Dawntrail Doomposting Megathread

[HyperiusUltima]

Might as well let it out here. People are pretty exhausted with the game currently from raids to content to droughts.

7.0 - Reception was complete and utter crap. People didn't like it for different reasons, mostly the story pacing being bad. Dungeons were nice for a while until we started repeating them.

7.05 - Raids were extremely well received. Casual Content is on the backburner, leaving your MSQ Andy out to dry and your people in the middle with nothing to do if they don't want to jump into Savage. Lack of content all-around for a long time.

7.1 - MSQ is still not good. People still didn't like how Wuk was still there following us around. Big Content Patch, but nothing for Casuals except Alliance Raids. Chaotic is a complete and utter mess. Alliance Raids are well received for the FFXI aesthetic, along with how they were designed. One new dungeon, and that's it. That's the patch. Casuals are still running a drought while raiders are eating with the likes of FRU.

7.2 - MSQ returns to form with better reception than even 7.0 and 7.1. New Raids are challenging, and the story for the raid is again extremely well received. Things are going in the right direction, even with the new Trial and dungeon - but personally the dungeon doesn't get a pass due to bosses being rather...simplified like Endwalker's was.

7.25 - Occult Crescent Releases. Reception originally is okay, but once people dig into its systems it is very unfriendly to all players. Phantom Jobs are the only thing worth its salt in Occult Crescent as Marketboard prices crash due to improper loot table balancing of Bronze and Silver Chests, which causes devaluation in Eureka AND Bozja, meaning less people doing the content and essentially removing the future proofing both had for rewards. Forked Tower is a complete f***fest because you have people trying to smash 48 people into a 72-man instance, leading to griefing, toxicity, and hostility towards other players when Ciphers are used. Occult Crescent is also the most silent of Exploration Zones due to how everything is a FATE and CE Grind that is NON-STOP. There are no breaks or time for people to get to FATEs - and even then you've got the balancing of FATEs that is out of whack, causing players to get frustrated and stop doing the content altogether because the Riding Map costs 3000 Silver! Don't even get me started on the drop rates for Job Shards either...

The future of Dawntrail and 8.0? Might as well call it Dusktrail because Yoshida's Golden Legacy is a big golden turd with how things are going. We can praise them for the good things they do, but our criticism is ignored when we point out the blatant bad things that are not only bad for the playerbase, but also divide them more and more to the point you have to feed content for two heads instead of one! It doesn't surprise me that they want to sit on the golden goose and let it hatch eggs that smell rotten.

I've played for a long time and held out, but I'm to the point that they need to face the music of their playerbase as loud as they can be and bother to ask the question: "What do you want from us and how can we deliver?" instead of copy pasta the same old formula ad nauseum until the end of time.

Stop being a cookie cutter and make something brand new, Yoshida.

[hydralus]

What's that, you're asking for new mogstore items? Say no more, fam.

[Hallarem]

Yoshida will read this and jingle some really loud keys in front of your eyes, in the form of.......

- A brand new graphical update 20 minute lalafel cheek review
- 4 new brand-collaborations, a bag with a ffxiv logo, a plane with a ffxiv logo, a designer house with a ffxiv logo and a rubber-bullet gun with a ffxiv logo for all the americans, americans love cowboys and guns right, shaloaaniiiiii babyyyyyyy
- Making all raid items and low percentage drop items and pvp ranked seasonal items into a bronze chest high percentage drop for North Horn, East Horn, West Horn, Vertical Horn, Horizontal Horn, HORN ABYSS and HORN HEAVEN in Occult
- Obligatory "please look forward to it"
- Obligatory "Chotto musukashiiiiiii" because saying "NO" is reaaaally hard in Japan
- Look forward to no roadmap and nothing to actually look forward to, zero transparency and weird Japanese dinosaur media research that goes "Oh people like this game right? Whats a popular game? FROM FIVE YEARS AGO, lets do a blatant reference to that and five other Final Fantasies because we have no creativity of our own left to give, working niiine to fiiiiiiiiive~
- I can't believe how low effort this game is for how much prestige and money they supposedly have behind it. Most of Endwalker ruined the worldbuilding -> Dawntrail finished it off with a peoples elbow with a fistfull of tacos and its crapping all over Final Fantasy's remaining goodwill. Its not going to be saved by the 100th FF7 remake with Tifas HD honkers. DO SOMETHING ORIGINAL SQUARE ENIX, REMEMBER YOUR ROOTS

