Why in god's green Earth do dungeons have a timer?

[Tupsi]

-snip-

P.S Most MMOs out there (especially Chinese and Korean ones) has timers on their dungeons or other instanced content because chances are they're a timed event based on achievement requirements and too suffer from "nothing but an elaborate hallway" design. What would removing the timer do..at all? You do realize there's literally nothing to the dungeons in FFXIV once the monsters are all gone...right?

It's not like FFXI where there could be actual puzzles or NM spawns or ability to Spawn NMs/Bosses throughout..right? Like how if you're going through Den of Ranchor (Dungeon) located under the Temple of Uggalepih (Tonberry dungeon) to reach Leviathan's Protocrystal (arena to fight avatars)..that would be a pain if you were timed...in XIV? It doesn't matter so much because you:

1. Clear Objective A-D
2. Slaughter Enemies
3. Kill boss
5. Get 5 minutes to collect loot.
6. Dungeon has zero purpose after 1-5.

[JemC]

90 - 120 minutes is more than enough time to do a dungeon. Don't even pay attention to the timer. It's not like dungeons are so well designed you have hours worth of exploring to do, 99% of the time they're a "long hallway" design that people seem to have hated in FFXIII but won't complain about in XIV

Then why's everyone in a big rush?

I want to start a topic but I'll settle for this thread [cannot post more than one thread day asked a question beginner forum my yesterday] - I'll deal with this vote to kick topic soon enough. My best friend just got kicked from an alliance just because she wanted to watch the cutscene. WHY IS EVERYONE IN SUCH A BIG FDONKEY HURRY?!? What happened to the polite peeps she met leveling up? Now she's 50 everyone is a big jerk. They run thru these dungeons, I've watched her play, like the devil's nippen their cheeks all the way. Do they really think this dungeon timer is going to run out before the goal?

I wish you all had played DDO (Dungeons & Dragons Online) and you'd know how an alliance is really done. You're suppose to look out for each other not bite, scream, and KICK.

[Tupsi]

Then why's everyone in a big rush?

Because once you do the same dungeon to cap myth 40 times..you just want the agony to end lol. As for lower level dungeons, I have no idea why people would rush, you just lose out on exp and some treasure.

[chocomaid]

Then why's everyone in a big rush?

I want to start a topic but I'll settle for this thread [cannot post more than one thread day asked a question beginner forum my yesterday] - I'll deal with this vote to kick topic soon enough. My best friend just got kicked from an alliance just because she wanted to watch the cutscene. WHY IS EVERYONE IN SUCH A BIG FDONKEY HURRY?!? What happened to the polite peeps she met leveling up? Now she's 50 everyone is a big jerk. They run thru these dungeons, I've watched her play, like the devil's nippen their cheeks all the way. Do they really think this dungeon timer is going to run out before the goal?

I wish you all had played DDO (Dungeons & Dragons Online) and you'd know how an alliance is really done. You're suppose to look out for each other not bite, scream, and KICK.

That is a completely different topic. Sadly those people that your friend met are just complete dickpistons, I feel sorry for him/her or any other player that has to deal with that over a simple cutscene. I'm just saying that those people are a minority.

I for one and a lot of my friends have never berated or teased anyone for watching cutscenes cause we know that they are a big part of immersion and gameplay. I'm afraid your friend just had bad luck in the notorious duty finder.

[Naunet]

P.S Most MMOs out there (especially Chinese and Korean ones) has timers on their dungeons or other instanced content because chances are they're a timed event based on achievement requirements and too suffer from "nothing but an elaborate hallway" design. What would removing the timer do..at all? You do realize there's literally nothing to the dungeons in FFXIV once the monsters are all gone...right?

Well, as a roleplayer, I would really love to use a lot of the dungeon settings as locales for roleplay. The timers in 8 man content are annoying because they do nothing but force us out and back in every hour or so.

I've only played two eastern MMOs aside from this one - TERA and Aion. I don't recall if Aion had timers on their dungeons, but TERA certainly didn't. And that is really aside from the point. The timers in XIV have nothing to do with making a run more challenging or for achievements or anything. They are purely to minimize load on servers, and I strongly suspect this is because SE has organized their instance servers extremely poorly. This is not something you should be okay with! We should expect them to set up their MMO properly.

[Synra]

The instance population is one factor, but it's not the only reason.

The timers also used to add difficulty to the dungeons. Back in the early phases of Beta, Tam Tara Deepcroft was a much longer dungeon. About twice as long as it is today. And the Timer was only 60 minutes, not the 90 or 120 it is today.

This created a condition for failure, and honestly I loved it. Dungeons are NOT very difficult, not the trash, not the bosses. But having to fight your way through it and beat that final boss within a limited time frame? That made it challenging. Really good teams could clear it in 30 minutes, but I often finished it at very close to 60 minutes because my group either wasn't that good, or we tried to get a lot of side chests.

Think of Toto Rak. Ever noticed how long it is with a bunch of side rooms you can skip? Well, imagine what it was like in beta. In beta the chests in those side areas had some nice pink items in them... But going to get those chests took time. Do you try to get those side chests, or do you pass it up to save time?

The dungeon timer also meant that the group kept moving. People didn't get to join a dungeon then go AFK for 10 minutes.

This is something I feel this game really lost at launch. Back in beta, I honestly listed the dungeon timer as one of my favorite features of this game. I loved having a condition for failure in dungeons, rather than doing it the way other games do, and let players just try again and again until they give up.

[Roth_Trailfinder]

Timers on instances are a problem? Since when?

I've been playing EQ forever, and every single instance that EQ has is timed. Ok, the timers are generally considerably longer (on the order of 6 hours for the most part) and the places/encounters are generally a lot more complex than what you see in FF14, but still, instances are timed. You log out inside an instance, and you either pop out at its entrance (if you zoned in naturally) or in the Plane of Knowledge (a safe zone) if you zoned in via a banner or fellowship campfire.

Now, there are a ton of dungeons in EQ that do not have timers, as well. They're called "static" as opposed to "instanced" dungeons. Anyone can wander in, it is not a private version of the place reserved only for you and your group. In FF14 terms, these would be places like those Sapsa Spawning Grounds or those mines in Outer La Noscea; they are part of the main world, not part of an instance.

[Grembo]

Well, as a roleplayer, I would really love to use a lot of the dungeon settings as locales for roleplay. The timers in 8 man content are annoying because they do nothing but force us out and back in every hour or so.

So your real issue is that dungeons are instanced.

Leave the timer alone, it never hurt you.

[Karnyboy]

Let me put in another perspective, you're learning a new dungeon, now I'm not talking about YOU the elite awesome player who never messes up, I am talking about you the player who does dungeons with friends to learn it through and through and enjoy that. Now you hit a tough spot where a boss seems to be taking up some time and you can't quite figure out why...so you repeatedly attempt different things until BAM, something works, awesome! Now you've already been in the dungeon for 85 minutes, there's not enough time to finish it anymore and you have 2 bosses to go. Sad thing is you work tomorrow at 5am and while you love playing the game and would love to attempt the rest you just can't spare another 90 minutes to repeat the dungeon over.

That's my gripe, some people are learning, everyone learns at a different pace in different ways. I don't have the time to repeat a dungeon I enjoy playign with friends just because one or two of us couldn't quite figure it out. I like ot be in a dungeon and learn it and get as far as I can and let MYSELF be the timer, I'll decide when too much is enough.

[Roris]

It'd be nice if dungeons were open world and the instances were only related to the storyline so you had the option of choosing which one you'd like to visit at any time, but you know, modern themepark MMOs that have all gone F2P since then except for one or two.