What is going on with Square Enix and the 14 team?

[Jandor]

They did once but never again. 3.1 had verminion and the first incarnation of diadem which was mixed gathering and battle content, gave an alternative way to get competitive item level equipment. Secondary stats randomised so you could farm forever in pursuit of small upgrades if you wanted. Parser people hated not be guaranteed the maximum possible stats.

I actually liked some of the ideas. When it was unpopular they never tried to innovate the gearing system again or give an alternative path to getting stronger, just stuck with tome+raid where everyone has the same stats and restricted to slow progress by weekly limit.

Yeah things like 'relic' have been introduced really late into the last few expansions and deep dungeon is usually X.3 too, so a year after xpac launch at the current pace. Personally I don't need several normal dungeons in each X.0 if it delays getting less braindead content. There's no non-linear or randomized content at all in the first year.

To put some figures to it:

HW started in 3.1 with some FATE grinding.
SB launched Eureka in 4.2.
ShB relic technically started in 5.2, but Bozja and the associated grind didn't launch till 5.3.

Technically the ARR relic was in at launch, but it was more skill check than time sink at first, till they shifted gears and dropped the Atma grind in 2.2. ARR was kinda weird in a lot of ways though.

Either way, I hope they have something longish term to put some time into come 6.2.

Hard agree on the delay. The delay kills the hype for the content for me especially when said content fails to deliver. Heaven on High vs. Palace of the Dead as the best example. I loved PotD and waited nearly a year for HoH only to find out it was only a measly 30 duty finder-able floors compared to PotD's 100. It lacked a story unlike PotD and I also had no reason to keep playing it as I had all the jobs I wanted to play already leveled to max by the time HoH dropped. That's really when I noticed a downhill spiral of barren content.

I liked playing HoH, but I'm only really interested in the extra floors anyway.

The story of HoH was absolute rubbish though, I can't even remember it, racking my brains and all I can come up with it Allagans? Some computer hidden in a tree? The pirate guys were trying to trick you? Or ... not really? Something something it was all a test? Shockingly poor quality stuff, especially given the quality of the hook, a seemingly infinitely tall sealed jenga tower.

Such a shame, especially as PotD was fairly strong in the story department too IMHO. The easter eggs with the zombified minor NPCs was a great touch as well.