So.... Main Scenario Roulette

[GarrEphemeral]

Yep, I know there are various posts on it already, but I just wanted (having recently returned to the game after a long hiatus) to give my 2 cents, after learning that the cutscenes have (since last I played) become a mandatory process.

Having read already several threads on this forum, with back and forth between the two camps on why there should (or shouldn't) be a case for either modifying the current situation, reverting back to the old system, or removing the roulette entirely, I came to a consensus that this roulette is by default a completely flawed system in it's current state, and I shall explain why...

Forcing people to watch cutscenes, in order to keep the dungeon process in check causes conflicting, negative, and more often than not a poor experience for the new players, in some respect even more so than when people previously could skip it and cut through the dungeon mobs to get to the next section.

I understand it completely when new players are upset because they feel like the dungeon experience is nothing more than just a series of cutscenes, and then it ends, it can be frustrating to feel that you were robbed of a dungeon experience as far as playing goes, when you have to decide between storyline cutscenes, and boss fights/level interaction.

However, having said that, this is a one time experience for new players, for the VAST majority, and by vast majority I mean everyone that isn't playing through this for the first time are having to forego several long and arduous cutscenes that bulk out, and result in a heavily disagreeable experience for the players in question, in what can only be describes as a "carrot on a string" routine as far as the rewards are concerned.

For myself, gathering poetics was important to help facilitate certain items or gear that i needed, amongst other things such as zodiac/anima weapon upgrades. The allure of getting that many poetics from a single roulette is just too much of a good deal to ignore, but at the great expense of a pretty terrible experience.

I'm sure a lot of you at this point are simply saying "Well, if you don't like it, don't do it...", and you'd be right, sort of. I mean, yes, it's an option, but it's also crazy difficult to ignore if you're after certain tomestones. How many of you reading this honestly would pass up on a good deal when you see one, even it if it involved facing a certain level of fortitude, and effort to get it. I would imagine most people would still go along with it, which furthers my point that this is why there is never any shortages for this roulette, despite the cutscene fiasco.

>> Contd.

[GarrEphemeral]

>> Contd

To summarize my thoughts, cutscenes should be an optional thing for players to watch/do, and not mandatory. If you're a new player and you want to experience this dungeon without the confines/limitation of a skippable cutscene party, then you should seek help linkshells, or dare i say it mentor groups to put together a group of 7 people who are more than happy to run you through the dungeon, cutscenes and all. In my humble opinion it should not be something that is thrust upon (what in reality) is the vast majority of the people entering this encounter, and people that have neither the patience, or the inclination to watch the same custscenes over and over several thousand times over a period of day/weeks/years etc.

People say we should be understanding of new players, but in a majority rule, why can't people be understanding of the majority of players who don't have the wish to sit through this day in, day out.

In the absence of any movement on either end, just remove the roulette, and create a dedicated, permanent SE linkshell that optional people can join to help new players complete the dungeon, or simply link anyone looking to complete the dungeon to online mentors who can decide to accept/decline the offer to heed a new players request for assistance in a storyline quest, or something along these lines.

What we should not do is continue this path of punishing players for wanting to collect important loot.

TLDR: Just another rant about custscenes in praetorium, and another perspective on how to fix it, or reasons why we should.

[DrWho2010]

i actually like getting Praetorium in msq roulette when i was levelling my melee classes to 70 - pretty much almost half the exp bar in that one run. just get to the part where you get the mount and then afk/netflix til it's over. lol

[GarrEphemeral]

i actually like getting Praetorium in msq roulette when i was levelling my melee classes to 70 - pretty much almost half the exp bar in that one run. just get to the part where you get the mount and then afk/netflix til it's over. lol

Hey man, that's cool that you enjoy it. I'm sure there are other out there that think the same, but couldn't we pool people such as yourself into one version (who aren't bothered), and others queue into another version (that are bothered). Then everyones happy.

[Kurando]

However, having said that, this is a one time experience for new players, for the VAST majority, and by vast majority I mean everyone that isn't playing through this for the first time are having to forego several long and arduous cutscenes that bulk out, and result in a heavily disagreeable experience for the players in question, in what can only be describes as a "carrot on a string" routine as far as the rewards are concerned.

What we should not do is continue this path of punishing players for wanting to collect important loot.

The MSQ roulette it's mostly intended for new players, and the rewards encourage older players to join it in order to keep the queues filled up. It's not necessary for players that have done this before to do it again, yes it was mentioned it gives lots of tomestones, but you can get this from a multitude of activities in the game, no one is forced to do the MSQ roulette to obtain them at all.

People say we should be understanding of new players, but in a majority rule, why can't people be understanding of the majority of players who don't have the wish to sit through this day in, day out.

