Please Reconsider MSQ Changes

[Ayer2015]

MSQ daily should have been removed and turned into a dungeon where the player can take his/her grand company npc group with them.

That's actually a very good idea.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

I'm curious if they plan to lock the bosses. If they don't, people are just going to speed through the dialogue and rush the dungeon all over again.

[NolLacnala]

They trying to sell more skip potions by killing the roullete

[Jerichai]

Let me start by saying that I agree that these changes are far from ideal and will most likely result in fewer people doing the roulette and longer queues for those who need the content for story completion. That said, I can't help but consider the following:


It may be the dev team's intention to reduce the number of people queuing for this content. At the very least, to have fewer folks that queue for the roulette with the primary goal of XP and Poetics, and not mainly to help newer players clear the content. I can understand that seems counter intuitive, but consider that many of the frustrations with the content come as a result of players with different objectives (experiencing the story vs. clearing as fast as possible for the reward) are forced to mix. Well, truly the root cause was trying to make group content like this in an MMO, but my former statement is the expected result of that issue. Thankfully the devs seem to have learned their lesson in that regard, as evidenced by ARF and AM.

Let's first consider another way they could have attacked this issue, including modifications that account for some folk's concern (being forced to watch the cut scene whether you've seen it or not, and regardless if there's no one in the party that's actually new to the content). One option would be to still allow folks to skip the cut scenes, and only let progress to the next section once everyone was out. This would solve the issue of being locked into a cut scene regardless of player completion status, and still allow for faster runs if you're with a group that had no new players. They could even include better rewards to account to the potential for longer dungeon clear times. Here's the issue though: by giving players the potential to still move faster than the cut scenes allow, you create a scenario where players will still be trying to pressure the new players to skip the cut scenes so that the rewards come faster. And considering that you take away the option for the rest of the group to leave the cut scene folks behind, I would be surprised if that pressure to skip didn't become more pronounced. Especially if there are larger rewards to be gained potentially in the same clear time before the implemented changes. This isn't a great solution.

Let's consider a solution discussed in the OP: using the squadron tech to allow people to run these instances solo. This is definitely an interesting idea, but there are a few issues. First and foremost, players can't start a squadron before completing this part of the story. So the developers would need to implement a work around (perhaps have your character given a squad of generic GC soldiers to fight with you, dependent on your role). But then we face the issue of the player having never encountered this kind of system before, so you'll need to make sure they can figure out how the command system work. A duty maybe to lead the soldiers on a patrol and give the players a brief tutorial on how to use the squad could help, but it's something else to implement. Then there's ensuring the AI can function in the dungeons. The Squad AI isn't like SCH/SMN pets of chocobo companions. They're intended to be able to function with respect to the instance's mechanics, hence why there's a limited set of dungeons we can actually run. Considering that there are some unique mechanics to deal with in these instances (the cannons for the trash and Livia in CM, the magitek segment in Prae), this would require a bit of engineering to manage. The point I'm trying to get at is this: these kinds of fixes require a non-negligible level of investment of development time and resources. I'm not suggesting it would push back a patch by months, but it still would have to compete with development of other things. And considering that these two instances only really account for 1.5-2 hours of a player's time, it comes down to a question of whether or not that time is worth it.

So let's go back to my original point: they're de-incentivizing the queue with the express purpose of getting fewer people to queue for the roulette. When we consider this as an option, we should consider that the game has changed a lot since the MSQ roulette was originally added. This includes:

- The ability to run dungeons with an unsync'd group with fewer players than required. Players who, I might add, now obliterate both the character level and item level these instances were designed for.
- The mentor roulette (not be a mentor myself, I'm assuming that the mentor roulette can feed into MSQ...especially if apparently the mentor roulette can put you into a guild hest) to help supplement rosters with players who ideally should be there to help other folks complete content.
- Data center wide party finders, allowing for a wider net from which to create preformed parties.
-A bigger player base than the days of 2.0, including new players coming into their own.

Players have a lot more resources at their disposal than they did back during ARR launch. This may be the developer's attempt to test the waters, and see if the roulette is actually necessary to get through the content in the first place, especially when the roulette is only advantageous from the perspective of getting people in the door quickly, as opposed to ensuring a good experience.

So yeah, the queues will probably be longer, but this may encourage new players to explore other ways of getting into content outside of using the duty finder, which has been their main way of entering the content up to this point. If the duty finder is failing them, they might be more encouraged to reach out to friends to help them queue (and going unsync'd, they'd only need 1 or 2 at lvl 70). Or they put together a party in PF of people that want to be there for the content. Or they wait out the duty finder queue and at the very least are more likely teamed up with other new players and/or mentors who are there with the aim of helping them getting through the content. Yeah, the time to get into the content goes up, but the quality of the experience does stand to improve.

And I'll admit, I could be completely wrong on this, but I do think it's an interesting idea to explore. And the good thing is their change didn't take a lot of time to implement, and it certainly won't take a lot of time to remove if it ultimately fails.

[HyoMinPark]

This isn't an eff up on SEs part. This is SEs deliberate eff u to speed runners of an instance that for years now, does not get run as intended. These instances, especially Prae, are a nightmare for new players who aren't even allowed to see which direction faces up.

I mean, this is a band-aid fix for two poorly designed instances. The poor design is the fault of SE, and, by extension, so is this band-aid fix. In no way is it going to make the experience more pleasant for new players.

Since week one of ARR launch, these two instances weren’t being run the way SE are trying to force players to run them 4 years later. They learned from the design mistake and never did something like this again, but they are still at fault for not taking any initiatives to remedy the situation surrounding Prae and Castrum. Well, until now. And their “remedy” is definitely not the best one they could have chosen.

The remedy is not to force players to watch cutscenes. These duties should have been transformed into an extensive solo instance a long time ago.

[jameseoakes]

I'm curious if they plan to lock the bosses. If they don't, people are just going to speed through the dialogue and rush the dungeon all over again.

Agreed, if it doesn't have gates then it will just slow groups down but not really address the issue they want to and just annoy people who used it as a roulette. It will be 'interesting' to see how this plays out.

[Rokke]

Literally last week I got an alt through 2.0. As a dps it took 45 min for prae to pop, and I knew what wait I was getting myself into. A poor noob is going to be sitting pretty for an hour during prime time, and god help them if they play in off hours. What a mess.

[TheAngelneer]

Agreed, if it doesn't have gates then it will just slow groups down but not really address the issue they want to and just annoy people who used it as a roulette. It will be 'interesting' to see how this plays out.

And if they have gates, one person can hold the entire group hostage by simply not advancing the cutscene.

Also, it IS a roulette, how else you want people to use it?

[Pyroxene]

All I see happening here is players avoiding msq roulette like the plague and new players leaving after not being able to pass that quest for an extended period of time.

[Cakekizyy]

Modify that idea slightly. Instead of taking your squadron with you, the 3 grand companies join together and throw a squadron your way. Melee/ranged DPS will be provided by the Adders, tanks will be provided by the Maelstrom, healers/casters will be provided by the Immortal Flames (playing into the supposed specialities of each GC).

Seems you got that mixed up. Adders should be healers.