Eureka vs Dynamis and WHY those of us are still looking back at XI with respect.
Eureka - a series of zones set upon a lost island of scholarly magic in Eorzea.
Pros:
* Part of FFXIV, it has beauty.
* Relics weapons obtainable
* New zone designs
* Allowed for 144 people to cooperate, albeit in packs.
* Anemos had equipment and upgrades to work on in the process of it's grind.
Cons:
* Horrible latency and heavy hardware stress for anyone without a modern PC build.
* Glamour is nice, but to me it has never been a reward and (I know this is going to get me some grief) to make XI gear glamour only seems like such a low blow.
* Misused RNG in so many ways
* Pagos weapons only
* 1 zone each release, for a grand total of 3 zones.
* Copy and pasted enemies
* Pagos turned people against one another with regards to exp/light gain where anemos was about working together to kill NMs.
* Seemingly little thought and effort went into its balance or design.
* Weapon and gear becomes obsolete it pretty gets dropped on the floor, if not with a new patch then with an expansion.
I dont mind that yoshi-p wants us to discover what is part of eureka as a player base rather than just spoon feeding us all the details, however I'm a little disappointed in how he/they reacted when we didn't play their anemos the way they wanted just because they designed it wrong, like most I found anemos easy and somewhat enjoyable because the developers screwed up (choo choo). The grind wasn't as much of an issue, but then they proceeded to punish our earlier efforts with a combined time sink of what they originally planned for in anemos plus pagos in order to make up for the overall time sink design that relics traditionally have, it was extremely grueling in pagos without any other tangible reward(s) to show for it. Also where I've always taken issue with XIV is that if everyone can make a relic weapon it depreciates the value, for most in eureka the o-hat and cassie earring hold more prestige than any 4 relic weapons, to me this is just sad to even say much less bare witness too every person running around swinging relics. These are supposed to be the Best weapons in the game, but because this game has a steeeeep vertical progression they are now just weapons to melt down to add to the iron throne*coughs* excuse me, the iron hamster wheel that is progress.
Dynamis - a series of zones set in an alternate universe version of Vana'diel; created of Nightmares, set in perpetual Darkness.
Pros:
* 7 zones on release.
* Triggers for extended time
* Co-operation and sharing time required both teams and individuals to talk and share
* Currency dropped inside is marketable
* Lasting results - even after the vertical increase with abyssea and seekers of alduin, you could upgrade the equipment with effort, usually significantly easier depending on if you spent the time obtaining the original piece.
* Rewarded preparedness
* Made friends
* Thought was put into it's design and balance.
Cons:
* MONTHS of grinding for a single relic weapon
* Mostly copied and pasted content environment and enemies
* Little Skill required
I liked dynamis even though I wasn't new designs because it offered something for everyone who did it and a chance to help my Linkshell create a relic; it was a team effort to produce something extremely strong and useful. I have never really been one to want the very best of everything and it was my pleasure to help my linkshell make something awesome rather than want it for myself, not to mention equipment dropped inside dynamis and when equipment stopped being what I needed we started to divide the currency obtained inside with the option to sell back to the linkshell on the spot, making everyone's efforts still equal. Cooperation was far more important in every aspect. Relic weapons were just SO hard and SO good people wanted to help others get them for the sake of an entire guild/LS/company, to say "look what we created". I'm sure people will find more Pros and Cons for dynamis this just happens to be what I could think of at the time, and the Pros simply outweigh the Cons.
I wouldn't be so upset with SE if they didn't already have amazing design templates from XI within spitting distance, obviously the games are different they would have to adapt them but there is already so much more effort shown in those previous designs that the foreshadowing of XI still looms over XIV and it's why people like myself and others continue to mention it despite the hateful backlash it brings us. "Move on" they say, how can we when we see Palace of the Deep be such a hollow version of what we once new to be Nyzul, when Eureka and Diadem are such weak attempts at what dynamis succeeded in. All that we want (those of us still here from the XI days), is for yoshi's team to show at least the same amount of effort that tanaka's did, and have some balls to get off this hamster wheel they've made.