What would it take for you to like field content it you don’t currently like it?

[Shurrikhan]

The reason for the colour scheme is it's a war torn landscape. Devastated by bombardments, explosions, unchecked fires...there wouldn't be much except shades of brown/black/grey.

Wartorn landscapes can still look a whole lot more varied than that.

What would it take for you to like field content?

Above all else, a higher floor on combat engagement. The highs of Bozja's combat are alright, even if nothing great, but the less interesting FATEs, and simple mob grinds, are truly mindnumbing -- and I suspect it wouldn't take that many more resources to give them some additional interest.

A close second to that, though it'd likely be a far, far more expensive endeavor, is that sort of "Living World" take on Expedition Missions:

I'd love to see progressive instances, for example, so long as the rewards scaling didn't on either end entice people to instance-hop constantly to get a more developed map or to want to start from scratch and play the full instance length. Let the more threatening parts of the map be truly threatening until the players collectively progress through generating advantages. Include some randomization.

Let Gathering and Crafting have a place. Build up forward bases. Build specialized "armor" and "tools" (buffs, not actual items so they'd have to be replaced after the run, but which replace armor appearance) that offer, say, elemental advantages and additional actions (Dive/Slowfall on a Ravenscloak, a ranged physical attack with a follow-up oGCD to-target teleport on a Blink Dagger, etc.).

As for the other aspects of "Living World" design, let's see migratory herds, occasional skirmishes between mobs, have rares as actual units already out there from the start but who would be nigh suicide to attempt to reach without sufficient stealth. Have occasional mobs waves that would try to destroy your bases. Etc., etc.

[VerdeLuck]

Something I also forgot is the tendency for this style of content to be taken over by 3rd parties and "owned" by then in perpetuity. My old Data Center, Primal, had that issue where "Primal Forays" owned the Eureka/Bozja content. If you wanted to do DRS/BA/Eureka/Bozja on primal and you pissed off an admin, you could be in trouble when it comes time to clearing the content.
That sits entirely wrong with me, we have the TOS and GMs for a reason to handle disputes in-game, content shouldn't be owned by discord admins and discord mods, and content completion shouldn't be at the whims of whether they want to ban you from your server or data center's resources.

[Limecat]

I would say that the biggest thing is that the buffs which are actually worth a damn need to be attainable more easily(i.e. not locked behind quasi-raid boss drops). Or in general, a much more lenient method of getting most lost actions, such as directly buying them for gil at a reasonable price from NPCs in addition to the normal drops.

[Iscah]

There needed to be a better balance of how many FATEs/skirmishes were in a zone versus how many you had to do to level up. Seeing the same scene play out ten times over was boring. I would actually prefer seeing each event once and grinding the rest without getting dialogue – or just have the whole thing go quicker if you were only there for the story and not looking to grind for tokens and titles.

I also think that CEs really needed to be on timers, rather than relying on players fighting specific enemies for zero EXP reward. On lower population servers/instances it tips the scales even more in favour of an endless grind around the same five FATEs because nobody wants to stop earning EXP to spend time making no direct progress, just to spawn a more difficult way to earn EXP.

Also – again on the conflict between earning EXP and having to stop to see anything interesting – every single skirmish in Bozja has some kind of pre-skirmish scene of the characters interacting, but unless you want to camp out on those spots twiddling your thumbs and waiting for them to appear, you are very unlikely to see them. So you miss out on whole chunks of characterisation thav you can't see any other way.

It would be beneficial to either make it easier to find these pre-battle scenes playing out, or else have more chained events (whether by plot or just location) so you're likely to see something play out in the same location where you've just finished a skirmish, and then perhaps follow this character to a new location where the next fight begins.

[VelKallor]

For someone who wants everyone to be so cordial to you why are you always so aggressively rude

I am not rude at all. Just FED UP and exasperated when I see words put in my mouth I never said. I keep saying to quote me accurately.

Example: You:

My question though is what can’t you solo in Bozja

What did I ACTUALLY say? I said:

I CAN solo Bozja , true, but its still a lot harder when you have these FATES and the bosses are dps sponges.

So you will forgive me when this, along with other examples, annoys me no end.

, I don’t know about elemental specifically but on NA besides dynamis you don’t struggle on any of the 3 data centres to get parties for everything

Thats nice again...but as i SAID was what is good on one server or DC may not be the same as others. Elemental is hit or miss, during the day good luck, in the evenings maybe, but you are forgetting people need to get to a certain progress point for these later areas..that made a lot harder because there arent other people around to help them progress.

The mettle loss doesnt help, you dont necessarily delevel, but it is very slow going.

i have no idea what the status of EU is where this is concerned either. One other point....I am on Kujata, and even if I want a PF for Bozja and there isnt one, I now have to start server hopping looking for one that may or may not be open or running.

If there isnt one its back to Kujata..there may not even be one this week. Super, the issue is that a PF is a good idea in theory, but the crux of it is you also need to know who is doing what on other servers and when.

I wont even comment on where OCE is where thats concerned, I dont doubt its bad

Verdeluck said

It's content designed around large groups but it very quickly falls to solo content after the 6 months of it being active wears off, and then it sits as underpopulated side content for the rest of the game.

IF we get new zones along the same lines, and it seems people want them thats fine....but its what happens after it is no longer "relevant" and people , as Verde noted:

When it comes time to run, no one wants to do it because they did their grind and won't play unless they have a reward at the end of it to earn.

What needs to be addressed is not now, not six months after it started, not six months after, but if its doable a year or two years when new players come in and say "hey this looks good..oh wait..."

