Instance vs Open-World: what do you want more of?

[Rufalus]

As we approach a year since v2.0 ARR launched, I really think it would be a good idea for SE to release a new official survey to gather feedback from players on what we like/dislike and what we want to see improved/added. Since we don't have one of those yet, I thought it would be interesting to at least poll the forum on the topic of instanced dungeons vs open-world challenges.

Right now we can expect a few light-party dungeons to be added in every major patch. I was wondering if anyone else thinks it would be a good idea to divert some of the development time that's being put into locations used only for 4-man instances and instead create more open-world zones, more often, where we can do quests, fates, leves, hunts, etc. and stop to admire the beauty of the world.

I am personally very fatigued by 4-man dungeons at this point. I feel like it's very transient content, it gets used up quickly and we then migrate to the next dungeons to be added which temporarily offer viable rewards, spam those until they get old and we are done with them too. If the next 3 dungeons to be added offer more tomes than any previous dungeons, people will pick the shortest of the new three ones and play it a huge amount of times, if only because there's no real alternative for farming tomes, not necessarily because they enjoy doing it.

I would love to see a focus shift where open-world zones are added regularly in major patches instead of all being saved for expansions which we have no timeframe for. I feel that they are more interesting for a longer period of time, they offer flexible challenges for groups of varying sizes scaling up to very large-scale fates like odin and behemoth which I would like to see more of, and they allow people to move at their own pace so that social activity can still take place, whereas instanced dungeons really shut out communication to the outside world for their duration as you try to keep pace with the people you are matched with.

tl;dr: Should S-E maintain the heavy focus of piling on more instanced content, or reduce that output to instead extend the open-world at a more frequent rate?

[Kerberon]

No to open world content. Open world content outside of a few fates really isn't going to pose a challenge to anyone. Content where you aren't at a risk of dying is boring content. Boring content equals less subscriptions. Add some more zones in expansions, but patches need real content.

[Rufalus]

No to open world content. Open world content outside of a few fates really isn't going to pose a challenge to anyone. Content where you aren't at a risk of dying is boring content. Boring content equals less subscriptions. Add some more zones in expansions, but patches need real content.

People have been asking for dangerous open-world mobs since the beginning of time and I think that suggestion should be taken seriously. Open-world doesn't have to be easy, remember.

[Kerberon]

People have been asking for dangerous open-world mobs since the beginning of time and I think that suggestion should be taken seriously. Open-world doesn't have to be easy, remember.

But the trend is to make them easier and easier as time goes on it seems. So to me the chances of that happening without a major shakeup of management in a game company is nil.

[UBERHAXED]

I would agree to more open content if they revamp the open world mobs. Make it so that that are double their current level. Except the areas below lvl 15. Change how mobs aggro (aggro on sound and they start sprinting unless you preemptively attack). Make it so that the word "sanctuary" actually has a meaning. And of course make it so that mobs can be higher levels than players. The beastman zones should be dangerous places that only the daring would tread alone. If people want safe passages through the zone, they can use the chocobo porters.

[Jynx]

Open world please. Game needs a balance of instanced and non instanced content it's obviously leaning a little heavy on one end of that spectrum.

[dejavutwo]

I like instances because I enjoy fights that are tuned for and take advantage of the developers knowing the party size and approximate composition. I just think there needs to be a more gradual ramp-up to the end-game difficulty instead of the sudden walls that Titan X and T5 pose.

[UBERHAXED]

I like instances because I enjoy fights that are tuned for and take advantage of the developers knowing the party size and approximate composition. I just think there needs to be a more gradual ramp-up to the end-game difficulty instead of the sudden walls that Titan X and T5 pose.

I would certainly hope the hardest content in the game at launch was a wall. And if extreme wasn't difficult then it wouldn't be named extreme.

[dejavutwo]

I would certainly hope the hardest content in the game at launch was a wall. And if extreme wasn't difficult then it wouldn't be named extreme.

I just saying that the difficulty spikes too much right around those fights, and that it would be nice to have fights that are a little bit easier than those two, but a bit more difficult than the earlier turns to make the transition into the more difficult raids a bit easier.

[zeroumus]

more open world stuff