The Diadem: Can it be fixed?

[Pride]

Let's be honest, the Diadem flopped. It is a half-baked piece of content that isn't really serving a purpose at the moment. But, can it be saved? is there still time to fix the Diadem and have it be the piece of dynamic contact that we deserve? I think so.

So first, let's talk about the 3.2 changes that are coming that will give the Diadem new life, mainly the ability to supply Grade V Materia. It's no doubt that more people will be drawn to the Diadem due to the ease of obtaining rarer materias, but that doesn't -fix- the Diadem. The problem with the Diadem is the gameplay, not so much the rewards. By increasing the rewards, but not solving the gameplay issue, all the Devs are going to accomplish is upsetting the player base because they'll be forced into this mind numbing grind fest.

So while the Diadem will become far more populated once 3.2 hits, will we be having fun while we're in it? This is the question that the Devs should really be concerned about. Because right now, the Diadem isn't fun, and it's not something that people actively want to do. This has to be solved, and I think the answer is staring the Devs right in the face.

What is keeping the islands afloat? A giant crystal of aether. Who always seems to be in need of aether? The tempered Beast Tribe Clans. Why do they need this aether? To summon their Primal (Eikon, Aether manifestation, whatever you want to call it). So wouldn't it make sense that the various Beast Tribes would try to seize the Diadem for themselves, so that they could supply their god with an immense amount of energy? Not to mention, weren't the devs throwing around the idea of 'Wondering Primals' back during 2.0?

I think the Diadem is the perfect place to implement the Devs original idea of Roaming Primals. Imagine, each of the various Beast Tribes are located on a different island, and each of them are varying for the giant crystal in the center, to harness its power for themselves.

It could work like this: Each time you queue into the Diadem, you are set on a timer (45 minutes is the next maximum that is being introduced in 3.2 I believe). Maybe each time you zone into the Diadem, your group has to decide what it would like to accomplish. You could choose from killing mobs as normal, gathering, or hunting down a primal.

It could work like this: maybe the beastmen need some sort of an item or crystal before they are able to summon their primal. These crystals are held by different beast tribes or NMs, they're basically pop-items. Once you have the pop item, you can give it to the beast tribes, or whatever, and that unleashes the primal. With the primal unleashed, the players could then challenge it in the open area. I imagine it working like a FATE, and the group to do the most damage to it, would be rewarded with a special chest with a summoning stone in it. Using this stone would then summon the primal in the Diadem only, to aid the player's group. This would then satisfy the original plan for roaming primals that was discussed since even before 2.0 came out.

What it comes down to is this, the Diadem is boring. It needs something to make it "Fun", whatever that may be. This was simply a random thought I had that I wanted to share.

[Nalien]

What I want;

Put Sky Pirate Spoils as a common drop from enemies, getting gear to turn in is then just an extra bonus, there is no more frustration from losing lots and getting no Spoils. You kill a mob, there is a good chance you just out right get a Spoil for it, then you lot the gear either to use or to get extra Spoils.

Incorporate Gathering into the event. Increase the rate on uncovering chests, and rather than trash materials in the chest, put temporary items (powerful potions/etc. that exist only in the instance, you can't take them out with you) in them. This way Gathering acts as almost a support Job, in that they're getting these chests frequently and providing the party with buffs through temporary items. Given that point, you can arguably make the party requirement Tank/2Healer/4DPS/Gatherer, since the Gatherer can act as support.

Proper force pops (and proper enemy claiming). There should be some kind of order to things similar to Sky/Sea in XI. You kill these enemies to spawn this NM, you kill this NM to get a pop for this NM, and so on until you spawn Kirin/Absolute Virtue and the event is over. This would make exploration far more important, rather than the current "Where are we farming?" shout we get. You'd go in, have an idea what NMs you want to go after, and go after them. That would require farming key items from enemies (perhaps also gathering) in certain areas, and the spawn point where you pop the NM would be in a specific place. To a degree this can use the same Fresh Tracks system that is in place.

Combine the above two. Caves now become important, because specific NMs are spawned there. Now you throw Gathering into the mix, rather than the caves just being open, you instead have blockages preventing you from exploring the caves. You can DPS these down slowly, or you can have a Miner/Botanist deal with them, successfully gathering from the node on a Rock/Root that is blocking the path would deal significant damage to it. Rather than Gathering now just being its own thing, you have a situation where you want Gatherers to speed up exploration, further more you want the rest of the party to actively defend them from enemies that might aggro.

