It was going to be explained at JP Fanfest they said.
We were going to get more information on it at Fanfest he said.
We didn't.
Instead, Evolved Mode is slotted for a later Live Letter, which I bet will happen after Media Tour. I'm rather concerned with where things are right now for Evercold because while it looks like it's going to be a hype expansion story, the content sounds like from the Live Letter it's being watered down.
This is not a direction that XIV needs to take.
Activity Levels are fine as a replacement for Tomestones; it diversifies things instead of doing the same thing over and over again each week.
Gear Changes are good, for both Seasonal and Raid Gear. This puts in a fix but I think Crafted Raid Gear was left out to be the same possibly as prog gear for Raiders(superior to Seasonal Gear until Upgrade, probably i845). Still, Fierce is going to need a look at to determine what's going to happen since all-in-all it may not still be engaged by the casual people at all and only raiders.
Biggest thing that I will say is an L is the Alliance Raid Changes. Having a split like this makes no sense because the issue with Alliance Raid is not time, but structure.
In fact, your biggest enemy in Alliance Raids is iLv, especially when not current expansion. Crystal Tower is the biggest offender as the only Alliance Raid that does not properly represent FFXIV's Alliance Raids as a whole. You do not see mechanics in anything but World of Darkness, and the bosses are generally just over-simplified dummies. I'll say it again: Alliance Raid content needs an iLv Sync so as not to "break" certain content just from gear alone.
Splitting it only creates more queues and extends the wait time even further since you can pick and choose. It does not help queues. There is no one way to help queues given the reliance on the Trinity System for 1 Tank, 2 Healers, and 5 DPS for Alliance Raids. The only way to fix this is to implement some kind of incentive outside "new content" and Daily Roulette and the Upgrade Token.
It isn't without its positives at least, that being the Gauntlet of Power. I think this kind of content was absolutely necessary given the big, fat catalogue of dungeon bosses they can pull from. They said it'd be somewhere around 200+? Considering you've got literally 3 bosses each dungeon, and we have 103 Dungeons with probably 7-8 more for a total of at least 110(haha, funny way to cap it considering Lv Cap will be 110) you're starting at a total of 110 different bosses and 220 different mid-bosses. That's a lot. The only downside to this is it only takes from the catalogue for who has done their dungeons. So, if somebody doesn't have Cutter's Cry for some reason, then Cutter's Cry isn't included in the boss pool - meaning folks can *just* not do side dungeons and scroll along using Gauntlet of Power, kind of defeating the use of it and only use it as a leveling tool. Since rewards aren't presented yet at this time, they need to be able to see this flaw so it's not beating the experience.
Continue reading...
We were going to get more information on it at Fanfest he said.
We didn't.
Instead, Evolved Mode is slotted for a later Live Letter, which I bet will happen after Media Tour. I'm rather concerned with where things are right now for Evercold because while it looks like it's going to be a hype expansion story, the content sounds like from the Live Letter it's being watered down.
This is not a direction that XIV needs to take.
Activity Levels are fine as a replacement for Tomestones; it diversifies things instead of doing the same thing over and over again each week.
Gear Changes are good, for both Seasonal and Raid Gear. This puts in a fix but I think Crafted Raid Gear was left out to be the same possibly as prog gear for Raiders(superior to Seasonal Gear until Upgrade, probably i845). Still, Fierce is going to need a look at to determine what's going to happen since all-in-all it may not still be engaged by the casual people at all and only raiders.
Biggest thing that I will say is an L is the Alliance Raid Changes. Having a split like this makes no sense because the issue with Alliance Raid is not time, but structure.
In fact, your biggest enemy in Alliance Raids is iLv, especially when not current expansion. Crystal Tower is the biggest offender as the only Alliance Raid that does not properly represent FFXIV's Alliance Raids as a whole. You do not see mechanics in anything but World of Darkness, and the bosses are generally just over-simplified dummies. I'll say it again: Alliance Raid content needs an iLv Sync so as not to "break" certain content just from gear alone.
Splitting it only creates more queues and extends the wait time even further since you can pick and choose. It does not help queues. There is no one way to help queues given the reliance on the Trinity System for 1 Tank, 2 Healers, and 5 DPS for Alliance Raids. The only way to fix this is to implement some kind of incentive outside "new content" and Daily Roulette and the Upgrade Token.
It isn't without its positives at least, that being the Gauntlet of Power. I think this kind of content was absolutely necessary given the big, fat catalogue of dungeon bosses they can pull from. They said it'd be somewhere around 200+? Considering you've got literally 3 bosses each dungeon, and we have 103 Dungeons with probably 7-8 more for a total of at least 110(haha, funny way to cap it considering Lv Cap will be 110) you're starting at a total of 110 different bosses and 220 different mid-bosses. That's a lot. The only downside to this is it only takes from the catalogue for who has done their dungeons. So, if somebody doesn't have Cutter's Cry for some reason, then Cutter's Cry isn't included in the boss pool - meaning folks can *just* not do side dungeons and scroll along using Gauntlet of Power, kind of defeating the use of it and only use it as a leveling tool. Since rewards aren't presented yet at this time, they need to be able to see this flaw so it's not beating the experience.
Continue reading...