Baldesion Arsenal Feedback

[Seedling]

Something I noticed though beyond the issue of portals/PUGs vs DF/PF, and while playing on Aether (no idea if the same issue exists on other datacenters) is a general problem with the fact that BA is directly linked into Hydatos instances. Once people enter BA suddenly up to 56 people are gone from the instance, and prepping any high-level NMs becomes even more difficult than it is anyway, given a good chunk of the Eureka population is sitting by default at base semi-afking and waiting for NMs (hopefully) spawned by others to pop. Remove 1/3 to half of the instance into BA on top of that and... well, yeah, you get the picture.

The problem isn't that those 56 people are taking up slots for people that aren't going to farm claws anyway, the problem is that it's a pain and a half to get 56 people in the same instance to begin with... it can easily take half an hour to an hour to find a suitable instance that everyone can enter.

I just came out of an instance and there was exactly ONE group prepping the dragon, and just getting this single party together took an incredible amount of cajoling. You can imagine how long that entire effort to spawn PW took... X_x (but at least it popped, while I have spent more hours than I want to count on fruitlessly trying to get a prep for high-level NMs in Hydatos going in any meaningful way...)

Once people have their 5 scales (2 PWs), there is no incentive to farm more unless you actually went through the grind to get multiple 4.0 relic weapons. So it's no surprise that some instances have trouble getting people to farm claws for 3 hours, only to get kicked out midfight...

Therefore I think a direct link between Hydatos and BA is a bit on the problematic side to begin with (at least on NA servers? idk...), but given there is the entire thing with the support FATE I see no real way how to address this issue now. If anything it might be something to consider for future content of this kind -- depriving an instance hinging on plenty of players doing things of... well, active players by sending them to another instance can cause unintended problems.

Fates are scaled to the number of people in the instance (BA players are excluded, they have a special player flag in search.)
The support group is generally the one dealing with dispelling and debuffing Tristitia, beyond that it's a matter of dodging the dual cast aoes like any other FATE boss. Except you get 30 crystals as a reward.

That aside, and something which might alleviate at least some of the problems for NA could be a system which allows premades to chose what instance they enter (Hydatos 1, Hydatos 2, Hydatos 3 etc.) -- that way quite a bit of stress and hassle would be removed from the picture. Combining this with a clear labeling of "Arsenal" instances vs. normal Eureka instances could also be an idea, so that people who want to specifically enter BA, and/or do the support FATE there could enter Arsenal-instances (and as 56-man premades all but hog or even "create" such an instance, thus also less bickering about portals on NA servers), while those who do not wish to see their efforts to prep high-level NMs hindered by suddenly "losing" up to 56 players to Arsenal go to "pure" Eureka instances. I just worry a bit about that approach, as it could leave one or the other type nearly drying up... >.>

Dedicated instances for BA would be preferable, but the main issues are:
* There's no way to get 7 full parties in a single instance, other then through luck and perseverence. (FFXI solved this by using hourglass clones.)
* There should be 6 portals, and only the party leader can initiate entry into BA. Portals should not be solo entrances, especially with some in the middle of some very dangerous mobs.
* Stabilizers should be removed, they are purely meant to grief. Or they could be used to make Spirit of the Remembered be 100% successfull, but it consumes the stabilizer.