Similar to force pops, Gathering needs to be less all over the place. I like Fishing in Diadem, you know what? Because I go somewhere, I sit there, and I fish. Miner and Botany have me running around the entire map in an annoying fashion. With friends, it is feasibly that I could go "Hey, I'll fish here while you keep the nearby enemies off my back", but with Miner and Botany? Impossible. You have to keep moving around the entire map and it just kills any potential for that.

Gear drops also need to be changed. Diadem strikes me as fairly similar to Dynamis at this point, just with materia (as of 3.2, anyway) replacing the Relics of Dynamis. AF2 from Dynamis was hit and miss, some was awesome, some were worthless. People went after whole sets because of the aesthetics of the gear though. Diadem however, has no unique gear, there is nothing really to chase after in that regard. At this point I'm incline to think we can instead put tomestone gear in Diadem, with tomestones instead buying you a RNG based aetherial set (maybe that even justifies dropping the weekly limit, I'm unsure). Diadem gear then becomes less about the stats, and more about the aesthetic, just like Dynamis. Alternatively, with Lore/Eikonic gear being introduced in 3.2, the maximum item level Diadem drops could be raised.

Finally, slap Unidentified Seeds/Ore/Shell/Bone in Diadem.

What I expect we'll see;

Unidentified Seeds/Ore/Shell/Bone in Diadem. Job done. No more adjustments to it ever.


That third point I made is, I think, the most important one. Diadem needs to feel like an event, not an aimless slaughter. There needs to be some sense that you're going after something, and having a NM spawn chain similar to what XI used a lot is the perfect way to implement that. You'd go to one island to find a key item to spawn a NM there, that NM would drop a key item itself. You'd go to a different island, find another key item, combine them to spawn the next NM, and so on. The way SE handled Diadem, which is effectively just Hunts, was IMO incredibly lazy and uninspired. What I'm suggesting isn't even that astounding, it's literally just a system copied right out of XI, where it worked for over a decade. It is a solid way to design content, that the developers didn't even look at their own history with MMO for inspiration really makes me worry about the future of this game... IMO Diadem is not content, it is a zone and some enemies, absolutely no effort was put in by the development team to work Diadem into an event, it's just a zone to go grind Hunts in. It is a step back from dungeons, at least with dungeons you're running from A to B. Given Diadem has cost us a dungeon (if not more), it really should have been more than that. In a similar vein, updating the gear drops makes it consistently relevant (though arguably materia will do that now), unlike dungeons and raids, which become irrelevant every other patch, something like Diadem should remain relevant for the expansions lifespan (and hopefully beyond). Higher tier Mist- gear in 3.3 would achieve that fairly easily.

[Caitlinzulu]

What I want;
Finally, slap Unidentified Seeds/Ore/Shell/Bone in Diadem.

You alread need diadem gathered materials for the 4 first stages of the crafted relic items. So there is no real need to put the unidentified items in there as wel.
It also wouldnt hurt to give us the option of buying the unidentified items with spoils as well.

[Thayos]

Diadem needs to feel like an event, not an aimless slaughter.

Everything, right here.

I hadn't looked forward to anything in this game like I did with the Diadem... and it turned out to be the biggest disappointment. This should have been designed as the casual/midcore endgame to balance out hardcore raiding. Instead, we got a mindless loot pinata.

There's SO MUCH POTENTIAL with the Diadem. It was just painful to see it come out in such a simple, boring state. Time for the development team to get serious about actual game development.

[RyuSaarva]

it has 2 important purposes already; spiritbonding grade 5 combat materia and unique gathering items.

[Cabalabob]

My biggest gripe with the diadem is its just mindless grind, I thought it would be more like ffxi's dynamis, like give us a reason to move around and visit other islands like to defeat a monster that extends our time or gives us a permanent status buff for the rest of our time. Have a boss that you have to unlock by completing certain tasks that would drop better loot.

There's just no incentive to move around the islands and explore and do stuff, you just find a camp sit there and drag a constant stream of mobs to the camp. It's just boring and makes the rest of the area outside of dino island seem like unnecessary fluff.

[ToppeHatte]

There's a pretty simple fix that would keep me more engaged, at least: Have NMs still drop gold coffers, but place a larger emphasis on the tasks you're given to accomplish. After you finish your first set of objectives, you get your tomes and are given a new set to do. Every set past the first gives the group some kind of reward (a guaranteed silver coffer, with maybe a 10-20% chance at a gold? Or perhaps just have it so that doing the objectives get you closer to a tracks spawn) I think the randomized objectives are great and encourages exploration and working as a group, so having them be an afterthought in between dino beatings seems like a waste.

