Multi Final Fantasy XIV | "Growing Light" Patch 6.58

[Op19]

6.58 will also come sometime after 6.55 and wrap up the EW MSQ leading into Dawntrail. There is also an extra trial we will get which is Asura. Other than that its gonna be a dry first half of 2024...

 

[Raine]

I've actually never seen the community so negative about the game before. It kinda weirds me out; usually I'm the one decrying how things are stale/broken and getting ignored or told to shut the fuck up.

6+ months of nothing to do is going to be a doozy for them.

 

[Rachel]

That's fine by me I have so much in my backlog, definitely not logging in for awhile

Not even Hildibrand can bring me back right now which is 100% the best part of the game

 

[Rachel]

lol @ nobody talking about the new trailer or the new class

Guess we are all moving on huh

 

[Raine]

lol @ nobody talking about the new trailer or the new class

Guess we are all moving on huh

That's probably mostly on me for not sitting down and bothering to chide Yoshi/CBU3.

The bottom line really is though, that for anyone holding out hope that Dawntrail would "finally" right the ship, London FanFest should have killed those dreams. It was obvious, it was inevitable, but... yes, nothing will change. They are incapable of it. Have been incapable of it since Stormblood started eroding the promise and potential of what was there in ARR and HW.

And if anyone can walk away from London FanFest with hope still alive? Well, I'd say give it time. This, too, is the normal cycle of XIV players.

Anyway...

Viper is a stupid fucking name. Abbreviation will likely be VPR, it's a Scouting melee job as predicted. Seems to be loosely based on Zidane, obviously meant to be XIV's Thief job regardless. I'm... completely underwhelmed, as I think most people are. Here's the video.



Compare what this looks like, versus something like XI's 2(.5) Thief JSE (Job-Specific Equipment) armor sets:

...The lack of color really doesn't do it any favors. I'm not sure you could really point at VPR and be able to get someone to immediately recognize what "angry dude in brown" is supped to be.


Running out of time for the morning. Uh... new Limited Job announced, that's fucking stupid. I know some people enjoy BLU, but 1) BLU is actually bad and 2) BST/PUP will be worse.

Dungeons - I don't know how anyone can have confidence in a team that's sitting there badmouthing their bread and butter casual/story content like this. I'm still waiting for the day they say they're scaling these back even more, somehow.

Alliance Raid - XI/Vana'diel has nothing to do with XIV. 7.0 has to start an entirely new story, and one of the three story pillars is once again being dedicated to something that isn't XIV. This is beyond fucking stupid. Also, as someone that is now an XI vet: This will suck. Just like Eureka sucks.

 

[Raine]

All Saints' Wake 2023 was announced last week


​

 

[Raine]

Been poking around here and there with the game, still. Currently working on:

1) Blue Mage
Leveled from 70 to 80 yesterday, picked up all of the sub-70 spells I was still missing. Mostly Garuda and Shiva EX, various lv60 Trial/Raid stuff I couldn't be bothered to put effort into before. Cleared the Gogo fight in the Masked Carnival, got the in-game achievement for doing the "feat" in the process. Will TL;DR the story through to lv80 tonight to pick up the last of the Triple Triad cards, most likely.

2) Triple Triad
I actually spent a lot of time doing this back in late HW/early SB, so coming back to it now I already owned every card up through Patch 4.1. Knocked out all of the NPC Duels I have access to (still only at 6.1 story-wise lmao), up to like 339/344 for the PlayStation Trophy/Xbox Achievement. 340 after the aforementioned Blue Mage thing. Get some freebies whenever I progress the story, more available if I can be bothered to solo/low-man Delubrum Reginae and actually continue making progress with the Bozja story. Still need to do Euphrosyne and Thaleia, and Pandemonium 5~12 which I think finishes unlocking everything. Who knows if I'll actually bother to get all of these just to future-proof for additional Trophy/Achievement expansions. I'm leaning towards "no."

3) Island Sanctuary
Whatever you've heard, it's actually worse than that. I swear every bit of "casual" content XIV shits out is just the most obnoxious, time-gated, low-effort bullshit imaginable. I'm Rank 18 currently, need about 175,000 more Cowries and I'll have purchased all of the available items discounting whatever obnoxious loot box thing unlocks at Rank 19 with the Felicitous Favors nonsense. Really just need to get Rank 20 for the PST/XBA stuff though.

4) Fishing...
...Yeah. Square chose violence with this latest patch, and added in a Trophy/Achievement for catching ~1,400 unique fish. Which, of course, right now means doing a ton of Big/Legendary Fish. This is also something I tinkered with back in late HW/early SB, so I have every normal fish caught up through 4.1 and like ~50 Big Fish on top of that. So it could be worse, but still only around the halfway point. Haven't actually done a single fishing expedition/session yet, but Soon™. Gotta clean my damn inventory out first, for one thing... lots of furnishings and such still cluttering everything thanks to abandoning both my Personal and FC houses.

 

[Raine]

Stupid real world responsibilities.

It's time to rant for a moment.



