Castrum Lacus Litore declining participation

[ItMe]

I’m lvl 80 and rank 15 and would do bozja a lot more if people did Castrum. Grinding fates & CEs gets boring quickly, and so it’s nice to have a fun raid in the mix. But since bozja is too monotonous with castrum dead, I can’t bother with it until patch 5.45. I was hoping I wouldnt have to wait that long for them to fix castrum but it is what it is.

I totally feel that.
The other thing really holding me back from really going at it in Bozja (if I could go on a tangent quick) is the droprate on Indigo Star is too high.
Whenever I get a lockbox, instead of being excited at the chance of getting something cool, I just feel tired by the seemingly 60% chance to get another Indigo Star.
Actually, I've completely stopped opening them in the vague hopes they'll tweak the drops sometime later. It's not like SQEX determines what's inside them when you get them lol, so I'm just kinda stockpiling them for now.



Edit: That stuff I said about the T-Rex Mound and Red Mage Barding being patched into old Eureka lockboxes was incorrect and has been removed.

[SturmChurro]

I totally feel that.
The other thing really holding me back from really going at it in Bozja (if I could go on a tangent quick) is the droprate on Indigo Star is too high.
Whenever I get a lockbox, instead of being excited at the chance of getting something cool, I just feel tired by the seemingly 60% chance to get another Indigo Star.
Actually, I've completely stopped opening them. At the end of Stormblood they patched in the T-rex mount and Red Mage Barding into Eureka's version of lock boxes. I expect they'll change the drop rates and add new prizes as Shadow Bringers winds down so I'm waiting to open mine. It's not like SQEX determines what's inside them when you get them lol.

YES! That STUPID Indigo star, all I get, LITERALLY. It's incredibly annoying. I know they have other things in there, other than umbrellas, but STILL all I get is INDIGO STAR! I am level 15, done HUNDREDS of FATES/CE I have NEVER once got the mount out of a lockbox - I had to buy it. They have chocobo barding in it, I have barely ever gotten any of those. Hundreds upon hundreds of indigo star. Yeah, I know some people have gotten a few mounts, but God, like I can't be the only one who gets indigo star over and over and over... at this rate.

[Starshower]

I cleared Castrum on my main when it was relevant. People were doing it all the time and the groups had good coordination.

I tried doing bozja on my Chaos alt in december, and when I finally got to rank 10, I couldn't do Castrum. Beyond the instances being quite empty, when castrum popped I had to beg people to join... the most I got was 20 people. All other times we disbanded because there weren't enough peolpe. But this time with 20 we tried and couldn't pass the first boss.
It seems kind of impossible to complete castrum at this stage, at least on Chaos, unless I try to coordinate in some bozja discord. Hopefully in 5.45 they update castrum to be more rewarding so people will do it. It may get more populated because people need to do it to progress, so I'm hoping I can do it then.
If it doesn't get better, lots of people won't be able to continue the relic... Seems silly to lock the relic behind this weird kind of group content. Imagine people trying to do this relic in 1, 2 years from now...

[Espritduo]

I totally feel that.
The other thing really holding me back from really going at it in Bozja (if I could go on a tangent quick) is the droprate on Indigo Star is too high.
Whenever I get a lockbox, instead of being excited at the chance of getting something cool, I just feel tired by the seemingly 60% chance to get another Indigo Star.
Actually, I've completely stopped opening them. At the end of Stormblood they patched in the T-rex mount and Red Mage Barding into Eureka's version of lock boxes. I expect they'll change the drop rates and add new prizes as Shadow Bringers winds down so I'm waiting to open mine. It's not like SQEX determines what's inside them when you get them lol.

T-rex mount and red mage barding were always in the anemos lockboxes from the beginning. The only change they ever made to lock box drops is making the anemos glamour gear sellable on the market board. I've been hoarding a stack of 999 of those for a long time now on the off chance they ever change anything, but so far they haven't. I wouldn't expect them to at this point. ( I am still holding them though!)

[ItMe]

T-rex mount and red mage barding were always in the anemos lockboxes from the beginning. The only change they ever made to lock box drops is making the anemos glamour gear sellable on the market board. I've been hoarding a stack of 999 of those for a long time now on the off chance they ever change anything, but so far they haven't. I wouldn't expect them to at this point. ( I am still holding them though!)

uhh...
(compares patch notes and release dates)...
Oh snap you're right. My bad. I'll amend my post.

I'm not expecting the bozja lockboxes to change much either, but if there's any chance that I can open them later this year and get less Indigo Stars for my wasted time... I'll wait. I won't hold my breath, but I'll wait.

[Hyperia]

I think in the future they should keep things like Castrum Lacus to the duty finder. Especially since it's going to be required to do the relic weapon. Open world events always die out over time but things being in the roulettes people grind for tomes will always be healthy... except guildhests maybe lol.

I agree with this, their greatest mistake was to make an instanced event that takes away half the zones population and makes it punishing to those who remain. Its bad design and the instance should be something you unlock, give it a lot of good drops and put it on a weekly loot cooldown like the 24s. Easy to fix, easy to implement and while I understand they are trying to do something "different", this is not the way. If they really want to not have it in the Duty Finder, then have it unlocked and then EVERYBODY gets to charge in and participate. Use the players who are below level 10 to do other things that can help progress things along that are totally optional.

[Tracewood]

Chances are they'll make it mandatory for the next patch that you can't continue until you beat it, which can incentivize participation or even tie the next relic step behind it.

[Vahlnir]

Chances are they'll make it mandatory for the next patch that you can't continue until you beat it, which can incentivize participation or even tie the next relic step behind it.

It already is tied to progression. It's part of Bozja's story, so you probably won't be able to progress to the next area without completing it. That incentive already exists, but without the proper rewards...players who are already done with it have little to no reason to do it again. THAT is the issue.

[SturmChurro]

It already is tied to progression. It's part of Bozja's story, so you probably won't be able to progress to the next area without completing it. That incentive already exists, but without the proper rewards...players who are already done with it have little to no reason to do it again. THAT is the issue.

Which is really ridiculous. Like I said before, people should be fighting to get in. Literally there's this whole thing spending clusters or whatever to try and secure a spot in CEs, that's how it should work. Not that I like that (people getting locked out), but still people should want to do it. Now all we have are veterans farming the instance, who don't want to clear. People who haven't cleared might as well be just wasting their time in there. They can't even get borzja coins unless they cleared. Whole thing was mangled.

Every time I'm in there - which is everyday pretty much now - I always see the new people in chat getting so excited for Borzja when it pops. Those poor souls.

[Vahlnir]

Which is really ridiculous. Like I said before, people should be fighting to get in. Literally there's this whole thing spending clusters or whatever to try and secure a spot in CEs, that's how it should work. Not that I like that (people getting locked out), but still people should want to do it. Now all we have are veterans farming the instance, who don't want to clear. People who haven't cleared might as well be just wasting their time in there. They can't even get borzja coins unless they cleared. Whole thing was mangled.

Every time I'm in there - which is everyday pretty much now - I always see the new people in chat getting so excited for Borzja when it pops. Those poor souls.

Yeah. It really is sad to see. I'd love to do Castrum, but I refuse to do it with less than 25. Sure, people have claimed to have done it with much less, but I have never personally seen it done with less than that. Right now, with the new players outnumbering veterans 10-1 in that instance, it is just very unlikely to see it actually done. Most can't make it past the first boss, let alone anything beyond that. Like you said, people should be fighting to get in.