Skipping cutscenes in MSQ Roulette

[van_arn]

This is a common thing with everything. Not only in this game, but life. For simplicity sake though, I will stick with the game. It is always much tougher to get to the meat, than it is to actually eat it. As an example, when I craft, it takes me WAY longer to acquire the means and the mats to craft something difficult than it does to actually craft it. The same can be said for MSQ roulette. The battles are short and brainless, but the cutscenes are filled with story content, and that is the purpose.

Don't go into MSQ roulette expecting any kind of hard fought battle to clear. If you do, you're probably five years late to the game. This roulette is all allowing first timers experiencing the story as intended.

Sorry no, the current MSQ roulette is not allowing new players to experience the story as intended. "Intended" would include some awesome, memorable, fights in Praetorium and those have been absolutely ruined.

[Aerlana]

This roulette is all allowing first timers experiencing the story as intended.

before the change : the first boss dies before the room is closed or 2-3 second after, while the firsttimer is in cutscene. He didnt see anything from the fight.

After the change : the first boss dies before the room is closed or 2-3 second after, the first timer did see the boss had a healthbar... and that he is useless as fight.


So, now it is experiencing fight as intended? the story is not only seeing cutscene + healthbar... The Nero fight is nothing now, he dies before the 3rd hand (sometime before the 2nd) you can ignore all kind of mechanics. except the begining of ultima due to the -99% damages. Before the change, when we had the "newbie bonus" we knew there was a new guy. yes he didnt see all the speed run strategies to do trashs faster, (aka PACK THEM ALL) and didnt see the boss being killed faster that the time needing to take a drink. But most of time, (all except when they were silly guys) we did wait for some specific time, like entering nero fight, gaius, ultima. or even Livia for the other dongeon. Some people made sure the newcomer find how to go after first castrum boss (staying near the thing to click on) etc. . .

What they did miss was the fights, that was a little impressiv when we were less than 50 ilvl average... (impressiv for some fight... because in castrum except livia... meeeeeh) but dont have anything to show now. They die without showing even one mechanic. Even Ultima, dont show anything of his skills... And with 7 people ilvl 110 (if i dont do mistake) it is nothing surprising... Would prefer being able to skip CS and do some trash while the newcomer watch CS and have "real" boss fight because we are ilvl 60, than what we have now... i would prefer this in the name of "experiencing the story as inteded"

I would have more fun personnally also... because raping boss like we do is nothing fun... for us old players or for the newcomer...

(and the best thing "for the newcomer to experience the story" would be having both bosssfight longer than 20 seconds AND no skipping CS. )

[Ilenya]

Before the change, when we had the "newbie bonus" we knew there was a new guy. yes he didnt see all the speed run strategies to do trashs faster, (aka PACK THEM ALL) and didnt see the boss being killed faster that the time needing to take a drink. But most of time, (all except when they were silly guys) we did wait for some specific time, like entering nero fight, gaius, ultima. or even Livia for the other dongeon. Some people made sure the newcomer find how to go after first castrum boss (staying near the thing to click on) etc. . .

Yeah, the thing is...People *didn't* wait. Back at the beginning of ARR, Praetorium was the best way to get the tomes for gear, and people were rushing newbies through it, trying to force people to skip cutscenes and complaining when a new player had the gall to not know where to go, but not bothering to *show* the right path. As time went on it was less useful than other methods for tomes, so it became less of an issue, but people still were forcing skips or just rushing bosses while new players were in cutscenes. Yes, some waited...But in my experience, a majority didn't.

Come to think of it, why isn't there a ilevel sync for the dungeon?

[van_arn]

Come to think of it, why isn't there a ilevel sync for the dungeon?

Because Square is utterly incapable of maintaining content or pivoting to the playerbase's reaction to content.

They could've fixed all of this five years ago by making them soloable, but instead spent those five years making the fights more and more trivial whilst never fixing the issue of contention: the cutscenes themselves in a 8-man party.

The issue has never actually been people telling people to skip cutscenes or watching cutscenes; that's just the symptom. The problem has always been the existence of the cutscenes breaking up 8-man content over and over.

