Ways I Believe This Game Can be Improved

[chaotix69]

I want to start this post off by saying that if anything I am about to say has been covered in the past, then I apologize now. Thanks!

I have played FFXIV since its rerelease in 2013 and throughout the thousands of hours I have invested into this game, it goes without saying that the formula has become slightly stale. There are many things I love about this game, but after 10 years, the flaws, if not addressed, I believe will continue turning people away. I will address them below:

1. Dungeons. I love the dungeons, but they have all devolved into 3-boss encounters and now you're done. I suspect this was due to the player base complaining about how long some of the early dungeons were. The problem this creates is that the dungeons are now too streamlined. On top of this, most dungeons are one and done. You will never play them again, unless they happen to be the current max level dungeon, or they randomly pop up in the leveling roulette. A fix to this would be to make (Hard) versions of every dungeon as new expansions arise. This ensures that all dungeons are viable when at max level.

2. The Process of "Gearing Up" for Raiding. This is the most annoying part of the game in my opinion. There are SO many ways to acquire the gear you need to begin raiding. I could go on the market board right now and buy an entire set of gear at ilvl 640 and be ready to jump into raiding. It makes the process so quick that it's one of the reasons that endgame content feels like it is over so quickly. Also, the tomestone system needs to go, permanently, with the exception of poetics. In it's current state, it only serves to keep people on long enough each week so they can get their 450 tomestones of whatever variety is most current, and that's it. I believe the gear should be spread out amongst the various dungeons and crafted gear should be limited to maybe a couple armor pieces and a few accessories. This would drive players to replay dungeons to acquire gear, a very similar model to how WoTLK and TBC worked in WoW. I want to note that I am specifically referring to gearing up for raiding here. I think the gear distribution system once you begin raiding to be excellent.

3. The Glamour System. Now this is something that I know people have complained about. Since glamour is what many people call "the true endgame," why after 4 expansions do we still have to manage inventory space for glamours. Glamours should be permanent on your account once you acquire the weapon/gear.


I would like to hear what all of you think could be improved as well.

[Renathras]

I appreciate you saying things are slightly stale - I agree with that. The game isn't dying or doomed and hasn't made suddenly bad decisions of late, it's just doing the same thing that has worked for a decade. And it's working even now...but it would be nice to get some change to make it a bit less stale.

1. I'm not sure what started that, honestly. I think it was the tomestone grind. They went from being something you did for quest progress or gear drops to something you'd run over and over again, so people wanted that streamlined because gamers are often all about efficiency and the lowest chance of failure. I honestly loved the old Hard dungeon system where the story would evolve a little, and wish we had more of that. It was also nice getting 2-3 dungeons per patch instead of just the 1.

2. I honestly don't know the best answer here. Different games have done it different ways, but WoW has had token gear since at least Wrath, and I think maybe BC (where the Season 2 PvP set was actually decent spot fill slots for entry raiding). Before that, there were "Dungeon sets" or "tier 0.5/1.5, etc", though they basically ended that system during or after BC. I do agree it'd be neat to have dungeons you might want to go to to get a piece instead of just grinding tomes or taking a trip to the MB. It's also kind of a shame that dungeons have this gear, but no one uses it other than for glam or that alt Job "I'm planning to play eventually but not right now". Granted, gear in FFXIV also doesn't have set bonuses or anything (other than the level 50 GC gear.....). I do think tome gear is good as spot fills for RNG, but it'd be nice if that was more the "backup" option than the "main" option.

3. I'm mixed on this one. I think it's fine, but I'm also drowning in glamour prisms and have around 800 items (or more) between my chest and my inventory/armory chest/retainers. But I also somehow really hate the WoW/GW2 interface where it shows all the gear and wherever you get it and seems to be an immersion breaking checklist system to me somehow. I really don't know the answer to it, honestly. I still remember getting that cool red one shoulder guard chest and shoulder piece from the desert in WoW around level 40 or so that looked like Dart from Legend of Dragoon.

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Other things:

A. Need midcore/mid difficulty content. We really don't have it. Extremes have edged up to Savage difficulty and everything else to MSQ/normal. It'd be nice to have a "Hard" mode difficulty in between those and for Extremes to tone down the body checks.

B. Exploration Zones! Bozja/Eureka were divisive, but they gave people things to work on when they were bored and had downtime.

C. Rework encounter design and Jobs to where healers do more GCD healing and "heal checks" aren't just "mitigation checks".

D. Dump the 2 min meta and embrace more diverse Job designs again so everyone can have at least something they kinda like, ideally at least one Job in each role, but at the very least, a Job that they really love, but without leaving anyone out in the cold with nothing. Don't take away what people have and love in the effort to change things. Is this hard to balance? Sure, but as long as it's relatively balanced, then it's good. We need to embrace heterogeneity and just accept that min-maxers are gonna min-max no matter what, so let them and let everyone else have fun with non-homogenized Jobs.

I think I'd start with that.

[TomsYoungerBro]

The game isn't dying or doomed and hasn't made suddenly bad decisions of late, it's just doing the same thing that has worked for a decade. And it's working even now...but it would be nice to get some change to make it a bit less stale.

