Nerfs and Ponies - A rant about rants

Final Fantasy XIV got a new small patch with a few small changes here and there. Of course people are gonna complain and rant in social networks and places like Reddit. Well, I guess I can do a little rant on my own, right? Let's see what this small patch brings, shall we?

Primal Ponies now have special music for each one

Each pony, when ridden, now plays music corresponding to the Primal that dropped him/her. For example: if you have Shiva's pony it'll now play Oblivion when you mount your faithful elemental steed. People complaining that that this is lazy. Seriously? People are complaining about this? A completely un-needed change that adds a bit of variety? What were people expecting? Piano arrangements of Primal themes?

For Twelve's sake... I'm not saying it's a complicated change, but less than 24 hours ago every pony - a sort-of-rare drop from Extreme Primals - played the regular non-Chocobo mount music.  I'm no programmer, but I guess what someone in Square Enix HQ's dungeons did was something like this:

function Mount(ride) {
 var chocobo=mount.asset.chocobo;
 var shiva=mount.asset.icepony;
 if (char.mount == chocobo){
  bgm.play(chocobo.theme);
 } else if (char.mount == shiva) { << new
  bgm.play(shiva.oblivion.theme); << new
 } else {
  bgm.play(generic.mount.theme);
 }
}

Yes, that's probably ridiculous and 100% made up, but with Heavensward fast approaching (and the dev team likely busy with 3.1 or 3.2 at the moment) the fact we even get this change is a small welcome addition. They could have just done nothing.

- "But Saga! They just did this for the Magitek mount!"

- Actually the Terra's Theme remix was ready before 2.0 even launched. It was in one of the game's promo videos. So they took existing assets and flipped a switch. The same they're doing now. It may not be the biggest change ever, but we didn't need it.

Final Coil of Bahamut now has 15% Echo (up from 10%)

Not much noise about this - because all the crying was done when the 10% was introduced - but it is a welcome addition for those that need that extra push to clear FCoB before Heavensward comes. One could always disable the Echo, of course, should the need for a "pure challenge" arise.

Steps of Faith nerfs to pretty much everything about it

There has been some loud QQ about this - and it's the one I understand the least. Steps of Faith has been until today (and could possibly still be - I haven't played today yet) a road block for players looking forward to complete the 2.55 story. Weird mechanics, an odd progression system and players who enter without the slightest idea on what to do. Let's not forget that this is a requirement for all players to enter the post-50 Heavensward content, including the new jobs.

Nerfing what many have called an annoying or stupid trial by making it easier to complete is a necessary step, when you think about the future. I mentioned this in a recent post but as time passes less and less people will do 2.0-2.55 content. Content will need to be nerfed to allow new or returning players to progress beyond that. Wishing it stayed the way it was - the same way people complained about before - would be a disservice to the game and a problem in the long run to players in need of catching up.
So, done. My rant about a rant. Sometimes I think I lacked grammatical coherence of sense. If I did... well... it's a rant. Now excuse me, I'm gonna read tweets of the MGSV press event now.

Game on.

- Sagacyte

"QQ moar"