speak with your wallet if you feel unheard

[sindriiisgaming]

so ofc with DT on the literal horizon line, a slew of threads and posts complaining that the game isnt doing enough to cater to them. look. naoki yoshida explained why he wont be tackling job homogenization until after 7.0

the reality is its simply to much of a massive overhaul to make the combat different and increase difficulty. the potential bad reaction from players especially the casual 80% or so could put the whole conversation into indefinite suspension.

I understand that 90% of you here will not be satisfied with this answer. but i don't think your actually taking the time to think about the impact on the game as a whole. you, we, all of us NEED these casual players. they fill our fcs, make our roulettes pop, they talk to us in NN or become our friends, they help us glamour farm and keep the pf alive with always needing something else.

i really dont think for 5 minutes that anybody here has gone unheard. we wanted the game harder, and while we dont have much. from what we can see its gona be harder... so why isnt this a win? why isnt 1 small step enough? i can only imagine how hard it must be having to make some of the decisions he does.

but i just keep seeing so many people here, unhappy with the game, and taking joy in the idea that 80% of the players might quit when things get to different. instead of them just leaving themselves if THEY are unhappy, which given all the complaints. they seem to be.

[LianaThorne]

Just gonna drop this study here again. I personally don't like the direction the game is heading but it makes sense from this viewpoint if this research is anything to stand by. More and more gamers aren't interested in deep thinking or complex strategy and it's been on a downward trend for like 10 years.

https://quanticfoundry.com/2024/05/21/strategy-decline/
Gamers Have Become Less Interested in Strategic Thinking and Planning

[Immut]

Just gonna drop this study here again. I personally don't like the direction the game is heading but it makes sense from this viewpoint if this research is anything to stand by. More and more gamers aren't interested in deep thinking or complex strategy and it's been on a downward trend for like 10 years.

https://quanticfoundry.com/2024/05/21/strategy-decline/
Gamers Have Become Less Interested in Strategic Thinking and Planning

I think there's a pretty big gulf between an actual "strategy" game like Civilization VI where you plan your game hours in advance and wanting more than one button to push in an action game.

[Jojoya]

I think there's a pretty big gulf between an actual "strategy" game like Civilization VI where you plan your game hours in advance and wanting more than one button to push in an action game.

You have more than one button to push.

This isn't an action game. It's a role-playing game where combat is just one of many activities.

It's rather ironic that this game actually has more buttons you need to push than most action games and yet you pretend there is only one button to push.

[Zaniel]

You have more than one button to push.

This isn't an action game. It's a role-playing game where combat is just one of many activities.

It's rather ironic that this game actually has more buttons you need to push than most action games and yet you pretend there is only one button to push.

People here are acting like complete mental cases. They'll all still be there playing though, alongside the 24 million players who don't even know the address of this forum.

[Malthir]

People here are acting like complete mental cases. They'll all still be there playing though, alongside the 24 million players who don't even know the address of this forum.

I'm a sucker that pre ordered so I'll play for the first week complete the story just to get my money out of it then unsub, 3 expac of crap is enough for me.

[Reimmi]

You have more than one button to push.

This isn't an action game. It's a role-playing game where combat is just one of many activities.

It's rather ironic that this game actually has more buttons you need to push than most action games and yet you pretend there is only one button to push.

I assume they're a healer main
and its definitely almost true. press your dot, spam 1 button because this game doesn't need healing often enough for you to have a healing rotation

[LianaThorne]

I assume they're a healer main
and its definitely almost true. press your dot, spam 1 button because this game doesn't need healing often enough for you to have a healing rotation

SCH in dungeon hallways:
Slap Excog on tank -> AoE spam

SCH in bosses:
Slap Excog on tank -> DoT -> Broil spam

If running with a WAR, only spam attacks since healing is literally irrelevant with their AoE heals + shields.

So much fun

[Galvuu]

This isn't an action game. It's a role-playing game where combat is just one of many activities.

I'm not gonna bother with the general discussion (although I agree with the general sentiment that combat in this game has grown stale and very unrewarding), but I want to focus on this one aspect.

FFXIV is awful as a role-playing game. There's is a plethora of small things the game could do to enhance its core role-playing aspects. Aside from the (already mentioned) nonexistent customization, from a pure roleplay perspective, the game is still awful.
XIV could offer a myriad things- dialogue and cutscenes that are customizable based on your leveled jobs- something as simple as the often requested healing jobs actually healing injured people in cutscenes, but different animations when interacting with an enemy (instead of everyone punching Zenos in a certain cutscene, have a distinct animation for every combat job), or slightly branching story quests/dialogues (for example, grant me the option, if I have crafters leveled, to help Cid built whatever plot device machine he's working on for the MSQ by doing some EX crafts). It irks me to no end that my character, an omni-caster, omni-healer and omni-crafter with 4k Intelligence, apparently cannot, in any capacity, meaningfully contribute to any conversation about aether, or magic, or Allagan relics, or anything at all. The last time I remember anything like this, it was a single line in a dialogue with Urianger about the weather in ShB.
XIV also has no affection system whatsoever (not even necessarily romantic- imagine if, due to high affection with Allisae or Estinien, a cutscene changes and one of them intervenes to block a blow aimed at my character, or something like that), and the few dialogue choices you're given have absolute no impact (imagine if branching dialogue led to two different single player trials with slightly different outcomes). I know XIV is constrained due to being an MMO, but the narrative roleplaying this game offers me is literally on the same ballpark as what was offered by Pokemon Red/Blue on the Gameboy 27 years ago.
I'm not asking for BG3-levels of roleplay here, but there are so many little things that the game could do to help me feel more immersed in my character and the world.
And this is all made worse by the fact the only role you play 99% of the time is tied to combat. That's the "role-playing" XIV offers- go kill this, go beat that. So, if the combat suffers, the small angle I have in terms of roleplaying suffers more.

Comparisons to ttrpgs are a bit silly because those games are much more customizable and offer a breadth of rules for social interaction or explorative, open-ended content. People complain DnD only focuses on the combat pillar (and it's true, 80% of the rules in that system are about combat), but XIV only has emotes, glamour (which is quite limited) and the adventurer plates. Sure, people can role-play by using the game as a medium for improv acting or role-playing, but that can be done in almost any medium... it can even do with no medium at all.
I genuinely think this is one of the most neglected aspects and untapped areas of potential in XIV, and it irks me to no end...

[Evergrey]

I think there's a pretty big gulf between an actual "strategy" game like Civilization VI where you plan your game hours in advance and wanting more than one button to push in an action game.

I remember back in ARR when doing dungeons the group had to plan the pulls ahead and utilize spells like Sleep to make it so the encounters wouldn't run amok.
This kind of tactical thinking is not something that should be considered "too much" when it comes to an MMORPG imo.
I miss those days, now it's just braindead wall-to-wall pulls and mashing buttons.