This has to last till APRIL btw

[Nadda]

Am I the only one who thinks Chaotic Raid sort of came out of nowhere and got implemented on a whim?

To my understanding Japanese players do Savage content in their Duty roulette and good on them - but it feels like something exclusively fun for them.
Western audiences it's hard to string together 8 people to do Savage/Ultimates.
If it really is Savage difficulty that is (which can range anywhere from Extreme to Savage) it'll still need some form of coordination.

But for that raid to be "Mid-core" as people suspect so late into the patch life cycle. Not really? This new content is asking for you to somehow know three Raid teams' worth of people who could coordinate to complete the boss weekly.

It's gonna need dedicated discord groups probably like a Eureka or something to "Pilot" other players through. 730 gear be awesome catch up content if it was released earlier.

So late into the patch it should already be finished almost everyone who does savage raid should be bis by then. Midcore players will be rocking tome gear.

And 7.2 will be right around the corner for people to do which will make 730 gear kinda pointless to get.

So like who is this Chaotic Raid for exactly? Why did it suddenly just get pushed out there?
I'd have much preferred getting our new exploration zone to start working on my Relic Weapon. (Still hoping that the Relic weapon will be something I can work towards)

And the content that's left as the OP said.

Most of that stuff will be cleared or done in the first day. I'm not doing Sphene a hundred times for her wings - I'm gonna get my clear and be done. I'll beat byakko once or twice.
The new dungeon won't really matter either ... they should just scale up all the DT dungeons for Expert so you have some variety.

Like 4 months is too long and this is too little they need to go back to a shorter cycle because this isn't really enough for four months.

I'm raid logging as it is - and I am excited for the content down the road, BUT, it's very demoralizing to have all the content I do want to try on the back burner. They really should have front-loaded this patch with more stuff.
Casual content will be done in a day and only the top percent of players will touch the ultimate. They didn't learn from Endwalker this system doesn't work. Where's the beef?

[CNitsah]

Am I the only one who thinks Chaotic Raid sort of came out of nowhere and got implemented on a whim?

[...]

Casual content will be done in a day and only the top percent of players will touch the ultimate. They didn't learn from Endwalker this system doesn't work. Where's the beef?

There is a part of that that fear they misunderstand criticism for a while now. When the first complaints about the removal of a Zadnor like arrived, SE said something about people wanting to do things with a large group of people. That might be part of their answer. But the problem with the removal of engagement content goes far deeper, and there is still a part of me that fear they didn't got further.

I guess we can only wait and see, but until I see how they actually implement the next field operation, I'll stay reasonably cautious about it.

[Valence]

So like who is this Chaotic Raid for exactly? Why did it suddenly just get pushed out there?

I have the feeling this is the logical step after Variant/Criterion. People have asked since forever for harder, more challenging versions of light party dungeons. I do remember hearing that already back in SB/SHB. It took them all that time to introduce them, and in their usual fashion, can't seem to notice that there is a gaping hole between casual and savage and both criterion difficulties were aimed at raiders. Anyway, point is, people tend to ask "what if we got this difficulty mode for that type of content like dungeons or alliance raids that doesnt exist yet?". And here we go, we're getting the logical follow up of criterion, and it has been probably planned since forever, because we're apparently living with content delivery from decisions made 2 years ago.

8.0 will be the exact same, we'll finally get our job rework, 2 years after the decision was made to do it. It's also been the same for the ARR rework, that they always said wouldn't happen (esp regarding msq roulette instances because too hard/nightmare), and finally happened an expansion later anyway.

[ovIm]

There is a part of that that fear they misunderstand criticism for a while now.

Oh it absolutely is a case of Square Enix hearing feedback, but not listening to it. People have been asking for harder alliance raids, but mostly in the spirit of what Zadnor The Dalriada and Castrum Lacus Litore gave us. Instead we get another glorious room with boss instance. Square Enix only wants us to fight bosses, it seems.
People have been asking for something to bridge extremes and dungeons for a while, but - ooops, we went overboard, guess the 24 man is savage difficulty now. Please look forward to it.

[Voidmage]

I do remember hearing that already back in SB/SHB. It took them all that time to introduce them, and in their usual fashion, can't seem to notice that there is a gaping hole between casual and savage and both criterion difficulties were aimed at raiders.

