Eureka... what were you expecting?

[Metalwrath]

It's how a lot of people figured it would be.It's just a remake of Diadem and nothing more.I've been warning players that i know for months that it would turn out like this so i had literally zero expectations for Eureka.
In a way though it doesnt affect me as much as others.I'd always decided long ago i'd be ignoring it and anything that mentions relic weapon too as they are same kind of content.Just one long boring grind so you can get your weapon to glow XD.
I think SE should have spent their time on other content though as Euraka will probably be forgotten about in a month or 2 when everyone has gotten the gear upgrades they wanted and the place ceases to have any use for the player base.

[Tranquilmelody7]

I expected something along of the lines of what we actually received, so I can't say I'm disappointed; but I am rather frustrated.

Square Enix has been ambiguous, tight lipped, or even flat-out lied regarding some of the previous development cycles of this game.

Several of Yoshi's statements that turned out to blatantly false are even advertised in this very forum, of which haven't seem to caught Square Enix's concern in the slightest.

With Eureka in it's previous state, I genuinely vastly prefer Diadem as I at least find it to worth the time to invest towards as a gather.

The inclusion of relic weapons in Eureka doesn't entice me to bother
with it in the slightest.

As far as I'm concerned, relic weapons have always been the same - soulless, hollow grindfests that function as ploys to keep playing this game in order to acquire what essentially amounts to overly glorified glamours.

[Liam_Harper]

Something along the lines of WoW's Timeless Isle/Argus model, not a carbon copy but something similar. A large open world land that had something for everyone, a large range of rewards and different ways to play and enjoy it. Easy mobs, elite mobs, rare mobs, Fates, dailies, rep, minions, mounts, treasures, gathering, crafting, invasions, proper story chain, that sort of thing.

Eureka is basically the Fate train. That's it. That's all you do there.

How could they develop for 17 months, create a huge detailed island and only manage to come up with a single activity for it?

[Solarra]

Something along the lines of WoW's Timeless Isle/Argus model, not a carbon copy but something similar. A large open world land that had something for everyone, a large range of rewards and different ways to play and enjoy it. Easy mobs, elite mobs, rare mobs, Fates, dailies, rep, minions, mounts, treasures, gathering, crafting, invasions, proper story chain, that sort of thing.

^this!

Plus:
I expected I'd be able to play with my friends (including those who started late).
I definitely expected to be able to go in solo when I had some free time and feel I'd achieved something regardless of how long I spent.
I expected interesting potions and items unique to the island in hidden locations or just randomly spawning, so exploring was rewarded.
I expected story. Rowena and Gerolt have a lot of history that could be explored and Krile's story was one I was particularly looking forward to but there's nothing there.
I expected longevity.
I'm not sure how feasible it will be to get a SB relic after the expansion but it looks like it will be brutal at best, assuming the fate to get the feathers can be solo'd.
I expected a quest hub that would keep people occupied for months and give them reasons to come in even after the relic is no longer current.
I expected content that was fun to do in itself, not something I'd actively dislike but might consider pushing myself through for the rewards.


What I didn't expect:
Nothing to do besides grind and ride the Fate-Train.
FtP-type time-waste mechanics like the pitiful XP from mob kills and the hefty death penalty.
The horrible culling issues.
Mounts and Aetherytes as rewards for levelling.
Not only is it frustrating not being able to attune below level 9 but high level players not needing to pass through areas where the lowbies are levelling might make getting rezzed difficult in the future. I'd have preferred everyone to have mounts and Aetheryte access or no one (the island isn't that big). Note: This wouldn't be an issue if there was any reason to explore.

Since we are basically spamming our rotations without a break while we are in there, I would have hoped (I admit I didn't expect) for some change to our abilities to make it less punishing on the hands.
People who played XI talk about having time to socialise and chat while fighting; I think I would have enjoyed this content more if we had a combat system that allowed that.

[Vstarstruck]

I was expecting new and innovate like they said, even more so when they said it needed to be delayed

With the comments made with leveling your gear being different (something along those lines, something like gear will progress with you) I thought it would be a new way of upgrading gear though battle (something like palace of the dead but done differently) with fully customize sub stats like 2.0 and 3.0 relics, like this:

All I expected was an entirely different way to level up my armor. Perhaps killing monsters of a certain element charged aspects that fueled different stats. Kill fire monsters for ATK and so forth. I'd have different goals as I went but it sounded like we were going to have more power over the customization of what we were wearing.
It was hard to think that they were going to give us anything other than a revolutionary system with how tight lipped and mysterious they were about it. Sure some people got a little overhyped, but that's kind of understandable. What I don't think anyone expected was for them to outright make it so... hostile.
FFXIV has always been forgiving since 2.0 at least. You learn by trial and error, you talk to people. Now? Better have a res with you or hope someone is nice enough to res your white magic user, or 25% down the toilet, possible delevel.

