Bozja feedback thread

[rxantos]

Just as predicted. It was fun for a small amount of time while people went in droves. Just as Eureka.
And just as Eureka. It stopped being fun when people stopped going in droves. It was the people and the chaos and not the content that made it fun. Story wise it was boring. Then again we where spoiled by Shadowbringers.

IMO it was a mistake to give the mounts on coffers. Or being able to sell them. Those should have been exclusives to people that actually won the duels.
The duels themselves should be personal duties for anyone to try on their own time. There is no reason to make them public, except perhaps narcissism.

I did like the concept of having everyone at the same item level. Enough to want it for duties. As a healer I do see tanks going underequiped on duties and this would solve it.

I also liked the concept of having 2 abilities from another class. Including old abilities no longer on characters. Give them a 30 minutes timeout before being reused and allow them on any duty. Maybe require learning the job of the ability before using it while doing another job.

[Jekyll]

Having recently obtained the Sword of the South title, I do believe the Duel system requires some additional review and/or enhancements. I can't presume to know better than the developers; however, I would recommend some sort of additional qualifiers to enter the Duels. Examples could be rank, key lost action availability, or potentially even a way to purchase a one-time use "Duel Priority" with clusters.

Separate and apart from Duels, it does appear (anecdotally) that Castrum has seen decreased participation since the Skirmish/CE coin rewards were introduced.

[Novae]

Now that I'm done with leveling and the Guardian Angel title, I have 0 incentive to go back to Bozja. Not even for my relics, which is a shame really. I don't understand why the best way to get a lvl 80 weapon is to farm outdated and boring content in level 50-60 zones. What's next? Grinding CT roulette forever to get the 3rd step of our relic done? And for the 4th step, Sastasha? Leves?
Why being punished over people who don't want to participate in current content? Give me something to do in Bozja, not in Heavensward !

[Derio]

Castrum rewards needs to be looked at for sure. The amount of coins it gives is not worth it considering you can get the same amount or more by doing the skirmishes and CE outside.

[Driavna]

It is frustrating no one is doing Castrum Latore anymore. It’s dead only a month after being released. I haven’t had a chance to complete it. The story is locked behind it. Eureka Anemos, for all its faults, wasn’t dead after a month. It is just sad.

This is a sad reality for a lot of content in FFXIV. If you are not around at release chances are you either can't experience it or will be way harder to find parties for it.

[MariaArvana]

It is frustrating no one is doing Castrum Latore anymore. It’s dead only a month after being released. I haven’t had a chance to complete it. The story is locked behind it. Eureka Anemos, for all its faults, wasn’t dead after a month. It is just sad.

To be fair, Anemos isn't really the most accurate comparitor here. Bozja itself is still quite active outside of Castrum, which would be the better comparison since Anemos didn't have any 48man dungeon-esque content and only field content; and the field content in Bozja is still soaring in popularity (especially the duels + cluster farms.)
The apt comparison here would be Hydatos + The Baldesion Arsenal. Which while technically was more active than Castrum, was also basically impossible to truly pug it due to it being almost exclusively ran through the BA discords. So in some sense, Castrum does achieve being infinitely more accessible. It's only issue is that the rewards are barely worth it. Fix the rewards and Castrum's popularity would soar back high again easily.

[Kewitt]

I liked this content is was just Fates for the most part but, after hitting rank 15 I haven't gone back in.
I should do a cluster farm but that isn't very fun. I could get most coins but the augmented gear doesn't really seem worth it.

Maybe if the Augmented gear gave +20 on each stat making it clearly better gear for the zone it would be worth it but .1 seconds off cooldown doesn't make a big difference.

I know, .1 second off GCD adds up over time. But being able to solo content as this stuff gets older would make a big difference.

[LalafellDown]

Boss fates are fun and should be incorporated into over world and scale depending on how many people queued to fight boss. That way if only one person queued up they can enjoy the fight and not struggle.

Items and skills in bozja should have an upgrade feature but not as a requirement to beat certain big issues or clear certain content instead fun feature to become over powered. Reason for this after reaching level 10 and beating the final mission the content gets old fast. Fates repeat on a endless cycle. Would be nice to not have to depend on getting a group together to clear the content when you can do it yourself. Also after clearing content for the thousandth time why not. Why do I need to see the same fight again and again.

Fate trains are still here except there’s no wait time. Guess it’s good, but it’s still fate trains. Collecting 20 memories each is too much. 10 or 15 is good enough to see all the content in bozja. I say this because due to bad RNG I was stuck in the middle zone at 15 memories. I’ve seen all the fates repeat in multiple cycles over and over again. I don’t see why this would be enjoyable or required. I don’t need to see the same fate for the 5th time just to fill time. I recommend the devs add more objectives and not depend on RNG.

Perhaps add some challenge logs objectives like mini achievements. Like raise some people. Here’s a memory. Heal some people 10000hp, here’s a memory. Maybe allow us to take 1 of our grand company recruits that will help us during our fights. Allowing us to grow that recruit in Bozja where they will tag along with us. Allow us to grow them unlocking powerful tag team limit break attacks combos to take down bosses and adds. Maybe with each with each weapon strike, jump, sprint, heal or sneak I gain experience in that field that boosts my attributes. Not as a requirement, but as a fun extra add on.

Maybe add some unique vehicles that unlock to players who do well. That allows them to kill things faster for a quick bonus.

[Nightshade]

Pointing out all the problems is all well and good, but what's the solution? There's a few I thought about, but they all come down with problems of their own.

1. Up the occurences of the duels. Doing that, however, would mean the matching CEs and Skirmishes would pop more often. Every 30 mins wouldn't be good enough. Every 15 mins might do the trick, but then it would hurt Castrum even more if people could just farm the same 3 CEs every 15 minutes. It will be fixing a problem and setting another one on fire.
2. Prioritize people who has "the better chance". Needless to say, how do you even determine that? There's no way to know who is "truly qualified" and who isn't until they go in.
3. Priority Deployment like for CEs. I can see this making the problem even worse if not handled well or become very costly. A low cost would mean getting into a duel without it would be nigh impossible. A high cost, on the other hand, would fix the problem but then what is that high cost?
4. Make it individual instances instead of being in the, well, instance so everyone qualified can have a go. Yes, this could work but then the boost given to people who watched a win would no longer be a thing. Granted, said boost is very lackluster these days with most people hitting Rank 15 and considering how rare duel victories are in the first place, barely anyone knows about it. It would be the most viable sacrifice. Yet, it's still a sacrifice.

So what is the solution? Well, so far, the only one that I feel works out best is this: replace the lottery 1 pick to a lottery queue. You qualified to the duel from the past CE? Awesome. However, it's still 1 on 1 fights. Someone has to go first. Fine. But if that first person loses, why stop there? Bring in the 2nd contestant and have them have their chance. Keep going until you either reach a cap (5?), run out of qualified fighters or victory is achieved. If the first person turns out to be a hopeless dud, you still got a chance. You just have a good laugh on how silly that was instead of being bitter about losing your chance to a steam rolled performance. No one managed to win? Then at least everyone had a chance to do it but didn't pull it off because of their own failings. Someone wins before you get your chance? That's unfortunate but at least people get the win benefit (though that alone also needs to be boosted). Plus, there's a chance that the victor will not come back to do it again later if they had what they wanted be it achievements or just the win. If so, then that's one competition less to worry about for next time.

It's a real shame though because on paper, I really liked the idea of duels. It might be an online game, but it is lacking in challenging solo content outside of some Masked Carnivale fights for BLU. Duels are tough and only people with the knowledge and skills prevail from them. At least, that's how I perceive it since I can never get into one to experience it myself.