[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[eschatological]

Yanno what has great audio cues? WoW.

All my raiders would blast music while raiding. Not me. The boss would always say something before a particular mechanic, to the point that I would never have to look at BigWigs for that mechanic at all. Every time my raiders would miss that mechanic, I'd ask them if they were playing music and a) missed my call because of it, or b) missed the game's actual call because of it.

I think I might be a bit ADD though, in that regard, because I can't play music or watch TV while doing "harder" content. Even in expert dungeons I pause whatever YouTube video I'm watching during boss fights just to concentrate on my rotation.

[Saradain]

So, housing lottery resumed. After 2 hours of that, I already had 23 participants on the sole free private buyer large plot in the server, that I already put a bid on myself.

Enough said.

[Granyala]

Yanno what has great audio cues? WoW.

Yup, later in the game I didn't even look much at my DBM anymore. Bosses voice lines were often enough to know what was up and what to pay attention to.
I often had music running but it was quietly in the background.

[eschatological]

So, housing lottery resumed. After 2 hours of that, I already had 23 participants on the sole free private buyer large plot in the server, that I already put a bid on myself.

Enough said.

That was always going to happen once the first round of the lottery was over and diluted bids were going to consolidate on lone, still-unbought properties.

[Saradain]

That was always going to happen once the first round of the lottery was over and diluted bids were going to consolidate on lone, still-unbought properties.

Just doesn't help that FC-only wards exist with their vast amount of free plots. And anyone leaving the FC wards as private buyers, leave the plots doomed for FCs only.

[Granyala]

Just doesn't help that FC-only wards exist with their vast amount of free plots. And anyone leaving the FC wards as private buyers, leave the plots doomed for FCs only.

I'm sure they will change that eventually, if the plots stay empty for too long.

[Onikaroshi]

I'm sure they will change that eventually, if the plots stay empty for too long.

Didn't realize some servers were having issues with this, our FC wards are pretty full.

[Wrecktangle]

compared to ACT, that gives players who do use it (especially the triggers) a clear advantage over players who do not use it. From a DEV perspective: ACT is the bigger problem here.

I feel like I could confidently say every single anti-parsing person on this board has gone on record saying "they don't care if the dungeon takes a little bit longer" so how is ACT giving an advantage if all it really does is help you just clear content "a little bit sooner".

It looks a smidge like hypocrisy.

[Shiira]

If they're bringing up dungeons as an example that says a lot about the type of player who holds that opinion. ACT is a huge advantage when youre using it in difficult content.

[Ghost of Cow]

I feel like I could confidently say every single anti-parsing person on this board has gone on record saying "they don't care if the dungeon takes a little bit longer" so how is ACT giving an advantage if all it really does is help you just clear content "a little bit sooner".

It looks a smidge like hypocrisy.

That's extremely reductionist nonsense, though.

"Oh, you like getting to places faster, but you're not ok with me running red lights? Pft, hypocrite."

[StrawberryZebra]

The boss would always say something before a particular mechanic, to the point that I would never have to look at BigWigs for that mechanic at all.

They don't even need to directly say anything. Hydaelyn Ex for example could have Water/Ice/Earth sound effects for each of her empowered effects.

It's a good boss to highlight some of the encounter design issues with too - Blue effects on blue backgrounds don't usually pop well, even less so if you're playing a Job that also has blue particle effects. It's a problem not only for her empowered skills, but it can sometimes also obscure her sword and shield weapon swap.

Some well placed sound effects could help clarify some of what's going on. It also means that you can look at what else is going on around you, without needing to be staring at the boss all of the time.

Would it make the fight easier? Probably not in my opinion. For me, the death conditions should be that you failed to complete the mechanics, not that you couldn't see which mechanic you were supposed to do. It's also entry level content, so it should help ease players into harder raid content. Which is the other reason I've used it as an example, its one I'm assuming everyone has done.

If they're bringing up dungeons as an example that says a lot about the type of player who holds that opinion. ACT is a huge advantage when youre using it in difficult content.

As I read it, the unspoken concern is that ACT would be used as a tool to exclude people from content in much the same way things like Gear Score and r.io were in WoW. And as much as I understand that concern, it's also completely unfounded. The Party Finder just lets you join parties that have a spot open, it doesn't ask for anyone to okay it or approve it, you click join and you're in. The Duty finder is automatic and isn't capable of excluding anyone.

Anyone and everyone can and will be able to complete any content that they want. The barrier for entry is as either as easy as queuing up in the Duty Finder, or as hard as getting a set of gear from the Market Board and watching a guide. In all my time pugging raids, I've never seen anybody be vetted more than a casual glance at their gear.

