4.5 month patch release is NOT a problem

[Jeeqbit]

at least back then yoshiP was very involved in XIV and its community

Speaking of which, in 2 days, Yoshi-P will be visiting a server to hang out with players.

[sindriiisgaming]

Speaking of which, in 2 days, Yoshi-P will be visiting a server to hang out with players.

cant wait to hear about his Fav flavour of sandwiches...

[TakoyakiLala]

It's okay, OP. Forum FFXIV players aren't the most literate bunch within the FFXIV playerbase. That includes myself, btw. xD

But yeah, completely agree with you. If we had at least the exploratory zone content and possibly the Beast Master limited job to last us 4.5 months, then this wouldn't be a problem.

Devs need to reorganize when they release certain content so people aren't just left with practically nothing to do at end game.

[Eldtagg]

Yes, as if there isn't other content released in the patch that also takes 10-20 minutes. That builds up to where you can easily spend a few hours a day.
It won't. Because this "10 minutes here" and "20 minutes there" builds up to where you've then spent a few hours. And guess how long an average person has after work? Some of those people also have to juggle looking after children, maintaining their house and preparing food.

I, a man in his 30s with a job, a wife, and a 10-year-old son, believe that MMORPG studios should never cater to parents with ten wives, 39 children, and fifty jobs.

MMORPGs are games that require significant time investment. And in comparison to the early 2000s, they require very little effort currently (because they are all extremely casual), but they are still to this day intended as a platform to become immersed in and continue playing monthly while paying for a subscription.

If you don't have time for an MMORPG, you should probably avoid playing them.

Simple as that.

[Buttobi]

I feel like another problem that this playerbase has is that they don't realise how bad they have it. Play almost any other popular live service game and the difference in content delivered is night and day. The frequency and replayability of content is just far higher in most other live service games. Getting more replayable content is not entirely a matter of a significant increase in dev time and resources. In some cases they can change the way loot works to encourage people to play more. The way they design content is just total ass and gives 0 possibility of longevity through replayability.

It took us a whole expansion to realise this (hell even Shadowbringers was quite bad if it was not for Bozja saving the latter half) but I am glad more and more people are seeing how barren this game is outside of its expansion releases. The post expansion patch content has been abyssmal for quite a while, the extension of patch cycles and removal of various content just exacerbated the problem.

There are just so many areas this game could improve on.
- The zones they add each expansion. I think many people would appreciate regular updates to the hunt or fate systems. To this day I still wonder why the 6 new zones they add each expansion don't get anything worthwhile added to them outside of the .0 release.
- Dungeons are another area that they just do nothing with except it being an MSQ vehicle. The devs should take a look at WoW's Mythic+ system, it's very fun.
- Raids are in a better state but it could really use a rework in its loot systems ,mainly alliance and savage loot. Savage should be unlocked far earlier.
- This might be the first expansion where PvP will get 0 new maps. We have yet to see an announcement for a new map so I am cautiously hopeful, but usually a new map gets added in the .1 patch. Another thing they skipped for this dry patch. No one cares about a PvP rework if all we have to play are the same maps we have had for the last 5 years.

These are just the pieces of content I am personally invested and interested in. I am sure people have similair feelings about other content like crafting and gathering. Point is, this game has not innovated on almost any of its most popular systems and has actively taken away content like dungeons and PvP while delivering longer patch cycles.

[XtremePrime]

The time between patches is not the main issue, just a symptom I feel, but I can understand why people think it is.
The actual main issue is the amount of content provided in these 4.5 month patch cycles that leave people wanting more, and "do old content" is an unfair request especially to the people that already did most of the old content, and not every player is a hardcore raider to get months of enjoyment out of running the new chaotic or savage raids constantly.

[Jeeqbit]

All content in the game has only ever lasted 5-20 minutes per attempt.

This is because the game is a pick-and-mix:


That is how it's designed, always was designed and probably always will be. And that is why everything will always last 5-20 minutes:



That is a job listing from 2022. That is my point. It's not copium, and I'm not saying there can't be more content, I'm just saying some people have a fundamental misunderstanding of the game. It could last longer than 20mins, but they intentionally ask their designers to restrict it to this timeframe.