I expected more involvement in the build, not more time investment than ever before.

I feared it would just be diadem 3.0 though since SE shown in the past to have poor wording at times.
What I did not expect:

What I didn't expect:
Nothing to do besides grind and ride the Fate-Train.
FtP-type time-waste mechanics like the pitiful XP from mob kills and the hefty death penalty.
The horrible culling issues.
Mounts and Aetherytes as rewards for levelling.
Not only is it frustrating not being able to attune below level 9 but high level players not needing to pass through areas where the lowbies are levelling might make getting rezzed difficult in the future. I'd have preferred everyone to have mounts and Aetheryte access or no one (the island isn't that big). Note: This wouldn't be an issue if there was any reason to explore.

Since we are basically spamming our rotations without a break while we are in there, I would have hoped (I admit I didn't expect) for some change to our abilities to make it less punishing on the hands.
People who played XI talk about having time to socialise and chat while fighting; I think I would have enjoyed this content more if we had a combat system that allowed that.

I also did not expect level gap to be an issue, both from ffxiv and ffxi and what is in them to prevent that. This place is so pre-alpha even after all those delays i can't wrap my head around this happened. This is a joke right? I want to be put in the real world please.

I'm not asking for that with all content, just this one piece of arbitrary side content. Please, just make one piece of content that caters to people like me. We exist too.

nope, this side content you are trying to defend is simply bad, needs overhauling, it may or may not include nerfing, I do not care but it is very poor in the current state.

[Zumi]

Kind of expected what we got. There are a lot of people who like this content the zones are always full and tons of people of people by the kugane npc to enter too.

[Krotoan]

Kind of expected what we got. There are a lot of people who like this content the zones are always full and tons of people of people by the kugane npc to enter too.

Considering the option is do it NOW or be left behind to grind for days? I'm not surprised people are riding the initial wave. If people are willing to lowbie boost in a month or so my fears will be assuaged some but there is no feasible solo catchup possible right now.

[Fyce]

Considering the option is do it NOW or be left behind to grind for days? I'm not surprised people are riding the initial wave. If people are willing to lowbie boost in a month or so my fears will be assuaged some but there is no feasible solo catchup possible right now.

Apparently, the scaling seems to be really good. Even with a single group of 6-8 people in the instance you should be able to easily get things done.
You still won't be able to do anything effectively in solo, though. But that doesn't change from the current situation.

[Krotoan]

Apparently, the scaling seems to be really good. Even with a single group of 6-8 people in the instance you should be able to easily get things done.
You still won't be able to do anything effectively in solo, though. But that doesn't change from the current situation.

6-8 people around your level. Which may be the problem later. We're going to have 30-40 lvl 20's farming their stuff and a scattering of 1-15's who can't party with each other and have to grind solo. This is the problem I foresee. I have no difficulty completing NM's around my level in a party, but if I'm playing catch-up it's not going to be like that. I really hope it's NOT going to be like that but I don't see a solution currently in play or possible without changes.

later subscribers and players are going to have a much worse experience than those currently playing.

[Fyce]

6-8 people around your level. Which may be the problem later. We're going to have 30-40 lvl 20's farming their stuff and a scattering of 1-15's who can't party with each other and have to grind solo. This is the problem I foresee. I have no difficulty completing NM's around my level in a party, but if I'm playing catch-up it's not going to be like that. I really hope it's NOT going to be like that but I don't see a solution currently in play or possible without changes.

later subscribers and players are going to have a much worse experience than those currently playing.

Wait, why wouldn't the scattered players group up? Fate EXP isn't affected by party composition at all. And since even a Lv.1 can be a valuable party member by simply being a healer/rez mage/SMN, there's no reason not to take them with you. The Lv.15 will have a really easy time making lower level Fates spawn while still getting a chunk of EXP and crystals, and the Lv.1 would quickly get fate EXP while providing support. (Granted, tanks and other DPS won't be able to do much though...)
Besides, the Lv.20 players would likely join the fates on the occasion, as there's not really anything to "farm" in Eureka at high level. Once you kill Pazuzu (Lv.20 NM), you get your feathers and... well that's it. If you want crystals you'll have to do fates anyway.

The only issue being that lower level players will have a hard time not getting one-shotted by AoEs, but that why being able to choose what boss you want to fight is an invaluable improvement over regular Fate farm, Hunts and Diadem. The amount of control you have in Eureka is very high in that regards.

So, speaking out of my personal experience, I legitimately don't see the declining participation in Eureka to be much of an issue. Except in the absolute worst case scenarios... but even then, these probably won't occur before the content gets nerfed/improved.

I'm actually very surprised that SE managed to come up with a content which seems that it'd hold abandonment pretty well. And in regards to this thread's topic, I have to say that wasn't something I was expecting.
Time might prove me wrong, but so far it doesn't seems an actual concern to have.