The story setup here with Dawntrail is ultimately what makes me roll my eyes. Beneath the clearly-a-joke "summer vacation" facade, we're being presented with a war of succession as the focal point of the story. Which means political intrigue, and politicking, and... nah, I'm good. Y'know? They've done this twice now, and utterly fucked it up both times. There is no third time's the charm, there's just "fuck you, go away."

Throwing all of that away has been the single biggest sticking point for me for years, and to attempt this again with all of this baggage - How is this interesting after a universe-ending threat? Why are we still ignoring Eorzea's Nation-States and their racism and atrocities that Endwalker did not resolve with anything more than a hand-wave? Why are the Tribal Races still just a stupid punchline? What is Eorzea's future, what's going to happen over in Hingashi/the Far East? The Garlean Empire was effectively retconned out of existence insofar as being self-determining or even a threat. You fucking canceled the ending to the Bozjan narrative after ending that on a bit of a cliffhanger. THIS ENTIRE THING WITH THE MAMOOL JA, JUNGLES AND SHIT IS JUST A BLATANT COPYPASTA FOR XI'S Treasures of Aht Urghan expansion. Surprise, the Alliance Raid is XI-themed right? No. Go play in traffic goddammit. - but all of this, absolutely every bit, is complete horseshit.

I don't care about The New World any more than I cared about The First, The Thirteenth (as conceptually anything more than an inter-dimensional threat via the Voidsent, anyway), the Moon and outer space, truly even the Far East and Sharlayan. I don't care about their made-up problems, their people - fuck I actively loathe every single Scion, and there's no room for anything else with them around - their vistas. There's so, so much lore and shit to explore just on the starting continent. But, no, gotta keep doing godawful, nonsensical Theme Park™ stuff.

Have I mentioned that they need to fuck off? 'Cause... they do.



Story-centric questions/concerns that I would have if I wasn't already set on skipping every cutscene post-6.0:

- Alliance Raid is dead since that's XI-themed. The best we could hope for is that they try and Return to Ivalice it, and make Vana'diel a region/continent within the XIV universe. But... Bozja, again, was canceled. The worst-case scenario is that it's like NieR: Dark Apocalypse, where it's just trying to use XIV to shamelessly (and tardily lol) promote other games.

- Normal Raid is unannounced. This absolutely, unquestioningly, must be tied to the main story. It has to be as tied in as The Binding Coil; being an afterthought like Alexander isn't enough. Being cameo/reference/lore-killing like Omega is a death sentence.

- Job quests need to return. Multiple quests. For every job. You cannot be in love with Shadowbringers and acknowledge Ishikawa without pointing out that that only happened because of the lv30~50 Dark Knight quests. The job quests needed to stop being bad - the same way the Tribal Quests need to stop being bad - the answer was not to axe them. Going to The First was an invalid excuse; Class Quests have already established that Derplander is better than, say, the Azure Dragoon because they also have extensive training as a Lancer.

- Role quests need to stay. More like Shadowbringers, never again like Endwalker. Endwalker's were essentially bland, uninspired sidequests for prominent supporting characters; Shadowbringers explored the world through characters that needed more development anyway.

- The obligatory Primal Quests must make a return. Merging The Four Fiends into the main scenario was an absolutely dreadful idea on a number of fronts, but not the least of which was that everyone got less story as a result. If this is supposed to be a single-player game with MMO elements, which it is because that's what Yoshida has been the last 5 years pushing for it to be, then there can be no excuse for closing avenues through which story has been presented previously.



...I think that about covers it. Square has done nothing to try and retain the folk from the WoW exodus a couple years back, have done nothing to retain XIV veterans, is doing nothing to genuinely attract new players. While I'm okay with the game dying a swift and painless death (so I don't have to keep on top of achievements ), the community/fanbase shouldn't be. "If you don't like it stop playing" has been the go-to retort for ~7 years, it's why things are the way they are. It's why the game is teetering. I don't think those people actually care about the game as anything more than a chat and (E)RP simulator. And there are cheaper avenues for that.

 

[Raine]

The absolutely awful collaboration page (WHY IS THE BACKGROUND A VIDEO THAT YOU CAN'T STOP?!) for the Fall Guys crossover event is now live.

Special event-specific currency required. Rewards include terrible glamour, an emote, a mount, two minions, three Framer's Kits for Adventurer Plates, an orchestrion roll and an assortment of house furnishings.

 

[Rachel]

RE your posts in the other thread.

I'm debating whether or not to continue with Dawntrail. It sucks because the GW gang got back together. I want to be really fair for a second. Writing for an MMO has to be the toughest writing job I can imagine. It's unlike any other medium. So many things to keep track of. Power creep, stakes creep. Plus here they relaunched the game and kept things that didn't make sense to keep. Years go by and people forget what happened. Tons of NPCs they reuse that I have no idea who the person is.

I am running into a money problem. I don't want to do the trade jobs but I want to complete all the role quests, so I can't rely on the main story gear. The marketplace is so, so expensive. Rick told me he doesn't want to continue, which sucks for me. Worried about running out of button space for each expansion that adds job abilities for my controller format. The job crystal concept was a terrible mistake that keeps coming back.