I think this is the correct answer.
They have completely forgotten how to scale difficulty.
We have an extreme gap between too easy and “you need to watch videos or have a premade team to clear this content”
Chaotic raid and criterion could have been great as intermediate content where you just jump in and have fun with a good challenge.
Instead we only get easy, savage and ultimate.

We need more of CLL or Delubrum Regina’s where it is challenging enough but not too demanding to memorize the whole fight.
Where mistakes can happen but too many punish you on an individual level and if too many players fail then the whole raid will fail.

The new dungeons are actually quite nice but that’s all.
Sometimes I think they listen far too much to streamers whose job is to raid.
If you raid ultimate and savage then of course Ex and co will lose its difficulty to you, same as if you never raid harder content then Savage will seem like horror.

[Valence]

Oh it absolutely is a case of Square Enix hearing feedback, but not listening to it. People have been asking for harder alliance raids, but mostly in the spirit of what Zadnor and Castrum Lacus Litore gave us. Instead we get another glorious room with boss instance. Square Enix only wants us to fight bosses, it seems.
People have been asking for something to bridge extremes and dungeons for a while, but - ooops, we went overboard, guess the 24 man is savage difficulty now. Please look forward to it.

I honestly do feel that not only they have gotten complacent into the same identical formulae, but all their vaunted designers only know how to design circular arenas with bosses those days because the only mechanics and building legos they have are spread, stack markers, donuts and point blanks or any DDR heavy combination. Only exception I've seen, and really, really makes me wonder why we don't get more of this, is the trash pull design in criterions. Like, legit, it's great, they're challenging, they can mess you up, but they can be cleared by any party without watching a guide or being raiders.

[missTori]

I know yoshi said he wants to do this game when he retires, which sounds like the game is his baby. Yet, his efforts & care is not translating over to the players for some reason.

I feel like ffxiv could be so much better than what it has been. At this point I'm just tired and don't give a shite. i may not come back till 8.0. i have been subbed this month but haven't logged on in a week. it's dire

[Vizi]

Finally something I can wholeheartedly agree with. #Content-strike - let's go.

[LibitIncarne]

snip

Let's compare this to Every Other Expansion.

ARR - 2.1 (Collated together):
PVP (The Wolves' Den)
1 MSQ Trial
3 Optional Dungeons
4 EX Trials
1 Alliance Raid
2 Beast Tribes
Hildibrand
Treasure Maps
2 Relic Trials
Duty Roulette
The Aesthetician

HW

3.1:
1 Alliance Raid
1 EX Trial
0 MSQ dungeons (Wow, can you believe it?)
2 Optional Dungeons
1 Beast Tribe
Lord of Verminion
Flight for certain ARR Mounts

3.15:
Anima Weapons
Scholasticate Quests

SB

4.1:
1 MSQ Dungeon
1 Alliance Raid
1 EX Trial
1 Beast Tribe
Thief Maps
1 Custom Delivery NPC
Squadron Command Missions

4.11:
UCoB

4.15:
Rival Wings (Astragalos)
Bard Performance Mode

ShB

5.1
1 MSQ Dungeon
1 Alliance Raid
1 EX Trial
1 Beast Tribe
Onsal Hakair (Frontline)
1 Custom Delivery NPC
1 GATE
The Echo has been added to Eureka

5.11
TEA
Ishgardian Restoration Part 1

5.15
BLU Lv60

5.18
All Players are now Freelancers in Frontline

EW

6.1
1 MSQ Dungeon
1 Alliance Raid
1 EX Trial
1 Unreal Trial
Crystalline Conflict

6.11
DSR

6.15
1 Beast Tribe
1 Custom Delivery NPC
3 Side Stories

6.18
Data Center Travel

[LibitIncarne]

Let's compare this to Every Other Expansion.

This is to say, what we're getting is basically the same as in Endwalker except without the new PVP mode that replaced an old one.
Ishgardian Restoration (5.11) was rushed and didn't have any of the functionality (or The Diadem) that the later 3 phases had.

Thief Maps are RNG hell and aren't ever happening again, and basically everything in 2.1 is a result of the game literally being unfinished on release, some things were held back for 2.1.