FFXIV outdated patch cycle is one of the biggest issues in terms of content cadence.

[All_Nonsense]

It was okay, not great, when it was every 3-4 months. But stretching the same or less to 4-6 months feels awful.

The content wasn't really enough for the original patch cycle, and just outright feels bad now.

A similar thing happened in ESO where they cut content releases in half to the point that it felt like a content drought. People on those forums gaslit me that it would be great for the game and really help the devs do better work. Fast-forward and that game has less players than it had in a very long time and still dropping.

I feel FFXIV is heading into that direction - less content over longer periods of time. It's not good for the game and if this game is the cash cow the company depends upon, I have no idea why this is the direction they are going with for this game.

I will say this: They originally extended the dev cycle to give themselves more time to get the graphics update worked out. My big huff of copium and what I'm holding out on hope for is that once they have finally finished with all of that, they will use that extra time to do QoL changes and shake up the dev cycle to give us more stuff to do than "here's a dungeon. Here's a raid tier. Have fun." I'm really hoping they have big plans to capitalize on that extra dev time economy.

[Jeeqbit]

They originally extended the dev cycle to give themselves more time to get the graphics update worked out.

That isn't true. They extended the dev cycle to give their staff a better work-life balance, after working extremely hard for over 10 years.

Avoiding burnout is very important to Yoshi-P. He makes sure they can switch roles and work on different things if they are getting burned out, and forces them to take breaks if they are overworking themselves (which is why they work on things without telling him out of passion sometimes).

QoL changes

Would like if there was lots of QoL. They have barely scratched the surface of little things they could improve.

[All_Nonsense]

That isn't true. They extended the dev cycle to give their staff a better work-life balance, after working extremely hard for over 10 years.

oh. back to doomposting then

Work-life balance is important. So there's a secret third option to solve the apparent labor shortage - hire more people. Does it take a year to train someone on the spaghetti code that ff14 is built on? yeah, Yoshi-P talked about it. But it gets to a point where re-investing into the cash cow is kind of important. I hope SE sees the light some day.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

oh. back to doomposting then

Work-life balance is important. So there's a secret third option to solve the apparent labor shortage - hire more people. Does it take a year to train someone on the spaghetti code that ff14 is built on? yeah, Yoshi-P talked about it. But it gets to a point where re-investing into the cash cow is kind of important. I hope SE sees the light some day.

They have been trying to hire.

[ForteNightshade]

They have been trying to hire.

Evidently, they need to loosen their restrictions instead of throwing their hands up and saying, "whelp, we tried!" There's no need for every developer to be fluent in Japanese. Simply make that a requirement for the team leader, management or whatever so they can translate when necessary. Other foreign companies have figured it out but as per usual Square is woefully behind.

Although, I'd argue it isn't just a personal issue. They've simply made very poor design decisions, especially more recently. No amount of developers was going to fix Island Sanctuary, for example, because the foundation itself wasn't good to begin with. Likewise, half the problem with housing is their stubborn refusal to accept the neighborhood concept doesn't work.

[Daralii]

I will say this: They originally extended the dev cycle to give themselves more time to get the graphics update worked out. My big huff of copium and what I'm holding out on hope for is that once they have finally finished with all of that, they will use that extra time to do QoL changes and shake up the dev cycle to give us more stuff to do than "here's a dungeon. Here's a raid tier. Have fun." I'm really hoping they have big plans to capitalize on that extra dev time economy.

The question is if they'll ever reach a point where they are done with it. Viera and hrothgar hats were supposed to be done during the course of Shadowbringers, and that came out over 5 years ago.