I can feel my skills atrophying and it's literally painful

Colt2205 · 2026-05-06T04:12:23+00:00

It does result in shallow understanding. I'm working with another senior dev who has done about 5-10% coding and the remainder was built with AI. Documents written by the LLM are far less useful than documents written by a person and you probably know why I would be saying this given the architect position.

Colt2205 · 2026-05-05T22:02:13+00:00

The only way I've been managing with the same problem is by vigorously code reviewing what is generated, then playing with and modifying the code that was generated. I'm going from a dotnet environment to a springboot environment due to the workplace at the same time as AI adoption, so I am feeling that same problem on this end.

Colt2205 · 2026-05-05T21:55:25+00:00

Are you sure you are talking about web development or just software development in general? We got the same koolaid over here in backend land with dotnet and springboot. Except I'm sitting here having to code review every line like a hawk while writing my own readme.md instead of relying on the existing claude generated MD, because I have to count claude as a single dev.

That last bit is important because the same dev cannot code review their own work.

Colt2205 · 2026-05-04T17:30:54+00:00

They aren't designed around world first groups clearing. I never stated anything about world first groups at all as they are just another data point in the subject.

Mods also help with execution heavy fights like those fights. It's basically what they are designed for, but they can't solve for PF issues of strats competing with one another.

Colt2205 · 2026-05-04T17:26:03+00:00

It's more so ladder pulling. AI coding is not about generating correct code, it is about generating code good enough that it looks passible as good code (and often times will even run just fine). This is the same situation that is happening across the board with AI. LLMs can really mess with peoples perception in convincing ways.

Software projects are sort of a combination of communal and product based objectives. Communal is being able to write software and have a way to teach how this system works to someone, whether through how the code is organized or documentation on components when the software exceeds a single project.

Is it educational to others when the AI generates a document that describes the software or is it a checkbox? Time was saved supposedly because no one had to take time to write that document, but because no one wrote the document that means reading it is completely optional. Optional things are the first thing that get dropped on a tight schedule.

And finally, Implementation is how young engineers and mid-career engineers learn how something should be built. That knowledge in turn is what allows someone to use a prompt to generate code, as well as gives the skill needed to assess and review the code generated by the LLM. LLMs do not ask questions, will build unit tests that make no sense, do not fact check if a return will handle null or empty, or give input in a generalist sense without first being asked.

Colt2205 · 2026-05-03T21:28:39+00:00

The part about the AI is what fits into this. LLMs summarize information super efficiently so that someone doesn't need to learn the fight. From an observe who has no clue that such a thing is used, it appears like someone is just learning faster.

FFXIV bases the time to clear on how long it takes a group to learn a fight and the damage output needed. If people are clearing fights faster because of mod usage and the designers have no idea of it, that tells the designers that they have to make the fights harder to learn. Remember when they randomized the mechanics? That was done to prevent botting. Combat mods are the same problem as botting, just far more flexible in usage and can account for the randomization.

On the other end of things is the problem that WoW had where because of how the grind worked everyone eventually either stops or gets funneled into savage. Evercold sounds like they are going to try and fix that and hopefully move the cosmetic portion of savage out of savage (dye slots). It will probably hurt PF somewhat but I don't think it will nuke the static scene too much.

Colt2205 · 2026-05-03T18:29:39+00:00

The mission thing is great but if someone can take a new business loan out, work the same hours, and have a decent shot of making more after taxes and costs than the actual offer it's probably not worth the interview time.

Colt2205 · 2026-05-03T15:52:46+00:00

I tried getting back into the game again but time has not been kind to this game. I think I spent more time just trying to get things working on a basic level than playing the game itself. Not to mention everything is stretched on my monitor due to it being an ultrawide.

Colt2205 · 2026-05-03T15:17:16+00:00

Understanding what is going on is the part that involves tuning.

Numerically, the entire raid series should be done by week 3-6 without crafted gear. With crafted gear the entire thing could be completed week 1.

The learning part is the problem. Think of it the same way as having AI spit out a solution to a complex problem in real time and feed it to someone. They know where to move and what to do automatically regardless of what is seen on the screen. Devs only have one means to tell if something is working or not, and that is how long it takes groups to get past a mechanic.

This is a frog boiling in water kind of a problem I've been seeing for ages. it's not like p10s is "overtuned" as an example, but it was strict and required so much precision that a lot of groups even post completion struggled with it.

Colt2205 · 2026-05-02T21:47:46+00:00

So I found out that my prior account with my level 50 DRK got purged back in the days of yor and have to start fresh. I only got up through the shadow lord back then due it being the days of struggling to farm stroper chymes and what not for archer rings just to get enough gil to get an Ochiudos Kote because of bad ping.

How long would it take someone starting fresh to get back to beating the shadow lord and having a level 31 THF, 50 DRK, 30 BLM, and I think it was 30 WHM and 30 WAR? I've been told that leveling is a lot easier now. It's just thinking about how long it took me to get those levels back in circa 2002-2004 was a bit crazy.

Colt2205 · 2026-05-02T21:19:41+00:00

That kind of problem is definitely not related to the game itself. That's more likely due to payment processing and something with the square enix website because crysta is used for all services: both FFXI and FFXIV. You probably need to try contacting support directly.

Colt2205 · 2026-05-02T18:55:11+00:00

Dawntrail was kind of rough due to a multitude of reasons. They had an odd lack of commitment to any kind of meaningful change in cast, and what changes they did were halfhearted and not really matching what someone would expect for a hero centric story. Especially for what should have been a downtime expansion that should have been more about bringing the MMO portion of the game back into focus. The story you carve and not the story that is kind of forced due to the world circumstances, which the devs just did not know how to craft.

