The Praetorium: The Anti-Climactic Climax

[Kerberon]

As an idea: Keep the roulette, remove the tome reward, boost gil/seal reward significantly.

Makes it less tempting for speed running/myth farming, but still allows for people to join and possibly help via roulette. And still makes it somewhat worthwhile for those who aren't new.

Queue times will skyrocket and you'll swap the "I got left behind watching cutscenes" threads for the "Why do I have an 8 hour queue?" threads. Personally I think the long queues are a worse problem.

[blowfin]

While it's true I joined the group of adventurers that stormed the Praetorium, I wasn't able to lift a finger to help them. While I stopped for a few moments to engage in dialogue with the Empire's villains, the rest of the team pushed ahead without their second tank. By the time I finished exchanging words with each villain, he would already be laying dead at my feet. Apparently, a Monk even tanked Ultima Weapon just for fun.

I'm not upset at other players who have reasonable wishes to skip past cutscenes they've already experienced. But for me, this was an extremely depressing way to experience the final battles of my character's main storyline. I think the frequency of cutscenes in this dungeon, combined with the lack of gear cap (as present in low level dungeons), make this a compromise where nobody wins.

If it makes you feel any better, Praetorium was trivial when it got released too. All the story missions are ridiculously easy actually.

[Ooshima]

If it makes you feel any better, Praetorium was trivial when it got released too. All the story missions are ridiculously easy actually.

Yup, so the suggestion to ilvlsync to i90 won't help, because back in 2.0 we were doing CM speed run in DL, or some even lesser, like a mix of DL and i60 dungeon stuff. Those days where everyone were shouting LFM CM SR lol..

[Andevom]

If it makes you feel more justified, the story makes it clear that you're leading a group into the Praetorium.

Even if you don't lift a finger, it was your leading the unit in that makes you a hero. After all, no one wants their general killed in battle.

[Aidalyn]

If it makes you feel more justified, the story makes it clear that you're leading a group into the Praetorium.

Even if you don't lift a finger, it was your leading the unit in that makes you a hero. After all, no one wants their general killed in battle.

I like this angle! I may try role-playing it when I start running this in the future, if at least to try comforting other players running it for the first time so their experience isn't as awkward as mine. Maybe something like:

/p Roll call: Who's doing this for the first time?
/p Okay, good. We pledge our blades and skills to your service.
/kneel
/p Sit back and enjoy the story at your leisure. We're going to forge ahead and clear the path for you.
/p All we ask is that you do the same for future heroes one day.
/gcsalute

[PetiteMalFleur]

I like this angle! I may try role-playing it when I start running this in the future, if at least to try comforting other players running it for the first time so their experience isn't as awkward as mine. Maybe something like:

/p Roll call: Who's doing this for the first time?
/p Okay, good. We pledge our blades and skills to your service.
/kneel
/p Sit back and enjoy the story at your leisure. We're going to forge ahead and clear the path for you.
/p All we ask is that you do the same for future heroes one day.
/gcsalute

Wonderful idea!

[RayneBoemir]

As an idea: Keep the roulette, remove the tome reward, boost gil/seal reward significantly.

Makes it less tempting for speed running/myth farming, but still allows for people to join and possibly help via roulette. And still makes it somewhat worthwhile for those who aren't new.

No one will queue that way as much as I enjoy the music in Praetorium I wouldn't do it unless it offered myth tomes as a reward. As it is I only queue for it because running only Brayfox 270 times repeatedly is not for me.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

That's the idea. MAKE it unappealing for tome grinders (especially when you consider there are so many other options for them). If there are less people running it just for tomes, there'll be less cases of speed-runners/tome-grinders surging ahead of those who are new and negatively impacting the experience.

At the same time, so as not to seem totally focused on "preserving the experience for first-timers" there is still incentive with gil and GC seals. Perhaps other reward incentives besides tomes can be implemented. But largely, the idea is to make it less about speed-running for tomes and more for helping people complete the story and still get something out of it personally.

[PetiteMalFleur]

Snip

Most people don't like unreasonably long queues though.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

No, they don't. Which is why outside of the mandatory run for story completion, most don't do it.

This isn't a problem that'll be fixed easily, and to be honest, even I can't think of a good, "everyone-wins" solution. But as for the problem of "speed runners leaving behind newbies just for tomes" issue, that's a fairly easy one to fix. Make it less appealing.

Sure, Brayflox gets old. But you can literally get tomes almost anywhere now. It may not be at maximum or the most time-efficient methods, you can get them anywhere. So why something lengthy like Praetorium?