ARR is going to Hell

[Malacite]

Anyone else watch the live letter?

It pretty much confirmed everything I was dreading. New gear, coil being put on DF and making T1~5 easier (and lifting weekly cap) + new tomes all for turns 6~9... they're making it too much like WoW/GW2, and not a real JRPG like XI used to be. There's accessibility (which is a good thing) and then there's lolEZmode and outright obsoleting old content. YP says he wants to make the game a themepark, yet the current direction of the game basically means enjoy the content from patch to patch, rather than as a whole like XI.

In other words, only the current patch's content really matters, and the whole thing is just a never-ending cycle. I'm out.

Plus I keep hearing about how they're going to make XV an interactive movie with QTEs as this is what SE actually believes we want for the series - more linearity, less exploration.... SE WTF happened to you?!

[Firewind]

Re: ARR is going to Hell

Complains about content being too hard. Complains when they announce they will make it easier.

Seriously though, gear in this game is handled fine. New gear is always more of a sidegrade so you can tweak stats more. Plus you seriously overestimate how many groups will be able to get past ADS.

[Malacite]

Re: ARR is going to Hell

you know they're nerfing coil right?

And it's not a sidegrade, they are adding iLv100~120 in this patch.

[Firewind]

Re: ARR is going to Hell

The iLv of the new gear is not confirmed. Stop pulling things out of your arse. what it most likely is that it will be iLv95 to go with the Allagan Weapons.

And Coil is not getting a nerf. It's adding a WoW style wipe buff that gives you more damage resistance. Which will effect nothing really. The groups that can clear the content don't need the buff and the groups that can't clear is will just keep wiping on ADS in 1/2 and 4 in general. Twintania will just laugh at anyone that needs the buffs to clear a Turn.

And the lockout being lifted in a good thing. Statics are no longer fucked if someone can't attend, and people are no longer going to be screwed over by their class gear not dropping. I have personally NEVER seen any BL< gear drop in Coil. it is only ever DRG and PLD gear that drops for me.

Tell me something. I have been doing Coil since the month after release when I got the relic. I have been clearing Coil every week with zero reward. Why the fuck do you think players like me deserve nothing for all of that time invested? Yoshi-P is changing the game to respect the player's time.

Changes like that are good for everyone. FFXI is that way, don't let the door hit you on the way out to that boring grindfest that is replacing content with every expansion and major content patch in the exact same way you're pissing and moaning about. Nobody does sky or sea, Dynamis is only good for getting ancient currency. Nobody does salvage, einherjar or assault. All your Abyssea gear is pretty much obsoleted (Does anyone still go there? I didn't play much of Seekers). What about people doing Campaign? Or Beseiged? Oh right! All fucking obsoleted.

Seriously, why don't the people who wanted FFXI-2 just continue playing FFXI? Yyg and YM seem pretty content to do that, why can't the rest of you?

[Ketaru]

Re: ARR is going to Hell

Why the fuck do you think players like me deserve nothing for all of that time invested?

I said that all the time about XI. I remember people in XI used to think I wanted EZ mode just because I wanted more loot in the game contingent on time invested and less on RNG.

[DakAttack]

Re: ARR is going to Hell

The game is already hell, due to a lack of actual end-game. What are you grinding for? Where does max level and all this armor take you? What do you do with it? Nothing. There's no end-game.

[Firewind]

Re: ARR is going to Hell

I said that all the time about XI. I remember people in XI used to think I wanted EZ mode just because I wanted more loot in the game contingent on time invested and less on RNG.

This is the thing about games respecting or disrespecting the player's time. I don't want EZ Mode. I just want games to respect my time. I work my arse off to buy the games and the hardware to run them on. If the game does not make this worth my time, then I will not continue to invest my own time and money into it. Simple as.

[Malacite]

Re: ARR is going to Hell

Except XI isn't the game it used to be. It's all about iLv and what's coming in the next patch as well now. That just seems to be the way MMOs are going now and I detest it.

