Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XXV - Patch 3.1 November 10

[Spider-Dan]

It seems to me that the rather obvious solution is for savage gear to have the same stats but be dyeable.

i.e. Easy gives lower iLV, Medium gives top iLV but undyeable, Savage gives top iLV and dyeable

[solracht]

Very few people would bother with that, just like with Second Coil Savage. It also removes all sense of progression within the raid: ie no "next week it'll be easier since we'll get gear from the turns we've already beaten". Awful solution.

[Eanae]

They could do normal and hard mode and then do what WoW did and have savage mode only bosses like Algalon or that boss in throne of thunder.

[Silenka]

Regarding a hard four-man dungeons, it will be hard to implement as the burden on healer will be intensive. However, Yoshida wants to implement it, if just once.

Bring it the fuck on Yoshi, and not just once but for EVERY dungeon. Shit SHOULD be a challenge to clear if players want to check the "stomp my face into the ground" box. Just having that option would be nice.

[Elcura]

Getting a lot of "this game is just for me" vibes lately

[Silenka]

Considering how many people have quit or are seriously considering quitting, I think the problem is the game currently doesn't seem to be for anyone except white knights who believe criticism is the devil.

[Spider-Dan]

Very few people would bother with that, just like with Second Coil Savage.

People did SCoB Savage when the only reward was a title. Getting dyeable gear allows you to show off that you've completed Savage, which is (/should be) the only reason to do it in the first place.

Keep in mind that any solution in which Savage drops higher iLV gear than [whatever the second-level difficulty is called] essentially means that said second difficulty is casual-tier content. Whatever content drops the highest iLV items is necessarily endgame; if you're saying that there should be a difficulty between normal and Savage that drops worse gear than Savage, you aren't actually proposing a meaningful change.

It also removes all sense of progression within the raid: ie no "next week it'll be easier since we'll get gear from the turns we've already beaten".

You shouldn't even be able to seriously attempt the first Savage fight until you are already geared out.

In my opinion, Savage should not be progression content; it should be achievement content for those who have already finished progression. If SCoBS dropped dyeable High Allagan, I would say it was perfectly implemented.

[Alkar]

I listed Final Fantasy characters that use various methods to traverse time and space. Could also throw in Shinryuu, Exdeath, Omega and Garland as well. The Void and extra-dimensional travel will always be used as a plot device to bring some of these characters to FFXIV.

Exactly. And Iroha or Lilisette are the only two possible candidates for this, they didn't have to go out of their way to explain how those characters got in Eorzea because the original games already had that covered.
Iroha bring the main character in current FFXI obviously helps.

[Destinye]

Considering Atomos exists in Eorzea and as of 1.x (his lore didn't exactly change in 2.x either) he's still an open portal that can spit things out from "the void"...so technically...anything goes.

[Stef]

Considering how many people have quit or are seriously considering quitting, I think the problem is the game currently doesn't seem to be for anyone except white knights who believe criticism is the devil.

It's still amazing to me that anyone could be this cynical. You do realize that the problem isn't criticism, it's the fact that the majority of the criticism is entirely incoherent? The official forums and the subreddit are bad for this reason, but BG sure gives them one hell of a run for their money.

Most of the criticism goes something similar to this:

Community: God, dungeons are so fucking easy, linear, and repetitive, and the gear they reward is useless.

Yoshi-P: Ok, we hear you. How about we replace one of the dungeons with a new type of open zone that has lots of bosses of varying difficulty that reward tomestones and gear from ilvl 170-210 that you can spiritbond and meld materia to?

Community: Where the fuck is my 3rd dungeon, Square?! Holy shit this game is going down the shitter. Not only do they never try anything new, they are now giving us less content?!

[Niiro]

No one's going to be impressed by content that hasn't been released and we have no reason to put our faith in it until it's here.

