New patch cycles? Fun? [community question]

[tdb]

You just pretty much have to ignore player power progression or the game makes no sense at all. I mean, if we take it literally, the Garlean Empire has Lv70 soldiers in a few endgame dungeons of Stormblood. I expect we'll encounter Lv80 Garleans in the new relic playfield, and possibly in the MSQ before next patch. Meanwhile the three original ARR cities continue to be defended by Lv35 troops. Presuming the Garleans are still intent on conquering all of Eorzea, they could dispatch a small task force which wouldn't even make a dent to their troops on the Lv80 front, and it would make short work of the defenders in the ARR areas. Because it makes no sense for the NPCs to remain sequestered to their level-appropriate areas, we must assume that player levels also work on a meta level and have no meaning inside the game world itself. So in-world these relic weapons are probably just different ancient weapons the protagonist collects and none of them are significantly stronger or weaker than the other.

[MikkoAkure]

Personal Note:
I do not feel we should defend Square-Enix on this topic, considering Final Fantasy XI not only releases full and complete content, without limitations, but is also on a literal skeleton crew, and skeleton budget, but is not only not failing to release content on schedule, but is now in fact releasing brand new story content. I do not feel the FFXIV team is really justified when such things are happening in that MMO, which is "considered dead."

Excuse me? Have you been living under a rock?

Your original post is a lot of things that has already been discussed at length on this forum and beaten into thoroughly ground horse hamburger, but that is the hottest take I've seen in awhile. I'm pretty sure "global pandemic" is justification enough for a schedule slip, especially considering most of the team didn't have the hardware or an existing workspace at home beforehand. It's especially odd that you used FFXI as an example, when they haven't had brand new story content in 5 years. What even is your train of thought here? How did you get from "new story coming to FFXI" and come up with "FFXIV developers are bad"? The story's not even coming out all at once and besides that, nothing else of consequence is coming out in the FFXI patch other than adjustments.


But discussing something that hasn't been covered in this thread at least,

Relic Quests.
If we're comparing 5.0 relics to any previous relic, they keep pushing the relic further and further back into the expansion. 2.0 relics were same item level as raid relics, and released at the same time. With 3.0 they have been pushed back. With 4.0 they have been integrated into other content which has been pushing them even further back. Now with 5.0, they have become not only pushed back simlarly to 4.0 but the content and steps have been drastically reduced. At the release of 4.3 we had Anemos and then Pagos. With 5.3 we're only just now getting Bojza.
Personal note, that is a stark difference.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'd rather gamble and wait for something that promises to be better than what we've had before than have to light farm for a 3rd time or redo all of Eureka.

[OvernightSiren]

So you talk about how much better XI is, then criticize XIV for having "incomplete races" because Viera and Hrothgar are gender locked...but like...you know that Mithra and Galka are gender locked in XI right? So by your own logic, XI has three complete races and two incomplete races and XIV has five complete races and two incomplete races. So I guess by your logic XIV is better than XI in that regard.

EDIT: And yes, I agree with your other points about Viera and Hrothgar. The lack of headgear is a blatant example that they ARE incomplete, but pointing out that they're gender locked after praising a game with almost half of its races being gender locked isn't a good point.

[ItMe]

You just pretty much have to ignore player power progression or the game makes no sense at all. I mean, if we take it literally, the Garlean Empire has Lv70 soldiers in a few endgame dungeons of Stormblood.

That's just the kind of thing you've gotta accept with an RPG.
That kind of ludonarrative dissonance is borderline unavoidable in an MMO.

[Gothicshark]

The question is, does everyone enjoy this type of release style?
(If yes, why? if no, why?)

Yes. If you compare FFXIV to WOW or ESO you will realize really quickly FFXIV is doing it right.

This is not a discussion about my opinion on the topic.

Yet your post is chock-full of your opinions on the topic, and most of them are wrong.

"armchair developer"

Yet your post is basically being an "armchair developer."

Ishgard Restoration:

Crafting game, not my cuppa tea, there are issues, but I'm not a crafter so not my place to comment.

