How Could SE Realistically Improve Modern FFXI?

To be clear, I'm not necessarily advocating that Sortie become alliance content. I think that it should and I have before, but I also don't think that's the only way to solve it either. The suggestion earlier of cutting it to 30 minutes, adding teleports, and allowing more flexible entry KIs might do a lot to mitigate what I see the problems are, as well. Not only will it increase the pace, but it gives people more flexibility with their time and party. I'm sure there are other options, also. They will all have inevitable tradeoffs and they will all have people that don't like it, so the question should be what brings the most people back and keeps them engaged with the content.

I also agree there is no winning here, Maletaru said earlier he'd quit if most of these recommendations were put in place, so either way you do it people leave. I just know in my circle personally the largest exodus in the game took place in the months following the Prime weapon release and a lot of them were veteran players who were already burned out on Sortie and just said *** it. The bugged release of v25 didn't help and neither did the widespread banning that took place last summer. Had they been given toys to play with, it would've drawn out their inevitable exit, but they weren't willing to spend the months on end doing the same thing on repeat and committing to a static for one toy every few months. When you have new content that is the last of its kind, it's not easy to make it interesting but the rewards at least could've spiced it up more had they been accessible.

Vet players are going to quit eventually, SE recognizes this likely and they lack the resources to infinitely expand content to keep them occupied, but I don't think the answer to this is a long drawn out grind either. I think they could've dragged these departures out further by making Primes more accessible, but I also get that the evidence for this is entirely anecdotal and the opposite could also be just as true. It's just my observation that the game becoming more accessible to peoples time and life tends to lead to greater participation. This doesn't have to translate to easy, there is a difference between difficult and time sink. Me raising the sub issue is just the point that the way things are right now aren't working and something should change, but you might be right, it might just be inevitable and the natural order given the state of the game.

Do what I do - Pretend Sortie doesn't exist and never *** do it

Ahhh Nickeny, always the voice of reason!

I have a stage 5 (on Male) and 30 Psyche + 5 more I haven't collected yet this month.

You need to get around 48k muffins every day nonstop for the last 13 months without a single day off in order to have run out of psyche at this point. This includes the times when the basement bosses were supertough and the time before there were public aminon+basement strats.

But keep paying the sub, right?

If they are forced with the choice of worrying about 2 different groups of players at end game (extreme simplification), do they keep putting out a road map for people that will leave when things get more grindy like your friends or do they put out a road map for people who will grind for a very long time even if it's miserable but who would quit if it was over too quick because they had completed their objectives? I assume (not know) group 2 is significantly more predictable and more profitable long term.

After you get the dedicated money out of group 2 for a couple of years with Sortie, you can attempt to get group 1 back by making Sortie significantly easier and if you've come out with the new long grind for group 2 when you do this, you probably won't lose them because they'll be eager to show off how much their effort will have paid off versus group 1.

My point was, why do we think people will quit when being 'done' has been the majority of the end game life span of the game. There is no 'got everything I wanted', you just repeat the process on a new job to play the same content a little differently - that's been the whole game.

Everyone here who's in a static, has their friends, avoids Asura etc - you're all doing fine wether peopler quit or not. All these Sortie suggestions are coming from people who aren't doing the content, and are looking for a way in. You're assuming people will quit by arguing with people who already have quit and are telling you why lol

And the part you're not getting is that theres 3 people saying they won't do it and 10,000 that do it every day. A vocal minority.

Bigger number wins.

I didnt kill bumba :(

Ah - guess all is good then and no changes are necessary, glad we solved it

Anouther Random rant on an idea of content:

I've Seen people wanting 119 campaign. however this would interfere with normal campaign.
so Make 119 new Shadowreign areas. Zones are semi already made, (need to edit them a bit of course.) need many new mobs & gimmick ideas though.
Could even be Released as a New Expansion. it would be big enough afterall. even if its just 119 campaign/tougher mobs in new [S] zones.

Btw when i said new areas i meant ones we could never go to
like giddeus [S], Zi'tah[S] Tahrongi canyon [S] etc

As far as Rewards... i don't really know... Perhaps finish campaign weapons? likely would be about as good as bonanza weapons? Decent Exm from campaigns would be nice as well. not all of us bot our jobs to lvl 50.

Reasons why I think this won't happen. Prime weapons getting replaced by campaign WSs doesn't force people to make Prime Weapons to get the benefits out of campaign.

Love how the title is "how could se realistically improve modern ffxi" and 90% of the answers are something akin to "release an expansion a year and overhaul all old content with new enemies and rewards"

***went off the rails real quick.

I'd say what they can/should do:
Allow teleporting in Sortie between all the teleporters (boss -> boss, boss -> ABCD entrance) and reduce the time to 30 minutes (maybe 45 if they want people to hit 9/9, but that's excessive TBH)
Allow up to 3 moglophones and 3 shiny plates to be saved, same system as canteens.

Addicts.