NO new Trophy Crystal rewards? Are we being serious?

[zeth07]

One of the main problems I've had with PvP is that there isn't really anything worth using Trophy Crystals on if you've been actively completing the Series pass up to Lv25 each time.

The only things non-exclusive being all the recolor glamour sets, which just take up more glamour slots anyway if you even want them, but even then I have gotten A LOT of them.

I thought it would be a good idea to add the old Feast rewards as a heavy Trophy Crystal dump but they went the other direction and added them for Commendation Crystals which are harder to obtain AND you can't even get enough for them unless you've already been actively doing ranked AND still placing highly.

So now that this decision was made, they still didn't even add NEW Trophy Crystal rewards for a major patch?

Can we at least get like a Trophy Crystal -> Commendation Crystal exchange like they have for Wolf Collars, and just make them more expensive, like 5000 Trophy Crystals = 1 Commendation Crystal? I mean even 10,000 Trophy Crystals for 1 Commendation Crystal seems better than nothing...

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

[...]Can we at least get like a Trophy Crystal -> Commendation Crystal exchange like they have for Wolf Collars, and just make them more expensive, like 5000 Trophy Crystals = 1 Commendation Crystal? I mean even 10,000 Trophy Crystals for 1 Commendation Crystal seems better than nothing...

I understand the lack of additions to the Trophy Crystal vendor or having any actual good Trophy Crystal sink is upsetting, but turning the ranked-only currency that got introduced in season 7 because of a lack of tangible rewards in Crystalline Conflict Ranked into just another casual currency is not the way to go. There should be better & more Trophy Crystal rewards, yes, but not Commendation Crystals. Let Ranked have unique things.

Top 100 gear is prestigious for a reason and rightfully deserves to be in Ranked, especially with its designs not being FOMO-locked anymore. The problem is more that they are forgetting about western Ranked population being NOTHING like JP servers - for us even getting Omega & Ultima tier is NOT ordinary and this will not get any better if the metal tiers have no reason to play (lack of rewards / bad reward structure) to facilitate faster queues, MORE queues and make the mode have a healthy population. We don't play if there is hardly any tangible reward unlike japanese players.

No all-tier GOOD reward structure (think ranked-only wolfmarks) = low population for ranked = less access to Commendation Crystals for those that invest time.

[zeth07]

I understand the lack of additions to the Trophy Crystal vendor or having any actual good Trophy Crystal sink is upsetting, but turning the ranked-only currency that got introduced in season 7 because of a lack of tangible rewards in Crystalline Conflict Ranked into just another casual currency is not the way to go. There should be better & more Trophy Crystal rewards, yes, but not Commendation Crystals. Let Ranked have unique things.

Top 100 gear is prestigious for a reason and rightfully deserves to be in Ranked, especially with its designs not being FOMO-locked anymore. The problem is more that they are forgetting about western Ranked population being NOTHING like JP servers - for us even getting Omega & Ultima tier is NOT ordinary and this will not get any better if the metal tiers have no reason to play (lack of rewards / bad reward structure) to facilitate faster queues, MORE queues and make the mode have a healthy population. We don't play if there is hardly any tangible reward unlike japanese players.

No all-tier GOOD reward structure (think ranked-only wolfmarks) = low population for ranked = less access to Commendation Crystals for those that invest time.

Counter points:

- Wolf Collars were originally ranked rewards for TOP 10, which is obviously above Top 100 rewards...and those are able to be exchanged for with the weapons. And for the other ranking tier rewards at the time with Feast for ALL the tiers. So to me that automatically invalidates any argument about how Commendation Crystals are given out if they had no issue giving out Wolf Collars for the weapons.

- The entire "issue" of the Feast ranked rewards were how they were obtained and gated off, besides the FOMO and the win traders. So going backwards with making Commendation Crystals even a thing and now the way to earn those alternate versions of the Feast rewards seems completely out of touch with the CURRENT PvP situation and not really reflecting on the whole issues of the past and arguably worse since you need certain ranks for Commendation Crystals compared to Wolf Collars previously...

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Counter points:

- Wolf Collars were originally ranked rewards for TOP 10, which is obviously above Top 100 rewards...and those are able to be exchanged for with the weapons. And for the other ranking tier rewards at the time with Feast for ALL the tiers. So to me that automatically invalidates any argument about how Commendation Crystals are given out if they had no issue giving out Wolf Collars for the weapons.

