Make fates great again.

[linay]

People want FATE trains. People do hunt trains. Just combine FATE and hunts. (I know Yoshida said it's difficult to use FATE system for hunt, so better start working on it now so it'll be ready by 6.0. )

[Nalien]

FATEs were never great?

I mean, ones like the Battle for Highbridge series of FATEs had potential, but at the end of the day SE opted to abandon developing that concept and instead just went for more copy and paste "Kill big boss" "Kill wave of enemies" FATEs ad nauseum, but sometimes they have funny pop culture references in the description, so it's all good! /s

I'd love to see FATEs with more consequences, makes the world feel more organic... Harder to design though, harder to balance, harder to put rewards into, I mean the Highbridge style FATEs basically just determined whether a NPC that sells a minion is there or not? Not the most pressing of rewards, but like I said, there was potential there...

In terms of "fixing" what we've got though... I never understood why FATEs rewards were so pathetic... Grand Company Seals are a lame reward anyway, but FATEs give so little... Fix that... Max level so the EXP reward is moot? Do like most other things and substitute Tomestones in... Could even throw Treasure Maps in as rare rewards, given other than the highest tier one, nobody gathers the rest... Open world content rewarding you with more open world content? Madness. *actually I'd roll that into GC Seals, since I've long believed you should be able to buy all Maps off GCs, except the highest tier/special ones of course, but that's somewhat off topic, make FATEs a solid GC Seal farming option though and it's all good

Really, can you imagine if the EXP was converted to even just Mendacity tomestones at max level? The random bonus EXP FATEs and Forlorn Maiden spawns would actually feel really rewarding...

[Kurando]

Make FATEs great again. Trump, is that you.... ?

On a more serious note though if FATEs had something that made it worth doing then perhaps they could attract more players to take part. It could be like a Wondrous Tales book but for FATEs, you do so many or complete certain ones with a week (or two) and players can earn rewards at the end. Doesn't need to be anything difficult or time consuming, but it could be the little extra incentive you know.

[Ilan]

In my opinion this is an issue that deserves petitions and uproar. Fates need to become important again. In HW they became less important until you had to farm them for the relic weapon. In Stormblood I have never seen groups of players doing fates. A few times I soloed one here and there, and on rare occasions someone would join in. But for the most part they go completely untouched.

One idea I have is to combine fates with the concept of Eureka. Tie it to the relic weapon. Instead of going into an instanced zone make it so that by completing a certain number of fates it spawns a max level fate which drops a specific item you need. And you must have your relic weapon equipped during the fate to get the item.

Of course there are some details to work out. So what are your ideas to make fates a relevant part of the game again?

As long as Fates are simply boring and take way to long to kill, for what they give, i don't want to see SE tying stuff to them AGAIN.

[Gemina]

Snip...

The problem with all of this is that most players will choose the path of least resistance. If FATEs gave comparable EXP and rewards to dungeons, then fewer people would run dungeons. Then there is also the fact that tying just about anything to FATEs seems to set players off, along with the extremely annoying FATE notification noise when you enter the circle which interrupts the BGM or mount music. Most don't like it, but they'll do them if they have to. FATEs are a withering plant, and much like battlecraft leves, probably should just be left to die.

Normally I have a suggestion or two on how to keep things relevant, but I am drawing a blank with FATEs. Even if they did give more exp and rewards, they're not even that fun to do. If the majority of the playerbase echos my thoughts on this, then creating more in ShB is a complete total waste of dev resources. Of course, I would love to hear suggestions on how to make them not only relevant, but also fun to do. However, increasing their exp and rewards is not one them, unfortunately.

[Illya]

Being able to level in FATEs during the ARR era made leveling DPS tolerable. Now it's just awful. No one wants to spam PotD/HoH for days to level a DPS. Dungeon queues still aren't great even when Squenix has tried to force everyone to level using dungeons. The reality is that FATE trains to level DPS was actually the best leveling method.

Dungeons suck anyways, I've been spamming dungeon roulettes to level my DRK and it's about as fun as watching paint dry. At least you're out in the open world seeing other players on your server and chatting with them during FATE trains.

[ReportMe]

I think it would be cool if they added a progression system to the fates. Essentially once you beat it once it gets a little harder and the rewards get better etc etc until you hit a certain clear amount then it gives you special minions, glamour, mounts, titles. I think this would be an interesting way for them to get a mix of players in different lower level zones hunting minions, titiles and also helping lower level and new players with those fates.

[Acesfool]

Being able to level in FATEs during the ARR era made leveling DPS tolerable. Now it's just awful. No one wants to spam PotD/HoH for days to level a DPS. Dungeon queues still aren't great even when Squenix has tried to force everyone to level using dungeons. The reality is that FATE trains to level DPS was actually the best leveling method.

Dungeons suck anyways, I've been spamming dungeon roulettes to level my DRK and it's about as fun as watching paint dry. At least you're out in the open world seeing other players on your server and chatting with them during FATE trains.

One problem they're going to run into, and it's something all MMOs have trouble with, keeping leveling interesting after so many expansions. FFXIV has an advantage over most MMOs because of the MSQ. But they all eventually suffer from the perception that the current expansion is where the real content is. So you'll have a lot of people who purchase the level boost. And then you only have 10 levels to go through so I can understand not wanting fates to give a whole lot of xp. They don't want you to burn through those 10 levels too fast. But I agree 100% that there needs to be a worth while alternative to just running the duty finder over and over.

[Belisaire]

Fates struggle as a concept because they are a lot of hassle vs. reward.

It's not fun to complete a fate, then have to trek across the zone just to start a new one. Possibly getting there without time to get a meaningful reward. Contrast with dungeons, which give you a ton of exp bonuses, gear, etc, and you are generally earning exp the entire time you are inside. Fates are honestly best used while waiting for a queue for something better--honestly, I feel the game would do better without them and introducing something different.

[Gula]

Of course, I would love to hear suggestions on how to make them not only relevant, but also fun to do. However, increasing their exp and rewards is not one them, unfortunately.

Make more like the lamb milking one. Cute, simple objectives.