I never said anything about a grindfest, that was one of the aspects of XI I hated most (and the over use of the RNG). But every new patch rendering the last one moot is the opposite extreme. It makes everything moot, and as Dak said there is no real endgame. That doesn't mean they have to repeat XI and go for 7+ years of doing the same content, but it'd be nice if stuff lasted longer than 3 months. I didn't keep paying for 1.23 and arguing with folks till I was blue in the face, defending YP & the game to wind up with a fucking WoW/GW2 clone with FF themes plastered over it for fan service. A lot of folks are really fucked off right now because of this, because this is what we got rather than a real successor to XI that fixed the many flaws that persisted that game.

They threw the good water out with the bad.


EDIT: Even IF XI still was the way it used to be, I had my fill of it. Much as I loved the game, I can't handle how shitty it plays in comparison. I like most of the reforms done to ARR, I just absolutely abhor the direction/design choices (especially the armory system). Maybe it'll get better when the expansion hits but for now, it's basically just a very pretty dungeon crawler with FF themes laid on top and I'd like something more engaging than that. What the fuck's the point of grinding the end game content to gear out only to have to start all over again in 3 months with the next content? Are people really that needy/shallow these days that if you don't have a new shiny shortly after getting one you lose all interest?

[Firewind]

Re: ARR is going to Hell

What exactly has been obsoleted? I'm still doing Chimera/Hyrda runs to help out people getting Relics. Hard mode Primals of the same reason. I'm still running dungeons of every levels due to the armoury system and Dungeon Roulette. Exactly what part of FFXIV ARR has been made obsolete to play?

[Malacite]

Re: ARR is going to Hell

Not right this moment, but it's coming, and is evidently the trend going forward: Introduce new content, raise iLv, and nerf older stuff so people can catch up.

We have a new kind of Allagan tome coming to replace Myth, so that basically makes that whole set of gear worthless apart from an expensive stepping stone to ilv 100 (not to mention all that Coil gear that's just going to get farmed to death and yet they said nothing about lifting the CT caps - what the fuck is that about?!)

All the "endgame" we have now is trivialized by the upcoming new content. And then patch 2.3 will do the same thing, and it's just a never-ending cycle. I don't have a problem with new content, I have a problem with there never being any real end game or sense of accomplishment like XI had. That doesn't mean I want to go back to several years of just doing the same stuff either. The big problem when XI's cap was raised was that it had been so long (7+ years) that it was just a massive amount of content suddenly being made worthless - it was just too much to absorb at once, and then they had to go and add iLv to it all as well. That's why I was able to enjoy abyssea at first, because it was fresh and fun but it still maintained what XI had been (mostly). As of Seekers though, it's just more vertical progression and screw that, especially with XI's dated mechanics. At least XIV has fast combat and is pretty to look at.


I don't see why there just couldn't be some sort of happy medium, and it's not just with endgame - the whole grind (or lack thereof) was sad, with no real need for teamwork outside of the odd dungeon until you hit 50. Crafting and Gathering were supposed to be central to the game (and I used to have fun with that) but they've been rendered largely moot as well, because Materia & Spirit Bonding both suck. Having higher level stuff and Tier V materia won't change what's fundamentally broken about it, if anything it'll just be worse because Tier V will just be even more expensive and tedious to get while it's far more expedient and arguably effective to just shoot for the dungeon gear. Even with the buyer's market on Excalibur, you're still completely insane to even try going for perfect melds on HQ 2-star items.


Which reminds me, that 900k gil I spent - nearly a 3rd of my money at the time, that I haven't come close to earning back - pimping out my crafts and gathering, is about to become worthless trash as well since I can't re-sell the gear even with repairs (another dumb change from 1.23) and there's very likely going to be new crafting gear included in the patch, unless SE wants to make it stupidly hard to craft in which case that just further compounds the previous issue.


The whole thing just looks like a train wreck in slow motion. It's all well and good now, but what about long-term? I'm not so sure I see the game holding onto a solid base the way XI did even if it has far more current subs than XI ever had. Pissing off all the veterans who supported XI and 1.0 can't be smart for their long-term plans, particularly when theme park MMOs (as I understand it) are starting to waver.

