Thread: 3.5 months... 4 months... 4.5 months... 5 months...

While this thread is a troll post, there is some validity to the claim being made. As someone already mentioned in this thread, the length between patch 6.2 to 6.3 was 20 weeks (140 days) which is roughly a little more than 4.5 months time. There was also the announcement of an increase of patch length to about every 4 months early in endwalker. I do think this factor does contribute to some of the reasons for burnout amongst the community, and while this hasn't attributed to any real player loss yet, it very well could as time moves forward. Only time will tell.

IIRC, the change to the patch cycle's length wasn't to add more content but instead the delay was needed to continue producing the current amount of content. This means what we were originally given every 3.5 months or so, we are now given every 4 - 4.5 months. With this now happening for 2-3 patches, it is starting to slowly show the side effects. I found it rather interesting the timing certain creators were making videos about being burnt out of the game. In the original patch cycle, they would've had the live letter leading up to the patch in a couple weeks in that timeframe. In the new cycle at that point, there was nothing. The second part of the live letter was still weeks out.

The supposed formula that worked has changed with endwalker. IMO arguments that pertain to the historical success of this model don't necessarily apply because they did change the formula with this expansion. We'll just have to see how things feel from patch to patch. We also don't know how the development of FFXVI impacts us and what may change (for the better or worse) once that is complete and released.

Originally Posted by TomsYoungerBro

While this thread is a troll post, there is some validity to the claim being made. As someone already mentioned in this thread, the length between patch 6.2 to 6.3 was 20 weeks (140 days) which is roughly a little more than 4.5 months time. There was also the announcement of an increase of patch length to about every 4 months early in endwalker. I do think this factor does contribute to some of the reasons for burnout amongst the community, and while this hasn't attributed to any real player loss yet, it very well could as time moves forward. Only time will tell.

IIRC, the change to the patch cycle's length wasn't to add more content but instead the delay was needed to continue producing the current amount of content. This means what we were originally given every 3.5 months or so, we are now given every 4 - 4.5 months. With this now happening for 2-3 patches, it is starting to slowly show the side effects. I found it rather interesting the timing certain creators were making videos about being burnt out of the game. In the original patch cycle, they would've had the live letter leading up to the patch in a couple weeks in that timeframe. In the new cycle at that point, there was nothing. The second part of the live letter was still weeks out.

The supposed formula that worked has changed with endwalker. IMO arguments that pertain to the historical success of this model don't necessarily apply because they did change the formula with this expansion. We'll just have to see how things feel from patch to patch. We also don't know how the development of FFXVI impacts us and what may change (for the better or worse) once that is complete and released.

Reading is fundamental

Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

It was for the health of their team more than anything. Reducing stress and burnout is important to someone in Yoshi-P's position.

And that translates to a better product overall. That kind of thing should be important to more people.

Originally Posted by Deveryn

And that translates to a better product overall. That kind of thing should be important to more people.

And how many emergency maintenances have we had for this 6.3 patch? I think moreso the issue is the benefits aren't quite showing themselves xD.

If the 3.5 month patch cycle was a similar issue to what I heard about Stormblood work load (and how that needed to be reduced), i'm all for it and understanding for sure. My point was that same amount of content stretched out for a longer amount of time will have its impact on the community. Increasing the length of each patch cycle is a change to their formula.

Originally Posted by TomsYoungerBro

And how many emergency maintenances have we had for this 6.3 patch? I think moreso the issue is the benefits aren't quite showing themselves xD.

If the 3.5 month patch cycle was a similar issue to what I heard about Stormblood work load (and how that needed to be reduced), i'm all for it and understanding for sure. My point was that same amount of content stretched out for a longer amount of time will have its impact on the community. Increasing the length of each patch cycle is a change to their formula.

I knew someone was bound to respond with some silliness.. not at all surprising to see your name again. Here we go...

It's an MMO. This shit happens all the time, no matter what. We're actually blessed here because we have so little downtime compared to other games which have maintenance pretty much every week and it's not in the overnight hours. This only really affects people here in the NA region because of plugins and mods.

Originally Posted by Deveryn

I knew someone was bound to respond with some silliness.. not at all surprising to see your name again. Here we go...

It's an MMO. This shit happens all the time, no matter what. We're actually blessed here because we have so little downtime compared to other games which have maintenance pretty much every week and it's not in the overnight hours. This only really affects people here in the NA region because of plugins and mods.

But you said longer time = a better product overall? How was it then that they had to nerf a savage boss for the first time since heavensward then? How was it for the first time EVER they had to fix a bug (in an ultimate) for The Omega Protocol with other potential bugs and oddities that have not been fixed (Was hitting the buffcap intentional? Was Omega-M and F switching up aggro in phase 2 intentional? Was the magic vuln snapshotting on the first P5 auto intentional?).

The 6.3 patch screwed something up with the servers which is not "This shit happens all the time" kind of BS. The 6.3 patch broke a huge variety of things they've been trying to fix in emergency maintenances and there is still much more to go. The servers still aren't like what they were before 6.3. The cone tab targetting is still broken compared to what it was pre-6.3. They actually finally fixed the ninja bug after several weeks. There were several cutscenes that were broken from this patch. The most community-loved cutscene from heavensward? Yeah, it broke from the 6.3 patch XD. This isn't normal FF14 routine maintenance my dude.

Originally Posted by TomsYoungerBro

But you said longer time = a better product overall? How was it then that they had to nerf a savage boss for the first time since heavensward then? How was it for the first time EVER they had to fix a bug (in an ultimate) for The Omega Protocol with other potential bugs and oddities that have not been fixed (Was hitting the buffcap intentional? Was Omega-M and F switching up aggro in phase 2 intentional? Was the magic vuln snapshotting on the first P5 auto intentional?).

The 6.3 patch screwed something up with the servers which is not "This shit happens all the time" kind of BS. The 6.3 patch broke a huge variety of things they've been trying to fix in emergency maintenances and there is still much more to go. The servers still aren't like what they were before 6.3. The cone tab targetting is still broken compared to what it was pre-6.3. They actually finally fixed the ninja bug after several weeks. There were several cutscenes that were broken from this patch. The most community-loved cutscene from heavensward? Yeah, it broke from the 6.3 patch XD. This isn't normal FF14 routine maintenance my dude.

At the same time they are working on the netcode and revamping the graphics. Those are huge core items. The netcode did break a lot of things for sure, but if it leads to improvements down the line it will be a huge gain. Previously they wouldn't even touch those things. So I can see they are doing a bit more than usual and because they are doing so, issues are going to happen.

Things don't break when people dont change them, but if anything thats an argument encouraging them to leave stuff as is instead of trying.

All that being said the content droughts are hitting pretty hard imo.

Originally Posted by Deveryn

And that translates to a better product overall. That kind of thing should be important to more people.

My favorite example of a better product is the Portrait system which they released in a pretty good beta state, only to trash it in the full release (with portraits breaking entirely every time you so much as change an accessory)