Linear dungeons arent the issue

[Chevronone]

I think the linear dungeons removed players who actually NEED XP from experiencing griefing if they ask for a "full clear". Imagine a DPS sitting in queue for 25+m and getting a track star tank who wants in and out?

At least with the linear dungeons, all the XP that is available in the instance can't be avoided...for the most part. God forbid you wake a slumbering Dragon in The Aery and it's like you just ruined some orphan's first Christmas...

[caelumsixsmith]

The only thing I don't like about Totorak is the fact that it's so long. That or ARR spoiled me with its multiple loading screens. But I remember to this day thinking that Totorak was the longest dungeon I had experienced up to that point and that feeling hasn't changed.

Problem is, FFXIV won't make any changes that deviate too much from the safety it set with its theme park model. They may risk losing customers by doing so. I would like to see more dungeons where we get to actually explore, not just run through a corridor killing mob after mob, like an arcade. I just recently finished HW and that exploration thing we unlock in front of the airship landing in Ishgard seems just like what I just described, but I can't say for myself as I haven't played through it yet.

[Dzian]

Did the different routes grant different loot? If thats the case then i wouldnt want that to happen ever. In the DF environment that would only cause grief.

"I wanna go route A cause i need pants!"
"No i wanna go route B cause its the fastest"
"What about route C guys? It gives us the shoes i've been looking for"

Most people are selfish when paired with strangers. Only f the Duty Finder was abolished or a new type of "Hardcore Dungeon" (by hardcore i dont necessarily mean harder just smarter) was introduced i dont see that happening, even if it does sound amazingly good and RPG'ish.

Yup they did. different end bosses had different loot.

It was a cool a system but it would not work in a duty finder environment. Because on the one hand to be successful the loot and rewards would have to be relevant drops. and this wouldn't work in duty finder because like you said everyone you got matched with would want to fight a different boss to get the drops they want.

on the other hand if the loot and rewards weren't relevant then the only route players would take would be the fastest one because all they'd be interested in is the daily tomes reward and thus the optional routes and bosses would never see the light of day..

the third problem is that if this type content existed outside of a duty finder environment with any degree of relevant rewards and gear then a lot of people would be making the same requests they are for palace of the dead and demanding it be opened up in the duty finder even though it would never work for previously mentioned reasons..

it's why you don't really see structured end game enviroments anymore. because its all built around duty finder. and as palace of the dead shows with 101-200 any content that actually requires making a team for players to do. people complain about because they can't just duty finder it. and when people do try and make groups for it they try to marathon the whole thing in one session often requiring best part of a full day only to then say it's inaccessible because players don't want to commit that kind of time in one session. it's kind of the same with savage statics where players expect everyone to be there 5 nights a week. and wonder why people say sod that...

so if you had an end game environment where you had to actually work as a team and clear entire areas kill bosses and built up a set of items to unlock a god fight or something it wouldn't work in duty finder. If you played XI ever. Temenos and Appollyon were 2 of the best endgame activiites around for a long time. but you'd never have that kind of system work in a duty finder.

it's a real shame. especially as players have been asking for this kind of structured content designed around fcs and teamwork since before beta. something that actually means fcs are more than just chat channels.

Been my wish for the longest time that this game actually had structured content designed around fcs and groups of players. dungeons with optional routes and multiple bosses depending on the routes you take or structured end game that isn't just queue into one instanced battle then queue into the next..

POTD 101-200 is about as close as the game has come in that regard yet though.