Please equalize rewards between Castrum and Prae

[Mahoukenshi]

Then we take another option. Make solo versions of both Prae and CM you go through for MSQ, and then make 4-man dungeon versions of both places that is quicker, only has the usual opening, boss intro, and victory cutscenes, and can be put into the regular 50/60/70 roulette.

CM would be to the first boss, then Cid would just take the armor and blast through the main door (skipping the garbage chute and all that) before the mech breaks down, then you just run dealing with adds to the 2nd boss, kill it, and Cid appears behind you to break the tower as you run back and reach the cannon/boss area, except you don't deal with cannon part of boss or the large amount of enemies and spotlights. With this, CM is trimmed.

Prae, keep the usual path, first boss is the same, remove the magitek side path with the normal run down the corridor to the Nero fight. After the Nero fight, have the elevator be you just fighting normal mobs until you reach the bottom (with it stopping each time mobs appear), and then fight Gaius in the Ultima Weapon room (he'd have new mechanics). There, we've fixed Prae for normal runs too.

Yes, I know this is a lot of work, but those two dungeons are a stain upon this game and must either be removed outside of solo instances, or redone so they can be normal dungeons that are easier to play through.

50/60/70 provides pathetic XP reward, which is a big reason why MSQ roulettes are run so much. As it is right now even lvling roulette provides better xp than CM (or so it feels). The only time CM feels "worth it" is for Tomestones.

[Vahlnir]

50/60/70 provides pathetic XP reward, which is a big reason why MSQ roulettes are run so much. As it is right now even lvling roulette provides better xp than CM (or so it feels). The only time CM feels "worth it" is for Tomestones.

I usually run through Trials, Normal raid, Alliance and Leveling every day. Normal raid and Trials roulette don't give much, but they are usually quick. I could run MSQ roulette but...eh. I'm doing just fine without it. Only have 3 jobs left to level anyway, and I'm pretty far into two of them.

[Stepjam]

Unfortunately you'd get the opposite issue where people would hate running Prae over Castrum if they gave equal EXp since Prae is longer. Not saying that they perhaps couldn't be tightened up in terms of balance with exp to time spent, but they won't ever be the same amount of exp.

Also I dunno why people are actively calling for it to be turned into a solo instance. That might be the best thing for new players, but as far as veterans go you could simply not run it if you don't wanna spend the time. Dunno why you'd call for a source of exp to be removed.

[Vahlnir]

Unfortunately you'd get the opposite issue where people would hate running Prae over Castrum if they gave equal EXp since Prae is longer. Not saying that they perhaps couldn't be tightened up in terms of balance with exp to time spent, but they won't ever be the same amount of exp.

Right, but people are fishing for one instance anyway at the moment, so.....

If anything I'd still like Prae more since it gives me more time to watch one of my shows or play something on my Switch. lol

[van_arn]

They’ve already deleted both dungeons via balance changes and absurd ilvl in the roulette. They’re cutscene galleries.

If they want to award players xp merely for watching cutscenes while Netflix has their attention, then add an xp bonus in the daily challenge log for watching something in the neverending journey.

There’s no need to wait for 7 other people at all to watch a cutscene.

[Gemina]

Sir, a few things...

Equalizing rewards just swaps north and south poles mate.

Maxed players queue for that roulette despite having faster means to the same amount of tomes. Their reasons for doing so are their own, but those players will still prefer Castrum instead of Prae. Those players bailing for not getting Castrum is equally as frustrating, and the ones that remain are basically there for very little reward.

In addition, players who choke down Prae despite wanting Castrum for the tomes are in for it much longer than the reverse scenario. Might want to take that into consideration next time you get Castrum instead of Prae.

Some players need Castrum for progression. Forget about the devs making it a solo instance, or deleting the roulette.

It's a total coinflip. I believe only players directly queuing for the instance are given priority.

IOW. Working as intended.

[van_arn]

Sir, a few things...

Equalizing rewards just swaps north and south poles mate.

Maxed players queue for that roulette despite having faster means to the same amount of tomes. Their reasons for doing so are their own, but those players will still prefer Castrum instead of Prae. Those players bailing for not getting Castrum is equally as frustrating, and the ones that remain are basically there for very little reward.

In addition, players who choke down Prae despite wanting Castrum for the tomes are in for it much longer than the reverse scenario. Might want to take that into consideration next time you get Castrum instead of Prae.

Some players need Castrum for progression. Forget about the devs making it a solo instance, or deleting the roulette.

It's a total coinflip. I believe only players directly queuing for the instance are given priority.

IOW. Working as intended.

Keep in mind there are other players (such as myself) that will queue boost an fc mate into the roulette as a tank or healer and ditch at the door.

Instapop for the fc mate, I dodge the penalty for staying there (30 minute timeout from df is nothing in comparison), and I can run off and do my beastmen dailies, gold saucer stuff, hunts, or blue carnival while they suffer through unskippable cutscenes.

Even if the party collapses, my fc mate still gets fill priority in the (now open) instance, and due to the pathetic balance of said instance they can clear without waiting for the party to fill to capacity.

[MariaArvana]

Yeah pretty much this.
People would just fish for Castrum instead of Prae because of the length of cutscenes.

I honestly don't think so. Or at least, it would be far more muted than people fishing for Prae are atm.

Think about it. Castrum takes around 20-25 minutes to complete, prae about 45-50. Fishing for castrum would basically be pointless since they'd waste more time leaving the Praetorium run, waiting 30 minutes, re-queue (which if you're not tank/healer, could be long), zone in, and then gamble on a 50/50 chance that they get castrum (which if they lost, means they would have to leave and waste another 30 mins for penalty). The 30min penalty + the time it takes to complete castrum if they got lucky on their first re-attempt is already is as long as a Prae run...for the same reward.

Sure, it would suck if you got Prae, but it would actually be faster to just do the Prae run then leave and try to gamble at 50/50's on top of queue time.

[Goji1639]

I honestly don't think so. Or at least, it would be far more muted than people fishing for Prae are atm.

Think about it. Castrum takes around 20-25 minutes to complete, prae about 45-50. Fishing for castrum would basically be pointless since they'd waste more time leaving the Praetorium run, waiting 30 minutes, re-queue (which if you're not tank/healer, could be long), zone in, and then gamble on a 50/50 chance that they get castrum (which if they lost, means they would have to leave and waste another 30 mins for penalty). The 30min penalty + the time it takes to complete castrum if they got lucky on their first re-attempt is already is as long as a Prae run...for the same reward.

Sure, it would suck if you got Prae, but it would actually be faster to just do the Prae run then leave and try to gamble at 50/50's on top of queue time.

This only really holds true if people sat around doing nothing during the 30 minute penalty, which I'm guessing no one does.

During the 30 minute penalty you can get something else done, in game or outside of the game; so the penalty is null. You're not actually losing time you're just reorganizing it. If you stick with Prae, however, you're physically stuck in MSQ for an extra 30 minutes for the exact same reward as Castrum; so you lose that 30 minutes.

[RyuDragnier]

This only really holds true if people sat around doing nothing during the 30 minute penalty, which I'm guessing no one does.

During the 30 minute penalty you can get something else done, in game or outside of the game; so the penalty is null. You're not actually losing time you're just reorganizing it. If you stick with Prae, however, you're physically stuck in MSQ for an extra 30 minutes for the exact same reward as Castrum; so you lose that 30 minutes.

You also however get more free time in Prae due to the cutscenes. I've cooked an entire meal from scratch while doing Prae, just because the cutscenes are that long.