The Alliance roulette is unbearable

[SieyaM]

I just know I am sick of running CT series. It has been this way for years and I don't believe there are enough people running it for actual reasons to account for the number of times it comes up in Roulette.

[Packetdancer]

Because the lore is not as important as the plot. Raiding will always be optional content unless they decide it greatly affects the MSQ plot, like the Crystal Tower.

While I agree that the Stormblood alliance raids add a ton to the lore (being able to track Gough -> Corvos -> Garlemald makes so much of Garlean history become clear, among other things), I do also agree that it's not immediately MSQ vital. Though it definitely adds some context to all the Corvos references made during the MSQ.

(Which, also, yes please let us go to Corvos, I have theories about the Anchorite and I want more detail to see if I might possibly be right.)

That said, I'd argue the fate of the Students of Baldesion (and the Isle of Val in general) is pretty MSQ-relevant to things now that the MSQ brought us to Old Sharlayan and we're there supposedly as representatives of the Students of Baldesion. So I'm a little surprised it's all buried behind Eureka (and the final answers behind the Baldesion Arsenal 56-person raid instance); I feel like that's lore they maybe could've/should've surfaced somewhere else in the game in addition to stuffing it into what's arguably fairly niche content even by the standards applied to raids in general.

I just know I am sick of running CT series. It has been this way for years and I don't believe there are enough people running it for actual reasons to account for the number of times it comes up in Roulette.

I hate to tell you this, but there absolutely are. I have multiple friends -- who raid savage, even -- who haven't ever bothered to unlock the Mhach or YoRHa raids because they didn't care about them, and only did Ivalice late in Shadowbringers because they wanted to do Bozja and relics. There are plenty of people who run Alliance Roulette for the XP/tomes/clusters who don't have even the Ivalice ones unlocked because they didn't care about Bozja.

[SieyaM]

While I agree that the Stormblood alliance raids add a ton to the lore (being able to track Gough -> Corvos -> Garlemald makes so much of Garlean history become clear, among other things), I do also agree that it's not immediately MSQ vital. Though it definitely adds some context to all the Corvos references made during the MSQ.

(Which, also, yes please let us go to Corvos, I have theories about the Anchorite and I want more detail to see if I might possibly be right.)

That said, I'd argue the fate of the Students of Baldesion (and the Isle of Val in general) is pretty MSQ-relevant to things now that the MSQ brought us to Old Sharlayan and we're there supposedly as representatives of the Students of Baldesion. So I'm a little surprised it's all buried behind Eureka (and the final answers behind the Baldesion Arsenal 56-person raid instance); I feel like that's lore they maybe could've/should've surfaced somewhere else in the game in addition to stuffing it into what's arguably fairly niche content even by the standards applied to raids in general.



I hate to tell you this, but there absolutely are. I have multiple friends -- who raid savage, even -- who haven't ever bothered to unlock the Mhach or YoRHa raids because they didn't care about them, and only did Ivalice late in Shadowbringers because they wanted to do Bozja and relics. There are plenty of people who run Alliance Roulette for the XP/tomes/clusters who don't have even the Ivalice ones unlocked because they didn't care about Bozja.

So you are telling me there are enough people for me to consistently get the CT raids, more specifically ST, for years on end in the roullette. Of all the players on the Aether data center there are enough that need to run CT that I have done it a few times a week for at least 4 years now.

[BaconBits]

Every time one of these threads pops up, I'm seeing a bunch of people who are completely missing the point of rolettes. They are not there for you to experience a "variety" of content - you can just select 5 of your favorite alliance raids and do it that way, guaranteed no Sycrus Tower! The roulette is there to throw bodies with a pulse to people waiting in queues for specific duties. And logically, there is a lot more players looking to do Crystal Tower raids than Nier. If you don't like Labyrinth of the Ancients so much, don't queue for the roulette intended to fill Labyrinth of the Ancients runs.

Somehow I get the feeling that if a roulette with 12 possible duties constantly flips through the same 3 low level duties often enough that multiple people notice it, then maybe something should be done about it. More specifically, something should be done about the players that unequip their gear to guarantee a Crystal Tower run by cheesing ilvl requirements.

And what about the players that are trying to get later Alliance raids done that aren't part of the current expansion? I know I'm not the only one that had to wait an egregious amount of time waiting for an Ivalice raid to pop only for someone else to withdraw at the last second and get thrown back into queue hell. I think the longest I've ever had to wait was over an hour and thirty minutes trying to queue for Ridorana Cataract as a tank.

Why should I and everyone else that's tired of seeing Crystal Tower and being synced down to boring ARR rotations have to suffer while others that constantly exploit ilvl requirements clog up Alliance Roulette to be rewarded for little to no effort? Why don't they all just directly queue up for LoTA, Syrcus Tower and World of Darkness, since that's all they want apparently, they'll still be filling up the queues for the people that are genuinely new.

Crap like this is why I avoid Alliance Roulette like the plague. Twelve raids to choose from, yet this "community" is dead set on running the same three raids into the ground because it's the easiest option available.

