Rewards for Criterion Dungeons: Ideas & Suggestions

Hello there. I've been thinking about the reward system for Criterion dungeons a lot, and how it could possibly be better. I've been wanting to share these ideas so much that I decided to finally use the forum!

In my humble opinion, Criterion and Criterion Savage rewards are simply not enough for what the content is. A mount can be a good reward for some, but if you're a reward-driven player it's likely that farming 100 coins for one mount feels kind of bad,.

And Criterion is designed as endgame content; far more than Bozja in the previous expansion, but despite that the rewards are not endgame-tier. So, how do we fix that? I have a couple of ideas

1) Gear

You felt this one coming, didn't you?

As forum-goers especially must have felt over the recent period, FFXIV's gear system has a few problems, one of them being that it's hard to gear up alternative jobs for endgame content with ease. Even if all endgame content sans Ultimates have a minimum item level on par with crafted gear, it is often difficult to get into parties due to player-made restrictions Item Level, which makes playing on less-geared Jobs through Party Finder much more frustrating.

I believe Criterion holds one of the keys to solve this alt problem.

My proposition is this:

With the tokens you get from Criterion, you should be able to buy 620/625 gear (or in general, -10 or -5 ilvl gear compared to Savage Raids)

This would include armor and accessories, though likely not weapons, (that is something that is already fulfilled partially by Relic weapons)

It simply makes sense, and would be the easiest way to make Criterion more enticing to endgame players to grind, both for players who want the gear purely for the item level for their main jobs or alt jobs, and for people who want to farm for a new glam. It would not disturb raid balance, as Savage Raid gear would still be superior, and Tomestone gear would still be desireable in the long term as it can be upgraded to Savage Raid gear. And since Criterion is likely going to be added on x.x5 patches even in the future, it's not going to affect week 1 raiding.

This is, in my opinion, the best solution, as it would not only solve another problem relating to the game, it would greatly expand on the endgame gearing system as a whole.

Note that I think Savage Criterion should NOT reward unique gear; or at least, not gear that is superior to stuff you can get with Criterion tokens. I am fine with considering Savage Criterion as an optional challenge mode for people who really want to test themselves, and I don't think people should feel extrinsically encouraged to do it purely for gear. Especially since, considering the prior suggestion, Savage Criterion gear would have to be on par to Savage Raid gear to be worthwhile, and that's just something I don't think the game is ready for.

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2) Tomestone Upgrade Materials (Twines, etc.)

This one I'm less sure about, especially in its implementation.

This is assuming that 1) does NOT get implemented. Suggestion 1 and 2 are mutually exclusive, at least to me.

The idea I have is that once a week after the weekly reset, Criterion will reward at the end chest one extra special token that can be exchanged at the vendor for one of any tomestone upgrade material. Essentially, the Alliance Raids coins but harder to obtain. This would encourage weekly reclears of Criterion, be an Anti-RNG pity system for people who were real unlucky on their savage raid rolls, and essentially an 'early' catchup system before Alliance Raids. After Alliance Raids come out, players will have the chance to get two materials each week, making gearing up alts easier.

3) Criterion Savage should reward coins

I mean, come on. This one's easy. At least equal to Criterion normal.


That's all I had for now. Thoughts? Criticism? Any other ideas?

[2/2]

No to gear. Yes to upgrade mats.

I think locking gear (and thus glamour) behind Criterion might be harsh if it's never going to become unsynchable.

I disagree, since we already have glamour gear that is locked behind unsynchable endgame content, the Ultimate weapons.

Plus they can just add the ability to do it unsynched next expansion, but I don't think that's necessary. Having Criterion as 'always alive' content for the glamour and challenge by making it unsynchable is a more fun idea, but that's just personal preference.

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Originally Posted by Cat-Os

I disagree, since we already have glamour gear that is locked behind unsynchable endgame content, the Ultimate weapons.

Plus they can just add the ability to do it unsynched next expansion, but I don't think that's necessary. Having Criterion as 'always alive' content for the glamour and challenge by making it unsynchable is a more fun idea, but that's just personal preference.

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Yeah, this take is a lot more interesting. We need more things that encourage actual vintage content runs, rather than just unsync skipping.

The content can Always be viable through other means.
The logic also works on the reverse end.
Ultimates and other Prestige or other high merit rewards are always known and the rewards never change.
Ultimates are always weapons, title, and now an additional Advent Plate Reward.
DeepDungeons always had their titles and weapons and other gear has been available to teams.

Locking other items, asides Very Flashy Weapons on the tier of Ultimates and DD titles, wouldn't increase the longevity like said contents, unless they had a variable solo version as well.

It needs better rewards that keep it always relevant. There will always be those who go back and do content for the challenge, but that's largely after unsyncs. unless they prefer to earn it for their personal rules

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Originally Posted by vanaii

Yeah, this take is a lot more interesting. We need more things that encourage actual vintage content runs, rather than just unsync skipping.

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*removes whistle/mount drops when doing content unsynced*
On a scale of 1 to MAD. How would you like this as the dev's answer to this problem?

I think it needs a weekly quest like Proto ultima

do one run get 1 token to trade in for a i630 accessory and it has a Glam set which cost 4 for chest/legs and 2 for arms/helm/boots

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Originally Posted by Raoabolic

*removes whistle/mount drops when doing content unsynced*
On a scale of 1 to MAD. How would you like this as the dev's answer to this problem?

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Personally? Don't care, sheep is bis. I know it would make the forums mad though. Mad doesn't even start to cover how mad.

The gaming blogs, reddit, twitter, all of it. Mad.

While it's a misstep to permit so much content to be farmable unsynced, what's done is done. Can't really go back on that, but new types of content coming in can have the restriction in place.

MMorpgs cannot create content faster than it can be consumed hence why repetitive content is needed

But people dont do the same thing repeatedly for fun, they need to be rewarded with something RELEVANT.

Gear is one of those things that give value to repetitive content and would absolutely be required if SE wants to create harder 4man content that can be done repeatedly.

They could technically just use Criterions to build a custom armor relic set. And Leave the weapons to the Hildibrand line. Though wouldnt be surprised if they plan on fusing these two in the long run anyway.

In order to not make the 8 player savage pointless, it would either need to be lower item level gear or it could be something than an awful lot of people in a static need universally, such as a single tomestone gear upgrade dropping once a week.

Personally, I'd be fine with criterion dropping a metric ton of capped tomes on the weekly so I don't have to run expert.

I do like that criterion does not accelerate character strength at this time. It was easier to convince my friends to do it blind. Gear is a very strong motivator, as we all know, and if criterion can accelerate character growth, then the end goal would be more important than the journey, and blind prog would be off the table.

As such, if criterion were to reward gear, it'd need to be things that could also be gotten in "easier" content, so that earning the reward does not become the be all end all.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

In order to not make the 8 player savage pointless, it would either need to be lower item level gear or it could be something than an awful lot of people in a static need universally, such as a single tomestone gear upgrade dropping once a week.

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This is why I prefer my suggestion of 620/625 gear (that would be weekly uncapped and farmable) over the weekly upgrade material, so that statics and players in generals wouldn't feel FORCED to do Criterion to get BiS faster.