Can we get some non-linear content?

[Dimitrias]

pretty much 90% of ffxi was not linear, could get lost in that game everyday. To bad ffxiv arr isn't like that

[Crevox]

Even if a dungeon becomes non-linear, ultimately, every party will conform to making the same path choices because they are the best.

Thus, we're back to being linear.

[Nalien]

Even if a dungeon becomes non-linear, ultimately, every party will conform to making the same path choices because they are the best.

Really? Every time I end up in Toto-Rak on Duty Roulette it's 50/50 which route I end up on. Thinking about it, back when Wanderer's Palace was a thing and speed runs weren't, I remember having some groups that took a different route in the middle section several times. Conformity only came with the "Pull everything" mentality that's accompanied excessive iLv.

Something like Turn 2 could have been handled much better, the fact that enrage is a thing at all is proof enough of that. Weaken the minibosses, making killing more of them more important, suddenly you have a case of splitting up into 4man groups. Every time you could take a different route. They could even have randomized which miniboss was in which section. Plenty of things they could have done to improve Turn 2...

[Moqi]

Even if a dungeon becomes non-linear, ultimately, every party will conform to making the same path choices because they are the best.

Thus, we're back to being linear.

This. There's not point in non-linearity when most of the community wants to spend as little time as possible on content in order to get tomes fast. I'm fine with a straight line.

[Nalien]

This. There's not point in non-linearity when most of the community wants to spend as little time as possible on content in order to get tomes fast. I'm fine with a straight line.

That's actually a problem with how SE handled Tomestone rewards. Back when AK was first adjusted so people couldn't skip 90% of it, it was obvious SE didn't want people skipping mobs. Instead of adding Gil, they should have made mobs drop Tomestones and adjusted the numbers rewarded/required accordingly, even add Tomestones to chests. That way if you're farming Tomestones it's much more likely you'll kill everything, much more likely dungeons could play out like old RPGs where you reach the boss and go "I need to turn back and check that left turn I didn't take", though I guess some people would hate that.

When dungeons have paths people just pick one and stick to it, so I see no point.

By this logic, SE should just delete Amdapor Keep, Wanderer's Palace, Pharos Sirius, Copperbell Mines (Hard), Haukke Manor (Hard), The Lost City of Amdapor, and Halatali (Hard), because Brayflox's Longstop (Hard) is the best option which absolutely everyone does for Tomestones. Why have multiple dungeons to do when people will pick one and stick to it? Why bother adding 3 dungeons an update when everyone is just going to pick one?

No. People like variety, SE was praised when they added new dungeons - or even just Mythology to Wanderer's Palace - to the game back when everyone hated running Amdapor Keep back to back. Now that 2/3s of the dungeon we get are just old ones moved around a bit, which naturally requires less effort from the developers, they should be putting that extra effort into make the dungeons themselves less linear by giving them more variety. Heck, just more interesting in general. Where are the traps and puzzles RPGs usually have in their dungeons? Take something like Amdapor Keep; if you fall off at Demon Wall, should that be an instant kill? I think it would have been more interesting if it put you in a basement type zone with a different boss. That is a terrible example, but it's still an example.

[Dyvid]

Non-linear like, IDK... maybe open dungeons like in FFxi? Sky... Sea... King Rampere's Tomb, Fey Yin?

So basically more zones? This isn't even an accurate comparison. Dynamis, Salvage, Einherjar, and Limbus are more akin to CT and Coil because they are both "raids". The only thing that FFXI has that XIV doesn't is HNM.

[Marxam]

When I first entered BC1 T1 back at launch I was shocked at the level design as it looked very similar to the great crystal in FFXII. I was stoked to think that we had to delve deep into this chasm to get to the boss but no just go through one corridor with some adds and kill the boss. Pretty lame attempt at level design as there was so much potential but it only a rush to a boss arena.

If I was to design that level I would make it so that you would have to flip switches at different points and to get to those points you need to teleport to other platforms floating around the area and the switches will need to be opened simultaneously meaning you will have to split your party in such a way that you can defeat the mobs there w/o having to back track. Basically Great Crystal again in FFXII and no there will be no hidden ultima weapon boss lol.

[GuiltyBoomerang]

1.0's Thousand Maws of Toto Rak was 'arguably' non-linear - you had an optional mini-boss (if you knew how to get to him,) a regular end-dungeon boss (if you did everything normally) and a super end-dungeon boss (if you knew where to go and did more.)

That said, pretty much all of ARR's dungeons use 3 bosses in a linear fashion...here's hoping the new dungeons have some non-linearity to them.

[Madoka]

Why make 4 bosses when people will always just choose the easiest one?]

Why come up with 4 original encounters for one instance when you can use them across 4?

[DukeBurden]

OP doesn't know what he wants lol. No one knows what they want! Also, FFXIII was awesome so screw you! I hate how FFX and FFXIII are the exact same game but people choose to hate XIII.