I noticed people saying we are getting the same stuff as 2.0 for end game and yes this does look to be the case. Theme parks do follow this pattern generally with a few changes here and there. Just like sand box MMO'S have the same end game stylings so it's not really a surprise. However they did add Diadem which has come with mixed reviews. Which is the way most content is taken on a lot of MMO's. Most people agree though that it needs some tweaks and already has gotten some. SE said they wanted to watch it a little more before making more changes. I know more new things are in the works for 3.2 and the live letter is tomorrow so we shall see.
Absolutely agree and while I understand its still a Themepark at the end of the day I will always hold a higher standard for quality content and diversity among content when SE is involved. Most of the frustration stems from the fact that its taken two whole YEARS to get something new as far as battle content and the result was diadem. HW was a PAID expansion that to me accomplished the bare minimum expectation of content as far as paid expansion goes. After waiting MONTHS for relics to finally come out in hopes of getting some new activities to work on only to find out its the same grind of all the crap we are already bored of doing.
There is no need to change the whole formula, rather design a entertaining grind with alternate ways of progression and some actual gear diversity outside of just vanity. Sit down and work on the armory system and create more options for x-class abilities and overall make every DRG or SMN not set up the same exact was as every other DRG or SMN. Add alternate routes and bonus bosses in dungeons rather than making every dang thing a straight run through a straight group of corridors with the same exact number of bosses patch to patch. Seriously do better with the ilvl jumps so gear isn't worthless 3-4 weeks down the line. I mean waiting so long for 3.1 which was mostly catch up content with a primal whose weapons were barely considered ilvl wise to begin with only to have it be obsolete now with the new Relics.....
Adding more mid core content instead of all content being snooze fest easy or sock pooping extreme. Adding a third difficulty to Alexander could of been a really cool thing much to how WoW has 4+ difficulty modes to allow players to ease themselves along instead of being drowned in fight complexity. Where is the phase skipping feature we have been promised to allow groups to bypass phases they already did so they can more efficiently learn the Dance dance revolution theme of a fight. Another thing is this game self destructs its content so fast that it just makes me cringe while I watch, we've spoken about this countless times driven and I know I'm not being unreasonable here.
Yes it is an unbiased easy pick far i am concerned but still weak in the class /combat systems.
There are lots of games that do classes and combat very average like but imo only FFXI did it really well.Other games also do other aspects decently but overall FFXIV gives the entire package but again certain systems and ideas are only average ,far too much improvement is needed before i would scrap the better class/combat of FFXI to play FFXIV.
Point is being the best of 2015 or 14 or 16 is not good enough for me, i would choose FFXI over and o ver again over XIV.That is why i really don't like any best of ,sure it creates some noteworthy interest for websites but for me as a gamer,i simply want to play the best game in each genre,awards and accolades don't do anything to entice me to play them. I played FFXIV for about 4 months,i love the overall FF universe and they did a great job with keeping that tradition alive but as i said,i always as a gamer have to choose what is most fun for me to play.This new team working on FFXIV ruined the best aspect that FFXI had going and that is GROUPED play,ALL the time the true meaning of a mmo.90% solo with instanced grouping is a shallow WOW design,one i cannot accept.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
No, you are not asking to much. I will say that the new relic weapon still isn't as good as Alex savage weapon and for people who don't like the crazy grind of the relic there is Thoradin and Eso weapon which are on par with each other. Also I think you know about the materia changes coming in 3.2 which aren't new stats but make it so you can build weapons up the way you want and will put crafted gear more on par with end game stuff. Yoshi was also saying something about a 4 main raid equivalent if demand is high enough.
Current Relics are not, but from what I understand the final stage of the current build is 210. I'm sure Hellbound will disagree with me about this but this is largely server experience may vary; Excalbur is in a terrible state when it comes to Thordin groups/clears. My roomate and GF were busy with a joint 2D animation project for the first week of 3.1 so they weren't able to no life 48 hour wipe marathon Thordin like other disturbed people tend to do in this game so they missed out. 4 days into the patch groups were already asking to be past meteors and not 2 days later asking for no clear bonus. They both spent the entire month wiping and while my GF managed to salvage two wins and get her DRK weapon my roomate is like 0/300+ runs.
With the amount of players doing Thordin taking a massive drop off after the first week (2-3 PF on average during prime time) they pretty much gave up and grind or not relics are still going to have a more favorable advantage when it comes to ilvl and accessibility. Really keeping my hopes at a minimum until I see the final 3.2 notes when it comes to crafting; it sounds good but there's a good chance some "minor" details are being withheld. Four man versions of Primal fights/raid content would be one really solid foot in the right direction and would solve a lot of the PF/Group angst that's been happening surrounding those forms of content. Yoshi P noted his disappointment with how few groups cleared Savage 2-3 let alone 4 so I really hope this speaks to him as well as the hope that 4 man (It could honestly even be 5-6 because we could always muster 5-6 solid consistent players and always had to pug the last two...) becomes a thing moving forward.
Think something that I didn't think of also got mentioned in the letter; players constantly server hopping month to month just to try and find savage groups and its gotten to the point its messed up their datacenter royally. Could just be speculation, but it could be the reason me and Hellbound have a mileage may very scenario with my server to his. Kind of an interesting side note with the server hoppers; its actually something I never considered. Playing FFXI for as many years as I have and we always had server merges but you never heard of x player moving to x server unless his entire Linkshell did. Think that's one of the things I missed from last gen MMO's; the closeness and tight knit nature those games nurtured. Free companies like Hellbound's are a one in a million, but even then everyone always quits and gets bored and moves on eventually.
