Linear, linear, linear

[Mikey_R]

To be fair, the larger factor was in the very next sentence that you left out: in non-optimal situations, the contextually optimal path shifted, because you'd arrive at different times relative to the Tonberry's patroling position.

And they could easily force variance (rotating which path is essentially barred, which will proportionately often include the path that'd be most time-efficient if the patrol did not exist) by just varying the patrol's starting position on dungeon start.

They could also have just had more opportunities for the oils to drop (with still only the original number being required, and no further drops occurring after you had acquired enough). The means of creating non-linear pathing in that dungeon were right there, even if they weren't yet implemented in a way that'd last through wholly optimized play.

In short, I don't think you guys are in as great of disagreement as you seem to think, Mikey?

The next sentence doesn't do anything of the sort, as I implied, you done the same thing every single time. There was no 'organically different route' based on team DPS, as the route was the same every time, it did not change.

As for the Tonberries, their locations were very predictable, which leads me to believe they do not even spawn until you are close, likely when you open the door and step into the room itself. If you want to start playing around with different spawn locations and different routes for the large Tonberries, you have to take into account that there are fixed locations you need to go to. Right at the start, the middle, by the exit door and in the NE corner is the locations for all the switches. You get enough oil for 2 switches from the room prior, so you have 2 switches left, and 2 Tonberries to kill in the room. Unless you want to start moving the locations of the little Tonberries, you will still take the same route. However, if you do start moving the spawn locations of the small Tonberries, forcing people to have to look around for them, I suspect that will just be frustrating to people rather than something people will take a liking to.

As for RNG drops to progress, you either get lucky and you can progress quicker or you get unlucky and it takes a bit longer. It is, again, going to feel frustrating when the run is going to take longer just because RNG screwed with you for no reason.

And no, it is definitely a disagreement. Their claim was you can take multiple routes based on the Tonberries, so it isn't the same every time, and I completely disagreed with that claim. That is never how the dungeon was run (baring maybe week 1 when people were learning it, but I wasn't at that point at that time) but as soon as people found the fastest route, that is the one they will take and I guarantee, after 1 week, that route would have been the standard.

The rest of my post is just about trying to make a linear dungeon seem non-linear whilst still being linear. Whether that solution will please people who wanted a non linear dungeon, who knows (probably not), however, it is still something that can make each run of the same dungeon different, to a point. Only so many routes you can make after all.