Thread: Famitsu Interview Translation - Yoshida on Patch 3.1 and Beyond    

I don't get why people STILL care at this point in the game whether or not they have a higher ilvl in the wep department than some of the others out there when if they've cleared a4s by now, they've been apart of that select few already for a good bit. Let's be real.. a lot of those 'hardcore' raiders people reference don't even play this game for periods at a time after they clear shit anyway. The major base of this game is casual and if they wanna cater mostly to those people vs the small % of 'hardcore' players, then they will.

I personally don't give two shits either way. This has been their business model since 2.0. I think it's dumb. A lot of people think it's dumb, but if it still makes them profit, nothing will change.

Originally Posted by Slycer

Yoshida: As of late October, at least about 50% of players who are actively playing battle classes have completed all four parts of normal Alexander Gordias.

Does this mean that 50% of people who are actively playing battle classes are like, stuck on A2 normal or something?

Yoshida: In a sense, the exploration content in Sea of Clouds is not like content you'll find in other modern MMORPGs, but it's one direction in which we'd like to evolve play in FFXIV in the future. As it's possible to change from non-combat to combat classes, we'll be eliminating the recast time penalty except for strong abilities.

Interesting.

Originally Posted by octopus

lol when they say random stats, I guess it's reallllly random ;o

I'm fine with random secondaries, as long as they still confirm to major/minor secondary stat totals. But part of this interview makes it sound like you can get "i210" items with i180 secondary stats, which is absurd and basically a total waste of time. It's ridiculous to call it an "i210" item if it doesn't have i210 stat totals.

Originally Posted by Akiyama

I don't get why people STILL care at this point in the game whether or not they have a higher ilvl in the wep department than some of the others out there when if they've cleared a4s by now, they've been apart of that select few already for a good bit.

People want to be rewarded proportionally for completing difficult content, it's pretty simple to understand.

Originally Posted by Akiyama

Let's be real.. a lot of those 'hardcore' raiders people reference don't even play this game for periods at a time after they clear shit anyway. The major base of this game is casual and if they wanna cater mostly to those people vs the small % of 'hardcore' players, then they will.

I personally don't give two shits either way. This has been their business model since 2.0. I think it's dumb. A lot of people think it's dumb, but if it still makes them profit, nothing will change.

I raid log after doing my weekly A1S-A4S at this point due to the lack of content outside of Savage. The only other thing I tend to do is complete my PvP challenge log to one day be 50 before they add seasons in.

I used to log in daily in 2.0 series because of glamour and working on my other 50s ilvl gear. Due to how Savage and other content is currently, I have no reason to do so. They've completely fucked incentives for hardcore players to log in anymore. With the airship content giving random i210 stats, I'll be grinding it to get my BiS now, which is more then enough incentive to log in. The only problem is now they need to add content in the next patch that is actually worthy of the time to grind to get BiS, probably wont happen after how they're talking about Savage but we'll see.

Originally Posted by Spider-Dan

I'm fine with random secondaries, as long as they still confirm to major/minor secondary stat totals. But part of this interview makes it sound like you can get "i210" items with i180 secondary stats, which is absurd and basically a total waste of time. It's ridiculous to call it an "i210" item if it doesn't have i210 stat totals.

If you aren't expecting Final Fantasy XI level augments, I feel bad for you son

They are about to roll over their own brand of augmented pink drops that will be decently long to kill, have non-capped, [random] augmented stats, and let most of them be freelotable.

Originally Posted by kisada

Just because you're part of the less than 1% population of raiders who can complete it doesn't mean you're not still that top tier when others start beating it.

Yes because it sure is great being skilled when there's literally nothing in the game to push you and you just steamroll all the content. Get real. The hardcore population wants to be challenged too. Taking away the one thing we have and saying "lol deal with it" just because you're not good enough to beat it is insanely stupid and makes you sound bitter. If your static isn't good enough to do it that's fine. But you shouldn't be looking at the hardcore players who can beat it and saying "Wah take away their raid that's too hard for me". You should be saying "design some content that's difficulty appropriate for me along side the thing they have".

Originally Posted by Eanae

Yes because it sure is great being skilled when there's literally nothing in the game to push you and you just steamroll all the content. Get real. The hardcore population wants to be challenged too. Taking away the one thing we have and saying "lol deal with it" just because you're not good enough to beat it is insanely stupid and makes you sound bitter. If your static isn't good enough to do it that's fine. But you shouldn't be looking at the hardcore players who can beat it and saying "Wah take away their raid that's too hard for me". You should be saying "design some content that's difficulty appropriate for me along side the thing they have".

You guys got the cheevo earlier for beating content than others. There you go.

Like, personally, I have zero problems with how hard A3S is, I feel like it's a capable fight if say.. work schedules for static members could align, and their spaghetti code servers weren't a total dumpster fire so things could be even amongst other groups, but that's not how it goes, so it's whatever. But the whole "We should have higher ilvl weps than 'casuals' for at least two content cycles" bullshit needs to gtfo. Maybe some who complain the most (like the ones who barely clear the content before the next patch to begin with) should clear earlier so they can enjoy their more exclusive gear for a bit longer :^)

Originally Posted by Akiyama

You guys got the cheevo earlier for beating content than others. There you go.