Met some really cool people in 2.0 to 3.0+ but outside of my RL friends they all quit/left/moved servers. There just doesn't seem to be any attachment to players and the community over all. FFXI was a Themepark just like FFXIV but straight vertical progression creates such a short term community of people always leaving and new people always taking their place.
EDIT: I GOT IT! FFXIV friends list is like Facebook, you do something cool with someone that is actually on your server when in DF and they add you only to never respond to you again. I always scratched my head when i opened mine and didn't remember who half of the players were.
EDIT: I GOT IT! FFXIV friends list is like Facebook, you do something cool with someone that is actually on your server when in DF and they add you only to never respond to you again. I always scratched my head when i opened mine and didn't remember who half of the players were.
You should always only leave you're friends list for the real people who help you more then once.
It's like, they have to earn their way on my friends list per se. That's why I don't share this issue in any game.
There isn't any MMORPGs out there pushing new ground. At least not in a significant, game-changing way. So the reward goes to cleanest presentation for the current generation. That is pretty much the status quo for the last six years at least.
Comments
Bingo
There is no need to change the whole formula, rather design a entertaining grind with alternate ways of progression and some actual gear diversity outside of just vanity. Sit down and work on the armory system and create more options for x-class abilities and overall make every DRG or SMN not set up the same exact was as every other DRG or SMN. Add alternate routes and bonus bosses in dungeons rather than making every dang thing a straight run through a straight group of corridors with the same exact number of bosses patch to patch. Seriously do better with the ilvl jumps so gear isn't worthless 3-4 weeks down the line. I mean waiting so long for 3.1 which was mostly catch up content with a primal whose weapons were barely considered ilvl wise to begin with only to have it be obsolete now with the new Relics.....
Adding more mid core content instead of all content being snooze fest easy or sock pooping extreme. Adding a third difficulty to Alexander could of been a really cool thing much to how WoW has 4+ difficulty modes to allow players to ease themselves along instead of being drowned in fight complexity. Where is the phase skipping feature we have been promised to allow groups to bypass phases they already did so they can more efficiently learn the Dance dance revolution theme of a fight. Another thing is this game self destructs its content so fast that it just makes me cringe while I watch, we've spoken about this countless times driven and I know I'm not being unreasonable here.
There are lots of games that do classes and combat very average like but imo only FFXI did it really well.Other games also do other aspects decently but overall FFXIV gives the entire package but again certain systems and ideas are only average ,far too much improvement is needed before i would scrap the better class/combat of FFXI to play FFXIV.
Point is being the best of 2015 or 14 or 16 is not good enough for me, i would choose FFXI over and o ver again over XIV.That is why i really don't like any best of ,sure it creates some noteworthy interest for websites but for me as a gamer,i simply want to play the best game in each genre,awards and accolades don't do anything to entice me to play them.
I played FFXIV for about 4 months,i love the overall FF universe and they did a great job with keeping that tradition alive but as i said,i always as a gamer have to choose what is most fun for me to play.This new team working on FFXIV ruined the best aspect that FFXI had going and that is GROUPED play,ALL the time the true meaning of a mmo.90% solo with instanced grouping is a shallow WOW design,one i cannot accept.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
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2024: 47 years on the Net.
With the amount of players doing Thordin taking a massive drop off after the first week (2-3 PF on average during prime time) they pretty much gave up and grind or not relics are still going to have a more favorable advantage when it comes to ilvl and accessibility. Really keeping my hopes at a minimum until I see the final 3.2 notes when it comes to crafting; it sounds good but there's a good chance some "minor" details are being withheld. Four man versions of Primal fights/raid content would be one really solid foot in the right direction and would solve a lot of the PF/Group angst that's been happening surrounding those forms of content. Yoshi P noted his disappointment with how few groups cleared Savage 2-3 let alone 4 so I really hope this speaks to him as well as the hope that 4 man (It could honestly even be 5-6 because we could always muster 5-6 solid consistent players and always had to pug the last two...) becomes a thing moving forward.
Think something that I didn't think of also got mentioned in the letter; players constantly server hopping month to month just to try and find savage groups and its gotten to the point its messed up their datacenter royally. Could just be speculation, but it could be the reason me and Hellbound have a mileage may very scenario with my server to his. Kind of an interesting side note with the server hoppers; its actually something I never considered. Playing FFXI for as many years as I have and we always had server merges but you never heard of x player moving to x server unless his entire Linkshell did. Think that's one of the things I missed from last gen MMO's; the closeness and tight knit nature those games nurtured. Free companies like Hellbound's are a one in a million, but even then everyone always quits and gets bored and moves on eventually.
Met some really cool people in 2.0 to 3.0+ but outside of my RL friends they all quit/left/moved servers. There just doesn't seem to be any attachment to players and the community over all. FFXI was a Themepark just like FFXIV but straight vertical progression creates such a short term community of people always leaving and new people always taking their place.
EDIT: I GOT IT! FFXIV friends list is like Facebook, you do something cool with someone that is actually on your server when in DF and they add you only to never respond to you again. I always scratched my head when i opened mine and didn't remember who half of the players were.
It's like, they have to earn their way on my friends list per se. That's why I don't share this issue in any game.
But, to each his/her own.