Crystal Tower has to go

[Midareyukki]

I hope this is to your satisfaction.

YES QUEEN.

It IS annoying to have to run CT over and over and over. And sure, we might not have many options. Take Expert Roulette, it's literally just 2 dungeons anyway. But you know what makes it fun and different? The fact that your kit isn't so limited. The fact that mechanics aren't so braindead easy that you fall asleep at the wheel only to wake up and realize that not only is it not over, you're basically not even needed there. And the fact that people very shamelessly rig the system to land on those raids.

I'd argue that the Ivalice and Mhach raids aren't hard at all, people are just far too used to the game holding their hands over every piece of content. And then when something demands them to pay a little attention, they wet their pants. Many times I see people new to the instances call Deathgaze Hollow, Diabolos, Hashmal, Mustadio and such "unfair". No, they're not "unfair", they're just not disrespecting you and believe you can clear them with the experience you've gotten thus far. And if you can't, it's a wake up call that maybe you should get goodish? Because the rest of the game will recycle mechanics from these raids, might as well learn them now. Yes: GET GOOD. Refusal to get good is literally bringing people's enjoyment of the game down.

And I used to have an FC member who said "Yeah well not everyone wants to log onto the game and deal with something convoluted after a day of work, people just want to chill". To which I said: then why the hell are you playing? No, really, if you share this mindset, why is it that you play a game that clearly has mechanics and moments for you to pay attention? Moments where you need to stop mindlessly pressing 1 on your keyboard and actually heal? No one's asking you to do Savage content after work, you do it because you want to. But mechanics in this game aren't meant to be an absolute chore every time in casual content, they're just stuff to do on the spot. If the day was so bad that you'd rather not deal with the way the game's designed, don't play it that day. You're not forced to. There are other games out there that would likely frustrate you less, just as much as there are other games out there that'd frustrate you far more. Casual content doesn't need to be any more straightforward and boring for the sake of this argument. If we keep this up, then we'll end up with mobs that die the moment we Gpose them.

"Well not everyone wants to deal with stress", yes well not everyone wants to fall asleep either. And sure, it's a roulette, but the CT raids are so poorly handled at the moment that they feel beyond tedious to experience at higher levels. Not just because everything is just a tank and spank with zero regard for mechanics that aren't instant death, but also because class design at lv 50 is so mangled. Maybe forcing people to run it synched is a bit extreme. But something needs to be done. Boost the numbers, reassess lv 50 skills, SOMETHING.

They redesigned the Castrum and Praetorium to fit the game and not be blatant zerg rushes like they used to be. With bosses with proper mechanics, even if they're simplistic as hell. They're there to teach sprouts about how the game will look like in the future. Why not do the same for CT? Because let me tell you Square, they feel no different than the final Lahabrea fight.

And if Hildibrand tells us to do Crystal Tower 15 times again, I won't even bother continuing his quests. Square can put mindless grinds into the game all it wants, if it turns out to be that tedious again, I'll refuse to touch it. Give me Bozja, give me poetics grind, I can handle that. But gratuitous grinds for the sake of making content look alive? To hell with that.

[Raoabolic]

snip

I-I hate to tell you this but Square died 19 years ago... I think it was a dance summit back in 2001 that went wrong. ;A;

[Midareyukki]

I-I hate to tell you this but Square died 19 years ago... I think it was a dance summit back in 2001 that went wrong. ;A;

That was Squaresoft, they're now Squarehard.

...wait.

CRAP IT'S RIGOR MORTIS ISN'T IT?

[Doozer]

Meh, I still think people favor crystal tower raids as do I because of the speed at which you finish the roulette. 15mins versus the 40+ Nier raids will always favor the former. They could easily help this issue by actually increasing the Nier and Rabanastre Raid EXP much higher, cause its pretty crappy considering the time sink.

A quick roulette is infinitely better. If I wanted something else, I'd queue for those individually but if you doing alliance roulette atm for the EXP / Crystals, odds are you want something quick and that seems to be the mindset of the playerbase overall.