[Packetdancer]

So you are telling me there are enough people for me to consistently get the CT raids, more specifically ST, for years on end in the roullette. Of all the players on the Aether data center there are enough that need to run CT that I have done it a few times a week for at least 4 years now.

I am telling you there are enough people who can only get Crystal Tower in their roulettes regardless of what they're wearing ilevel-wise -- i.e., the other raids are not unlocked, thus not an option, as roulettes cannot put you into content you have not yet unlocked regardless of level or ilevel -- that even absent any other factors, the Crystal Tower raids would still be dominant.

People ilevel cheesing it might skew it a bit towards the first two instead of all three, yes. But personally, over here in Primal, I see World of Darkness about as often as I see Syrcus Tower, so I don't know how much that really affects it.

I am not, however, saying that it means the roulette is working properly; the fact that if you want to run a later raid and queue for it specifically it can take an hour to pop demonstrates that it is not. I'm just saying that even if you block ilevel cheese, the roulette's still going to be broken in that manner, so there may need to be a different solution.

[Sarevok_Thordin]

I always look at people in the alliances when a ARR raid comes up, checking for people using the gear stripping trick.

Annoying to keep running it.

[Seera1024]

Somehow I get the feeling that if a roulette with 12 possible duties constantly flips through the same 3 low level duties often enough that multiple people notice it, then maybe something should be done about it. More specifically, something should be done about the players that unequip their gear to guarantee a Crystal Tower run by cheesing ilvl requirements.

And what about the players that are trying to get later Alliance raids done that aren't part of the current expansion? I know I'm not the only one that had to wait an egregious amount of time waiting for an Ivalice raid to pop only for someone else to withdraw at the last second and get thrown back into queue hell. I think the longest I've ever had to wait was over an hour and thirty minutes trying to queue for Ridorana Cataract as a tank.

Why should I and everyone else that's tired of seeing Crystal Tower and being synced down to boring ARR rotations have to suffer while others that constantly exploit ilvl requirements clog up Alliance Roulette to be rewarded for little to no effort? Why don't they all just directly queue up for LoTA, Syrcus Tower and World of Darkness, since that's all they want apparently, they'll still be filling up the queues for the people that are genuinely new.

Crap like this is why I avoid Alliance Roulette like the plague. Twelve raids to choose from, yet this "community" is dead set on running the same three raids into the ground because it's the easiest option available.

That assumes the number who cheese the roulette are large enough to make an actual impact vs are chosen to fill spots in a group that has a new player or someone who queued directly for it or someone who only has the CT raids unlocked who went into the alliance raid roulette.

I'd imagine at this point, the cheesers probably don't increase the likelihood of a CT raid enough to warrant whatever cons a system that would prevent cheesing would have.

I only unlock option content when MSQ or aether currents or some goal I'm working toward require it OR I'm dragged into it by friends playing. It's why I have the alliance raids for ARR, HW, and SB unlocked but not SHB. Because my friends were taking a break when I hit end game for SHB and didn't come back really until almost EW and they haven't dragged me into it. They did drag me into ARR, HW, and SB raids. I will likely be dragged into EW raids.

Note: I'm using dragged into as the alliance raids aren't something that I go out of my way to unlock and will usually only do them when asked if I wanted to unlock - I enjoy doing them and can say no if I wanted to.

[TaleraRistain]

I really wish there were a way to scale the rewards. If you were to queue at 80 in 50 gear, for example, you’d get a worthless reward in exchange for your worthless commitment.

If you wore 80 gear on an 80 character, though, you’d open yourself to the full reward no matter what you actually ended up running. Perhaps even an additional bonus if you cleared something uncommonly cleared.

I like this suggestion but they would have to consider people who only have this or that set of raids unlocked and not punish them for that.

[AngelCheese77]

Please please please pray, add an ilvl requirement to this roulette that scales with the job level of the person queuing for it.

A level 90 character equipping lvl 50 gear and then queuing for this roulette to get a quick and easy LotA or CT run is not what this roulette is intended for. This is having a huge adverse impact on everyone who wants to enjoy all of the alliance raids with this roulette, especially the more recent ones. About 90% of my alliance roulette runs are one of these two raids because of people abusing this exploit and I'm going to die from boredom if this continues.

Okay, bare with me here. I am curious if you or anyone else can answer my question.

Why is this a big deal? How do you know people do this? Do you examine every player when you zone in?

I've had the Crystal Tower alliances over and over for days and weeks. It's pretty fun. Heck I get gear out of it to break down or sell for seals. Even saw a mechanic I never saw before as well.

I mean, if one goes through the roulette for alliances, I don't see the issue at all. Is it keeping other alliances from being done?

[Hasrat]

Reminder that Stormblood relic/blades weapons require a lot of CT, in addition to the MSQ requirement. By that token, it seems that the game is working as intended, as far as the devs are concerned who made these systems.

Stormblood relics are purely Eureka.

Anecdotal, but when I was running roulettes last month getting my DNC/GNB up to 70, it was kinda an even split between Crystal Tower and Mhach.