Nevermind the whole issue of power creep.

[Firewind]

Re: ARR is going to Hell

You do know that you are still going to need Myth and CT gear to do Coil right? They are doing nothing to obsolete that content, just adding new content they have been promising since before release. They are also doing nothing to nerf Coil outside of adding that damage resist buff, which requires multiple wipes to build up anyway. Groups that are bad enough to need that buff won't clear the content anyway, and groups that can already clear the content won't need it.

Also this needs to be stated again: they have not announced the iLvl of the new gear. For all we know it will be more 90 gear, or 95 to go with the Allagan Weapons. You know how much of a stat difference there is between even 10 iLvl? We are talking 1-2 stat points.

Crafting seems pretty fine for me. HQ Astral Rings are a good seller and are very profitable, especially if melded out. They are BiS for some BLM and Healer builds. I always make huge profits on Culinary, and Alchemy is a nice seller thanks to the Stat Boost Mega Pots, X-Potions/Ethers being stupidly good for getting you back into the fight after being rezzed or screwed over by lag, and Silencing Potions being stupidly useful for Coil.

Also I will note: some CT gear is BiS for certain builds. The BLM "Max Possible Crit" spec makes heavy use of CT gear for example.

Also what about the good things coming up in the patch?

• Leviathan HM and EM confirmed to drop weapons?
• Moggle Mog HM?
• More Coil Turns?
• Small Houses being doubled in size?
• More high end crafting recipes?
• More Hildebrand quests and Gilgamesh finally appearing?
• Brand new 4 man dungeon?
• More story content being added?
• Vanity slots finally being added?
• PvP being overhauled? (Sadly no class balance announcements so Casters still seemed fucked over)
• PS4 version confirmed to be out soon? (Great implications for people hoping for a DX11 API)
• Coil appearing in the DF which means that your static no longer has to worry about the weekly reset. You can start at ANY point. If you want to practice Twintania you don't have to rush through the rest of the content to maybe practice Turn 5 later that week.
• Coil Lockouts being lifted meaning that your static is 1) No longer screwed if someone can't make it 2) Much more flexible in who they can take 3) Can run Turns again for people who are really unlucky on gear drops 4) No longer going to suffer from low morale when one person gets everything because only DRG gear drops.
• Before Meteor Blu-Ray edition is getting another print run.

That said I think I do see the whole logic behind Mal's posts...

[Malacite]

Re: ARR is going to Hell

What? No, I'm worried about the long term health of the game and the very shortsighted approach the devs are taking and I'm not alone.

There has been an explosion of posts and topics on the lodestone of people expressing the exact same concerns and I'm not gonna regurgitate them, see for yourself.


And yeah myth/ct gear doesn't matter worth a crap because it'll be far easier to just craft the new stuff and then go farm the new tomes. And then the cycle will repeat itself again in the next patch as SE pays virtually no attention to power creep.

[Etra]

Re: ARR is going to Hell

[Aeni]

Re: ARR is going to Hell

I haven't played the game in a long while. I hop on for new events for a night, kill it in under an hour, and log off. I knew this was going to happen after I dinged 50 on DOL/DOH. What I dread the most was that I've grown so tired of MMOs in general that I don't feel like doing anything more ... which is a shame because I think the game is still entertaining. Maybe I'm looking for a more complex and convoluted "end game" crafting scenario akin to 1.0 ... in order to keep things interesting. Easy and simple recipes to level up to current level caps, but adding "end game" recipes to keep crafting relevant. It's still too early in 2.0 to talk about expanding DOH (in particular), but I do wish that they will do something within the next couple of months or I'm going to let my sub die.

[DakAttack]

Re: ARR is going to Hell

I let my subscription die when they showed that they couldn't do PvP correctly. I mean, did anybody ask for a Benny Hill mode? They really screwed the pooch on that one.