Please bring back Exploratory Zones in Dawntrail

[VelKallor]

As long as there's not a random join, join and leave party, progress saved at all times where you can leave any time you want (outside of combat), DD/CD will never fill the void of Eureka/Bozja exploration content.

As has been said, one of the most critical points about developing this content is the one simple fact that after its relevance has passed it is a DEAD ZONE. Virtually no one uses it. A few discords and a few PF parties maybe, but to all intents and purposes it is empty.

Bozja is NOT future proofed, its FATE spamming yes, but you have NO ONE to help, you will be lucky to see maybe 20 people in a single day. Bozja is also a meat grinder, because it is and was designed as group content. Soloing those mobs right now ( and I have tried ) is an exercise in attack, die, run back, lose mettle, do it again and again and again. Note that last part: dying has a penalty which in the long run extends the time a solo player has to sacrifice in order to get anywhere.

I also fail to see why we "need' something to "keep us logged in and playing". Thats a WOW FOMO perspective, FF 14 isnt and never was intended as a "forever game". I get the desire, but in all truth the major issue is the fact that content has a limited shelf life.

The expense and time to create such a zone is wasted. So, no, I dont see a need for it at all.

I DO agree that Criterion and Variants need a lot of work, rewards again agreed.

But I do have to ask: and this is a serious question: whats with this push for content "to keep you playing all the time" ? Why? To what end? To my POV, putting that much time in every day is a good way to burn out.

Renathras: read my first comment: it isnt future proofed, there is no Echo and I am DAMNED if I will subject myself to that kind of masochism. GROUP content that is NOT designed or reset for solo difficulty as there IS no one to help you is an exercise in futility.

Eureka has specific gear that can and does help you with mobs..Bozja has none such. I have done some of Eureka, but again, unless there are parties ingame, ( which cannot be gauranteed so you cant say there are people there all the time, there isnt ) it is a hell of a lot harder as it is..again..designed as GROUP content.

Not solo. So no, we dont "need" another '"exploratory zone", not unless it is in some way adapted OR DELIBERATELY DESIGNED so that when the crowds leave, you dont have one or two players smashing their head against brick walls.

How to fix this?

Easy:

Allow unsync and add echo.

Let me stop you right there. There is no respectful way to tell a disabled person asking for basic accommodation to take a hike.

Vetch: he better get used to those accommodations, as the playerbase is ageing. Not to mention that a 10 year old can get arthritis. Can happen at any age.

[Renathras]

something more along the lines of bozja but eureka hell no. It is unsoloable and unfuture proofed. It would be nice if it was diverse like 3.0 relic.

What are you talking about? Eureka is more future-proofed than Bozja. The only thing you need a group for is BA, and it's not super hard to find them - 4 YEARS later. The entire rest of Eureka can be done solo if you want to, especially with the +300% Echo buff. And you don't need BA for the Relic/Armor. The "super-final" stage that requires BA doesn't change the appearance and the only thing it does is add Eureka-specific stats, something meaningless to you if you don't like and want to continue engaging with Eureka.

Bozja is far worse in terms of futureproofing since it has both CLL and BA and Dal as bottlenecks, and they're further bottlenecks to the Relics as well, since the only alternative to get the parts for those steps are PotD and HoH with low drop rates, which are hard to solo as well (it's the higher floors that have decent drop rates for them, and you can't random que for those).

As has been said, one of the most critical points about developing this content is the one simple fact that after its relevance has passed it is a DEAD ZONE. Virtually no one uses it. A few discords and a few PF parties maybe, but to all intents and purposes it is empty.

Except it isn't.

Whenever I hop into Eureka, I see people in it. Same with Bozja. If you play on peak times, you will often see >40 and sometimes >100 people in those zones. While it does happen that there are times it is less, in the case of Eureka, we're talking 4 year old content (Hydatos) or even older than that (Anemos) still being pretty well used.

How many people did you see running Eden 3 normal last week?

Content, in general, decays over time. But Eureka in particular has had incredible longevity due to the dedicated community and unique nature of it. Bozja was less popular, but is still pretty well played. Compare that to raids released during that time and you'll see that your argument would more support removing/stopping adding raid content than it does not having Exploration content.

