Dawntrail needs to better, not just more.

[Jojoya]

We didn't change. FFXIV did. Not sure why devs felt the need to remove everything that made this game special and turn it into an AFK lobby/Second Life clone. I started playing this game many years ago before casual content, raids, rotations, social features, etc. were all gutted.

I'd argue that FFXIV didn't significantly. What changed is player perception of the game.

The game is no more or no less an AFK lobby now than it was back when I first started playing at Heavensward's release. If it feel like an AFK lobby to you, it's because you've chosen to play it as one.

You claim features have been gutted. Just what features are those and how were they gutted? And do none of the new things they've added since count?

I'll start the list with job design. I don't blame players for being unhappy with current job design and it does have an impact on any combat-oriented game play.

Now what's the rest?

[strawberrycake]

Valid point

Job Design was gutted when each job stopped having unique ways to achieve their burst, or get to the end of their rotation, if you take Dragon for Example It used to be a sign of skill and mastery if you could get 3 Gierskoguls in the 30 second window with proper timing on fights, you no longer can, its just given to you, and while in Stormblood and Shadowbrings you other ways to show said skill and mastery, in EW you don't.

Content Design has slowly been going down hill for years, CBU3 has a habit of extreme over correction rather then smaller changes to slowly make something more palpable to the players, such as dungeon design, raid design, and alliance raid design. We used to get 3 dungeons a patch and it's now 1, we used to have unique mob interactions we no longer do, we used to have Role based actions and some job based actions that helped make arguable hard pulls easier to deal with. With this lack of engagement, and the lack of emnity management, healers no longer having to worry about if the party will die if they're not paying attention, Dungeons have turned to content most turn their brains off in.

Raids, we used to earn uptime, we used to have to have synergy not only with the composition, but our fellow players, paying mind to someones MP or TP, communicating in content, Adjusting our rotations to account for the downtime. It's all been made almost scripted to the point where at times it feels like I'm on auto pilot in raids, I suffered from this in Tier 2 a lot this expansion. Tanking and healing a lot of the fights just blended together unless someones screwed up. So if I had a competent group, there wasn't much fun after my initial kills, just another auto pilot run of savage. The same can be said for ultimates if your groups, again, aren't screwing up.

Alliance raids. Same as Dungeons.

Content replayablilty and Rewards. These two go hand in hand because along with having interesting ways to approach content, which we do have now with the Deep dungeons and the Variant Dungeons, content replayability is at an all time low, once you seen every possible path, usually with your FC, you wont touch it again as the rewards are either too easy to get or simply not worth it,and doesnt affect players progression. Due to people not wanting to deal with randoms, and the content not incentivizing players to play with randoms, it will quickly fade and be of no use to the average player, this ofc varies region to region, and should be looked at with care from the team to ensure we all have equal and fair experiences.

[strawberrycake]

I like FFXIV. I defend it all the time. It's my favourite MMO and I've played it nearly every day for 7 years. Elezen are my favourite MMO race ever. Ultimates are hands-down the best battle content of any MMO (except TOP). The story is great, and I will openly say I am a Venat and Hermes lover and you'll never, ever convince me otherwise. But I am not blind to things in other games that are fun and would be nice for this game to have.

Adding very small travel restrictions and open world content would not make the game less FFXIV. It would encourage people to explore the world of the game they SHOULD love. Don't you want to have reasons to spend time in beautiful zones with good memories? I personally would love to spend a lot of time in Il Mheg and Churning Mists besides just AFKing there because I've already done all the side quests and caught all the fish.

Adding job identity would not make the game less FFXIV. We would still have the same jobs, the same lore, the same battles and raids. It would simply make it more interesting and encourage people to try out different jobs which is a selling feature of FFXIV and FFXIV alone.

Adding pet battles would not make the game less FFXIV. It would make it MORE FFXIV because you could interact with not only the world of FFXIV, but minions and monsters from our favourite stories (everyone about to get beat up with Wind-Up Erich I s2g).

Adding tough mobs would not turn the game into WoW. You would still be fighting FFXIV mobs in FFXIV zones. Why would FFXIV's identity be tied to how easily open world mobs die? Besides, you would always have the option to fly over.

Adding an adventure log like Lost Ark would not make it like Lost Ark. It would make it fun to go around and collect tidbits from FFXIV enemies and spend time with your Chocobo and friends.

And not a single soul in this game will complain if you ask from transmog system copied from WoW, so basically anti-WoWers are just digging in their heels for things they personally don't care about.

Seeing a fellow Hermes lover warms my heart

[caffe_macchiato]

The game is no more or no less an AFK lobby now than it was back when I first started playing at Heavensward's release. If it feel like an AFK lobby to you, it's because you've chosen to play it as one.

