Should SE scale high end content difficulty towards the usage of SIM ?

[Valence]

If you don't want to be lumped in with scrubs then don't parrot their mantra.

If you don't want to be lumped with dickheads, then don't behave like one (I can play that game too).

I'm not making excuses for SE. I'm trying to explain that this is not a fight design issue but a symptom of the slow and steady degradation of every other facet of the game. If you want to complain about something, complain about the aggressive over-streamlining of jobs and role responsibilities, because that's the root cause. That's the reason that SE has to put all of their eggs in the fight design basket.

At the core, I think we actually agree, but you're trying to treat the symptoms rather than the disease.

Because you think I haven't made enough posts already about all of this....?

[BigCheez]

If you don't want to be lumped with dickheads, then don't behave like one (I can play that game too).

Because you think I haven't made enough posts already about all of this....?

You can be salty if you like but there isn't much point replying to my post if you aren't going to say anything of value.

The fight designers are doing an excellent job. The problem is the restrictions that other aspects of the game are forcing them to work under. The problem is absolutely not that difficult fights require players to build consistency.

[Valence]

You can be salty if you like but there isn't much point replying to my post if you aren't going to say anything of value.

You literally replied to me by being unnecessarily aggressive, calling me a scrub that's just using excuses to justify how I suck at the game, made strawmen, ad hominems, just because I used the word "artificial difficulty", and now you play all coy and patronizing because you're being called out for it? What did I ever do to you? Did that word tilt you that much? You know you could have just explained your point rationally and perhaps I could even have come to agree with a "fair enough" or "point taken"?

What's wrong with you?

[BigCheez]

You literally replied to me by being unnecessarily aggressive, calling me a scrub that's just using excuses to justify how I suck at the game, made strawmen, ad hominems, just because I used the word "artificial difficulty", and now you play all coy and patronizing because you're being called out for it? What did I ever do to you? Did that word tilt you that much? You know you could have just explained your point rationally and perhaps I could even have come to agree with a "fair enough" or "point taken"?

What's wrong with you?

Bruh.

I didn't call you a scrub, I said that the term "artificial difficulty" is useless because it has no clear definition and exists purely as a shield to be used by scrubs to deflect from the actual issue, which is generally that they suck at the game. Note the intentional use of words like "they" and "people" over words like "you". I even clarified this already in a previous post.

What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? Seems like your insecurities might be getting the better of you here.

[Kohashi]

Bruh.

I didn't call you a scrub, I said that the term "artificial difficulty" is useless because it has no clear definition and exists purely as a shield to be used by scrubs to deflect from the actual issue, which is generally that they suck at the game. Note the intentional use of words like "they" and "people" over words like "you". I even clarified this already in a previous post.

What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? Seems like your insecurities might be getting the better of you here.

Examples of artificial difficulty that can be applied to all fights are :

Blinding flashing effects from bosses sometimes covering the entire screen
Obstructed Character model, hidden by a spawned object or the boss model itself
Camera view
Overly large models of either bosses or mobs
General visual noise

UWU is a prime example of all of these. Ultima 3/4 of map view sometimes more, Titan, Garuda, and Ifrit all spawning randomly further altering your view.

FF14 does have a lot of noise that inflates the difficulty.

[BigCheez]

Examples of artificial difficulty that can be applied to all fights are :

Blinding flashing effects from bosses sometimes covering the entire screen
Obstructed Character model, hidden by a spawned object or the boss model itself
Camera view
Overly large models or either bosses or mobs
General visual noise

UWU is a prime example of all of these. Ultima 3/4 of map view sometimes more, Titan, Garuda, and Ifrit all spawning randomly further altering your view.

FF14 does have a lot of noise that inflates the difficulty.

These aren't intentional sources of difficulty. This isn't "artificial difficulty", it's just bad game design.

The exception being restricting the player's view, which is pretty commonly used to create a feeling of claustrophobia and force the player to move cautiously in horror games. I don't think that's inherently bad design unless it makes it impossible to see things that you're supposed to be able to see - then it's just bad game design.

[Kohashi]

These aren't intentional sources of difficulty. This isn't "artificial difficulty", it's just bad game design.

The exception being restricting the player's view, which is pretty commonly used to create a feeling of claustrophobia and force the player to move cautiously in horror games. I don't think that's inherently bad design unless it makes it impossible to see things that you're supposed to be able to see - then it's just bad game design.

that's exactly the synonym to describe Artificial difficulty, bad game design.

Despite UWU not being a horror-themed instance it gave me claustrophobic PTSD (hahaha joking, kinda..).

Yes it is obstructing the view in most angles. I am talking about Ultimate Annihilation. It's the phase where you go from A to 1 to 2 (LPDU markers) to avoid Titan gaols + Ifrit dashes + Titan awaked landslides while dpsing Ultima at all times.

[ExiaKuromonji]

Examples of artificial difficulty that can be applied to all fights are :

Blinding flashing effects from bosses sometimes covering the entire screen.

This is a bit of a problem (more annoying for me but probably worse for others). Currently P1 of FRU does this just before Utopian Sky.

You used UWU as an example of all of those points. But this first point only has flashes when there's literally nothing currently happening, as the boss stands motionless before the mechanic actually starts. This is how it works on other bosses too in every case I can think of it occurring but maybe I am missing 1 or 2.

Obstructed Character model, hidden by a spawned object or the boss model itself
Camera view
Overly large models of either bosses or mobs
General visual noise

These are basically all the same point as they can all be resolved by either letting the player zoom out further or reducing the model size of the entities on screen. Ultima itself is definitely a massive boy with bright effects on him so that's fair I guess.

[Kohashi]

This is a bit of a problem (more annoying for me but probably worse for others). Currently P1 of FRU does this just before Utopian Sky.

You used UWU as an example of all of those points. But this first point only has flashes when there's literally nothing currently happening, as the boss stands motionless before the mechanic actually starts. This is how it works on other bosses too in every case I can think of it occurring but maybe I am missing 1 or 2.



These are basically all the same point as they can all be resolved by either letting the player zoom out further or reducing the model size of the entities on screen. Ultima itself is definitely a massive boy with bright effects on him so that's fair I guess.

Yeah but I could also give the example of P12s where my eyes were constantly strained due to absolutely horrible color choice of the arena + background. Also, SC2 A and B were so damn visually noisy as well. everything was flashing.

I am not saying bosses should not have effects but currently, it's too much. If you let your effects on + party + boss + flying text+ names, you pretty much ain't seeing jack shit in some instances. Luckily you can turn off some of that but I would very much prefer to have something in between.

[ExiaKuromonji]

The fight designers are doing an excellent job. The problem is the restrictions that other aspects of the game are forcing them to work under. The problem is absolutely not that difficult fights require players to build consistency.

The problems with restrictions doesn't only come from the game's netcode or engine. There's also restrictions placed on the devs by players who complained about certain mechanics because of various reasons. It's why everything is just "place AoE here" or "spread/stack" in different formations.

We used to have very creative and unorthodox fight design in Alexander. While some of those things were kinda whack (A2S gobwalker thing for instance), but a lot of other stuff was just complained about because "muh uptime". It's no wonder we just have spreads and stacks in the game now when every time they try something different the parse brains shit on them for it. Players were complaining about the fights then, so SE fixed it, and players are still complaining. It got way worse in EW when tanks were just an easier DPS role that kitchen sinked or invulned every buster. And I hear healer wasn't much better.

I do agree they have kind of put themselves into a corner with the design. But I think there's more than just the general game design at fault.