As a new player, running through the Praetorium dungeon was the worst

[Nixxe]

There's a lot of overexaggeration on the cutscene length in this thread. CM has maybe around 10 minutes of cutscene length, Prae maybe around 15. (This is assuming you read/scroll the text around as fast as the VAs speak it.)

I can safely say through multiple personal experiences, having someone go through the cutscenes (and actually waiting on them) isn't suddenly going to make either of these dungeons take around "an hour", especially if the other 7 people in the party massively overgear the dungeon, which they usually do.

The cutscenes in Castrum Meridianum are about 15 minutes long and the cutscenes in Praetorium are about 35 minutes long. If you don't believe me, you can look up videos on Youtube that are nothing but the cutscenes from either dungeon.

You make it sound as if every run has a new player, when it's not that way. So, if less people queued up for the story, it would just mean less runs without new players. And even then, aside from everything else that I told you on that post and that you didn't take into acount for your reply, if the worst came to happen then it would force SE to finally fix these dungeons.

Do you even do MSQ roulette? Probably 60% or so of the ones I do still have a bonus. That's not enough to fill a full team in a reasonable amount of time though.

You're basically just willing to hold the MSQ progression of the sprouts hostage so that SE is forced to fix old content, rather than be a little flexible and compromise so they can focus on more important things. That's incredibly selfish on your part.

You act as if you're making them a favour, when we both know that you run those dungeons because you want something out of it. So you both benefit and, on top of that, you get your reward doubled thanks to the new player. Taking that into consideration, by rushing the dungeon it's clear who is benefiting more.

No, that's something you're imagining. I'm merely suggesting there is mutual benefit, despite the players after tomestones not playing in accordance with your rather burdensome demands. Quite obviously they're there for tomestones. That's no secret and i don't think anyone has tried to say otherwise. It's just that it's better than the alternative, which is that those people who still need MSQ progression involving Castrum and Praetorium get stuck in an endless queue unless they get really lucky. I sincerely doubt you or your random nice people are willing to pick up the slack that would be created by kicking everyone who won't wait for cutscenes out of the MSQ roulette to make sure everyone gets their MSQ progression.

At the end of the day though, this is the other side of the same coin: Random groups are random. You don't get to pick them. You don't get to be the boss and play by the rules just because you've imagined that you have some sort of inherent claim to authority. If the group doesn't want to wait for cutscenes, then they don't have to. If it's super important to someone to watch the cutscenes, then make a group for it where you can control who is there. It's no different than what I tell people who scream and cry about players not playing up to their standards in the now defunct level 60 expert roulette. Random is random. If you can't deal with that, then you're the problem.

Hours? F*cking seriously? Exaggeration much? A full CS run through the MSQ will take one hour, tops. And who in the hell is queueing for the MSQ Roulette every single day? It is completely unrelated to end-game progression (no Tomestones of note are awarded), and it's unnecessary from an XP standpoint. There is absolutely nothing that is compelling players to run it. So if you're feeling like an impatient ass, go do something else, rather than queueing and throwing a fit about how much time it takes. You're like a volunteer at a soup kitchen yelling at people to move through the line quicker. If you don't want to do it, don't do it.

It's not an exaggeration, as you'd likely need to do multiple runs per day to make up for all of the slack created by doing as the other poster wants and kicking everyone who won't stand around for 35 minutes in Praetorium out of the MSQ roulette. The rest of your post really just proves my point that people aren't the least bit concerned with the consequences of their demands for "purity."

It's telling though that you're just openly insulting me while I'm being at least moderately polite and civil. But yeah, I'm the bad guy.

[BigRed5392]

snip

please remove your head from where the sun don't shine. as I stated, i ran this for my g/f 4+ times as we 2-man it. it did not take us an hour to run BOTH cm and prae. She watched all the cs, and i waited. most cs are 10-20 secs long. the longest CS's are around the ultima fight at 2 min in total. so please stop acting rude. People with attitudes like your do not belong in mmo. Newbies should come first. i've seen this thread pop up 40 times if not more since ARR 2.1 when i started, my g/f seen it more times as she started at launch.

Even befoe the msq roulette was added people acted like this.

[Kieshen]

@Hestzhyen

Challenge accepted

[KageTokage]

I ended up just skipping the cutscenes and watching them later, because I wanted to actually participate in the boss fights.

[Ilenya]

Well, it's nice to see this conversation is still going the exact same way it always has.

[GoonerWolf]

I hope TS replies to give us the name of that asshole that spoils the HW/SB story in a DF.
Definitely need to be reported.

[Tonkra]

I'm not going to ask the rest of the group to slow down so the newbie can get the "full experience"- that's wasting people's time

If you think playing a game / experiencing a game is a waste of time you should stop playing the game.

How pathetic, for what are you playing the game then?

SE put enticing rewards in front of the MSQ roulette because of how annoying it is for veterans to run those dungeons, but newbies still need those dungeons to get to everything after them. .

Now thats poor. Of course you optimize your way through and you clear it faster than the way you did your first time.

I myself at the age of 30 tend to enjoy the things of life even more... and so gaming.
You better should calm down a bit and enjoy the atmosphere and fun the game has to offer, for what are you even playing? Numbers? That you are the first on top of the endgame and then end up waiting for next content to come out? :XD

Rather than saying doing content is "a waste of time". When i myself do old dungeons and content in my opinion its a nice throwback which i personally enjoy, rather doing the 3 new endgame dungeons over and over till there is a new content update.
Hell i moreover enjoy to do Shiva ex (or others) synched than unsynched when i fight a specific boss after a very long time because its more enjoyable for me.

