Southern Front Problems

[Deceptus]

I don't get why it's HW area's also like... HW had its use of being a relic area with HW, why not stormblood since the only relic area was eureka idk I just find it odd that put them in HW again.

This is an easy answer. The free trial.

Free trial goes up to lvl 60 now. The FFXIV Developers want that content to seem "alive", so the put the most efficient way to get the relic there.

HW open world content and lvl 60 dungeons, and the leveling dungeon for a daily bitter memory

The fact they did it without outright admitting it chafes me a bit. It's blatantly obvious.

[SturmChurro]

This is an easy answer. The free trial.

Free trial goes up to lvl 60 now. The FFXIV Developers want that content to seem "alive", so the put the most efficient way to get the relic there.

HW open world content and lvl 60 dungeons, and the leveling dungeon for a daily bitter memory

The fact they did it without outright admitting it chafes me a bit. It's blatantly obvious.

Does seem more than a little sus...

So... you would have wanted them to design new Fates for the Heavensward areas?
I'm not sure I'm following the alternative path you're proposing.

Why even work for your level 80 relic in level 60 content..

[ItMe]

Why even work for your level 80 relic in level 60 content..

As has been stated multiple times in this thread:
The popular speculation is because Heavensward is now part of the free trial, they wanna funnel more people back to those areas to help them be more regularly populated.

Do you disagree with this reasoning?
And if so, what alternate paths to getting the relic do you think would have been more appropriate?

[MicahZerrshia]

The biggest mistake, imo, with Bozja is that its just rebranded fates. There is nothing new, nothing really interesting going on and drop rates that are much more punishing compared to doing the exact same thing in other zones. So of course its going to have absolutely zero longevity. It really sounded like it would be more of a complex system when they introduced it, where what we did actually mattered. I was under the impression it would be more like ffxi campaign where the mobs would rush an area, and you had to either defend that area or take it back if it were taken. But with some bonus things like making some changes to the zone, more enemies in certain areas, nm spawns or blockades, stuff like that.

But its just the same plain old fates that we have been doing since arr launch day.....again.

They really need to come up with something a bit more interesting because even when they give us "all new content" its not new, its just the same thing we have been doing for the past 7 years, but with a slight difference. In Bozja and Eureka's case, their own zones. Yippy. SE seriously needs to start doing better. We know they can, they have proven that in other games. But whoever is stifling the creativity of the devs needs to move on to other projects and leave xiv alone.

[Vahlnir]

The biggest mistake, imo, with Bozja is that its just rebranded fates. There is nothing new, nothing really interesting going on and drop rates that are much more punishing compared to doing the exact same thing in other zones. So of course its going to have absolutely zero longevity. It really sounded like it would be more of a complex system when they introduced it, where what we did actually mattered. I was under the impression it would be more like ffxi campaign where the mobs would rush an area, and you had to either defend that area or take it back if it were taken. But with some bonus things like making some changes to the zone, more enemies in certain areas, nm spawns or blockades, stuff like that.

But its just the same plain old fates that we have been doing since arr launch day.....again.

They really need to come up with something a bit more interesting because even when they give us "all new content" its not new, its just the same thing we have been doing for the past 7 years, but with a slight difference. In Bozja and Eureka's case, their own zones. Yippy. SE seriously needs to start doing better. We know they can, they have proven that in other games. But whoever is stifling the creativity of the devs needs to move on to other projects and leave xiv alone.

They are mostly "just Fates", that much is true. But in my opinion, Critical Engagements are Fates as they should have been from the beginning. Dynamic, challenging boss battles that require more than half a brain cell. Even some of the regular Fate bosses actually have mechanics.

[MicahZerrshia]

They are mostly "just Fates", that much is true. But in my opinion, Critical Engagements are Fates as they should have been from the beginning. Dynamic, challenging boss battles that require more than half a brain cell.

The problem with that is a good portion of the player base does not want to do things that take more than half a brain cell. That is why when they do come up with interesting fights, they get nerfed quickly and the fights also seem to becoming less and less complex.

But outside of that, they just really need to start thinking outside of this really small box they have put themselves in when it comes to systems like Eureka and Bozja. It doesn't necessarily need to be punishing and difficult, although I wouldn't scoff at a good challenge, but it needs to at least be interesting. Something that even years later you want to go back and do because it was different and fun and rewarding. Not just fates or even upscaled fates like crit engagements.

[Deceptus]

The problem with that is a good portion of the player base does not want to do things that take more than half a brain cell. That is why when they do come up with interesting fights, they get nerfed quickly and the fights also seem to becoming less and less complex.

Incorrect. Ultimately, the playerbase wants to be rewarded for their time spent.

Eureka got this wrong in Pagos

Bozja has similar issues. People are refusing to run Castrum in Bozja because it's simply not worth the time invested. You can easily come out worse than when you went in.

It's like they learned something, and then said "Nah, F* it. Here are some terrible design decisions that we've done in the past. Let's re-use them!".

Since they were intent on making Bozja only one way of obtaining the relic, and wanted to give players another means of doing so, what do you think a more appropriate alternative path would have been?

There's a segment of the population who are getting tired of SE trying to revitalize old content by putting the relic or anything else in there (crafting is another)

Embrace the new content, design for it. Not the content that is now 4 years old.

[ItMe]

There's a segment of the population who are getting tired of SE trying to revitalize old content by putting the relic or anything else in there (crafting is another)

Embrace the new content, design for it. Not the content that is now 4 years old.

So... you would have wanted them to design new Fates for the Heavensward areas?
I'm not sure I'm following the alternative path you're proposing.

[Vahlnir]

There's a segment of the population who are getting tired of SE trying to revitalize old content by putting the relic or anything else in there (crafting is another)

Embrace the new content, design for it. Not the content that is now 4 years old.

They did do that this time around...somewhat, but they also made old content (HW fates) the most efficient way to grind out the relic, even though it was started through the Bozja content. The most efficient way should have been through the Bozjan Southern Front. Or at the very least, it should have been on par with HW fates. There should be a 100% drop rate for memories of the dying from Fates in there. Maybe lock the Bitter Memories behind Critical Engagements but give them a 100% drop rate. Just a couple ideas. They should have put all of that in Castrum as well, along with some excellent exp gains.

[Vickii]

I don't get why it's HW area's also like... HW had its use of being a relic area with HW, why not stormblood since the only relic area was eureka idk I just find it odd that put them in HW again.

Yeah it seems odd. We got ishgard restoration this expansion and the gathering tools are done mostly in ishgard with the occasional going to SB content.

There’s the ‘populate HW areas for free trial’ theory , ‘say goodbye to HW once and for all’ theory and the ‘Ishgard is about to become super important again’ theory. But yeah they’ve put quite a bit of focus back on it for whatever reason.