Like, personally, I have zero problems with how hard A3S is, I feel like it's a capable fight if say.. work schedules for static members could align, and their spaghetti code servers weren't a total dumpster fire so things could be even amongst other groups, but that's not how it goes, so it's whatever. But the whole "We should have higher ilvl weps than 'casuals' for at least two content cycles" bullshit needs to gtfo. Maybe some who complain the most (like the ones who barely clear the content before the next patch to begin with) should clear earlier so they can enjoy their more exclusive gear for a bit longer :^)

They can nerf it in 3.2 when the next great thing comes out. I don't care. That's not what I'm talking about. It's the fact all the entitled "this is too hard" whining is going to remove the only content designed for hardcores from the game because SE for some reason refuses to properly staff FFXIV and works them to death to produce not enough content to keep a community happy. WoW has 4 difficulties of 13 bosses. There's something for everyone. FFXIV has 2 of 4. Someone is going to be alienated. Stop trying to get content removed from the game because you're too shit to do it. Ask for content along side it.

I'm personally not in the bunch asking for nerfs. I don't care what they do. I just wish there was more than what they provide.

Going back to last coil, though, I think they had a better way of going about it. If they really wanna keep something hard.. just go story > "Coil" level > Savage and sort gear in that way, but then again, that's far too much for YOshiP to probably worry about.

I want a horizontal progression model.

Originally Posted by Eanae

Yes because it sure is great being skilled when there's literally nothing in the game to push you and you just steamroll all the content. Get real. The hardcore population wants to be challenged too.

It would be easier to accept the "hardcore people just want to be challenged too" claim if more people had done SCoBS. Since they did not, it would appear that "being challenged" is not really too important if you aren't also getting exclusive phat lewt to go with it.

Or, to put it another way: the 1% really just want to make sure that they continue to have better gear than the proles (i.e. the status quo). Which is fine, but not a particularly compelling argument against changing the system.

Would implementing Alex Savage Extreme (that had the exact same drops as Alex Savage, but with new titles) really solve your objection?

Originally Posted by Spider-Dan

It would be easier to accept the "hardcore people just want to be challenged too" claim if more people had done SCoBS. Since they did not, it would appear that "being challenged" is not really too important if you aren't also getting exclusive phat lewt to go with it.

Or, to put it another way: the 1% really just want to make sure that they continue to have better gear than the proles (i.e. the status quo). Which is fine, but not a particularly compelling argument against changing the system.

Would implementing Alex Savage Extreme (that had the exact same drops as Alex Savage, but with new titles) really solve your objection?

I pushed very hard for my static to do savage second coil but was unable to convince them until after we had T13 down. I've killed all 4, but in ilvl 130. I like the better ilvl reward but I'm -personally- content with titles. But I am the minority there.

Just because my point is about what is being accomplished now vs what will be accomplished w/adjustment doesn't mean I don't care about intermediate content. OBVIOUSLY it'd be immensely better to add in more content that caters to a wider range of players. It's ridiculous that it hasn't happened that way and If SE did that to begin with I wouldn't give a shit what the elite raiders are or aren't doing.

tldr: we agree and the fact that SE is pandering to one or the other and likely won't be adding content to keep everyone happy due to "staff constraints" means we end up fighting like this for who gets the content. This energy would be much better spent pointed at SE and getting something for everybody.

I mean, here's the problem. What battle content is currently relevant at level 60? Outside of tomestone collection, it seems like there are four pieces of battle content which were designed to be repeatable and relevant at level 60 in patch 3.0:

Hunts - 180 gear/weapons
Ravana Ex - 190 weapons
Alexander Normal - 190 gear
Alexander Savage - 210 gear/weapons

The problem now is that Esoterics have been in the game for three months, effectively allowing any player to bypass 3/4 of the battle content which used to be relevant at level 60, leaving Alexander Savage as the only way to progress your character, save leveling a different job altogether and starting from scratch. I'm not well-versed in character progression systems in every MMO that's ever existed, but I'd have to think that by any measure, it is a very, very bad practice to have a single piece of content be the only way to provide for character progression.

This is the reason everyone is and has been fighting over Savage. The vast majority of players can't commit to statics, can't find a static, aren't skilled enough to participate, or are stuck with no way to progress due to any of the number of other things discussed endlessly here and elsewhere. The minority of players who are skilled enough to complete the difficult content feel that it's a badge of honor that they earned that shouldn't just be given away to others. This is lose-lose for everyone. For the much larger group who hasn't cleared, it leaves them feeling left out, knowing they can't develop their character any further due to reasons often beyond their control. For the much smaller group who has cleared, it leaves them with nothing else to do to develop their character, even in some small way, a very bad state of affairs for a MMO. For all players, it creates an extreme rift of "haves" and "have-nots," as evidenced by the discussion in this thread and elsewhere, which is discouraging on a community level.

The solution to this is not making future content easier. That doesn't help grow the game or foster a community - it just changes the rift from 99% vs. 1% to 95% vs. 5% and doesn't address the underlying issue. Nor is it maintaining the status quo with a single piece of maximum difficulty content where only the elite 1% can ever dream to achieve max item level at any given time. The only real fix is increasing the breadth of equally relevant content in a meaningful way.

To that end, the Airship content looks good, and I welcome it as an alternative in getting to 210, but what happens come 3.2? We're back to raid grinding again with savage being top tier gear and need to hold out until 3.3 for alternatives? The rate of vertical progression is just far too quick for the rate at which new content is added. Make one single item level cap increase span three or four patches, maybe even an entire expansion, and hold out until the middle of the sequence to add the highest difficulty raid instead having bafflingly out-of-sequence "gear your second job" style events (even Yoshida recognizes them as such) like Void Ark. Have 4-, 8-, and 24-man content added simultaneously or over the course of the patch sequence all offering ways to get to the max item level. Save the best secondary stat combinations for the high difficulty raid, or *gasp* do something crazy like add a set bonus or other unique itemization to differentiate the raid gear and keep it as a goal to work towards.

I really think the game still has potential, but right now it's being crippled by the extremely narrow ladder of vertical progression. I just don't know how we get the message across to a development team who seems to not recognize that this is even a problem.