[Berethos]

The problem has always been the existence of the cutscenes breaking up 8-man content over and over.

A phenomenon that occurs in just about 2.5% of the 8 man content currently available (or 1.5% if we count all duties available), that also sits in its own queue, and is only visited by those who are new, those in the mentor queue, and those looking to gain the boosted roulette rewards via a single laid-back duty.

Truly, a massively major issue that is grinding the game to a halt that SE should have fixed years ago.

Or maybe, just maybe, not being able to skip the scenes in such a small portion of the game is getting way overblown as an issue.

Honestly, some of ya'll are pushing really hard on this - do ya'll really want the old skippable version with the old rewards (that don't make it worth running much either) that much? Or do you actually think they'd let you skip but keep the boosted XP and tomestone reward?

[Fynlar]

And I hope you do get EX primals in your Mentor Roulettes, especially Titan, Mog, Ramuh, Thordan, Sephirot, Nidhogg, or Zurvan EX.

It happens, more often than I get these two dungeons. But since it takes all but 2 minutes to determine if the group is worth my time, I tend to give them a chance to see if I feel they have the potential to win. If I'm not convinced after the first one or two runs, I leave. Again, I value my time too highly to stick around for an hour, especially if I feel like it will be a lost cause and I'll have nothing to show for it except worn down gear.


I personally never agreed with them putting any extreme trials on this roulette either, for what it's worth. Mentor roulette IMO should primarily be there for new players looking to clear content for story progression, and extreme trials are not there for new players or for story; they are there for the more experienced players looking for a challenge.

Also, there will be 4-man dungeon runs that will have below-average players who will make the dungeon last longer than 30 minutes. Will you bite the bullet through completing the dungeon or taking a 30-minute penalty. It's not a question of if that will happen, but when as you pursue your Astrope mount goal.

I don't care about that. I'm not some hardcore elitist GOTTA GO FAST person. It still doesn't mean I don't ever draw any lines somewhere.

[JCharms]

Im going to quote myself from one of the many threads on this subject.

Another one of these threads.
When will the majority of people complaining in these posts finally realise that if they ever do spend the resources to fix this issue, then one of two things will happen, the roulette will no longer exist or the rewards and massive XP will be removed... There is no option three.
When you finally reconcile this fact, then you will able to make that decision to do it or not and move on.

[van_arn]

Im going to quote myself from one of the many threads on this subject.

Delete the dungeons and the roulettes. They're failed to maintain them for years, and their continued presence is a beacon of incompetence.

[van_arn]

And I hope you do get EX primals in your Mentor Roulettes, especially Titan, Mog, Ramuh, Thordan, Sephirot, Nidhogg, or Zurvan EX.

When I do get CM or Prae in Mentor Roulette, even with the skippable cutscenes, I know I'm gonna clear them compared to ANY EX Primal, Ultima Hard, or Odin. I will still get rewarded gil, tomes, and a win for my mentor roulette streak. Rewards that I won't take for granted and sure as hell won't squander, especially when I do Main Scenario Roulette.

Also, there will be 4-man dungeon runs that will have below-average players who will make the dungeon last longer than 30 minutes. Will you bite the bullet through completing the dungeon or taking a 30-minute penalty. It's not a question of if that will happen, but when as you pursue your Astrope mount goal.

Instantly ditch an ex roulette and the party usually collapses, easy solution. Df isn't for ex, that's what pf is for.

[MStowastiqVahlshdeh]

I am glad that they made the change to require cutscenes because it was awful before, when new players would come in and get harassed over choosing to use something the way it was intended to be used by the game design.

I was always cool with people watching them, before the mandatory rule was added, but having it this way, takes the focus off of the players who want to enjoy the storyline in the duty

We have a choice and a massive experience point bonus to reward us for running it. When I am in a hurry, I don't do the duty, simple. But I try to run it as often as I have time for, when I need to gain exp fast.

Right now, with the influx of new players and also those leveling alts for the car mount, its a great time to get that million plus exp bonus by using main scenario roulette!