Yoshida on "carrying" other people

[linayar]

https://www.destructoid.com/ffxiv-pr...ing-from-home/

Q:

I’m going to check in again on alliance raids. How successful are they still? I think the accessibility of these is one of the elements that sets FFXIV apart from the rest of the genre, but will you keep doing them until the game ends?

A:

I believe content like FFXIV’s alliance raids are great because it allows for players to have fun taking on challenges in a larger group of multiple parties, which lowers the amount of personal responsibility for each player for a more relaxed experience. It is also an opportunity for us as a development team to invest resources on a larger scale to create epic battles with grandiose presentations. Through this, players who aren’t as skilled at battle content can experience both story and battles, while also raising their gear item level through the equipment rewards from the alliance raids. This content is also meaningful for players that have been taking a break from the game for a little while, as it can help them get back in the groove when it comes to battle content, and also catch up on obtaining better equipment. Considering all of this, I would say that I feel that without a doubt alliance raids are a success. I think we’ll continue creating these until the end of service, but if we can think of good ways to evolve alliance raids, we may look to do so even further. (laughs)

It was actually the desire of the development team to take on a new challenge that led to us going in the direction of original content. They will be leveraging the knowledge, experience, as well as battle mechanic know-how that they have acquired during these past four years with our large-scale crossovers—namely the Return to Ivalice and YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse content—to tackle one of the largest mysteries of Eorzea!

Regarding the parts in bold, they're consistent with Yoshida's known hesitance to create "difficult" 4-player contents as they will have increased personal responsibility due to the smaller party size.

At the very least, certain contents in this game are meant for people to "carry" others. When the community at large is not able (or perhaps is refusing) to do that, those contents will get nerfed either via the echo or some other means.

Thankfully, that doesn't seem to happen that often, so I think they've gotten the difficulty tuned decently most of the times.

EDIT:

One reference on Yoshida's comment on difficult light party content (primarily dungeon style)

https://mogtalk.org/2021/05/07/inter...naoki-yoshida/

I think the chances of doing large-scale, challenging content is greater than creating high-difficulty content meant for smaller groups. It’s not that we are unable to create high-difficulty content for small groups, but currently I am a bit more hesitant with that direction overall.

In the case of a four-player high-difficulty dungeon, there is much less room for players to work with when it comes to party deaths or mistakes. If even a single party member is incapacitated or makes a mistake, it will invariably lead to a wipe, with not much leeway to save the run or come up with a creative solution. Another major reason is because our community continues to grow—naturally this is bringing in many casual players, and I believe that when looking at the bigger pictures, large-scale content will be easier for all players to get into.

[Nethereal]

*When hard mode expert dungeons skill floor is too high and being able to grab every single pack of mob leading up to the first boss creates a toxic environment*
*Makes multiple new boring expert dungeons that wall off almost every pack of mob and are essentially just a run way, all while being able put you to sleep and put dirt on akh morn's name*
*exists*

The biggest travesty yet using akh morn's name on that... that thing... that piece of literal trash that doesn't even hit harder than sub 60 casual content.

[Deceptus]

*When hard mode expert dungeons skill floor is too high and being able to grab every single pack of mob leading up to the first boss creates a toxic environment*
*Makes multiple new boring expert dungeons that wall off almost every pack of mob and are essentially just a run way, all while being able put you to sleep and put dirt on akh morn's name*
*exists*

The biggest travesty yet using akh morn's name on that... that thing... that piece of literal trash that doesn't even hit harder than sub 60 casual content.

One of the reasons I love Paglth'an is the tons of enemies that get thrown at you in the first corridor. It feels fun.

But yes, Lunar Bahamut hits like a wet noodle and that is extremely frustrating.

[Caurcas]

New gear to increase power is worthless without effort to make use of that gear.

[linayar]

New gear to increase power is worthless without effort to make use of that gear.

Gear has only passive effects in this game for the most part. Whatever effort is made will still gain an increased effect via increase in stats due to equipping better gear. And it will certainly make those who put in the effort be able to better "carry" as well, up to the level and ilevel syncs.

[CKNovel]

New gear to increase power is worthless without effort to make use of that gear.

I'd turn that in another way.
"A good craftman never blames his tools" is not my favorite quote as it's obvious a good craftman will produce better work with better tools.
But if you give better tools to a beginner and lower quality tools to an expert, this last will produce a better work.
Same can be said about gear, dps and mechanic handling.


When it comes to Yoshida wish to add more challenging content with a dumb numbers of players, 48, I'd say it's his worst take so far.
More player means less cohesion and leads to more drama. I can remember 7 other players, not 47 players. We can manage 3 or 7 other players, we can't manage 47 players let's be realistic.

[DPZ2]

New gear to increase power is worthless without effort to make use of that gear.

Tell that to players who have to gear up to i490 gear for the latest patch battles, when they only currently have the level 80 gear handed out at the end of 5.0 ...

[Caurcas]

Tell that to players who have to gear up to i490 gear for the latest patch battles, when they only currently have the level 80 gear handed out at the end of 5.0 ...

The point being those players are deadweight no matter their ilvl.

[DPZ2]

The point being those players are deadweight no matter their ilvl.

Sure. Got it. You must be one of THOSE players. Have a nice time in Party Finder.

[Puremallace]

New gear to increase power is worthless without effort to make use of that gear.

FF14 without a doubt proves that gear does not need to be the only carrot you chase at end game. I wish other MMO devs would understand this.