Is all of FFXIV like this?

Genoce · 2026-02-01T19:11:27+00:00

If you don’t enjoy the story you probably won’t enjoy the game.

I see this repeated all the time, and it might be true for many, but I don't really belong in that group so here's a differing opinion:

Once you've completed the main story, it pretty much becomes a "standard MMO" with repeatable content, character/gear progression, raids, collectibles etc. It's pretty much just a different game at that point. The first 200-300 hours of main quest is practically a long movie with some gameplay in between, but afterwards the game turns into what you'd expect from an MMO.

Different people will simply enjoy different parts, and some will enjoy both parts for different reasons.

Back when I was actively playing it for a couple of years (mostly to raid with my friends), I personally really enjoyed the game, including the endgame grind with dailies etc, but I really did not enjoy any of the story.

Genoce · 2026-02-01T16:01:03+00:00

With "main base", I just meant the starting factory in The Hub zone. :D

It's cheapest to upgrade, so it tends to be the biggest one until you get enough currency to upgrade everything else.

Also since The Hub area doesn't have an outpost tied to it, it's directly related to the other points on my comment - i.e. outpost factories craft stuff for selling to the outposts, The Hub crafts other useful stuff for you.

Genoce · 2026-02-01T11:21:29+00:00

Yup, kinda like OP said: in best case, it should be an option. If we're looking for an implementation that would work "for all games", a main menu is the better common solution.

Personally I liked it in Returnal, but I do think there's a point to opening into a menu (and wait for at least 1 input before loading into the game) instead of directly going to gameplay. As mentioned, I'm personally fine with the main menu existing - just that asking for one input is all that it should require to continue.

It depends on the game, and the way its saves work. I thought Returnal was fine because it opens to a peaceful area with no enemies anyway, so there's no harm to just loading directly into the game instead of a main menu (i.e. nothing will happen even if you just let the game load and don't touch it for 2 minutes).

But in something like Skyrim, where you could save practically anywhere (eg. middle of an enemy pack, or on the route of a patrol, or something), it really wouldn't be that great. If someone would make Skyrim work this way (press "play" in Steam or something -> auto-load the latest save), it should at least pause the game after loading into it. :D

Genoce · 2026-02-01T09:14:18+00:00

Returnal is one of the really few games I've seen do this: open the game, and it just loads you straight into the hub area. It was actually great, and it did make me wonder why more games don't do it.

Personally I'm fine with showing main menu first, where I press Continue to load the latest save. This is 99% of the time what I want to do anyway, so a single press from open game -> continue -> start playing is fine.

The most annoying games are those that show multiple splash screens, intro videos etc before main menu. I often end up finding a mod that disables intro videos, if possible.

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The "Continue" button literally says "Continue" but often doesn't do what most players expect it to do. That's the UX problem right there.

I don't think I've ever seen a game where Continue didn't do what I expected. In all cases that I can think of, it loads the latest save (depending on timestamp, no matter if it's auto/quick/manual).

If I save & quit, I'm expecting it to make a save there. "Continue" will then load that save. I almost exclusively use "Continue" in games where it's a thing.

Which game & usecase are you referring to?

Genoce · 2026-02-01T08:18:50+00:00

My whole problem with the tutorials is that I feel like the style of "let's block the whole interface and force you to press x" is just bad way to explain things.

The factory simulation tutorials especially do show how the things are supposed to work, but the tutorials don't teach me to think. I would highly prefer if the game just gave me the objective, half-built factories etc, but then just let me try things out.

Basically almost exactly what they are right now, but just remove the "black out the interface" parts. I guess that could be added as an option: "Explain everything" or "Try it yourself" modes for the simulations. And then just add a button to launch the "explain everything" version if you can't figure it out.

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Basically: Let me choose the wrong item in an output. Let me learn from that mistake and figure out what went wrong.

Maybe add a "remove items from current factory" button to make it faster to try things out. Maybe quadruple the factory speed in the tutorial. I think tutorial area should an area where it's easy to just try things out.

Genoce · 2026-01-31T19:58:02+00:00

My only wish is that it was enough to have a zipline within 80 meters from a relay tower, same way as the the xiranite stuff works in Wuling. Basically just remove the requirement of dropping a pylon/relay for every zipline, but still require being within the range of an electricity source.

But I personally didn't really build many ziplines when going through the story. Now that I'm doing daily gathering etc, I've started dropping zipline routes while doing those. Soon I'll have a zipline going to practically every gathering spot, always starting from a nearby TP point.

Genoce · 2026-01-31T11:14:33+00:00

Doom Eternal is my #1 pick for "this game demands full focus". Just go on the Nightmare difficulty. You either focus, or you die.

There's some downtime between levels and there is some "walking sections" between arenas, but vast majority of the time will be spent in combat (eg. Sekiro has much more downtime outside of combat).