You choose what you repeat in the game whether it's duties or something else, new players do not have that privilege when they need to progress the story. Every other duties majority rules and players can pull early, troll the party, do whatever the hell they want, the MSQ roulette are only two duties, no more that requires patience and not selfishness of those who want rewards over everything else. Don't queue up for it if you can't be bothered to deal with it.

[GarrEphemeral]

You choose what you repeat in the game whether it's duties or something else, new players do not have that privilege when they need to progress the story. Every other duties majority rules and players can pull early, troll the party, do whatever the hell they want, the MSQ roulette are only two duties, no more that requires patience and not selfishness of those who want rewards over everything else. Don't queue up for it if you can't be bothered to deal with it.

I've seen many people take this line of approach, and it's just a flawed logic. Just because something is optional, doesn't mean it should be done poorly.

It's a poor experience for anyone who wants to queue, period. It's clear there is a majority of people who find this experience to be disagreeable, instead of saying "don't like it, don't do it", we should be exploring measures to make this a fun experience, FOR ALL. We live in a world of inclusivity. How can we be inclusive, when we're excluding a proportion of the peoples voices?

[RylaBee]

The concept of those two MSQ dungeos was horrible idea, which SE knows very well - hence they never ever repeated it.

The reason why they still didnt reworked it - only made very controversial "fix" - is probably fact, that all development effort goest to current content, and they just dont think its worth the time to rework it.

However considering the effort they are willing to spend on equaly horrible grind-sidegame like Eureka, I'm not sure about the people making decisions here.

[Kurando]

I've seen many people take this line of approach, and it's just a flawed logic. Just because something is optional, doesn't mean it should be done poorly.

It's a poor experience for anyone who wants to queue, period. It's clear there is a majority of people who find this experience to be disagreeable, instead of saying "don't like it, don't do it", we should be exploring measures to make this a fun experience, FOR ALL. We live in a world of inclusivity. How can we be inclusive, when we're excluding a proportion of the peoples voices?

Put it this way, they will not do two versions of the same roulette, one with cutscenes and one without. The roulette without will return to having 40-50 tomestones for 10-15min runs as reward requiring 5-6 days to get to the 300 available now for doing one run even if it lasts 40-50 mins.

The Roulette is in the best way it can be without a complete overhaul of these duties, and resources are better spent elsewhere. Your logic is the flawed one because you are not happy you are getting everything for nearly nothing.

[MistakeNot]

I'm sure a lot of you at this point are simply saying "Well, if you don't like it, don't do it...", and you'd be right, sort of. I mean, yes, it's an option, but it's also crazy difficult to ignore if you're after certain tomestones.

You get so many tomestones for the MSQ roulette precisely because of the forced cutscenes. They increased the rewards when making the cutscenes non-skippable, and then increased them again later.
The tomestones are there to bribe you into running the MSQ roulette despite cutscenes.
Optional cutscenes would mean lower rewards - or did you think you could both have the cake and eat it?

[Kalise]

In the absence of any movement on either end, just remove the roulette, and create a dedicated, permanent SE linkshell that optional people can join to help new players complete the dungeon, or simply link anyone looking to complete the dungeon to online mentors who can decide to accept/decline the offer to heed a new players request for assistance in a storyline quest, or something along these lines.

Or get this...

They could create a dedicated, permanent Roulette that people can optionally choose to sign up for to help new players complete the dungeon.

Wouldn't that be a great idea?

I'm sure a lot of you at this point are simply saying "Well, if you don't like it, don't do it...", and you'd be right, sort of. I mean, yes, it's an option, but it's also crazy difficult to ignore if you're after certain tomestones. How many of you reading this honestly would pass up on a good deal when you see one, even it if it involved facing a certain level of fortitude, and effort to get it. I would imagine most people would still go along with it, which furthers my point that this is why there is never any shortages for this roulette, despite the cutscene fiasco.

It's honestly not "Crazy difficult to ignore". I'm personally after a TON of Poetics, but I don't do the MSQ Roulette because I don't find it fun or worth the time it takes to go through.

I have other avenues of grinding out Poetics that are more interesting that don't make me watch a bunch of cutscenes.

Literally, I can queue up to any of a number of level cap dungeons that give only Poetics instead of loot (Such as Aetherochemical Research Facility, which gives 150 Poetics per run with a bonus of 100 for having a new player which happens frequently as it is a MSQ dungeon)

I can even run dungeons like Wanderer's Palace (Hard) with Squadron for 100 poetics per run.

300 Poetics a day is not particularly special for sitting through all those cutscenes.

They're merely there to entice people to queue in order to help newbies get through their MSQ.