Tired of the Same ol' Formula...

[TAS]

In the Two Years that FFXIV has been out since it's re-launch, one thing that has kind of been gnawing at me is how all of the content keeps following the same formula:

Dungeons:
Trash => Boss 1 => Trash => Boss 2 => Trash => Boss 3 => End

Primals:
Rotation 1 => Rotation 2 => Add Phase (Kill all or you wipe) => Final Rotation (If not dead after 2 to 3 cycles you wipe)

Alliance Content (Based off 2.0):
Trash room 1 => Boss 1 => Trash room 2 => Boss 2 => Trash Room 3 => Boss 3 => Final Boss

Raids (The Binding Coil and Alexander):
-1 out of the 4 turns will probably be like Turn 4 in BCoB or Turn 2 in Alex
Turn 1: Trash and or Mini Boss => Boss
Turn 2: Trash and or Mini Boss => Boss
Turn 3: Trash and or just Boss
Turn 4: Boss

All newer content thus far continues to follows the same linear format, which is fine after the first clear but, because Character progression heavily relies on farming these instances multiple times between patches, it just feels so stagnant.

I know when the Devs create the content, it’s all geared towards all players being able to clear and experience the content without the hassle, which, again, is fine after the first time. But after that first time, I feel that there could be much more to Dungeons, Trials, and Raids, than the same beat played on a loop.

DUNGEONS
After clearing the dungeon in it's original design, there could be a lot more to the Instance then just a repeated endeavor. And they don't all have to be:

Start ________________ Boss______________ Boss_____________ Final Boss/End

1.) A dungeon Instance could be like BCoB Turn4 or Alexander A2 where you have to deal with waves of Mobs: Some of which could equal in strength of A and B Rank mobs from hunts, while having accesses to other Mechanics that help in managing Crowd Control. It Could take Place in an elevator shaft, or in a Coliseum (how awesome would it be if you could go into the Halitali Coliseum and Fight off Waves of Monsters, all leading to a Reigning champion Boss of the week???)

2.) Future Dungeons could also be multi-Faceted. Having Multiple passages ways leading to different boss/ story scenarios, with puzzles and objectives that aren't required to clear but doing so includes some sort of prize or bonus? They could be Weekly or Daily objectives picked up from NPCs. which could also help alleviate parties bickering about which path to go down or which objectives they want to undertake. and if you DF them. have a message pop up that says: "Some mysterious occurrence is taking place in path (A, B, or C) Perhaps you should investigate..." (Bonus for doing so 25 Tombstone/seals rewarded upon completion)

3.)You Know how in some games, after expelling the "Bad Element" out of an Area, New Monsters move in and inhabit the Zone? Kind of like how in Brayflox Hard the Illuminati Goblins invaded, and in The Wanderer's Palace Hard the Mamool Ja took over? What if after Clearing the Dungeon once, a new inhabitance entered the Instance, but this time the Dungeon was open to exploration, without following the traditional map out? Mobs that are similar to A and B Ranks; some that drop rare items or mats exclusive to their respective Instances. And Since the "Bad Element" is gone, Gatherers could also enter these Instances and farm resources exclusive to the Instance... (Since Players can now solo que in all Lvl 50 Instances in the 2.x series... something like this should be possible right?)

4.) Kind of tacked on to the Concept specified in #3 but.... Levequest.... but for inside dungeons... Just Saying


TRIALS:
Every now and again the Devs really step outside the box when it comes to the Trial Battles. Steps of Faith being by far the most Distinguished. I really hope that after select groups within the FFXIV Playerbased moaned and groaned about not being able to clear this and play Heavensward, that it doesn't deter the Devs from trying something like that again. Hell, Bismark even adapted some of that SoF edge, Since the last phase is literally "Hurry up and beat Bismark before he destroys the Island!" Trials, especially Extreme Primals, could be much more then just, Memorizing the order of Rotation and Circular Arenas. Crazy ass fights like Good King Moogle Mog are welcomed challenges in my book.

Another thing that I think would be interesting is a weekly challenge. Primarily for Extreme Primals. Where you Start off with Ifrit, the first Primal Challenge, and then fight all of the primals back to back in order of appearance in the game with some kind of bonus at the end.

Alliance Raids:
One Concept that I posted a while back was that, since Alliances are a mix up of three groups, perhaps one day there could be a Raid that Involves Each group traversing down their own path way encountering bosses and unlocking passages that allows the other groups to progress. I believe I used FFVI's Phoenix Cave and Kefka's tower as an example of this..

The Same suggestions specified in Dungeons could also apply to future Alliance Content...

