Stop making Ultimate, Savage and Unreal content

[ArcZ]

I don't think they should stop making them, but rather remove the focus on that type of content from the patches and focus on actual innovative game play mechanics that can be enjoyed by everyone.

Not everyone has time to be getting into static that operates on specific days on specific hours to do that content.

[ForteNightshade]

What do you mean Ultimate uses very few unique assets? They have entirely new bosses for each of the phases, new markers, new attack particles, new mechanics, new voice lines. There's always a compeltely unique final phase in a brand new high quality arena with a unique boss form.
It takes a lot of work to make one of thsoe which is why they only make 1-2 an expansion.

You also have it backwards, they do not design normal mode first. They develop the Savage mode and tghen strip mechanics to create the normal mode. THe normal mode is a concession given to casual players because Coils gated and still gates integral plot points ot the story behind savage level raids.

DSR and TOP have exactly one new boss model and phase each: Dragon King Thordan and Alpha Omega. Literally everything else in both encounters are reused assets and animations. Neither one of them have any new voice lines. TOP has a brief, in-game, cut scene that isn't voice acted. New attack patterns don't have anywhere close to the same development investment designing an otherwise new fight would. Hence why I said Ultimate is very cost efficient.

Nevertheless, you don't have to take my word for it. Yoshida himself said Ultimate is only about 5% new content when it comes to development, albeit that was for UwU. With them adding a new final phase from TEA onward, you could probably double that amount.

I don't have it backwards because I never actually said they didn't. What I said they'd still have to design normal mode even if they dropped Savage, thus it wouldn't actually give much back because the bulk of development goes into assets and animation they'd still be making. A new attack pattern or two for Savage isn't nearly as cost demanding as you're making it out to be. There's a cost, sure, but substantially less. The point I was making is cutting Savage wouldn't mean you get say, 8 normal mode raids per patch instead of 4. The only reason difficult content like Savage and Ultimate are made is because they can reuse so much in some form or another. This is true for all games, by the way.

[SieyaM]

Maybe they could revisit the squadron system. Create a few missions, maybe 5 or so, that are just for you to run with squadrons give them 10 or so more levels they can gain and rewards for completing them. Could even do something where if you have squad members at max level you can undergo a special trial with them do acquire a job stone for them, sprinkle in a little story flair about helping them achieve their potential or something with a short but sweet scene at the end and then you've got some more powerful squad members that you've put in time and effort for that make things easier. There are a lot of things that they could go back and revisit and expand upon that would be fun for players instead of re-inventing the wheel each time.

[CNitsah]

You're missing a word in your title.

"Stop ONLY making Savage, Ultimate and unreal content".

Those content are important in a mmo, but only focusing on them is wrong.

[Sensui]

How about the devs make content that matters and isn't just the flavor of the week? Reward system is meh.

[Kandraxx]

Problem with the ahem..."raid" content in this game is that the hardest part is to get a bunch of people together who can tolerate each others company for as long as it takes to prog whatever thing to the end. It's a problem in all MMOs but I feel like in FFXIV this is especially exacerbated. Most of these are bought anyway...buying the titles & weapons has become little more than buying a mount on the WoW store.

ed. typo

[Sensui]

Problem with the ahem..."raid" content in this game is that the hardest part is to get a bunch of people together who can tolerate each others company for as long as it takes to prog whatever thing to the end. It's a problem in all MMOs but I feel like in FFXIV this is especially exacerbated. Most of these are bought anyway...buying the titles & weapons has become little more than buying a mount on the WoW store.

ed. typo

If you don't use 3rd party tools you can't play the game.

[Kuroka]

I still feel not having a normal, not having ANY equal for "casual" players sucks...

If you don't use 3rd party tools you can't play the game.

Or you leave the game if you cant play without... its against the rules, period.

[Shougun]

If there is demand for it then I don't believe it should be removed and should continue to be produced, and if we have infinite resources even if there is hardly demand for it.. I don't think it should be removed either then. Naturally there isn't infinite resources, but I don't think we can effectively decide almost /anything/ that SE can and can't do. Interestingly I also don't care if SE says that can't do something, I think we should just simply ask for what we want and if it means enough stop paying them if they don't do it (not as a hostage / threat, just simply don't spend the money if you don't find it enough).

