I appear to have already missed the boat on bozja

[SturmChurro]

If the Castrum duty in Bozja is anything like the duty over in Eureka where you were basically locked out if you weren't in a premade with Discord going then I can see why people won't join for it. Even if begged. A lot of people who wanted to try that duty (in Eureka) got burned, and seeing how most of the rewards from Bozja can be grinded for without touching Castrum, I can see the lack of interest. Bad memories from Eureka basically sucked all the fun out of Bozja before it even dropped for me. Have no interest in it even now, though some of the gear is interesting.

Large, on-the-spot group instanced content has historically never gone over well in NA. Not the Diadem Emergency back in HW. Not the large instanced battle in Eureka and now, even if the Castrum content is a bit easier in Bozja, a lot of people who aren't in statics (or have established raid groups or FC's committed to doing such content) have enough PTSD flashbacks not to even want to touch that mess.

I mean, I suppose if the didn't add it people would complain that we being denied content that other regions were getting but on the whole this kind of content has always been a miss in NA and a lot of us are not convinced that it will ever get any better.

When I was in Eureka back in the day, and even Borzja now. From what I gather - people actually like the content. At least the people filling up the zones each and everyday. The one place I do chat a decent amount is in these zones. Whenever I have criticized them people go straight to the defense back then, and same now. Actually, the general opinion I see is people in borzja like doing borzja. Especially the duels. It's literally the complete uselessness of doing Castrum that makes people not want to do it. Rather than popularity.

From what I've seen, lately, looks like the only way to get a clear now is one of those discord premades. That's it.

[Sacred-Oblivion]

From what I've seen, lately, looks like the only way to get a clear now is one of those discord premades. That's it.

Even if you join a discord group now it can still be difficult to get into a castrum group. In the past 2 runs I've tried to sign up for I wasn't able to get in because too many people had also signed up. I'm hoping this changes in 5.45, but if castrum and the new raids are still this difficult to find groups for then I'll just stop playing bozja. Grinding fates gets old and boring quickly, and so its nice to have a fun raid in the mix.

[SturmChurro]

Even if you join a discord group now it can still be difficult to get into a castrum group. In the past 2 runs I've tried to sign up for I wasn't able to get in because too many people had also signed up. I'm hoping this changes in 5.45, but if castrum and the new raids are still this difficult to find groups for then I'll just stop playing bozja. Grinding fates gets old and boring quickly, and so its nice to have a fun raid in the mix.

What I've heard from general chatter as well. Castrum is just not being done at all right now. I don't actually go into Borzja anymore myself since I have yet to get my last combat class to 71, and the rest are at 80. I only go in there to cluster farm, to make gil. There really isn't a big reason to go in there unless you are leveling right now, or working on 'Guardian Angel'. If they added a good amount of EXP to Castrum, people would do it just for that. I do think it'll become more lively nearing patch though, either way.

[PangTong]

I'm sure I'm just echoing the sentiments of other people here, but something desperately needs to be done about Castrum Lacus Litore.

Even now that completing it is required to progress the relic, players simply will not go in. It's not that the content is too hard, I got plenty of clears when Southern Front first released. It is not that there are too few players, Castrum won't even spawn if there aren't enough eligible players in the instance. People simply do not want to go in.

Even right now, the day of new content release, it gets maybe 10-15 people signing up, who subsequently abandon the run when it's clear that no one else is going to join. Even if it's clearable with a smaller party, why risk the chance of massive mettle loss without even clearing?

It is obvious why people do not want to go in, there is simply no reason to once you've finished it once. The rewards just aren't there. Why should I sign up for Castrum, spend 40-60 minutes of my time and probably lose a whole bunch of mettle, for nothing but some unnecessary lost actions, bronze coins which can only be spent on outdated gear or augments that are pointless unless you want to run DR savage, and a miniscule chance at an augmentation crate that again, I don't really need.

That's all I can get. It doesn't award mettle, clusters, lockboxes, or anything that would make me want to farm it. There's no repeatable quest to make me want to go in. It does give a guaranteed loathsome memory for the new relic step, but it's WAY faster and easier to just run the Crystal Tower raids instead. It is more rewarding to NOT go into Castrum and simply stay on the field doing skirmishes/CEs, rather than go in and do content that's much more challenging.

Because there's no incentive for players who have already cleared to re-run this content, new players cannot even finish it and progress their relics, which is insane. People want to do the content but can't because there's not enough of them. I don't know how the devs were expecting players to behave, what incentive they think is there, but it's not working.

Please add real rewards to Castrum Lacus Litore. Not just tiny chances at stuff that's not even that good. Make it feel like it's worth the time and risk to sign up. It is good content, there's just no reason to do it, and players are suffering because of it.