- The entire "issue" of the Feast ranked rewards were how they were obtained and gated off, besides the FOMO and the win traders. So going backwards with making Commendation Crystals even a thing and now the way to earn those alternate versions of the Feast rewards seems completely out of touch with the CURRENT PvP situation and not really reflecting on the whole issues of the past and arguably worse since you need certain ranks for Commendation Crystals compared to Wolf Collars previously...

1.) Your information is only partially correct. Wolf collars & Hellhound weapons were introduced in Feast Season 5. You gained 10 Wolf collars for being Top 10, but you also gained between 3 and 7 Wolf Collars by achieving skill tiers from Bronze to Diamond, each tier increasing it by one collar respectively. They became available for Trophy Crystals with the introduction of Patch 6.1's Crystalline Conflict & Trophy Crystal vendor, two expansions down the line.

Sources:
https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Wolf_Collar
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes.../reward/5/solo


2.) Wolf Collars becoming freely accessible with Trophy Crystals wasn't inherently a bad thing, but it left a gaping hole in the reward structure for Ranked. They went "backwards with making Commendation crystals even a thing" because without, Ranked has absolutely no tangible incentive to be done for more than one season. The initial two seasons went alright because the mode was new, but the shine fell off quickly because each season gives the exact same Portrait elements with a different number attached to it along with a pitiful amount of Trophy Crystals, which you overshoot manifold by just actively participating in a season.

The main issue is that the access of Commendation Crystals is complicated because it lacks organic player retention for the mode - metal tiers have no incentive to play if they somehow can't reach at least platinum for a chance to diamond, and there is generally no reward for playing beyond reaching specific tier thresholds. Commendation Crystals would be far from a problem to obtain if Ranked could be played as often as Casual, which to my experience has been having active games way into the dead of the night on many occasions.

The system is far from perfect, I'm not gonna lie, but I am not going to entertain the idea that it is somehow unfair that Ranked Mode gets things you can't get outside of it. Higher difficulties of content net better rewards; competing in ranked/on ladder should not be treated any different.

[HyperiusUltima]

While that's true on the ladder side, I think Ranked is more stick than carrot is the problem. Sure, if someone wants to go after a specific thing? That's them - but that's going to be rare considering the fact that climbing isn't the problem. The problem with Ranked is that there's literally nothing there. If anything they could scrap Ranked and still retain Casuals for Series while still retaining the same rewards if they were to do so, and people would still have the same opinions on it.

Generally I feel like Ranked isn't lacking on the Commendation Crystal side - we're lacking variety in rewards. I still remember the Controversy back in Stormblood over throwing the chair into the Top 100, making A LOT of people mad in the process. Did it incentivize PvP? Probably for the season. Did it retain people? No. Generally I think it'd be worth it if they added something that wasn't just previous Feast rewards to the pool and instead get creative like they did with Series rewards. Either way, the argument is sound on both sides when you look at reward structure.

Casual: Series is a FOMO Structure. Not enough time in the day with work. Ranked Rewards shouldn't be locked behind Ranked because there's no point in doing it.

Ranked: Ranked has no tangible rewards past making first season for portrait. Commendation Crystals are just a stackable similar to Wolf Collars that may or may not have value in the future.

The whole thing stinks of FOMO, and I think they really need to scrap that framework and actually put something in for both. Previous Series Rewards was already something people have wanted for a while now that we're already deep into this, so it's important that those be made available in some form via PvP. Ranked needs a long-term incentive similar to other long-form content, so mayhap they could throw something interesting into the pool of Commendation Crystals that will get people to want it. It'll make some mad it's behind PvP, but it being a long-term goal is really part of the point of doing a lot of the content in this game once you hit the endgame and could even reward the player with Commendation Crystals as you climb for the season(one time per season per Rank above Bronze). Will it mess with previous rewards? Probably, in exchange for better longevity instead of the staleness you get now.

Even trading in Trophy Crystals(a whole damn stack of them) for 1 Commendation Crystal is progress to people on the Casual side, so it'd help on their side as well by engaging in content(which let's be honest, all casuals just engage in Frontline because it's a daily).

[Valence]

Hard no on making a bridge between ranked rewards and casual rewards, at least when the content is current, else it's like asking savage/ultimate rewards to be farmable with a lot of tomes. If there is a lack of rewards behind specific currencies (both crystals and commendation crystals for sure), then add more independently, targeting different levels of involvement and performance each.

Always funny reading EN comments about pvp, it's always about rewards this, rewards that. Meanwhile JP just plays the fucking game and it instapops 24/24.

[SpritePR]

I hate having to spend mine on wolf collars just to be able to advance my battlepass :[

Let me spend them on SOMETHING useful (WOLF COLLARS DONT COUNT)

Here's a suggestion. Make a trophy sink thats purchasable with a ton of wolf collars (or just increase trophy crystal cap to 100k or something. 20k is wayyyyy too low). A really cool mount or armor set would work.