All that said.. I do not have interest in Ultimate, Savage, or anything like that. I find the content is a great way to be frustrated and waste my time achieving nothing. The chance of banging your head against the wall for a long period of time, ESPECIALLY if you PUG is exceptionally high (if you get a good static its not that bad, but you still have the time obligation). If I told you that you need to invest 40 hours for the chance to maybe get an item you're interested in you'd probably be like "hah, that's a no from me". This is how I see that type of content. The game isn't designed for one person, which is important to keep in mind (and why my first sentence exists), but just voicing that it's definitely 0 interest from me and only thing I hope is that they continue to both allow the power level and mog tome system creep into savage when it's no longer current so that I can also enjoy the story / items. I kind of get why Ultimate doesn't budge, but also means that I really hope they continue to keep rewards specifically slim (I do not want to see for example more rewards exclusive to ultimate, unless they want to allow Echo to move in, but that will change how people view it).

I'd also add that with the third party tools I'm aware exist (they're better than WoW's addons for bosses) that for me the content wouldn't be hard "on me" but given the PUGs I'd be with, it'd be like @_@... STOP DROPPING THE METEOR THERE. PLEASE. GOD. *REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*... And I just don't need that in my life. Of course you shouldn't be using those, and could do without, but you'll likely be paired directly or indirectly with that stuff. Like watching those twitch videos where they had the 3rd party marking ground tool, and they cleared the content in their static. I'm sure in some sense that was fun to them, but to me.. 'meh..'.. So I'm not even passing up on some sort of fulfilling experience, I'm just passing up on stress that I don't want lol. Alternatively it means that I don't assume, given carries, god tier call outs, and the addons, that there is anything special about them except that it takes a lot of time. I used to be part of statics ('doing it right' imo lol), and it was fun when I was a teen with no obligation, but I wont be doing that in my life anymore- I don't have the time ability for that. Basically I'm explaining that all hard group content will almost always be dis-interesting to me due to reasons akin to the above.

As an aside for that echo comment though, I would like to see a better Sync system that you might see casual Savage before you get full on EPIC ECHO DESTRUCTION savage (akin to how WoW or GW2 can sync stuff, but in such a way that you bring down the difficulty to a casual skill audience). Some of the stuff I've solo'd was either insanely easy but extreme attrition, or just insanely easy.. Would be neat if there was a system that tried to capture "interesting" at a different playing style (perhaps boosts loot drops as a compromise to not going in with a tactical nuke).

I do think they need to work a lot more on their casual and mid tier systems though, not just 'more content' but 'more SYSTEMS'. For two reasons. 1) I believe that it is near impossible that an MMO could have enough content for players who play a lot, without gross grinds lol and 2) The systems they currently use to feed us content have remained relatively unchanged for a long time.. so I think diversity and quality of diversity is more important than just 'more bosses'. Where ilvl 500 boss will instantly be superseded by ilvl 515 boss, and you will only grind the most pertinent. Systems being a generic word, but for example, better quest systems that provide diverse interactions to the game rather than just kill x, or mutations to fights SE expects you to do more than a handful of times (so players can be taken off guard part way through a patch).

A quick criticism example might be looking at Island Sanctuary. I actually really like the way it looks, and that I can upgrade it / have some story. But man, the gameplay is pretty shallow. It feels like they needed more accessible / better tools to make interesting and varied gameplay (like their FATEs in open world feel pretty shallow). I would compare this to GW2 "FATEs" (which have a lot more depth) or WoW Garrison to Island Sanctuary, where the Garrison has a lot more gameplay (varied gameplay- it had a lot of problems on release, but in it's current state I'd say it's fine if not perhaps a bit neglected and would work in our system where we don't use ALTs like they do).

Or.. *grabs new favorite dead horse* better gameplay roleplay as a whole. In short, I think short term 'more' might help but long term its more important they have better quality tools that provide better diversity of content than it is simply to have 'more' content that will be consumed like balls going into a hungry hippo. Or just Segueing off another post here, a lot of people just hang out. Improve the 'hang out' ability of the game.

[Sensui]

I still feel not having a normal, not having ANY equal for "casual" players sucks...



Or you leave the game if you cant play without... its against the rules, period.

Anybody using 3rd party apps to play video games suck at video games.