How to make the game better for new players?

[Colt47]

They need a way to make sure the early game players can get a lot of access to the fun abilities, while still keeping it simple enough that they can learn it. That's been the issue since day 1. Poor players picking blackmage as their first job get stuck under-performing on DPS because the rotation keeps shifting with little input from the game.

[Bright-Flower]

They need a way to make sure the early game players can get a lot of access to the fun abilities, while still keeping it simple enough that they can learn it. That's been the issue since day 1. Poor players picking blackmage as their first job get stuck under-performing on DPS because the rotation keeps shifting with little input from the game.

Yeah I think some classes/jobs could do with a retooling of when they get certain things.

The game's longer GCD for me tends to be kind of mind numbing at lower levels when I only have a fraction of my job's total kit. I don't mind it aas much by level cap when there's more going on but it's always so boring getting lower level dungeons, depending on the job to what extent though.

[Jeeqbit]

Yeah I think some classes/jobs could do with a retooling of when they get certain things.

The game's longer GCD for me tends to be kind of mind numbing at lower levels when I only have a fraction of my job's total kit. I don't mind it aas much by level cap when there's more going on but it's always so boring getting lower level dungeons, depending on the job to what extent though.

For people who haven't played an MMO before, they may not be used to a pace faster than that. Even people who have played a lot of MMOs are adjusting to how the mechanics in this game work and are usually distracted by all the new things they are seeing on their screen, and if you watch them play you can see how overwhelming just ARR rotations are for them.

For some people, it won't be satisfying enough at early levels, but others need this slow transition from a bare ARR rotation to what we have at level 80.

From a game development perspective, I think that when we sync down to level 70, 60 or 50, we are doing the SB, HW or ARR rotation respectively and that content was designed and balanced around the type of actions available in that expansion. Even when adding new jobs, there seem to be actions that are intentionally not added at the lower levels because other jobs don't have them at those levels and it would imbalance certain content.

[Bright-Flower]

For people who haven't played an MMO before, they may not be used to a pace faster than that. Even people who have played a lot of MMOs are adjusting to how the mechanics in this game work and are usually distracted by all the new things they are seeing on their screen, and if you watch them play you can see how overwhelming just ARR rotations are for them.

For some people, it won't be satisfying enough at early levels, but others need this slow transition from a bare ARR rotation to what we have at level 80.

From a game development perspective, I think that when we sync down to level 70, 60 or 50, we are doing the SB, HW or ARR rotation respectively and that content was designed and balanced around the type of actions available in that expansion. Even when adding new jobs, there seem to be actions that are intentionally not added at the lower levels because other jobs don't have them at those levels and it would imbalance certain content.

Some jobs have changed more substantially than others. PLD for exmaple used to only have circle of scorn for aoe damage and flash for aoe enmity but no damage. THen they added total eclipse and gave pld a spammable aoe button. And in SHB gave us total eclipse at a much lower level and then a second combo for aoe for example.

Some jobs have changed a lot more than others over the years. And it wouldn't hurt things to say, make sure everyone has some basic aoe around level 20 for dungeons. They wouldn't have to do everything from the ground up.

[Vahlnir]

From a game development perspective, I think that when we sync down to level 70, 60 or 50, we are doing the SB, HW or ARR rotation respectively and that content was designed and balanced around the type of actions available in that expansion. Even when adding new jobs, there seem to be actions that are intentionally not added at the lower levels because other jobs don't have them at those levels and it would imbalance certain content.

I disagree. It is gear that makes old content imbalanced. Look at the Crystal Tower raids. Or Void Ark. Or even old dungeons synced down, with players still having an edge just because of their gear. That being said, they should have tweaked the boss HP levels or something to reflect that growth, but they did not. If anything, our characters are way too strong in some instances and could use some nerfing in the form of a lower synced item level. The Ivalice and Nier raids are much more balanced in this regard, though that doesn't completely stop players from steamrolling through Rabanastre. I'm guessing all of this is at least a small factor in their reasoning to perform their future stat squish.

[Bright-Flower]

I disagree. It is gear that makes old content imbalanced. Look at the Crystal Tower raids. Or Void Ark. Or even old dungeons synced down, with players still having an edge just because of their gear. That being said, they should have tweaked the boss HP levels or something to reflect that growth, but they did not. If anything, our characters are way too strong in some instances and could use some nerfing in the form of a lower synced item level. The Ivalice and Nier raids are much more balanced in this regard, though that doesn't completely stop players from steamrolling through Rabanastre.

