Please dont bring back Relic Quest Zones

[Winterfang]

But even in Eureka, the effort necessary to get a weapon that is only truly useful for a short amount of time, simply isn't worth a player's time. The EW tomestone method is honestly the most balanced method as far as effort vs reward.

Except the Physeos stage with the elemental bonus means that the weapon has more shelf life then the typical weapon or other relics. It's always the best weapon to carry Eureka and there's no reason to not have Shamash Physeos in my armory chest ready to go. That's more than what I can say about any of the other final stage relics (Zeta, Lux, Blade)
On to the second point, the EW Relic requires no effort. I get it immediately after Hildabrand since The game throws Tomes at you for benign and easy stuff like Rouletting into Satasha or Crystal Tower and you can hold tomes until then. The way they handled EW relics completely misses the point of Relics in the first place but even if the devs truly wanted current Relics obtained by player choice, there was certainly better ways to do it.

[dspguy]

Except the Physeos stage with the elemental bonus means that the weapon has more shelf life then the typical weapon or other relics.

I'm not sure it gains you anything. It has the same damage as a level 76 weapon. In all likelihood, it would be replaced at 78. Maybe it has some substats that makes it better? So instead of about 4 months, it is 4 months and 1 day while you gain those extra levels.

Besides, you can avoid all of that and just wait for expansion day and buy the upgraded tomestone weapon for poetics. It makes it pretty much obsolete too quickly to spend the time necessary.

[ChrysOCE]

I'm not sure it gains you anything. It has the same damage as a level 76 weapon. In all likelihood, it would be replaced at 78. Maybe it has some substats that makes it better? So instead of about 4 months, it is 4 months and 1 day while you gain those extra levels.

Besides, you can avoid all of that and just wait for expansion day and buy the upgraded tomestone weapon for poetics. It makes it pretty much obsolete too quickly to spend the time necessary.

I think they mean it remains relevant within Eureka, as it has an elemental bonus within the relic stats.

[dspguy]

I think they mean it remains relevant within Eureka, as it has an elemental bonus within the relic stats.

I get the point. It still has value in a zone that yields weapons of little-to-no use outside of it. I'm cool with that. But that and BA isn't a legitimate argument that the pre-EW relic systems were any good. The fact remains that you only have a "top-tier weapon" for a few months by going down the relic path and then it is relegated to the glamour dresser. It isn't very "relic."

[Atelier-Bagur]

Except the Physeos stage with the elemental bonus means that the weapon has more shelf life then the typical weapon or other relics. It's always the best weapon to carry Eureka and there's no reason to not have Shamash Physeos in my armory chest ready to go. That's more than what I can say about any of the other final stage relics (Zeta, Lux, Blade)
On to the second point, the EW Relic requires no effort. I get it immediately after Hildabrand since The game throws Tomes at you for benign and easy stuff like Rouletting into Satasha or Crystal Tower and you can hold tomes until then. The way they handled EW relics completely misses the point of Relics in the first place but even if the devs truly wanted current Relics obtained by player choice, there was certainly better ways to do it.

The only critical problem with Eureka weapons and the content itself is that....whats even the point to it? The content is done, it has no agency or relevancy to the rest of the game. To the majority, there is no sense of satisfaction gained from continuing with playing Eureka once you've done and collected everything. So saying that the Eureka weapons outlasted whatever current relevant content is there is just major copium for the flaw of Eureka's progression. Nowadays only the most dedicated and niche group continue playing Eureka or Bozja for the memes or to help newer players get into at the very least Baldesion Arsenal.

To me, the content is extremely padded out and boring because theres no pizzaz, no substance to it other than just farming FATES and BA. I would like to compare the content to classic WoW but thats not fair, because while there is a grind to classic WoW; the journey is set dressed with all sorts of open world activities to dive to, besides just farming mobs. You go explore, do dungeons, do quests etc. If Eureka and Bozja were designed to have that classic hardcore MMO feeling, quite frankly it brought the most boring aspect of that journey with its iteration.

This is my major problem with exploratory content. It lacks relevancy very quickly, its padded out and its not interesting enough to hold "meaningful" retention. People diving into it nowadays are only doing it because they're tied to that expansion's relic; which is mostly used for glam as well as completing its story. What I propose is for the devs to not repeat into the same formulaic design choice with Eureka and Bozja and to transform it into something that's has more choices and substance to its design; without going to just designing the zone itself for the sake of a long grind.

I wasnt impressed when I dove into the content the first time (I mean besides the raids), and after going through it 4 times on different characters, I'm still not impressed.

[Kaurhz]

This is my major problem with exploratory content. It lacks relevancy very quickly, its padded out and its not interesting enough to hold "meaningful" retention. People diving into it nowadays are only doing it because they're tied to that expansion's relic; which is mostly used for glam as well as completing its story. What I propose is for the devs to not repeat into the same formulaic design choice with Eureka and Bozja and to transform it into something that's has more choices and substance to its design; without going to just designing the zone itself for the sake of a long grind.

Eh, there are still plenty of people that do regularly run it for other reasons be it for Gil or to complete the raid(s) (Which I would say could be a design flaw), or for the Bozjan notes completion for the mount. Once I'm all done collecting all my Kinna weapons, it's probably going to be my main source of content (BA - It was a really thrilling experience doing it, even when wiping, frankly) outside of my regular farming activities.

I wouldn't say it lacks meaningful retention, and nor would I say it loses relevancy quickly, it'll always be relevant in some shape. If you were to theoretically push it as a standalone and detach every reward structure, then maybe. But that would apply to every strand of content. I would probably argue that, if anything, it isn't very well future-proofed at all and the communal aspect has deteriorated in the case of Bozja. - I was doing Bozja a few months back to collect a few items for glam and to sweep up a Dalriada achievement (and still do pop in to level my alt). It's still as active as ever, but a lot of it is just "Lfg z3" - On top of this, if you look at how the general FATEs are (which dominate the majority of the time spent in Bozja" - Then these just fall over pretty quickly now. It's a pretty pathetic experience in this regard.

There's a whole host of problems with Eureka and Bozja, but IMO retention and relevancy aren't any of them. - I will agree with you though in that they don't repeat the same 'formulaic' design for the next iteration of exploratory content - But should instead look at transforming it and adding more substance. There is a lot they could do like incorporate gathering and crafting. The idea of crafting logograms and essences rather than farming them direct is a nice idea for me. For as substance-less as Island Sanctuary can be, there's still quite a bit of exploratory content that could pick up from it, albeit in a more substantiated design.