Quote Originally Posted by Sol_Aureus View Post
With each update I've become increasingly worried about the direction that FFXIV's content is headed in...

So please SE, I'm begging you, move away from the "spamable content + abysmally low drop rate" model for everything. IT IS NOT FUN.
Hi Sol,

Excellent post! I totally agree with your sentiments that we should have more Content that rewards Skill over Luck.

Though one thing that the current system has that *is* nice is the freedom to able to cater to any player's schedule. Having 3 Day Lockouts would make it pretty difficult for those not doing statics, or those not having the same free time as someone else. For example, if your friends / LS did AV on Tuesday with a 3 Day Lockout, but you weren't available on Saturday (next time it's open), but were on Sunday, if your friends / LS did it on Saturday, you'd be left out (and they couldn't even help you try again on Sunday) with the lockout timer.

Regarding Ifrit and Moogle (not to defend Yoshida-san), that whole crappy Loot System / Drop Rate was done blatantly as a Time Sink. Sadly, with the team split with 2.0 duties and keeping us busy / "happy" in the meantime, they only had time to do *1* Primal Fight for an entire Patch (~3 months).

So it's pretty obvious in SE's eyes, they were probably thinking, "How do we keep the players busy for 3 months with just 1 Boss Fight (Ifrit)?"

Answer: "Random Number Generator + Super Low Drop Rate + New Crappy FORCED Untradeable Loot In Your Inventory System"

Same for Moogle.

That being said, maybe we should offer up some ideas on what would reward more player skill (instead of RNG).

Here are some ideas to increase Drop Rate / Extra Chest(?) to reward Players for their efforts instead of mind-numbingly Low Drop Rates:

* Have Alternate (Harder) Paths / Side Bosses in the Dungeon that if you have time to beat / have the skill to beat, will reward the party with an Extra Chest / Better Drop Rate.

* No Deaths (or if that's too punitive, "Less Than ~3 Deaths" or something). Essentially a take on the classic Arcade "No Continues" idea. No one dying (even once) on a Raid would reward a Higher Drop Rate, or Extra Chest.

* Incapacitations. Perhaps parties taking the time to get Incapacitations on Bosses, would be rewarded with a Higher Drop Rate / Extra Chest? This would matter more on Bosses that had Dangerous Directional Attacks (for example, Chimera with its Poison Back Attack), so that the party has to take the added Risk to avoid / survive Rear Attacks, and Incapacitate a Boss (all Limbs?) to get an Extra Chest / Higher Drop Rate.

* Killing All "Boss Adds / Helpers" - Perhaps on some Boss Fights, there are unique Adds (like the Chirada / Suparna idea, but maybe they were Optional). Parties that took the time (and risk) to go out and destroy all the Boss Helpers / Adds (where they were optional) could reward with an Extra Chest / Higher Drop Rate.

I'm sure fellow players can come up with many more ideas.

But the bottom line is that I would rather repeat content FAR LESS, but have it be more challenging with HIGHER DROP RATES, than spam repeat content hundreds of times and just have it be based on Luck.

If you think about it, even the big "Crafting-based System" - Materia - is based on the same crappy Luck / Random Number Generator System we see in Dungeons / Primals. I've seen someone get lucky and get a Double Meld on their first try (and they only have 1 Craft leveled), and I've had friends with All Crafts Leveled to Max blow up ~15 Double Melds in a Row before getting a success.

Just like a friend who got their desired Ifrit's Harpoon on the *1st* Ifrit Fight (with us), vs. myself, who has over 250 Wins on Ifrit and still have no Harpoon.

It's all just rolling the dice. Yoshi P seems to rather favor everyone "playing the Lottery" (random number generator) with an equally abysmal chance to roll to win, vs. rewarding SKILL.

Yoshida-san, I think many people would rather earn their drops and be rewarded for their Skill / Effort, instead of suffering the Random Number Generator / Crappy Drop Rates System we have now.

Sure people may finish getting their Drops sooner (before a New Patch comes out), but that's OK! Let the players *choose* HOW they want to spend their extra time.

They could actually (gasp), repeat the content (if they had to spam it far less) for their Friends / LS members / Strangers, or decide to build up Crafts / work on Triple, Quad Materia Melding, etc.

But ultimately, let them decide. Right now, many people are burning out on this trend, and the Hamlet Defense / Drop Rate you have now for AF Weapons Quest and Militia Gear is only continuing this horrible trend.

Thanks.