Eureka: successes, problems and possilbe solutons from the PoV of a filthy casual

[Jmarja]

Oh Eureka, this beautiful, terrible trainwreck of a system.
Many fellow players have already gone on record pointing fingers at the many things that it gets wrong and how that is just the worst.
While I am not sure I can truly add anything new to the conversation I'd like to go and list the things I think Eureka, in its current form, does right, the things it gets wrong and some relatively low-cost ideas I have that might help improve things.

Success no. 1: The danger of exploration
Eureka it's dangerous wildlife does a great job emulating the peril of being in a place you've never been before, creatures you have never (ish) seen and how you might take some time to understand the rules by which this strange place works.
It takes the rules we assume from the outside world and turns them on their collective heads, jumping right into uncanny valley territory making it an ominous and perilous place.

Success no. 2: The enviroment
Eureka is a beautiful place. Granted while running for my life, screaming I didn't have that much time to appreciate all the effort that was sunk into the map but what I did get to see, especially when I started sneaking so I was forced to watch the enviroment, is something that really feels vast and expansive and dangerous. The map feels like it's yet deciding whether or not it wants me there, which I absolutely adore.

Sucess no. 3: The independent levelling
The elemental level in itself is a great idea keeping the content from becoming easier as expansions are added and new gear is released. Eureka will always be a place of danger, one where you have to fight against this land's very nature, to get what you want.


While these seem maybe like I am romanticising Eureka a lot, I am merely trying to see the systems in place for what I hope they were meant to do and how that worked in the end. A lot of my original complaints arose from me expecting an easy time in Eureka, which I realised is the wrong way to look at it. That doesn't excuse the problems I do have though which are:




Problem No. 1: The grind
Getting to max level, “conquering the jungle” as I like to call it, takes just too much time. It's a time investment that turns players away before they even started since the initial time investment to even start getting what you ulimately want out of it (the improved af sets and the relic) is so huge, people that have little time to spend might not think it worthwhile and search for more gratifying things to do.

Problem No. 2: The Quest
While the idea of an independent story is amazing and makes the place feel more “real” in its own right it is implemented in a subobtimal manner. And I am not talking about the lack of quest markers. I mean the fact that it's easy to miss you have an actual quest at all.
The describtions are vague and coupled with the fact that some points are in really terrible places finding them, without consulting the wisdom of the internet, is terribly frustrating and forces you to most likely inconvenience someone else to get it done.

Problem No. 3: Punished for being low levelled
Right now Eureka is seperating the wheat from the chaff. That is, in and of itself, a good thing, down the line it will be terrible.
There is already a visible beginning of high level players (highs) and low level players (lowies) begruding each other. Highs getting mad at lowies for needing babysitting and dying so often and lowies get angry at highs for leaving them to fend for themselves.
This issue is especially compounded by lowies not receiving any kill exp when teaming up with highs. That way highs that would want to help lowies just can't without finding way to exploit the system and lowies feeling left alone in a inhospitable place.
Which is especially bad when someone has a grind-happy lvl 20 friend that now is literally incapable of helping because their friends are still lvl 5.

Problem No. 4: The monster density
Yes, I know, I said I like how dangerous Eureka feels and this may seem hypocritical but hear me out please.
The map is quite packed with things that can just kill you when you are a lowie. And if you don't have a party or your party was wiped by some reason or another even getting back to where you where you were gets to be quite the chore. Coupled with the exp loss from lvl 6 on and the delevelling on lvl 11 something like that can potentionally ruin a session.

Problem No.5: Short relevance of content
Eureka is made to get your AF3+ set and your relic weapon. Which means that as soon as you have everything you want, there is no reason to go back in there. There certainly will always be an influx of people joining late because they weren't level 70 yet or didn't have the time etc., but that might be too little people to actually finish the requirements for Pazuzu in time.
Granted this is mostly speculation but considering how faster content that doesn't offer anything anymore dies in this game I worry for everyone that is just another week or two late being able to finish at all.


With this out of the picture I am now moving on to what I cooked up with in my crazy headspace to hopefully long term improve the issues I have pointed my fingers at so shamelessly.




Solution No. 1: Nerf the time needed
This can be accomplished by either buffing the exp received or nerfing the experience needed per level. The goal is to reduce the initial time investment so people are less overwhelmed when starting and especially when starting late.

Solution No. 2: Eureka weekly challenge log section

By adding a Eureka weekly challenge log that has sections like “kill x notorious monsters” or “complete x #30 exp chains” or just “kill x monsters in eureka” and reward these with precentile experience based on one's elemental level.
I wouldn't recommend dailies as they could soon feel even more like a chore and make people feel as if they are “missing out” if they don't do those daily things. Weekly challenges give people time to choose when to do them on their own terms and maybe also coordinate with friends.

Solution No. 3: Nerf the monster deadliness
The loss of exp is already incentive enough to not provoke a monster that is above and beyond what you can handle so I don't think making them capable of casually one shotting a lower leveled player seems somewhat unnecessary. While, as mentioned previously, this adds to the feelings of fighting against nature itself to get what you want, it also can easily lead to frustration. I would suggest either shortening the distance for which monsters follow a player, reduce their damage output to a point where you are half life but not dead or maybe disable that people can be hit by AoEs of monsters they didn't aggro. Especially the last point would reduce the potential of trolling and griefing tremendously though I can imagine this point being cumbersome to implement.

Solution No. 4: Add a feather exchange
Maybe add an NPC that exchanges Pazuzu feathers in exchange for Crafting and Gathering 6 materia. Not in a 1:1 ratio, as it would oversaturate the market, but maybe in a 6:1 ratio. Or maybe add the upgrade items in 4.3 to that NPC as well.
There might but the point is, there should be a more long-lived reason to kill Pazuzu than the relic and the AF gear.
So the content doesn't die in the first and a half months and makes it yet more gruelling to get done.

Solution No.5: Let high level players help

This point is, in my opinion, the most important of them all.
Allow high level players to help low level players. Remove that lowies don't get any more exp per kill when they have someone in their party that is 8 level above the lowest.
This system segregates players and makes catching up unnecessarily hard. It drives friend apart and the only reason why this system might be in place, that I can see, is so that there is no way of easily selling Eureka powerlevelling.
But making powerlevelling hard at the cost of keeping friends apart and make new players feel alienated is not a good course of action.
Since, down the line, when Eureka is old and less populated because most people have gotten their relics and are done with the place, at least like that low level players can receive some guidance and help from the veterans without making it convoluted.

[Aerlana]

you can edit post to outpass 1000 character limit ^^'

intuitiv forum!

[Jmarja]

How? D: Because this is flipping annoying

[Hestzhyen]

For future reference you can edit your post to get past the 1000 char limit.

My buddy and I are level 3 in Eureka. We had a terrible first impression and haven't been eager to go back. Considering that we're not hardcore grinders due to time constraints, we'll probably be duoing Eureka forever. Or until we get sick of it.

We want to do the story aspect of it. The island is really pretty and the scenario is pretty cool. But the mind-numbing grind is terrible and the EXP penalty for being in groups with different levels than you is so, so bad. Probably will do what Krille wants us to do then never touch it again.

[Aerlana]

you post a message, with less than 1000 character then you edit (with "edit" button) the message and no character limit then

this is one of the stupid things with FFXIV... his forum is so bad... really bad...