I think it's intentional. They want the older raids to become easier so that people do them in roulettes. Even orbonne is MUCH, MUCH EASIER today than it was when it first came out due to gear. If it wasn't they could just lower the syncing cap to keep people closer to gear levels from when they were relevant, but they don't.

The nier raids too will succumb to this in 6.0 when people are level 90 and ilvl 600 or w/e.

[Vahlnir]

I think it's intentional. They want the older raids to become easier so that people do them in roulettes. Even orbonne is MUCH, MUCH EASIER today than it was when it first came out due to gear. If it wasn't they could just lower the syncing cap to keep people closer to gear levels from when they were relevant, but they don't.

The nier raids too will succumb to this in 6.0 when people are level 90 and ilvl 600 or w/e.

I don't doubt it's intentional. I just don't agree with it. lol

Almost got my friend to play it since he loves ff8....bbuu the job he wanted to main was gated to 60 and that turned him off completely that he couldn't enjoy his job at 1 or even 30

Leveling isn't too hard though. Heck, they could be lvl 60 before they even touched a lot of the MSQ if they played their cards right.

[Bright-Flower]

I don't doubt it's intentional. I just don't agree with it. lol

I think it's necessary at least to a degree. If Orbonne for example was just as hard as on release, a lot of people would just jump ship when it comes up, or not have the patience to teach new people trying to get their clears so they can get into bozja or just see the story etc.

[Jirah]

I don't doubt it's intentional. I just don't agree with it. lol



Leveling isn't too hard though. Heck, they could be lvl 60 before they even touched a lot of the MSQ if they played their cards right.

thats what i said but he didnt wanna level something he didnt wanted just to start the job he wanted fully leveled. Hes one of those ppl that likes to level what he likes

[HyoMinPark]

I disagree. It is gear that makes old content imbalanced. Look at the Crystal Tower raids. Or Void Ark. Or even old dungeons synced down, with players still having an edge just because of their gear. That being said, they should have tweaked the boss HP levels or something to reflect that growth, but they did not. If anything, our characters are way too strong in some instances and could use some nerfing in the form of a lower synced item level. The Ivalice and Nier raids are much more balanced in this regard, though that doesn't completely stop players from steamrolling through Rabanastre. I'm guessing all of this is at least a small factor in their reasoning to perform their future stat squish.

I think it’s both gear and rotations that lead to older content being trivialized (outside of general nerfs). Just look at some jobs in synced content versus others. A good example is level 70 NIN versus level 70 SAM. So much of SAM’s core rotation is now post-70 that it is actually one of the weakest jobs in UCoB. NIN, on the other hand, is laughably overpowered in there. You can also throw DNC or RDM in level 50 content and they are stupidly overpowered compared to other level 50 jobs. Especially those that had a lot pruned throughout the years.

So there is the gear aspect, but there’s also the design of each job at each capstone.

I think it's intentional. They want the older raids to become easier so that people do them in roulettes. Even orbonne is MUCH, MUCH EASIER today than it was when it first came out due to gear. If it wasn't they could just lower the syncing cap to keep people closer to gear levels from when they were relevant, but they don't.

The nier raids too will succumb to this in 6.0 when people are level 90 and ilvl 600 or w/e.

It’s more that Orbonne is the only 24-man they put automatic Echo in (lol) and they also nerfed Thundergod Cid. So it’s less so gear and more that, in my opinion. Orbonne was never hard. It just required more than autopilot from a player.

That's been the problem with the system from the start. They actually have a button bloat issue at end-game that really pushes the limit on what people can rote memorize with some jobs, so it turns into how do you get enough to make the job interesting without breaking it. Melee DPS is absolutely the worst due to also having to manage positionals and it really shows in savage with all the deaths they keep accumulating to boss mechanics.

Being in discord it feels like back seat driving with the melee to make sure they get call outs and don't die to things.

If you are a melee DPS and have to rely on mechanical callouts to not die, that is entirely a you problem and not at all an issue with a particular job or its buttons. Plenty of melee DPS hit positionals just fine and do mechanics without dying. If you can’t do both, then you need to practice more.

As for the button bloat, there’s arguably only a couple jobs that suffer from “button bloat”. Most jobs can fit all their skills comfortably on two cross hotbars (if you’re a controller user). Other jobs like the physical ranged have empty space due to the sheer lack of skills they have. Just look at DNC.