the normal content is too easy

[ThivraK]

Yoshi-P's reponse was to play another game for a couple of months and then come back to FFXIV for the next content drop. SE isn't Blizzard. They don't introduce a bunch of busy work into the game to artificially extend its longevity.

what do you think a demolition timer on a house, is? especially funny considering that yoship said before that they'd never ever introduce such a system in the first place

[KizuyaKatogami]

what do you think a demolition timer on a house, is? especially funny considering that yoship said before that they'd never ever introduce such a system in the first place

Remember when they said they got rid of Veteran rewards because they didn’t want players to feel forced to pay a sub….but then the demo timer exists and contradicts that entire sentiment. Even if people bring up the argument of “oh well…you just have to sub every 40 days.” And? That still doesn’t defend the whole thing of Yoshi p telling us to play another game.

[Liam_Harper]

The patch is not intended to last month four months. There's a widely referenced Yoshi-P Q&A where a player asked how he was expected to keep his motivation up between content droughts. Yoshi-P's reponse was to play another game for a couple of months and then come back to FFXIV for the next content drop. SE isn't Blizzard.

I'm impressed how much people cling to this one line and parrot it over and over.

There is a big difference between dropping your sub entirely and leaving for several months, and just keeping it running while you spread your time out over multiple games. No developer wants the first one, that's financial suicide. If the entire playerbase played a patch for 1 month and quit entirely for the other 3, the game would die.

All Yoshida meant is that unlike WoW they don't employ infinite treadmill grinds where you'll fall behind on progression if you don't play constantly. So if you want to do other things in your spare time, you won't sacrifice progress and always be behind. It doesn't mean they don't care about player retention. It's not an excuse to provide less content. It doesn't mean content shouldn't have long term and replay value.

[ThaCa]

Even this is by design, though. We're not face rolling those things when they drop in the ilevel available. Things get easier over time because ilevel increases. But this is necessary. Take something like Shinryu. That was a pretty big bottleneck on drop. I know it took me a couple of PUGs to get it. My first group just ran out of time. It was rough on healers in the gear available. I finished it, got my gear, then ran it constantly to learn it and to be a solid healer helping people get through. At first, I saw people drop constantly when they got it. But over time we stopped seeing that as more made it through, got the gear, found it easier after that, groups wiped less, and people stayed. If our ilevel didn't allow things to get easier over time, we'd remain stuck on these bottlenecks and players would either leave or call for nerfs. There were calls for nerfs on Shinryu that eventually died out as more people were able to get through. It's not a perfect system, but it is functional for the intention.

I think the biggest issue with Shinryu was too many people not finishing their level 70 Job quests and trying to fight it without their Ultimate skill and Artifact Gear. It certainly was a rough boss for Story standards, but it also felt very fitting. If some bosses do end up being bottle necks, they might need some tuning, but few tougher fights don't really negate the need of having most of the remaining fights to keep their base difficulty instead of becoming complete walkovers.

Look at the current Crystal Tower raids, there are few mechanics with outdated markers that might pose issues or people but most bosses can't even dish out their abilities before lying in dirt. Some of the early story Trials completely lose the awe effect of not even tickling the players and just dying in record times. Dungeons are easier than ever, you can even pull some of the long ARR hallways all the way to boss and still come out at the top.

Content is fun when its engaging, if its too easy then it loses all its meaning, if it ends up too hard it can brickwall people. Previous Normal was fine as it was, the current watered down experience is sorely dissapointing. Doesn't really help that past all these expansions people still have very few buttons for large part of game. Adding weaker versions of some later skills to lower levels would also make the game more engaging.

[Illmaeran]

There is a big difference between dropping your sub entirely and leaving for several months, and just keeping it running while you spread your time out over multiple games. No developer wants the first one, that's financial suicide. If the entire playerbase played a patch for 1 month and quit entirely for the other 3, the game would die.

I'm not sure I agree with this. Plenty of companies succeed on games that are one-time purchases. SE's essentially selling a new game every 2 years and likely getting even more income than that with subs between, even with people coming in a month here and there. If a single person subs for only four months in an entire expansion cycle, that's two full Once-and-Done games in a two year period. Not quite an insubstantial or game killing amount of money.

[Xirean]

Adding weaker versions of some later skills to lower levels would also make the game more engaging.

This sounds like a decent solution. At the very least, it's better than not having skills at all.

[Catwho]

That's not how trusts work. It's not like you get to completely ignore mechanics once you're in trusts. In fact, you can argue that trusts are harder because you can't get carried through them. If you die in a trust, the run fails with no second chances. While it's true that 75% of the mechanics in trusts can be done by simply stacking on one of the more reliable NPCs, there are many mechanics that require you to be on the ball. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. I like that there's some challenge even in trusts. I just don't think that trusts justify an increase in normal dungeon difficulty. Such an increase impacts trusts almost as much as it impacts roulette/PF runs.

I wiped so many times in Vanaspati final boss because the Trust healers won't heal you up if you screw up the yeet mechanic and get blasted by Aetherial Charge. A normal party would have just giving me a shield, a cure, or a rez. Urianger and Alphinaud point at you and go LOL YOU SUCK and you have to start the fight over from the beginning.

[TaleraRistain]

I think the biggest issue with Shinryu was too many people not finishing their level 70 Job quests and trying to fight it without their Ultimate skill and Artifact Gear.

I saw plenty of groups in full 290 gear. It was rough even in that. The upgrade to the tome gear locked behind Shinryu was a big difference.

And they seem to have learned from that, especially with Endwalker giving the gear at 89 that is at full power at 90.

[ICountFrom0]

Adding weaker versions of some later skills to lower levels would also make the game more engaging.

Somebody's been paying attention to the live letters.

I'm looking forward to that too, one button MCH was never fun.

[TaleraRistain]

Somebody's been paying attention to the live letters.

I'm looking forward to that too, one button MCH was never fun.

I remember they mentioned that but I don't think we got too many details. I will cry happy tears if DRG gets an AoE earlier.