As a new player, running through the Praetorium dungeon was the worst

[OMega_ARcane]

That really SUCKS! If you ever need someone to party up with to avoid crap like this reach out to me, I'll join, so that'll be one less person making you feel rushed. We all deserve to dig into this game, that person was once where you were. Sorry that happened to you.

[OMega_ARcane]

I had a pretty similar experience to OP just last week. I was playing healer as well. It was easily one of the worst experiences I had in ANY game. I had been warned to skip cutscenes beforehand, so I was doing so, but the other players refused to explain even basic mechanics and instead just made fun of me when they took off without me on the elevators, with me having no idea how to progress as I had not seen the cutscenes and no idea what to do with the robot. I also had to watch the ending on youtube, as I accidentally skipped through the ending cutscenes, and didn't realize you had to turn in a quest in order to be able to see it in the inn. It honestly made me stop wanting to do the story, and I almost uninstalled the game. If I didn't have a super supportive FC, I would have definitely quit the game. It is still going to be a while before I have the stomach to do story quests again, I will just focus on crafting in the meantime.

That sucks too...If you need a friend I'll team up with ya. No pressure here, you can ask the members in my FC lol. I've poured all my being into helping the young sprouts grow into strong oak trees. I can help you or anyone else needing it the same way I enjoy helping new people and watching players grow. Growing together and bonding with friends is always a great added bonus too!

[execool]

Thank you so much!! KaivaC, Kakiko, OMega_ARcane, everyone with a positive response, I really appreciate it! I hope I run into you Kakiko! :-) I am doing WHM of course, and will do astro and warrior. good luck with DRK! My FC is Stuff N Things, ie <<Shop>>. I always watch the scenes, except for this one and castrum which I was warned about, so what you did for you sister sounds really cool :-). I actually thought the ending was pretty neat when I got around to enjoying it.

Vstarstruck, I was following the first tank closely, and wiped when he did when he overextended into the trash. When I caught back up again, they were at the elevator and took off on it when I was right next to it, mocking me. After that, I was trying to to make it through the room with the magitech armor, but had no idea what to do, and didn't catch up until the final boss so I never really got to fight any fights. I love difficult battles, so I was really looking forward to it!

TBH, I totally get people grinding... I just wish I had gotten to participate at all, especially since I was already scene skipping. For reference, I did Crystal Tower with my FC a few days after, and World of Darkness was a lot of fun, so difficulty was not the issue.

[Iscah]

I've only gone into MSQ roulette a few times, but it should be done with the understanding that giving new players a full experience of the dungeon is the #1 importance. Getting the whole story and pacing, and seeing your own character there in the cutscenes is always going to be better than watching someone else on Youtube.

Perhaps the tomestone reward needs to be given only if you're standing near the new person when they get to the end of the cutscene....? Or just lock everyone's movements, like the circle at the start of dungeons prevents people from moving if someone is watching the opening cutscene.

[Jijifli]

Perhaps the tomestone reward needs to be given only if you're standing near the new person when they get to the end of the cutscene....? Or just lock everyone's movements, like the circle at the start of dungeons prevents people from moving if someone is watching the opening cutscene.

Before I say this I want to mention I'm not saying "F THE NEW PLAYER"

But in reality... locking players to have to wait on the new person is going to dramatically hurt the queue. People want to go in, get their stuff, and get out. They don't want to be in there for over double the normal time. It's why it has it's own queue in the first place, with a very meaty poetics bonus on the stick.

[Ilenya]

That being said, from what I understand, this has been the thing for a while....

Just for curiosity's sake I decided to check a few dates to see how long this has been going on. On 12/14/2013 I got the achievement for Mapping the Praetorium. Early access started on 8/24/2013.

I was being rushed...As a SCH...Back when the dungeon was still actually somewhat hard.

Less than 4 months after the game went live.

[Iscah]

But in reality... locking players to have to wait on the new person is going to dramatically hurt the queue.

On the other hand, not-locking players is dramatically hurting first-time players' experience of an ending that, when played as intended, is amazing - but frustrating and underwhelming if they are forced to choose between skipping cutscenes or being abandoned by the rest of the group and missing out on any actual game content.

I'm also not sure - the other day when I was in the Praetorium, we were seriously close to beating Lahabrea while the new player was still watching the pre-battle cutscene. I asked everyone to stop and stall for time, and they did, but if we hadn't.... if we beat him and trigger the post-battle cutscene, does the new player see the ending play immediately after the other cutscene ends, or do they miss the trigger and not see the scene at all?

I'm asking this because my first run of Praetorium - despite my specific effort of getting FC friends to do it unsynched with me and wait for the cutscenes - turned out to be a horrendous mess of server disconnections and missed scenes. I'd watch half a scene, get kicked out, log back in, participate in half a battle, get kicked out... and the ultimate effect of all this was, when I went to the inn afterwards to "watch all the cutscenes I'd missed" they actually weren't all there. If I hadn't been present for a cutscene trigger, it wasn't unlocked in the book. I missed out on the scene before battling Lahabrea and the epic finale afterwards, and I didn't even know they existed until the next time I got into the dungeon.

In summary: missed cutscene triggers = missed cutscenes in the book, and I don't know what happens if you're in one cutscene when another starts. It may be locking first-time players out of seeing important parts of the story.

It's why it has it's own queue in the first place, with a very meaty poetics bonus on the stick.

I thought that's (theoretically) meant to be compensation for the time you're spending helping people through their story experience...

[Jijifli]

Snip

I'm not denying it's terrible. I've done enough though, with multiple characters to make me look like the newbie too, to know people stopping for the whole dungeon isn't going to usually happen. For one boss? Sure, but at every cutscene? I got yelled at for asking for 2 cutscenes.

The best I can offer right now is Party Finder, but it's not the first thing that pops up in someone's head when they hit that point. My concern is making it too much of a hassle for the not-new person and making them just not queue at all, which could result in really long queue times. Just doing the story on an alt with my GF we had a 12 minute queue with a TANK of all things. I almost never see tanks wait that long for anything else.

[execool]

Personally, I think many helpful minded players avoid that queue, and that is why the wait is so long even with the bonus. I too had a ~10 min wait with a whm. I probably would have hit that queue several times by now if it weren't for my bad experience. I mean its not THAT long, listen to a podcast and chill out while the noobs watch the scenes. I would do it, but I know I would be left behind and chewed out as well if I try to wait for newbies, and I don't want to participate in that blood bath. I also dont want to help cruel players get tomes.

[Sylvina]

Just ran through the Praetorium dungeon to finish up the ARR story and it was rushed the whole way until the last boss. From my experiences with previous dungeons, I've just given up completely on watching cutscenes and now watch them prior/after.

I'm sorry you also have a horror story about speedrunatorium, and it sounds like your first time was worse than mine. If you're looking for friends on your server being new and all look me up though!