The (Broken) Promise of Tomorrow - 7.3 Expectations

[Daralii]

It feels a bit like they're trying to bring "friction" back into the game after the casual experience has been toothless for 2 expansions.
But they're doing it in such a bumbling way that it is giving me whiplash.

They have spent years basically telling players they can just press random buttons from level 1 to level 100 and be just fine, to breeze through the entire game with no difficulty and access everything with the press of a button unless they try to tackle the hardest content it has to offer.
And now they turn around and expect those same players to organically form parties with strangers, then tackle content together that actually requires learning and coordination, content that will easily kill them when they have barely ever experienced failure for 100s of hours.

Any one of us would look at this and ask "what were they thinking?"

It's something you can see even in content from 5-10 years ago. A lot of people in lower end content are used to just being able to ignore mechanics because they tickle and do almost nothing else, so as soon as you reach any duty finder content that has actual lethality(Lahabrea and Igeyorhm/Ascian Prime, the Nier raids, etc), people will sit in the AoEs, fall over, and then just keep falling over because they never learned what to watch for. I even made callout macros for Aetherochemical Research Facility because people, sprout or not, couldn't understand what to do for things like Dualstar and we would keep wiping until someone left.

[Rinoa_353]

There is still another LL before 7.3, I would wait until that one comes along and see what they have in store in 7.3.

[Saraide]

There is still another LL before 7.3, I would wait until that one comes along and see what they have in store in 7.3.

I feel like I've heard that line before.

[AvoSturmfaust]

Losing touch with the Playerbase is the best they could do, maybe Square should just do what Square wants to do, IF this involves that they actually learn from it and dont do the same Mistakes all over again.

[HyperiusUltima]

Losing touch with the Playerbase is the best they could do, maybe Square should just do what Square wants to do, IF this involves that they actually learn from it and dont do the same Mistakes all over again.

Yes and no. From a development standpoint feedback at this juncture is crucial to maintaining their subs because it becomes a sink or swim situation due to how the community is heavily dissatisfied with the content that’s released in Dawntrail. While improvements have been made since 7.0, they feel like they should’ve been there from the start to the point it becomes a kick in the teeth compared to previous works they have made(exempting post-patch Endwalker).

From a community standpoint however, they still have all the power to make this a successful or a failing game - it all depends on how they handle feedback within their team. If anything, Yoshida sees this himself and since he’s the front guy for managing PLLs and development for FFXIV, I can tell even he’s dissatisfied with it and has gotten tired of apologizing out of necessity.

If he’s any kind of person he was back in the early days of FFXIV, I’m hoping he can get things back in shape. If not, FFXIV is going to have their Reverse Warlords of Draenor moment before they can even consider getting player trust back.

[AvoSturmfaust]

Yes and no. From a development standpoint feedback at this juncture is crucial to maintaining their subs because it becomes a sink or swim situation due to how the community is heavily dissatisfied with the content that’s released in Dawntrail. While improvements have been made since 7.0, they feel like they should’ve been there from the start to the point it becomes a kick in the teeth compared to previous works they have made(exempting post-patch Endwalker).

From a community standpoint however, they still have all the power to make this a successful or a failing game - it all depends on how they handle feedback within their team. If anything, Yoshida sees this himself and since he’s the front guy for managing PLLs and development for FFXIV, I can tell even he’s dissatisfied with it and has gotten tired of apologizing out of necessity.

If he’s any kind of person he was back in the early days of FFXIV, I’m hoping he can get things back in shape. If not, FFXIV is going to have their Reverse Warlords of Draenor moment before they can even consider getting player trust back.

Usually i would agree because i see it the same, but i learned one thing, the FFXIV Players will always be dissatisfied no matter what Square is doing.

