No exploratory content

[Shurrikhan]

Eureka was too grindy……If this is the only MMO youve ever played

I enjoyed Eureka, but... it would almost certainly have had greater community engagement and had been more enjoyable to the average player if the EXP requirements for leveling up were lower, leaving that grind instead to the horizontal progression of Relics instead of something that'd more inflexibly split apart its players across a given zone.

That's what ive been saying lol. And there's way griendier and more BORING activities (looking at you achievements) that no one calls out.

They're not each being called out because they've only collectively --not individually-- had the kind of impact or reward-access that Exploratory Missions have had and because we're literally in a thread about Exploratory Missions.

In a thread about Exploratory Missions, you can expect Exploratory Missions to get a larger share of the discourse even if other content forms were just as good/bad/neutral in regard to a given criteria.

Moreover, a critique doesn't stop being valid just because it doesn't include every other item that might also meet its description.

Bozja and Eureka were designed for people who love MMOs, the Manderville relics were designed for people who hate MMOs.

That would imply that the only (respectable) enjoyment one can get out of MMOs to large-zone mob- and FATE grinds...

I like both, in the right contexts, but liking other parts of the MMO experience more than that aspect in particular doesn't mean that one doesn't like/love MMOs, let alone that they hate them.

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Again, I like Exploratory Missions. I certainly think they're a more fitting, efficient, and lucrative content form than the likes of Variant/Criterion Dungeons, and would rather have EMs than any other form of "Side-content". I'm going through Bozja again right now on this forum alt. But that content doesn't get better over successive iterations from refusing to parse criticisms of it.

To be fair, Eureka was too grindy and Bozja didn't have a sufficient reward system to encourage long-term play. If they've learned from both of them, then a Tural-themed Exploratory Zone would be a wonderful idea.

What seems about the sweet spot to you, in terms of vertical grind progression for an EM? How might Bozja have been encouraged long-term play? And are there other sorts of novel mechanics or intrinsic motivators that you'd like to see in a new Exploratory Mission in Dawntrail, if we get one?