Overreliance on cosmetics as a reward

[XtremePrime]

As the title suggests, I want to hear and learn what is the opinion that you guys have on the game using cosmetics as the end reward for pretty much any new content we get in the game.
I like cosmetics, glam is nice, hairstyles are fun and such! But outside of the relic grind, what other content rewards you with game mechanical advantages for taking the time to do said content? It does really bring the new added content to "do I want this new glam"? If the answer is yes, you'll do it, if the answer is no then most likely you wouldn't engage with it unless you're a completionist or just wanting to experience it

I want to restate I don't want cosmetic rewards to go or disappear, I'm just considering if maybe we should get some more gameplay mechanical too (empower or change a certain ability on your job for example), get increased movement speed in towns for doing X content, anything that benefits the game mechanically than just appearance (I am aware Fashion Fantasy is a pretty popular end-game for most)


What do you guys think? Is there room for such rewards in the game? Would you even want them? What rewards would you like to see from future content? Or is the way it is now just fine for you?

[Shistar]

What do you guys think? Is there room for such rewards in the game? Would you even want them? What rewards would you like to see from future content? Or is the way it is now just fine for you?

I like your ideas! I will begin by saying that I will 100% decide to engage in content based on the rewards most of the time. Unfortunately I just can't spare the time to do random content for the love of the game anymore, so that motivator is very important when time is my biggest frustration.
... With that said, I did ASSS because I wanted a singular earring, I'm doing the World-Class Troller achievement because I want the adventurer plate backing decor and I'm doing UCoB because I think the Legend title might be fitting for one of my alts. I would not say I am particularly sane when it comes to deciding what kind of content I get involved in lol.


Stuff I would go absolutely insane for, in no particular order (tons of ideas for more cosmetics but there's a little bit of everything in here hopefully):

• Different idle stances/animations/"personalities" for our basic idles or even job-specific ones. Could also be from different races, like midlander being able to use elezen idles, specially if you can mix and match. Lots of potential for roleplayers, GPose and final fashion XIV enjoyers!
• Different skill VFX, preferably inspired by the fight they're unlocked from
• Love your idea about movement speed in towns, so I'm absolutely stealing it and putting it in the list.
• Summon/faerie/avatar customization (animations, model, etc.)
• Mounts obtained from difficult content would be faster than others in the areas they belong to lore-wise (example: Pandaemonium mount rewards are faster in Elpis compared to other mounts. This should likely be added with a function to auto-equip the fastest mount for each area if you own any that meet the criteria) and/or the option to upgrade mounts to become faster in certain areas (Manacutter in Sea of Clouds, Magitek-related mounts in Garlemald, etc.) bonus points if they are multi seaters so people aren't left behind in hunts.
• More multi seater mounts. Love carrying my friends in multi seater mounts. Love being lazy in a multi seater mount. Gimme 8-player multi seater mounts where I can actually see the people in it!!
• Housing related upgrades and customization, specially for easily accessible housing such as apartments. Think alternative retainer/crystal bell designs, windows, doors, NPCs, etc. Stuff everyone can flex regardless of their home size.
• Alternative gearing up paths, if you hate the savage then maybe you could use Criterion to gear up or switch it up every week, etc.
• Emotes, especially looping ones!
• HUD skins (think Omega-themed, steampunk Alexander-style, moody and gothic Ishgard from DSR). You interact with your HUD all the time, so this could be huge.
• Something to breathe some life back into Companion Chocobos would be fun. Not sure what it could be though...
• Higher bicolor gemstone gain from expansion/lore-related areas.

I see a lot of cosmetic potential they're not exploiting yet. With gameplay rewards, I think it's very cool but you need to be careful about them since it can be very difficult to balance content around them, specially skill upgrades, but I like the idea!