It's interesting because I've been reading about their game disasters, Avengers, Forspoken, even FFXVI which was successful but not "successful enough." I've heard this is the main thing keeping Square alive, the steady income, even though they've got KH, FFVII projects, DQ, and odds and ends like Octopath and Theatrhythm. So they are probably going to continue it as long as possible.

I haven't been plugged into these trailers at all. I don't like how similar the jobs are. It's so formulaic. I saw the surprising Zepla video. It's weird because I LOVE Zero, she is interesting. The island sanctuary hasn't hooked me. No reason to go to someone else's island. And it's work, not much relaxation. The housing problem will be there forever, both in trying to get a house and also it's deserted, there is no point in having a house unless you host an RP party or something. I don't like doing the random raids/trials because there are too many at this point and I don't remember the mechanics enough to join a random party.

My favorite was Bozja. I liked the concept that I could join in any fight with no pressure. Also easy way to meet people. Wondering if that is some of it--no zone in this expansion as part of the relic quest. If the Criterion dungeons are the new thing, why are they not tied to the relic quest? I'm also wondering how they handle the "burnout balance." They don't want to have people logged in too much for risk of burnout. They want people to feel like they can take breaks. But too much of that and it becomes dead between patches and content.

 

[Raine]

Writing for an MMO has to be the toughest writing job I can imagine. It's unlike any other medium. So many things to keep track of. Power creep, stakes creep.

Yeah. I've mentioned it before, but this is where XI outstrips XIV at the one thing XIV is supposed to be good at - XI did the fantasy narrative approach. You have a world, and lore, and stories are made in that world and lore - they are not, themselves, the driving force introducing everything. So you have the base game and the first two expansions (Zilart and Promathia) telling three parts of the same story - they both continue off of the base game, but are separate and happen concurrently and sometimes have crossing paths. The third expansion, Aht Urghan, is a place we've heard about before - and then visit. It is almost entirely separate from everything that has come before, though there are a couple of cameo characters and things are mentioned beyond the scope of the Empire itself.

Next up were Wings of the Goddess and Abyssea, which both did novel things. WotG is a story that occurs in the past, showing a ton of the backstory for not just the base game + Zilart + Promathia, but also showing backstory/history for each of the three Nations. Which, unlike XIV, also have their own storylines in the base game as well. Abyssea, meanwhile, is a what-if story - it shows what happens to the world if the events of Promathia had ended in a decidedly less good way.

[Edit: Forgot Adoulin. Adoulin was after WotG, and was ostensibly the first "end of the line" breaking lol]

That was supposed to be the end of XI. But then Rhapsodies of Vana'diel happened, which is its own story that touches on and/or incorporates characters from every single thing that came before. ...And, again, that was supposed to be it. But then The Voracious Resurgence happened, which actually just recently concluded and, yet again, this is supposed to be the end.

But all of this works because it isn't one set of characters doing one continuous narrative. It's... world building. It's D&D. It's LotR. It's... Game of Thrones, maybe? With XIV being the equivalent of the TV show.

I am running into a money problem. I don't want to do the trade jobs but I want to complete all the role quests, so I can't rely on the main story gear. The marketplace is so, so expensive.

I have a decent Gil nest egg and whipping up armor sets is fairly trivial, so just lemme know what you need and we can resolve that easily enough.

Same goes for anyone else here, really. I'll warn you up front that having the DoH classes leveled and capable of making crafted gear at a moment's notice completely and utterly invalidates whatever sense of progression and meaning XIV's content does have... but it's functionally the only way to reasonably catch up once you're behind. Unless you like grinding, which runs counter to what this game is really all about.

It's interesting because I've been reading about their game disasters, Avengers, Forspoken, even FFXVI which was successful but not "successful enough." I've heard this is the main thing keeping Square alive, the steady income, even though they've got KH, FFVII projects, DQ, and odds and ends like Octopath and Theatrhythm. So they are probably going to continue it as long as possible.

Yeah, the Mog Station especially because people can't help themselves. It's also why, y'know, in-game acquirable gear options has gotten worse and worse. If you check the Lodestone with any degree of regularity, or I guess even just the launcher, you'll see an order of magnitude more updates/additions to the Mog Station for each singular content patch. It... does not leave a good taste. Especially when the things that get put on there are stuff from the stories/raids, or otherwise would've been good additions to content rewards to give people incentive to not one-and-done everything.

Edit: Although it is worth noting that mobile games are still the largest contributor to Square's bottom line, by far. And successive years of declines in their mobile game performance has led to virtually all of their current monetary and stock woes.

My favorite was Bozja. I liked the concept that I could join in any fight with no pressure. Also easy way to meet people. Wondering if that is some of it--no zone in this expansion as part of the relic quest.

Diadem, Eureka and Bozja all have that in common, yeah. And that's largely because it's an unintentional side effect of Eureka (and to a lesser extent, Diadem) trying to pay homage to XI. In XI, everything is simultaneously faster and slower than in XIV - you aren't constantly pressing buttons, even if your character is fighting (think XII-ish), so you have plenty of time to just, y'know, chat with people. You literally can not play XIV and socialize in XIV at the same time, unless you're doing voice communications.

