Rename the game to the Crystal Tower?

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Originally Posted by Ath192

put a lock on the character so they can’t get an AR from the same time line 2 times in a row. At least it will cycle between series a bit more or something.

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I can see the future.... ah yes...! LotA > ST > LotA > ST > WoD > LotA > ST > ...

'Tis a bleak future :eek:

The real problem here is fewer sprouts doing the other alliance raids because they're not required for MSQ progression.

Now I'm not saying they should all be mandatory, but a way to alleviate the barrage of Crystal Tower roulettes might be to add a little menu that pops up upon reaching each level cap in the MSQ which directs sprouts towards major side content like raids, trials and alliance raids. Like the recommendations tab... except useful. Otherwise, a lot of new players might not realize the content is there.

With the above feature in mind, they could also start writing the MSQ story with the assumption that people have done all prior raid/trial content. This would not only give story-interested players more of a reason to do non-CT alliance raids they might've skipped, but also breaks open the "side content jail" that many characters are stuck in and makes the story better as a bonus.

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Originally Posted by Rein_eon_Osborne

I can see the future.... ah yes...! LotA > ST > LotA > ST > WoD > LotA > ST > ...

'Tis a bleak future :eek:

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xD It could be worse, just ST > ST > ST LOL

but what if like you can't get one from the series I mean. So once you do a ARR alliance raid, you can only get one from HW/SB/SHB/EW/DT, and so on.

Some of my favorite duties are in that roulette but getting a CT reminds me why i dont queue.

Don't make more alliance raids mandatory for story (unless they actually play a role in said story). It just makes a long MSQ even longer to get through. Make them mandatory to unlock the roulette. So when you finish HW, you have to unlock the HW raids in order to run alliance roulette, and so on. That should help a little.

Regardless, CT is the lowest level alliance roulette. All it takes is one person queueing at level fifty-something and 23 more people go to CT.

I'm pretty certain everyone already knows why CT comes up more often. Feels kinda pointless to bring up at this point.
Speaking of pointless, here's my anecdotal data from the last couple weeks. I did the alliance roulette for the past 2 weeks to do the 7.3 relic weapon aetherwell grind. I only got CT raids 4 times. So close to a third of the time. I was pleasantly surprised at the diversity I got.

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Originally Posted by Gember

The best way for the developers to help this is to simply make the other alliance raid series mandatory for MSQ.

There is a lot of people who haven't unlocked those raids, thus only letting them get Crystal Tower when they do their alliance raid roulette. It won't fix all of the problems since CT is early game, but it will help a lot.

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There's also a lot of people that don't unlock any of the normal raids either (not even Alexander), as well as optional dungeons and trials (like Hildebrand ones). Are we going to insist they all become mandatory for the MSQ too? Alliance raids aren't so amazing that everyone NEEDS to do them all.

I'm fine with making the alliance raid roulette locked behind needing to unlock all content within it though, in fact ALL roulettes should work like mentor roulette does, since the idea is that you're giving yourself up to chance/helping fill other people's queues for extra rewards, and it's not fair to rig the outcome like that by purposefully not unlocking things.

I also wouldn't be adverse to upping/expanding said rewards across all roulettes to create even further incentives. I mean, geez, trial and normal raid roulette rewards are so anemic (even as AoN) they're barely worth doing over a guildhest roulette.
+++

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Originally Posted by Ankhira

Oh nooo, people actually have to engage with the content of the game!! The horror. I'm not saying to lock it behind MSQ. But add perks that makes people WANT to unlock them. Add a small quest that gives a mount or minion, people will unlock them.

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People shouldn't be "forced" to engage in content they don't want to though. I don't even do alliance raid roulettes anymore since it became "contaminated" with raids I can't do synced like Mhach/Ivalice/Nier, and no amount of additional rewards will make me risk getting stuck with a 30 minute penalty because Puppet's Bunker popped again.

It makes me curious though if the rest of the alliance still gets the "first-time" bonus after I leave or if its voided because I bailed the moment I load in.

