Diadem - The Seeds of Discontent

[fm_fenrir]

in my experience nobody really likes hunts that much, is that just the people I spend my time with?

I don't think anyone likes hunts mechanically, but you sort of invent your own fun as far as entertainment goes in hunt parties.

Anyway, I was kind of hoping Diadem would turn out to be more in line with the Moblin maze mongers minigame from XI, where you get a semi-randomized dungeon layout with randomly populated mob families.

[Quintalian]

Anyway, I was kind of hoping Diadem would turn out to be more in line with the Moblin maze mongers minigame from XI, where you get a semi-randomized dungeon layout with randomly populated mob families.

Moblin Maze Mongers was a fairly claustrophobic bit of content, reusing the same map for every "custom dungeon", and limiting mob population to a few types from just two monster families per run. Although it wore out pretty quickly in FFXI, a similar style of customized instance content would fit within the wide open spaces of the Diadem, or the next Exploratory Mission area, for that matter. Allowing a player to 'decipher a sky chart' (pick elements used to populate an instance) a la MMM, and then explore it with a party or Free Company members might be compelling. It might even be possible to replicate content from 1.0 in this way, such as the Skirmish NM and boss rush battles. Just my 2 gil.

This has bugged me, too. Diadem's current objectives are pretty simple to clear quickly, leaving little direction on what to do after getting those Esoterics. Rather than simply getting the full tome payout by clearing a handful of objectives out of the full list, it might be more interesting to earn those Eso tomes in stages, along with some guaranteed gear or spoils drops, by clearing escalating tiers of objectives. For example, kill X rank III mobs, there's a few Eso. Then work your way up to kill rank IVs, then rank Vs, etc. Reaching the top tier of each type of objective grants a bonus chest with multiple gear drops and/or spoils.

There should be exploration-based tasks (find both kinds/multiples of crystals, examine points on multiple islands, find a 'hidden point' via hot/cold mini-game maybe?) and gathering tasks (get NQs, HQs, gather X different types of mats) as well, of course. This way, in order to earn the full amount of Eso tomes, there's more of a goalpost, as well as some bonus incentives for objectives.