My humble Feedback on Frontline after 3200+ matches in 1.5 years

[IvoryBadge]

I think Frontline is fun, I really do, it’s all i do. But clueless rouletters and griefers are ruining it for me. personally i think this issue stem from how poorly FF14 introduces Frontline.

Some suggestions:
* Instanced duties that imitates a Frontline match, explaining objectives and basic tactics.
* new striking dummies in WDP. The player can set the striking dummy to a Role/Job to replicate and practice on to help understand dmg modifiers for each Job. instanced duty to fight any Job as AI. like training mode
* Frontline having its own Questline would be interesting.

As for Balance:
Aside from Astrologians absurd Macrocosmos, underwhelming and gimmicky Samurai and the insanely overpowered physical ranged Ninja. i think balance is fine overall (even Salted Earth is fine as it is) but the thing is a good and experienced Frontline player will see DRK premade coming from a mile away and act accordingly, even if the player get sucked by Salted Earth they’ll immediately Purify/Guard and back off to safety. However the vast majority of players are either Clueless of what’s going on or straight up griefers who don’t want to PvP in PvP mode. Both are born from poor introduction of Frontline, lack of knowledge and motivation/incentives.

Rewards/Incentives
why am i and a lot of other players are punished for not playing the game earlier let alone get into pvp by that time? Yes I’m talking about Series/Feast rewards. It should be available for everyone, however, it should be earned after a grind. Frontline achievements rewards aren’t enough.
* new currency system (Tokens/medals) you earn by killing, for every kill you get 1 token. Cap should be around 2k, it might seem a lot, but if players actually put in the effort it will be a smooth grind.
* All series/feast rewards should be obtainable. Via the said Vendor by exchanging the currency earned by kills. (don’t make them cost the same, every set/mount/accessory and plate should have its own weight and value) I guarantee you this will make people take Frontline more seriously.
* Exp given via roulette is x1.5 for 1st, 0.5x for 2nd/3rd. This is to lessen griefing of 2nd and 3d teams fighting each other for no reason.
* Add a scoreboard in WDP that shows top 50 players within the server, updated weekly. Showing kills, deaths, assists and dmg. This will evaluate the competition and make players want to be on the board.
* Field commander set is awesome but i think every map should have its own unique set of a similar idea. Titles as well.

that’s my humble feedback. Imo this will increase the quality of Frontline and make it more fun for PvP players, and reasonable to do by casuals/new players. It might seem like gatekeeping but PvP should be respected like every other content in the game, you want something cool? Work for it. You despise PvP? Don’t queue for it.

[Commander_Justitia]

why am i and a lot of other players are punished for not playing the game earlier let alone get into pvp by that time? Yes I’m talking about Series/Feast rewards. It should be available for everyone, however, it should be earned after a grind. Frontline achievements rewards aren’t enough.
* new currency system (Tokens/medals) you earn by killing, for every kill you get 1 token. Cap should be around 2k, it might seem a lot, but if players actually put in the effort it will be a smooth grind.
* All series/feast rewards should be obtainable. Via the said Vendor by exchanging the currency earned by kills. (don’t make them cost the same, every set/mount/accessory and plate should have its own weight and value) I guarantee you this will make people take Frontline more seriously.

After 3200 matches and 1,5 years, you still don't understand the type of players you are dealing with.

You will make people queue at the same time, so they can meet in some corner and keep killing each other without fighting back, so they can get the former top100 ranked reward as easy and as fast as possible.



You get Partyfinder like this then. Some specimen setting up ranked fullgrp PvP matches against each other to wintrade. If they are willing to do it for ranked, they will surely do it in a casual mode. Achievement hunters in a nutshell.

[IvoryBadge]

You will make people queue at the same time, so they can meet in some corner and keep killing each other without fighting back, so they can get the former top100 ranked reward as easy and as fast as possible.

While this might happen, is why I suggested the cost of every single reward to vary in value. Just like how tome gear works except it is harder to get and you have to work for more than 2k cap to get the full set, and that’s just one set. Say, for example, False Monarchy head piece costs 900 medals while chest piece costs 1200. That way it’ll be foolish to expolit it by killing yourself so your friend could get the set Instead of working with your alliance to get more kills with bursts. It’ll take a long while to get and I don’t think a lot of ppl would do it except like the extremely lifeless who’d spam it like madmen. (To be honest I haven’t thought about how Assists and Battle High accumulate with this).

[Commander_Justitia]

Well, I think series rewards should come back, as players were under the impression they will come back initially. And so, they didn't want to feel under time pressure and complete it at a different time, that was kinda stolen from them, as they seem exclusive again?! But for Feast ranked rewards I would be against something that can be grinded.

[IDontPetLalas]

After 3200 matches (which, by the way, isn't so hard to accumulate) you've proposed a system that would not be at all fair if put in practise because some jobs can rack of kills by design, whereas others cannot regardless of 'putting in the effort"

i.e. "new currency system (Tokens/medals) you earn by killing, for every kill you get 1 token. Cap should be around 2k, it might seem a lot, but if players actually put in the effort it will be a smooth grind.
* All series/feast rewards should be obtainable. Via the said Vendor by exchanging the currency earned by kills."


If a system like this was put in place, and I have had a similar system in other games- at least players were evaluated per job. Which makes things more complex for the devs, but they would literally compare ASTs to each other for "contribution" perhaps healing and player damage, WARs to each other for player damage , etc.

[maximesan514]

While I admire your thoughts, I have the regret to inform you that square enix does not give a freakn **** what you would like to see in the pvp section, in fact they dont care about pvp all around. in the last 2 years there was literally 0 update to frontline but % decrease or increase.

Good luck !!!!

