Anyone feel nostalgic for larger scale raid?

[Gamer3427]

While I like the idea of larger more cooperative raids, that does lock quite a few of us out if you make it mandatory to have a full group going in, especially with just FC members. Right now my FC is very small, and we couldn't even form a full static from JUST FC members. The one I left to form my current one also had maybe 5-10 players that would get on consistently within a 24 hour span, (and even then not at the same time), despite having 40 or 50 members. Even in larger FCs that have hundreds of members, I find it unlikely that even half of them would be ready for raid level content, and of those, how many would be able to get on at the same time as the rest consistently enough to form a full static for your 24+ player FC raids? If they added content like what you're suggesting, then that would lock a great many players out of it just because they would rather be in smaller FCs composed of just their friends, or where they have some say in FC matters, rather than the main 2 or 3 FCs per server that have enough members to make that realistically viable. The number of players taking on raid level content is already an incredibly low percentage, and making that content accessible to only a small portion of those people is certainly not the way to go.......

[Noxifer]

While I like the idea of larger more cooperative raids, that does lock quite a few of us out if you make it mandatory to have a full group going in, especially with just FC members.

Correct me if I'm wrong -- this is my first MMO, so I only have hearsay to go by -- but with larger-scale raid teams, like 25+ raiders, since each person is responsible for a smaller percentage of the team's performance, it actually means the static is a lot less limited. Sure, the better you know how to work together, the better your team will handle the encounters, but it doesn't really matter nearly as much if you bring five BLMs, two DRG and one MCH, or if you bring an even amount of all DPS classes. And it doesn't necessarily have to be the same players all the time, as long as those replaced don't mind not 'keeping up' and are willing to find another way to get through that encounter (if it's a gate for the next place you go into) before joining in again. The core would most likely remain the same, but the rest could probably be filled from those half-serious raiders in the FC or even from PF if necessary.

[Gamer3427]

Words.

Maybe, but with as many wipes as there are in the Crystal Tower trilogy of raids, even when you go in with a full party and do your part absolutely correctly, it's scaled so that if even half the over all group isn't up to par, (with the bar obviously being pretty low for those three as is), then you will be struggling to clear it. If it's content designed around having to go in as a pre-formed group as the OP is suggesting though, then it would also be scaled around the idea of "cooperating" with the other members enough that PF members, non-raiders, or people unfamiliar with the content would begin causing issues in even small numbers.....

Not to mention the fact that trying to PF a group for anything post the first month of it being out is very difficult at times, much less if you were trying to form a full alliance with it. I actually checked the PF on my server during prime time a couple of days ago, and the only ones there were a couple of Ravana EX farms, (both with half a party's worth of members), someone using it as a "/tell and make me offer to buy item X" party, and one FATE farming group. And this was during prime time. I went into the PF with some friends a few weeks ago to try and do a Garuda EX run, during the time we normally play, (slightly later than prime time), and we sat there for about an hour with no one joining even when using tells to advertise it. Again, particularly with small groups of players such as my FC, I can't imagine how difficult it would be to get a full PF group for a pre-formed 24 player raid after all the more "hardcore" players are through with it. And even if we could, chances are it'll be the same as going into the DF anyhow in terms of players cooperating, with the only difference being that it would take longer to set up and get going.....

Then comes the issue of difficulty. Either it's as difficult as Alexander Savage and you're forced to use a full static to clear it, or it's easy and becomes as dead as the Crystal Tower trilogy is right now after the gear in it stops being relevant, but with the added restriction of being locked behind needing pre-formed alliances. Anything in the middle will make it too much trouble for 90% of the players to deal with, while making it so that the other 10% will either give up on bad PF groups, or will just be using a full static anyhow. There's no middle ground here that would make it both accessible to players outside of large free companies, and make it difficult enough that even partial statics will be needed.....

Don't get me wrong here. I'm all for larger scale content, and when I saw that there was going to be a new 24 player raid in 3.1, I was particularly excited. I'm just saying that gating more such content behind the restriction of pre-formed parties will just make it so that the majority of players at that point in the game's content can't access it in general, even using the PF. As is, there's nothing stopping players from forming statics on their own for 24 player content, aside from the players themselves, but making it mandatory for some content isn't the way to go.....

I'm sorry if I became repetitive in what I'm saying, or didn't convey my point as well as I intended. It's late here and I'm headed to bed soon, so I'll just blame the lack of sleep......