Easing the Grind: Balancing the New Relic System in Final Fantasy XIV

2 thoughts on “Easing the Grind: Balancing the New Relic System in Final Fantasy XIV”

1. You have to remember that relic weapons are considered as the "casual weapons" at this point because the game doesn't put weapons in dungeons or anywhere else outside of raids for casuals. This means that almost half of your audience (about 45%) will not have access to endgame weapons without raids. Exploratory Missions are even worse with 60% or so of the population not engaging with the content at all. In both Stormblood and Shadowbringers, this turned out to be the stopping point for a lot of people. You cannot do the ShB where you suddenly require Castrum Lacus Litore and Delebrum Reginae for relic completion nor can you nerf Deep Dungeon to the ground in order to try to prop up your Exploratory Missions. Both have already been massive killers of interest in relic weapons.

   The problem with the relics right now is that ever since SB, you have been forced to engage with unrelated content in order to be able to do them. It's no longer standalone and available at the beginning of an expansion like ARR and HW. SB has Eureka. ShB has Bozja. Endwalker has Manderville. This seems to be the bigger problem more than anything. However, more people are tolerant of Manderville than they are of the Exploratory Missions based on the numbers we have so far, but it still needs to be something standalone in the future.

   Exploratory Missions and Variant Dungeons also serve as the middle ground before you hit the harder content. They're essentially all the trappings of Extreme but with fewer mechanics and no enrage timer.

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2. “BA is always being run” by about a handful of kind of closed groups that would show you the door if you don’t know what needs to be done there because you have not done that. One might say “oh but there’s a video or 200 for BA” and yes, you can have an idea but you have not played there, so a video would not work for everyone.

   Then there’s the other grind where you have to understand an entire new game just in order to progress within four different zones while praying not to be mugged by a spawn at a bad place and not being punished by losing hours of progress.

   I agree just turning tomestones is also on the tad lazy side, but neither of the grinds from SB or ShB really worked well. The HW way was tiresome but the most sensate way, as you had to do multiple types of content you do in the game to progress. Except doing it for 20 classes is a masterclass of persistence or free time.

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