[freshavocado]

I recently got into the monster hunter series and its a similar idea with glam as endgoal and im a huge glam lover but what sucks is that theres still job restrictions to glam and sometimes some dungeon glam arent dyable.. Id really like them to expand on this glam reward by fixing it up a little and letting us glam tank glam to like magical jobs.. etc.
I guess mounts also count as glam because I did chaotic ARaid grind for the mounts.
I know yoship said he wanted to incorporate less gil but like.. im broke n i need gil to buy glam..
More rewards like housing items, minions, adventure plate cosmetics.. not sure about stuff like gameplay mechanics as rewards because ppl will say its unfair or not accessible? So glam is kinda the easiest route

[Jeeqbit]

They also reward mounts from content as standard. This is because Yoshi-P obviously observed people collect mounts and minions in other MMOs and felt adding them as rewards successfully compelled people to do content.

I don't really care about power progression necessarily. But it would be fun to be able to customize your playstyle more significantly with what you can loot, or loot animation changes for your attacks.

[Raikai]

As the title suggests, I want to hear and learn what is the opinion that you guys have on the game using cosmetics as the end reward for pretty much any new content we get in the game.
I like cosmetics, glam is nice, hairstyles are fun and such! But outside of the relic grind, what other content rewards you with game mechanical advantages for taking the time to do said content? It does really bring the new added content to "do I want this new glam"? If the answer is yes, you'll do it, if the answer is no then most likely you wouldn't engage with it unless you're a completionist or just wanting to experience it

I want to restate I don't want cosmetic rewards to go or disappear, I'm just considering if maybe we should get some more gameplay mechanical too (empower or change a certain ability on your job for example), get increased movement speed in towns for doing X content, anything that benefits the game mechanically than just appearance (I am aware Fashion Fantasy is a pretty popular end-game for most)


What do you guys think? Is there room for such rewards in the game? Would you even want them? What rewards would you like to see from future content? Or is the way it is now just fine for you?

Basically gear set bonuses like WoW's tier sets. I like that idea - doubt they would let we alter job actions based on equipment, though. They love their on-rails.

I feel that before that, they would need to look at something more dire: the stats, and how that customization is near meaningless in the current game. From that, they could expand to other bonuses, especially if they cut redundant stats out ( <cough> Direct Hit <cough>) and add meldables to utility stats like movement speed, leech or even maybe new niches like Brink of Death/Vuln/Damage Down reductions - if those aren't mutually exclusive with throughput melds, of course. Then they can explore those even further through item bonuses.

[Shistar]

I know yoship said he wanted to incorporate less gil but like.. im broke n i need gil to buy glam..

I think he simply meant he will hand you less raw gil (because people were upset by Occult Crescent coffers), but you can still make gil in plenty of ways. Though your biggest priority should be not getting scammed on the MB :'D consider investing in crafters, or at least sourcing as many things as possible yourself and getting a crafter friend to help you out!

[Miradelle]

Maybe let us use mounts in cities again, like inside of solution 9, then possibly I would be more motivated to get a mount.

[Aelin_Ashryver]

I don't want mechanic power creep as rewards. I'd rather they expand gearing options. So people can get savage equivalent gear from a few sources. We have so many jobs but it's hard to gear them all.

[AmiableApkallu]

But outside of the relic grind, what other content rewards you with game mechanical advantages for taking the time to do said content? … … I'm just considering if maybe we should get some more gameplay mechanical too (empower or change a certain ability on your job for example)

This content already exists: class quests and job quests, and the "mechanical advantages" you get from them are generally regarded as a requirement or must-have, not an optional reward.

[Underscore]

I think we need more cosmetic rewards in many cases, since sometimes they aren't to everyone's tastes and don't justify clearing the content on their own (e.g. the M8S mount).

That said, mechanical rewards as well would be cool too. Eureka and Bozja kinda have this with their unique stats that have a noticeable effect on your strength in those zones. And unlike Occult Crescent, that content actually gives you some reason to acquire that strength and keep playing after you've done the story and the raid at the end. (duels and rare items)