[Moonlite]

So lets say the devs are busy and don't want to put any real work into fixing pvp currency problem. Just put a gacha pull like GC seals. Is it good, no. But it is the least amount of work. We already have random loot pulls for retainers, gc seals, airships/sub what is one more.

[HyperiusUltima]

Always funny reading EN comments about pvp, it's always about rewards this, rewards that. Meanwhile JP just plays the fucking game and it instapops 24/24.

'Rewards this, rewards that' in a game that doesn't respect the player's time? Yeah, I'd think that's a valid concern to have for a mode that already doesn't attract 80%+ of the playerbase worldwide, and is further minimized when you go into NA/EU regions. As a stark reminder, we're on a literal 4 month schedule. That's 3 patches in a year to shake things up outside the mid-season adjustments they do(which honestly they'll never nerf DRG). PvP lives or dies by balancing, as well as the 'fun' of the mode which it isn't right now from what I've been hearing both in Revival and here as you've stated about SCH and PCT specifically in a different thread.

Know what pops all the time? FRONTLINES. Why? It's in a Roulette on the front page of Duty Finder. Crystalline Conflict and Rival Wings don't have that luxury, so it becomes a matter of what rewards the Top 300 get. Considering everything is Commendation Crystals, it's important to look at the quality of the rewards. Is it a set you want? Might as well spend them. If it's not, you're essentially holding the bag on what potentially could be something you want. This is why Mounts have lasting power in keeping people engaged until they get it. The moment they get it, they'll either keep playing or just leave the mode entirely - but regardless there needs to be a long-term driver for the PvP community when it comes to Ranked without having Casuals scream out their lungs about how they can't access it.

Saying 'just play Ranked' is easy until you hit the wall that is the learning curve, where PvE players have to learn an entirely different game. That's where you create the grind on the Casual side so it's not just being forced to wait for your Ranking to lock in so you can get your damn rewards in the next Major Patch. Because otherwise? Once Ranked dies and you're not in Diamond-Crystal? It's incredibly difficult to get Bronze-Gold outside of community engagement. It's not rocket science and is as simple a fix as setting a high requirement of Commendation Crystals and a high Trophy Crystal -> Commendation Crystal Ratio to push them towards Ranked to get those rewards faster compared to playing hundreds of games.

[zeth07]

1.) Your information is only partially correct. Wolf collars & Hellhound weapons were introduced in Feast Season 5. You gained 10 Wolf collars for being Top 10, but you also gained between 3 and 7 Wolf Collars by achieving skill tiers from Bronze to Diamond, each tier increasing it by one collar respectively. They became available for Trophy Crystals with the introduction of Patch 6.1's Crystalline Conflict & Trophy Crystal vendor, two expansions down the line.

Sources:
https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Wolf_Collar
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes.../reward/5/solo

Re-read my post if needed. I already mentioned that aspect that they were given in ALL the ranks, which is exactly why I said what I said.

With Commendation Crystals you have to hit Diamond or Top 300. Wolf Collars were ANY rank and Top 10, but still added later for Trophy Crystals, which is why I said the justification about Commendation Crystals doesn't really hold any validity.

I would go so far to say the crux of the problem with the previous Feast rewards is exactly why they changed PvP to what it is now with the Series pass + Trophy Crystals. Which I also mentioned, and why them doing Commendation Crystals at all is already going backwards on the problem, and now taking the replica rewards and basically repeating that exact problem almost identically minus the fomo.

If they gave any Commendation Crystals regardless of rank it would be a step in the right direction because you at least have to attempt it and getting just "1" in Bronze doesn't do you much good when the costs of the pieces are A LOT like I mentioned if you weren't already getting the Commendation Crystals previously. But ANY is better than zero.

Or again letting us get them as a trophy crystal dump would help as well.

Even prior to this situation I also thought they should just change it off being two separate modes and just have it exist as one entity of Crystalline Conflict. Then it wouldn't have a split playerbase of an already niche mode. And if it just existed as one thing they likely wouldn't have to do the weird datacenter change thing every time which again is likely because of the small userbase.

And I should point out how bad the actual Ranked matchmaking even is, since I haven't done ranked in a while it puts me at the lowest Bronze but it matches you all the way up to at least GOLD which is absolutely insane in any other game comparisons. Also because of the lack of players I imagine, since it should obviously just be bronze vs bronze but they already screwed that up with the changes previously and the playerbase can't maintain that.