Can't make a full premade for Crystal Tower...

[carlos777uk]

As a casual who has yet to experience Coil (I'm still getting my DL - and it's getting mighty boring) I was really looking forward to something a little more achievable (and interesting), such as CT. Now I know most of you see the release of CT as an odd step by SE because it seems like unwanted content (gear is less ilvl than Coil) but for me it's the first chance I have had to actually do something of value with my very reasonably sized FC.

Apparently even that's not going to happen? Poor call.

[Sotek]

Please forget the Duty Finder, Yoshida. It was a good idea on paper, and taken at face value it might even seem great for "casual" players. But it isn't.

The vast majority of my complaints with this game can be traced back to the Duty Finder;
Content is too easy. It has to be though, a group of random people who've never met before need to be able to beat it, after all.
Crystal Tower being delayed. This still makes no sense to me, you delayed it to balance it for the Duty Finder? Why not have just left it in as is, see what we make of it at that difficulty, and then adjust it accordingly for 2.1 all the same?
Immersion is gone. Time was, if I wanted to face the Lord of the Inferno, I had to do a quest in order to challenge him. I actually had to go out into the world, do stuff, come back and then I could face him. Was that perfect? Nope. Is ticking a box an "Hello Ifrit!" better? Hell no, it's a significant step in the wrong direction. People use the theme park comparison a lot lately, but I find that lacking. When you go to a theme park you're still eased into a new attraction. If you're going to a ride that involves a lot of water, chances are you're going to see a fair amount of water before you even get in line. If I'm going to fight Ifrit, I don't even need to leave my Inn room...

Any why was this system put into the game? So people could find groups easily. Again, on paper that sounds great. In reality, well... You only really need to look at threads about dungeons to get an idea of the issues with it. Sure we get the occasional thread with a good story from the Duty Finder, but for each of those there are dozens of people complaining about groups that "forced" this play style, and so on. And then there is Mr. Casual Player, what is he left with here? Well, for the most part a group that probably wont even say "Hello", but when he has gotten through all the content? Nothing. All the players he played with in the Duty Finder, they were random players, from random servers. Even if there was an absolutely amazing party, chances are he'll never see them again. So now he is left with no real group, because the Duty Finder out right prohibits forming Linkshells and Free Companies, and endgame suddenly requires events which don't use the Duty Finder. If, as many people have anyway, he manges to find a Free Company or Linkshell, he then gets to the future of endgame content and events don't even allow you to play with all those people, instead they're locked out for absolutely no solid reason...

I mean, this is a joke, right? Obviously I'm no fan of the Duty Finder, I found that out very early in beta. I abhor the damn thing, but to a degree I didn't mind it. It was there and I didn't have to use it, the issues I do still have with it aren't really that big of a deal and can be addressed with future content anyway. There is no reason, for example, the Extreme Primals questline couldn't work more like the Relic weapon questline; go to Natalan and fight an instance against the Ixal chieftain before getting to face off against Garuda herself. No reason something like that can't still happen with the Duty Finder around (and I'll be sure to complain about it when Extreme Mode Primals are just as boring as current ones). It is there, and I don't have to use it. That was fine. I liked shouting for Primals, or Praetorium. I liked getting a group which I had some familiarity with before entering the instance, a group that was all on the same page as to what we were doing, etc. That was great even, I could have my groups my way, and people who are too lazy to shout can suffer in the Duty Finder. Now? Now I see this news, and apparently I'll be losing that ability for Crystal Tower. Bravo, I'm not even going to bother driving home how ridiculous this is, there are already over 40 pages of that, I'm sure.

Honestly, this is the straw that broke the camels back. This isn't even something difficult to address, an alliance forming system could easily be included in a damn hotfix patch, how it got forgotten when Crystal Tower has had this long to be developed is another matter entirely (be honest, Crystal Tower wasn't ready for launch, was it? It wasn't that it needed to be balanced for the Duty Finder, it straight up wasn't ready, and now you had to rush it out and forgot something as basic as an alliance forming system). I don't care though, I hate the Duty Finder and I want it gone.

You know what's a good feature that's being introduced? The server boards feature. From what I've gathered, with that feature we can put up a message saying we want to do an event, and people can respond to it. That's great. All the benefits of shouting, with none of the actual hassle of shouting. This is the feature you should be focusing on, not the Duty Finder. Tack Duty Roulette onto this feature, not the Duty Finder. I see someone who needs help with Praetorium, I have no real purpose to do it other than helping them, I help them and get the benefits the Duty Roulette would provide. What's more, they get help from people on their server who are likely to help them again in the future. This is a MMO, making friends and playing with them is meant to be a large part of that. Instead we have systems that prevent you from making friends and actively tell you not to play with your friends... It's ridiculous...

