87th PLL showcases a need for change in announcing content

[Annabellechu]

Expecting people to do split clears to get ready for an ultimate is kind of ridiculous, I dont think its necessary.

Unrelated to the live letter and to that issue though, alt jobs gearing does suck.

[ServerCollaps]

"Ultimates are irrelevant for 99% of the community anyway.

The moonbase content is irrelevant to 99.999% of the community only 2 months after its release. Noone is doing it, all instances are empty. I bet more people attempt old ults per day, then people that spend crafting/gathering on the moon or the 6.x island

ults are probably the most replayed content that this game has to offer

[churchren]

Expecting people to do split clears to get ready for an ultimate is kind of ridiculous, I dont think its necessary.

Unrelated to the live letter and to that issue though, alt jobs gearing does suck.

if the goal is to be done by week 8, and you have 2-3 alt jobs you want to be able to play for the ultimate, it's very much a thing. Again the gearing is the real issue in that regard, but until they actually listen to us about that, we play the game how we're able to. 8 weeks of splits means 8 people effectively got 2+ sets of coffers in addition to 8 books, which is barely enough to gear 3 jobs if you don't account for tome upgrade materials. Obviously not everyone will play 3 jobs, but it just more fuel to the fire about my initial issue of, had we been given prior notice of no 7.3 ultimate, we wouldn't have had to do that in the first place

[Jeeqbit]

I think they need to have better translation in general. I didn't even know about no Ultimate in 7.3 until some fan group said so in a social media post.

It does get translated but it takes some weeks for them to do it. It would be nice if they did it, but meanwhile, I'd suggest just listening to the unofficial one (hardly anyone seems to listen to this and seem unaware it exists): https://www.youtube.com/@ilunari/streams

Better to ask, what's even the purpose of the live letter to be a live stream? Why can it not simply be recorded and summarize the points?

They do summarize the points. It's all translated on the forums and summarized in the Live Letter forum. You can go back and read their summaries of all the past live letters. But content creators do that as well, and much faster.

The live stream I would guess is to authentically talk to everyone and create hype. A lot of people tune in, excited to watch the trailer the moment it drops, and discuss the news together. Not that he does it a lot because he's probably not very good at it, but he has read stream chat on occasion, and particularly tried that a lot more during lockdowns to try and make up for the lack of connection.

"Ultimates are irrelevant for 99% of the community anyway.

Meant as a goal for someone to reach, even if they never attain it. Seeing a shiny weapon and thinking "I'll get that someday" has always been a healthy thing in an MMORPG because it's one of the goals they can set for themselves when they are new.

It's also deliberately designed as stream content. It's meant to look good on twitch streams, and that's on purpose, because they don't expect many people to actually do it - although I think in practice, way more people clear ultimate than they expected when they began making it.

When I was on Crystal, I never saw a single Ultimate weapon except in a dungeon once (it was a Dragoon). Then I transferred to Aether and everyone had one. Almost everyone I knew or had a passing interaction with had one. The contrast in Limsa between Crystal and Aether before we had DC travel was massive. It shows that given a better environment ie. PUG ultimate culture on Aether, that it can transform how many people do even that content.

I saw no regard for player-base and what it is needed to actually prepare for an ultimate release if you intend to raid at a hardcore level.

I agree that there is preparation involved for raiding like this and Yoshi-P is actually aware people take time off work for release dates so he doesn't change release dates lightly.

However, Yoshi-P has actually said multiple times that he can't guarantee Ultimates on a consistent schedule like everything else because of the sheer difficulty of producing (nevermind testing) content like that, so although we normally get them in .11 and .31, it would be wise to not take that for granted as we've had exceptions to the .31 in particular.

If the static can't stick around that long, it may be a better option to form statics when the release date is actually known, even if it would impact any sort of intention to world race.

[ServerCollaps]

if the goal is to be done by week 8, and you have 2-3 alt jobs you want to be able to play for the ultimate, it's very much a thing. Again the gearing is the real issue in that regard, but until they actually listen to us about that, we play the game how we're able to. 8 weeks of splits means 8 people effectively got 2+ sets of coffers in addition to 8 books, which is barely enough to gear 3 jobs if you don't account for tome upgrade materials. Obviously not everyone will play 3 jobs, but it just more fuel to the fire about my initial issue of, had we been given prior notice of no 7.3 ultimate, we wouldn't have had to do that in the first place

what person cycles 3 entirely different classes during ult prog? that sounds like a very weird thing to do

[churchren]

Our flex player was geared to play melee, phys range, and every caster except SMN as we needed to find 2 people for the ultimate. Obviously we don't have find them now, but since they could play it, we geared them for it so it would make recruitment easier.

[brinn12]

This is likely to happen every expansion now. You never know when the Ultimate will release, so you're forced to complete all 3 tiers. Feels like a deliberate move.

[churchren]

However, Yoshi-P has actually said multiple times that he can't guarantee Ultimates on a consistent schedule like everything else because of the sheer difficulty of producing (nevermind testing) content like that, so although we normally get them in .11 and .31, it would be wise to not take that for granted as we've had exceptions to the .31 in particular.

If the static can't stick around that long, it may be a better option to form statics when the release date is actually known, even if it would impact any sort of intention to world race.

We're not racing, but if you've ever organized a HC static before, it can take weeks or even months to find someone. And in some cases, people literally need several months in advance to book PTO. Putting together a HC static in such a short timeline, while not impossible, would be nigh improbable if accounting for schedule availability, PTO, jobs and roles, and personality clashes.

[Andevom]

When I was on Crystal, I never saw a single Ultimate weapon except in a dungeon once (it was a Dragoon). Then I transferred to Aether and everyone had one. Almost everyone I knew or had a passing interaction with had one. The contrast in Limsa between Crystal and Aether before we had DC travel was massive. It shows that given a better environment ie. PUG ultimate culture on Aether, that it can transform how many people do even that content.

As someone who is still on Crystal, characters with Ultimate weapons are way more prevalent now....as are bought runs.

Hard to know how many people nowadays actually went through the effort to get them.

[MicahZerrshia]

Because it highlights a major concern: inconsistency and unpredictability with release windows.

Aside from TEA, which was impacted by the pandemic and was therefore the sole release during ShB, all Ultimates have released during the X.1 and X.3 patch cycles. It's not unreasonable for players to have anticipated this upcoming patch would have the next one, but the devs frequently decide to switch up their content drops without warning. It's impossible to anticipate when anything is coming out anymore.

You mean they are not following a strict and set pattern for updates, the thing that ppl complain about and want them to change the most? And it is still entirely predictable since outside of Ulti there was absolutely no change from other x.3 updates. Hard raiders have been spoiled like crazy this expac and it shows with comments like this.