Hrothgar and Viera:

The dev team already stated why they were released as is, they had no time to finish them properly and still get them out. They felt if they didn't release them when they did they would never get the chance again. They can always patch in the other genders and other bits in time.

Gunbreaker and Dancer:

100% disagree, as jobs, they are excellent and do what they do beautifully, they also work at low levels as they made them be backward compatible with all content. It is true they do not have set specific items for ARR and heavensward content, but who cares, They have full gear glamours for everything current, and stormblood. I know as I main Dancer.

New Game+

you are literally complaining to complain here, nothing wrong with doing it the way they are, and frankly no way would I use New Game+ on ARR or Heavensward content, honestly not fun a second time. It's why paid skip for ARR is so popular.

Blue Mage.

and yet there are people who love it, Blue Mage is aimed at being a personal challenge. Can you level it, can you collect all the spells, can you gear it, it's not for the casual gamer.

Unreal Fights.

once again, not for the casual gamer.

Relic Quests.

Complaining to complain, try WOW, bet you'll love the gearing there with the random stats, and the epic grind just to get geared for the next raid tier. FFXIV focuses on gameplay more than gear grinds.

[Iscah]

you are literally complaining to complain here...

All his posts are like this. He's looking for things to complain about for the sake of it.

[Luna-M]

Ishgard Restoration:
Is incomplete content. Its being released in stages. Instead of allowing the players to progress from start to finish, each stage is literally completely haulted until the next patch for the next phase.
Personal Note. Ishgard restoration is not really "new content" in the sense, that I feel they simply have changed the way you obtain Lucis/achievement tools. Instead of having to do Lucis type steps, or complete the crafting log, they simply added more recipes and instead of releasing Ishgard housing they are halting its release for some undetermined reason. (Personally hopefully for a real reason instead of Ishgard housing being exactly like the other districts, but only stalled.)

No different how Mor Dhona and other hubs evolved over patches? Granted these changes is community driven on the server but i think it's a great addition to the game and gives alternatives for people to level their crafters and gatherers. And if it's a requirement for Ishgard House (should we ever get it), it's a fun milestone.

Gunbreaker and Dancer:
Are literally incomplete jobs. They do not have access to glamour items, available to 100% of existing jobs. These jobs also were not released at level 1, so you cannot even level them, the only things compariable to other jobs, is GNB's tank achievements and rewards. Outside of level 60 and above, these jobs fall flat and hard.

Not sure I understand this one. Literally all expansion jobs been this way? AST, MCH, DRK, RDM. None started at Lv1.

[Saix027]

No different how Mor Dhona and other hubs evolved over patches? Granted these changes is community driven on the server but i think it's a great addition to the game and gives alternatives for people to level their crafters and gatherers. And if it's a requirement for Ishgard House (should we ever get it), it's a fun milestone.




Not sure I understand this one. Literally all expansion jobs been this way? AST, MCH, DRK, RDM. None started at Lv1.

I would say on Mor Dhona tho those things evolved without us over time to fit the timeline kinda, Ishgard tho you activly do it and can miss a step simply to see how it evolves, kinda like beast tribes do but that is for your own to watch. Difference is you work for it and might miss seeing it evolve due simply not got time when it grows. So i can see kind of a point in this as much i disgree with other things on him.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

I would say on Mor Dhona tho those things evolved without us over time to fit the timeline kinda, Ishgard tho you activly do it and can miss a step simply to see how it evolves, kinda like beast tribes do but that is for your own to watch. Difference is you work for it and might miss seeing it evolve due simply not got time when it grows. So i can see kind of a point in this as much i disgree with other things on him.

Except if you join now, you will never see either Mor dhona or idyllshire in their incomplete stages. So really it's exactly the same.

[Saix027]

Except if you join now, you will never see either Mor dhona or idyllshire in their incomplete stages. So really it's exactly the same.

That is true but the difference i can see, you participated in Ishgard activly, Mor Dhona and such will change regardless what, it simply feels different for a player, the pseudo illusion of influencing it yourself basically all i say here.