*Leve Quest For Alliances in Raids... Just Saying
*Also.... S Ranks Everywhere!!!!


Raids:
This would primarily apply to something like Alexander Normal, since The Binding Coil is Split up throughout Eorzea (or it could work if you use a little imagination). But I think there should be a Weekly challenge where you start off at the first tier and Gradually work your way towards the final boss. No breaks or backing out. you just go from one right into the next. I think that way it helps with some of the disjointedness of these raids especially after being put into the DF. You can still get tombs after each Boss clear but the real rewards come at the end. Bonuses rewarded if your party doesn't wipe and perhaps another bonus if you complete before a certain time... it would be even more intense when the Final raid tier is implemented



These are My suggestions.... Feel free to add yours

[Greedalox]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...appeal-because...

[FoxyAreku]

How exactly would they spice it up? Having trash between bosses is just kind of a standard thing.

[Daralii]

The trash -> boss formula is as old as tabletop RPGs. Can you provide any suggestions on how they could change it?

[Iromi]

The trash -> boss formula is as old as tabletop RPGs. Can you provide any suggestions on how they could change it?

FFXI didn't do that. Every mob in that game was useful, even in dynamis..every mob had the chance to drop AF2 or a purpose for the most part

[Imoen]

snip

Well there is many different threads with similar views going on right now, this should probably move into one of those.

But I agree,

1. The gear lock out is killer. This locks you out of progressing on anything but one maybe 2 jobs for end game. I know why they have the lock out, I just wish it was handled a bit differently. Such as per job, maybe not for raiding but for tomes at least. Just so you can feel like you can play whatever you want for the fun during end game or fill a hole in your raid group for the evening by switching up your roll, really that's all it is about just the variety.

2. I feel like making steps to create progression content outside of raids and dungeons could go a long way, I'm not talking hunts, and I'm not talking instanced content. Maybe some like 4/8man missions you could do on the field to get tomes or tell side stories of different areas... I don't know I'm just throwing ideas at the wall. Just more world content in general, i feel sorry for the artists that made the maps, its like this huge area to make and most likely tons of time, and there is not a whole lot going on in it. At least not for battle crafts, fate parties tend to bunch in common grounds not spread out all over, and NMs.

[Selli]

What I kinda miss is how in Turn 2 you had to pick which mini bosses you wanted to fight on the way to the boss, and which mini bosses you fought effected the boss. I thought that was pretty cool...

[Whocareswhatmynameis]

I don't think the repeated structure is the problem. There is just too much stuff that isn't incentivized. No1 does treasure maps because nothing good comes from them. No1 does hunts because you don't really need lvl 180 gear anymore. You can skip over to 190-200 stuff. No1 does fates because they made it very easy to get the 10 levels from 50-60.

Relic weapon might change this some. Might give people more of a reason to do these things. But with how easy it is to get esoteric weapon a lot of people might not even bother with relic, myself included.

[Chiramu]

What I kinda miss is how in Turn 2 you had to pick which mini bosses you wanted to fight on the way to the boss, and which mini bosses you fought effected the boss. I thought that was pretty cool...

The problem is people only do what someone else has told them to do, you were not allowed to think for yourself.

[FoxyAreku]

FFXI didn't do that. Every mob in that game was useful, even in dynamis..every mob had the chance to drop AF2 or a purpose for the most part

Lets not reference XI. It wasn't as popular as XIV for a reason.

I don't think the repeated structure is the problem. There is just too much stuff that isn't incentivized. No1 does treasure maps because nothing good comes from them. No1 does hunts because you don't really need lvl 180 gear anymore. You can skip over to 190-200 stuff. No1 does fates because they made it very easy to get the 10 levels from 50-60.

Relic weapon might change this some. Might give people more of a reason to do these things. But with how easy it is to get esoteric weapon a lot of people might not even bother with relic, myself included.

No one does treasure maps? I do them, and everyone in my FC does them. They drop lots of good things I don't know what you're talking about. o.O

No one does fates because they made 50-60 easy? 50-60 on an alt class takes about as long as 1-50 does, how is that 'too easy'? If anything it's ridiculously monotanous. And how do you say no one does fates? I have fate parties on my server 24 hours a day, that's an awful lot of people doing them.

As for hunts, people still spam hunt linkshells and every hunt mob that spawns on my server is killed within 5 minutes of it spawning usually. Again, rather odd for something 'no one' does.

Like are we playing the same game? Your entire post is just blatantly wrong.

Also it's pretty obvious that relic will be much better than the esoteric weapon very quickly, or did you not pay any attention to the 2.0 relic? lol