Honestly? Build submarines, start racking up gil, so you can just buy items from the Marketboard that other people who still give a damn about the content to farm out.
Enjoy the community that is out there, whatever form it take, there's still fun stuff out there if you find the right people to do it with Or just unsub. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[AlucaDragonheart]

It's funny how people think 8.0 is going to reinvent the wheel and be something completely revolutionary, like people thinking the supposed 8.0 "reworks" for the jobs are going to bring "identity" back, meanwhile look at what happened with Black Mage recently, so any hope for "job identity" is thrown out the window, and it has been for years since even Shadowbringers, maybe even Stormblood.

[brinn12]

It's low-effort quality, even for high-end raiders. Sure, there's quantity, but it's just more of the same copy-paste DDR gameplay. For FRU, Party Finders locked the caster slot exclusively to Pictomancer — in a game where it can take up to 4 months to get a second Savage weapon (after clearing the tier).

Then it was time for the other released job to shine, being mandatory in the Japanese M6S PFs alongside a Dancer, bringing 20% more add damage compared to the Machinist/Ninja duo. But hey, at least melee DPS get two slots (at the cost of Physical Ranged feeling irrelevant, but that's another story).

Said quantity is coming at the expense of longer patch cycles, which affects all types of players. They managed to release Eureka in March, and Stormblood released just 1 or 2 weeks before Dawntrail (June 20 vs July 2). We got Occult Crescent a week ago.

[Daralii]

It's low-effort quality, even for high-end raiders. Sure, there's quantity, but it's just more of the same copy-paste DDR gameplay. For FRU, Party Finders locked the caster slot exclusively to Pictomancer — in a game where it can take up to 4 months to get a second Savage weapon (after clearing the tier).

Then it was time for the other released job to shine, being mandatory in the Japanese M6S PFs alongside a Dancer, bringing 20% more add damage compared to the Machinist/Ninja duo. But hey, at least melee DPS get two slots (at the cost of Physical Ranged feeling irrelevant, but that's another story).

Said quantity is coming at the expense of longer patch cycles, which affects all types of players. They managed to release Eureka in March, and Stormblood released just 1 or 2 weeks before Dawntrail (June 20 vs July 2). We got Occult Crescent a week ago.

It's less content of lower quality less frequently. They saw the opportunity after covid understandably complicated development and took it.

[Jeeqbit]

Pretty sure there is already a megathread or few. People made them into a megathread, complained for months, then disappeared (obviously quit or discontinued sub). You may as well just bump an old one if you feel the need to.

People are pretty exhausted with the game currently

Not in my experience they are not. In the game, I meet lots of happy people in Occult Crescent. I've met lots of happy people that I learned and farmed the Extreme trials with (and I joined a good mixture of prog, clear and farm parties). I met lots of happy people who enjoyed progging Savage last tier. And a lot of people enjoyed the Chaotic raid. And I've had many of these people in discord voice so I can tell they are happy beyond just their chat.

Frankly, I feel like the many people "exhausted with the game" quit months ago. Maybe even a year ago at this point. Most of the people that remain ain't that exhausted tbh. Those people complained for ages in actual megathreads and now they don't seem to be around.

7.05 - Raids were extremely well received. Casual Content is on the backburner, leaving your MSQ Andy out to dry and your people in the middle with nothing to do if they don't want to jump into Savage. Lack of content all-around for a long time.

Except they could farm the new hunt and FATE mounts, do daily PvP, level all their jobs and the two new ones, and learn and farm the two extreme trials. This is all rather casual content and it's not SE's fault if they refuse to engage with it. I found it all very enjoyable and met so many others enjoying it alongside me.

7.1 - MSQ is still not good. People still didn't like how Wuk was still there following us around. Big Content Patch, but nothing for Casuals except Alliance Raids. Chaotic is a complete and utter mess. Alliance Raids are well received for the FFXI aesthetic, along with how they were designed. One new dungeon, and that's it. That's the patch.

An extreme and unreal trial to learn and farm for casuals. Hildibrand. Beast tribes to do daily and see it progress into something. Custom delivery to see progress into something. Another PvP series to farm.

