Should XIV add more end game combat content.

[Sotaris]

Sorry, the XIV community doesn't actually want to play the game.

You're right, we don't. We just subscribe to afk in Limsa.

[SieyaM]

Really I hope for more Variant dungeons, they could do one in each major city state (so Limsa and Gridania) and use them as ways to give us more background about the leaders there as well. I know we get into Kan e Senna's history a bit with some other content, but I don't remember learning a great deal about Merlwyb. I wish the rewards for Variants were more robust, there just isn't anything to spend the currency on right now and I never did get a Criterion queue to actually fill so I don't know what's going on there.

[ForteNightshade]

30% of the total player base with a very, very generous estimation. Not the active player base that plays through the post expansion patches, just the total player base.

Anyways, continue on.

You do realize 30% is absolutely massive, yes? There is no single piece of content in this game except MSQ and 24 mans with that much participation when looked at individually. Even cutting that number in half, it would remain impressive if accurate. People too often much like a theme park, people won't do everything and even a good chunk of the casual content will get ignored if someone dislikes it just like Ultimate will for those finding it too hard. While the latter is on the smaller slice of pie, it's numbers are fairly solid overall for the type of content it is. Omega is possibly the only exception as present clear rates are quite low; just 1,500 as of early March.

It should also be noted achievements are hidden by default on the lodestone. So it actually makes it harder to gather data on the amount of clears or participation. FFlogs is usually what tracks a good amount of this.

It depends. We don't really know how much effort goes into developing Ultimates. There's a lot more information you'd need before you'd make a decision like that.

Anyways, I don't really care about whether or not they keep making Ultimates. I was mostly just annoyed by how you spread misinformation about FFXIV Collect, and how you exaggerated exactly like the person you were responding to.

Actually, we do. Yoshida has outright said that roughly 95% of Ultimate is entirely reused assets, which means they have extremely high return on investment given how much viewership and attention they garner. Considering they decided to add onto them with a new boss model and arena for the final phase starting with TEA, it's clearly a worthwhile endeavour. Although, it should be noted both Dragonsong and Omega have no new music added, thus subtracting a pretty hefty cost.

Naturally, they still take time to develop but the cost itself is extremely minimal based on Yoshida's own comments. Hence why whenever someone brings up Ultimate being a waste, it's eyerolling.

[Kaurhz]

Yes, and no.

I say yes because there should always be something there, but no because that 'something' was meant to be the criterion/variant dungeons.

They don't need to add more and more content, especially if the content doesn't have substance to it, similarly, if there's very little reason to actually replay it.

They just need to work more on the content they already have. Work on ways to entice people to defeat content in a certain way to unlock a mount, achievement, or just additional rewards, and similarly just work on making their existing content have more replay value.

Edit: I would like to be clear that I am not against 'more' content in the sense that people should have something to work toward, I'm not against that. I am, however, against them doing it with their current methodology because I don't think it will have the substance to it, and nor do I think it's the best solution, personally.

[Kyrj]

considering it would also have to be tested and tweaked lol

I mean they already didn't test TOP....

[Reimmi]

The game needs more midcore content, there's basically super casual content, or hardcore content only
Something like, mythic+ from wow, a repeatable form of content you can do with a sizeable challenge with a group of friends, with actual rewards to make it worth doing
Another suggestion is savage versions of solo fights in the story, like the final one in endwalker

[Tint]

I want to point out that the content we get is underutilised. We would not really need more content if the things we get would be used better. Normal Trials, normal 8-man raid, variant dungeons, the utterly disappointment the relic quest was this expansion, Dungeons which have nothing to offer and are braindead easy on arrival and Fates which nobody likes anyway.

Also two main problems I see is that the tomestone gear is too powerfull and too easy to get. It makes other content rewards redundant.
The other problem is the idea that everything (except savage and ultimate) should be playable with second and third jobs. Which means the new content in a patch is balanced for the gear from basically two patches ago, since we can get that gear without any weekly lockouts now.

And that leaves a gap in the content. We have mechanically difficult content which requires good gear and we have mechanically easy content which does not require good gear. But no mechanically easy content where you actually need good gear for.

And also no reason why we even should play such a content, because 5 times expert roulette in a week and your tomestones are capped.

So what do we even want from new endgame content? Just a mount like criterion offered? New gear which nobody needs like we got with Bozja back in ShB?

This game needs a completely new structure for the gear treadmill to make new endgame content worthwile. Everything is catered towards savage raiding. And if you are late to the party there comes the catch-up patch so you can enter the savage raids faster. But the majority of the playerbase is not interested in doing savage, so what does their endgame even look like?

The game needs more midcore content, there's basically super casual content, or hardcore content only

I share your opinion that we need more midcore content. But - midcore content is difficult to add. Either you have content where you don't have to talk to your group because it is easy enough, or you have to talk to them in order to agree on the strategy to use.

But people have anxiety and don't want to talk to randoms.

Such content has to be designed for only 4 people because that's easier to fill with people you are comfortable to talk to.

Too bad they dropped the ball on criterion and made it savage level, not midcore.

8-man "midcore" content would likely be dead on arrival. Too much anxiety to enter as a casual player, too easy and no worthwile rewards for a savage raider.

[Jojoya]

Actually, we do. Yoshida has outright said that roughly 95% of Ultimate is entirely reused assets, which means they have extremely high return on investment given how much viewership and attention they garner. Considering they decided to add onto them with a new boss model and arena for the final phase starting with TEA, it's clearly a worthwhile endeavour. Although, it should be noted both Dragonsong and Omega have no new music added, thus subtracting a pretty hefty cost.

Naturally, they still take time to develop but the cost itself is extremely minimal based on Yoshida's own comments. Hence why whenever someone brings up Ultimate being a waste, it's eyerolling.

Yes, and no.

Cost for production of new assets for the encounter are comparably low because they're reusing assets from the original encounter (probably mixed with assets from other instances). But there's still the cost of the developers that are merging the old assets with the new, designing the encounter mechanics, doing the QA to make certain the elements are functioning as intended and finally doing the actual fight testing.

YoshiP has the latter is done by developers who normally have other assignments and have to be pulled away from those tasks when testing of the encounter is finally ready to begin. He also said that testing takes much longer for an Ultimate than it does for other instanced encounters.

I wouldn't call the costs minimal but they would still be less than designing an entire raid from scratch.

Even if I never do an Ultimate myself, I don't consider it a waste. It has its place in the theme park same as the everything else and it works well as a publicity tool in attracting attention to the game, bringing in more players.

This game needs a completely new structure for the gear treadmill to make new endgame content worthwile.

That's an argument that could be made of most MMOs. Does the gear treadmill really hold up after all these decades or should different reward systems be the carrot?

[Xaruko_Nexume]

Sorry, the XIV community doesn't actually want to play the game.

I laughed out loud at this, because it's got a lot of truth in it, and honestly, I am here for it.

[VelKallor]

You're right, we don't. We just subscribe to afk in Limsa.

And? So? Therefore?

I am spending a great deal of time in the Saucer. A lot in my FC house managing submarines. Crafting. Decorating. Or just chatting to friends in Ul'dah. People do what they like..so I dont see a problem here.

I mean they already didn't test TOP....

Yes. They did. Extensively.