[Kaurhz]

All content in the game has only ever lasted 5-20 minutes per attempt.

This is because the game is a pick-and-mix:


That is how it's designed, always was designed and probably always will be. And that is why everything will always last 5-20 minutes:



That is a job listing from 2022. That is my point. It's not copium, and I'm not saying there can't be more content, I'm just saying some people have a fundamental misunderstanding of the game. It could last longer than 20mins, but they intentionally ask their designers to restrict it to this timeframe.

This is because all of these things are a lot more practical to assess at a pre-interview, or interview, versus asking someone to design something like Exploratory content, relics, or 8-man encounters, which isn't practical to assess in the timeframe of an interview. This just gives an idea of their core competencies and isn't really indicative of much beyond that.

Also, all of these listed in your pick-and-mix screenshot are just core content released expansion-by-expansion and patch-by-patch, it isn't the content such as exploratory content, relic progression, HoH or even stuff like Island Sanctuary which is their 'new feature' list for each expansion.

You are trying to infer way too many internal things based on a job spec, there's still senior positions, or content they may learn to develop on the job.

[Jeeqbit]

versus asking someone to design something like Exploratory content, relics, or 8-man encounters

it isn't the content such as exploratory content, relic progression, HoH or even stuff like Island Sanctuary which is their 'new feature' list for each expansion.

• Field Operations contain Skirmishes/NMs, that take about as long as FATEs.
• Field Operations contain CEs, that take about as long as a dungeon boss.
• 8-man encounters take about 10 minutes per pull. You can choose to do more pulls, but it's designed this way so you can stop every 10 minutes if you need to go, thus fitting the "pick-and-mix" concept.
• HoH is split into sets of 10 floors, each of which take roughly 10-20 minutes. Can take longer at higher floors if solo, but yeah.
• Relics are... grinding dungeons, FATEs, Skirmishes, things that last less than 20mins on average. You can stop any time. Thus pick-and-mix.
• Island Sanctuary was reduced to a 5-10 minute weekly or daily upkeep. And it didn't take much work to rank up initially either.

I'm not disputing that they have grinds like relics and Island Sanctuary ranks. In fact, that is what I have been saying the whole time. We have mount grinds to motivate us to repeat content. But the content itself can be done in increments of 5-20 minutes.

It is just a lot of people take the "5-20 minutes" thing and use it to say the developers are lazy, when it's intentional to allow people to manage their time with a pick-and-mix and take breaks.

[Clockworks]

• Field Operations contain Skirmishes/NMs, that take about as long as FATEs.
• Field Operations contain CEs, that take about as long as a dungeon boss.
• 8-man encounters take about 10 minutes per pull. You can choose to do more pulls, but it's designed this way so you can stop every 10 minutes if you need to go, thus fitting the "pick-and-mix" concept.
• HoH is split into sets of 10 floors, each of which take roughly 10-20 minutes. Can take longer at higher floors if solo, but yeah.
• Relics are... grinding dungeons, FATEs, Skirmishes, things that last less than 20mins on average. You can stop any time. Thus pick-and-mix.
• Island Sanctuary was reduced to a 5-10 minute weekly or daily upkeep. And it didn't take much work to rank up initially either.

I'm not disputing that they have grinds like relics and Island Sanctuary ranks. In fact, that is what I have been saying the whole time. We have mount grinds to motivate us to repeat content. But the content itself can be done in increments of 5-20 minutes.

It is just a lot of people take the "5-20 minutes" thing and use it to say the developers are lazy, when it's intentional to allow people to manage their time with a pick-and-mix and take breaks.

God forbid people play more than the 20 minutes per day allowed time.

Cant wait to be limited to 20 minutes in game just like we are limited to 20 posts a day on the forum, after all this game respects our time greatly (lmao), so why let us stay online past our 20 minutes allowance time ? We should automatically be disconnected until the next day in which our 20 minutes allowance per day resets.