Treasure Maps are overdue a rework

So I'm a bit of a treasure maps enthusiast. I've done several thousand maps since 6.0, and many more since I started playing in 3.05.

In that time, I've observed that several aspects of the Treasure Map system are long overdue a overhaul, both to improve player experience, and to address a chronic shortage of several important items.


The first aspect I'd like to see reworked is the 1 per 18 hours limit on maps. This limit made sense in 2.0, maybe even 3.0. Not 4 expansions later, when there's around 20 Treasure Maps variants. I'd like to see an adjustment to 1 every 12 hours, with a potential of 1 every 6 if needed.

The second aspect is Thief Maps. IMO, the accessibility of Thief Maps needs to be significantly increased, as currently, there is no way to guarantee them outside of an organised group deliberately passing on rolls for the greater good of the group. I'd ideally like to see either a way to obtain Thief Maps with an alternate currency, or a significant increase to their drop rate from Level 70 maps.

The third aspect would be the so-called 'Abomination' rolls in the Roulette Treasure Maps. This 'Abomination' is so rare and difficult to get that several minions tied to it, including those of two fan favourite characters, are worth tens of millions of gil each. Ideally, I'd like to see the occurrence rate for the 'Abomination' significantly increased, so that more people can access the reward, whilst still being a rare enough occurrence for it to feel special.

As someone who already owns all of these minions, I have no personal incentive to see these odds increased. However, I still want these things to become more accessible, as I believe it would make the content in question more enjoyable for a greater number of people.

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Originally Posted by ElysiumDragon

The first aspect I'd like to see reworked is the 1 per 18 hours limit on maps. This limit made sense in 2.0, maybe even 3.0. Not 4 expansions later, when there's around 20 Treasure Maps variants. I'd like to see an adjustment to 1 every 12 hours, with a potential of 1 every 6 if needed
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For most people this wouldn't change a thing, unless you can compound them, similar to allowances.

If you want to see old maps reworked so that their achievements are slightly easier to get then you should just say so cause that's all you'd be accomplishing with these suggestions. Nobody but achievement hunters gives two shits about Thief Maps.

If you want people to be more engaged with maps then the best thing that can be done is to change how RNG functions. For their entire lifespan, map RNG dictates exactly how much gameplay you get at a time which is a terrible feeling; absolutely no one enjoys being kicked out after one trash pack or boss battle, doubly so if you have to complete multiple maps to even spawn a portal.

Instead, this RNG should only be applied on your loot rolls so that you can actually experience a full run of the content as long as you don't die. You get the dopamine of a successful run and also the rush of finding out what's in your reward coffer. Hell, you can even expand the experience to apply bonuses to the loot depending on how well you did. Something like that would be quite refreshing for content that has just been reskinned every single expansion.

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Originally Posted by ElysiumDragon

The second aspect is Thief Maps. IMO, the accessibility of Thief Maps needs to be significantly increased, as currently, there is no way to guarantee them outside of an organised group deliberately passing on rolls for the greater good of the group. I'd ideally like to see either a way to obtain Thief Maps with an alternate currency, or a significant increase to their drop rate from Level 70 maps.

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uhm, you can very easy solo farm thief maps on blue mage. It even gets easier with every expansion, since they keep buffing it

Increasing the number of maps per day/week that someone can obtain lowers the value of the items. They aren't very "treasured" if the volume available increases by that much. And for the players that only harvest the map and sell it, it also drops the value of the map itself.

Technically speaking, a player that really wants to do maps can do as many as they want per day (buy them). Keeping a limit on the number of maps in circulation keeps the value of all things related to it, higher.

I've been suffering from treasure map RNG for seven years by this point. The fact that door RNG is still a thing is unacceptable - it makes any amount of fun in treasure maps rare, and even those rare moments are ones I have to watch the rest of the party have. It got so bad that I took a break from doing them for the whole of Endwalker, only for that feeling to immediately come back during this patch. The improvements needed would be too much effort for the dev team to want to put in, given that all they can bring themselves to do each expansion is give the machine that kicks you in the balls 99% of the time a new coat of paint.

They should make an FC buff the increases "luck" in treasure map dungeons. Like it makes you pick the right door more often, decreases chances of getting kicked out, better loot rolls, etc.

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Originally Posted by ShadowNyx3

If you want people to be more engaged with maps then the best thing that can be done is to change how RNG functions. For their entire lifespan, map RNG dictates exactly how much gameplay you get at a time which is a terrible feeling; absolutely no one enjoys being kicked out after one trash pack or boss battle, doubly so if you have to complete multiple maps to even spawn a portal.

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Truly, this hits it on the head much better, and would do so much more for making maps feel better than increasing allowances. I don't want more allowances--I like the materials being rare!--I just want the maps to feel fun to do, and they very often don't due to how the rng works.

Hell, I would settle for making the rng even a little less punishing--I've been doing the Gymnasion constantly since the minions were added to it, and I don't think I've seen one (or even gotten to invocation 5) since around when 6.5 dropped, despite at minimum getting triple digits of maps done in that time. It just feels miserable that I can't even make achievement progress wholly due to rng, despite constant trying for over a year; and I have to keep trying if I want a minion without spending 30 million gil on it. I genuinely think the meanest thing this game has ever done was putting those minions there.

(And a bit of an aside, but am I insane in thinking that the Gymnasion has significantly worse rng than any other treasure dungeon? I can't even see the 5th invocation after 100-200 maps, but I'll complete an instance of any other treasure dungeon roughly once every 15-20 tries. I know it's technically possible to just have rng this bad, but it is stretching the limits of what is believable at this point. Even if it isn't any worse, the fact that it can be this bad through no fault of my own is downright disheartening, and certainly relevant to the general feeling of doing maps right now.)

i think we just gotta change the game mode up abit
door and roulette is a bit over done love to see something like a board game like snakes and ladders