Redesigned Test/Practice Mode for harder fights

[Valmar]

While this is a good idea, the number 1 reason why SE will not do this is

Progression.

If you make content easier to progress into, players will clear it faster. and get bored. then complain that content is too easy or there isnt enough.

Thus players quiting the game sooner, loss of revenue. Losing money is bad.

Its the same reason as why there are lock-outs on almost all top tier content, gates to slow players progression down to keep them playing, and paying longer.

[Vahlnir]

How would this be incorporated into the lore? Just out of interest

Magic. :P As to the OP, it's not a bad idea...but I personally can't see how it would fit in well, especially in an MMO setting with how our progression is set up. Practice groups can be set up in the PF, so that's probably as close as we're gonna get.

[Kitru]

I would work in Lore around the Echo (Your Character's ability to see in to the minds and times of others). Seeing as how all adventurers HAVE Echo; it could be a situation when you enter your mind as a group and "experience" how the fight would be as a result of your Echo power.

According to the lore, all of the dungeons/primals/etc. that you do are done a single time. Titan HM is when you kill him after the kobolds summon him after his first defeat. Titan EX is when you kill him after the kobolds resummon him a second time. It's not like Titan is just sitting there, waiting for adventuring party after adventuring party to fight him.

The lore operates under the assumption that there is only one group of adventurers called the Warriors of the Light so you can't use Echo to explain the practice.

As for Lore, the Minstrel can pretty much solve anything that's a little out of the norm.

The Minstrel sings songs about your previous accomplishments and embellishes them (which is why it is harder/different). It wouldn't make sense for the Minstrel to sing a song about a fight you haven't yet completed, especially if it's a fight that you need practice for.

The only lore explanation I could see would be some kind of fortune-teller/oracle type NPC who sends you into a trance that gives you a chance to live out encounters in your near future. The trance could even have said fortune-teller/oracle NPC inside there in order to guidel the trance so that you can choose the different phases/start points.

[Dyvid]

I think the best method would make this a playable mini game in the gold saucer. It would prepare a player by showing them the boss mechanics without actually spoiling the fight. Release the mini game one month after patch and make it single player.

[skaterger]

Wiping and restarting is part of progression. Don't want to wipe on phases you already cleared? Then don't lose concentration and make silly mistakes. The end game is easy enough, no need to make it easier.

[Goodberry]

Fantastic idea, OP, but fatally flawed: practice runs could be FUN. So, SE will never implement it. Fun must be kept out, at all costs. :P

[Goodberry]

Wiping and restarting is part of progression. Don't want to wipe on phases you already cleared? Then don't lose concentration and make silly mistakes. The end game is easy enough, no need to make it easier.

Elitists are always so charming and helpful. What would we ever do if they didn't exist? *

* (Have some fun maybe, now and then?)

[skaterger]

Elitists are always so charming and helpful. What would we ever do if they didn't exist? *

* (Have some fun maybe, now and then?)

Thanks for the compliment. Much appreciated ^^

Maybe my idea of fun is not clearing content one week after release? *shrug*

[TeganLaron]

Nah, hate this idea.

[Dano]

err why not practice on the real content? you actually progress that way. As you clear each phase your chances of clearing the content becomes higher, until finally you clear it. It's a group progression thing. And wouldn't this be potential spoiler-ish for world-firsts groups if you already know the phases before hand? wheres the fun in that?