Request: please add unexpected occurrences/surprises

As a person who's been playing this game for a while now, I've noticed that the game doesn't really have any "shiny Pokemon" moments. You know, things that only happen once in a blue moon, and cause players to freak out and get excited.

I think adding small things to add some spice to the game will go a long way. Things that will make players go, "what! is that supposed to happen?" And be so rare that it'll get the rumor mill going. I think something like that could go a long way to add some mystery and charm to the world and the game as a whole.

I'll add some of my own personal ideas, and if you're on board, feel free to share some of your own.

- In trial roulette, have a 1/10,000 chance that you will encounter a recoloured version of the boss you'd normally get, and let it have slightly higher stats and do more damage. Or, perhaps make the stats the same, but switch the fight with the strats from the ex version. Give more rewards to compensate for the unexpectedness.

- In a leveling or 50/60 dungeon, switch one of the regular bosses with another one from another dungeon. How cool would it be to fight Zenos von Galvus in Sastasha with your limited moveset? Now it might not be practical to go that extreme, but I think it would be a great idea if implemented properly.

Let me know if you like this idea, and hopefully something like this can be implemented to freshen up the experience now and then. Feel free to add some of your own ideas if you have any.

Oh, and if SE does decide to do something like this, please don't let us know in patch notes or trailers. Let us be surprised!

(BIG OL' EDIT)

So now that I'm finally at home, in front of my PC, and not in a hurry, I feel I can properly explain my idea in full detail and clarity. My above post was probably pretty vague and didn't convey my idea really well, so that's what this edit is for. And before I actually get into it, I'm sorry I argued with some of you in the thread and got a little toxic. I guess I need to learn to take criticism a little better. Anyways, on with it.

So I said I noticed the game doesn't have any "shiny pokemon" moments and didn't really go into detail about what I meant. So first I'll briefly explain what a shiny pokemon is and how it relates.
Basically a shiny pokemon is a recoloured version of a regular pokemon (I won't go into IV's/stats and all that mumbo jumbo), and no other real differences. However they are SUPER rare, coming in at about 1/8192 encounter rate. It's very possible to go though multiple playthroughs of various Pokemon games and never encounter a shiny. Indeed many players have never seen one in their lifetime. But see, that's what makes a shiny pokemon so special. If you ever happen to actually encounter one, a typical player that knows what one is will get super excited and try to catch it. Some people even spend days/weeks shiny hunting to recapture that moment of excitement.

What I would like to do is capture that same kind of excitement in ffxiv, but how would we do this? I would like to have something that is similar to what Pokemon has, but not exactly the same. I don't think encountering a recoloured enemy or boss would be enough to really get someone excited. So maybe do something a little extra, or just think outside the box a little. Now, I think it's evident that my ideas aren't the best. But in the hands of the ffxiv devs, I'm confident that we could get something truly special. Yes, not every player will encounter something like this, but again, that's what makes it so special. If everyone experiences it, then it loses some of that excitement, and people aren't as inclined to think about it as something worth talking about.

So yes, I know the devs are constantly working on new things in the game and have very little time to work on side projects and things like that. But I don't think what I'm proposing will take that much time or effort. I'd only want stuff made from existing assets so it doesn't take up too much of the devs time. I'd imagine something like this to maybe take the same amount of time it'd take to do a QoL improvement or two. I'm not a programmer or designer though, so I wouldn't know. But still, I do think adding something like this would be worth it. If it does end up taking too much time away from them making their normal content, then I don't think they should do it. This is obviously not a change that needs to happen in ff, lol. I just think it's a neat little thing to have happen every once in a while that will liven up people's play sessions every now and then. if it's too much trouble, then it's no big deal.

So hopefully that clears the air on whatever it was I was talking about. Thank you for reading XD And thank you for your consideration, if a GM reads it.

More ghosts!

As interesting this idea is, it would be extremely awkward for newbies going into a roulette and having bosses/mechanics suddenly switch out on them.
Not to mention spoilers in the case of your "Zenos in Sastasha" example.

I want the "This shall be a mercy" guy to appear in any dungon, scaled to fit the place of course, making sure he says all his meme statements.

Oh the sloppy guy too, need a random chance anywhere to have the sloppy guy

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Originally Posted by Destati

As interesting this idea is, it would be extremely awkward for newbies going into a roulette and having bosses/mechanics suddenly switch out on them.
Not to mention spoilers in the case of your "Zenos in Sastasha" example.

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Just have the game do a check before the dungeon starts to see that every player has cleared the dungeon beforehand, and the boss in question.

