Is there a FFXIV content draught, is there a problem with the Endwalker patches, or are we all just burned out after a big climactic finish. Discussed the issues with the FFXIX Endwalker patches and why it feels like people are burned out or playing less than usual.
This video comes from a place of love for the game and is a constructive criticism of the Endwalker patch cycles. I really we see some changes going forward with the relic weapons or the variant dungeons to make the patches feel more complete.
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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:25 Pacing
5:00 Variety
8:15 Replayability
9:50 Overall Summary
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I think there's a decent amount of us who joined in 2020/2021 around the pandemic, and this is (at least for me) the first time being current in the endgame. And there was a good two months at the end of last year/start of this year I felt this, hard. I've leveled every class to max, I've completed all the story, and now I'm just bopping around not really "progging" anything. I was seriously considering unsubbing for a few months, but I felt an obligation to stick with it and now I'm having a good time!
I think the thing you said that resonated with me the most was wanting to log on to hang out with your friends, but all of your friends logged out. That definitely happened to me, specifically my FC friends. Right now of the friends I had in the game at the end of ShB, only two still log on consistently and one switched worlds so I don't see them as often. But, as the new leader of said FC, I felt like, obligated(?) to try and keep it alive as best I could. Which led to me randomly inviting new sprouts to join. Turned out for me that making those new friends is what continues to give me the motivation to stay logged on. It's so fun getting to watch them experience all the story beats for the first time, and running dungeons with new people who don't have them memorized.
It's unfortunate that you really have to try a bit to maintain an alive community in ffxiv, cause yeah as with every game, people take breaks, real life happens, you burn out on the content, etc. but imo as long as you have a little group of friends, old or new, all that old content/current content/good content/bad content gets wildly fun again.
I agree with a lot of peoples comments you had 11years of content, you have soo much content to buy choose to not do so really you can’t complain
been working on my crafter gear for next raid tier, cleared UWU, finished island, done with raid tier, still ought to do tataru's and finish the endwalker melee role quest + capstone, but otherwise I'm taking it easy until 6.4. I do think that the raid tier should have been unlocked way earlier and ex5 was a snorefest of a fight with little interesting optimization to do. Market research indicates that most adults have on average 1 hour a night free to game, so most who play ff14 likely don't blaze through all the content as fast as enthusiasts like you or me. The relic thing sucks for the people that like that content but to me its not something I'd choose to do anyway.
Last time i played FF 14 was when they released 6.1 i think,the first post content, and after that i just lost all interest in the game, mainly becouse it just takes SO much time to do some stuff and i'm not in the mood to do raids daily or weekly and other games have been keeping me more busy then FF 14, i mean, its not a bad game, but the combat tends to literally make me fall asleep sometimes.
I will give the game a go again for sure, but i rather want to let the content pile up for now(especially the story stuff) couse its all comes so damn slowly.
Add to that a little burnout and u can understand why alot of people decided to focus on other stuff, wich is not a bad thing but if it goes on to long its very easy to forget the game.
I've been a big XIV player since ARR, and this expansion has been incredibly rough for me. For the first time ever I've been playing WoW, and while I get the impression that Dragonflight is an exceptional expansion so I'm kind of lucky timing wise, it's been so jarring to me just how much better WoW is than XIV currently. If there was at least an equivalence to Bozja/Eureka I'd probably a lot happier with XIV's current state, but this expansion just feels so much more bare bones than previous ones. Part of that is definitely the continued simplification and homogenization of all aspects of the game, as well as the lack of any kind of interesting gearing or horizontal progression.
But damn, even just content wise this expansion has nothing. Island Sanctuaries probably stand as one of the most disappointing content releases they've done, even compared to original Diadem. There's just nothing there to do, nor any purpose to it. It just turns into a spreadsheet calculator which is NOT my idea of a fucking island getaway. And then the new Deep Dungeon was just a copy paste of previous ones, with no interesting innovations on the concept like incorporating Eureka actions or the elemental system in some way. The only neat thing they've done this expansion is Criterion, but OF COURSE they offer no incentives for doing it because they put 8-man raiding on a stupid pedestal in terms of gear, even though Criterion is arguably as hard (NOT THAT IT SHOULD MATTER, WE NEED MORE GEARING PATHS). I bet the new Criterion still won't fix this either.