Arguably the server boards system might not be as swift as the Duty Finder, but I actually don't see any reason why it can't also be cross-server. Let us view which servers boards we want, then it's practically the same as the Duty Finder. Heck, if you make it so we can party up through the server board, while still being on separate servers before entering the duty, then it has pretty much all the benefits of a shout party and all the benefits of the Duty Finder... Seriously, focus on this feature and just ditch the Duty Finder, it has so much more potential and no real drawbacks.

[/rant]

[RexValentino]

Snip[/rant]

I agree with this 100% ... i was recently thinking about how that new sever board feature should have been what they should have had in the first place instead of the duty finder. I am not happy about the news on entering the crystal tower with only 8 people, but what gets me more is how so many in my free company just became deflated by the news. I really want the people that i play with to stop logging out of the game more than logging in! D: urg!

[ContactAgent]

You know what's a good feature that's being introduced? The server boards feature. From what I've gathered, with that feature we can put up a message saying we want to do an event, and people can respond to it. That's great. All the benefits of shouting, with none of the actual hassle of shouting. This is the feature you should be focusing on, not the Duty Finder. Tack Duty Roulette onto this feature, not the Duty Finder. I see someone who needs help with Praetorium, I have no real purpose to do it other than helping them, I help them and get the benefits the Duty Roulette would provide. What's more, they get help from people on their server who are likely to help them again in the future. This is a MMO, making friends and playing with them is meant to be a large part of that. Instead we have systems that prevent you from making friends and actively tell you not to play with your friends... It's ridiculous...

Arguably the server boards system might not be as swift as the Duty Finder, but I actually don't see any reason why it can't also be cross-server. Let us view which servers boards we want, then it's practically the same as the Duty Finder. Heck, if you make it so we can party up through the server board, while still being on separate servers before entering the duty, then it has pretty much all the benefits of a shout party and all the benefits of the Duty Finder... Seriously, focus on this feature and just ditch the Duty Finder, it has so much more potential and no real drawbacks.

[/rant]

I completely agree and such a feature is what I have always thought was what should have been the way to go.

This is a MMO, making friends and playing with them is meant to be a large part of that. Instead we have systems that prevent you from making friends and actively tell you not to play with your friends... It's ridiculous...

You know what the problem is? "MMOs " these days are not really MMOs (i.e. more towards virtual worlds) but rather more like co-op RPGs.

[Valcutio]

Bump. This is the worst thing SE has done so far. (In this game... XIII was terrible).

[Psykloned]

Here's the main problem I find with the following logic: "It will require a certain ilvl to participate.."
Since when did gear outweigh the consequences of not handling mechanics correctly? With that logic, you're basically saying a Bard with full AF2/Allagan who doesn't assist with silences in Coil Turn two would be better than a Bard with full DL who does handle aforementioned mechanic.

Gear DOES NOT equate skill/knowledge. I've seen plenty of people out dps, tank, or heal others who are vastly more geared than them.
Not to mention who the hell wants to go into Duty Finder for 16 other people, when we have issues of leechers in 8 man dungeons like CM?

[Ri_ri]

Here's the main problem I find with the following logic: "It will require a certain ilvl to participate.."
Since when did gear outweigh the consequences of not handling mechanics correctly? With that logic, you're basically saying a Bard with full AF2/Allagan who doesn't assist with silences in Coil Turn two would be better than a Bard with full DL who does handle aforementioned mechanic.

Gear DOES NOT equate skill/knowledge. I've seen plenty of people out dps, tank, or heal others who are vastly more geared than them.
Not to mention who the hell wants to go into Duty Finder for 16 other people, when we have issues of leechers in 8 man dungeons like CM?

It'll require just an average of level 55 gear. And we'll have the vote to kick feature to banish leechers.

[Psykloned]

It'll require just an average of level 55 gear. And we'll have the vote to kick feature to banish leechers.

This of course implying the kick system won't be abused. Like it has in damn near every other MMO who implemented this sytem. WoW DF anyone?

[Naiser]

Agree that releasing CT without supporting premade alliances is a bad move. This is a social game and some gamers have made investments in forming statics in anticipation of this content.

I understand that there are players in less active FCs who may want a shot at CT. Well keep the alliance finder. Even active FCs may turn to the alliance finder as it still us hard to have 24 players aligned in goals and tinning all the time.

It boils down to choice. Giving players the choice to premake or take a stab at adventure through the alliance finder.

[Chenner]

I want to do CT with only my FC