FF14 needs more difficulty levels

[RitsukoSonoda]

Imo the game needs more challenging solo content.

Casuals are far more likely to try out gradual difficulty solo content than bother to meet and talk with people to get into a static to do raids, that takes times, mental effort and also requires specific times for raid and organize that many do not like being limited to.

Now they could also make a solo savage raid option where the npcs behave very average or slightly below average so victory COMPLETELY depends on your own PERSONAL performance but that is probably a lot of work instead of some solo designed deep dungeon.

The issue IMO is that they've dumbed down the MSQ too much. I still feel like it's purpose should include teaching people how to play the game competently so that there isn't such a noticeable gap going into extreme/savage. Single player games do this all the time. It's part of progressing the game. I don't see why an MMORPG should be any different.

[Ralphe2449]

The issue IMO is that they've dumbed down the MSQ too much. I still feel like it's purpose should include teaching people how to play the game competently so that there isn't such a noticeable gap going into extreme/savage. Single player games do this all the time. It's part of progressing the game. I don't see why an MMORPG should be any different.

MSQ understandably gates the story so it needs to be beatable for even the most slow player, that isnt something that can ever be changed, even MSQ duties are designed to be beatable with only 1 good player in the group to give the illusion of difficulty, but extra content could be tuned to have high solo difficulty that increases gradually, extra things like deep dungeons or somekind of challenge that progresses and gives better rewards the higher you go and is of course viable for all classes since from what I understand, some classes are way worse in solo places like PotD/HoH and melee often have to rely on spinning which honestly doesnt feel like a great system but that is because the deep dungeons were created with groups in mind

[RitsukoSonoda]

MSQ understandably gates the story so it needs to be beatable for even the most slow player, that isnt something that can ever be changed, even MSQ duties are designed to be beatable with only 1 good player in the group to give the illusion of difficulty, but extra content could be tuned to have high solo difficulty that increases gradually, extra things like deep dungeons or somekind of challenge that progresses and gives better rewards the higher you go and is of course viable for all classes since from what I understand, some classes are way worse in solo places like PotD/HoH and melee often have to rely on spinning which honestly doesnt feel like a great system but that is because the deep dungeons were created with groups in mind

Just about every game has a story. Requiring someone to learn how to play the game isn't gating them out of content. Claiming it does is nothing but an enabling phase to excuse laziness. If they don't want to actually play the game then why play it? To me it's essentially punishing everyone else because some people want a visual novel. If their goal is to just watch the main story and all the cutscenes they can do it for free watching online videos without paying retail for the game and a monthly subscription. The actual result that's come about from dumbing that content down and adding things like easy mode to solo duties is basically clearing the way for unprepared players jumping into DF for higher end duties and dragging everyone else down. This resulting in the decline of PUG's on that content and more people adopting the mindset that it can only be done with a static.

[IdowhatIwant]

MSQ understandably gates the story so it needs to be beatable for even the most slow player, that isnt something that can ever be changed, even MSQ duties are designed to be beatable with only 1 good player in the group to give the illusion of difficulty, but extra content could be tuned to have high solo difficulty that increases gradually, extra things like deep dungeons or somekind of challenge that progresses and gives better rewards the higher you go and is of course viable for all classes since from what I understand, some classes are way worse in solo places like PotD/HoH and melee often have to rely on spinning which honestly doesnt feel like a great system but that is because the deep dungeons were created with groups in mind

I don't know man, when I play a video game story, typically the further I get the more the difficulty tends to ramp up, as it puts the skills and things I have learned through played the game to a test. This game keeps a pretty stagnant difficulty, which can be as equal a problem. There is a reason both the players and the devs know what the MSQ doesn't teach players how to play the game, and it's simply because it never has a player test there skills. The MSQ in this game is more a theme park tour, or a visual novel / audio book, than it is a video game.

[JerryDidrik]

too many difficulties for the same fight dilutes any sense of achievement.

[Zer0]

The issue IMO is that they've dumbed down the MSQ too much. I still feel like it's purpose should include teaching people how to play the game competently so that there isn't such a noticeable gap going into extreme/savage. Single player games do this all the time. It's part of progressing the game. I don't see why an MMORPG should be any different.

