How am I supposed to participate in the Ishgard Restoration fates?

[tdb]

On the last iteration I missed them because I was too lazy to do the content until a week after the patch and they were all completed already. Fair enough, that was on me. But I've heard there were announcements several hours before the fates started so I could have at least tried to fit them in my schedule.

Now though, they may have added more fates but there's no longer any announcements. There's no indication of how fast the bar is filling so I have no idea when the next fate starts. The first phase is nearly complete and I have yet to see a fate even though I've been doing the content on several occasions. They've all occurred at times when I've been sleeping or working or otherwise indisposed. How am I supposed to catch one? Just camp in front of the skybuilders board for the entire day?

They may be boring and not even an efficient way to get scrips, but I would still like to experience them myself. Is it too much to ask for limited time content like this to be reasonably accessible?

[tdb]

Well, I can get at least a ballpark estimate by taking screenshots and comparing them. The bar has moved three pixels in 10 minutes and there's about 49 pixels left, so it will probably take around 2-3 hours to fill up depending on how much the activity level fluctuates. That should fit decently with me getting my work done for today. I really don't think it should be this difficult to figure out when to be around for a fate though.

[Dustytome]

Unless something was changed, the phase bar has to completely fill before any of the fate stuff kicks in. The bar completes, a fairly lengthy cooldown period starts, the fate begins, another cooldown, another fate, next phase.

[tdb]

There's now more fates, four or five per phase I think. It was in a live letter somewhere. I had gotten the impression that the cooldown had been removed entirely but apparently it's still there, just it only lasts half an hour now. So in theory I would need to check the board at least once per half an hour to not miss a fate. My estimate of the fill-up time was not too far off so at least I can use that method to gain some extra information.

[tdb]

Another correction. Apparently the entire bar repeats multiple times per phase. So I guess the marks partway through the bar are just for gauging how far along it is. Fair enough. But given how long it takes to fill up, it's unnecessarily difficult to plan when to be on for someone who can't play all day.

[RyuSaarva]

you are not missing much really except the feeling of being part of the community, if you are level 80 crafter, then it's actually a waste of time to even do it.

[tdb]

I did manage to participate in one, and it was pretty fun to see the ridiculous amount of people present in the Firmament. The mass of people covered the target points entirely and everyone more than 5 metres away from me was hidden from view! It may not be the most interesting fate ever, but I think 500 scrips for five minutes of work is actually pretty good. I'm pretty sure I couldn't craft items fast enough to beat that. I also like to see how the place evolves from phase to phase, though of course I don't need to actually participates in the fates for that.

[RyuSaarva]

I did manage to participate in one, and it was pretty fun to see the ridiculous amount of people present in the Firmament. The mass of people covered the target points entirely and everyone more than 5 metres away from me was hidden from view! It may not be the most interesting fate ever, but I think 500 scrips for five minutes of work is actually pretty good. I'm pretty sure I couldn't craft items fast enough to beat that. I also like to see how the place evolves from phase to phase, though of course I don't need to actually participates in the fates for that.

I did 1 on phoenix and it took like 20 minutes to clear at first it looked like we would fail it but we made it.

[Vahlnir]

you are not missing much really except the feeling of being part of the community, if you are level 80 crafter, then it's actually a waste of time to even do it.

500 scrips in like, 5-10 minutes. That's really not a bad haul.

I did 1 on phoenix and it took like 20 minutes to clear at first it looked like we would fail it but we made it.

...though I suppose it largely depends on the server. 20 minutes though? Still not too bad of a haul. I can get about 1.5k scrips after spending a little over an hour in Diadem.

[tdb]

After making an optimized rotation it turns out I can craft the Lv80 non-expert items a bit faster than I thought. It's about half a minute per craft so it works out to the same 500-ish scrips per five minutes.

Gathering in Diadem is certainly a much less effective way to get scrips. The materials are dirt cheap on the market board, so if you only want scrips and don't care about skyward score for your gatherers, the fastest continuously available way is to buy materials and macro-craft items.