That's not true in this content type. It wasn't true in FATE grind parties that were still popular and booming in ARR and HW. The complete lack of this kind of thing makes a very lonely MMO experience feel even worse, and while I don't think the community at large quite understands why they feel a certain way - they do. Eureka sucked for a number of reasons, all of which were because of what Square wanted versus what players wanted. Now that Eureka is more akin to XI's Abyssea, people generally have a fonder opinion of it. Same for Bozja, to an extent, though Bozja is still very stupid in a lot of ways that haven't (and will never) be addressed.

If the Criterion dungeons are the new thing, why are they not tied to the relic quest?

That's the question on everyone's mind, yeah. Why is the EW Relic just throwing a handful of Tomestones at an NPC and calling it done. The Relics were supposed to be introduced early-ish into an expansion and be something you casually picked away at over time, and came away with a very good - aesthetically and gameplay-wise - weapon for your troubles. Every expansion sees the Relic arrive later, look worse (subjective but... yeah...), and be less involved.

There's also no reason they couldn't still tie the Relics to doing current content. People try painting HW's Anima Relics as Tomestone grinds or something, but they weren't - in their original, pre-nerf implementation they had you doing FATEs, had you doing Alexander raids, had you doing (ARR) Alliance Raids to keep that content populated. It's... very, very hard to get something like The Four Lords to pop because no one had any incentive to stop and do that content. Having been tied to a (good-looking) Relic probably would've helped.

 

[Raine]

Patch 6.51 Notes | FINAL FANTASY XIV, The Lodestone

Patch 6.51 Notes

na.finalfantasyxiv.com

They added something to the Criterion/Variant dungeon thing that I find... weird. Apparently one of the rewards for clearing the Savage mode is an upgrade material for the Tomestone weapon, that puts it on par with the Savage Raid weapon. But there are some wrinkles here. First, you presently can't even have the Augmented Tomestone weapon to upgrade without clearing some of the Savage Raids. This won't change until 6.58, well into next year. Second, the substats are the same as the Savage Raid weapon - so from a gameplay perspective, basically nobody has a use for this.

The weapon glows and is therefore perhaps appealing for glamour purposes. However, this mostly interests casual players that don't even do EX Primals, much less Savage anything. And in about a month the final upgrade for the EW Relic will release, which also glows, is also at the 665 Item Level, will ostensibly continue the trend of being Best In Slot for all jobs - and will probably only cost 1,500 Causality Tomestones. 6,000 from start to finish, or roughly 10 days of doing every roulette.

So I don't know what, precisely, their thought process was there. But I would suspect this won't be repeated, especially considering how labor-strapped they claim to be - which is why Reaper and Sage have jack shit for glowing weapon, and even Gunbreaker and Dancer aren't much better off ~4 1/2 years later.

---

People are seemingly less than enthused with the Fall Guys collaboration. And, like, yeah - people have been telling Square their server refresh rate/tick is abhorrent since 2013, so this isn't a particularly surprising outcome.

 

[Raine]

Still haven't bothered to unlock it, but... Preeetty sure this blew up in Square/Yoshi's face. This is what happens when you simultaneously clout chase and low-effort a collaborative event with something bigger than MonHun or PSO.

8+ months to go until the expansion.

FFXIV players frustrated with Fall Guys crossover event as netcode stumbles - Dexerto

Final Fantasy XIV players have vented their frustration at the new Fall Guys crossover event due to poor net code.

www.dexerto.com

Final Fantasy 14’s Fall Guys event kicks up netcode frustrations that have been lingering over the MMO for the past 10 years

Bean there, done that

www.gamesradar.com

Spoiler: Auto-playing videos because Reddit sucks

I considered posting about Susan Calloway and the XIV community. But honestly? Why bother.

 

[Op19]

the event is actually fun and if you are used to the mechanics in the game like snapshotting and whatnot its not as bad as the internet is making it out to be. also it has good rewards so its better than V&C

 

[Raine]

the event is actually fun and if you are used to the mechanics in the game like snapshotting and whatnot its not as bad as the internet is making it out to be.

Aye, I can see exactly what the game is doing. But by default 99% of players don't understand that what you see is irrelevant to what the game is doing - it's always funny jumping out "into" something like Curtain Call and having the alliance chat blow up with "HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?!" - and people that don't play at all, even moreso.

It's objectively just bad to have no visible cast bars (without third-party tools, I suspect lol) and no preemptive AoE telegraphs though. The fact that most of these things have AoE indicators anyway, but they're visible after the hit is already locked in, merely preemptively removes the aesthetic argument and adds more confusion to people that don't understand the server ticks.

I mean hell one of my friends spent the last 18-ish months getting all of her Ultimate clears, and I still wonder how because she's constantly (unintentionally!) eating shit everywhere else.

also it has good rewards so its better than V&C

That's a mood!

I don't think I even like the glows on the weapon upgrades from Savage, honestly.

 

[Raine]

Cackling into the void is just what I've done for the last decade or so. Currently running short on popcorn, though.

