Occult crescent feels safe and mid

[Valence]

Of course, I’ve done that at some point, but honestly—there’s nothing really interesting to discover. It’s just empty.
I really don’t understand why SE keeps designing environments that are so huge and yet feel so lifeless.

Sure, the chests are nice—but most of them are filled with junk, just like the barter items from other zones (like the Southern Front Lockboxes).
Personally, the whole thing feels way more soulless than Eureka or Bozja ever did.

Another thing: the map only allows 72 players instead of 144.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and when I came back to FFXIV and started the OC field quest, the first thing I noticed in the starting area was just how massive and empty everything felt—again.

Sure, sometimes there are a lot of players around… but never so many that the zone actually looks crowded.
And before it ever could, the player cap is already hit. So I really don’t see the point of making such ridiculously oversized, empty spaces every time. It always bothered me—but after playing the other game, it stood out even more.
In Solution 9 are also a lot of massive empty areas. Almost everywhere we have this problem.

OC just doesn’t feel as exciting as Eureka or Bozja did.
I farmed both a lot. But with OC, I honestly don’t even feel like going back in anymore.
I assume I will do a little bit more but I don't feel joy for it, like in Eureka or Bozia.

The worst is that since everything is designed so that the whole instance can participate to the next thing that spawn, you end up with fates and CEs that are filled to the brim with 60-70 people, which makes everything lag like limsa or hunts, and feel overcrowded. And as soon as you leave your party, you're now alone again the wide emptiness with lifeless mobs that dot the map.

[MicahZerrshia]

I like the phantom jobs, just because I don't have to farm those annoying items like in Bozja that I then have to turn in for an rng chance of getting the one I can actually use. That was not good design, the phantom jobs are much better in this regard even if you have to level them up individually. I just wish they didn't lock them behind things like gold coins. Just make them drops.

[JRosa]

I have the Arcane Artistry quest active where it tells me I need to "Deliver the requisite demiatma to Gerolt."

I've been doing Fates for about 6 hours now and I have literally nothing. Not one single drop.

I don't believe you. You're the only person I have ever seen or heard say they have done 6 hours of pure grinding and have gotten nothing from it. The rates are bad, but not this bad. You probably did like 4-5 fates per hour or something. Big doubt, chief.

[Valence]

I like the phantom jobs, just because I don't have to farm those annoying items like in Bozja that I then have to turn in for an rng chance of getting the one I can actually use. That was not good design, the phantom jobs are much better in this regard even if you have to level them up individually. I just wish they didn't lock them behind things like gold coins. Just make them drops.

This I agree with.

[poooman]

my 2 cents that no one asked for, as someone who rly enjoyed bozja (only dipped my toes into eureka, what i did was was neat tho):

yeah, mid is the right word here. it's not Bad, but i've got my gripes. the thing i miss the most is a CLL/dalriada-like event on a timer. that was my favourite part of bozja, so i'm really sad to see it's not here. also wish we could tp to CEs like in bozja but that's more of a minor issue to me. i don't mind the running, but it gets annoying with how fast things are spawning. i feel like if i don't just hang out at the aetherytes the whole time i won't make it. it feels bad having to ditch a fate early because i have to make sure i can run to the CE on time.

the CEs themselves are a bit underwhelming..?? maybe its because it feels like its the same 5 are going off in rotation right now, but they're kind of just... tiring? the big jar has me getting fatigued like 75% through it because the mechs don't even change. its just the same exact onslaught for minutes straight. makes me want to start eating the hits so it can just end already. maybe this will change once ppl have a bunch of stuff maxed out, but right now it's so bad. the rest are fine for the most part.

i wasnt around for the heyday of BA/DR, so i don't know how they were handled by players on release, but seeing as they are now, it feels like tower is gonna go the same way. locked to coordinated discord groups that feel inaccessible to a newcomer to the game mode. hence why i'm really missing a CLL/dal equivalent.

i have not much to say on the phantom job system, haven't had much chance to explore the different ones yet. not that interesting thus far, though.

in general it's kind of just.. Fine. i probably won't be coming back to this for the lols later down the line like i do with bozja. there's still another area (that we won't be seeing for another year... zzzzzz) so there's still chance for more interesting things to come, but my hopes are appropriately tempered. if u take anything from this it's that i miss her (CLL/dal)

[Mecia]

So there are 32 fates in southern Bozja compared to OCs 13, 2 of which are pots. OC feels considerably smaller and shorter lived with the way its designed.

Theres not even a CLL to work towards to and grind the same way if FK:B is a BA tier instance. And its even harder than BA to organize apparently? OC motivates me enough to play but its just baffling when Bozja worked so well.

[Kozh]

So there are 32 fates in southern Bozja compared to OCs 13, 2 of which are pots. OC feels considerably smaller and shorter lived with the way its designed.

Theres not even a CLL to work towards to and grind the same way if FK:B is a BA tier instance. And its even harder than BA to organize apparently? OC motivates me enough to play but its just baffling when Bozja worked so well.

Yeah, it does feel smaller. I wonder if this means they will give us bigger 2nd amd 3rd zone, as Bozja's 2nd zone is just instanced dungeon.

I am also wondering if they assigned first zone to a newer devs team for learning experience.

[Guimu]

i wasnt around for the heyday of BA/DR, so i don't know how they were handled by players on release, but seeing as they are now, it feels like tower is gonna go the same way. locked to coordinated discord groups that feel inaccessible to a newcomer to the game mode. hence why i'm really missing a CLL/dal equivalent.

Tbh I never bothered with discord stuff in shadowbringers and you could just do CLL/dalriada following shouts. That said, it was possible to fail the duty since if you wiped a bit too much, you would run out of time. But yeah you didn't need to discord anything. Duty pops, you join, you do it.

[Launched]

It's so boring. I've spent a few hours there and it's just been grinding the same easy Fates/CEs to get XP/silver. Grinding gold will just be aoeing enemies in the zone. I don't think I can be bothered to waste a bunch more time doing this just to try the tower.

[KageTokage]

I think the only thing that's even motivating me to bother grinding is the hope that our mastery bonus will carry over into the future OC content so the timesink has some longer term value.