Do encounteres (specifically Extremes) FEEL different now?

[Renathras]

Titania has randomness on whether you're NE or NW (as tank/healer) for the tether break in the add phase, or which of the puddles to stand in for the stack fists in phase 2, or where to stand to best dodge Shiva (if you're not just standing in it like everyone ended up doing). Hyadelyn has randomness on whether the NE or NW crystal is going to flare up first, which element she'll use (therefore which of stack/spread/LPs to do after the mechanic) and which corner is 'safe' for Flood of Light.

Right, but that's why I said the other part:

When I use the word "orderly" I mean a combination of three things - (1) party coordination required, (2) punishment for failure, (3) how constrained the randomness is/how consistent the mechanic order and execution is. More orderly fights tend to require more coordination, but are essentially the same, or very close to the same, every time you run them. Titania's only real variations are the in/out and which way the vines run and the party has to stack for the light party hits. The fight is pretty much "you know the dance steps, it's the same every time with minor variations". While every fight ultimately isn't TOTAL chaos - they can only be so random - some have more variations on the possible mechanics and the mechanics can be different levels of punishing. Zodiark's rotations being random is more significant and harder to react to than Titania's in/out being randomly chose (and in THAT case you know what the NEXT one will be because they're paired).

The "randomness" of Titania is "it's this OR it's this". Not, "It's this OR this OR this OR this", and a lot of it is "use A then B or B than A" meaning if you see one, you know what the other will be.

Hydaelyn's stances, as I pointed out, aren't as random as they seem. She often is limited to using only one of two stances for large portions of the fight, and sometimes only one, I believe, and her elements are only random in which order she uses the three at the start of the fight, as later parts of the fight her specific element is scripted.

It's still less chaotic than Zodiark or Innocence.

The only mechanic in Hydaelyn that comes to mind as 'one person can cause a wipe with their actions' is if a healer stacks with the wrong group for Water.

If the Healers stack wrong OR not enough people in the light parties (this mechanic repeats about 4 times).
If someone overlaps their ice with one or two people, especially key people (Tank/Healer).
If someone from the role cleaves stacks with the wrong group.
If people don't spread enough for the post-stack spread in the final phase (this happens twice AND with a Light Party stack mixed in it).

That's a bit more than "just if a healer stacks with the wrong group".

Oh, and in Innocence, one person CAN wipe the party by aiming the stack laser wrong when there's all 4 balls

Have I not mentioned this multiple times already? Like, I specifically mentioned that's the only real way for one player to cause a wipe in Innocence MULTIPLE times. The only other is running a sword line through the middle of the party, but people can avoid that, technically.

Not that it matters to me, I go by EX1 and EX2 based on 'when you encounter them while doing the story'

Yeah, so the least reliable and most pointless way to compare fights, as I described above. Got it.
(Also, not to be snippy, but considering how you keep harping on this: It clearly matters enough to you to keep bringing the point up...probably because it's useful to the argument you're making. If it didn't matter, you would have dropped it by now. I just always shake my head when someone says "Not that it matters to me..." but then won't let it go, meaning it clearly matters to them.)

Funny that your 'pattern' falls apart at SB though,

Not really. As I pointed out, in SB they were both more constrained. Further, as Jeeqbit pointed out, it was in ShB when they made that transition. "We're doing this going forward" is, indeed, how patterns form.

HW was before the current paradigm, which was proto-typed in SB and solidified in ShB. We've had these conversations before, you know all this. /shrug

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In any case, I think the general agreement is that things have changed and gotten more difficult. Some people kind of brush this off a bit by noting the playerbase is more skilled in general, especially coordinated groups/Statics/raiders, but I think the problem comes down to "Okay, so what's the difficulty between Normal and Extreme?"

But then, they've needed to add something in that gap for a long time anyway...