This seems to be a pretty common misconception among the masses. No, they are not doing the same thing that has worked for a decade. IIRC, they lessened the amount of content in patches from Stormblood -> Shadowbringers, and they extended the patch cycle in Endwalker. Sure, there is alot to the formula they have kept the same, but it is not the same.

[Jeeqbit]

I love the dungeons, but they have all devolved into 3-boss encounters and now you're done.

Only dungeons I can think of with 4 are Pharos Sirius and Sastasha and one or more of those bosses is typically a joke. Always been this way.

I suspect this was due to the player base complaining about how long some of the early dungeons were. The problem this creates is that the dungeons are now too streamlined.

They didn't choose multiple routes, if that's what you mean. Variant dungeons aim to solve this issue.

On top of this, most dungeons are one and done. You will never play them again

Roulettes, so not true. Most people do roulettes, even if you don't. Plenty of reasons to do them as well, whether for tomestones for relics, leveling other jobs, tank mounts or eventually mentor roulette.

I could go on the market board right now and buy an entire set of gear at ilvl 640 and be ready to jump into raiding. It makes the process so quick that it's one of the reasons that endgame content feels like it is over so quickly.

That's just starter gear. Getting into raiding should be simple otherwise you get a WoW situation where nobody will start playing because it's too grindy just to qualify to raid in that game, to the point all the veterans said it's impossible for a new player and not worth even trying. Maybe that changed in its recent expansions, I don't really know for sure, there have been mixed messages on that.

What makes it boring is the better gear you get from raids not being more interesting than just a slight stat boost. However, if the stat boost led to a gap that was too large between them and casual players then it would be a problem as well, so they would need to be careful if they made stats more interesting ie. like Eureka or Bozja actions.

the tomestone system needs to go, permanently, with the exception of poetics. In it's current state, it only serves to keep people on long enough each week

Yes, so that people don't farm everything week 1 then leave the game. Some people do it later on weeks later and need some people to still be doing the content.

why after 4 expansions do we still have to manage inventory space for glamours.

Because of using physical servers instead of cloud servers for it and being concerned a bit more than is probably necessary about space usage or bandwidth.

[Renathras]

This seems to be a pretty common misconception among the masses. No, they are not doing the same thing that has worked for a decade. IIRC, they lessened the amount of content in patches from Stormblood -> Shadowbringers, and they extended the patch cycle in Endwalker. Sure, there is alot to the formula they have kept the same, but it is not the same.

Hm...not QUITE. That's the misconception.

Someone laid out all the content side by side and it basically comes down to EW having the same amount of overall content, it's just "side grade" from it and the patches are longer.

For example, we don't have Ishgard Restoration but we have Island Sanctuary. We don't have Eureka/Bozja (and before you harp on that, note that's one of the things I specifically think we NEED, personally) but we're getting 3 Criterions and Orthos where the bosses actually have mechanics unlike PotD/HoH. So that's where the Critical Engagements and DR development time and resources went.

We have the same amount of 24 man fights, same amount of dungeons, same amount of Trials and Extremes, same amount of 8 man Normal and Savages, and actually have 2 Ultimates vs ShB's 1 (due to the pandemic, but it still only counts as 1).

In the case of story, we didn't get a sidequest for the Trials, true, but we got a Hilde sidequest (which will...PROBABLY have that Trial we haven't seen yet from the Fanfest?) and Tataru's sidequest, both of which are pretty large investments and a comparable amount of story as we'd get from something like Wyrlit or Four Lords or Waring Triad. Granted, not everyone will like them at the same level, but in terms of content, it's the same rough amount of it.

Some of it is side-grades, with them trying IS and Criterion as experiments - experimenting IS good, it means the Devs aren't trying to entirely rest on their laurels and try nothing new - but what was exchanged was pretty needed stuff - Ishgard and Bozja had a lot of replay value for content droughts between patches. And are arguably even more important if the patch cycle is longer and there's more of that drought time.

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But in terms of total overall content, the common misconception is that EW gave us less than ShB. That's the misconception. The reality seems to be we got the same overall amount, but the stuff that was traded out was good stuff we needed, and some of it is stuff that some people dislike (e.g. Hilde); but the overall QUANTITY is at the same ballpark.

Whether or not it WILL happen, Yoshi P has said in interviews things suggesting we'll have Criterion AND Exploration Zone AND Deep Dungeon AND some kind of combat content "we've never done before" in DT. We'll see how that pans out, but if it actually does, then DT would have MORE content than ShB or EW had.

[Jeeqbit]

This seems to be a pretty common misconception among the masses. No, they are not doing the same thing that has worked for a decade. IIRC, they lessened the amount of content in patches from Stormblood -> Shadowbringers

That is a common opinion, but it doesn't make it true. They just redistribute resources to different content that people are not as interested in ie. Island Sanctuary, Ocean Fishing, Duty Support revamps.

they extended the patch cycle in Endwalker.

By 2 weeks + holidays. By their claim at least, it should not be a significant difference.

[GoatOfWar]

Paladin and Warrior need sustain nerfs to put them in line with Dark knight. Since their damage apparently needs to be the same (Actually just higher 90% of the time but yeah), their other advantages should be nerfed appropriately.