Please bring back Exploratory Zones in Dawntrail

[Amnmaat]

This is ultra copium lmao they throw out quotes like these all the time and you won't see it until half a decade later if at all

Even if they add Field Exploration it's not going to be a main feature of the game. The first roadmap shows you their priorities; they laid out everything we're getting there.
The reason they left out Field Exploration is because it'll be added late in the patch series, expect as late as 7.4.

Remember, we've been getting relics in the .3 patches; that's a year after release. Are you all really going to wait for 7.3 in 2025 to have some lasting content? That's literally 2 years from now.

Instead, people should be making it clear to square enix that this type of content is the only thing that will decide the future of xiv.
Alisae's jokes and Y'shtola's fake deaths are not going to carry the game anymore

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Not gonna lie, Im excited to see the new wave of complaints once the people who say Explore Zones are the Good Content Grinds, suddenly get bored of it and say its bad and they need to do something different.

And the Solution will be a system from WoW

[Supersnow845]

Not gonna lie, Im excited to see the new wave of complaints once the people who say Explore Zones are the Good Content Grinds, suddenly get bored of it and say its bad and they need to do something different.

Whatever your opinion on the content is are you really gonna argue that the 0 content EW gave us is better than actual content you may or may not like

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Whatever your opinion on the content is are you really gonna argue that the 0 content EW gave us is better than actual content you may or may not like

The Lack of an Explore Zone is not 0 content.
If we literally got 0 content, then by default Id have to say Content I may not like is subjectively better then 0 content.

[DPZ2]

Instead, people should be making it clear to square enix that this type of content is the only thing that will decide the future of xiv.

But will it? Really? I see a lot less than 500 players on the forums directly complaining that Field Exploration will make-or-break the game.

It's actually a bit underwhelming. I certainly wouldn't make a major business decision based on these numbers.

I expect that when all of us who started before the Age of Major Blunders in WoW suddenly drop from the game, they might begin to wonder why. But it still won't be attributed to Field Exploration.

[Aco505]

Why must everything be viable? Nearly everything in Bozja actually has a purpose, even Dynamis Dice, which you can use for fun. Developers should not sacrifice fun just so everything is viable. It's OK to put weird things like Dynamis Dice in the game.

I also agree that there should be more viable builds and actions in general. The word viable doesn't have to necessarily mean meta or anything but there's plenty of actions that have no niche at all. Most banners, for instance, serve no real purpose. The Banner of Honed Acuity provides an interesting buff, but it's difficult to proc unless you have extra sources of evasion, which also makes it mostly unusable in the raids and especially DRS.

Take the example that you mention, the Dynamis Dice. On its own you could say that it's a nice little thing in Bozja/Zadnor but then the essence that was designed to work with it in DRS, Gambler, falls short because both the cooldown and weight of the dice are too high and Gambler doesn't provide defensive stats (so you die from raidwides) and has worse offensive stats than the other pure essences as well, not to mention that the dice shares a cooldown with normal tinctures.

And so Gambler was an addition that is basically never used as it's always inferior in every way.

On the other hand, casters and healers have other options outside the DRS essences, as they can use the Ordained and Templar ones in some circumstances. For example, Templar gives more damage to the healer but doesn't allow them to use Lost Raise to resurrect people in DRS, so it becomes a better option as long as players don't die.

This is why I would prefer that there were more varied builds and actions. Flare Star is good but only one person can use it. Blood Rage was a great addition in Zadnor but Excellence didn't really change the way DPS jobs dealt damage. I'd like more actions like Flare Star, Blood Rage, Lost Slash or Double Edge from Eureka because they can greatly modify the way jobs work.

[Supersnow845]

I also like how lost actions on a job doing an action that is not usually it’s role can actually be better than the actual role itself

For example my favourite old interaction of Bozja actions is PLD+banner of solemn clarity/limitless grace+saviour essence+10 healing valours+requiescat+cure 4

Every cast of cure 4 was a party wide benediction and would tick for a party wide benediction every regen tick, and you were doing a near infinite amount of healing you would instantly rip agro from the tank and never lose it

I got to be a better healer than the healers on a tank, got to relive my fantasy of 1.0 benediction which was basically suicide for the WHM to cast, and I got to find a fun way to hold agro on the boss with the tank trying in vain to spam provoke, all the while I wasn’t really doing anything remotely meta, it was just fun as hell

[Aco505]

Bumping for visibility and support

[SigmarrIrenesch]

Oh I love Eureka/Bozja so I'd be all for a new zone! Bozja was my jam when it came out and Eureka was a super fun way to spend the time while waiting for Endwalker. Give me another spin on Essences and Lost Actions related shenanigans and I'll be a happy camper.

[Alaray]

I loved the exploratory zones; I had a blast when Eureka landed and Bozja. While Bozja may have felt like a blander color palette/landscape, the critical engagements, duels (*I'd prefer instanced ones for qualified players, since grinding for a spot sucked too much to bother continue finishing them for me), and Dialdara, Delubrum Reginae/Reginae Savage all felt like incredible improvements over their predecessors. They were easy enough to win for anyone who is a lot more chill/casual/hanging out, while still feeling engaging to do and rewarding to do. Would love to see more expansion on the abilities to generate a wider variety of builds in the zone, doesn't have to be good in the traditional sense, but more abilities that create more unique and different interactions with the game would be nice (kind of like Reflect in Pyros, the healing/tank draughts were a neat idea but a little too basic as I much preferred abilities that you interacted with, and Seraph Strike is still one of my favorites). A fun, interactive, quirky thing is something I'd like (and I mean, the meta builds for DPS are all fun, but it gets boring so having things that change the gameplay experience would be cool to see).

Plus, they fill in the void that we have now in the game. Something to work on between stuff if you have the itch to play the game, but nothing else to do (or can't find 7 people to do an extreme/raid, and not feeling like sitting in PF for... who knows how long, sometimes).

Unironically, I was really bummed when they said this was not going to be in Endwalker (and, for me, Island Sanctuary doesn't offer the experience I enjoy - I'm not really a fan of daily click on things and zone out). The map chat was usually busy, I had made friends in the past in these zones and partied up with random people and just chatted between stuff, which doesn't really happen much in other areas (dungeons it's usually just... too busy hitting buttons, raids the same, but in Exploratory zones there were plenty of downtime moments and it made the other people I was with, feel like people. Even if I'm a bit of a quieter player, usually).

Plus, lockbox parties, cluster parties, bunny parties etc... were kind of cool to just go do on a whim when bored. Something that didn't really take much effort to get going, and was pretty chill to do while working to try and get something neat. Or farm gil - most of the gil I still have is residual from doing this a bit.

While I always kind of harp on how hollow and shallow the overworld feels, these zones offered pretty much what I missed from the overworld. Really feeling the lack of it this expac, as there's not much to do in game right now that I find enjoyable (and as a result, I've just been pissing around in WoW when I do MMO stuff). I have my critiques, but at the same time, I never made a criticism of Exploration content from a place of disliking it - I just would love to see continual improvement and evolution of it to create fresh, new experiences.