[Stef]

That's certainly one way to live your life. But the problem is that people complain about what's in the game, what's coming to the game, and what the vision of the game is. When they don't change things people complain, and when they do change things those same people complain again. If they don't like what's there already and they have zero faith in what's to come then they just enjoy complaining for the sake of it. I kinda hope people do start quitting, although even that didn't really mean they stopped clogging up the airwaves with whining about FFXI back in its prime.

[Niiro]

People aren't going to see a string of unfulfilled promises stale content, and missed potential and look at the next patch optimistically.

"THIS is the one guys! I can feel it!"

.....doesn't work so well after it's been said half a dozen times and failed to be true every time.

[Stef]

You're still missing the point. The pattern from the people who feel there's been "a string of unfulfilled promises stale content, and missed potential" has been:

2.2: This patch was shit and the next patch is going to be shit.
2.3: This patch was shit and the next patch is going to be shit.
2.4: This patch was shit and the next patch is going to be shit.
2.5: This patch was shit and the next patch is going to be shit.
3.0: This patch was shit and the next patch is going to be shit.

Whereas they might be better off saying something like this come Patch 3.1:

"Hey, Fallout 4 is pretty fun!"

[Elcura]

It's still amazing to me that anyone could be this cynical. You do realize that the problem isn't criticism, it's the fact that the majority of the criticism is entirely incoherent? The official forums and the subreddit are bad for this reason, but BG sure gives them one hell of a run for their money.

Most of the criticism goes something similar to this:

Community: God, dungeons are so fucking easy, linear, and repetitive, and the gear they reward is useless.

Yoshi-P: Ok, we hear you. How about we replace one of the dungeons with a new type of open zone that has lots of bosses of varying difficulty that reward tomestones and gear from ilvl 170-210 that you can spiritbond and meld materia to?

Community: Where the fuck is my 3rd dungeon, Square?! Holy shit this game is going down the shitter. Not only do they never try anything new, they are now giving us less content?!

You're still missing the point. The pattern from the people who feel there's been "a string of unfulfilled promises stale content, and missed potential" has been:

2.2: This patch was shit and the next patch is going to be shit.
2.3: This patch was shit and the next patch is going to be shit.
2.4: This patch was shit and the next patch is going to be shit.
2.5: This patch was shit and the next patch is going to be shit.
3.0: This patch was shit and the next patch is going to be shit.

Whereas they might be better off saying something like this come Patch 3.1:

"Hey, Fallout 4 is pretty fun!"

You're killing it.

It's amazing because this is pretty much how I remember every single patch lol, bitching never gonna stop.

[Silenka]

Okay, then let's turn it around. What keeps you white knighting for the game? What keeps you subbed and wondering why anyone could complain so much?

Do you honestly enjoy the content? Do you not feel it's repetitive and uninspired? Are you truly happy with the difficulty levels of the content being "too easy" or "very hard" with almost no middle ground? And if so, do you consider yourselves easily pleased? Do you see potential for this game's user base if the game doesn't ever change drastically from the way it's doing things now?

They're serious questions. The complainers are definitely in the majority on BG and have justfied over and over why they feel the need to complain. But (probably because you're in the minority) I don't really ever see a ton of gushing praise for the game here either and why you don't feel the need to complain.

[Katlan]

It's still amazing to me that anyone could be this cynical. You do realize that the problem isn't criticism, it's the fact that the majority of the criticism is entirely incoherent? The official forums and the subreddit are bad for this reason, but BG sure gives them one hell of a run for their money.

Most of the criticism goes something similar to this:

Community: God, dungeons are so fucking easy, linear, and repetitive, and the gear they reward is useless.

Yoshi-P: Ok, we hear you. How about we replace one of the dungeons with a new type of open zone that has lots of bosses of varying difficulty that reward tomestones and gear from ilvl 170-210 that you can spiritbond and meld materia to?

Community: Where the fuck is my 3rd dungeon, Square?! Holy shit this game is going down the shitter. Not only do they never try anything new, they are now giving us less content?!

I lol'd pretty hard at your comment

[Stef]

Okay, then let's turn it around. What keeps you white knighting for the game? What keeps you subbed and wondering why anyone could complain so much?

