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While I agree with you that content is king, the story made me ambivalent in engaging with any of the content that was there even though I enjoyed what I did do
The fact people are crying about high end content and they want to turn off their brains and blindly follow is bad. Im glad we have high end content it weeds out the useless and people getting carried in my opinion. In short, get bitter or get better.
they could always try to put some of those scrapped mechs into pandaemonium ultimate
Let’s break it down simply before categorizing content as casual, midcore, or hardcore, as these terms are subjective and depend on each person’s skill level.
For example, a player who clears Ultimate content might easily consider Extreme-level content as midcore, and from an experienced player’s perspective, they’re right. However, the majority of FFXIV’s player base isn’t made up of highly experienced players.
That doesn’t mean they’re bad—it just means they’re not willing to invest the time and effort needed for content requiring group strategies, such as joining a Party Finder group for Extreme content or higher.
To explain further, FFXIV’s baseline content, such as the MSQ, is so easy that it could be classified as "Very Easy.
" This is essentially the difficulty level for most accessible instances. Some recent 8-man and 24-man raids could be considered "normal," meaning just slightly more challenging than MSQ content.
What players want is normal content that’s a bit more demanding—similar to the Orbonne Monastery at launch, certain Bozja bosses, or the Baldesion Arsenal at release.
In other words, content that is a step above the standard difficulty but doesn’t result in 20 consecutive wipes.
Most importantly, this content should be accessible in a relaxed way through matchmaking, like current dungeons and raids, without requiring the hassle of forming a Party Finder group.
The reality is that most people use Party Finder to coordinate strategies and clear Extreme-level or higher content. What they really want is mechanically engaging content that doesn’t require Party Finder, offers good replayability, and has rewards substantial enough to keep players engaged during the long four-month gaps between patches.
Maybe I'm just tired but i just feel like I need more content that I don't have to watch a half an hour video guide for or progress through multiple sessions.
I work full time. When I log in, I don't want to do a PF dance, or disappoint 7 other people because I forget which psoition I'm supposed to go in for the eighth mechanic.
When I play with friends, we just do some roulettes and call it a night. Which is fun, but I'd like more. We tried Criterion once and couldn't even get past Boss 1. We knew that content was just demanding too much. I do one evening of Savage prog (yes we're still progging M3S) with the FC, and one evening of Unreal/Extreme prog a week. If the FC aren't doing Chaotic then I won't bother either, it's just too stressful to sit through every evening.
If people can and ARE queueing for it its casual for me . If you HAVE to use the PF , its not casual for me (train hunts, fate grinds and maps being exeptions, you dont need to use PF for them aswell). I consider exploration zones like Bozja and its related content to be a mix of casual with a few midcore stuff ( duels and DR savage ).
They need to apply this battle content attitude to all parts of content. Stop designing dungeons for people to cheese through in expert roulette and add interesting mechanics that might take a bit more time (with better rewards to justify the time)… Too much complaining over dungeons like Nevereap has gutted dungeons to the point where they are so formulaic its still a snooze to get through them even if the bosses have improved somewhat in Dawntrail. ARR remains peak dungeon design for me.
No matter what the difficulty of a content may be, the true difficulty is always humans. Someone who's always in a static of the same people/people they've been playing with will always have different opinions to someone who's always playing in pugs, and making content to satisfy/suit one end will never work well for the other. Unless of course when we're at like months/years after the content is released then the topic is kinda mute by then.
I will continue to push the thought of looking into GW2 or sandbox MMOs such as BDO and steal ideas from them, since these games are a lot more interesting to just pick up and play. FFXIV is too stuck into their formulas and regulatory design. It's old fashioned, uncreative, not innovative and for most players too strict and tunnel visioned. Over the years I have meet over 20 players who quit because of the MSQ focus alone. They need to prioritize gameplay over their systems.
I am curious what the Policy is he was speaking of. If melee will complain don't implement it? I feel This is why the game lacks innovation anymore, when you start hearing Yoshida or the developers talk about the development process, you here a lot of red flag terms like, policies, packets to follow for content, ect. Sounds like Yoshida's directing is streamlining the creativity out of the game for a more fluid project life cycle and it really shows in the game.
I'm not wading into the mid-core debate because there's never going to be consensus on what it means. However, I will say that what the game lacks for me is content that'll help bootstrap me from normal (which is mostly too easy) to extreme (which is too hard for me). I had hoped to find that in criterion, but obviously did not. I'm not whining about that lack – it is what it is – but I do regret not having a lala highchair on the difficulty curve.
The 24 man (not chaotic) is about where I think midcore is. You get decent gear rewards and upgrades to tome items. Criterion/Variant should be something like that, with a weekly lockout. Midcore should have match making AND decent gear rewards. Maybe I can see why devs see EX as casual, maybe for JP. NA is a different story. There's too much overprepared ness expected. Some of us don't want to deal with angry nerds on discord, some of us want to go in blind and learn as we go, or don't have the time to sit in party finder for hours on end with nothing to show for it. EX fatigue is a real thing and it sucks.
Relics, they should take a page from their predecessor FFXI. Have it out at X.1 patch were you spend each week clearing a tome not unlike ARR books for say, eight to ten weeks and boom A weapon that's the same as upgraded tome. Then in whatever X.# patch the explorative content comes out, that's when relics can upgrade from that content.
