Suggestions for Possible expansion of Endgame Content options.

[BlaiseArath]

Firstly, I like how SE is giving us two levels of "Endgame" content now, with the announcement of Alexander having two difficulties. While I don't think they got the right idea by making them drop different I.lv gear (Should have went with same gear, but More Gear/Separate lock out for hard mode)... but its a start! Now, that said, moving on.

I was thinking about XIV. I do like the game, but the more I think about it, the only way to obtain I.lv130 (Or Maximum) is through Coil. I don't find this in general to be an entirely bad concept, because the best armor should come from the hardest events... But I think we need more variety in "hardest" events except one, single, dungeon. My goal is to add variety to the path to Max I.lv, at his point we can use the term "130" so people understand what I mean.

Theres a lot of things to draw inspiration from, MMOs and otherwise, but I'd like to point out two events from a game some of you like, some of you hate, FF:XI. Now, theres a lot XI got wrong but still made work, but i think a lot of people who played XI would find these two some of the best implemented ones. Though the second came late into the game. As i stated above, I will use current terminology so people aren't confused. so "Poetics" and "Coil" will be there.

Nyzul Isle, A touch of RNG in a fun time event:

Alexander is coming out, it would be pretty nostalgic and even a good time to release something like this. What you can have is the same general formula as Neo-Nyzul Isle, you clear the objective and you launch up a random floor number between 2-9. The '20' Floor bosses are already mostly there... we have Chim, Hydra, and Medusa.. not Gulool Ja in wanderers palace lol. But the drops can go something like this

Floor 20 - Has a chance to drop "Upgrade" Item for Poetics.
Floor 40 - Has a higher chance to drop "Upgrade" Item for Poetics
Floor 60 - Has a chance to drop a piece of Poetics gear (random)
Floor 80 - Will drop 1~ Upgrade items for Poetics.
Floor 100 - Will drop 1 Upgrade item for poetics, High chance of a Poetic piece, chance at a piece of Coil gear.

This can be ran as much as you want (maybe within some limits?), but as a balance to coil, its drop rates are not 100% and theres an element of luck/randomness/RNG to it. I'm not sure if 4 or 8 man would be best for this type of event. But either way, I think this is easily one of the better events in XI, and could be introduced again in XIV.

I think randomly, like in XI, "Hunts" Should spawn on floors, and those could perhaps give a handful of Allied seals when defeated, and even a small chance at a Blood Splattered log (which would be put into the pool). Alternatively you could also add weaker versions of Dungeon Bosses in there, which would drop a ??? item like in XI, which could turn into one of their dungeon drops (yay seals/low level newbie gear)

Incursion Type, a test of your groups skills and limits:

For those of you who don't know, Incursion is a new event added in XI. You invade the Beastmen stronghold of the new beast tribe, once inside there are different "generals" and occasionally a man boss ("god/deity/leader"), You start out with the difficulty at say, Item level 115, and every time you clear it, you can upgrade it a level, 116, 117, etc etc, and with each increase in difficulty, there an increase in drops. in XI, you get "Coffers" from each mob you can use to obtain 1 random item or some gil, and "Boss Coffers" from bosses that can contain rare weapons/armor, and JSE Capes with unique and awesome Augments on them. to adopt this to XIV, I would propose something like the same base system... Start it at "Average I.lv 110" or the like, and upgrade it by 1-5 each time you succeed... drops can work like this-

Normal "Coffer" Items can give you either:
10~100 Gil
1-9 low/mid level synth Material(Up to Electrum Ore, and the like)
(Rare) T1~T2 Materia.
(Veyr Rarely) A I.lv50~1star level synth material (Peacock Ore, Scheelite, Etc)

Boss Coffer items can give you:
50~500 gil
High level Synth mats-(Electrum Ore through 1 Star)
(Rare)Two Star Synth Mats
(Rare) T3 Materia
(Very Rare)Three Star Synth Mats
(EX Rare) T4 Materia
(EX Rare)"Uprade" Item for Poetics/Whatever current is

This should be able to be ran without restriction, as the I.lv challenge increase could pose what it does in XI, a test of the players abilities and limites, which a lot of players find fun. Higher Item levels = More coffers from enemies. So at I.lv 110, you get a coffer from normal mobs at say, 1/5 enemies. At higher level like 130, its 1-2 per enemy. For bosses at say, I.lv110 you get 1 coffer per boss, at 130 its up to 3. You can kill multiple bosses

What this does, while still providing us with the same two armor sets we know, is provide branching options for obtaining them, as well as difference in event style, grouping, and challenge to it, rather that challenge be in Item level power or some RNG. You'd still have your "Coil" and your "Tomes", but you'd have different avenues to upgrade them or get to them. We need more variety in how we achieve max I.lv, even if it involves RNG for balance, so long as you have your other choices. This isn't a "XIV should be more like XI" thread, I'm only using those two examples because they stand out to me as well made events that offer a bit of randomness but reward to compensate. These events could be any number of things, but the goal is entirely "Variety in methods to obtaining Maximum I.lv gear", that involve maybe RNG in place of Lock outs, or the lock outs are Daily, not weekly. I'd prefer no lockouts cause I like to be able to play my game when i play it, but hey.

