G-give it Back T---T; !!

[Shurrikhan]

The whole reason why [Kaiten] got removed is because crit variance was too big on Samurai, even though they don't say it is (hence the huge rebalance on DPS towards all of Samurai's skills).

Removing Kaiten, in itself, had absolutely no effect on crit variance.

If I have a skill that increases another skill's damage by 50% (Kaiten), it is no more subject to crit variance than if that original skill just dealt 50% more damage in itself (no Kaiten) and the of the kit is tuned around the reduced opportunity cost in Kenki.

Moreover, Kaiten itself could have just instead guaranteed the critical hit, for --shocked Pikachu face-- roughly the same damage bonus.

If crit variance were the reason for the change, we would have simply swapped "Increases damage dealt by next weaponskill by 50%" for "Guarantees a critical hit on your next weaponskill. Its damage increases with your critical hit chance" and been done, with at most a bit of Namikiri potency shaved off in favor of Shoha in order to balance out the impact that'd have on SkS's relative value.

[AnotherPerson]

Removing Kaiten, in itself, had absolutely no effect on crit variance.

If I have a skill that increases another skill's damage by 50% (Kaiten), it is no more subject to crit variance than if that original skill just dealt 50% more damage in itself (no Kaiten) and the of the kit is tuned around the reduced opportunity cost in Kenki.

Moreover, Kaiten itself could have just instead guaranteed the critical hit, for --shocked Pikachu face-- roughly the same damage bonus.

If crit variance were the reason for the change, we would have simply swapped "Increases damage dealt by next weaponskill by 50%" for "Guarantees a critical hit on your next weaponskill. Its damage increases with your critical hit chance" and been done, with at most a bit of Namikiri potency shaved off in favor of Shoha in order to balance out the impact that'd have on SkS's relative value.

Oh, nevermind then. I recall hearing people saying Kaiten's damage boost caused a huge gap in Sam's performance, resulting in crit variance actually breaking DSR balance depending whether Sam crits or misses. Hence a portion of the changes were to guarantee crit to stabilize performance and balance, but I guess I recalled incorrectly. I figured even if they did change Kaiten to "guarantee a critical hit", the reasoning behind "removing button bloat" wouldn't then make sense for the changes... not like it made sense in the first place when Shoha & Shoha II exist.

[Shurrikhan]

Oh, nevermind then. I recall hearing people saying Kaiten's damage boost caused a huge gap in Sam's performance, resulting in crit variance actually breaking DSR balance depending whether Sam crits or misses. Hence a portion of the changes were to guarantee crit to stabilize performance and balance, but I guess I recalled incorrectly. I figured even if they did change Kaiten to "guarantee a critical hit", the reasoning behind "removing button bloat" wouldn't then make sense for the changes... not like it made sense in the first place when Shoha & Shoha II exist.

Again, their rationale for removing Kaiten was the same as for removing Power Surge from Dragoon: "Action Bloat". And they're right, it was action bloat.

The problems were that (A) virtually no SAMs complained about "action bloat", let alone from Kaiten (comments were focused instead on "button bloat"), (B) rather than revitalizing the tool to make it more interesting, they just removed it outright, and (C) was that they did nothing to address the (especially, trickle-down) effects removing it would have on gameplay.

[Shinkuno]

Again, their rationale for removing Kaiten was the same as for removing Power Surge from Dragoon: "Action Bloat". And they're right, it was action bloat.

The problems were that (A) virtually no SAMs complained about "action bloat", let alone from Kaiten (comments were focused instead on "button bloat"), (B) rather than revitalizing the tool to make it more interesting, they just removed it outright, and (C) was that they did nothing to address the (especially, trickle-down) effects removing it would have on gameplay.

The reality is: controller holds this game back. Simply as that. Everytime they want to give us something new (and they "need" to do it every expanion) they have to remove something else since controller has hit its button limit in HW. We wont get Kaiten back if at all until like 2-3 expansions when they rip another skill out of the kit to be replaced with something else.