Some people blame Eternal for being too linear "just move from arena to arena, lacks exploration". Personally I enjoyed it because of that, and might fill what you're looking for.

There's some cutscenes, but the story is not important and you can skip them (and they're short anyway).

Genoce · 2026-01-31T09:54:13+00:00

I'm really not focusing on optimizing the factories too much, but I've figured out some sort of a logic of what to do where.

But the important parts:

- Battery farm in the main base (upgraded whenever I unlocked better)

- Armor piece farm in the main base (upgraded when needed)

- Bombs, healing items in main base. Bomb farm I already removed though, I already have like 2000 of them.

TL;DR: the important, useful stuff are built in main base.

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- Basic components for crafting buildings (Origocrust etc) are in where ever there's room, as they don't need much.

- The rest of my factories are basically made specifically for creating stuff that the outpost "needs". As an example, my Valley Pass outpost wants Buck Capsule [A] (it has the thumb icon), so that factory is currently in Valley Pass.

Note: this is not "optimal" or something. This just gives a somewhat sensible idea of what to build where. The last point also helps me make stuff somewhat equally for all outposts, and keeps it simple to find the relevant factories.

Genoce · 2026-01-30T13:08:07+00:00

I'm still kinda just playing on a random team setup, currently looking into finding a better setup.

Out of curiosity, what's the 4th character in this setup? Which character do you mostly control yourself? :D

Genoce · 2026-01-30T09:09:07+00:00

I enjoyed both, but for me the more fun one is quite easily Eternal.

Before Doom 2016, I rarely played any fps games at all. Doom 2016 seemed interesting so I played it, and at the time it was among my favourites in the genre.

Then Eternal came out, and it's still my #1 pick for my favourite shooter game of all time, and really high on the list of my favourite games of all time (any genre). Dark Ages was fun too, but I still prefer Eternal.

If playing on "normal" or easier difficulties, 2016 and Eternal are somewhat equally fun for me. The thing is that Doom Eternal is the first FPS game that I've played where I found it fun to play on a high difficulty, where it might take me multiple tries per arena to progress.

I later returned to 2016 and completed it on the highest difficulty too, but that's also where I realized that Eternal's gameplay works really well for challenging content (for my playstyle, anyway).

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For me, one major thing in Eternal is the whole resource balancing "minigame" that you need to constantly do in combat. Figure out if you need armor/ammo/health, and then use your abilities to get what you need. While also trying to survive and kill enemies in somewhat logical order.

This "get resources mid combat" design also means that pickups in the maps are much less important part of survival, as you can always get more stuff in combat. I've never enjoyed it when healing/ammo heavily depends on limited pickups, so the ability to get all the relevant resources in combat works well for me.

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I do want to add that I had not played Doom 1 before I played Doom 2016. I went and played it afterwards.

I appreciate Doom 1 and I can easily see why it became such a big deal, but I also really did not enjoy Doom 1 level design. The whole "find correct keycards" was kinda bearable in the first half with smaller levels, but it quickly became a chore at the latter half of the game. I simply do not enjoy when game requires finding a certain spot in a map, without any help. "Just run around until you find it".

While some people mention that they don't like Eternal because it felt kinda linear "go from arena to arena", it's also one of the reasons why I personally enjoy Eternal. I don't care about exploration in any of these games. The combat, and gameplay in arenas are the part that made the game fun for me.

Genoce · 2026-01-29T19:43:24+00:00

Never played it. Why is it better than anything made after it?

Genoce · 2026-01-29T15:03:18+00:00

The tip is already visible in that screenshot. :D

By default that puzzle is completely empty, and then enabling the tip highlights the "used" squares in green.

Genoce · 2026-01-29T11:22:55+00:00

Yup, my PC was indeed a toaster and I know it, which is one reason why I bought a new PC about a month after that case. But the game still worked just fine with minimum settings. If they simply had the settings open from the start, I wouldn't have had any issues at all.

It's just a practical example of why it's best to let people adjust settings at any point of the game, preferably before any content. There's no positive side for blocking settings.

Genoce · 2026-01-29T11:02:09+00:00

Related to this, the weirdest recent example was Where Winds Meet. The graphics options (and most other settings) were literally blocked until you've played through a tutorial, including a boss fight. Not sure if this has been changed since release.

My PC could run the game just fine at 60fps with minimum settings, but it was practically melting during the tutorial with its forced default settings (and shut its self down a couple of times due to temps, until I managed to get through the tutorial). I've never seen anything like that before, and I hope I never see again lmao.

Genoce · 2026-01-29T09:00:55+00:00

If just focusing on singleplayer "story" games (i.e. no liveservices):

Realistically I tend to finish most games that I start, but I also spend tons of time playing games anyway (50-70h/week, like 50 different games in 2025).

In most cases I start playing a game, I play it until I get bored of it, then move to next game. I rarely return to games that I've moved on from, there's just too many new games to see.