It would be more "time waste" if i hackn slash through a shiva fight which absolutely made no fun, because it wasnt challenging a slight bit. Because to be honest is this why we play a game? Non challenging trash bosses in unsynched? Not really.

[Lukha]

Just ran through the Praetorium dungeon to finish up the ARR story and it was rushed the whole way until the last boss. From my experiences with previous dungeons, I've just given up completely on watching cutscenes and now watch them prior/after.

It looks like we're on the same data center, so if you'd like to do a full run and watch the cutscenes and battles properly, I'd be willing to take you through unsynced later today? I'm usually in-game after 10pm EST or so, until 3 or 4am, and I'm Lukha on Reddit too if you'd like to message me there to set up a time to meet in PF.

[Hestzhyen]

If you think playing a game / experiencing a game is a waste of time you should stop playing the game.

How pathetic, for what are you playing the game then?

Now thats poor. Of course you optimize your way through and you clear it faster than the way you did your first time.

I myself at the age of 30 tend to enjoy the things of life even more... and so gaming.
You better should calm down a bit and enjoy the atmosphere and fun the game has to offer, for what are you even playing? Numbers? That you are the first on top of the endgame and then end up waiting for next content to come out? :XD

Rather than saying doing content is "a waste of time". When i myself do old dungeons and content in my opinion its a nice throwback which i personally enjoy, rather doing the 3 new endgame dungeons over and over till there is a new content update.
Hell i moreover enjoy to do Shiva ex (or others) synched than unsynched when i fight a specific boss after a very long time because its more enjoyable for me.

It would be more "time waste" if i hackn slash through a shiva fight which absolutely made no fun, because it wasnt challenging a slight bit. Because to be honest is this why we play a game? Non challenging trash bosses in unsynched? Not really.

I'm not saying that playing the game is a waste of time. If I thought it was, I wouldn't have played for so long. Lord knows I've dropped more than a few games because they weren't fun. I get synced EX primals all the time in Mentor Roulette and they can be fun if the group is willing to learn. My friend thinks I'm crazy because I run my favourite EX primals just for the heck of it (Thordan EX is my jam!) or to help strangers get a clear. I don't mind running enjoyable content. I like this game, and I don't mind spending time explaining or wiping to help people learn. I'm not in it wholly for the numbers or the grind. I've spent a ton of time in dungeons chatting with people to wait for an AFK or D/C player to come back, waiting for PF groups to fill, and so on. Please don't assume that just because I don't like two unpopular dungeons that I'm the kind of person who only cares about how fast I can finish everything and watch numbers go up.

I don't enjoy all the content that FF has to offer. I never queue for Diadem, Guildhests, or MSQ roulette because I don't like them. Sometimes Mentor Roulette puts me in the things I don't like, and I'll do them without whining. For me, the MSQ dungeons ARE A WASTE OF MY TIME. They are boring. I have done them a lot over the years, and they only got worse as ilvl increases enabled super duper speed runs. But I will not complain or tell people to bum-rush to the end. I will not tell a sprout to skip the cut scenes and watch them later for the sake of clearing 10 seconds faster. To me, personally, the dungeons aren't fun and I wish I didn't get them. But I won't ruin the experience as much as I can. Am I supposed to /sit next to them at the start while the other 6 do it all after asking to slow down and getting told to sod off? It sucks for the sprouts but if you've seen the scenes once that's enough for most. I don't think a majority group should acquiesce to one person's wish for a fully immersive experience if they're grouped through DF. There are people ITT offering to do a slow run for newbies, and sometimes I see the odd PF for a story-focused run. Alternatives exist for those that seek them. If you go through DF you should go with the understanding that people aren't there for the story, they're there for the rewards.

To reiterate: Praetorium and CM suck for everyone involved. Sprouts more than anyone. But asking seven vets to walk through it with you and wait for every cut scene is asking too much. Make your own group if you want to do it without interruption, or choose between story and speed if you queue with randoms. That's how it is and SE won't change it. They've just improved since.

[Yahallo]

An undersized party of 2 (one tank/dps, and one healer) could probably clear the Praetorium. The only reason you can't solo it is because Nero treats you like a hockey puck, and likely if you could get past Nero you would have to chase Gaius around too. You can absolutely solo Castrum Meridianum (I've done it at level 60 in i180 gear.) It just takes a very long time.



Come to think of it, if you want to experience Castrum the way it was meant to, tick "undersized party", turn cutscenes back on, go solo. I'm pretty sure it will take about an hour.

I was able to solo Praetorium in 3.x as Dark Knight. I think I was in 230-240 gear at the time.

As for the OP's issue; I believe it is wrong to kick someone out for watching the the cutscenes. I feel that should be considered griefing and reportable. However, at the same time, I don't believe that people shohld have to wait for first timers to watch the cutscenes.

To me the poetics bonus isn't worth the additional amount of time it takes to watch cutscenes. I won't force them to skip ot, but I am not going to wait for them either. If they want to kick me for not waiting, that's fine. In fact, if a group waits, I would rather them kick me so I can start a new queue. I queue as a tank so it is pretty much instant for me.