It's probably time to just quit the game since it's clearly not an MMO anymore, they just want it to be a single player JRPG that you have to pay a monthly sub for. Also you know a game is bad when a majority of the content for that game is defending it online. The defense force for XIV is only so powerful because they have nothing to do in-game except AFK dance or stand around in Limsa.
What you call negatives, some would call positives. I really don't like the gear treadmill, so having the "catch up" gear and unlocking raids a month before next patch is perfectly serviceable. If raiding was my only interest in MMOs, then I would certainly be disappointed.
I believe you are the kind of player that Yoshi P recommends trying other things. Come back when you feel like it ^_^ Don't feel forced to stick around. Heavensward was exactly up your alley and I know you enjoyed ShB and all and even like Endwalker. But now that there isn't the MSQ train, you're struggling to find your footing.
It doesn't help that you're not interested in the sillier elements of the game like Hildibrand. Maybe some of it comes from being a long time FF fan in general, but the Loporits were a requirement with me for Endwalker. ^-^ Moon bunnies! Namingway was from Final Fantasy 4 (Not my favorite, but the one I always point to as a shining example of the series) Namingway was able to rename your character in the original game, and there's been a minion of him in the game for a while (Exclusive to those with the Encyclopedia Eorzea). I'm an omnicrafter, a mentor, I run mount farms with my FC, MAPs,, do Deep Dungeons I have no lack of things to do and I'm afraid I'll never come up from the ebb and flow of the tide.
A drought for me would be welcome so I can catch up – but that has to do with varied interests.
I feel like the amount of content is good. But the motivation to do said content is just really bad. The rewards aren't exciting at all. At the moment the only thing worth doing is literally Unreal's because the rewards are constantly updated. I think FFXIV is a really good game to play on the side, or for a few hours a week, but definitely not good for someone if they want to play a few hours a day.
This game will never be something designed to play daily. However I think it's reasonable to say that the content of this game is currently unbalanced like you have Island Sanctuary, varient along with the various story content on the easy end and on the hard end you have Savage and Ultimates.
However the middle is a bit iffy:
-Criterion was not tweaked right to be reasonably playable it's tuned too high for non savage raiders which kinda defeats the point in it being 4-man as you still need to do 8-man savage to reasonably do it on release, the rewards suck and don't help endgame gearing whatsoever.
-Deep Dungeon is in the odd spot where it kinda cover the whole scale just the insentive to progress that scale is pretty low, it's not a bashing the content it just don't what that type of content accomplishes well, it still has a place for the casual 1-30 floors and higher end 61-100 floors there just ain't much value to the things in the middle and the two groups kinda become seperated 21-70 being a means to an end for the high end and the casual lose interest before 71 due to the lack of insentive to do anything in 31-70.
-Then what's left for the middle really is Extreme and Unreal.
-Eureka was a bit of awkward spot while current given the insane grind and solo difficult before they trippled your exp and damage but it turned to something to grind eventually.
-Bozja was pretty solid on release minus some minor tweaks they have done and some they should still do for CLL and the like but it kinda fills the gap with stuff to do in quantity and the low to middle stretch of content which deep dungeon don't quite manages to fill..
-The current relic in my mind is not a real relic I think there is room for exactly what it is in this game. Just use the artifact weapon you given currently at 89 and have it be augmented exactly the same but every patch as in i585 in 6.05, i600 in 6.15, i615 in 6.25, i630 in 6.35, i645 in 6.45 and i660 in 6.55. A real relic would still hold appeal it can be slightly better and shinier plus a new type of content to grind which can also award tome to put into the former mentioned stat stick.and give stuff to do between patches.
I still firmly believe in taking breaks and not playing daily or even every month for that matter but there needs to be a better balance of content towards the middle when people actually decide to play.
