I hope Square doesn't keep deeming certain content unnecessary

[Jeeqbit]

It was not, we had Eureka's 4 zones and BA for SB, but we also had HoH, Tataru's outfit, Allied tribe quest, more EX dungeons, ponctual events, two Ultimates, and possibly more I don't remember were cut.
Despite reaping more money in than ever with ShB, SE didn't give it back to us as content nearly as much as they did in the past.

I implied that 2 of the eureka areas that were cut were replaced with some of the things I mentioned.

None of the Eureka areas had Critical Engagements. What I explained about them involving the same sort of work as dungeons bosses is important to consider. In eureka we effectively just had skirmishes, which is just make a mob bigger and more powerful and call it a boss. There was sometimes mechanic work but I don't think it was on quite the same scale for most of them except the big one in each area like pazuzu. The critical engagements have the sort of mechanics we would expect in dungeons and raids.

And of course we didn't have a Dalriada, a Delubrum Reginae, DRS, firmament or ocean fishing areas. You can argue that level design work from eureka transferred into all of these extra things but the boss fights and mechanics would most likely lend work from the 2 extra expert dungeons and the deep dungeon fights that were cut.

I think that the Allied beast tribes, the ultimate and holiday events were cut because of covid. I am guessing on the Allied beast tribes and holiday events, but if I was a producer it would be a pretty obvious decision to cut "small" things like holidays and allied quests to make up for covid backlog. They've never cut holidays this way so it seems pretty obvious why.

The second ultimate has even had a lot of work on it so it's not really fair to say that this was cut for other content, it's been said it was done because of covid backlog getting in the way and needing to prioritise the expansion.

I have no idea how some little Tataru outfit can come into this. What is that even about?

[SaberMaxwell]

The argument that ultimate was cut doesn't stem from how much work was put into it. The argument that ultimate has been "cut" is derived from the assertion that the content cycle's norm is 2 ultimates per expansion.

If we accept that each expansion has two ultimates, then unless endwalker has three ultimates (the one delayed from shadowbringers and the two assumedly slated for it), then an ultimate was cut. Maybe not dragonsong ultimate, but *an* ultimate.

In the framework of this argument, let's say endwalker has only two ultimates; one would be dragonsong ultimate, which is a Shadowbringers Ultimate, and the other would be an endwalker ultimate. This means that, unless 7.0 has 3 ultimates, including the second from endwalker, an ultimate was cut.

One can argue several points; the premise is flawed since we have a data set of two (storm blood and Shadowbringers) so we cannot form a pattern from that. This would be the more legitimate argument imo. One could also continually make the argument nothing was cut and everything was just delayed, which... Well, the devs can ride that "borrowing from the future" train forever to never admit that content was cut, we'll just have this same scuffle every two years about the subject.

[Jeeqbit]

I'm not disputing it was cut but the reason it was cut was covid, not to redistribute resources elsewhere like expert dungeons were.

[ZedxKayn]

The argument that ultimate was cut doesn't stem from how much work was put into it. The argument that ultimate has been "cut" is derived from the assertion that the content cycle's norm is 2 ultimates per expansion.

If we accept that each expansion has two ultimates, then unless endwalker has three ultimates (the one delayed from shadowbringers and the two assumedly slated for it), then an ultimate was cut. Maybe not dragonsong ultimate, but *an* ultimate.

In the framework of this argument, let's say endwalker has only two ultimates; one would be dragonsong ultimate, which is a Shadowbringers Ultimate, and the other would be an endwalker ultimate. This means that, unless 7.0 has 3 ultimates, including the second from endwalker, an ultimate was cut.

One can argue several points; the premise is flawed since we have a data set of two (storm blood and Shadowbringers) so we cannot form a pattern from that. This would be the more legitimate argument imo. One could also continually make the argument nothing was cut and everything was just delayed, which... Well, the devs can ride that "borrowing from the future" train forever to never admit that content was cut, we'll just have this same scuffle every two years about the subject.

The next ultimate being originally planned for 5.5 but later delayed does imply that 2 per expac is the intended cycle norm.

[KizuyaKatogami]

The resources were obviously redistributed to new ideas, like Delubrum Reginae, Delubrum Reginae Savage, Memoria Misera, a second BA-like thing (Dalriada), critical engagements (which each involve the same amount of design work as dungeon bosses), the Firmament, ocean fishing, crafter and gatherer overhauls and QoL.

The thing is. Critical engagement bosses are really no different than eureka bosses.SB was able to give us 4 new zones, all filled with these bosses. Memoria Misera isnt really anything new since SB gave us Rathalos and Ratahlos EX while also giving us an extra trial in the form of Yojimbo. Delubrum and its savage version basically equate up to if not slightly less than the amount of bosses we'd get in a deep dungeon. Lets not forget btw, we also lost out on things such as no primal weapons for the new jobs, no new ultimate weapon models for them, no voiced alli or weapons trials, and plenty more. Resources werent just redistributed. We lost out on content. SB was able to give us extra dungeons, deep dungeon,hildibrand,allied beast tribe questline,diving,an entire new housing district,two ultimates, and much more. Content has been downgraded from last expansion and a lot of it is prior to covid so theres really no excuse for it.The only difference btw that a critical engagement has over some of the eurek abosses is that its an eclosed area. It makes you feel like youre fighting some bigger than it actually is. It's still around the same amount of mechanics.Hell one of the critical engagements is literally a pazuzu clone lmao.

