Chaotic Alliance Raid is the best content this game has ever had

I just want to go out of my way and say that I really enjoyed Cloud of Darkness Chaotic Alliance Raid, its cool having farmable content without lockouts that give real gear and really good cosmetics as well, its cool getting to play with so many people and enjoying in the chaos of it all, the clear felt very rewarding and I cant wait to run this content more.

Please make more Chaotic Alliance Raids, one based on Ivalice would be my pick. Thanks! :o

Based on several already existing threads on this same forum, it also manages to simultaneously be the most tonedeaf and worst content this game has ever had, so this OP post sounds a lot like a deliberately vague flamebait soundbite by someone who just likes to rile people up. If CAR is really the best thing since ever, at least argue your case for why you think so in more than two lines so that the conversation won't immediately derail?

You're already able to successfully farm the Chaotic Raid...?

I love those "reaction to negativity thread", that are just there to counter balance the negativity, but flop most of the time, because people don't come on the forum to say how good the content is.

But honestly, there are very few critics on the content itself, except a few "seriously, body check with 24 people?".

Most of the critics are either about :
- how it's not what was sold in the first place,
- how the reward design make it looks like something to get the casual to try harder content, but throwing casuals into Savage lvl (even low tier savage lvl) is plain stupid. Raiders are not happy to have to deal with casual that don't have the skills (and I don't mean that as a critic to the raiders), and casuals are not happy they're avoided.
- how the content will probably die fast : it's 24 man savage, it's not always easy to keep a 8 people roster to collapse, it's worst with 24 people.
- how the first time bonus is badly designed - that's something I only saw on the Japanese forum (From what I understood, you get a bonus only if everyone in the raid is a first timer. Anyone that already got downed the raid remove the reward for everyone, which is the opposite of a bonus : at first I thought I didn't understand well, but this came back very often in details).
- the calendar : we've been in a drought of content for years now, and it's the 3rd content in a row aimed at the same demographic, in an ideal world, we should have content for everyone at each patch, but that's not the case, so people get very frustrated with that. Maybe it would have been smart to push the this content to next patch and give something more casual in 7.15.

In the end, I agree with you, Chaotic should continue. Just release other content alongside that. But there is part of me that think the only thing SE will hear is "it's too hard".

The real bummer is that it's a wasted opportunity. From the reward design and and the annoucement that it was supposed to be to be an extreme that went overboard, it seems their plan was to design something to push players to try harder fight. It could have worked with extreme difficulty, but it clearly didn't here. If the next one is the extreme difficutly, raider will complain it was nerfed, while casuals will avoid it after the experience with this one. They should have either course correct the difficulty, either not tell the fact it was supposed to be an extreme and assume it's more in the range of savage.

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Originally Posted by Oizen

I just want to go out of my way and say that I really enjoyed Cloud of Darkness Chaotic Alliance Raid, its cool having farmable content without lockouts that give real gear and really good cosmetics as well, its cool getting to play with so many people and enjoying in the chaos of it all, the clear felt very rewarding and I cant wait to run this content more.

Please make more Chaotic Alliance Raids, one based on Ivalice would be my pick. Thanks! :o

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I would concur that it is some of the best farmable content in the game so far. It's challenging and yet still overall fun. The farm / clear parties also seem to be more consistent than I expected from my experience and it actually rewards helping others get their clears too by rewarding more tokens. It feels like it will have a decent amount of shelf life especially if you are aiming for the cloud mount.

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Originally Posted by CNitsah

Most of the critics are either about :
- how it's not what was sold in the first place,
- how the reward design make it looks like something to get the casual to try harder content, but throwing casuals in Savage is plain stupid, raiders are not happy to have to deal with casual that don't have the lvl (and I don't mean that as a critic to the raiders), and casuals are not happy they're not
- how the first time bonus is badly designed (From what I understood, you get a bonus only if everyone in the raid is a first timer. Anyone that already got downed the raid remove the reward for everyone, which is the opposite of a bonus).
- the calendar : we've been in a drought of content for years now, and it's the 3rd content in a row aimed at the same demographic, in an ideal world, we should have content for everyone at each patch, but that's not the case, so people get very frustrated with that.

In the end, I agree with you, Chaotic should continue. Just release other content alongside that.

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It was sold exactly as what it is. A 24man boss raid, with extreme level difficulty. The overall mechanics are easy to the fight and things we have all been introduced to in even normal raids. The layer of having to pvp 24 people ups the anti but the reclears are alot more consistent and clean.

You also still get drops, 2 Clouddark Demimateria I, and 10-15 Clouddark Demimateria II for every clear but you get a +1 to Demimateria II for every bonus in party and a random reward of +1 to Demimateria I to people at a chance. Basically it rewards people for helping people clear.

I agree with your reasoning - farmable content with rewards is good. But criterion was a better medium for achieving that, it just needed some refinements.

It's easier to organise a group of 4 than a group of 24.

24 player groups have too many points of failure which results in too much time being spent waiting for other people to not mess up.

I also think its a lot of fun. It might take a few hours and some groups per clear (if you join groups with 1st timers) but every clear feels very rewarding. The fight design is also nice. The personal mechs itself are easier than extreme mode mechs, so its not too hard, just get some routine.
In farm groups, where everyone is confident its like farming an ex trial on a 10-11 min kill rate

CODCAR sucks.

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Originally Posted by Eyrilona

Based on several already existing threads on this same forum, it also manages to simultaneously be the most tonedeaf and worst content this game has ever had, so this OP post sounds a lot like a deliberately vague flamebait soundbite by someone who just likes to rile people up. If CAR is really the best thing since ever, at least argue your case for why you think so in more than two lines so that the conversation won't immediately derail?

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Honestly, I don't think most people find the content itself to be tone-deaf, just the fact of the cosmetic reward being from it.. Which it sort of is, especially with something that actually is a character customization option, in as game already thoroughly lacking in it.

I am concerned about the shelf life, and many are too, which in turn makes them concerned about the cosmetic reward in the long-term.

I think what they need to do is introduce a second tier of difficulty to Chaotic raids. Have one with lower difficulty which would help the issue of the reward structure trying to funnel players into higher difficulty without really being prepared enough to do so.. That way if they want to get the cosmetic reward, then they can do additional farming of the normal/entry difficulty.

I had a lot of fun clearing the fight. The lack of downtime and fast pace of the mechanics kept me engaged and interested.

Last time I really enjoyed a fight was barbariccia extreme.

Hopefully they don't nerf the content or make the next chaotic easier because players complain that they can't have healers and red mages do their mechanics for them and carry their dead bodies through the finish line.