no more hard dungeons

[Kisshu]

What content did we gain from losing a dungeon on odd patches in SB again? Eureka?

In HW the dungeons were cut down from 3 each patch to 2, so 5 dungeons. The content we got was Diadem and the relaunch.

In SB the dungeons were cut down to 1 every uneven patch, so 3 dungeons. We got Eureka and Ultimates.

I would assume that if the dev team was roughly the same size between HW and SB, and their work-distribution was roughly the same, then the dev-time that was freed to make Diadem was then transfered to make Eureka in the SB, and the extra dev-time freed in SB was used for Ultimates.

One thing that I fear is that we're going to almost completely lose optional dungeons. They were great for telling smaller, different stories that doesn't really fit into the MSQ, but are interesting non the less.
2.x had several optional dungeons, Halatali, Quarn, Cutter's Cry, Vale and 15 at lv 50, a mix of new and HM versions.
HW had a decent amount, SB had fewer since the cut dungeons were mostly the optional ones. Both had 1 optional in their leveling group.
At this point in SHB we only had the two optional dungeons Twinning and Anyder, both good dungeons, but I fear that going forward we're only going to see dungeons tied into the MSQ and lose out on optional stories.

[SieyaM]

Dungeons in their current state have carved out their gameplay and reward structure niche.

Exploration and puzzles are fun, but IMO better suited to other forms of content such as solo quests, or large duties like Eureka where one or two people can be off exploring while other people focused on being efficient can do them etc. Or puzzles/exploration worked into quests etc.

Dungeons are meant to be spammed day after day. So those exploration elements are going to get old, and cause conflict with people who want their tomes etc. We have deep dungeon for randomly generated content.

I'm all for exploration, hidden bosses, etc, but I don't think dungeons in FFXIV are the place to put optional or explroation/puzzle based content. Just as deep dungeon isn't somewhere you want tight dps checks on bosses, and msq instances shouldn't have savage level mechanics etc.

Part of the reason deep dungeons are so loose with DPS checks and damage output is because they don't require any kind of party composition, at least in the lower levels they are low effort. They could change this around and start requiring a real party to queue and making the deep dungeons a little more difficult with more rewards for exploration, but they really are set right now as a place to level your other jobs, and I doubt they want to lose that use of them.

[dinnertime]

At this point in SHB we only had the two optional dungeons Twinning and Anyder, both good dungeons, but I fear that going forward we're only going to see dungeons tied into the MSQ and lose out on optional stories.

We'll still get stories from the new content they'll replace the cut dungeon content, though. Also you forgot Deep Dungeons which also has a story...somewhat.