FFXIV dungeons are a little bit too linear?

[Colorful]

Anyone else remember Blackfathom Depths from back in WoW? I remember getting lost there with my party more than a few times, one of my most memorable experiences in MMOs. I'd kill for a dungeon similar to that in FFXIV, but alas all we'll get is "We don't have enough staff to do that without sacrificing another dungeon, the Diadem too, oh, and the MSQ will be even shorter than 3.1", or whatever.

[Gunspec]

I remember getting lost there with my party more than a few times

And that's the reason it doesn't happen. Granted, I loved that dungeon in its original form, but mostly due to running through it by myself when I was a much higher level. If you ran it with people when it first came out, you'd either be ignoring most of the hallways, rooms, and mobs, or you would be hopelessly lost. We're playing a game where most dps can't even find their limit break button.

Now maybe they could make a zone or something similar to these ideas. That way you could explore to your heart's content, but you wouldn't be shackled to 3 or 7 other people who would probably not be interested in the same things that you are. Personally I'm a bit upset that diadem pretty much requires a decent sized group even to fight rank 1 mobs, and you need other people just to enter the zone. Personal and small group exploration is thrown under the bus of massive groups spamming the easiest grind.

They did do a multi route option in Coil I believe and it ended up with people only doing the minimum required to get through.

Not to mention the sacrifice pulls of Turn 1. I don't think I've ever been in a group that killed the mobs properly. Groups only kill trash if there is a locked door preventing them from proceeding. I honestly don't think you can blame SE on this one. They understand their player basis on the matter, and a small amount of people that like to soak in the sights isn't going to make them change their design philosophy on dungeons.

[Sylve]

Anyone else remember Blackfathom Depths from back in WoW?

The problem was never the developers, its the playerbase expectations.
Blackrock Depths was my favorite dungeon in WoW, remains that way to this day despite the joke its become with all the class and mechanic changes. Still, a huge labyrinth with dozens of bosses will not be well received by the community, even if that was my favorite pastime.

The reason is that people don't want to do anything that is time consuming. You need only look at the previous dungeon releases to see what i mean. Why was Haukke HM and Brayflox HM the most popular of their respective patch cycles?
Totorak is an unpopular dungeon on the leveling path because it takes a while to get through it.
Sacrifice runs in AV too.

The answer is simple. Maximum reward for minimum effort. It would need to have the best gear ever drop within it or no one would do it. Blame the players, not the devs. Can't blame them when they know for a fact that no one would do it even if they made the content.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

snip.

Look no further than Pharos Sirius where it was a harder dungeon with the same reward that easier dungeons gave.

[TheUltimate3]

The problem was never the developers, its the playerbase expectations.
Blackrock Depths was my favorite dungeon in WoW, remains that way to this day despite the joke its become with all the class and mechanic changes. Still, a huge labyrinth with dozens of bosses will not be well received by the community, even if that was my favorite pastime.

Ah BRD. I remember fondly there was a time when I, with a random pug that I joined really by accident spent 4-6 hours going from the very top to the very bottom.

Good times. Great times.

That said, yeah I can understand the desire for awesome labyrinth style dungeons, but yeah. Does not work out well anymore. I personally cannot stand Toto-Rak, not because of all the alternative routes but because it feels longer than it actually is and every place looks the same. Felt like I was on Namek.