alone requires a massive commitment of resources. Each race has a unique frame and body type, and so every piece of visible equipment needs to be carefully adjusted to display properly on Hrothgar and Viera models. A cursory search will show that FFXIV has around ten thousand equippable items already implemented, all of which must be manually modified by our designers. This is an immediate and unavoidable development cost incurred when adding a new race.

http://www.novacrystallis.com/2019/0...oducer-letter/

Also including all those emotes. So there are now resources available for the next expansion that had previously been spent implementing the two new races.

I'm not absolutely sure the resources used in crunch time for an expansion would be "free'd up". But hey.. I don't do the work. Maybe next expansion there will be more content, but as for current release cycle I wouldn't expect more.

[Kaylessa]

but as for current release cycle I wouldn't expect more.

True

Although I'm actually kinda hoping for a 4th healer to miraculously appear some time in the current release cycle but I realize there's almost zero chance

[Mistyregions]

Across the MMO universe I always find this thread. You know what I never find? A solution from the critics. They never have a solution other than "well add more endgame". Add what? More raids? How many is enough? What content do we need to clip in order to make this possible? Do we clip crafting? Housing? Glamour? Gathering? Maps? This is a business and you can't just tack on another 50 people to make endless content in one direction, no to mention people will complain it's just more of the same and grindy. So what's the answer? Who's fun do we take away in order to maximize your fun for a limited amount of time until there is something else to complain about endgame? I want a solution, a game design, a plan, a financial idea, something. Oddly enough my post will be met with a strawman argument, silence or a lack of forethought.

Heck you know what? Maybe you guys really need to post a well thought out and detailed production plan including story boarding etc etc to plant that seed in the designers heads because I imagine they never thought about it those casual designers have just been doing nothing but spinning their wheels on stuff like Maps. Maybe you can one up them and "show them how easy it is" heck you might get hired! Maybe even lead game designer! Jeebus.