[Vandi]

^ I can confirm this. My repeated request for a piggyback on Tifa Lockhart mount as a pvp reward has gone completely unheard for the last 9 years.

[Mistress_Irika]

why am i and a lot of other players are punished for not playing the game earlier let alone get into pvp by that time? Yes I’m talking about Series/Feast rewards. It should be available for everyone, however, it should be earned after a grind. Frontline achievements rewards aren’t enough.
* new currency system (Tokens/medals) you earn by killing, for every kill you get 1 token. Cap should be around 2k, it might seem a lot, but if players actually put in the effort it will be a smooth grind.
* All series/feast rewards should be obtainable. Via the said Vendor by exchanging the currency earned by kills. (don’t make them cost the same, every set/mount/accessory and plate should have its own weight and value) I guarantee you this will make people take Frontline more seriously.
* Exp given via roulette is x1.5 for 1st, 0.5x for 2nd/3rd. This is to lessen griefing of 2nd and 3d teams fighting each other for no reason.
* Add a scoreboard in WDP that shows top 50 players within the server, updated weekly. Showing kills, deaths, assists and dmg. This will evaluate the competition and make players want to be on the board.
* Field commander set is awesome but i think every map should have its own unique set of a similar idea. Titles as well.

I will agree with you 95% of the way. My only slight suggestion to one of your suggestions is regarding feast.
I have slowly been turning over my opinions as of lately when it came to feast rewards seeing that the devs shot themselves in the foot with this one. Mounts and glamour as a reward knowing that many people collects those and minions as top priority and recolored items as well? Nah. I do not mind them being earned whatsoever. However, I would not have folks grind games for it. Instead, I would have the requirement for those rewards to be finishing in the top 100 at the end of the CC season. Seems fair enough to me honestly. Will I probably push for this? Not with rank looking the way it is. The entire thing needs a do over and badly.

I would like to hear more of this new currency you're proposing. I don't think it's needed. However, I would like to hear more about it anyways. What are your ideas regarding this?

[Elfidan]

Some suggestions:
* Instanced duties that imitates a Frontline match, explaining objectives and basic tactics.
* new striking dummies in WDP. The player can set the striking dummy to a Role/Job to replicate and practice on to help understand dmg modifiers for each Job. instanced duty to fight any Job as AI. like training mode
* Frontline having its own Questline would be interesting.

I support the heck out of all this. I've been asking for something similar since the beginning.

As for Balance:
Aside from Astrologians absurd Macrocosmos, underwhelming and gimmicky Samurai and the insanely overpowered physical ranged Ninja. i think balance is fine overall (even Salted Earth is fine as it is) but the thing is a good and experienced Frontline player will see DRK premade coming from a mile away and act accordingly, even if the player get sucked by Salted Earth they’ll immediately Purify/Guard and back off to safety. However the vast majority of players are either Clueless of what’s going on or straight up griefers who don’t want to PvP in PvP mode. Both are born from poor introduction of Frontline, lack of knowledge and motivation/incentives.

They've been nerfing NIN since the start but most of the nerfs didn't really effect any of the "annoying" playstyles it brings. Probably the only meaningful nerf was the shuriken clone damage. Which was severely needed. The lazy DRK/DRG strats have leveled up since the earlier days of Endwalker in my opinion. I support limit break synergy because it's good play and teamwork. That being said the newer additions of dancers and warriors into the already messy DRK/DRG strats is a problem for the average player towards whom adjustments for Frontline should be directed. That being said the fix isn't to adjust the jobs but adjust how the limit break CC interact in general. Stacked RPR DNC WHM CC in short order just feels weird and not good from a gameplay standpoint. If I eat one of those, I shouldn't be susceptible to the others for a set period of time much how cleanse works for normal CC.

Rewards/Incentives
why am i and a lot of other players are punished for not playing the game earlier let alone get into pvp by that time? Yes I’m talking about Series/Feast rewards. It should be available for everyone, however, it should be earned after a grind. Frontline achievements rewards aren’t enough.
* new currency system (Tokens/medals) you earn by killing, for every kill you get 1 token. Cap should be around 2k, it might seem a lot, but if players actually put in the effort it will be a smooth grind.
* All series/feast rewards should be obtainable. Via the said Vendor by exchanging the currency earned by kills. (don’t make them cost the same, every set/mount/accessory and plate should have its own weight and value) I guarantee you this will make people take Frontline more seriously.

They need to hurry up and add a means for late adopters/absentees to get their series pass rewards. It's been long enough Yoshi this is ridiculous. Many people feel some sort of way about the feast rewards. I was around even played some during that time but it was awful, so I never really gave it much of my time. I don't think people should have access to anything that was a reward for a ranked placement. It defeats the whole purpose of it. Some of the people who placed however previously said they wouldn't mind so long as it's denoted in some fashion that it isn't the real deal reward. Such as "replica" treatment or off-color schemes.

* Exp given via roulette is x1.5 for 1st, 0.5x for 2nd/3rd. This is to lessen griefing of 2nd and 3d teams fighting each other for no reason.

Yes, something does need to change about the exp incentives. The abuse in any given random match is visible even if it's happening on one of the other teams which is telling.

* Add a scoreboard in WDP that shows top 50 players within the server, updated weekly. Showing kills, deaths, assists and dmg. This will evaluate the competition and make players want to be on the board.

I've always thought it was weird that all they bother to track is top win numbers.

* Field commander set is awesome but i think every map should have its own unique set of a similar idea. Titles as well.

I'm all for more pvp specific armor available for win totals or feats within specific instances. The titles already exist though, and some are even varied objectives rather than just win X times which is cool.

[Teno]

Frontlines definitely deserves a stronger incentive to win than just titles. More mounts and gear sets would also push at least a few people to try just a little harder, making games more fun overall.