Please Reconsider MSQ Changes

[Reynhart]

I was comparing Arf poetic farming to Msq and I was clearly talking about a level 70 player.

I'm not twisting what you say. I corrected your first mistake of how much poetics this roulette gives.
And pointing that your assumption that "level 70 are expected to queue in" is also a mistake, since "experienced player" is not the same as "level 70 jobs".

That's why the roulette is far from "useless". Yes, maybe you won't run it until a new job comes out, but not everythng revolves around players who have everything maxed out.

[BillyKaplan]

the problem that SE is trying to fix

Let's revisit this statement, shall we? The problem in this case is "New players are in the roulette and want to see cutscenes and enjoy the duty as it was intended".
But sadly, that's a very specific case. More often than not you'll likely find no new players in that duty, new players who don't care about cutscenes, or new alts who have seen the cutscenes dozens of times before and couldn't care less.
It doesn't even matter how well this solution solves or doesn't solve the problem SE set out to 'fix' - it actually ignores the majority of scenarios and therefore is severely lacking.

[Alleo]

And thus SE's hidden agenda comes to light! Egads!

... I wish I could say I was only kidding, but there's a small, cynical voice in my head whispering that skip potion purchases were definitely factored into the plan.

Yeah I have that voice in my head too..and seeing how they somehow changed the "item for all accounts" to "single character only" for merchandise without much of hint beforehand and seeing how we just got another paid retainer but no free one..well that voice is growing louder...I mean why take the time to make those into solo duties (even though they had years) if you could just go for the easiest solution with the cutscenes and hope that people still stick around and if they dont they still can buy a potion..

[Reynhart]

It doesn't even matter how well this solution solves or doesn't solve the problem SE set out to 'fix' - it actually ignores the majority of scenarios and therefore is severely lacking.

The thing is that new players that like to see cutscenes were frequently forced to follow the fast pace, now they're free to enjoy the run as they see fit. On the other hand, if you think this roulette does not worth it for you, no one is forcing you to run it, so you're free to not queue for it.

Yeah I have that voice in my head too..and seeing how they somehow changed the "item for all accounts" to "single character only" for merchandise without much of hint beforehand and seeing how we just got another paid retainer but no free one..well that voice is growing louder...

Not really tied to the "jump potion vs MSQ roulette topic", but if you want another hint at how they want us to buy things, what about the shameful ad for buying garlond's attire from Mogstation in the first cutscene of the new Omega, after asking you if you really want that outfit ?

[BillyKaplan]

The thing is that new players that like to see cutscenes were frequently forced to follow the fast pace, now they're free to enjoy the run as they see fit.

Criticizing this new solution which makes people not run the roulette (a direct contradiction of why it was even put up in the first place) does not mean people here think things were fine before. You can leave that sort of strawman argument at the door. The fact remains this so called solution caters to the minority of people who run those places. And no, they can't enjoy the run as they see fit, no one can, we all have to watch the scenes in their entirety whether they like it or not. The newbies who want the scenes can't even watch it at their own pace since they're auto scrolling.

[Reynhart]

Criticizing this new solution which makes people not run the roulette (a direct contradiction of why it was even put up in the first place) does not mean people here think things were fine before. You can leave that sort of strawman argument at the door. The fact remains this so called solution caters to the minority of people who run those places.

Problem is, in a story driven game like this one, the first time you run these dungeons should be a memorable one. And it's more important to safeguard this that to keep offering this method of leveling/farming for experienced players when there are dozens of other ones. And again, if you need both Xp and poetic tomestone, it's still a very good option, even for experienced players.

Frankly, for these two, I'd even double the reward to force an item sync, preventing people from facerolling it, since it kills a lot of the tension.

[BillyKaplan]

Problem is, in a story driven game like this one, the first time you run these dungeons should be a memorable one.

You're right, which is why I ran the place unsynced with my FC buddies. But there's more than one way to solve this.
You know what would've also been epic? Running the place with the GC's elites in a solo duty. No queues to worry about, go at your own pace. This literally solves all issues and improves the experience besides.

And again, if you need both Xp and poetic tomestone, it's still a very good option, even for experienced players.

The duty is still hardly interactive which is very offputting for a lot of people, regardless of awards. Plus it's way long and people will not have the time to add it to their daily routine.

[Reynhart]

You know what would've also been epic? Running the place with the GC's elites in a solo duty. No queues to worry about, go at your own pace. This literally solves all issues and improves the experience besides.

Who knows, maybe one day they'll increase the squadron size to full party and allow us to run these along with trials. But if that happens, they can simply delete the MSQ roulette.

The duty is still hardly interactive which is very offputting for a lot of people, regardless of awards.

Frankly, to this day, I still think Meridianum is the best designed dungeon of the game, no being shaped like a "straight line" and having you interact with the environnement, either by using the cannons, deactivating the alarm, or avoided the tracking lights.

[Krotoan]

Let's revisit this statement, shall we? The problem in this case is "New players are in the roulette and want to see cutscenes and enjoy the duty as it was intended".
But sadly, that's a very specific case. More often than not you'll likely find no new players in that duty, new players who don't care about cutscenes, or new alts who have seen the cutscenes dozens of times before and couldn't care less.
It doesn't even matter how well this solution solves or doesn't solve the problem SE set out to 'fix' - it actually ignores the majority of scenarios and therefore is severely lacking.

The other two possibilities for people running that same roulette were: People who wanted another "daily" bonus and people who want to just run through the story for alts or completing it and don't care about the story.

Right?

You're talking about what happened through the old system. People would run it BECAUSE it was a decent way to grab another chunk of XP. Not because it was MSQ, that just happened to be one checkmark on a list they could tick off every day for an extra bit. There were less involved things to run constantly if you weren't going for the daily bonus. Things that were more "efficient".

The things they were actually getting complaints about were from new players basically quitting because the MSQ ending which should have been an epic experience, was toxic, rushed and a mishmash of cutscene after cutscene that made no sense. They were then plunged into the end of the game(arr) without any understandable context. You can search for yourself. There were several threads even on the forum about it.
The reason posted by the devs themselves "We'll be making adjustments to the main scenario dungeons, so that new players can enjoy them without worrying."
It doesn't matter? So the people who want to play this game and experience the story, something for which this game is KNOWN and in my opinion sets it apart from all of it's competition, don't matter?

[Faeon]

I don't think there is any real way to fix this issue, no matter what they do other option would be to just delete the ARR and HW requirement dungeons and give them the cutscenes with added characters in there like you see your character on the magic tech mount killing the arms etc. but you not doing it yourself.