I unlocked it over the weekend, but timing didn't work out to actually sit down with my partner and do a single race yet.

Meanwhile...

Spoiler: Auto-playing Reddit videos 'cause, again, Reddit sucks

Automation and Flee(speed) hacking has arrived:




Blatantly fishing for solo instances so they don't have to put up with all of the bullshit (including the above) and can just get their Queen/King Bean title (for winning 100 races, WTF Square ) in peace:

 

[Rachel]

I just want to add someone photoshopped the FFXIV Fall Guys win screen in front of the background where that one Garlean commander guy

Spoiler

shoots himself and the blood is still visible on the wall

Something else I want to add: Yoshi-P, Americans are degenerates. You've surely learned this by now. I understand you live in a perfect society and everyone does not cheat and is polite. But Americans ruin things. It's what we do. We find the script or the loophole. I'm sorry we can't just have this.

 

[Raine]

I just want to add someone photoshopped the FFXIV Fall Guys win screen in front of the background where that one Garlean commander guy

Heh, yeah. Thing is you don't even need to go out of your way to cite tonal whiplash; the entirety of the Loporrits took care of that.

Something else I want to add: Yoshi-P, Americans are degenerates. You've surely learned this by now.

Nooo.

The community - yes, that one, the "nicest and bestest community evar" - has issued death threats to the developers on multiple occasions because of cheating and their lack of response to it. Savage/Ultimate, PvP, Ishgardian Restoration rankings, Elite Marks/Hunts, Triple Triad Tournaments, soloing Palace of the Dead, housing/placard automation, the marketboard bots, gathering bots, all throughout ARR and the vast majority of HW you literally could not escape RMT /tells - I got three while in the opening cutscene when I first started. Absolutely nothing is unblemished.

Square was notoriously harsh on people in XI, multiple times. In a game wherein it took literal years to build up a character, your reputation meant something, etc. But in this theme park nothing matters siesta? Nah, same notorious cheaters/botters/bad apples doing the same things for years - with photographic and video evidence, many even straight-up livestream themselves - and there are seemingly no consequences.

 

[Raine]

Free Login Campaigns are infinitely better, but some people might be able to take advantage all the same.

Callback Campaign | FINAL FANTASY XIV, The Lodestone

Reunite with old friends and embark on new adventures!

na.finalfantasyxiv.com

 

[Raine]

Starlight Celebration 2023 starts tomorrow


​

 

[Rachel]

I am bumping this since it is the most recent thread

Well, they had their fanfest and announced pictomancer as the new class.

I guess the shirt was a reference to both classes. In that thread we were musing both options, I remember.

I have mixed opinions about it. I give them credit for doing something a little different. But it's goofy and not really fitting the tone of the game. I also don't really understand how it will be different mechanically but I guess we will see.

I think some kind of green mage/shaman etc setup would have been a better fit for whatever this expansion is trying to be.

I think I would like this better if it had a tone more like...like Okami. Hints of calligraphy etc.

Also confused about how they decide which mages get raise. Red mage sure. Summoner because they have the other class?

 

[Raine]

SMN basically only has Raise because Arcanist has it, yeah. It’s going back to the original split design of SMN/SCH that saw SCH effectively be a near-DPS with its extraordinary amount of DoTs.

Picto (PIC? PCT?) is basically a counterpart to BLM I guess, whereas RDM is the counterpart to SMN? Not sure what their idea is if I’m being honest.


I… don’t have a single positive thing to say about this game anymore.

Everything about the showcase was dreadful. By rights Dawntrail should have been out in December; they delayed to get back to their original June/July pre-COVID schedule. They’ve now announced Summer, which is generously +6 months of development time. And I do not see any improvement on the content front, much less multiple months of it.

And of course: “Please care about our political intrigue,” meanwhile let’s throw in a Star Ocean/Phantasy Star/FF13-calibur/fucking-Wakanda-without-black-people futuristic society that clearly outclasses Elpis, Allag and Garlemald. Oh and also, casual content where we just fuck to entirely different planets for giggles and capital gain.

And yeah being kind of petty, I hate how garish Pictomancer is. There’s an Omega fight that uses watercolor as a mechanic and the crafted, glowing Byakko weapons have a paint-like aesthetic. Both of those are infinitely better than this Splatoon/Fall Guys stuff that will make the already unbearable particle effect vomit even worse.

 

[Rachel]

I just don't understand what the hook of this expansion is supposed to be. Maybe it's because they are keeping whatever villain or threat it is under wraps? The trailers showcase the new classes, fighting monsters, and the crew canvasing the area.

And of course: "Please care about our political intrigue," meanwhile let's throw in a Star Ocean/Phantasy Star/FF13-calibur/fucking-Wakanda-without-black-people futuristic society that clearly outclasses Elpis, Allag and Garlemald. Oh and also, casual content where we just fuck to entirely different planets for giggles and capital gain.

I must have missed something, what political intrigue? I only watched the trailer and didn't tune in to fanfest itself.