As for pacing of patches being split they way they are I think is fine gives something notable to look forward to every 2 monthes and if that don't look appealing just wait another 2 months and you got twice as many content types to playthough which probably makes for a more appealing prospect to play.
But again they need to figure out how to strike the balance and getting alts to a spot where they are more reasonably playable by not being too stingy with the raid unlocks. I think at some fundamental level they fail to see that Savage and Alliance Raids are built for different people they can savage raids at the beginning of the Alliance Raid patch and unlock the Alliance Raid minus the Coins by .x5 of the very patch it's realased and the game would be in a healthier state. People would still grind tomes for upgradable i620 weapons less savage raiders would during odd patches but they are in the miniority anyways.
People would still run Alliance Raids as the coins is the main insentive the gear is a slight bonus, Raids would be more accessible as people in the middle of the tier would be able to grind out the early fights and reasonably climb to towards the last fight before the tier gets too stale for the exerienced or the gear simply don't get very appealing to run for.
At least I can say savage gear ain't very appealing to go for when it's unlocked at .38 less than two months left before it gets replaced by basic tome and crafted gear, unlocking it on .30 there would be time to actually both reach the platue and enjoy it for a little bit.
Non-orginized rant over :3
YES! You hit the right points
During Stormblood literally not a single month was I unsubscribed- great content never felt a drought
Shadowbringers- Covid hit them+FF16 production
But this is by far the worst MODERN expansion in terms of content replayability.
I do understand that finishing FF16(-GOTY imo from things shown) and especially new graphical with engine upgrade take time but that does not excuse their approach with the existing new content- less replayability- instant gratification(-aswell casual/normal content dropped to mind-numbing piss in the wind easy mode).
Genuine question: What is something that you want more of from FFXIV?
More Savage and Ultimate raids?
More gear grinds?
What does "I wanna play current content with my friends" actually mean to you?
In my case, I've always been a casual player. Not everything interests me in the game. I play through the story, do some extras and then I'm out. However, when I stop playing, it doesn't feel like I quit. I know that more good stuff will come, and I think that's why I've stuck with it for nearly 10 years. I can find a natural stopping point and pick it up later with lots more to do. Maybe it's more frustrating for daily players starved for content, but it definitely works for me.
I get not liking everything for me for example I don’t like deep dungeons so the addition of that went way over my head, in any case what I personally do is that my real main thing since I finished endwalker on it’s release is leveling up all jobs to 90 (only 4jobs left !!)but when i get tired of doing that I either do high end content like extreme or savage if I reaaaally feel like it, grinding the tomestones for all ew relics or what I’m doing now, replaying the entire msq bc that is the main reason I play this game so if there’s no new story until the next 4months I’ll just redo everything until then 😂 currently in post stb so if I keep the pace I should be right back to ending Ew before 6.4, i would highly suggest redoing the msq if you feel like it bc I’m on my second new game plus run actually and I still found details that I missed on the previous two runs
I guess because I'm more casual player, I don't feel that endgame drought that bad. I mean, I've been grinding current content and also doing old extremes and raids on Min-ilvl for fun.
I also had FC drama not too long ago and after it's gone, I feel invigorated – joined for some mount farms and all that jazz.
But I do understand the sentiment and it does feels bad when you want a specific type of content and game just doesn't give it. My hopes are that they will do changes at 7.0 at least, because yes, it is annoying when you pay the sub and don't really have much to do in-between patches.
Bleh, clickbait. Everyone knows this game is designed for you to walk away and come back later.
Marty.. did you give up your house?
I think it's content drought. If you're not a super hardcore player and even if you are the only thing to do are the savages and the Ultimates. Even then if/when you do finish those, there's nothing else to do. Endwalker really could have used a Eureka or a Bozja for the people who wanted to play the game
Yes and No. There is always contents that you can do but people choose not to.
It is like going to a amusement park or buffet there are lots of types of rides and foods and people keep saying "I dont like this" or "I dont eat that"".
I finish making all the AW and some EW & RW between those "Content Drought Gaps" during HW, SB & SHB, Start to get big fish from ARR and i still cannot catch half of them.