Personally I think the Incursion event was pure genius from SE, and I hope they translate that into XIV.

Also, I'm not one to shy from discussion, I do only ask if you dislike, state why. Give me a reason why it would be bad for endgame variety in content, or why you think these wouldn't be good ways to put them in. Keeping in mind both Tome Grinding and "Coil" would still be options for everyone, these would just be added on top of those options.

[Verlyn]

I am all for some thinking outside the box. We don't really have to follow WoW's raid structure to the letter every tier.
Now, I don't know about just copying ideas straight from FFXI--I'd rather Yoshida's team come up with something brand new--but just using them as examples of what could be done is fine.

Also, I'm not one to shy from discussion, I do only ask if you dislike, state why. Give me a reason why it would be bad for endgame variety in content, or why you think these wouldn't be good ways to put them in. Keeping in mind both Tome Grinding and "Coil" would still be options for everyone, these would just be added on top of those options.

Maybe I am merely embittered by the result of my own thread, but I wouldn't expect much of this on this forum :|.

[Altijacek]

I just wish there were really ridiculous unique ways to get armor, kinda like old final fantasies. Really hard and really rare and on par or just a tiny bit under coil gear. But each piece would have to be obtained in a different way. Like the headpiece could come from crafting and the items are all obtained in weird ways. The body piece can be gained from killing a certain amount of rare monsters in levequests, and if you're lucky a very difficult monster spawns which you then have to solo in an instance. It will require you to be at the top of your game because it will be really hard, and it drops an item which can be infused with alexandrite or something to turn into chest piece. Another piece can come from gold saucer, and another a drop from ex primals, etc.

[BlaiseArath]

I am all for some thinking outside the box. We don't really have to follow WoW's raid structure to the letter every tier.
Now, I don't know about just copying ideas straight from FFXI--I'd rather Yoshida's team come up with something brand new--but just using them as examples of what could be done is fine.

I agree, I'm all for them coming up with new ways to do it, Just of the top of my head I thought of those two example that stood out as ones that I liked from my MMO experiences. Personally I would love for just multiple routes to max I.lv, but to bring something new to the table would be nice. We get all these new dungeons but they all feel exactly the same, the formula isn't really going to change... You'll walk a straight path from A to B, kill some trash, and fight 3 bosses (save for I think Satasha which had "4", and The lighthouse which had "4"). We need something that mixes it up. This is why I bring up Nyzul Isle, because each floor layout is random, and the objective is random, and the mobs that appear are random... It makes each run unique, and though its the same event, its challenging in different ways.

Maybe I am merely embittered by the result of my own thread, but I wouldn't expect much of this on this forum :|.

One can hope this fairs better. I'm not one to shy from criticism if the reasoning is sound :0

I just wish there were really ridiculous unique ways to get armor, kinda like old final fantasies. Really hard and really rare and on par or just a tiny bit under coil gear. But each piece would have to be obtained in a different way. Like the headpiece could come from crafting and the items are all obtained in weird ways. The body piece can be gained from killing a certain amount of rare monsters in levequests, and if you're lucky a very difficult monster spawns which you then have to solo in an instance. It will require you to be at the top of your game because it will be really hard, and it drops an item which can be infused with alexandrite or something to turn into chest piece. Another piece can come from gold saucer, and another a drop from ex primals, etc.

This is not unlike my request. Spread the wealth over events of either equal difficulty, or given lower drop rates/randomness to compensate for the discrepancy in difficulty. I'd prefer them use new content outlets, but you get the idea.

[Renik]

As Verlyn said, i don't like the idea of copying nyzul isle directly, it's ffxi unique content, but the base idea of randomized dungeons is something i always liked, i have spent hours running randomized dungeons every day in other MMOs, solo and in pty, and it's really fun, and a good addition for those who don't like running the same predetermined content over and over.

These could work like this.

-Theme, a random theme like castle, cave, ruins...
-Monsters according with the theme of the dungeon.
-Difficulty level, rewards according to it, divided in coffers randomly placed across the dungeons and a final coffer with a part of the reward and some tomes after the final boss.
-random puzzles and rules, something simple like pullers, killing "x" enemy to open a door, protecting a NPC, braking a door.
-Randomized bosses and mini bosses.

The dungeon structure would be build on modules, so it will always be unknown but keeping a good level of design.