Everything about the showcase was dreadful. By rights Dawntrail should have been out in December; they delayed to get back to their original June/July pre-COVID schedule. They've now announced Summer, which is generously +6 months of development time. And I do not see any improvement on the content front, much less multiple months of it.

Trying to figure out if some of this time is them working on the backend, when it was originally coded I doubt they thought this game would go on for so long. Is it a horrible mess at this point? Anyway maybe that could be a reason you don't see it.

The graphical updates were...okay. Like I guess that's fine. The faces did look better. But it didn't get much of reaction from me, it wasn't a WOW reaction.

I think I would pick this up if I could just buy the expansion and not have a subscription, basically if everything was NPCs. They are reducing the required MMO parts of it anyway! Like I am betting a lot of people don't have any interaction except the required trial fights at this point. And Gold Saucer lotteries.

 

[Raine]

I just don't understand what the hook of this expansion is supposed to be. Maybe it's because they are keeping whatever villain or threat it is under wraps? The trailers showcase the new classes, fighting monsters, and the crew canvasing the area.

You and me and everyone else that isn't deep in the cult, sadly.

Everything from 1.0 through EW has been wrapped up... mostly poorly, but wrapped all the same. This expansion has to be the launch point for an entirely new story, and yet there's damn near nothing here?

Look at the original "A New Beginning" video (fuck you, Susan Calloway!) and compare it to the Dawntrail video. They are completely incomparable and the latter has no hook and no cohesion - that's the problem in a nice, tidy little nutshell: Dawntrail is "just" an expansion, nothing more.

Links for casual observers:

I must have missed something, what political intrigue? I only watched the trailer and didn't tune in to fanfest itself.

The "Civil War"/"War of Ascension" or whatever the hell they're going on about, which is our reason for going to the New World/Tural to begin with. They keep calling it a leisurely vacation, but no, it's just getting drug into some meaningless political intrigue stuff that will, by their own words, drive a wedge between the Scions (for one contrived reason or another) and pit them against each other. Or something. That's what the story for Dawntrail will be, until they discard it for whatever this futuristic society/Allagan Empire replacement is supposed to be around halfway through. ...So literally lv96, probably.

Trying to figure out if some of this time is them working on the backend, when it was originally coded I doubt they thought this game would go on for so long. Is it a horrible mess at this point? Anyway maybe that could be a reason you don't see it.

Complete and utter disaster, yes. They haven't really given any indication that they're working on any of their extensive technical debt, which is ultimately responsible for - and a convenient shield/excuse, when pushed - a laundry list of more common complaints. Perhaps they are. I would say that they have far, far bigger tasks to tackle first though given the state of the community right now.

It's one thing for me to badmouth Square/XIV/Yoshi. It's... quite a different thing all together for every comment section playing host to a significant amount of grievance and, worse, apathy/resignation.

I think I would pick this up if I could just buy the expansion and not have a subscription, basically if everything was NPCs. They are reducing the required MMO parts of it anyway! Like I am betting a lot of people don't have any interaction except the required trial fights at this point. And Gold Saucer lotteries.

What's funny is their exact pivot post-HW has been to capture an audience that would by all accounts include you(r statement here). They've been pushing XIV more and more into a super casual, near-entirely-solo affair with a tiny smidgen of Second Life and begrudgingly obligatory MMO endgame. To appeal to their "core" Final Fantasy audience, because they think those people's primary and, yes truly, only reason for hesitancy is not wanting to play with other people (at a high standard).

It's really just that people don't want to pay a monthly subscription while playing on other people's schedules and being held to their standards, though. It's both! Obviously.

 

[Raine]

Patch 6.55 Notes | FINAL FANTASY XIV, The Lodestone

Patch 6.55 Notes

na.finalfantasyxiv.com

Conclusion of Endwalker content
- 1 New HM Trial, no EX version
- MSQ leading into Dawntrail
- Final entry in Tataru's sidequest
- Allied Tribe Quest for EW
- Final episode of EW Hildibrand + final (i665) Relic upgrade

 

[Raine]

The Final Fantasy XI Crossover Event, The Maiden's Rhapsody, is Returning Once More


​

Note: There were two different FFXI crossover events. This one starring Iroha from FFXI's Rhapsodies of Vana'diel expansion, and an older one that will never get rerun (because its reward was placed onto the Mog Station) starring Shantotto entitled "Burgeoning Dread."

Neither are likely to be canon/relevant for the Dawntrail Alliance Raid series.

 

[Raine]

I have been... distracted. From my distraction that is pissing and moaning (and sometimes even playing) XIV.


Missed:
Valentione's Day was Feb 7 through Feb 21st, and rewarded an emote (Will be available via Mog Station next Valentine's Day for probably $8, because Square.)
There was a Free Login Campaign from Feb 1st through Feb 21st (Whoops!)


Ongoing

Patch 6.57 Notes | FINAL FANTASY XIV, The Lodestone

Patch 6.57 Notes

na.finalfantasyxiv.com

- Tomestone cap increased from 450 to 900
- Savage lockout removed
- Nothing else of note

Only things left between now and Dawntrail launch in late Summer is actually being able to purchase the upgraded Tomestone weapon (with Clan Nuts or the Alliance Raid exchange items) to its i660 version without doing Savage. ...Which is completely irrelevant because 6,000 uncapped Tomestones gets you an i665 weapon with fully customizable stats right now.