As long as there are not any achievements connected to it.

There were certain things that happened in XI, like walking through Lufaise Meadows and seeing Bahamut skim over a lake. Was a pretty rare thing. I wouldn't mind more things like this, kinda like what they did with the Void Ark. Seeing it appear in the Sea of Clouds and Churning Mists was really neat. I'd love more little "events" like that around the world. Some randomized enemies in dungeons would be neat, too.

At the odds rate of finding a shiny pokemon normal monster respawns in the open world areas can randomly be a mutation that looks different and is lv 100 >.>

The thing with dungeons is that they're fixed events in the storyline of the game. You replay them but your character hasn't actually gone back to the place, they're just reliving memories of what happened the one time they went there. You fight and kill the same unique enemies. (When you *do* really go back in the hard mode dungeons, events are different.)

Zenos shouldn't randomly appear in Sastasha, because he was never in that place at that time - and what would he do anyway? Either wipe your party in two seconds, or refuse to fight. And then it would mess with the timeline because now you may or may not have already encountered him when you "first" meet him in Stormblood.

So you're left with things happening in the overworld - FATEs are kind of sort of that effect. Any time you see NPC characters moving around in field areas, follow them! 'Listen' to their speech bubbles, talk to them directly if you can, track their little stories as they unfold to set up the monster encounter. There are a number of story-chain FATEs I still haven't got to follow properly, like the attack on Highbridge, and in the Azim Steppe there's a whole side story following a minor tribe through different events. (I got a few bits of it but then I - and they - got defeated in an encounter with an enemy tribe, and I need to pick up that storyline again sometime.) I suspect you may need more people with you to actually succeed in the battles.

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Originally Posted by Vstarstruck

I want the "This shall be a mercy" guy to appear in any dungon, scaled to fit the place of course, making sure he says all his meme statements.

Oh the sloppy guy too, need a random chance anywhere to have the sloppy guy

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And replace "Sinners must be purged" with "Sprouts must be purged" while you're at it?

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Originally Posted by Destati

As interesting this idea is, it would be extremely awkward for newbies going into a roulette and having bosses/mechanics suddenly switch out on them.

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Yea as fun as the suggestion sounds on paper, having randomised mechanics would really hurt new players. They may not be ready to deal with something as complex as that, or they may have looked up tactics before going to the instance hoping to be prepared and end up coming against something completely alien. This would be especially punishing to tanks and healers.

As for veteran players, I'm not sure what the gain is from these randomly altered encounters. Aside from a break from monotony I guess but not everyone is so bored of the older content that they need some really strange rng and to make it interesting.

Something like this would be more at home in Palace of The Dead, given that the non-boss floors are already randomised to some degree.

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Originally Posted by RitsukoSonoda

At the odds rate of finding a shiny pokemon normal monster respawns in the open world areas can randomly be a mutation that looks different and is lv 100 >.>

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I think we already have those - they're called elite marks...

Sorry I forgot this was a "no fun zone" :p

I was thinking it'd be obvious that I was implying SE alter the stats of later bosses to fit the dungeon they're in. You know, so they're not impossible.

Obviously it wouldn't fit with the overall lore, but I really don't think it would matter to most players, especially with how rare an occurrence it would be.

As for the FATEs you're talking about, I'm well aware of those... and that's the problem. I want events to occur that are so rare and obscure that people might not believe you when you tell them what happened. You know, something that would start rumors and stories among players.

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Originally Posted by Penthea

Something like this would be more at home in Palace of The Dead, given that the non-boss floors are already randomised to some degree.

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Good point on Palace of the Dead, which actually *does* throw in unexpected encounters (if not necessarily difficult ones) in the form of the 'lost souls' you can occasionally come across. Was a real shock the first time I came across one and recognised them as a character that had died earlier in the story.

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Originally Posted by Wilford111

Sorry I forgot this was a "no fun zone" :P

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Please tell me how your suggestion is actually fun. You have stated a 1/10,000 chance for something different to appear along with or instead of the normal boss. With such low chances most players will never experience this for themselves. How can something so insanely rare be fun? You could level several characters to 70 on every class and never see this mechanic.

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Originally Posted by Penthea

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That's the point. I don't want everyone's experiences to be the same. I want people to experience things that might not ever be seen before. You know like in real life. Kind of like how seasonal events are only there for the players who are there at the time to experience it, and everyone who missed it misses out. This is kind of like that but on a much smaller scale. Something that won't be in any wiki because of how hard it'd be to pinpoint or document it.
Now, it's fine if you don't think this is a good idea. I get that, and that's fine if that's your opinion. I just wanted to throw my idea it there and see if it stuck.