Besides I don't just play MMO and i also wanna play other singleplayer games or go touch some grass too!
I think this is probably more of an issue, if you are playing MMos as a job and not just a few hours in the evening after work. I am subbed to FF XIV for 3 years now and for me I can just relax ingame and I always find something to work on. May it be the new crafter gear, the new relic, the old relics, doing a frontlines, some dungeons, etc. Expecially when you unlocked everything, the dungeon and leveling roulette hands me a dungeon I haven't seen in a while.
But all of this only works, because the overall playtime per week is so low, that I can't burn out. Otherwise what you said is correct, there is just a lot of varied content and if you just enjoy a little aspect of it, it might happen that a patch offers nothing new for you.
have you leveled other jobs to 90?
It's not so much the drip feed, it's that the endgame treadmill hasn't changed all that much since 2.0.
Weekly tomes that you can cap in a day if you grind hard enough, so you are able to gear up 1.5 jobs before the "catch up" patch drops. That is IF you don't have the time/energy to commit to Savage/EX/Ultimate content.
For those who live on raiding, the odd patches are just glamour farming. Casuals get to finally reach savage level gear though by the time you do for 1.5 jobs, you get to do it ALL OVER AGAIN on the even numbered patch. Woo.
This game needs better horizontal gear progression. They tried this back in HW and the savage raiders cried about it in the forums, so they never touched it again (the HW relic and old Diadem).
Tried to argue for this in the official forums and received lots of pushback. Mainly by raider gatekeeping.
24 man should drop max item level gear as Savage. Weekly tomes need to be higher. Crafted and tome should be the same item level as unupgraded tome gear since this game is nearing 20 jobs people want to level as many jobs as possible. Hell, I'd welcome a merit point system. Yes, the bad players will use it as a means to gatekeep but it would be against TOS if the devs implement it right.
Haven't been on since the last free four day back in November, and thought of coming back. Sadly this video reminded me of why I stopped in the first place. Story and experience was top notch, it's everything after it makes it hard to enjoy it.
I came back recently to catch up on the msq and raid again, I wouldn't say there's a content drought though, my thing is that there's alot of content that doesn't interest me, but there is alot of content left for me to do.
This is just the end of patch lull. it's been this way for every .x patch since 2.x, even during patch cycles when there were relic grinds. Everyone would rush to grind out their relic in the first few weeks and then it stopped being a grind. About now in the patch cycle, the servers have almost always felt dead, if you're a current player caught up on everything. That's just how it is
"Everything in WoW is based around raids" <- and there is it. In FFXIV it isn't and never was. The Alliance raids are a catch up mechanic for players who DON'T do Savage. Only a very small part of the endgame is aimed at raiders, because those have been the absolute minority of the player base for a very long time and still are.
FFXIV is not WoW. That's the basic gist of it. Yoshi himself said, a few times, "if you feel like you do not enjoy the game, and tired of it – go play other games, and come back a few months/years later, we don't want you to burn out on our game". If you think that there's nothing for you to do till next patch – don't pay for sub, go and enjoy some other great games, and come back when you feel like there's something new or exciting for you is being released in the next patch <3
I hated Endwalker — mind-numbingly tedious, boring, unimaginative, and to top it all off… insulting bad environments — and absolutely LOATHE the Emo Dead Girl post EW msq. I haven't actually had fun in FFXIV since Emet Selch said, "Remember us… " So, is there a drought? Rhetorical question. It's so bad these days that I've gone back and am playing f-ing GW2. UGH! And I seriously HATE GW2. It's very apparent that YoshiP hasn't really had much to do with the game in a long, long time. And that stupid ill-conceived dumbass island sanctuary? *fuck…
I quit wow in Shadowlands because I didn't like it at all after the initial questing experience… but also because it's very easy to fall behind. Miss a week, and you're behind. I would not be able to go back to wow right now and have a good time. I'd feel totally lost, even after playing for a decade.