Xbox "Beta" started yesterday.

How to Participate in the Xbox Series X|S Open Beta Test | FINAL FANTASY XIV, The Lodestone

How to Participate in the Xbox Series X|S Open Beta Test

na.finalfantasyxiv.com

- Only available for Free Trial accounts until the Open Beta ends, which will ostensibly be Early Access weekend for Dawntrail. Because reasons.
- The full version of the game will require both an Xbox Live Core subscription and a Final Fantasy XIV subscription. This is not the case on PlayStation, and obviously not the case on PC, and is absolutely fucking mindblowingly stupid. However, I would expect nothing else from Square Enix and Microsoft at this point. Give me my achievements and piss off.


"First Half" of the Genesis edition of the Moogle Treasure Trove lasts until March 11th. Rewards are far and away the worst ones available in any of the Moogle Treasure Trove events to date, with or without the list being arbitrarily split in two to cover for the enormous content drought between 6.55 and 7.0.

Moogle Treasure Trove ─ The First Hunt for Genesis Commences January 30! | FINAL FANTASY XIV, The Lodestone

Moogle Treasure Trove ─ The First Hunt for Genesis Commences January 30!

na.finalfantasyxiv.com

Full list for Part 1 and Part 2 (which was datamined):



The XV crossover event is coming back, as with the XI one (and upcoming XVI one that's actually new), to also try and cover for the content drought. Notable that this event gives you the Noctis glamour set, along with a 4-person mount (the Regalia) which is actually super nice for transporting friends around. There are other options for earning or purchasing (with real money) other 4-seater mounts, but this is definitely far and away the least pain-free method especially for lower-level players.

The FINAL FANTASY XIV & FINAL FANTASY XV Collaboration Event Returns! | FINAL FANTASY XIV, The Lodestone

The FINAL FANTASY XIV & FINAL FANTASY XV Collaboration Event Returns!

na.finalfantasyxiv.com

 

[Raine]

I should probably bump this too. Couple of things to post, but Not Right Now™.

Dawntrail got its official release date though:

 

[Raine]

Patch 6.58 Notes | FINAL FANTASY XIV, The Lodestone

Patch 6.58 Notes

na.finalfantasyxiv.com

- Trusts now gain more EXP from Endwalker dungeons (fewer clears required to level them up)
- Normal Raid (Anabaseios) item to acquire i650 Tomestone Weapons are now off of lockout
- Tomestone Weapon upgrade material can now be purchased using Clan Nuts or Myths of the Realm Coins
- Alliance Raid (Thaleia) weekly restriction on gear removed
- Savage Raid (Anabaseios) drop and entry restrictions removed
- Cross-Data Center Travel is currently under beta, all Data Centers can now visit the Oceanian Data Center

---

Final Fantasy XVI Crossover was announced at the PAX Panel, starts April 2nd.


​

---

Little Ladies' Day / Hatching-tide 2024 is still ongoing through April 1st


​

 

[Raine]

They had a Live Letter over the weekend, showing off some of the graphical stuff. Detailed honestly embarrassing-it-took-13-years blacklist upgrades, some other minor stuff.

Roadmap from here until Dawntrail release insofar as Seasonal Events are concerned:




And they released the Dawntrail Benchmark, wherein you can test out the character creator (including female Hrothgar) with the new graphic tweaks. Or, more importantly, see how the game runs on your system with the updated minimum spec requirements.

Dawntrail Official Benchmark Available Now! | FINAL FANTASY XIV, The Lodestone

Dawntrail Official Benchmark Available Now!

na.finalfantasyxiv.com

I'm... not super impressed with how my character looks? Or really Highlanders at all. Will probably tinker a bit after the expansion drops and it's a bit easier to move and manipulate things, but whatever.

What the benchmark auto-screenshot for me that aren't completely worthless:

 

[Rachel]

Looking at your character I just realized she looks exactly like another character that is very spoiler-y from another game I have played recently

You should play that game lol

Hoping TD knows what I mean

 

[Raine]

You should play that game lol

I should probably play games, period, before trying to focus on any particular one! This has definitely not been a gaming year so far!

One day I'll get more than ~12 hours into Persona 3 Reload. Meanwhile, backlog goes brr.

Odds are I either own or have on order whichever game this is alluding to! Buuut, yeah. lol

 

[Rachel]

like...I think you should play that other game instead of this expansion

Sorry...we all complain about it...why are we still playing lol

Well I'm not at least, I'm out (think I've mentioned it before). I only have time for a few games a year. I can't do it anymore. It's just shoveling the same formula crap and I'm tired.

PS - I mean it I think you would really, really like the character I am talking about lol

Like way better than anything here

 

[Raine]

Sorry...we all complain about it...why are we still playing lol

Well I'm not at least, I'm out (think I've mentioned it before). I only have time for a few games a year. I can't do it anymore. It's just shoveling the same formula crap and I'm tired.