[ReynTime]

Speaking of, I actually don't like when there is content that just stops but is still in the game. Guildhest and combat guildleve are two such contents. I've said in the past that combat guildleve is my favorite type of open world content, but since they're not updating it, I'd rather these two contents be removed and adjust the rewards for other contents to compensate.

I'm not sure how I feel about contents that seem to be replaced, like squadron-trust. If they roll trust to older contents, then I would be fine with removing squadron. Otherwise, I guess it could stay as it has distinguishable features, like being related to the GC.

If the content is still in even if not expanded upon then there are going to be people, even if very few, who like it being there.
I for one like the concept of guildleves and wish there were more combat leves past 58. The issue I take with them is that they added QoL improvements over 1.X but also made them ultra trivial to complete and super unrewarding in Heavensward. The fact you lose allowances for accepting to join a duty was a really stupid oversight too, in addition to Heavensward's levemete being located only in Ishgard, making trips take a chunk of the little gil reward you get just to confirm completion of leves.

Honestly battlecraft leves would be a neat alternative for leveling with a party of select few friends when you're tired of duties and FATEs don't let you do it at your own pace. I'm really disappointed they just dropped them. But I also use them for alts ocasionally and would hate to see the ones that exist removed.

[Jeeqbit]

The thing is. Critical engagement bosses are really no different than eureka bosses.

Yes they are. Yoshi-P has said they are different than fate bosses. He explained that Skirmishes could be done in the open world, but that Critical Engagements are different and involves the sort of work that would go into a dungeon boss. That changes a lot, really, because that means they redistributed resources that would go into making dungeon mechanics and did it in Bozja and Zadnor.

[ReynTime]

The thing is. Critical engagement bosses are really no different than eureka bosses.SB was able to give us 4 new zones, all filled with these bosses. Memoria Misera isnt really anything new since SB gave us Rathalos and Ratahlos EX while also giving us an extra trial in the form of Yojimbo. Delubrum and its savage version basically equate up to if not slightly less than the amount of bosses we'd get in a deep dungeon. Lets not forget btw, we also lost out on things such as no primal weapons for the new jobs, no new ultimate weapon models for them, no voiced alli or weapons trials, and plenty more. Resources werent just redistributed. We lost out on content. SB was able to give us extra dungeons, deep dungeon,hildibrand,allied beast tribe questline,diving,an entire new housing district,two ultimates, and much more. Content has been downgraded from last expansion and a lot of it is prior to covid so theres really no excuse for it.The only difference btw that a critical engagement has over some of the eurek abosses is that its an eclosed area. It makes you feel like youre fighting some bigger than it actually is. It's still around the same amount of mechanics.Hell one of the critical engagements is literally a pazuzu clone lmao.

But we got... umbrellas! And photo stickers, and more scrip turn-ins (but this time there was a STORY!) with repurposed diadem again! And ex... ex.. exploration mode...
And I mean, sure we haven't gotten any actual "expert" dungeons after 5.1 but uh... we got... cool MSQ solo fights that we do once and never again...

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

I'm less concerned about the devs making content I dislike (Eureka/Bozja) than I am about them locking the relic weapon questlines behind said content.

I know the devs can't tailor every bit of content to me specifically, but I preferred the way we got relic weapons in Heavensward. I basically noped out of Stormblood's relic because of how much I hated Eureka, but thought SE had learned from that when I saw there were alternative methods outside of Bozja to advance the Shadowbringers relic... until there weren't. I can't express how disappointed I was when I hit the stage of the relic quest that had no alternative but to do Bozja. So I noped out of another expansion's relic quest. Since SE said that how we acquire relics in Endwalker will be different, I'm hoping that means the next relic won't be tied to any sort of Eureka/Bozja-like content.

The relic weapons, and their respective questlines in ARR and HW, were content for me. That content was effectively removed once they became gated behind content I abhor. I also want them to make more dungeons not less. Losing dungeons for things like Eureka/Bozja really stings for me.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Yes they are. Yoshi-P has said they are different than fate bosses. He explained that Skirmishes could be done in the open world, but that Critical Engagements are different and involves the sort of work that would go into a dungeon boss. That changes a lot, really, because that means they redistributed resources that would go into making dungeon mechanics and did it in Bozja and Zadnor.

well i have to say it certainly doesnt feel like it. They have the same amount of mechanics as a eureka boss, theyre just in an enclosed space. Nevertheless though my overall points still stands. We're missing content. We were missing content before covid was a thing, and we're still missing content period. I hate seeing it used as an excuse when there were already things beforehand we were missing out on.