Not everyone plays the game to get through things quickly. I personally hate getting CT and will take the penalty for leaving if I have to because I'd rather do anything else besides mindlessly pressing 3 buttons for 15 minutes. Using more of my kit and having to actually pay attention for twice as long (or longer) is way more fun to me. I'm in it for the rewards same as the next person, but I also want to feel engaged by the game.

I also like the randomness of roulettes. It's not that random when it's CT every day. If I wanted CT, I'd queue for those individually, as you put it.

[Midareyukki]

I also like the randomness of roulettes. It's not that random when it's CT every day. If I wanted CT, I'd queue for those individually, as you put it.

Is it bad that I queue for Dun Scaith and the Ivalice Raids because they're my favourite ones? I do them completely out of fun. Sometimes I see a handful leave the instance, but more often than not I see comments say "Oh thank god it's not CT!". Plus, unlike CT in the Alliance Roulette, I'm actually helping people clear optional content for the first time by adding to their queues. CT wait times are likely to be short since it's tied to the MSQ now. The others not so much. And people tend to be vocally pleased that it's not CT.

Does it make me no different than the guys who trick the roulettes into slotting them into CT? Maybe. Or maybe it's balanced.

[Doozer]

Is it bad that I queue for Dun Scaith and the Ivalice Raids because they're my favourite ones? I do them completely out of fun. Sometimes I see a handful leave the instance, but more often than not I see comments say "Oh thank god it's not CT!". Plus, unlike CT in the Alliance Roulette, I'm actually helping people clear optional content for the first time by adding to their queues. CT wait times are likely to be short since it's tied to the MSQ now. The others not so much. And people tend to be vocally pleased that it's not CT.

Does it make me no different than the guys who trick the roulettes into slotting them into CT? Maybe. Or maybe it's balanced.

I like queuing for Dun Scaith or higher raids because I also thoroughly enjoy them, though sometimes the wait is so long, even as tank or healer. So I just pray for them in roulettes. I got Puppets' Bunker the other day for the first time in at least a month. That was cool.

[hagare]

and so it shall be.

[Ishe-P]

Why are you acting like youre being forced into it. You already knew what you were signing up for when you queue for an alliance roulette that has CT in it.

This is the worst possible take. My point is CT is too "popular" in the roulette system, it is frankly astonishing how frequently they appear. Just today I got an alliance roulette of Labyrinth of the Ancients and 2! Mentor roulettes of stupid Syrcus Tower, and that was after I wrote my initial complaint. I do know that I am signing up for a system that in theory is totally random, but in getting the same raids day after day after day I am unconvinced that the rng is fair. In fact, I know it is not; there is no conceivable way that all players are on equal footing when signing up for Alliance roulette. It is how things go, the system was designed to address gaps in older content but I don't have to like it and I am free to complain all I want. Does that clear things up for you?

[ASkellington]

I don't think they're "proud" of it; they just need people to run old content, so they incentivise/force people to do various bits. The longer it has been around, the more times they go back to it.

Adding it to MSQ isn't just to arbitrarily show it off; those events needed to happen so they could be built upon. So despite your blunt assertion that it "has to go", actually at this point it has to stay.

The point of that take, and I agree with it, is that CT should not be apart of ANYTHING now that it is straight up required to progress through MSQ.

No, it does not need to be apart of any relic.

No it does not need to be apart of moogle tomes.

Why? Again, it is REQUIRED for MSQ. People who are on the free part of FFXIV can only get up to lv60 raids. It is already weighted in CT's favor. It does not need these things and SHOULD NOT GET THEM. Other raids should be apart of these things, because I find it ridiculous that I have had to sit in a 1hr queue for the Void Ark raids as a healer on PRIME TIME.

[SturmChurro]

I'd say I dislike most, if not all, of the raids in the alliance raid roulette that pop more regularly. At least CT is short.

Is it bad that I queue for Dun Scaith and the Ivalice Raids because they're my favourite ones? I do them completely out of fun.

To each their own, but I don't find really any raid 'fun' on it's own. Some of them can be enjoyable when they first come out. I'll really only queue directly if I am looking for rewards. Moogle, minion, glamour, whatever else.