With FFXIV… being able to just raid log or only play two days a week is a huge positive for someone with a job, a family, a home, etc. It's GOOD that you don't have to play it every day. Does that make it for everyone? Nope, but the positives in wow to you are part of the reason I quit, and I'm super glad that they're not part of FFXIV, where I can be a savage raider and not have to grind something every single day. I just don't have that kind of time anymore.
You definitely make some good points (like savage unlocks, or tomes for relics, that's been ridiculous), but FFXIV is just not for those who want to play battle content for hours every single day, and that's okay. There will be stuff to do when you decide to re-sub.
Yup, all current content is usually permanently dead within the next 1 or 2 patches, little replayability even when it's current, and they don't reuse their assets intelligently at all. There needs to be more along the lines of Bozja/Eureka or deep dungeon to fill in the blanks, more creative re-use of assets that can be a fun grind for weeks or months. FFXIV is my favorite game that I don't play at all.
Problem is if you have a house you can’t unsubscribe because it’s the only way you can keep your house…
My brother and I played a little bit of 1.0 quit that because you know… your points are very valid and so is the way you’re feeling. We’ve been playing since 2.0s beta and even at 3 1/2 month patch intervals, there was constant drought and burnout. The biggest problem that my brother and I have is that there’s never anything added to the game that they haven’t already added. It’s just an upgraded version level wise of something before we got before. We had super high hopes for variant dungeons. We thought that it was going to be a dungeon that changes routes path difficulty but that was a bust also with absolutely no rewards.
So, there are a few things I've been thinking about regarding ffxiv…
1) Its interesting that we complain about lack of content… but also complain about daily obligations in other MMOs. And I'm not saying this as criticism or a defense, but rather as food for thought.
Because for me… I used to complain about the feeling of 'daily chores' when I played WoW back in, say, Warlords of Draenor. But these days I really kind of feel the value of having some 'daily chores'. I play Genshin, for example, and having my commissions + resin spend really structures my time with the game, which feels good. I can still go find other stuff like archon quests and exploration and abyss and whatever else… but I have a daily pattern that keeps me feeling a part of it.
At the same time… I don't know that I want FFXIV to try to force me to log in every day. I'm not sure what the answer is on that one, because like I definitely feel the content drought… but I also don't think I want them to add some sort of random daily quest to force me to log in, or try to sculpt their dungeons into something like mythic+. Its a tough situation, for sure. And clearly I'm not the only one having thoughts along these lines. I like what FFXIV is, but I also feel like something's missing this expansion for sure.
2) I do think the relic grind is probably the biggest issue. In previous expansions the relic grind forced you into other content… but this relic grind is just… tomestones. I think that was a real miss. I think if they'd done a more focused relic grind that pushed players into other content, we wouldn't be feeling the drought as much.
3) The third big issue that really stung was that they made criterion into a one-and-done content. Again, I don't want FFXIV to give me mythic. If I want mythic, I can go to WoW. But I do think FFXIV needs an alternate gearing path to allow people to either do SOMETHING to help them gear if they're struggling in savage OR a means for non-savage people to still level their characters up. They had a real chance to make Criterion into content people could do once or twice a week for some random loot and a gear progression path… but instead they made it the least rewarding content the game has ever seen. And that was a big miss.
4) I do think the shift in pace from the 'end of the story' to the 'start of a new story' has led to some people struggling with the pacing. Its inevitable in a game with a big build up over many years, because well… everyone expects these games to always go one step bigger, but they had to take a step back so they'd have somewhere for the next 4-5 years to take them. And I do think that his rippled into peoples' feelings about the game a lot more than more people realize.
5) Finally, and I think this is having a bigger impact than is realized, but I think the ffxiv dev team spent a ton of time on endeavors that created very… consumable… content. Content with limited lifespan. Which meant they couldn't do the more repeatable stuff. I think Criterion, Island Sanctuary, Hildibrand, Tataru's Grand Endeavor, etc. kind of took up so much of their dev time this cycle that they just… didn't have time to do something cool for the relic grind or for an alternate content type. And its biting them pretty hard. I hope that with these systems in place, maybe subsequent expansions will allow them to continue these systems without sacrificing as much on other stuff, but it seemed to certainly have an impact this cycle.