Do you honestly enjoy the content? Do you not feel it's repetitive and uninspired? Are you truly happy with the difficulty levels of the content being "too easy" or "very hard" with almost no middle ground? And if so, do you consider yourselves easily pleased? Do you see potential for this game's user base if the game doesn't ever change drastically from the way it's doing things now?

They're serious questions. The complainers are definitely in the majority on BG and have justfied over and over why they feel the need to complain. But (probably because you're in the minority) I don't really ever see a ton of gushing praise for the game here either and why you don't feel the need to complain.

I'd say I'm fairly easily pleased, but mostly because I don't go in with all too many expectations. I play for the fun and if I don't find it I don't force myself to log on more than I need to for raiding, etc. There's still plenty that I feel could be done to improve the game to be more to my liking, and many ideas that are floated around here like new types of materia are in line with what I'd want as well. But I'm not overly invested one way or the other. The game is going to develop a certain way whether I like it or not and it isn't my job to worry about its future. All I want to do is find something I can enjoy like raiding with friends, levelling a new class, or enjoying the final fantasy flair. If I want something beyond that I look for it elsewhere.

I'm not looking for gushing praise, it's just a bit disheartening to see so much pessimism and bitching about everything to do with the game. I come to the forums to catch up on the news, tips and tricks for new content, and genuine suggestions for what the devs could do to improve aspects of the game in the future. It gets boring when every news thread devolves into bashing of all future content and the devs themselves. When it comes to that there isn't really much point to it anymore, since it's clear people have no hope things are ever going to change. Why even stick around when you've gotten to that point? When 1.0 came out people were up in arms for a few weeks (and rightfully so), but then they moved on and things calmed down a bit.

I used to lurk on BG a ton back in the FFXI days from 2007 onwards since there was much more to theorycraft about in that game, but now I hardly visit because I know what to expect, even in threads about the PLLs.

[mallister]

I am bleeding edge casual. As good as the (non-moogle parts, anyway) story was, after about four weeks of running the same two dungeons added onto doing the same dungeons I was already sick of doing, I stopped logging in. I do not have time to get a static and absolutely will not endure shout groups for alex savage. There is literally nothing else to do. It's all very pretty and I can't say I haven't enjoyed my time on the game, and, sure, me and my wife will log on to do some of the new stuff but I'm not staying long term without something to actually do aside from grind tomes. Doesnt really look great for the future, can't really see why anyone would be up in arms defending SE's design decisions or be mystified when the rest of us are not really impressed.

[Thiefami]

It's still amazing to me that anyone could be this cynical. You do realize that the problem isn't criticism, it's the fact that the majority of the criticism is entirely incoherent? The official forums and the subreddit are bad for this reason, but BG sure gives them one hell of a run for their money.

Most of the criticism goes something similar to this:

Community: God, dungeons are so fucking easy, linear, and repetitive, and the gear they reward is useless.

Yoshi-P: Ok, we hear you. How about we replace one of the dungeons with a new type of open zone that has lots of bosses of varying difficulty that reward tomestones and gear from ilvl 170-210 that you can spiritbond and meld materia to?

Community: Where the fuck is my 3rd dungeon, Square?! Holy shit this game is going down the shitter. Not only do they never try anything new, they are now giving us less content?!

Except that typically it iss not the same crowd crying about the same thing. The dungeons are easy,linear and repetitive and the game does short-end subscribers by giving them less content.

Why can't dungeons be challenging, vast, and varied? Why can we not have less piecemeal content that is obsolete by the next content patch and more meaningful long lasting content?


What does logging in more than you need to mean? This is marketed as a persistent online world that charges you a subscription fee to play. You should very well be able to log on and be entertained, but you know this.

I barely play, twice a week? Maybe? For roughly an hour or two and there's absolutely nothing to do. One day of binge playing whether it's a crappy day outside or i'm off work I can complete most if not all of the recent content this game has to offer.