The purpose of MSQ is to tell the story. It should NEVER be about teaching anyone anything about endgame content. If you increased the difficulty of the one part of the game that IS NOT OPTIONAL!!! All you'll do is lose playerbase. The game already has an obscenely long story that makes it literally impossible to convince anyone new to play the game. Why do you want to play a game where it'll take you months of playing obsolete content before you can finally get to where your friends are?

Reality is, most of the entire player base doesn't not do Extreme or Savages. This entire thread is full of WoW try-hards who are the same people that go on the wow forums saying Mythic Raids are too easy we cleared it in a week. MAKE IT HARDER!!1!!one!! when the entire game isn't even done with Normal mode.

[Vahlnir]

The purpose of MSQ is to tell the story. It should NEVER be about teaching anyone anything about endgame content. If you increased the difficulty of the one part of the game that IS NOT OPTIONAL!!! All you'll do is lose playerbase. The game already has an obscenely long story that makes it literally impossible to convince anyone new to play the game. Why do you want to play a game where it'll take you months of playing obsolete content before you can finally get to where your friends are?

Reality is, most of the entire player base doesn't not do Extreme or Savages. This entire thread is full of WoW try-hards who are the same people that go on the wow forums saying Mythic Raids are too easy we cleared it in a week. MAKE IT HARDER!!1!!one!! when the entire game isn't even done with Normal mode.

I mean, I don't think it's unreasonable to request that doing MSQ content requires using 2 brain cells instead of one. It's not something I expect to happen, but it would be nice. That doesn't equate to asking for Extreme/Savage or Mythic raid levels of difficulty.

[Zer0]

I mean, I don't think it's unreasonable to request that doing MSQ content requires using 2 brain cells instead of one. It's not something I expect to happen, but it would be nice. That doesn't equate to asking for Extreme/Savage or Mythic raid levels of difficulty.

sure it does, I know a lot of people that HATE the msq. It's not that it's hard, it's not. They just don't like it at all. Don't care about the story and just want to be done with it. So expecting it to sort of "teach" anything is expecting way way way too much. It's just a story. In fact it should be totally optional. But it's not. So many people just want it done and over with.

You know all those post expansion patches where you have to spend like 2.5 hours playing as random NPC's you couldn't give a toss about and hate how the fights are drawn out to take 15 mins a piece. They're not hard, just annoying. If you add in more mechanics that most players will literally never see again will just make an already annoying quest end up being a game quitting quest.

[Towowo]

sure it does, I know a lot of people that HATE the msq. It's not that it's hard, it's not. They just don't like it at all. Don't care about the story and just want to be done with it. So expecting it to sort of "teach" anything is expecting way way way too much. It's just a story. In fact it should be totally optional. But it's not. So many people just want it done and over with.

You know all those post expansion patches where you have to spend like 2.5 hours playing as random NPC's you couldn't give a toss about and hate how the fights are drawn out to take 15 mins a piece. They're not hard, just annoying. If you add in more mechanics that most players will literally never see again will just make an already annoying quest end up being a game quitting quest.

Literally no one asked for Extreme or Savage difficulty tuning for dungeons. But it would be nice if people had to like... think while doing normal content while playing the game. I honestly don't know how people can have fun in a game where the ability to lose is nonexistent.

[Absurdity]

Literally no one asked for Extreme or Savage difficulty tuning for dungeons. But it would be nice if people had to like... think while doing normal content while playing the game. I honestly don't know how people can have fun in a game where the ability to lose is nonexistent.

This is basically what made me completely lose interest in Endwalker's story, but I already knew it would happen. The MSQ and it's associated fights are sometimes so bafflingly easy, the possibility of failure so nonexistent, that it destroy any impact the story could've potentially had for me.

"Oh no this incredibly ancient and unbelievably powerful evil is threatening our entire world" and then you get to the boss and it's a 5 minute fight that you oneshot, where the ancient all-powerful menace... tickles you, throws out a few "dungeon boss"-level mechanics and then falls over.