the normal content is too easy

[Catwho]

Isn't the whole point of adding more of a single player mode to encourage those who have skipped XIV because it is an "MMO" to play it for the story?

It seems like Yoshi P and the game devs have chosen to prioritize the Plot Watchers.

Which.... I get it. Not everyone has the time or commitment for an MMO. Even my husband has said he'd consider playing through XIV in "plot watcher" only mode, and he's actively avoided this game for a decade now.

[Serious-Cat]

There’s just so many entertainment options and it’s just hard to only be entertained by one source when you can be doing that other thing rn

[KizuyaKatogami]

It doesn't change that some new players are buying the skip potions and so we must deal with them.

Also, going through 3 expansions worth of content does not mean someone has developed superior skill. Many players have a skill cap they cannot exceed due to physical limitations. Whether you like it or not, SE wants those players to be able to enjoy all of the MSQ and not just the portions you've decided they should be allowed to see.

If you feel that you are "suffering" when in a group with players less skilled than you are, use Party Finder so you can pick and choose who will be in a duty with you.

We have to deal with them yes, but it doesn’t mean content should be balanced around them. I understand there’s people with limitations, and that’s perfectly fine. Trusts exist now, they’re even making trials trust-runnable now too. So what’s the excuse at this point? People who don’t think their good at the game or people who have limitations have the options available to continue with the msq despite all that. So why can’t things be tuned up a bit more?

[Xirean]

We have to deal with them yes, but it doesn’t mean content should be balanced around them. I understand there’s people with limitations, and that’s perfectly fine. Trusts exist now, they’re even making trials trust-runnable now too. So what’s the excuse at this point? People who don’t think their good at the game or people who have limitations have the options available to continue with the msq despite all that. So why can’t things be tuned up a bit more?

Having limitations or being less skilled is not a reason to say those players don't get to play with other people. People should be able to play multiplayer or single player and enjoy the game regardless. It's not a situation of "you're not good enough for people so go play with bots."

[Carin-Eri]

Having limitations or being less skilled is not a reason to say those players don't get to play with other people. People should be able to play multiplayer or single player and enjoy the game regardless. It's not a situation of "you're not good enough for people so go play with bots."

This ^

Additionally, whilst it definitely has benefits, the downsides of playing that way are:
- takes a lot longer
- NPCs rarely use AOE attacks
- I found that I picked up aggro before the NPC tank did (since the NPC tanks tend to, as noted, focus on single-target attacks)
- you don't receive player commendations
- it's rather unforgiving if you die - none of the NPCs can revive you and you get sent back to the start, which can often mean quite a trek to reach the point you were at before being KO'ed.

Personally, I also missed the sense of 'community' that often follows - whilst it doesn't always happen, I've sometimes encountered players who wanted to offer some encouragement.

However, in contrast to the generally low opinions of poorly-performing players being expressed here on the forums, my experience of in-game teams is that they're almost always very forgiving of inexperienced or low-performing players, particularly if you take the time to tell them (in chat).

[KizuyaKatogami]

Having limitations or being less skilled is not a reason to say those players don't get to play with other people. People should be able to play multiplayer or single player and enjoy the game regardless. It's not a situation of "you're not good enough for people so go play with bots."

They can play with other people, no one is saying they can’t please don’t put words in anyones mouths. My point is, if they find that a trial or dungeon is too hard for them, then trusts exist to help them. But we shouldn’t be balancing content around such a niche minority. Which, before you bring it up, i can already say that the minority of players with disabilities that actually hinders their playstyle to an extreme degree are much more of a minority than those asking for some harder normal content.

As for the other people though, i’d like to think harder normal content would actually help people improve. I don’t think anyone is asking for savage level mechanics in normal content lol. Just a slight increase in difficulty to not make the content so absolutely boring and braindead. You have people in here literally saying they’ve dozed off during dungeon runs because it’s not engaging enough. There’s people literally falling asleep out of boredom for the game. That is a major problem.

[Silver-Strider]

- takes a lot longer
- I found that I picked up aggro before the NPC tank did (since the NPC tanks tend to, as noted, focus on single-target attacks)

I will content these 2 points.
I've had runs with players that have taken much longer than some trusts either due to single pull tanks, single target rotation DPS, bad players that constantly die, etc; I've had 40 minute Holmester Switch runs with players that with trusts would have taken 20-25 minutes tops. Also, unlike players, SE can actually improve Trusts in the future so that maybe they'll actually use AoE skills to make runs even faster.

I've also never had a problem with the NPC tank, other than them being a little slow on the initial pull. Once it starts, they jump in and start AoEing pretty much instantly, I just have to stand by them for a second for them to get all the mobs but after that, it's pretty normal overall.