I wish all I got was CT raids. I'm sick of the Nier Raids. It's just one of those pieces of content you wish you could go back and never unlock.

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Originally Posted by Asako

I wish all I got was CT raids. I'm sick of the Nier Raids. It's just one of those pieces of content you wish you could go back and never unlock.

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Absolutely. I always do AR Roulette last so I can just deal with the leaving penalty in case I get a Nier raid. Then I can go do something fun. Like FATE grind or fishing. >_>

How can this be, it was explained to me multiple times that the gear req for the roulette will definitely fix this.

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Originally Posted by Saraide

How can this be, it was explained to me multiple times that the gear req for the roulette will definitely fix this.

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It helped. Let’s be honest.

We no longer have the crowds of naked people putting clothes on if you load in fast enough.

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Originally Posted by Aidorouge

People shouldn't be "forced" to engage in content they don't want to though. I don't even do alliance raid roulettes anymore since it became "contaminated" with raids I can't do synced like Mhach/Ivalice/Nier, and no amount of additional rewards will make me risk getting stuck with a 30 minute penalty because Puppet's Bunker popped again.

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It's not forcing, it's giving incentive to do them, if you don't want to engage with it, that's fine and valid, but there's plenty of people who haven't unlocked them just because they don't know they exist or see no reason to. They just take a while, idk I like all the alliance raids, except Puppets Bunker which is just boring to me.

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Originally Posted by Aidorouge

People shouldn't be "forced" to engage in content they don't want to though. I don't even do alliance raid roulettes anymore since it became "contaminated" with raids I can't do synced like Mhach/Ivalice/Nier, and no amount of additional rewards will make me risk getting stuck with a 30 minute penalty because Puppet's Bunker popped again.

It makes me curious though if the rest of the alliance still gets the "first-time" bonus after I leave or if its voided because I bailed the moment I load in.

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Yes people should be “forced” to do or take a penalty for what they don’t want to do in a roulette because you are doing a roulette, getting benefits from filling others queues.

It’s why even though I leave every CT raid I ever get I will never advocate for removing the penalty for leaving it, because I know I’m there to help someone else and I’m choosing to not be helpful because I don’t want to do that particular duty

You 100% should be forced to have every duty on a roulette unlocked or you are actively hindering the intent of the roulette to your own benefit

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Originally Posted by Saraide

How can this be, it was explained to me multiple times that the gear req for the roulette will definitely fix this.

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I think it's more like: "Here's a handful of reasons why CT raid keep popping, but hey look at this 1 from 6969 reasons that people kept bringing up. That'll be our scapegoat while we leave the rest untouched, because why should we?"

Also I think I died a little noticing your signature update xD

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Originally Posted by Rein_eon_Osborne

I think it's more like: "Here's a handful of reasons why CT raid keep popping, but hey look at this 1 from 6969 reasons that people kept bringing up. That'll be our scapegoat while we leave the rest untouched, because why should we?"

Also I think I died a little noticing your signature update xD

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What can I say but
https://media1.tenor.com/m/1AF1iQ03g...collection.gif

Easy fix. Make alliance raids at the respective level mandatory.

You want to que alliance raids, but you are lvl 70? Nice! You have to do Void arc and Ivalice as well.

Nothing will change in the long run because only Crystal Tower is Mandatory.

The main reason for CT isnt that its the only mandatory raid series or that players havent unlocked others. When you load into CT if you check your party more often than not there is at least one player who is between lvl 50-60 which means you were never going to get anything but CT. It's the same reason why normal raids is almost always Alexander.

Given all the discussion about making things mandatory or whatnot, the solution that I will always advocate for: give an option to allow us to do max level rotations.

Honestly, that's my entire problem with Alliance raids. The one and only reason why I hate CT (and really, any pre-Nier raids) is that we have a gimped rotation. It's not like Alliance raids are serious content anyway so there's nothing lost in letting us do max level rotations.

