The preatorium, streamlined

[van_arn]

There's no solution as long as 8 people are required to queue for this duty.

MSQ Roulette exists only to wallpaper over the disaster that is Castrum/Praetorium's design.

[Fyrebrand]

Some people really need to stop and think about why "roulettes" exist in the first place. Why should you get a reward for playing old random content at all? Why should the devs care if you run Praetorium when you've already completed it? Do you think they're just so proud of their dungeon design and cutscenes, that they want you to enjoy it again and again? No. It's about filling out groups so that newer players can progress through their MSQ. That's the entire point.

If it weren't for them slowing you down, there would be no roulette to queue for -- not to mention, it would be a pretty bad sign regarding the continued longevity of the game in general. We should be glad we have so many sprouts to "wait around" for.

[Assirra]

There's no solution as long as 8 people are required to queue for this duty.

MSQ Roulette exists only to wallpaper over the disaster that is Castrum/Praetorium's design.

I wouldn't call it a disaster. It's a product of the time more than anything else.
Those 2 places were the big finish to ARR so it made sense to make them heavy story places and when they were current content it was a lot harder to skip cutscenes and 7 man stuff, even more so when it was 1 of your tanks/healers.

[hynaku]

Cutscenes being forced is pointless when ones can just log out and back in to skip them and move on. Also new players wasn't forced to skip them when they were skippable.

[Vyrerus]

From the way 2.0 went about things, it seems like they had the idea that groups from 1.0 and new groups would form up and be friends and run things together. I remember being jealous of my ex's experience with Castrum Meridianum and Praetorium when 2.0 dropped. Going into it with her FC, who were all good friends with her at the time. Seeing them in your cutscenes, and making inside jokes/stories with one another about it. It was fantastic to just even see.

Of course, a game like FFXIV 2.0 and beyond isn't really conducive to long term group formation, with all of its systems encouraging a, "Me Me Me" attitude. That's the price of convenience at every turn and avenue.

It was even worse when the dungeons were relatively new. I remember my runs through CM and Prae on DRG back in 2013. In CM it was, "Oh great, this DRG is new. He's a moron. Everyone ignore him, don't raise him if he dies. Let's just hope he doesn't bait AOEs on cannons." "Oh great, he's watching CSes. You know you can watch those after in the inn room, right?" "Oh no, he agro'd a giant... it cleaved the cannons." "You're a f***ing moron, DRG!"

My Praetorium run was mildly better, except I didn't get to participate in a fight until Nero, due to watching all of my cutscenes, and Nero was 3/4ths dead by the time the cutscene was done. Similar for Gaius, except I think at the time, Gaius was regarded as hard enough for people to wait for CS watchers, much to a good amount of people's chagrin. I distinctly remember hitting Gaius a bunch with Doom Spike from just outside his blue fire that Medica II didn't quite cover at the time.

People were running these for expedient tomes at the time, due to large philosophy tome drops compared to Wanderer's Palace or Amdapor Keep. The rush to get tomes so they could gear up in Darklight, so they could do hard mode primals so they could do Coil was something that everyone went through. I stuck to spamming WP and AK though, as I prefer 4 man dungeons regardless (Needed a Darklight Harpoon, anyway). Wasn't until my 2nd or 3rd runs of Prae and CM that I actually learned/figured out what was going on over the course of the whole dungeon.

Anywho, more on topic, it's like everybody else already said. The forced unskippables are the way they are for new players to not have to put up with shit like what I put up with, and are paired with larger rewards because of it. Even if you did it daily, it's not really that much of a time sink. You shouldn't feel compelled to do it, either. For the equivalent time investment, other forms of EXP acquisition and tome acquisition pan out to the same tomes per hour. or more in some cases MSQ Roulette is just easier on the hands, since half your time is spent with cutscene dialogue auto scrolling. It's one of the few pieces of content in the game that you can AFK from while it progresses. Kind of nice like this, really.

[CaptainLagbeard]

As things currently stand, there's two ways they can fix the designs for the Castrum and Pratorium...


The current one. Unskippable cutscenes with actual roulette reward to incentivize people to actually do it after beating 2.0.

Or alternatively, they could temake both of the dungeons from the ground up as solo duties.


And they're probably too busy with making new content to really dedicate the time for the second option...

I mean, I suppose they could remove the tomestones and XP from the Main Story Roulette, but how many people would do it then even with skippable cutscenes...

[Bright-Flower]

As things currently stand, there's two ways they can fix the designs for the Castrum and Pratorium...


The current one. Unskippable cutscenes with actual roulette reward to incentivize people to actually do it after beating 2.0.

Or alternatively, they could temake both of the dungeons from the ground up as solo duties.


And they're probably too busy with making new content to really dedicate the time for the second option...

I mean, I suppose they could remove the tomestones and XP from the Main Story Roulette, but how many people would do it then even with skippable cutscenes...

Yeah. Remaking them as solo duties, with skipable cutscenes if the solo player honestly doesn't care for them, would be the ideal solution.

Given limited development time however the current solution is the best option. It ensures new players can get the intended experience, narratively at least if not difficulty wise given how faceroll it is with ilvl inflation. And veterans have to opt in to the roulette, they can always just...not run it if they don't want to deal with said cutscenes.

[Skivvy]

Cutscenes being forced is pointless when ones can just log out and back in to skip them and move on. Also new players wasn't forced to skip them when they were skippable.

People made those dungeons awful for new players and SE noticed. Gotta love how people still try to get around CSs because they're in such a hurry. Here's a tip for you - just don't queue for it.

[Shougun]

People made those dungeons awful for new players and SE noticed. Gotta love how people still try to get around CSs because they're in such a hurry. Here's a tip for you - just don't queue for it.

I remember back when they were skippable there would be threats of vote kicks and players force pulling in order to go fast. One time someone said they don't care if we wait or not and they don't mind just watching all the cutscenes, so we went as fast as possible. We finished the dungeon before they left any cutscene lol. But generally I'd ask if there were new players, ask the group if they wanted to wait, sometimes said yes, usually no, and if I slowed down someone else would force the march anyways.

This forced watch was really needed, and the huge exp and tomes was nice casual farm (could watch stuff on the side while it went, went through a lot of videos via the MSQ roulette :3)- since we know they're (devs) thinking about changing it to 4 man or trust-able... will be a bit sad to see the opportunity diminish/die.

[Gabadabs]

As things currently stand, there's two ways they can fix the designs for the Castrum and Pratorium...


The current one. Unskippable cutscenes with actual roulette reward to incentivize people to actually do it after beating 2.0.

Or alternatively, they could temake both of the dungeons from the ground up as solo duties.


And they're probably too busy with making new content to really dedicate the time for the second option...

I mean, I suppose they could remove the tomestones and XP from the Main Story Roulette, but how many people would do it then even with skippable cutscenes...

The impression I get is that they care more about developing new content than going back and reworking castrum/pratorium.
I would love to see the ability to run it with npc controlled allies though, WITH skippable cutscenes.