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Originally Posted by Wilford111

That's the point. I don't want everyone's experiences to be the same. I want people to experience things that might not ever be seen before. You know like in real life.

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With a 1/10,000 chance for something different to happen, 99% of players will experience identical boss mechanics every time. You could play for YEARS and never encounter it.

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Originally Posted by Wilford111

it's fine if you don't think this is a good idea.

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It's more that I don't see the point. I can't see the gain in adding randomised mechanics in content that isn't designed to be randomised that would only affect a tiny amount of lucky/unlucky players. Maybe in Palace of The Dead, content that is designed to have a considerable amount of rng, but in normal instances? No.

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Originally Posted by Wilford111

Sorry I forgot this was a "no fun zone" :p

I was thinking it\\'d be obvious that I was implying SE alter the stats of later bosses to fit the dungeon they\\'re in. You know, so they\\'re not impossible.

Obviously it wouldn\\'t fit with the overall lore, but I really don\\'t think it would matter to most players, especially with how rare an occurrence it would be.

As for the FATEs you\\'re talking about, I\\'m well aware of those... and that\\'s the problem. I want events to occur that are so rare and obscure that people might not believe you when you tell them what happened. You know, something that would start rumors and stories among players.

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I assume you're replying directly to me, since you referenced my comment about the FATEs.... and enemy stats are not my point. Character consistency is the issue I'm thinking about - Zenos (or any other villains linked to certain places and events) will not randomly appear and fight you in a low-level dungeon "just because". That's not how the character behaves. It undermines his place in the story.

Maybe you don't care about lore, maybe a lot of people don't, but enough people do - including the creators of the game.

IF they introduced random occurrences in dungeons like this, I would much rather encounter monsters than specific characters.

Oh for sure, RNG is healthy. I never wanted dungeons to be exact same enemy patterns every time. Would be nice for some chance of an extra mob spawn with a treasure coffer for beating it, or for something else to be altered slightly. Doesn't need to only be uber rare stuff, can be fairly uncommon ones too. Guess it means more dev time / testing though. I liked aetherial gear with random stats too

I also just want to make myself clear, that I'm not just trying to fight for my own two ideas to make it into the game. I recognize they're not the best and the dev team could probably come up with a lot better ideas that everyone would be okay with. I just want them to maybe add some spark of excitement every now and then with some rare rng every now and then in some unexpected places.
So yeah, it's fine if my ideas are bad, I can see that it might not be worth the effort. But I think SE can come up with something along these lines.

Bump of sorts. I edited my original posts to try and make them more detailed and clear. Please give them a read and let me know what you think. Sorry for the trouble! >_<

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Originally Posted by Wilford111

Oh, and if SE does decide to do something like this, please don't let us know in patch notes or trailers. Let us be surprised!

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can't do this, because then people will mass complain about it being bugged. (If you watched live letters or fanfest, forgot what it was) they commented how on ozma healers from different parties will be sent to a different party if one or both healers died in a different one. People made mass gm calls about it from thinking it was bugged.

Also just because you have a super hard boss in sahasha, does not mean it retains all its moves and damage. Scale it down, maybe only have one move from its original self. You can't make things hard, you have to remember SE's target audience for this game.

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Originally Posted by Vstarstruck

can't do this, because then people will mass complain about it being bugged. (If you watched live letters or fanfest, forgot what it was) they commented how on ozma healers from different parties will be sent to a different party if one or both healers died in a different one. People made mass gm calls about it from thinking it was bugged.

Also just because you have a super hard boss in sahasha, does not mean it retains all its moves and damage. Scale it down, maybe only have one move from its original self. You can't make things hard, you have to remember SE's target audience for this game.

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Good points, but again I'd only want this to happen to players who've already completed these dungeons and bosses. So they already know how the fight goes, they'd just be fighting it in a different way.

EDIT: just reread your post, sorry I misunderstood it. Your point still stands :p

I'm all for randomness or random events but keep it in the overworld and make it so that everyone gets a chance to experience it, it can be switched up for different players for all it matters as long as the rewards are in the same amounts. Everything in a MMO needs to be able to be open to everyone as long as they put forth the effort to do so, locking someone out of something because they essentially didn't get the number to get that version is going to piss a lot of people off, even more when you give the random even more or better loot.

As long as these things are followed then anything could work.

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Originally Posted by Wilford111

Kind of like how seasonal events are only there for the players who are there at the time to experience it, and everyone who missed it misses out.