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Originally Posted by Ankhira

It's not forcing, it's giving incentive to do them, if you don't want to engage with it, that's fine and valid, but there's plenty of people who haven't unlocked them just because they don't know they exist or see no reason to. They just take a while, idk I like all the alliance raids, except Puppets Bunker which is just boring to me.

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Originally Posted by Supersnow845

Yes people should be “forced” to do or take a penalty for what they don’t want to do in a roulette because you are doing a roulette, getting benefits from filling others queues.

It’s why even though I leave every CT raid I ever get I will never advocate for removing the penalty for leaving it, because I know I’m there to help someone else and I’m choosing to not be helpful because I don’t want to do that particular duty

You 100% should be forced to have every duty on a roulette unlocked or you are actively hindering the intent of the roulette to your own benefit

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By "forcing" I mean not making ANY alliance raid mandatory for MSQ progress because Crystal Tower is troublesome enough without gating people behind even more raids, as that's a terrible way to keep and retain new players.

I don't blame other people for deliberately skipping everything but the bare minimum to access the roulettes right now because frankly a lot of the content isn't terribly fun to do, and most people are better off doing them unsync for the story/loot farm if they care that much. I already said I don't have a problem with making a roulette requiring all content unlocked to make it accessible and earn the roulette rewards though (with even higher/better rewards too), but I also say that knowing that it's likely to make roulettes noticeably slow down when some people decide they would rather skip the roulette rewards than unlock/complete content they don't want to do, much akin to how a lot of other content lacks for warm bodies because the effort isn't worth it to a lot of people.

I don't even use any roulettes myself aside from Frontlines and gulidhests (and I stopped doing Frontlines once I maxed my Series XP last week), because Stormblood and Shadowbringers content pretty much "ruined" the dungeon/trial/raid roulettes. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything useful and I'm not obligated to make other people's wait times better, so I'm fine just not queuing anymore, especially as a DPS main that's never-in-need anyway, so I was already getting a pittance for showing up.

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Originally Posted by Aidorouge

I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything useful and I'm not obligated to make other people's wait times better, so I'm fine just not queuing anymore, especially as a DPS main that's never-in-need anyway, so I was already getting a pittance for showing up.

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I'm back with more pointless info from my anectodal data. In the 2 weeks I ran alliance roulette, I got the in need bonus almost every day. I think it was only like twice that I didn't have it.
All as DPS.

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Originally Posted by Thurmnmurmn

I'm back with more pointless info from my anectodal data. In the 2 weeks I ran alliance roulette, I got the in need bonus almost every day. I think it was only like twice that I didn't have it.
All as DPS.

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That's surprising honestly, I've been playing for years and I rarely ever saw DPS-in-need.

But even if it was common, it still wouldn't be enough to make me queue up because the rewards aren't worth it to me.

I can't recall the last time I got a Crystal tower raid in AR routelle

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Originally Posted by Eden_Aces

I don’t actually think I’ve ever posted here before, which is impressive considering I’ve been playing for five years.
So please, for the love of all that is fun and good in this world — fix the daily roulettes.

Crystal Tower alliance raid. Every. Single. Day. Weeks on end.

With all this potential content in the game, it’s truly inspiring that I get funneled back into a level 50 raid from 2013 over and over again. Variety is overrated, I guess. Why play anything new when we can relive the same nostalgia trip indefinitely?

And it’s not like there’s already little enough to do in the game these days or anything.

Oh — and while you’re at it, make sure we still get slapped with a 30-minute queue penalty when we finally snap and leave.
Oh wait.
That already happens. Perfect!

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I’ll admit that I get Crystal Tower more often than any other alliance raid, but it’s not the only one that pops.

That said, my main complaint isn’t simply getting Crystal Tower. In my opinion, the real issue is how incredibly low the difficulty has become and how overgeared we are for that content.

When I queue for an Alliance Raid, I expect to spend around 30–45 minutes there. I want at least some level of engagement — mechanics to pay attention to, things to execute properly. Right now, especially with the ARR raids, they’re cleared in 15 minutes with almost no thought required.

