2 new dungeons ?

[Moonleg]

The thing is we got all that, without sacrificing dungeons in 2.x, didn't we? The marriage system, FC/Personal housing system (not just QoL changes) the entirety of the Gold Saucer (2 big games, minigames, the area, rewards). The only big thing we're getting otherwise that's different is the Airship changes, which is why I'm hoping it'll be somewhat decent.

The question we will never get an answer to, though, is how much of that was worked on during the 2.0 production phase. Was the Gold Saucer half finished when 2.0 launched and just needed more tweaking and testing? Was the marriage system ready to go once the last few bugs got ironed out? I think it's fair to say they had a bunch of things that were beyond the stage of being just a fancy idea on a napkin, but sooner or later they had to run out of those.

[Airget]

The thing is we got all that, without sacrificing dungeons in 2.x, didn't we? The marriage system, FC/Personal housing system (not just QoL changes) the entirety of the Gold Saucer (2 big games, minigames, the area, rewards). The only big thing we're getting otherwise that's different is the Airship changes, which is why I'm hoping it'll be somewhat decent.

The examples you presented though don't require the same amount of balance as dungeons do and battle content in general.

Golden Saucer, only real balance are MGP values
Triple Triad, opponent AI and point value of tourney
Marriage, no balance at all

Dungeons however have to be fine tuned and thus they require more effort in the quality assurance department then other content they have released. You might see it as "sacrificing" but honestly I see it as expanding on a system by providing an option that isn't just defeat 3 bosses get loot and win. The sky content has opportunity to be more flexible than dungeons because it doesn't have to follow a formula to entice players to go to them, they can play each island as it's own unique entity with positives and negatives unlike dungeons where they have to play the same, take the same amount of time, and the difficulty curve has to be worth the reward.

Make a dungeon to hard, people will just flock to the easier dungeon because they can be done faster (This is what happened with brayflox HM)

Dungeon takes to long, they will ignore it and do a more time efficient dungeon (Again brayflox HM)

They learned early on that if they aren't careful with finely tuning each dungeon to take the same amount of time/have similar difficulty that people are less likely to do them.

[Alberel]

The thing is we got all that, without sacrificing dungeons in 2.x, didn't we? The marriage system, FC/Personal housing system (not just QoL changes) the entirety of the Gold Saucer (2 big games, minigames, the area, rewards). The only big thing we're getting otherwise that's different is the Airship changes, which is why I'm hoping it'll be somewhat decent.

You have to remember that the development team is split up into smaller teams dedicated to certain types of content. Housing and the GS are handled by a specific team and battle content is handled by another. The new open-world group content for the airship system will undoubtedly have been developed by the same team that typically handles dungeons which is why I think we're only getting two.

In some ways I think this is actually a good idea since dungeon content becomes obsolete so quickly. I would much rather they put more effort into new gameplay systems that will have a bit more life in them.

[Felis]

I was under the impression we were getting new dungeons and not hard modes of older dungeons.

hard mode dungeon is like new dungeon in same location.
Or will you say that Amdapor Keep play like Amdapor Keep (hard) or Wanderer Palace like Wandarer Palace (hard)?

[Nadirah]

And you thought people ragequit Pharos before... Lol

[SasukeUchiha81]

And you thought people ragequit Pharos before... Lol

Never knew anyone Rage Quit that easy dungeon before.. o.O

[zcrash970]

Never knew anyone Rage Quit that easy dungeon before.. o.O

Well before it was nerfed, a lot of people found it hard >.>
No idea why though

[Sylve]

Well before it was nerfed, a lot of people found it hard >.>
No idea why though

Funnily enough, it had to do with overgearing it.
The way the first boss works is that he summons dogs at specific percentages of his HP, the gap between those spawn points gets shorter at lower HP levels for him.

And people don't like the concept of holding back on DPS. So you'd often get 2 extremely well geared DPS blasting the boss fast enough that you get overwhelmed by adds and the debuff they put out.
It was especially bad when one DPS thinks the other one can solo the adds and just kept blasting away, spawning more and more dogs, lol.

For Siren, people just couldn't figure out how not to get Charmed ...
I don't actually remember what they did change though, to make it so easy now. I was kinda sad when they did nerf it, as i really enjoyed it in its original form.

Is it this one?

"We’re planning to introduce new content where you explore uncharted islands with your crafted airships. Multiple parties can explore the same island at the same time. The concept will be to defeat lots of strong monsters. Gathering nodes are also available on these islands, so once the island is secured by the battle team, gatherers will be able to gather items to take back.

We wanted to give an old MMO-like feel for this one, and for FFXIV it'll be fresh content that hasn't been seen before."

If it is.. I would've preferred to get the third dungeon as my FC still doesn't have house, and no access to airship crafting.

They might allow us to participate in other FCs explorations, which would let those without an Airship of their own do the content.

[Nestama]

I don't actually remember what they did change though, to make it so easy now. I was kinda sad when they did nerf it, as i really enjoyed it in its original form.

Some trash mobs have been removed from the dungeon. First boss was given more HP so that DPS couldn't spawn all the dogs in a short span of seconds. Zu adds I think dealt less damage and had their HP reduced (and I think they took the cockerels MP draining ability away... at least I think it drained MP) and Siren's Feral Lunge AoE's size was reduced, dealt less damage and... I think that's it, really. Dunno if they did anything to the zombies (probably reduced their HP and STR).

Pharos HM seems to have Kobolds involved in some way, so we'll most likely not have Siren as a boss again and chances are we won't get a third remix of the Pharos Sirius theme (assuming the siren was the one singing it).

Don't get me wrong. I would be happy to see a third Siren in the game.

[Nekodar]

Well before it was nerfed, a lot of people found it hard >.>
No idea why though

People made it difficult by ignoring boss mechanics.
First boss spawned adds at fixed percentages of health. Kill adds and go back to boss, no problem... But most people insisted on just trying to burn boss.
Last boss was difficult because Siren wasn't silenced/stunned making it very hard on the healer for one specific move...

All in all, people found it hard because they wanted to burn everything instead of dealing with easy mechanics.