The MSQ is really just your opinion because I thought the stuff with Koana was better. I also liked exploring the lore of the beasts, how they really came about and the dark experiments that led to it, and the lore on our resident S rank in Heritage Found. And it's lore that further ties into what Arcadion is exploring.

7.2 - MSQ returns to form with better reception than even 7.0 and 7.1. New Raids are challenging, and the story for the raid is again extremely well received. Things are going in the right direction, even with the new Trial and dungeon - but personally the dungeon doesn't get a pass due to bosses being rather...simplified like Endwalker's was.

I agree the MSQ was better except I still do not like the "technology" aesthetic being applied to FF9 lore. The new dungeon was amazing up until I started seeing electrope mixed into it.

I've seen people die in the dungeon a lot, so it's doing its job. I didn't really see the trial as that challenging but doing it on a DPS was a little more challenging. Still very easy though. The Extreme trial was great and kept me having fun for a month meeting lots of people doing the same and teaching it to them.

7.25 - Occult Crescent Releases. Reception originally is okay, but once people dig into its systems it is very unfriendly to all players. Phantom Jobs are the only thing worth its salt in Occult Crescent

I haven't done Forked Tower yet, but everyone doing the CEs seems to be having fun. I'm enjoying learning the battles. I've about got most of the mechanics for all the CEs, but it's tough to get them all right while doing my rotation. That seems intentional because all you get is a meaningless vuln stack, which is only a threat if you are clueless and getting hit by every single thing. Learning them is clearly meant to be a progression, and that progression doesn't prevent you clearing the CE since others will beat it if you're dead, which is exactly why Bozja was so good as well. It's a bit like doing Extremes but without the "wipe and startover" stuff that a lot of people don't like.

everything is a FATE and CE Grind that is NON-STOP. There are no breaks or time for people to get to FATEs

I agree this is an issue. I prefer to spend the time between FATEs and CEs to look at vendors, do a bunny treasure or farm a bit of gold on my own. The problem is there is no such time. That is one of the reasons I LOVED Eureka so much, especially Pagos. It gave me time.

Unfortunately, most people don't agree with us on this point. If they don't do it this way, all the super casual players that only have 2 hours to play after work will complain that they had to wait 30 minutes between CEs and couldn't make much progress.

So instead, we need to mentally find a way to ignore all the FATEs and CEs and do other activities in spite of them being up.

the balancing of FATEs that is out of whack

Agreed. I just duo'd and solo'd a few CEs in a locked instance earlier. And the sync was amazing. I could actually duo or solo CEs. Between this, I attempted FATEs and pot FATEs. Sometimes the sync was terrible on them. One thing I was able to confirm here was that the next CE waited until we beat a FATE (which took ages), and it was an instant spawn after.

stop doing the content altogether because the Riding Map costs 3000 Silver!

I'm sorry, but if that's enough to make someone give up, then they probably give up that easily at everything in life. It's only 3000 silver. It's really not much.

Don't even get me started on the drop rates for Job Shards either...

I looted all of them pretty quick and then 2 extras. I don't actually think the drop rate is low in the sense that it was in Eureka. But clearly some people do it a lot of times and don't get it. So it would be good for them to be sold in that Fork Tower pity exchange vendor.

[Mawlzy]

Frankly, I feel like the many people "exhausted with the game" quit months ago. Maybe even a year ago at this point. Most of the people that remain ain't that exhausted tbh. Those people complained for ages in actual megathreads and now they don't seem to be around.
Except they could farm the new hunt and FATE mounts, do daily PvP, level all their jobs and the two new ones, and learn and farm the two extreme trials. This is all rather casual content and it's not SE's fault if they refuse to engage with it. I found it all very enjoyable and met so many others enjoying it alongside me.

I disagree strongly with this.

In my circles, the release of Cosmic Exploration and now Occult Crescent were the final two straws.

The former is simply dreadful content. The lack of imagination is staggering and insults the players. Running around clicking on things for 40 minutes is not engaging gameplay; it's giving players the middle finger.

Occult Crescent simply moves DDR boss fights from an indoor arena to the open world, with the capstone content being once again designed for savage raiders. For those of us who do not run anything beyond normal content, we have received the message loud and clear. This game is no longer for us.

So you're likely correct that many players left soon after the launch of DT, but the content released over the last couple of months has, in my experience, produced a second wave of players who feel betrayed.