[Shurrikhan]

The reality is: controller holds this game back. Simply as that. Everytime they want to give us something new (and they "need" to do it every expanion) they have to remove something else since controller has hit its button limit in HW. We wont get Kaiten back if at all until like 2-3 expansions when they rip another skill out of the kit to be replaced with something else.

I can pretty comfortably and quite responsively hit 48 buttons without even losing movement control by claw-gripping a Dualshock controller, which is technically better than I can say for KB where I will occasionally be (very briefly) unable to access WASD while hitting something else and will therefore need to lock camera. Controllers don't hold us back any more than keyboard. It's just a matter of people needing to learn to use their modifier keys.

Both could have their functionality improved, to be clear, but neither are bottlenecking our available number of actions at this time (nor are they likely to for another 10-12 actions added).

Which is also a separate issue altogether from button bloat as it exists now. Present button bloat isn't a problem of having more buttons than we can responsively press, but rather just that certain procedures could provide an equal or greater amount of choice and agency without using up as many buttons as they do now.

[Shinkuno]

I can pretty comfortably and quite responsively hit 48 buttons claw-gripping a Dualshock controller. Controllers don't hold us back any more than keyboard. It's just a matter of people needing to learn to use their modifier keys.

And now imagine if there were 60 buttons.. oh wait you only have a limited set of button combinations you can hit We have now as many buttons stretched over 90 levels as we had in stormblood stretched over 70. We dont get more, we get stuff ripped out and replaced. All because they need to fit the controller button limit. In 10 years we will have the same amount of skills stretched over 150 levels.

Controller has access to 48 buttons with expanded controls and WXHB :/, people that use default hotbars on controller are just 1heads.

And we had the same amount of buttons to press for nearly 10 years. Thats why they dumbed down and removed every utility skills, so they can use those slots for yet another "press on cooldown" deal damage ogcd

[Shurrikhan]

And now imagine if there were 60 buttons.. oh wait you only have a limited set of button combinations you can hit We have now as many buttons stretched over 90 levels as we had in stormblood stretched over 70. We dont get more, we get stuff ripped out and replaced. All because they need to fit the controller button limit. In 10 years we will have the same amount of skills stretched over 150 levels.

So, we've got two possible rationales here:

1. The devs are trying to keep under ~35 buttons despite even controllers having access to 48. For this reason alone, they in roughly equal parts (A) recycle abilities, giving back near-identical skills at higher levels, and (B) put out uncreative bloat or unpolished clunk that is then, at best, removed and replaced with a newer, shinier recycled or equally half-assed ability.
   
   [I.e. controllers hold back job kit design.]
   
   
2. The devs recycle abilities even while having a quarter to third spare space for the same reason they so often put out uncreative bloat or unpolished clunk: because it apparently isn't worth their bother to invest so much time over more than a handful of jobs' quality of gameplay.
   
   [I.e., Creative bankruptcy / insufficient job developers / low perceived profitability of spending that much time on jobs' quality of gameplay / insufficient developer effort for whatever reason... holds back jobs' quality of gameplay.]

Given that the first has never come close to being the actual bottleneck, I'm having trouble believing it's the key factor here.

Also, claw-gripping

Claw-gripping has nothing to do with how many keys are available to you... It is only done to be able to move and look around while using those keys.

[BaconBits]

Controller has access to 48 buttons with expanded controls and WXHB :/, people that use default hotbars on controller are just 1heads.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Controller has access to 48 buttons with expanded controls and WXHB :/, people that use default hotbars on controller are just 1heads.

It's almost like that many buttons is a ton to juggle for people who don't have a ton of dexterity. Also, more buttons doesn't equal deeper gameplay. Doesn't mean I want 5 buttons. But doesn't mean I want 48.


Also, claw-gripping a controller sounds horrible for comfort lol. Maybe it's just me getting older, or my bigger hands, but that makes by hands hurt like nothing else lol.