Why is endgame loot capped?

[Equitable_Remedy]

Gear and tomestone caps exist because without them people would run a hundred dungeons and a dozen raids in the first week and then spend the next 4-8 months complaining about how there's nothing to do.

This is the actual answer. (Tomestone caps also function to allow people to 'keep up' without having to no-life the game.)

As a bonus, the caps provide an evergreen topic for people to complain about, and there are few things that MMO players love more than complaining about the MMOs that they play. It's a win - win.

[Rolder50]

Gear and tomestone caps exist because without them people would run a hundred dungeons and a dozen raids in the first week and then spend the next 4-8 months complaining about how there's nothing to do.

Balancing the game around the most degenerate players is really stupid.

[sharknado]

Gear and tomestone caps exist because without them people would run a hundred dungeons and a dozen raids in the first week and then spend the next 4-8 months complaining about how there's nothing to do.

Yet, if you do hardest content you can't really gear up your other roles or other DPS types because of the limits. Also not everyone wants to play this game 4 months to then play another 4 months because of a new patch year after year. It's "good" for SE to force people into constant subscription but people do not want to stay if they aren't having fun. Most FF14 are already plot watchers present for expansion launches only.

And if you don't do such content then the gear is "whatever". You are completelly fine with 605 from the dungeon or 610 crafted. In 6.4 it gets replaced anyway. I got like 2 causality pieces just because of the limit but that extra 10 ilvl is pointless ot me. I would rather want to stock more causality to just have them for crafting in 6.4. Maybe if you are super keen on min maxin stats for one job / type and you look through capped tomes, alliance raid / EX trial gear for best stats combo then maybe then capped tomes have some "value".

[Mr_Gyactus]

I'm a new player and I see a lot of content creators discussing the gearing system and its problems, but It only makes me question "Why is the loot capped?"

I mean, in other MMOs you just farm the encounter until you get your full set, and here it takes weeks for no reason at all. We don't have any reason to do savage content multiple times a week, for example, or to farm Alliance Raids.

I keep hearing that Criterion and Alliance should give raid equivalent gear, and that's a good solution, but no one addresses the problem of loot cap.

With that being said, I'm still a (very) new player, so I'm curious to see what you guys have to say about it, because there must be a reason for no one to say anything about the loot lock and keep searching for a myriad of different solutions.

you can craft or buy all the high level gear you need, and this crafted gear it's enough for every live content.
Even the best gear you can obtain now will be useless in the next patch, in 2 months from now.

Where is the problem?

[ForteNightshade]

Balancing the game around the most degenerate players is really stupid.

It isn't just balancing around keeping be subscripted but other content as well. If you could farm Causality, then you've essentially destroyed every other gear progression system in the game. Crafted gear? Worthless. EX Primals? Worthless save for the mount. Even the relics become even more of a glamour stick until the last patch as they wouldn't even have the catch up patch to be somewhat relative.

While gear progression does take too long, in my opinion, we still have to acknowledge that Square Enix is a business and they will create some incentives to stay subbed just like every other game needing long term investment. WoW has created system grind systems that have been utterly loathed by their community all in the name of keeping players around. The irony is if you don't do Savage or Ultimate, you don't need to ever think about the current capped tomestone. People just obsess over gear when it doesn't even matter.

[JamieRose]

I'm a new player and I see a lot of content creators discussing the gearing system and its problems, but It only makes me question "Why is the loot capped?"

I mean, in other MMOs you just farm the encounter until you get your full set, and here it takes weeks for no reason at all. We don't have any reason to do savage content multiple times a week, for example, or to farm Alliance Raids.

I keep hearing that Criterion and Alliance should give raid equivalent gear, and that's a good solution, but no one addresses the problem of loot cap.

With that being said, I'm still a (very) new player, so I'm curious to see what you guys have to say about it, because there must be a reason for no one to say anything about the loot lock and keep searching for a myriad of different solutions.

Fake longevity.

[RitsukoSonoda]

Loot caps are essentially a longevity tool. It gets people to log in weekly that would otherwise have gotten everything in the first 1-2 weeks then moved on elsewhere until the next content update.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

We have 10 extra classes since release (most likely soon to be 12) would it really hurt to double tomes and weekly drops?

[MementoKoishi]

This is the actual answer. (Tomestone caps also function to allow people to 'keep up' without having to no-life the game.)

But there's still nothing to do, you can reclear in a day with your static and then log off for the rest of the week. If you could farm gear you could equip other classes and try to run savage with them, now you are forced to just choose 1 or 2 classes if you clear very fast and have books.

Now someone will come and tell me "but you haven't finished your fishing log, or you haven't farmed every single glam out there etc etc". Yeah, sorry but there are better games out there if you want to play something like a sandbox or farming simulator, some of us want to actually raid and do content.

[Equitable_Remedy]

Now someone will come and tell me "but you haven't finished your fishing log, or you haven't farmed every single glam out there etc etc".

You are correct that, except for all the other things to do in the game, there is nothing else to do in the game.

Yeah, sorry but there are better games out there if you want to play something like a sandbox or farming simulator

Do people who makes these complaints only play FF14? I play FF14, but it's neither the only game that I play nor a full-time job. Yes, go play other games! That's not a criticism of any game.

I don't know why this is so hard for people to understand, so I'll just say it plainly: it takes longer to create content than it does to beat it.

That's the bottom line, and until LLMs make content production faster than content completion, pacing out content tends to be more enjoyable for gamers than no-lifing content as soon as it drops. Gamers are going to complain either way.