[Gurgeh]

...
Not in my experience they are not. In the game, I meet lots of happy people in Occult Crescent. I've met lots of happy people that I learned and farmed the Extreme trials with (and I joined a good mixture of prog, clear and farm parties). I met lots of happy people who enjoyed progging Savage last tier. And a lot of people enjoyed the Chaotic raid. And I've had many of these people in discord voice so I can tell they are happy beyond just their chat.
....

What are you saying Jeeqbit???
This is just disappointing, and surprising.
You met lots of happy people doing EX, Chaotic, and Savage?
Yeah there isn't an unhappy casual who would disagree that High End players have been having a great time!
And you say you've met these people on voice in discord?
I'm not saying it's been deliberate but I' ve always got the impression you were this PF lone wolf proving it is possible just to play the game casually.
I now suspect that actually, your in a savage FC, and you do all your content in a partial static over voice, minimum. If not mostly near full static.
Probably using ACT to boot.

As for 'meeting' people in OC, sorry no.
I know I've been playing enough OC and I've 'met' noone.
No one says hi. No one talks. No one discusses.
I've been doing my damndest to be sociable and say hi.
You don't 'meet' anyone in OC. Is this another discord thing? Working contacts for Forked?

I'm not saying don't speak up with your perspective, but it feels like your addressing a point that your missing with this one.

People are exhausted from having a miserable time. Getting their hopes up, and then having then dashed.

I and many people thought we were wanted by SE and our fellow players. We thought we were friends. Almost a family.
Then we find out that if we had any complaints about the casual game we were supposed to play Ex and savage, or literally, and in no uncertain terms fck off or shut up and keep away from them. Dont discuss our casual game because they are enjoying their high end game.
It's been exhausting making the effort to try and find a way back in, 'give this new chaotic a go' etc, 'wait for OC itc will be like bozja and castrum', then we get no Castrum.

I'm not sure we will have anymore interactions Jeeq because with this OC, I'm not even interested in 8.0 anymore, but I would be viewing all further interactions as though I'm speaking to someone who does all their content with partial savage statics, and is more than happy to deal with the ACT logging discussions that come up over discord, or doesn't have to worry about not being up to scratch.

For what it's worth it's a shame region travel isn't a thing, as I would have loved to try and meet you and let you show me what I' ve been wrong with PFs that have made them so unfun.

[Jeeqbit]

You met lots of happy people doing EX, Chaotic, and Savage?

Correct. When I entered Chaotic, clearly everyone in there was having fun because we were finally in large scale content again after so much solo content in Endwalker.

In the Extreme, I was laughing and joking with the people I met. They all seemed so cheerful, and a rather good amount of times they dropped a discord link and I could hear that they enjoyed the content and were having a good time together.

The same was really the case in Savage. They were all quite upbeat and excited to get their clear, and often I was helping them out (joining progression-to-clear parties). They really didn't seem all negative about it like you see on the forums, and seemed to enjoy the high-end content in this game.

I now suspect that actually, your in a savage FC, and you do all your content in a partial static over voice, minimum. If not mostly near full static.

I do everything in PF, especially since I love meeting new people every day. That's actually one of the things I love about MMORPGs. Not just talking to the same people always. PUGs are really one of the big joys of this genre, for me personally.

I'm not currently in a static and a lot of my FC doesn't even raid. Those that do are in their own statics mostly and just boast "I got my clear!" etc. I think there is 1 or 2 statics that formed out of the FC (it's a very large FC after all), but I only use it for socializing.

Probably using ... to boot.

You can say that in a general sense about players in general. You can't just throw that around and say that to specific people though. It devalues all the work they put in if they don't and is rude. I believe in not using such things because it trains your muscle memory and raid awareness, an important skill that makes you more observant and able to handle unusual mechanics better. I said when the content released that I got around 9 vuln stacks. I explained in my earlier post that after 2 weeks, I have enjoyed learning the mechanics and had finally about got all of them, which probably wouldn't be a thing if your comment was true since they cause you to not need to learn them. For what it's worth, I use an echo macro to remember the Bird CE order (+, O and Knockback macros).

You don't 'meet' anyone in OC. Is this another discord thing?

Jokes in shout. Talking in party chat. All the chatter about it in social channels such as linkshells, FC, discords, etc. It can be more sociable when the instance locks since you have to work harder to rez each other and defeat bosses in a single party. In any case, there's ample time for them to chat while dead, which happens pretty frequently to many players.