I mean the current Droprates for the Atma as example, i like them, while there are people hate it, what happens if they increase now the rate? i will hate it and other will like it

or in older Expansion, People with interest in more "Challening" Content always had only Savage + Ultimate, now they added in this Expansion CAR and FT and people complain, if they now with the next Expansion stop adding more Challening Content, people will complain, you can not satisfy the FFXIV Community, so at this Point im honest, Square should do what ever Square wants without worrying about the Community

Because People forgot, even if only People are left which "like" "Challening" Content, they are still more as enough to to pay the costs to let ffxiv run, yea Square would need to stop maybe to take money into other Projects but there are so many People so the Costs for the Game would still be paid.

[Voidmage]

This is the first MSQ finale I am not looking forward to tbh and that despite really having liked 7.2 because it seems pretty predictable right now.

The final boss will be Necron in another look made somehow of the regulators or something (because god forbid we can't leave that thing out that didn't even matter in it's original game really).
The WoL will struggle at first because Azems crystal doesn't work but someone will find a solution, either making it work again or the scions come together.
Wuk Lamat will have her moment of awesome because the writers need to remind everyone that she is the true WoL now, bonus points if she rescues us.
Sphene will either die or stay as new queen together with Galool Ja.
Everyone is happy and smile will play. The fact that smile exists doesn't really allow for anything outside a happy end more or less. (compared to for example Shb)

I really want to be proven wrong, really but I don't have high hopes in the conclusion because they HAVE to push Necron in and all signs point towards DT itself just being a self contained story more or less that isn't allowed to open up a big story twist at the end outside the key.
Though, I am open to be surprised and do wait before I doom it all.
Would be nice if at least Sphene would come with us after all that but I wouldn't bet on it.


For the rest:

Cosmic will be the old one in another coat of paint. I can't say if that's good or bad because people exist who like it and some who don't.
I don't care for it if the rewards suck or are ugly like in the first one (my opinion).

For the Deep dungeon I will wait till I see more.
If it's again just the same pomanders and lackluster rewards like Orthos, then meh.
Though, I am already glad that it's not the Allagan again.

The dungeon I can't say, because I usually like them but if it's another "story from the past" then I don't know (and the glamour could be again not dyeable, making it even more useless.

The ex trial depends. If it's full of obnoxious mechanics like the last one (for me at least) I won't do it.
I wan't more like Valigarmanda. That one had great fight design with, for me, the best tankbuster mechanic until now.
The last one felt like an easier mini savage with annoying "stand perfectly there or the group almost wipes" mechanics to a point I didn't even bother to finish it (and PF is just obnoxious nowadays).

The A-raid will be fun with the fights I think but it will not be more than a weekly thing.
I never played FF11 so the whole story is a bit eh to me and the gear from that game looks ugly for me personally.

There needs to be something else.
I hope the next relic step isn't just a "done in 2 days" thing again but actually longer and please... for the love of god... give an alternative to tomestones and make the whole thing actually cost more of those.

[Hallarem]

I've said it before, but it bears repeating.

It really does seem as if YoshiP has forgotten his own wisdom from 11 years ago:

Looking at this just makes me sad. The amount of failed sections on their own blueprint.

[Naraku_Diabolos]

Too bad we can’t have this pinned so that Community Mods could forward this. I like Dawntrail and I haven’t had any issues, but to me Cosmic Exploration and Occult Crescent are busts to me. The missions in Cosmic have a very short time for completion, and I fail to understand the missions with obtaining Collectable items to clear them. And I only have one Demiatma and I’m already losing the drive to pursue any more. To me, I’m really not feeling motivated to get Relics or Cosmic Tools this expansion.

[Volgia]

While I think that some player feedback is helpful I don’t know if I want to play something made out of the complaints. A lot of the systems that have been axed, dumbed down and things like the 2 min meta were done precisely for advocating for players complaining.

FT might have a problematic way of entry but it isn’t the end if the world.
The MSQ is ending with the way they intended, I don’t want them to go back to fix stuff like the final Star Wars movie. 7.2 wax pretty good for me to keep myself invested in the story.

I know I’m just reading the writing on the wall but this preemptive complaining doesn’t really do much.