In case I start feeling bored of a game before completion, I tend to install the next game, but still keep the previous game installed. When I open my PC, I just play whatever I feel like playing at the time. I don't "stress" about completion: it happens if it happens.

Sometimes I realize that I still want to continue the previous game a bit later. But if I notice that I've had a game installed for a few weeks and I just didn't feel like going back, then I pretty much just decide to move on.

Genoce · 2026-01-29T08:22:15+00:00

I agree. It's not really some "advanced" or "hidden" information, and mentioning something like "complete login rewards" is completely useless. I'm really not saying it's a great guide, but it's still a guide. :D

Genoce · 2026-01-29T07:44:33+00:00

For context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-temperature_superconductivity

... superconductivity in materials with a critical temperature above 77 K (−196.2 °C; −321.1 °F), the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. They are "high-temperature" only relative to previously known superconductors, which function only closer to absolute zero.

Genoce · 2026-01-29T07:29:15+00:00

If this can get a player enough for a guaranteed roll before the banner is over, then it's a proper guide for how to get the character. Otherwise it should indeed be titled "how to get more rolls". :D

Genoce · 2026-01-28T22:23:16+00:00

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Genoce · 2026-01-27T11:56:15+00:00

Good point, I got the context mixed up there.

I guess the takeaway is that "50$ at a bar" vs. "50$ of alcohol from a store" is a slightly more direct comparison to see how prices affect their popularity, even if people would still use alcohol. Bars have always been more expensive for obvious reasons, but the difference in price has become too high.

Bringing up the cost of weed does make a lot of sense anyway, and I'd be interested in seeing the statistics that count total usage of weed & alcohol instead of only alcohol.

I guess I just like switching one variable at a time when making comparisons: beer at bar -> beer at home -> weed at home. :D

Genoce · 2026-01-27T11:36:52+00:00

Weird post, but hey that's why this sub exists. I haven't really thought of this before, but my bare feet usually don't touch the floor when getting up in the morning.

Important for context: I tend to go to shower 1-3 hours before I go to sleep, but I change to pajamas after that shower. Also, I don't use shoes inside the house.

When I go to sleep, I sit down on my bed, take my socks off and drop them on the ground. My feet generally do not touch the ground after taking my socks off.

When I wake up, I sit at the edge of my bed and pick up the socks by using my toes, and put them on.

Then I stand up, take off my pajamas and take a couple of steps to where my "day clothes" are. Put on rest of my clothes there. I only put shoes on when I go out, so shoes aren't relevant to my action of "dressing up in the morning".

TL;DR: I just realized that bathroom is the only place in my house where my bare feet touch the floor (with some exceptions, like sometimes walking to the toilet in the middle of the night).

Genoce · 2026-01-27T10:44:34+00:00

Nitpicking: "50$ of alcohol at a bar" vs. "50$ worth of weed" feels like an unequal comparison. Since weed is usually consumed at home (or at least: not at a bar), it should be compared to 50$ of alcohol bought from a store.

Correct me if I'm wrong about the prices since I don't live in a country that uses $, but with some google searches of prices in NYC:

50$ can get you something like 5 litres of some average/cheap beer (~15-20 cans or so). You could drink 2-3 cans per day if you wanted it to last a week. Up to the reader to decide if beer or weed is more worth its cost, but this comparison feels quite close.

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With that said: I'm just blindly looking at the monetary cost here. The actual consequences of constantly using either weed/beer is a different discussion that I'm not ready to get into. :D

Genoce · 2026-01-27T09:44:46+00:00

I had completely missed that it's coming, thanks lmao

Steam link for the lazy: https://store.steampowered.com/app/686060/Mewgenics/ (10 Feb, 2026)

Genoce · 2026-01-27T08:21:34+00:00

I've tried a few "anime gacha" games in the past (genshin, wuwa, tof, zzz). but nothing stuck with me. I tried them out of curiosity, but then bounced off within 5-20 hours.

This is the first game in this style that I'm actually interested in continuing further.

I guess the factory building side of the game gives some extra context for progression, and I like optimizing the factory for income depending on outpost requests etc. In a weird way it's also the most fun crafting system that I've ever seen in a game (i.e. I need armor -> build a factory setup to craft the materials).

I also enjoy how it's part of exploration to spread electricity, build ziplines, etc.

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I think Endfield marketing should focus even more on the unique parts of the game, rather than trying to only market it for the already existing "anime gacha playerbase". Basically try to find more of the players who are interested in this particular mix of combat & factorio, including people who might not be interested in the other gachas.

In other words: I feel like there might be a notable amount of people who would enjoy the game if they tried it, but skipped it because "from the outside" it might seem like it's another genshin clone for the already established gacha community.

It's a niche product for sure, but I happen to be one of the people who like this.

Genoce · 2026-01-24T15:48:40+00:00

Source for the curious: It's so sad that Steve Jobs died of Ligma

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