So, how is Pagos?

[Rokke]

Probably it. Before Anemos, what was the last relic step that involved a somewhat lengthy grind?
...
The relic requires a grind, but it can't include any difficult (requiring skill, not time) content or it would lock out players. That severely limits options. Which part of 800 Alex runs or waiting on FATEs to spawn for beast tribes or doing FATEs (the majority of which are grinding mobs) over and over for crystals or farming the same dungeons for tomes, light or item drops was enjoyable? Any answer is going to include the ability to do other things while grinding and not the content itself.

You didn't need to spam A1S for 7 hours, didn't need to run ARF till you were sick of it. Being able to pick your poison and deal with your choice on your own time made the grind bearable- Not enjoyable, per say, but bearable. The grind was as bad as you made it with the options you used to progress.

Chaining/killing mobs in Pagos is braindead content. Chaining/killing mobs in Anemos (fuel for the train) was and is braindead content. Asking for braindead content to be replaced with braindead content when the only difference between the two is that one allows for more afking shows that it's not the quality of the content people really care about.

The issue with Eureka is that regardless of train or chain the only way to progress is to kill large amounts of X to spawn a bigger X and then go back to killing large amounts of X. Even amongst all the NMs I've fought they're all essentially the exact same fate (kill the big X) with some monster mechanics swapped out. Leves, hamlet defense, hunts, wandering bosses, beast tribes, escort missions, maps, optional quests - theres so many things that could have been alternative means to earning progress in Eureka. The chain could have stayed the "best" way of earning exp/crystals for the people who wanted to throw themselves at it for efficiency's sake and others could have done whatever they fancied and progressed at their own pace. It didn't need to be one monotonous braindead slog.

[Vnolan]

Leves, hamlet defense, hunts, wandering bosses, beast tribes, escort missions, maps, optional quests

All valid requests, but they're being overshadowed by "give me back the train".

[InkstainedGwyn]

All valid requests, but they're being overshadowed by "give me back the train".

Because everybody is well aware that SE isn't going to redesign anything. We'll be lucky if there's any extra changes made at all. The train is the easiest thing they can do that will at least make it bearable.

If we're talking an ideal situation, yeah. I'd love to have the whole thing expanded, exploration reasons added, variety, optional quests, etc. I've just looked at SE's track record and decided to ask for the bare minimum.