The ARR alliance raids are the perfect example of this problem. They’re extremely easy, bosses melt instantly, and most mechanics can be ignored entirely. There’s no tension, no risk, and no sense of coordination needed.

Playing a game with zero pressure or engagement becomes boring very quickly. Maybe the solution would be to enforce item level sync closer to what the raid originally released with, and possibly revert some of the heavy nerfs so that these raids feel more like they did when they were current content.

I don’t understand why “old content” needs to be stripped of mechanics and challenge just to be cleared faster. Many players never experienced these raids at their intended difficulty. And even if the content is old, when I queue for something, I still expect at least a minimum level of challenge.

I haven't queued much into AR roulette in recent weeks. Times when I did queued in, collectively it's probably half CT pops and half non-CT pops. 9 out of 10 times I just insta-bail the CT pops.

I don't think there's much change happening for years because the time it took for me to get any pops when I queued those Ivalice/NieRs manually are still almost always longer than 20-30 minutes. Sometimes up to hours even because any players that bailed or did not accept the commence prompt would mean that there's a good chance those 23 other players will be siphoned away, putting me back to square one once more. The least they could've done here is to allow backfilling like Frontlines does. The wait time is just beyond silly at this point.

The last 15 AR I spammed for Aetherwells were all the 3 CTs, just a bad streak of luck, but it should be obvious that the most unlocked content is where the players get funneled into.

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Originally Posted by AlliciaCapulet

I don’t understand why “old content” needs to be stripped of mechanics and challenge just to be cleared faster. Many players never experienced these raids at their intended difficulty. And even if the content is old, when I queue for something, I still expect at least a minimum level of challenge.

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Crystal Tower isn't easy because it's old, it's easy because it's mandatory. Square-Enix pretty much CAN'T make it hard otherwise it would roadblock countless people from ever getting out of ARR.

If Square-Enix hadn't forced people into doing it because they wrote themselves into a corner, the roulette options would probably be more varied because Crystal Tower isn't the "only one" the people queuing it have unlocked, and though the queues would probably be slower, at least most of the people doing it would be those who actually WANT to do alliance raids as a whole instead of being a bunch of new people "only there for the MSQ" and veterans being made to escort them for the umpteenth time.

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Originally Posted by Aidorouge

Square-Enix pretty much CAN'T make it hard otherwise it would roadblock countless people from ever getting out of ARR.

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I don't think this is necessary true. Every 24 man dungeon can be carried with some dead weight in the team. It's true for current content, and was true back then too.

A lot of players are bad and can't access harder content because the game doesn't allow them to learn on the mandatory stuff. This is one of the biggest issue.

Back in ARR, we didn't had loads of content. I started on Jenova when it opened on 2.2 on April 04 2014. Back then, we only had Ifrit, Titan and Garuda. We had few dungeons. We had the first step of crystal tower. And the first steps of coils of bahamut. So, of course to keep us challenged and engaged in the game, everything had a chance to wipe us. Even the early fight of Garuda/ifrit/Titan could wipe us back then, I'm not talking of the hard mode or extreme, but the normal one. Because we were only 4 in it, if the healer was going down, the team was going down. But peolpe managed anyway to get pass everything. Dungeons were unique, had mecanics to do, and again, were wipable. The moment you had a bad tank or bad heal, it was a wipe. But what I did like of the community back then, it's that most of the people were trying to help people to improve and clear the content.

But yeah, you are right on the fact. SE have been taking the "easy road" for mandatory stuff, at least since Shadowbringer, making everything before the current expansion super easy. And I don't get it. I mean, if I were a new player, I wouldn't be in a hurry to "catch up" the current expansion, I'd enjoy everything the game have to offer before. And I'd like to be challenged for that content too. Because let's be honnest, a new player is, in a way, in a better situation than most of us are : They have lots of new content to explore, while the majority of people on the current patch "waits" for new content to comes out.

