The problem with Tripling Down on Shadowbringers Job Design

[Jeeqbit]

Yeah, it didn't sit very well with me knowing that they do have plans to revitalize job's identities but that'll probably be somewhere around 2026 with 8.0.

Me either. I don't know how they let that slip when trying to build excitement for THIS expansion. It also makes you wonder if they only just learned of this feedback that has been going around the community for years about job identity.

what's the point of AST and DRG rework?

AST needed something. DRG on the other hand didn't and they actually said it isn't changing much like they previously suggested it would.

2026? That's highly optimistic, I would say it will take them until 2028. Dawntrail's mid 2024, they usually don't count release year as that expansion's year. 2025 will be the first year, 2026 and 27 are filler years, with 2028 release.

It used to take about 2 years. Endwalker changed things by extending the expansion lull to 8 months. Dawntrail has continued this, which makes it a trend now.

Endwalker released on December 7th, 2021 and Dawntrail releases on July 2nd, 2024. Based on that, we could assume 8.0 will release on December 10th, 2026 (which will be a consistent 2 and a half years).

If they try really hard to make it like other expansions and reduce the patch lull from 8-9 months to 5 like in the past, then they might manage July, but so far things have only got longer.

[Raikai]

Me either. I don't know how they let that slip when trying to build excitement for THIS expansion. It also makes you wonder if they only just learned of this feedback that has been going around the community for years about job identity.

I've heard the idea that realistically Endwalker feedback on the base structure elements (eg job gameplay, encounter design) of the game would only be taken in works for 8.0 since when a xpac is out they're already working on the next one. I'm not sure if this is really true on the practical sense of the production cycle, because Endwalker issues were fully evident as far as we got into the first raid tier. Isn't there like, still a lot of time to change plans around?

But if that's really true, what we're getting on DT about encounter design is a reflection of Shadowbringer's feedback.

AST needed something. DRG on the other hand didn't and they actually said it isn't changing much like they previously suggested it would.

Right, but they could address AST's issues with minor fixes, such as reducing Draw to 1 charge or even making it a GCD with Play an oGCD, giving a different effect to Lord/Lady and changing Astrodyne's damage buff to be the 1-seal bonus. I'm not terribly mad at it, but I feel that removing the RNG altogether was overkill, they just needed to look at Astrodyne.

[Jeeqbit]

when a xpac is out they're already working on the next one.

In all my experience playing this game for 9 years, I will say this:

1. They tend to say they are "thinking" about the next expansion in the first patch.
2. They continue to let the ideas grow, slowly discussing them and molding them into something.
3. As they begin work on the third patch, it becomes integral to have a plan for the next few patches which "build up" to the next expansion (well, except for Endwalker which did that all in half a patch). Once the third patch is done, they switch their focus to the new expansion and start actually developing it (concept art, areas, music, trailers, etc).
4. Around the fourth patch we get a fan fest that reveals the first trailer, mostly concept art, and some stuff they've actually finished, a rough plot of what we're doing.
5. Develops from there, as they update us on the progress at each fan fest into the fifth patch and onwards. In the final stretch, after the areas are done they rush through implementing all the quests and frantically localizing them all.

This is what I've gathered from following it for years. My impression is it's all ideas up until the .3 patch, then they start developing it. So your feedback is useful up until the .3 patch, it might be after that patch but as time goes on, it gets increasingly unlikely to implement it because they've already decided things.