Instanced Non-Objective Dungeons

[Ehayte]

This is something that I would love to see in the game and I think it would bring some much needed depth to the game.

I don't want open world dungeons, per se, because I don't think they could release enough space for everyone to be able to participate and still have good rewards, but how about something like this:

Bahamut's Scar
Bahamut's ravaging of Eorzea left several open wounds on its surface which contain mysterious and powerful enemies. Interlocking caverns and catacombs contain chambers and corridors which sunk beneath Eorzea's surface in the aftermath of the carnage . . . and some that rose from beneath the earth. Adventurers can expect to find both familiar and strange wonders and dangers alike in the caverns of Bahamut's Scar.

- Minimum iLVL requirement of 100 to enter Bahamut's Scar.
- A light party is required to enter, but players are allowed to bring a full party into Bahamut's Scar.
- Players will gain access to an instanced version of this dungeon, which will be physically the same each time (depending on point of entry, Limsa, Gridania, Ul'Dah), but will have randomized enemies.
- Players will face randomized encounters consisting of small to large groups of enemies found throughout Eorzea. Each enemy has a small change to drop gil, crafting materials, or materia. At the end of each encounter that will take place in a sealed chamber, there is a chance for anywhere between 1-4 chests to drop, containing anything from rare Glamor-only armor, to Extreme Primal Mounts, to Sands of Time, to Allagan Weapons, to little blue birds.
- Uncommonly, players will encounter larger enemies such as an Enraged Adamantoise. These encounters will involve monsters that have a large amount of hitpoints, whose attack power will scale to the number of players encounter them.
- Each encounter that you face in Bahamut's Scar will increase in difficulty and reward until your entire party is defeated.
- Players are free to change jobs at any time they are not in combat in Bahamut's Scar.
- A new gearset of iLVL 105 armor, accessories, and weapons will begin to have the chance to drop after 5 successful encounters; the more successful you are, the higher your changes to obtain this gear.
- At all times, there is a chance that the party may trigger several different environmental dangers, including but not limited to falling ceilings (think DD second boss), electronic discharges (think wave AEs from T2 and T9), and new enemies appearing from Aether disruptions!

If you don't want to read the below explanation in brown, TL;DR = something repeatable that's randomized and worth doing.

I'll leave the rest up to your imagination, but something repeatable with random elements and a wide variety of rewards would be something that would keep me logging in a lot more often. Being allowed a party size of 4-8 would make this a quick, "/fc Hey, anyone wanna do Scar? 6 people? Cool, let's go." instead of making a PF and waiting for 40 minutes for exactly 2 tanks 2 healers 1 bard 1 smn and 2 dps to hop in. Job changing in the dungeon would make for some fun - that SMN you got suck? "Hey man, do you have a healer? Switch over, I'll go to MNK that might work better."

When your party wipes, you wake up outside the dungeon and you are done, give it a 2 hour lockout and make the first 5 encounters worth while for the gil and crafting mats alone. Just make it so that you wouldn't mind going in with newer players to get those rewards, but if you can go in with your static, you have a chance to make it 11-12 encounters is and get 2 sands, an i95 Allagan weap, and an extreme mount before you die.

Encounters 1-5 would be pretty easy, with 1 being like an Alex chest and 5 being something like 2 A-rank hunts at once. 6 would start in with scaled down S-ranks for your rare boss encounters and something akin to 20 level 55 Dullahans spawning 10 seconds apart for your regular encounters. Maybe you run into Aclepius and 6 Hygeias on encounter 8 with a 4 minute death-clock.

I personally think this would be mega-fun, I know it would probably be a lot of dev time, but I'd be willing to fore-go content like chocobo leveling and the useless 4-man dungeons we get with each patch to see something like this in 2.6 or 3.0

[LukeyP666]

SNIP

I approve this message. This would make for a lot of fun and would, as Ehayte has suggested, keep people coming back for more as each time you go in, there will be something different.

Right now, once you have the mechanics of a Dungeon/Raid down, it's just rinse and repeat and gets boring after a few clears.

+1 from me!

[JayCommon]

Sounds like a really fun idea! Almost like a survival mode dungeon with scaling enemies/rewards for how much further you can progress. +1 OP

[Luvbunny]

LOL - you mean, can they take "inspiration" from that other game franchise they own and operated for 11 years already? FFXI has Nyzul Isle with "randomized" floor. Personally they should just copy some of ToAU and Seekers of Adoulin content such as skirmish and delve and put it here. I am all about catering to the casuals, but the game need a middle section content to bridge the super happy casuals and super hardcore.

[Ehayte]

LOL - you mean, can they take "inspiration" from that other game franchise they own and operated for 11 years already? FFXI has Nyzul Isle with "randomized" floor. Personally they should just copy some of ToAU and Seekers of Adoulin content such as skirmish and delve and put it here. I am all about catering to the casuals, but the game need a middle section content to bridge the super happy casuals and super hardcore.

I never played FFXI, but I did play Everquest 1, which had LOTS of open world dungeons that had some similar elements. I LIKE the way FFXIV is designed so far, its a good game. The #1 thing missing is variety in the content that people repeat. Everything that has good (read: interesting) rewards on a weekly basis is the same thing every time, for a chance at the same set of rewards.

I think this would certainly bridge casual/hardcore because with a 2 hour lockout, its not so severe that uber_elite_01 wouldn't want to run it with their fresh 50 buddy. The first 5 encounters would be worth while for all players (gil, crafting mats to sell, materia to sell, etc), and the real substantial rewards that actually make your character more powerful will require a mixture of skill and effort. If your team is totally badass, you could make it rain extreme mounts and i105 gear for your alt-classes. And by i105 I mean that to be the scale of gear it would drop in today's world, if this would be 2.6 I would expect it to be... I dunno, 115-125.

[Ehayte]

Want more attention. Give.

[Marxam]

Sounds like your classic "side game" that you see in many multiplayer games i.e zombie mode, survival, etc. I like the idea but would like to add power-ups upon defeating mobs like "Full Cure" or "Attack Boost" that will add dimension to the game. Large arenas with multiple levels (similar to T2) with random enemy spawn points will keep the party on their toes. Combined with power ups dropping from random enemies and places on the map you as a player and as party need to decide whether to risk running across the map for a "Full Cure" but run into a possible ambush or try to stick it out in your area with dwindling MP/HP/TP.

Either way this would be an awesome addition to the game.

[Altijacek]

This would be so cool for expansion content :0 or maybe even a major patch. It seems as if each patch has an open world thing or glamor/mini game thing to do: 2.1 Wolve's Den/Beast tribe/Treasure Hunt/Housing. 2.2 Big Fishing/Gardening/Retainer Ventures/Glamour 2.3 Desynthesis/Hunts/Chocobo Training/Frontlines. 2.4 Who knows? 2.5 Golden Saucer/bahamut's scar?

[Cutie_McSnuggles]

I like this idea except for the 'change jobs while in the instance'. It would too easily become a requirement for anyone who wants to get very far to have 1 healer 1 tank 1 melee DD and 1 ranged DD all leveled and geared.

[DenariusJay]

"System limitations" "ps3 blah blah blah "too complicated for newer players" "etc.. etc.." can already see the slew of excuses from the devs on this. Good ideas though I like them