PvP in FFXIV is horrible for all the wrong reasons. Throwing 3 teams of 24 players against each other is bound to lead to incoordination, but that isn't the issue. The problem is that FFXIV doesn't give players enough information to know how to play any of the various modes.
The Borderland Ruins (Secure)
You're told to go capture bases or blow up nodes, but you have no idea how many points anything is worth. Is it just the team that lands the killing blow on a node that gets the points from it? How many points is a small node versus a big node versus capturing a base even worth? Does dying cause your team to lose points or does killing enemy players grant your team points? If so, how many? Unlike Rival Wings, which has a timer until the next train, Gobbie, etc., there's no timer on the node spawns, so you have to look to third-party sources to know that they spawn at 19:00 minutes, then every 4 minutes after the last one was killed, and then at 10:00 for the big node. It's hard for players to make educated decisions as to which tasks to prioritize because they have no idea how many points things are worth. Also, many players don't know about player deaths/kills reducing/awarding points in Frontlines, or the buffs of Battle High.
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...e/frontline/1/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...breakdown_and/
The Fields of Glory (Shatter)
This mode suffers from the same issues as Secure: It's not clear how points are awarded for destroying ice crystals (both in terms of whether your team gets points that are proportionate to the damage it did to a block of ice and how much a small/large block of ice is worth in the first place) versus occupying Allagan tomeliths versus player kills/deaths.
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...e/frontline/4/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...nd_how_to_fix/
Seal Rock (Seize)
Once again, it isn't clear how many points the various tomeliths give you versus player kills, and it isn't obvious that blue tomeliths are B rank, red tomeliths are A rank, and yellow tomeliths are S rank.
https://pvpaissa.com/article/seal-rock-seize
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...e/frontline/3/
Onsal Hakair (Danshig Naadam)
Same issues as the other modes. Shapes (triangles, diamonds, and pentagons) with random colors (blue, red, yellow - I guess these correspond to the same colors as Seize) show up on the map and you're expected to know that triangles are B ranks, diamonds are A ranks, and pentagons are S ranks. Lots of people don't know that two B ranks are worth just as many points as one A rank, or that two A ranks are worth just as many points as an S rank, and so they often give up easy points elsewhere to go after a heavily contested S rank in the middle.
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...e/frontline/5/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...eonsal_hakair/
I've posted links above to the official SE guides on these various modes as well as more helpful third-party information from Reddit, etc. As you can see, the SE guides provide a vague overview of the modes, but nothing about points. In any event, I still do not understand why basic rules about these modes are not explained in the game. It often seems like the equivalent of joining a random team to go play basketball in North Korea without knowing anything about their point system.
Continue reading...
The Borderland Ruins (Secure)
You're told to go capture bases or blow up nodes, but you have no idea how many points anything is worth. Is it just the team that lands the killing blow on a node that gets the points from it? How many points is a small node versus a big node versus capturing a base even worth? Does dying cause your team to lose points or does killing enemy players grant your team points? If so, how many? Unlike Rival Wings, which has a timer until the next train, Gobbie, etc., there's no timer on the node spawns, so you have to look to third-party sources to know that they spawn at 19:00 minutes, then every 4 minutes after the last one was killed, and then at 10:00 for the big node. It's hard for players to make educated decisions as to which tasks to prioritize because they have no idea how many points things are worth. Also, many players don't know about player deaths/kills reducing/awarding points in Frontlines, or the buffs of Battle High.
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...e/frontline/1/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...breakdown_and/
The Fields of Glory (Shatter)
This mode suffers from the same issues as Secure: It's not clear how points are awarded for destroying ice crystals (both in terms of whether your team gets points that are proportionate to the damage it did to a block of ice and how much a small/large block of ice is worth in the first place) versus occupying Allagan tomeliths versus player kills/deaths.
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...e/frontline/4/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...nd_how_to_fix/
Seal Rock (Seize)
Once again, it isn't clear how many points the various tomeliths give you versus player kills, and it isn't obvious that blue tomeliths are B rank, red tomeliths are A rank, and yellow tomeliths are S rank.
https://pvpaissa.com/article/seal-rock-seize
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...e/frontline/3/
Onsal Hakair (Danshig Naadam)
Same issues as the other modes. Shapes (triangles, diamonds, and pentagons) with random colors (blue, red, yellow - I guess these correspond to the same colors as Seize) show up on the map and you're expected to know that triangles are B ranks, diamonds are A ranks, and pentagons are S ranks. Lots of people don't know that two B ranks are worth just as many points as one A rank, or that two A ranks are worth just as many points as an S rank, and so they often give up easy points elsewhere to go after a heavily contested S rank in the middle.
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...e/frontline/5/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...eonsal_hakair/
I've posted links above to the official SE guides on these various modes as well as more helpful third-party information from Reddit, etc. As you can see, the SE guides provide a vague overview of the modes, but nothing about points. In any event, I still do not understand why basic rules about these modes are not explained in the game. It often seems like the equivalent of joining a random team to go play basketball in North Korea without knowing anything about their point system.
Continue reading...