What this really highlights, in my opinion, is that there's a huge gap in between those two sections of the player base, and neither one is making the effort to put their point across in a way the other is going to understand.

What, I think, is core to this line of thought is that people are worried they'd be exposed as poor players and openly attacked if ACT was allowed. Which is a fair concern to have too. The obvious response to this is "Git gud", but I think that misses the point - Some people don't want FF 14 to be hard work. They want the cool Sword/Mount/Whatever for their glamour, RP set or whatever it is they do. They're playing the game as a place to hang out with friends and all that dragon slaying business gets in the way.

So of course they're worried that the big bad elitists with the fancy DPS meters and the BiS gear are going to out perform them, then point out all their mistakes and generally be confrontational with anyone who's not as skilled as them. In my experience, they're going to bragging that they did 9k DPS and carried you rather than complaining that you "only" cleared it in 15 minutes.

Good players really don't care about your personal DPS as much as you think - They care about their own performance far more. The chances of being kicked from a Dungeon group for not performing are so remote that they're really not worth worrying about.

The fundamental misunderstanding as I see it is that the kinds of player who only does Dungeons for mounts, Glams ect is very outwardly focused. They care about what other players think of them and how they're presenting themselves to the community at large. From that kind of mindset other players having a negative opinion of you, perhaps even to the point where you're excluded from content, is a real concern. They see ACT as a way to create an "in group" and an "out group", and they really don't want to be in the out group because thats going to stop them doing the things they find fun.

The serious raiders are inwardly focused, they're concerned with what they can be doing better, how they can improve as a player and where they can get gear upgrades from. They're looking for every gain, however marginal it may be. I won't say they're completely unconcerned about how the rest of their group is doing, but the only person they're being picky and judgemental with is themselves. If they're already in a static then they're not often going to cross paths with Dungeon farmers. You're already in their out group anyway - And you'll stay there until you decide to join in with them.

Yet we seem to be in a place where the vocal parts of the community are doing their best to reject ACT before they themselves get rejected from content. Its perfectly normal when you look at it as a self-defence mechanism, but it's impractical when you're trying to have an open conversation. Especially when it would end up being a complete none issue for the vast majority of players in both camps anyway.

[eschatological]

If you look at, say, Aglaia's last boss, Nald'Thal. Imagine if the blue/red anchors floating around him were the only indicators of the phase he was in. I main melee, I'm usually up a boss's ass, and I have a habit of looking straight down from above as melee, from WoW. When I tried tracking the mechanic that way, it required a lot of camera movement that made it harder for me to hit positionals (especially when you consider that there is exactly one way to determine positionals, and the more "straight down" the camera angle is, the easier it is to find that border). But when the walls of the arena also change color to indicate if he's in fire/dark phase, that's far more helpful. Which is strange, because that also requires a camera adjustment, but it's just a flick of the camera to check the color of the arena walls.

So that's a good design decision, imo.

[Granyala]

I feel like I could confidently say every single anti-parsing person on this board has gone on record saying "they don't care if the dungeon takes a little bit longer" so how is ACT giving an advantage if all it really does is help you just clear content "a little bit sooner".

It looks a smidge like hypocrisy.

I'm talking about Savage/Ultimate, not casual content. Stop looking for a contradiction, where there is none. <_<
A 3rd party program telling you what to do and when would be considered hard cheating in any game I know of.

[Wrecktangle]

If they're bringing up dungeons as an example that says a lot about the type of player who holds that opinion. ACT is a huge advantage when youre using it in difficult content.

Not sure I follow. Can you elaborate?

That's extremely reductionist nonsense, though.

"Oh, you like getting to places faster, but you're not ok with me running red lights? Pft, hypocrite."

Not sure that's the correct analogy for this situation. Would it be more akin to having a faster car? Or are you trying to draw the parallel of ACT being against the rules similar to running a red light?

The faster car accelerates more quickly thus allowing you to maybe make lights (skip phases) you wouldn't have otherwise beaten. It helps you get to your destination quicker (shortening the learning curve, aka beating it faster). I don't quite see how drawing the analogy to recklessly running lights to get to a destination faster as equivalent; especially considering me using ACT isn't dangerous to myself or others; but running red lights absolutely is. I think mine fits considerably better, and proves my point much better than your attempt at reducing my argument.

All else equal, if my choice is a slower identical car; or a faster identical car, I'm going to support taking the faster one EVERY single time.