[Ronduwil]

And this right here is the logical failure point of everyone arguing against making the game challenging. They tend to take it to extremes and radicalize and distort the intentions of the OP every time this gets brought up. Noone is arguing this should be the case. In fact, I think you enjoy making up imaginary people making this argument so you can make it sound valid. No one is asking this, so you are answering to people who don't exist.

But it's the logical conclusion to what they're asking for. We've seen it in WoW. The high end community's chants of "make it harder make it harder" have made the game unrecognizable. The contrast was pronounced when I played Classic a couple of years ago and saw how the original raid mechanics weren't even as hard as the original LFR mechanics. If you run LFR now in WoW, its mechanics are on par with heroic raid mechanics from Cataclysm, with the difference being that it's a little more tolerant of deaths before the DPS checks wipe the raid. Please understand that difficulty is relative. Players who have been at this game for years will have naturally mastered mechanics that new players are still struggling with. They're barely even aware that these mechanics are a challenge anymore. So naturally, if SE perpetually scrambles to keep these players challenged at lower levels and in Normal content, they will eventually ratchet up the difficulty to a point where the learning curve becomes so steep that average players won't even want to bother with it. That's why it's not a productive goal for them. There's a time and place for everything, and the time and place for difficulty in raids is in Extreme and Savage content.

Plus, contrary to your claim, the OP explicitly suggested that SE should bring some of the difficulty from Extreme and Savage into Normal. In their own words, the rest of the game has absolutely zero difficulty:

Why is the game so easy a person who is half asleep could play it with no problem? You wonder why no one knows how to play well, yet make all of the content ridiculously easy. I'm no pro, but its kinda silly how all of the content save extremes and savage is so easy to learn and play with no difficulty whatsoever. People play games to enjoy mental stimulation, and when every single mechanic is telegraphed, repetitive, and predictable, the content becomes very linear and boring.

And here you are accusing me of going to extremes...

[ThivraK]

Additionally, whilst it definitely has benefits, the downsides of playing that way are:
- takes a lot longer
- NPCs rarely use AOE attacks
- I found that I picked up aggro before the NPC tank did (since the NPC tanks tend to, as noted, focus on single-target attacks)
- you don't receive player commendations
- it's rather unforgiving if you die - none of the NPCs can revive you and you get sent back to the start, which can often mean quite a trek to reach the point you were at before being KO'ed.

- I'll be honest; most of the recent runs in the dungeons that are able to be finished with Trusts have taken longer with human players than they would have done with bots
Trust damage also varies: If you do a lot of damage, they do less, if you half-afk, their attacks do more damage so it always ends up being around 23-25 minutes, which is preferable to dungeons that should take around 15 minutes, taking 30 or more
- Those are honestly non-issues, tbh
- Commendations mean absolutely nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing
- That is true, but that's also true if your party doesn't have someone who can rez you

Personally, I also missed the sense of 'community' that often follows - whilst it doesn't always happen, I've sometimes encountered players who wanted to offer some encouragement.

However, in contrast to the generally low opinions of poorly-performing players being expressed here on the forums, my experience of in-game teams is that they're almost always very forgiving of inexperienced or low-performing players, particularly if you take the time to tell them (in chat).

Then you are really, really lucky, as in my (and most of my friends') experiences, encouragement and advice is met with hostility and anger, even if you're telling someone they're doing good.
People are forgiving when it comes to inexperienced players, but they're rightfully not forgiving of those who have spent hundreds of hours and still play as if they're in Sastasha and especially of those who do not put in any effort whatsoever. And honestly, it'd be weird to blame them for that.

[Xirean]

They can play with other people, no one is saying they can’t please don’t put words in anyones mouths. My point is, if they find that a trial or dungeon is too hard for them, then trusts exist to help them. But we shouldn’t be balancing content around such a niche minority. Which, before you bring it up, i can already say that the minority of players with disabilities that actually hinders their playstyle to an extreme degree are much more of a minority than those asking for some harder normal content.

As for the other people though, i’d like to think harder normal content would actually help people improve. I don’t think anyone is asking for savage level mechanics in normal content lol. Just a slight increase in difficulty to not make the content so absolutely boring and braindead. You have people in here literally saying they’ve dozed off during dungeon runs because it’s not engaging enough. There’s people literally falling asleep out of boredom for the game. That is a major problem.

Then the solution would be to find a way to bring that engagement up without alienating people who just can't operate at a higher level. I will not ever agree with the idea that people with disabilities don't get to play the game. If you raise the difficulty without keeping those needs in mind then you risk making it unplayable for them. I also don't like the idea of majority or minority. Accessibility is my concern. Do I think the state of the game properly reflects that? No. Do I think it can be improved? Yes. But I want those improvements to be done without throwing others under the buss.