Relic ShB grind needs a hotfix!

[Packetdancer]

...especially since SE backtracked from their original plan of giving us an option to level our relic.

They didn't backtrack, though. They said that it would require advancing the Bozja story to advance the relic story, but that progressing within a stage (i.e., farming the materials) would be possible outside of Bozja. Which is what we have.

The problem is that:

1. This was not communicated super clearly. Not leastwise because 'the Bozja story' was not immediately obviously 'the story in the Southern Front' as opposed to 'the storyline about memories and Bozja Citadel and the history of Bozja'; yes, it became clear close to CLL that 'the story in the Southern Front' was inextricably intertwined with the story about Bozjan history (and memories), but I know a lot of people who thought the Southern Front storyline was a side-story, to provide an alternate way for folks to grind the relic materials and have a storyline around it. And if you never went into the Southern Front and advanced to CLL, you never got to the point where it became clear the stories were inextricably intertwined.
2. Previous steps had not required engagement with the story in the Southern Front, which led people to believe it never would. (To be fair, you couldn't have had it require advancing the Southern Front story previously because CLL was the first 'story milepost', and this is the first new relic stage we've gotten after anyone could've cleared CLL. And continuing the Bozja story without CLL would not be feasible, given the events therein...)
3. Many people proclaimed loudly and widely across the internet that Bozja would never be required, and while Square was hardly obligated to go respond to all those threads and blog posts and whatnot, they had to be aware that people were under that mistaken impression; it would not have hurt to have issued a correction.
4. Due to the previous points, some people were so convinced that even those of us who thought it was required honestly started to second guess. I'd been convinced originally that the Southern Front storyline was the main 'Bozjan' storyline and had said I thought it would be required for future relic steps), and got yelled down enough times that I stepped back and started being more equivocating. ("I guess since how they define 'the Bozja story' is vague, they haven't explicitly announced that the Southern Front storyline will be required for the next relic stage. But I'll point out they haven't explicitly announced it won't be, either. Still, you can get to this current stage without needing to do any of Bozja.") And I'm far from the only one I know who did that -- or others just stopped chiming in on those conversations because they didn't want to get into arguments. Which meant that as we got closer to a new relic step, there were fewer and fewer people pointing out that, hey, no, the Southern Front might be required to advance the Bozjan weapons, and more and more voices going "Oh boy, new relic! And we don't have to do that weird Eureka 2.0 stuff!"

All of which combine to mean a lot of people genuinely believed they wouldn't need to do the Southern Front to advance the relic, and some even were under the impression it was outright promised by Square-Enix. And as a result, they feel at best disappointed and misled, and at worst outright betrayed and lied to.