Everyone is praising the 5.5-month patch cycle!

[Jeeqbit]

Working on the basis of a "month" being 30 days, because if you assume 28 (aka 4 weeks) it creates a 13th month, although even on that basis the max you reach is 5 months not 5.5:

6.0-6.1: 18 weeks (4.2 months)
6.1-6.2: 19 weeks (4.4 months)
6.2-6.3: 20 weeks (4.6 months)
6.3-6.4: 19 weeks (4.4 months)
6.4-6.5: 20 weeks (4.6 months)
6.5-7.0: 39 weeks (9.1 months)

To replicate these results do: weeks x 7 divided by 30.

So it seems to vary between 4.4 and 4.6 months depending on holidays, while expansion launches I know have increased by 3 months for the last two expansion releases (which was explained for Endwalker due to covid but not for Dawntrail).

[Raikai]

was going to ask what the point of any of this was, but then noticed the nice combination of jobs you have leveled

get fisher to 100 at least

To each their own... But out of all things to do in XIV, I think that leveling jobs is one of the worst chore-like activities, especially to make up for "content drought".

[BabyYoda]

Working on the basis of a "month" being 30 days, because if you assume 28 (aka 4 weeks) it creates a 13th month, although even on that basis the max you reach is 5 months not 5.5:

6.0-6.1: 18 weeks (4.2 months)
6.1-6.2: 19 weeks (4.4 months)
6.2-6.3: 20 weeks (4.6 months)
6.3-6.4: 19 weeks (4.4 months)
6.4-6.5: 20 weeks (4.6 months)
6.5-7.0: 39 weeks (9.1 months)

To replicate these results do: weeks x 7 divided by 30.

So it seems to vary between 4.4 and 4.6 months depending on holidays, while expansion launches I know have increased by 3 months for the last two expansion releases (which was explained for Endwalker due to covid but not for Dawntrail).

If they didn't address this next LL I will take a long break and stop caring all together

[Hyperia]

As they like to do 4 content patches and a lite 5th, it would not surprise me to see them go ahead and move it to 6 months for each patch as the game is 2.5 years between major updates. They would say that they need more time to do quality assurance, etc. Then they would put the x.x5 patch at the halfway point so they can say that they returned to the 3 month patch cycle of content release.

Will this really happen? Not sure, but it would address the gap of 9 months of no content between major updates at the end of the patch cycle. This would really suck for raiders as each raid would come out every year and maintaining a static over such time periods would be difficult.

Hypothetical Calendar
7.0 - Releases in July 2024
7.05 - Releases in October 2024
7.1 - Releases in January 2025
7.15 - Releases in April 2025
7.2 - Releases in July 2025
7.25 - Releases in October 2025
7.3 - Releases in January 2026
7.35 - Releases in April 2026
7.4 - Releases in July 2026
7.45 - Releases in September 2026
7.5 - Releases November 2026
8.0 - Releases in January of 2027

The smaller gaps in the patches at the end is to hype up things to get things alive again prior to the major release.

[Connor]

I mean, would the time between patches matter as much if they tried to make content that lasts longer than 3 days lol? The fact pretty much all content is designed to be done in like, 1 hour, one day week, is what makes the time between patches feel so ‘dead’ in my opinion. And before anyone @‘s me lol I’m not saying they should make it ‘a 24/7 full time job’ but like the current model isn’t exactly working either I’d say

[Raikai]

I mean, would the time between patches matter as much if they tried to make content that lasts longer than 3 days lol? The fact pretty much all content is designed to be done in like, 1 hour, one day week, is what makes the time between patches feel so ‘dead’ in my opinion. And before anyone @‘s me lol I’m not saying they should make it ‘a 24/7 full time job’ but like the current model isn’t exactly working either I’d say

I think is more like what the content is.

High end fights, for example, some people get done with it in 1-2 weeks. While others, especially PF raiders (like myself), can take up the whole patch cycle to complete them, due to how inconsistent players can be. And even so, there's only so long before fun turns into frustration for not getting people that actually mean "Enrage to Clear".