I'd also love augmented gear or merit points make a comeback.
Every time I watch, I feel like I’m learning something I can apply to my own life. This video is a perfect example of how growth happens step by step.
Chaotic being considered midcore is a good thing, the playerbase might realize how shit they actually are at the game and realize that THEY are the problem, not the content.
I have seen so many 'casual' players step up and grind for that chaotic clear, and every single one of them said it was the most enjoyable content they have done in the game outside of the body checks. THIS IS GOOD CONTENT.
I don't know why, but for some reason, this is his way to say that he no longer knows what to do. For years people have whined about the boringly easy difficulty of casual content, so they made dungeons harder in DT. Now people are complaining about dungeons being too hard and want they scaled back down. Meanwhile there's still players babbling on and on about not having any midcore content to do. Something that they themselves cannot come to a consensus on what exactly it should be. So now the lead battle designer is left throwing his hands up because he has ran out of ideas to please the player base.
Still, I could be interpreting this article entirely wrong. Feel free to correct me if need be.
For gods sake, how hard is it to understand that people dont have an issue with the FIGHT design. There are problems there but its not what is driving people away. People are struggling with EVERYTHING AROUND IT. people want more to do that sit in PF and throw themselves at one fight over and over. The problem is not difficulty its PACING. Just like it was with the fucking story.
Supposed midcore players just want to feel superior to casual players for whatever reason despite being casual players themselves in all actuality.
why can't they make something that is in-between extreme fights and normal
"Its simply impossible". That's their favorite phrase when they don't want to deliver content the community has been asking for years. How many "It's impossible" have they said and then years laters they implement the "impossible"?
I wanna say that to me, Extremes is where Mid-core and Hardcore Meet, because up until Extremes everything is rather casual, however once you touch extremes things are a bit harder and require more planning and conscious management of where you are; so things like The upper floors of Deep Dungeons, The Varient Dungeons when your solo, A lot of it Does Require your time, but are not as difficult as Extremes or Savage.
I definitely wouldn't call Savage 'Mid-core'; At the Very Least, I would consider Savage 'Entry Level Hardcore'. With Extremes being the porch… so to speak. The reason for this is because most of the time you can watch guides and PF it up to better success in extremes with little to no restrictions than you would Savage because of the Savage loot lock out- In Extremes you have much less stress because loot is easily farmable and not difficult to acquire when you get down the patterns- This is very much not the case in Savage as tensions rise and if you try and pf it, there's the chance that you can ruin loot for everyone if even one person has completed the savages for the week.
Reading that the Devs considered EX as casual is really showing how out of touch with the player base they are… EW was already a disaster when it came to casual/midcore, DT is once again looking the same, worse even as chaotic once again is for hard core raiders…The devs really need to get their head out of the Japan raiding scene and start looking at what the other 90% of the player base want. We need content between normal dungeon and EX, something closer to variant dungeon or a little harder, like bozja. The devs need to stop pushing for everything being EX/savage
I think the only thing they really have to do is allow unsynched farther down the road. Old Criterion should be able to unsynched. That content is hard to get though as time passes, let alone farm for the mount.
I am a "midcore" player but what the area of encounter design I would find most interesting is very different than how non-casual content is designed. Essentially, I just want tuned up casual content. To make fights "hard", the designers not only tune up numbers and reduce execution time but add memorization of completely new mechanics. Much of the difficulty in savage, is purely understanding and being able to recall specific strategies in response to the name of a cast bar.
Maybe at heart I am not midcore but some kind of hardcore casual, I want something like non-extreme trials and non-savage raids with numbers tuned up and required response times tuned up but most of the mechanics be able to be parsed reactively. Potentially, with highly variable randomized sequences. They should not be something you memorize a dance for but you respond to the situation. The "drawback" of this being, hardcore players or a premade group of good players in general will be able to "one shot" the encounter. But it will be fun and repeatable because of the random elements and just the satisfaction of execution. Kind of like day 1 normal raids/alliance raids but with damage tuned up.
Wild title as "more midcore content" implies there's any to begin with
Melee player here
it's fun to complain about my Viper raid partner getting more uptime than me because they have three uncoiled furies and i only have Enpi during downtime
but honestly, i don't actually mind.
The reason Extreme is not midcore is because many such fights punish multiple people, if not the whole party, for failed mechanics. Even if Extreme mechanics are relatively easy for experienced individual players, using NA party finder an a prime example, no amount of individual skill you have won't prevent you from dying to friendly fire from random teammates failing their mechanics. By this definition, Extreme is easily hardcore content.
Casual content can be cleared without organization (dungeons, normal raids, alliance raids). Hardcore content requires organization and strategy, which is where Extreme, Savage, Ultimate, etc. lie in.
Midcore should be far more punishing to the individual for failing mechanics but much less so for the whole party, so this is where deep dungeons and field operations like Bozja lie (remember Choctober? Always a high death count but can still be cleared by the few that are alive). Naturally, midcore should require quite some time commitment compared to casual because a whole duty from start to finish taking just 15 min by a few hard carry players is still pretty casual content. 80 floors of deep dungeons take 3-4 hours (15-40 min per set of 10 floors). CLL and Dal take 20-25 min.
I really don't understand how, between maps, dungeons, normal raids, and Jeuno, there somehow isn't enough casual content. Isn't that all considered pretty casual?