Please make future Dungeons LESS like hallways...

[Gaddes]

I might be in the minority, but I thought it was a mistake for SE to take an axe to the old ARR dungeons and strip all the uniqueness and individuality out of them by turning them into the same pretty-but-lifeless hallways that all the current dungeons are nowadays. Granted the main scenario ones were always a little too outlandish with how long they were, but for those that remember the original 8-mans, you could see that they tried different interactions with environmental elements and for people to be able to have different roles while going through them.

One of the things that's making me (and perhaps others) turn their brains off while doing dailies is how there's just nothing challenging about dungeons... it's just drag everything to a wall, nuke, boss, repeat until main boss. It's so copy-paste that it's gotten old. There's nothing stimulating about doing the same thing in every dungeon.

Variant dungeons were cool in that there are alternate methods for approaching them, but they can take longer than a typical leveling dungeon and I'm not asking for the new dungeons to just be variants... but it would certainly add something if new dungeons had some unique properties to them. Do we really have to do the same pattern over and over for the leveling dungeons? Maybe return to a concept where you don't have to kill everything you see? Where you could allow for some sneaking around? Or have a mid-boss scenario that's not just a big enemy but could be some other challenge? Something involving teamwork maybe?
Of course I'm not saying dungeons should take longer overall, but I think you could totally tailor these so that they could still be completed in roughly the same time as current dungeons. Just SOMETHING different.

So yeah, maybe controversial, but I think we actually need to return to how dungeons used to have their own personalities.

[Raikai]

I don't think it's controversial. A lot of people claim that they'd prefer more innovative dungeon designs.

Sadly they seem to like Dungeons being just that: a corridor to tell a portion of the MSQ because it's easier to just follow that formula.

[Gaddes]

a corridor to tell a portion of the MSQ

I think that's definitely something that's slowly killing my interest in both the dungeons and the world maps as well. The whole Amusement Park approach to the game is really damaging its long-term value.
Back in ARR/Heavensward/SB you had maps where it wasn't just "go from one town to get MSQ to the next town to get MSQ"... the maps often had little hints of lore or things you could explore that made that little part of the world feel lived in or that there was a story to tell there. Nowadays it's rampant with big empty swaths of areas with the same enemies and the only fleshed out places are the towns the main quests are in, like you're on a theme park ride where nothing was really detailed outside of the immediate story areas you have to be at. It doesn't encourage exploration, and it doesn't feel like a world that's actually lived in anymore. And the same thing translates to the dungeons, where exploration and variety have been excised in order to provide the same tedious trip through the dungeon every time.

[hydralus]

Flying probably killed any interest in exploration.

[Gaddes]

Flying probably killed any interest in exploration.

Not for me, I actually liked how flying made it easier for me to poke around in maps for stuff, but flying also made it much more obvious how much more sparse later maps felt, since it was far easier to see regions from a high-up distance.

[Reimmi]

I think disjointing dungeons from the msq could help
We don't need a dungeon every 2 levels in the msq, you can put them into sidequests and have them be experimental like arr used to do.

Feels like they make them corridors cause of the story only players might get confused or something. Kind of a shame they have such little faith in the playerbase

[mallleable]

Maybe a bit against the grain, but I don't think dungeons being linear hallways is necessarily the main problem. Games like Half Life 2, and left 4 Dead 2 are basically murder hallways, but they are considered some of the best games ever. They change up the gameplay of each part of their 'hallway' through level design, and enemy design while being absolutely meticulous about making sure players don't get lost. While dungeon bosses have been pretty good, I think the problem with FFXIV dungeons is that every trash pack is pretty much the same. If we want a greater variety of gameplay in dungeons then dungeon trash needs to change. I think FFXIV should take some level design cues from Left 4 Dead 2's campaigns when designing dungeons, and approaching trash.

[hydralus]

I think disjointing dungeons from the msq could help
We don't need a dungeon every 2 levels in the msq, you can put them into sidequests and have them be experimental like arr used to do.

I suppose I could get down with that idea. The MSQ is already a pretty single player experience.

[mallleable]

I suppose I could get down with that idea. The MSQ is already a pretty single player experience.

Actually the opposite. Dungeons are linear because they are multiplayer. They need to make sure all 4 players are on the same page, and have the same goal: clear the dungeon. You can get away with a lot more nonlinearity in single player games, just look at open world games like Breath of The Wild or the Far Cry games.

[Sunhwapark]

Dungeons are linear because they are multiplayer..

When you phrase it like that, it just sounds more like the reason is because people don't communicate with each other at all in this mmo anymore.