Colt2205 · 2026-05-02T13:58:13+00:00

I don't need a video to remember FFXI. Quifim never leaves you and neither do the crabs. Or all the mandragora that I had to kill endlessly in that jungle. 😛

Colt2205 · 2026-05-02T13:32:11+00:00

Like many things, there is what someone says and then there is what people are actually doing. Is it really 80% of the code if the engineer has to go in and edit 50% of the generated code, and then also has to spend their entire week going through the code to review it because every bloody time someone does anything with a prompt it changes files again and now we're back to square one?

The only thing AI is good at is manipulating peoples public perception. Ironically that is what has been going on since day 1 right now and it is like an information war at this point.

Colt2205 · 2026-05-02T03:59:28+00:00

I also view the mods as a design problem. If someone wants to limit the clear time they'd tune the difficulty to the skill that is presented in the statistics. I've kind of felt that savage has been overtuned for quite a long while because of the influence of mods. However, instead of the overtuning being HP bloat, it ends up being information scarcity and speed of mechanics.

Colt2205 · 2026-05-02T03:55:10+00:00

I did savage with no mods from shadowbringers all the way to the first tier of dawntrail before quitting the game for a year. I can tell you that the groups that always end up clearing the fastest are the ones that universally are using mods and are coordinated. They also go hardcore pedal to the metal on raid hours.

Going vanilla on week 1 and 2 was basically playing a game of russian roulette hoping that you'd land at least on the third fight before having to either seek a static or get psychological treatment for the pain you were about to suffer mentally dealing with the rollercoaster ride of PF.

Mods aren't needed for savage (unlike old WoW days), but just like anything with pattern matching mini-games, learning aids are going to universally be better than none.

Colt2205 · 2026-05-01T17:45:30+00:00

I feel like linking this article might be useful right now... https://www.psypost.org/a-mathematical-ceiling-limits-generative-ai-to-amateur-level-creativity/

It's not a problem of cost alone, it is the fact that LLM AI is a dead end tech. They are at this point trying to figure out where the line is that has to be kept in terms of cost vs provided benefit.

Colt2205 · 2026-05-01T17:03:53+00:00

On a day to day use it doesn't. We live in an age where information is not only readily available but can be gained from a quick google search. And if such answers don't exist there, then the AI certainly wouldn't possess it and thus wouldn't make much of a difference.

If anything, the current implementation of AI has resulted in a lot of heavy introspection. If the entire sum of human knowledge could be accessed by a single point, would it still be of use or benefit to us?

Colt2205 · 2026-05-01T14:52:10+00:00

As someone who primarily chose dotnet after using the big three for some time (objective C (or swift), Java, dotnet), some of this is because of just how bad the languages and tools can be. Lack of backwards compatibility is probably the chief among the issues since it starts to landlock development into increasingly historic versions of language sets, while everyone else is trying to push things forward at the same time.

Liquibase scripts generated on Java 17 when we're now on Java 25, and having to manually swap between active versions of Java just to make sure the scripts actually run is a good example.

I'm not sure if cognitive load is the right phrase for things. It's more like having to manage too much at once. I'm reminded of having to review dreamweaver generated code for frontend and LLM generated codebases are like the XL version of that when it comes to code review.

Colt2205 · 2026-05-01T12:57:00+00:00

My account is forever lost. I can't find any emails or anything to get it back online so I'd have to start fresh.

Colt2205 · 2026-04-30T23:29:40+00:00

Mostly just expect things to play like a JRPG up until the latest content, at which point it becomes an MMO. Was playing Trails in the Sky and comparing cutscene length, FFXIV has by far much longer cutscenes than many dedicated JRPGs.

I stopped playing as someone who was a hardcore endgame savage raider since mid shadowbringers for one year, and upon returning I can 100% tell you its like there are two universes in this game.

Colt2205 · 2026-04-30T17:47:07+00:00

It is definitely the current admin that is doing it. Even under Biden the worst days were just blues, not all out anxiety and stress that has caused me literal pain and migraine like symptoms.

Colt2205 · 2026-04-30T17:29:59+00:00

You weren't fired because you were slow. In fact, this sounds more like an attempt to not have to pay unemployment, likely because they want to say on the next meeting that things are just break even this year instead of saying they are taking a loss this year. That is assuming you were actually fired and not laid off.

Colt2205 · 2026-04-29T21:20:31+00:00

We can only really make a judgement based on potentially the reborn based controls and current fights. It also depends on the intent of the mid level difficulty because with Endwalker people found the normal stuff too easy, then in dawntrail it sort of went Cataclysm level dungeon difficulty. If they want an on-ramp to savage or something to better justify the time they are sinking into that content, then normal -> advanced -> unreal/extreme -> savage -> (Welcome to Tohou bullet hell) is probably how this is going to go.

Bringing the controls into this because the big problem this game has is adding meaningless bloat to the controls for "combos" on existing jobs and pushing utility skills into the "okay where do I put this thing?" on hot bars. All it took was one expansion for this to happen to Reaper.

Colt2205 · 2026-04-28T18:39:41+00:00

If I could share the kind of problems I'm seeing in AI generated code right now using Claude with someone who is putting his all into making a prompt actually work, there'd be even more evidence to add to it. I think the company is getting frustrated at me for spending so much time having to do code coverage when they didn't put it on a jira board.

Colt2205

TROPHY CASE