See my post on page 6. People have stopped playing content. It's not just me, even though I am the worst offender (in many things, but especially FFXIV).

You claim features have been gutted. Just what features are those and how were they gutted?

Hook! I'll start but this is by no means exhaustive:
1) Rotations, as you said.
2) Dungeons under level 50
3) Forays. Much has been said and you've heard it all before. MMOs need multiplayer content. Bozja and Eureka are empty because they are no longer relevant at level 90.
4) Relics. Goes with above, and needs no further explanation.
5) DC travel has crippled FCs since you cannot use them when traveling to play content, which is required for most people. The drought has made this even worse and people have no reason to log in to the game. Social networks in the game are either club venues or simply no longer play FFXIV. An FC is meaningless. This is a pretty new development.
6) Role playing. Well, it still exists now, but only for sex. Modding and clubs have crippled the SFW roleplay scene. Balmung is no longer what it used to be.

And do none of the new things they've added since count?

Single-player content can never replace multiplayer content in an MMO. Timegating Island Sanctuary so that people keep subbing for the cosmetics does not make this game worthwhile. Playing the game with friends does. That's where Endwalker lacks.

[strawberrycake]

See my post on page 6. People have stopped playing content. It's not just me, even though I am the worst offender (in many things, but especially FFXIV).


Hook! I'll start but this is by no means exhaustive:
1) Rotations, as you said.
2) Dungeons under level 50
3) Forays. Much has been said and you've heard it all before. MMOs need multiplayer content. Bozja and Eureka are empty because they are no longer relevant at level 90.
4) Relics. Goes with above, and needs no further explanation.
5) DC travel has crippled FCs since you cannot use them when traveling to play content, which is required for most people. The drought has made this even worse and people have no reason to log in to the game. Social networks in the game are either club venues or simply no longer play FFXIV. An FC is meaningless. This is a pretty new development.
6) Role playing. Well, it still exists now, but only for sex. Modding and clubs have crippled the SFW roleplay scene. Balmung is no longer what it used to be.


Single-player content can never replace multiplayer content in an MMO. Timegating Island Sanctuary so that people keep subbing for the cosmetics does not make this game worthwhile. Playing the game with friends does. That's where Endwalker lacks.

I am so sick of them catering to singleplayer content in a damn MMO. if you wanna play a single player game go play ALL the OTHER FF Games tat exist, some literally for free.

[Yuella]

I think it's going to be hard for Dawntrail to top Endwalker. Endwalker is a masterpiece.

[Dohmi-Zeiva]

I think Shadowbringers topped Endwalker, but that's just my opinion. Fact is, we don't know how Dawntrail will be received, but we shall see.

[AlucaDragonheart]

They need to let us use all of our abilities when we are level synced down for dungeons, just scale the damage down to the appropriate levels.

[NekoMataMata]

I think Shadowbringers topped Endwalker, but that's just my opinion. Fact is, we don't know how Dawntrail will be received, but we shall see.

I don't think the initial reception is all too important anyways.

People are really good at living in the moment, hyping themselves up over nothing. It's possible that in the future many people might reflect and decide that EW isn't as great as they thought.

People jump to conclusions rather quickly. The reverse is also true as well. Some of us may possibly think better on EW in the future.

[strawberrycake]

I don't think the initial reception is all too important anyways.

People are really good at living in the moment, hyping themselves up over nothing. It's possible that in the future many people might reflect and decide that EW isn't as great as they thought.

People jump to conclusions rather quickly. The reverse is also true as well. Some of us may possibly think better on EW in the future.

I agree with this, I hated one partof Zadnor in the moment, I still dislike it, idk what compelled them to add an alternative to doing the content inside Zadnor when it was relevant content. But when comparing it to having only a tome grind its way more palpable. I'll always tell people I enjoyed EW, but I also know that one has to be aware enough to actually know when it's the honeymoon phase and still be able to say,*hey heres a flaw that should be looked at and fixed by the devs*

Simply because I prfer how they handled content in prior expansions, I will always dislike EW in comparison, but it's not like EW is the source of all these issues in the game now. A lot of the issues that are only now becoming a problem because how the Dev team managed the game this particular expansion. If we had a similar content structure and similar balance as ShB I think a lot and I mean A LOT of people would still be on copium about XIV. It's due to EW not handling content similar to ShB that we can now talk about larger standing issues that have been present since ARR and HW. I vividly remember bringing up so many of the same flaws years ago only to be told i'm over reacting, only to now see so many people saying the same things.