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Originally Posted by AlliciaCapulet

I don't think this is necessary true. Every 24 man dungeon can be carried with some dead weight in the team. It's true for current content, and was true back then too.

A lot of players are bad and can't access harder content because the game doesn't allow them to learn on the mandatory stuff. This is one of the biggest issue.

But yeah, you are right on the fact. SE have been taking the "easy road" for mandatory stuff, at least since Shadowbringer, making everything before the current expansion super easy. And I don't get it. I mean, if I were a new player, I wouldn't be in a hurry to "catch up" the current expansion, I'd enjoy everything the game have to offer before. And I'd like to be challenged for that content too. Because let's be honnest, a new player is, in a way, in a better situation than most of us are : They have lots of new content to explore, while the majority of people on the current patch "waits" for new content to comes out.

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Not everyone enjoys being "dead weight" though, I know I don't, that's why I actively avoid a lot of content, including normal stuff like alliance raids, and pretty much can't do other roulettes anymore due to Stormblood and Shadowbringers content being in there.

I do not in fact like spending most of my time on the floor having to be dragged across the finish line, I don't learn anything by dying to stuff I couldn't identify/was too fast to react to, and I certainly don't like having to deal with other people thinking I'm a waste of space and better off being kicked, as the case was when I kept trying to get through Ivalice before giving up and doing it all unsync because I wasn't good enough for it otherwise.

While I'm not against allowing more tools to learn, that only goes so far. A lot of people, myself included, will never be as good as you and the other players around here who claim to yawn over the normal content, and it's never been encouraging to be told such content is "brain dead" or "baby mode" only to die and fail at it constantly. Quite the opposite actually, it's discouraging to realize too late that this game is not, and never was, casual friendly and I've been playing the wrong MMO this whole time.

And if you ask a lot of veteran players here "trying to get their friends into the game" it sounds like there's TONS of new players that really do want to just rush to endgame and sit in Savage PF all day, and that's why we apparently need level 100 skips for people playing the game for the first time I guess. Which isn't comforting either to be told there's people who have never played the game before who are already skilled enough to do endgame hardcore content while I'm over three years in and can't even beat a lot of normal content while synced.

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Originally Posted by MangoatBiafra

They are FORCING endgame players into Alliance Roulette.

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How? /scratching my head. I've not done this weekly DR for quite a few years UNLESS I'm levelling a new job which I find CT is fast! Love it.

Crystal tower doesn't have to be so easy though. A lot of that evidence is in well, Crystal Tower itself!
People still die a lot or even wipe to Angra Mainyu, Phlegethon, and Cerberus. There's a good amount of difficulties fighting Amon too, and some of the ads like the pools, and the eye.

So it's puzzling why so much of it is so trivial, why can you stand in Vile Utterance and take less than a 10th of your health? Why can you survive Scylla's Ancient Flare comfortably without doing the mechanic? A lot of stuff is just so very trivial, especially the Syrcus Tower. The most painful part of Crystal Tower feels like dealing with these fussy veterans who haven't caught on to the allaince raid being mostly a joke. Like wasting time moving the Bone Dragon north, when it's so easy to heal to heal if the Skeletons reached. Spending two minutes in The Walk of Fire for the parties to all get to their spots, Making ready checks for Phlegethon and pulling him south for +0.5 seconds of Ancient Flare, and getting bent out of shape about pulling if anybody is watching cutscenes. The cutscenes are 10 seconds long and nothing happens in them.

I'm not sure I want to see a rework. Maybe a duty support. Maybe tuned up numbers.

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Originally Posted by SalamanderIX

People still die a lot or even wipe to Angra Mainyu, Phlegethon, and Cerberus.

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I will grant you Angra and Cerberus, who can be genuinely deadly, but every Phleg wipe boils down to "Half the alliance went to pads, half wanted to greed, it wasn't enough for either", there is nothing genuinely difficult there, it is a slow cast that kills people who greed too hard.