Story content is consumed at a set pace for everybody (if you don't skip scenes)... Usually patches you'll end up with around 3-5 hours with MSQ and sidequests, if you don't account the wait time for queues. This is done with the minimal time spent in a game.

I honestly feel that XIV absolutely needs content that is a time investment but not just a mindless grind - it should have an engaging difficulty level. I don't wish any of WoW's features in XIV, but they do have things that checks those boxes, like Mythic +, Torghast (when it didn't have a FOMO aspect), or recently Delves. This is just an example that would appease PVE savvy players, like myself.

I don't think that Bozja was very successful in that. It did have some very interesting rewards behind time investment, but the truth is you spent most of your time in SF and Zadnor just mindlessly hopping from one FATE to the other with one of the half-dozen CE's in between while you waited for the big instances to pop. Eureka was a little more nuanced than that, but still not exactly where I'd consider a top tier design. I'm really hoping for Dawntrail's ones, but not just taking what was successful from its predecessors, but actually tackle what they lacked.

That being said, I wish the Field Operation was a 7.0.5 feature, and it had a new zone in even patches. I know we'll be getting that, but I feel a big problem is the right now. The base patch of 7.0 is literally too empty of new features. They want us to log out if we're bored, but I want to play engaging activities XIV and not just waiting for 2 hours every day to see if I can fill a party finder group to finish my M3S prog. It's the only game I'm interested in rignt now.

[Jeeqbit]

I mean, would the time between patches matter as much if they tried to make content that lasts longer than 3 days lol?

No, but the problem with making it last longer than 3 days is most people play very casually.

Normal behaviour for modern gamers is to play a game that just had a patch/DLC/just released for about 3-5 days, then move on to the next game. This is something I observed on Steam since Steam was a thing, and SE is just designing around this reality.

For people who want to spend more than 3 days on the content, they add long-term grinds for mounts, glam, titles, achievements, etc.

[BabyYoda]

No, but the problem with making it last longer than 3 days is most people play very casually.

Normal behaviour for modern gamers is to play a game that just had a patch/DLC/just released for about 3-5 days, then move on to the next game. This is something I observed on Steam since Steam was a thing, and SE is just designing around this reality.

For people who want to spend more than 3 days on the content, they add long-term grinds for mounts, glam, titles, achievements, etc.

I think casual players are the target audience for grinding.. current content cycle style is preferred by players who don't actually play the game and play other games along side FFXIV

[ovIm]

I mean, would the time between patches matter as much if they tried to make content that lasts longer than 3 days lol? The fact pretty much all content is designed to be done in like, 1 hour, one day week, is what makes the time between patches feel so ‘dead’ in my opinion. And before anyone @‘s me lol I’m not saying they should make it ‘a 24/7 full time job’ but like the current model isn’t exactly working either I’d say

Its unfortunate that most content in FF14 has an incredibly short shelf life, and is barely future proofed. After a very short while there already is no reason to run them anymore. And while I agree supergrinds that replace your day job in terms of required time commitment is the other extreme no one wants, a reason to log in when you have done your quickly finished weekly stuff would be nice.

No, but the problem with making it last longer than 3 days is most people play very casually.

Normal behaviour for modern gamers is to play a game that just had a patch/DLC/just released for about 3-5 days, then move on to the next game. This is something I observed on Steam since Steam was a thing, and SE is just designing around this reality.

For people who want to spend more than 3 days on the content, they add long-term grinds for mounts, glam, titles, achievements, etc.

Naaa man, people don't all bounce from game to game every few days. Way too many people have "their" game that they enjoy and play a lot. The issue is that the content in FF14 is drained of reasons to play very quickly because the main reward can be received rather fast, while those long term grinds are inhumane in its requirements. There is no middle ground.

[Mecia]

7.1 please pull me out of this achievement hellhole