ShB Exploration Content Post-Eureka

Yoshi-P has stated that they plan further exploration content and taking what they've learned from Eureka moving forward. This is a request for future designs that suggests a way forward that takes complaints into consideration as someone who's deeply invested in the exploratory content of XIV and it's future.

1. Three zones, three dungeons, parallel progression

Instead of four zones which require completing the subsequent before proceeding to the next with a single dungeon at the end, I suggest limiting this to three zones and placing a (24-player) dungeon at the end of each where a player only need progress through the corresponding zone to access said dungeon.

Each zone could feature a 20-level progression through the zone itself culminating in the dungeon. Moreover, the equivalent of Elemental Gear +2 and weapon (need not be relic--just an 'elemental' weapon) could be obtainable in each zone (the base pieces) and the upgrades would be parallel so that you could do each zone's upgrade separate from the other in whichever desired order. For example, hands, feet, and head could progress the equivalent of +30 elemental bonus per zone with body and legs +50 per zone and the weapon +100 per zone.

Aside from progressing to the max level of that zone to access the corresponding dungeon, these dungeons ought to be designed for 24-players to help ensure greater longevity as something like 56-players is difficult to organize publicly or privately and grows increasingly difficult to populate with time. Furthermore, duty finder/party finder support ought to be included so that multiple instances of the dungeon can be up simultaneously. After completing whatever qualifying task (e.g., Ovni) to enter, an alliance leader would go to the entrance to begin the dungeon for their group. Alternatively, single players and incomplete groups could enter the queue that lasts for, perhaps, 3-5 mins collecting players to organize into an instance. This allows both formats (preformed/match-made) without punishing one over the other, while allowing/encouraging pick up groups to organize before heading in even.

2. Zone Activities in comment below:

2. Zone activities

As a start, these zones should pick up where Hydatos left off while improving certain aspects of earlier zones. For example, the concept behind King Arthro, Cassie, and Hakutaku were good insofar as they held the possibility of meaningful equipment that improved Eurekan stats. The problem was the punishing RNG on top of the rarity of spawns due to the sheer kill requirement and/or necessitated weather.

As such, I suggest each zone featuring two special NMs that hold an accessory each (all three zones sum up to an earring, necklace, bracelet, two rings, and a belt). A single kill ought to drop a totem-like currency that exchanges for the corresponding accessory after, perhaps, 20-30 kills, while still including the RNG-chance at receiving the item itself after the battle (totems could be exchanged for crystals thereafter or the same accessory for market board sale unless these accessories were made role-specific).

In order to spawn these NMs, imagine if there were something like a crystal structure akin to an aetheryte near monsters that mutated. Once mutated, a logos action (e.g., 'Channeling') could be used to channel its aether into the structure. After 5-10 have been channeled into each structure (perhaps 3 structures around the zone), this could spawn the special NM itself. I also imagined using older and newer hunt mechanics for, at least, these NMs if not for others as well. For example, the three crystals structures charged would spawn an 'emissary' NM. After killing it, three mini-NMs would spawn around the map. After killing them, the special NM (e.g., 'triple-S rank') would appear. Utilizing mechanics like this places a little more power in the hands of players to spawn NMs also while making it more engaging than just 'kill x of y monster for z minutes/hours'.

As each zone supports 20 levels, there could be 20 potential NMs in each zone with a variety of methods of spawning. Some could even be 'roaming primals', for instance. Of these (up to) 20:

• 2 would be the special NMs that drop accessories
• 3 could drop items like the Skoll, Lamebrix, and Ying-Yang that are used in a similar way assuming there's a magicite board equivalent or something close
• 1 would be the zone boss (Pazuzu, Louhi, Penni, Provenance Watcher)
• 3+ could drop some sort of glamour (like Scorpion Harness, etc., but doens't have to be FFXI related obviously)
• 1-2 could drop minions

Essentially, the goal would be to offer incentives beyond crystals (currency) and experience for NMs along with the adjustments to make spawning them more engaging/varied.

I think it would also be beneficial to bring back a corollary to the Bunny FATE and potentially expand on it/change it's mechanics up. Overall, it's a neat little pass-time that can be enjoyed when you're looking for a calmer/lower engagement level activity in the zone. Having items like mounts, emotes, etc. attached to it increase the incentive as well as chance for additional gil.

At the risk of this sounding like Diadem too much, I also think (at least) gathering could have a part to play in these zones, especially as these disciplines are some of the most prone to exploration in the game anyway. It could be as simple as mining and harvesting being ways to collect additional logograms to more involved levels of gathering in certain areas under certain conditions (daytime/weather) could influence NM spawning similar to hunts in the outer-world.

so basically you want a watered down, whitewashed, vanilla boring version of Eureka to be the next relic grind?

I specifically said the weapon didn't need to be relic: "weapon (need not be relic--just an 'elemental' weapon)." The point of the weapon would be for this content, not to be used outside of it. Also, not sure how this is 'watered down' given that it includes 2 extra dungeons, same amount of leveling (60 levels) overall (just not forcing those players who complained they'd have to start in Anemos while the rest of us were in Hydatos in order to join us in BA), and features increased mechanics for spawning rather than simply killing monsters. I loved Eureka and still go in every day to this day. I also understand it could improve and there were some legitimate shortcoming to it even for those who enjoy this kind of content. This is meant to build on that. So instead of offering a vague, unhelpful question, do you actually have anything meaningful to contribute or ask?

I honestly wouldn't mind new exploration zones if they used them as a chance to expand upon lands we've touched on, but not seen the entirety of such as Othard.

I'd prefer something more Diadem-like that doesn't require you to grind levels again, though.

While I did enjoy leveling in Eureka, I would grant that it probably wasn't the 'leveling' part of it so much as the progression side of it. And I probably enjoyed Anemos leveling more than the other three zones since it was the first instance of it, while the next three probably felt more like to-do lists since we'd already 'been there, done that'. I do think there could be some really interesting ways they could achieve that w/o it being leveling per se. This may not be what you're looking for, but they could focus the progression on something like a magia board that you're building/rebuilding and/or focus on building the armor/weapons particular to this content from the beginning rather than relegating it to the end once you've finished the leveling portion. Overall, I think I enjoy a sense of progression of working through a zone and it's content as well as getting more powerful throughout that progression however its achieved (levels and/or equipment and/or content specific mechanics like magia board).

On the other point, I think it could be really cool to see exploration of more lands we've touched on but not delved into deeply yet. There's so much they could do with so many different places.