[Toutatis]

Although I found Eureka dreadful, I didn’t dislike Bozja entirely though I had more than enough of it after 1 relic weapon. After a very long break, I went back this year with an alt but only to do the story: it was less grindy and it felt a bit better though it somewhat tedious as there was barely anyone in there (often no one) and I had to spawn and solo most of the fates and CEs. The mettle loss is not fun and stopped me from risking some specific CEs as I was alone.

What I dislike the most about the zone is that once I get in, I feel trapped in that instance and forced to do one type of content during a certain amount of time or lose my essences. Kill mobs to spawn CEs, do the same CEs over and over and occasionally get CLL to pop. If you exit the instance to take a break, check retainers or help a friend, you lose your active essences. At least when I do fates in the open world, I can stop whenever I want in between, queue for different things and not lose anything.

The way it works also stops me from using some essences that would make me more efficient or have more fun if I am low on them in case I need them to do something specific later. If those essences were a one time unlock it would have been better. I don’t see the fun of killing the same mobs over and over and be dependent on rng to see if I get the essences I need nor do I enjoy farming clusters by running into circles ad nauseam to bring mobs together for killing.

I like the Dalraida and Delubrum and wish there was a way to DF queue for them for people that have completed Bozja (at least PF can be used for Delubrum) but then I would have to go into Bozja/Zadnor (which I am not doing) to collect essences…Having one time unlock essences would help with that.

Edit: about the duels, the priority system is really annoying, especially if you started late. Also the bosses should stay up until they have been killed instead of disappearing if there is a failure. Many didn’t dare to try back when it was released as people would get nasty in case of failure.

As for the essence system, I wouldn’t call it “deep and complex” except maybe at first when peoole were figuring it out. There are best combinations that one would automatically use if they had the essences. Unless it’s a solo boss or savage mode, often the decision was coming down to, oh I only have one of those left so I’ll use a suboptimal essence/action. When I did it at first, I was on a BLm and Lost Flare Star spamming was pretty much a no brainer.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Having cleared the content 2nd time on my alt, I still retain the opinion closely to my heart that BSF is close to perfect.

I did discovered something that I'd like to have: something else to do besides skirmishes zerging to rank up. The only reason why I'm able to stomach those is because the I really love the additional action system and what it means to my chosen jobs. Remove that, and I will stop running the skirmishes once and for all.

I have a mixed feeling about having actions being one-time acquisition. It sounds great on paper (say: put CLL frags in cluster vendor), but the moment that happens, that kills the incentives of rerunning CLL & Dal, even moreso once you have all relics & field notes. No need to look further than DRn.

[Toutatis]

I have a mixed feeling about having actions being one-time acquisition. It sounds great on paper (say: put CLL frags in cluster vendor), but the moment that happens, that kills the incentives of rerunning CLL & Dal, even moreso once you have all relics & field notes. No need to look further than DRn.

So run CLL and Dal to get more essences to…run CLL and Dal?

To me, having to return to Bozja and Zadnor to farm essences to just to run some content kills it entirely. Not going to do it. I’d be happy to be able to access CLL and Dal just for fun without having to wait in the zone.

[Alleo]

I am going to be honest I dont know if I will ever truly like field content even if they change it up a bit because in the end it will still come down to: kill x mobs for hours to kill what is bascially a fate with another name. Eventhough Bozja was a step in the right direction for me, content like that makes me quite tired and a bit sick after a short while. I can play games for hours and hours without a problem and yet I do one run of Eureka or Bozja and I feel unwell. My hands hurt, I get a headache and often I feel kind of tired. The mindnumbing grind bascially just puts me down.

Maybe mix it up a bit. Let some of the higher monsters be spawned by different conditions (which should not all include fighting imo) while other "Fates" will happen completely out of our hands. You could have villages that get attacked and after we successfully defend it, than you can -if you want- earn more currency by restoring it with your gatherers and crafters.

Give us more to explore which includes a much better looking land scape. Bozja was an eyesore. Yes it made sense for the conflict that was going on there, but it was still absolutely terrible to look at. Eurkea was in that regards much better. Give us the nice lore exploration notes but also let us find such lore while exploring the map. Give us the bunny treasures that will lead us to a chest that may contain portals (that you should be able to clear solo).

Get away with the death penalty. I dont find it fun to lose so much progress if I die and nobody comes to help me. Especially if you can even level down with that.

Give us also more daily and weekly quests / challenge logs. Eureka is at least a bit more bearable with its leveling after they introduced the new challenge log. And make those challenges or quest something that is more than just "kill x monsters" too.

Anyway I guess I just want content that is more than mindnumbing fate farming.

Edit: Oh I forgot: Make it so that you can do at least most of the stuff solo and still get the rewards.

[SannaR]

The other thing I don't like about these zones is part of the social aspect. Yes, people would chat in them but what else are you going to do during the down time while you waited for the right conditions in Eureka or when everyone was asking which areas of Bozja or Zadnor would drop things for this or that step? That's not what I disliked. It's when you would hop in and have well a good chunk of a zone dictating what was going to get farmed. If there was a small group wanting to do Cassie any other groups would suffer in doing anything else. The same kind of thing would happen with Bozja. Course the opposite would also happen where you wouldn't get much if any help for things like Cassie or CCL.

I'm not sure if these zones could work out in the open as we all know how bad the game can get when a zone or an area within a zone gets too crowded. You can stop seeing mobs until you're right on top of them and we all know how great targeting things can be. Then there is a cap on zones so even if these zones weren't instanced you'd probably end up with them reaching cap so that if a Pazuzu fight did pop up you'd end up with people complaining about bad design. As they wouldn't be able to progress unless they got lucky to be in the zone when it popped or managed to get in.