[Culfinrandir]

1. A second (at least) map so that your group gets a random choice.
2. The gathering Stealth trait working BUT nodes being more random & rarer with a wider possible range of materials.
3. Better balancing of mob spawning concentrations combined with randomised location per beast type (no more Dino Island at a set location).
4. Mobs drop brass/steel spoils but only if you take part in the fight. Amount dropped randomised so not related to level, cap kept low (eg max 3 spoils).

Those would help, that said, I haven't set foot in Diadem since the second week after launch as it got mundane - straight to Dino Island & deeps for 90min. Boring.

[Nalien]

2. The gathering Stealth trait working BUT nodes being more random & rarer with a wider possible range of materials.

I disagree with this. The fact that Miner and Botanist have to go off and do their own thing, running around the entire map is part of the problem with gathering not incorporating well in Diadem. Fishers can sit at a specific spot, fish away, get a few coffers and Fresh Tracks to spawn, and you could have the rest of your party fighting in that area to take advantage of that and keep the Fisher safe.

To me, that feels like how gathering should be in Diadem; The gatherer doing their thing, while the party protects them. It's far from perfect, but they could do things to enhance that aspect somewhat (temporary items from gathering, more frequent Fresh Tracks from gathering, etc.). Since Miner and Botanist have to keep moving around though, they can't do that. They're constantly moving from island to island and "wasting" time the combat side of the party could spend on killing enemies.

Of course, they could just cut gathering out completely, and just give us combat and gathering Diadem as two options, though I'd much rather see them attempt to incorporate the two successfully, since it's an interesting concept.

Time for the development team to get serious about actual game development.

Tell me about it, they've been coasting on the same basic structure for years now...

Dungeons? Same corridor every time, the aesthetic and variety of enemies changes, but we've been doing the same thing in dungeons since launch.
Trials? Surprise surprise, a flat circle (or square) to fight in. Maybe we can fall off. Maybe the boss will be bigger than the arena. Gilgamesh provided the biggest break from the norm, that's... kinda sad...
Raids? Void Ark and Labyrinth of the Ancients have the exact same layout; 3 groups of random trash, first boss. Section where the alliance splits off into three areas to fight their trash, second boss. Group of trash, third boss. Final boss.

Then obviously we have Hunts as a lazy FATE clone (personally, I'd have opted to put Hunts in Levequests, since Levequests can actually feel like you're tracking something and we avoid the whole server clusterf*ck that way), and Diadem as a pathetic Hunt instance. I think 24 player raids particularly annoy me, because it cannot be hard to take that "split the alliance into 3" sections and just apply it to more of the run, sort of a Fork Tower kind of thing... Nope, lets just have that as a single trash section for each one (except Scyrus Tower, not that I'm giving it credit for just giving us more trash instead). Diadem just ended up as a massive disappointment though, not really expecting anything from the developers anymore, not the PvE ones at least, the PvP side of things have actually been improving slowly, and when I look at Feasts arena I can't help but go "Why aren't the PvE guys taking notes?!".

I'd actually probably be kinda OK with Diadem as it is, if the enemies weren't just massive bullet sponges (which is something games developers resort to when they don't want to try). If I could go in with one or two friends and actually enjoy myself? That would be great, instead the enemies take long enough with a full party that groups obviously started banding together to speed things up. Still keep them strong and dangerous if you're not careful, but I don't need to be wailing on the same enemy for so long when they're not doing anything... Really though, Yoshida just needs to tell his team to go play Final Fantasy XI and check out Sky, because that's exactly how Diadem should function; Go kill some enemies, Despot spawns for you, kill Despot. Get drop, go spawn next thing, and so on. I could solo the trash in Sky that let me spawn NMs there (and some of the NMs for that matter, but XI had terrible balance), you brought more people for safety and to be more efficient (pulling all the Groundskeepers to get Despot, for example). That is how Diadem should be, you can go in with a Light Party, and perhaps you'll spawn a few NMs and get some nice gear, or you could go in with a Full Party and get all the way to Kirin in the time limit.

[Ultimatecalibur]

I'd change the reward focus from gets Pink Gear to getting Spoils. This focus change may occur in 3.2 with the changes in gear melding.

1. Star rank (i.e. Notorious) and other track spawned (and only when spawned by tracks) Monsters reward the players that participate in killing them a good number of spoils. Brachiosaur gives even more Spoils out on a kill than the other Star ranks.
2. Each objective completed rewards Spoils and every 3 objects completed rewards a few tomestones. Gathering groups and Battle groups have different objective sets.
3. Increased number and types of variant weather spawns (only Umbral Wind and Hyperelectricy have weather spawns currently) and all weather variant monsters drop a token that can be traded in for a good number of Spoils or vanity gear.