I'm talking about Savage/Ultimate, not casual content. Stop looking for a contradiction, where there is none. <_<
A 3rd party program telling you what to do and when would be considered hard cheating in any game I know of.

Ok but hear me out; what if ACT didn't exist, but your partner (bf, gf, etc.) sat behind you with a notepad and recited the upcoming mechanics or phases. Is that cheating? Functionally it's identical. It's not automating your play at all, so I fail to see the cheating comparison here. I agree on the advantage piece, with the caveat that advantage being time saved for myself; not outwardly against anyone else.

[Gutler]

Decided to finally get around to leveling my crafters this week and i gotta say the level 81 collectable turn in method is pretty nice for leveling only required 1 macro and the level 81 gear with only 2 over melds and now i have all crafters level 90.

[Shiira]

Not sure I follow. Can you elaborate?

ACT and fflogs are an enormous advantage when you're using them in difficult content. Even ignoring triggers which are a whole separate issue, logs let you see things like exactly what happened during a wipe, whether you had mitigation up in time for that one raid wide that someone died to, they make it easier to figure out exactly how much time there is in between mechanics. There are real benefits to having this information available to you. Parsing is just a minigame people play when progress is over, the main benefits of act and logs are helping clears happen in the first place. These benefits are irrelevant in dungeons because dungeons don't have challenging mechanics or tight tuning.

Good players really don't care about your personal DPS as much as you think - They care about their own performance far more.

I'm not going to respond to your whole post but this is totally on point. I don't care if people can't perform a flawless rotation in easy content as long as they're at least trying to contribute. If the other dps does half my damage, whatever, it happens. If they don't bother to aoe on trash at all, now we have problems. And that's not something you need addons to see.

[Granyala]

Ok but hear me out; what if ACT didn't exist, but your partner (bf, gf, etc.) sat behind you with a notepad and recited the upcoming mechanics or phases. Is that cheating?

Your definition of cheating is way too narrow. Cheating is not just about automation.

You are combining brain power to do a challenge you are supposed to do yourself.
You will have an advantage over someone who does not have a GF sitting behind him, feeding him information.

If you ever were in a raid with a competent raid leader and in a raid w/o one, you'd realize what a tremendous amount of difference such individual can make. Despite the fact, that such a raid leader does not "automate" anything for the individual player.

[hzjf]

Its 2022

You wanna know whats going wrong. You wanna IMPROVE. You dont wanna spend DAYS/WEEKS not knowing what the Fuck is going on.

How is that FUN? Square-Enix stance on Addons is just pathetic. Just hardcore Ban the People for harassing but then you listen to an Interview with "Yoshi the God the Saviour of FF14 - P"

and you understand that he is a Casual at Heart. He cant understand the Mindset of Hardcore Players.

Healers in this Game are absolute dogshit to play. Whats the GOD's Answer ? "Go play Ultimate its challenging"


People give him way more credit than he deserves just because he spend some time in WoW and was able to Copy Paste WoW sucessful Model into a FF14 Version. Grow up that was what 9 Years ago ? The Game has so many Problems outside of the evil Mods that need hard fixing but poor little Square-Enix doesnt have the Team for it

[Echocho]

Its 2022

You wanna know whats going wrong. You wanna IMPROVE. You dont wanna spend DAYS/WEEKS not knowing what the Fuck is going on.

How is that FUN? Square-Enix stance on Addons is just pathetic. Just hardcore Ban the People for harassing but then you listen to an Interview with "Yoshi the God the Saviour of FF14 - P"

and you understand that he is a Casual at Heart. He cant understand the Mindset of Hardcore Players.

Healers in this Game are absolute dogshit to play. Whats the GOD's Answer ? "Go play Ultimate its challenging"


People give him way more credit than he deserves just because he spend some time in WoW and was able to Copy Paste WoW sucessful Model into a FF14 Version. Grow up that was what 9 Years ago ? The Game has so many Problems outside of the evil Mods that need hard fixing but poor little Square-Enix doesnt have the Team for it

I wish WoW would do more of this. Catering to the hardcore and pushing people to always perform has caused the game to become very toxic.

[hzjf]

I wish WoW would do more of this. Catering to the hardcore and pushing people to always perform has caused the game to become very toxic.

wow is not catering to the hardcore players. stop with this Myth PLEASE its also 2022 in that Area

The Issue with WoW is that Blizzard thinks Players NEED to login daily. WoW does not have hardcore content outside of the first few Weeks in a new Mythic Raid