In my defense! I did quit playing for like 18 months because the game is just utterly... bland? Dire? Pointless? All of the above! And I actually played other bad games for a bit! Buuut...

...then the Xbox version happened, so now I gotta get my achievements. Because I'm very dumb. I only put in four big days last month though; haven't done a whole lot since. So, yeah, I feel you - but also, I just haven't played much of anything period this year.


The liking of the spoiler-y woman better than the Scions should be a very easy hurdle to clear. lol

Do I at least get a hint?! Ostensibly Elden Ring, maybe Dragon's Dogma 2?

 

[Rachel]

it's a character from BG3

I don't see you playing BG3 though, so honestly maybe just watch a let's play. Though obviously it's better to discover on your own playthrough. Shows up earlier than the end of the game, can't say more

I'll sweeten the deal, she is

1. Really tall like you/your character
2. LGBTQ (not saying which letter lmao)

I am not kidding though, this character was...like tailor made for you



Also her VA is really REALLY cool (DON'T LOOK THIS UP)

Anyway uh, yeah, FFXIV

 

[Raine]

I don't see you playing BG3 though

...I can't tell if this is more "doesn't seem like your kind of game" or "as if you'll ever reach that portion of your backlog."

I DID order the physical edition! This thing:

Just waiting for it to actually show up!

I'll sweeten the deal, she is

1. Really tall like you/your character
2. LGBTQ (not saying which letter lmao)

I am not kidding though, this character was...like tailor made for you

Fuuu

Fine, you got me. You win. Whenever it shows up, I will immediately play it.

Anyway uh, yeah, FFXIV

Wait, I mean:

* This event is identical to the one previously held, with the addition of a framer’s kit.

 

[Rachel]

..I can't tell if this is more "doesn't seem like your kind of game" or "as if you'll ever reach that portion of your backlog."

It's the second one

Edit: wait what do you mean? They are doing that collab again? Why? Japan is into that still?

Okay I guess

That one sidequest from the first time is still in my backlog

 

[Raine]

Your confidence in me is telling!

...And probably on point.

 

[Rachel]

don't you really really love the Persona series lmao

 

[Raine]

Hey! Listen, listen. I got a whole 12 3-ish hours into Reload, that's... uh... almost something?

 

[Raine]

Edit: wait what do you mean? They are doing that collab again? Why? Japan is into that still?

Okay I guess

That one sidequest from the first time is still in my backlog

I think they wind up re-running the event at the end of every expansion, to try and hide some of the enormously unhealthy content drought. And because it's one of the only things they have in their back pocket, since generally all of the Seasonal Event items wind up going onto the Mog Station for real money and they refuse to stop being greedy/stupid and stop that.

Pretty sure Yokai is a borderline dead IP in Japan now. And never took off outside of Japan, obviously. Amusingly started going downhill immediately after the first collaboration event back in, uh... 2016? -ish.

 

[Raine]

Beating a dead horse, yadda yadda, but...

This is "The" defining trait/feature of Dawntrail, the graphical update. For which obviously the character creator/characters in general are the central draw. As evidenced by spending 5 minutes zooming in on a Lalafell chin and trying to explain why it was so different.

How the hell do you overlook updating said character creator environment as part of that? First impressions are everything. Fantasias cost real money. Just a completely unnecessary own-goal here for an expansion that's already buckling under the weight of expectations.

An Update on the Dawntrail Official Benchmark | FINAL FANTASY XIV, The Lodestone

An Update on the Dawntrail Official Benchmark

na.finalfantasyxiv.com

[04/19/2024 6:30 AM] An Update on the Dawntrail Official Benchmark

1. Character Creation System in the Benchmark
The character creation system was created over ten years ago, based on the release version of A Realm Reborn. Although it used the same processes as the actual game, certain aspects (such as weather) were combined to create special conditions exclusive to character creation. This was done to present the texture resolutions and shaders at their best based on the quality standards at the time, which included the PlayStation 3 version. Furthermore, its light sources take advantage of backlighting which, in this case, proved detrimental for showcasing the upcoming graphical update.

The character creation environment should have been updated, but was overlooked as we prioritized the development of Dawntrail and tuning the graphical update in the actual game, for which I would like to apologize.

 

[Raposuh]

Just popping in to say this game has completely annihilated my social life. I have spent so many hours at the gold saucer.

Nearly done with Heavensward MSQ. Does anyone else picture the Heavens Ward knights on their airship just totally broing out, drinking Miller High Life and towing Pope Thordan behind the ship on an inner tube.

 

[Raposuh]

dying laughing at the broom in Matoya's cave that references South Park's anime episode.

 

[Raine]

dying laughing at the broom in Matoya's cave that references South Park's anime episode.

There are just So. Many. References. And puns, don't forget all the puns. Koji Fox needed to be stopped years ago, and yet... and yet they encouraged him to go further?!

Glad to hear you're enjoying the game, though! Best advice is to just do your own thing and take your time. Unless you get bored of the MSQ/quest design, the journey is the best part of XIV - the problems only really start showing up after you're all "caught up."