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Not all content is for everyone, that's true. But that's WHY you have different kinds of content - for the people that enjoy it.

I've never done an Ultimate, yet they spend massive Dev resources on those every expansion.

I don't have a Static, so I don't do Savages. I've done 3 at level and maybe 9-10 total clears across those three fights.

Does this mean they should stop adding Ultimates and Savages?

No, of course not - because some people like that content, even if people drop it like a rock as soon as the next major patch comes out. Compared to that, Eureka/Bozja are FAR better content with FAR more longevity.

Also: In case you were unaware (somehow?), Eureka has the Echo.

Did you really not know this? Go zone into Eureka right now. Mouse over your buffs. See that Echo there? It has the very thing you say it doesn't have.

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So yes, we DO need another exploration zone set.

[Zairava]

Snip for length

For once I'm actually in agreement with Ren here.

Eureka is still plenty active in peak hours (otherwise you'll see bunny farmers mostly, which is a reason to go in there regardless. On top of the items to enhance your..Aetherical wheel? for more power/defense,. You also have the gil gains from the bunny fates. on TOP of getting relics. I've occasionally been able to get groups even outside of peak hours.

and Bozja will never die for very good reason, and what I think is the best boon it has to offer outside of relics: Leveling. Being able to level there assures that newer players who are currently leveling jobs WILL have an engaging place to grind exp at even if they have no interest in relics. This isn't even mentioning cluster farming, which is a suitable, and easy, method of making gil through the exchange.

I personally much prefer Eureka between the two. To top this off, you can do eureka solo without doing NM's. The challenge log ensures this. It's slower, but when you want to tackle it at your own pace that makes the comfort room for this content that much bigger.

[DixieBellOCE]

SNIP

We may have our differences Ren but this is all 100% facts.

Eureka is by far the longest standing piece of content that has not fallen from relevance past its expansion's expiry date.

People don't like it, because you have to play the game to get rewarded. And they will argue forever that it is dead content when it is far from it, it is by far one of the most active zones in post-patch downtime, Even on Materia you can get people to do BA 2-3 times a week from the content achievers discord.

[Winterfang]

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Lol what?
Bozja and Eureka lasted WAY the hells longer than that PoS V&C, which drops dead within the month of introduction. Say what you will about DR, it had the curtosy of waiting until the next expansion the kneel over.

And I have solod a ton of crap in Bozja and Eureka, the right Lost Actions and I was able to run and pull half the sub zone for some clusters, to the point that the best assist a second player was able to give wasn't damage at all, it was an additional sprint to pull more faster and laugh as an army of robots can barely ding my healtr. And in Eureka I can solo prep alot of difficult mobs on my own with the right logos.

Yes, this content does have echo enabled scaled in certain ways, like amount of people going into content like the Dalraida. I was able to participate fairly early before others unlocked it which resulted in a small party and we completed it. Other thing are similarly influenced in Bozja, where some encounters, the bosses just melt. Meanwhile it's a flat buff in Eureka to my knowledge for overworked mobs and scaled for NM, meaning in some scenarios its harder to spawn the NM then to kill the NM itself, like when I ended up in a Hydatos alone and did Ceto on my own. The only thing I can't do on my own that personally tried was a shot at Cassie, a NM so desired that people will rush for a shot at her tasteful earring. (Something I'm still aiming for despite completing all the rest of Eureka)

Both Eureka and Bozja have gear that provides bonuses for that specific zone. Bozja less so since it's all haste boosts, but the lost actions are enough.

And lastly, no one is asking for the content to last forever nor to force players to spend their time in it 24/7. I Love Eureka but I'm clearly done and have been for a very long time. The only reason I have to step back in there is one pair of earrings I don't need and if I want to build my pile of Gil even higher. Conflating peoples issue with wanting something that had some actual longevity to WoWs abhorrent attempt at keeping people logging in daily (something I was there for and XIVs exploratory ventures are nowhere near close) is just arguing in bad faith.