Aloalo Criterion is DEAD

[hynaku]

If it's not popular then wonder if they will not add any in 7.0.

[Caro178]

If it's not popular then wonder if they will not add any in 7.0.

They've already announced that Criterions are in development for 7.0. so I expect that door is already closed. Ultimately the normal Variant modes have apparently been very popular and players have interacted with them a ton on their own time, some solo, some in groups, but enough that they have significant data that these are worth pursuing more. Basically these dungeons are fairly inexpensive to create and XIV design always starts with the hard mode and then works back to create the normal difficulty (they've said in the past savage raids are the same.) They've said they will continue to experiment with different rewards so we can only wait and see what happens. I personally would be very sad to lose the Criterions now because with some tweaking of drop rates and such I think they could feel like the perfect little activity to engage with between savage raid tiers and ultimates for me and my friends.

[Zairava]

If it's not popular then wonder if they will not add any in 7.0.

As Caro said before me, they have already stated they will be in Dawntrail.

The content itself sees widespread praise, it just the rewards are lackluster as all hell. Which they have repeatedly asked for feedback on, and that the test they put in for Aloalo would determine how they implement it in the future. (whether that'll be good or bad we have yet to see).

As what has been repeated a quintillion times by now, if they were to allow us to augment tome gear (armor/accessories AND weapon) in criterion normal with weekly lockouts the noise would die down by a fair margin.

[Caro178]

As Caro said before me, they have already stated they will be in Dawntrail.

The content itself sees widespread praise, it just the rewards are lackluster as all hell. Which they have repeatedly asked for feedback on, and that the test they put in for Aloalo would determine how they implement it in the future. (whether that'll be good or bad we have yet to see).

As what has been repeated a quintillion times by now, if they were to allow us to augment tome gear (armor/accessories AND weapon) in criterion normal with weekly lockouts the noise would die down by a fair margin.

I don't know how much you've engaged with the "Another" dungeon modes, but someone who can't clear a third turn of savage will never be able to make a dent in them. I really mean that sincerely. If they are ever going to make this an alternative gearing option to savage for catch-up it is going to require re-designing the difficulty curve as well as the min/max ilevel restriction. Another Aloalo is unironically harder than P10S and P11S which drop augment materials, not to mention it came out not that long after the alliance raid/hunt train update which provide the most casual gear catch up. This is why I haven't been very supportive of the opinion that just slapping tome augment materials into these dungeons will fix them. It's a weak solution provided by people who haven't actually touched the content that won't see interaction long-term when the devs clearly want these dungeons to be evergreen challenge mode difficulty stuff similar to ultimates for bored raiders between tiers.

[Zairava]

I don't know how much you've engaged with the "Another" dungeon modes, but someone who can't clear a third turn of savage will never be able to make a dent in them. I really mean that sincerely. If they are ever going to make this an alternative gearing option to savage for catch-up it is going to require re-designing the difficulty curve as well as the min/max ilevel restriction. Another Aloalo is unironically harder than P10S and P11S which drop augment materials, not to mention it came out not that long after the alliance raid/hunt train update which provide the most casual gear catch up. This is why I haven't been very supportive of the opinion that just slapping tome augment materials into these dungeons will fix them. It's a weak solution provided by people who haven't actually touched the content that won't see interaction long-term when the devs clearly want these dungeons to be evergreen challenge mode difficulty stuff similar to ultimates for bored raiders between tiers.

That's kinda part of the problem, though.

A lot of players, myself included, were hoping we would be able to have an alternate gearing source to savage via these dungeons when they were announced, but it instead adhered to the entire opposite.

I was looking forward to having hard[er] dungeons, but the content's purpose completely missed the mark for me. If it mandates retuning criterion normal, then fine by me. There's still Savage criterion if they want to put the crushing difficulty in.

[Caro178]

That's kinda part of the problem, though.

A lot of players, myself included, were hoping we would be able to have an alternate gearing source to savage via these dungeons when they were announced, but it instead adhered to the entire opposite.

I was looking forward to having hard[er] dungeons, but the content's purpose completely missed the mark for me. If it mandates retuning criterion normal, then fine by me. There's still Savage criterion if they want to put the crushing difficulty in.

The thing is none of these problems exists in a vacuum. Change one thing and you'll be impacting the life cycle of other content. They are very cautious about anything directly interfering with the early savage gearing system because, like it or not, loot lockouts do keep people engaging with particular content longer, and augments are among the rarest items that remain valuable the longest. All of these problems are connected to each other and at the end of the day nothing changes the fact that they did not create the Criterions to be a gear catch up system. There are already tons of gear catch up systems in the game and flipping this to be just another one of those will fix none of the inherent issues. Quite frankly I do not believe 99% of the people saying they would do this content if it gave them tome augments because why would they do savage difficulty combat instances that take hours to prog when they can already just brain off in an alliance raid or hunt train for exactly the same reward?

[TaleraRistain]

The thing is none of these problems exists in a vacuum. Change one thing and you'll be impacting the life cycle of other content. They are very cautious about anything directly interfering with the early savage gearing system because, like it or not, loot lockouts do keep people engaging with particular content longer, and augments are among the rarest items that remain valuable the longest. All of these problems are connected to each other and at the end of the day nothing changes the fact that they did not create the Criterions to be a gear catch up system. There are already tons of gear catch up systems in the game and flipping this to be just another one of those will fix none of the inherent issues. Quite frankly I do not believe 99% of the people saying they would do this content if it gave them tome augments because why would they do savage difficulty combat instances that take hours to prog when they can already just brain off in an alliance raid or hunt train for exactly the same reward?

They do need to be careful not to kill off the Savage PF crowd, though there are some things they could consider to make it attractive to the Savage PF crowd. Maybe the augment pieces available with a number of weekly-limited currencies like alliance coins. Or so much currency for a savage book, for instance. Something that would still make 8 people in Savage prefereable but would give an option to those who couldn't meet with their static that week or a PF person who wants a break from trap parties. I also think they hurt it putting it on its own tab in PF. Maybe the Another versions at least could go on High End Duty. That would make them visible to the endgame PF crowd and could also help increase participation.