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Yeah, that sucks. We don't need more of that kind of crap. (Not saying that the events are crap, but that people who missed it can never experience it - that is crap.)

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Originally Posted by Vstarstruck

I want the "This shall be a mercy" guy to appear in any dungon, scaled to fit the place of course, making sure he says all his meme statements.

Oh the sloppy guy too, need a random chance anywhere to have the sloppy guy

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This please.

A N D
N O W
F O R
T H E
F I N A L
C U R T A I N

I think, if your concept is specifically that they should "do something as appealing as shiny Pokémon" (and I'm not sure if it *is* what you mean or if you're just using them as an example for a general concept) then we have different understandings of why those are appealing - and I say this as someone who spent many hours back in Pokémon Silver riding up and down outside Goldenrod City trying to hatch shiny Charmanders!

I wasn't doing that just to see a shiny Charmander, I was doing that because I wanted to own one, or rather the near-legendary black Charizard it would become. That's gameplay with an end goal, more akin to grinding for mounts/minions, just very heavily dependent on RNG to finally achieve it.

The chances are also very different even if you're intending for the same likelihood of it happening, because you're getting that 1-in-8192 chance per encounter rather than per dungeon. Let's estimate, one encounter a minute in the wild, 60 encounters in an hour = 137 hours of play to have 8220 encounters. That's decent odds if you're playing for an hour a day for a few months.

Put those same odds onto something happening in an instanced dungeon. One instance takes four people 15-30 minutes; let's say one hour of collective playtime = 1 dungeon clear. That means (if I'm doing this maths right) you need 8220 hours of playtime, or 2055 hours per person just in instanced dungeons to yield the same chances as that 137 hours of hoping for a shiny.

As someone who enjoys finding hunts, I'd love more reasons to go out and explore zones.

I honestly think having a hunt tier even higher then S that's extremely rare (Perhaps a chance occurrence after S rank kills or spawned by a rare drop from them) and has unique rewards would be nice.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

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I'm moreso using shiny pokemon as an example for a general concept. Seeing a recoloured trial boss or a different boss in a dungeon than usual is okay, but wouldn't garner as much excitement as a shiny pokemon. I suggested maybe raise the stats for these rare encounters and maybe give extra rewards, but some people have issues with that. I want players to at least take something away from these encounters, but I'm not sure what.

Also, they're not intended for every player to see them. I want them to be for a very lucky few portion of the player base. Whether or not the dev team thinks that's a good idea or not is up to them. I don't want this to be a 'feature' in ffxiv that gives players a reason to sign up for it. I want it moreso to be a secret, or easter egg. If that makes sense.

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Originally Posted by Vstarstruck

I want the "This shall be a mercy" guy to appear in any dungon, scaled to fit the place of course, making sure he says all his meme statements.

Oh the sloppy guy too, need a random chance anywhere to have the sloppy guy

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This. And I want the epic backflipping action every time he's defeated.

that would be highly RNG :(

They already have this. A couple of examples include retainers out on the field. Yes, believe it or not, you can run into retainers randomly out in the world, but it's a random event and only happens rarely. I've been playing for years and only recently discovered this - in Coerthas, I ran into a retainer with a pickaxe on his back (I believe it was) and he was mumbling something to himself if you approached him. Forgot what, but I was SO shocked that I looked it up and found out that others had seen this kind of thing as well in other locations. Wow!

Another example is the ghost of Edda. You can find her in Gridania sometimes for a very short time. I've never personally seen this myself, but there have been many accounts of it and a lot of people have posted screenshots and talked about it. There were even rumors of her holding the severed head of her lover, but that seems untrue as no one has ever found a picture of her doing that. Apparently there is only a 1% chance that she will spawn. Also, I guess there's a ghost in bloodshore that's rare to find as well. Who knows how many others they have that no one has discovered! Especially since most people don't explore the world, what with teleporting being way more convenient.

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Originally Posted by Mikki

They already have this. A couple of examples include retainers out on the field.

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Holy crap I had no idea this was even a thing and I have been playing for years!

The retainers seem to be time-based and not entirely random, as I've seen one by the node for Fragrant Logs in South Shroud several times while gathering said item.

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Originally Posted by Penthea

Holy crap I had no idea this was even a thing and I have been playing for years!

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Yeah, it really shocked me when I ran into it! I followed him around and was really confused. I thought at first maybe he was part of a fate but he wasn't, looked it up in excitement and discovered this is just something that happens randomly sometimes. Pretty cool.