No exploratory content

[KageTokage]

Speculation when we dont have all info yet nor do we know what else is planned for 7.0/7.x

Going off the precedent laid down by the previous fanfests, we shouldn't expect much more then what we've already seen.

We're liable to just get the two new jobs and female Hrothgar detailed, and maybe the names of the new raids.

[Archeron]

I don't want to shoot down 7.0 already... But I'm feeling underwhelmed with what they are adding.

I am really hoping we do NOT get a continuation of more Island sanctuary and criterion dungeons. This sounds incredibly dull, and leaves me questioning what we'll have to do for endgame content after the first 2 weeks of a patch cycle. I was also expecting another tank, not another melee DPS immiediatly after one had already been added in EW. It sounds like we are full steam ahead for more content dry patch cycles.

[LittleImp]

It's unfortunate to see them seemingly doubling down on Island Sanctuary and Variant Dungeon, which are two rather unsuccessful systems. There aren't any major systems that seem poised to shake the game up in any way.

This is honestly the first time I haven't really felt hyped towards an expansion announcement; At least I finally feel at peace just letting my house get auto-demo'd.

[CKNovel]

Best we can hope for Spreadsheet Sanctuary and Variant dungeon is that they listened to feedback and improve on those in 7.0

[Archeron]

Best we can hope for Spreadsheet Sanctuary and Variant dungeon is that they listened to feedback and improve on those in 7.0

The problem is they don't listen to any feedback, or acknowledge any real criticisms we have of the game so we can't count on them making any improvements if they aren't even willing to address the problems in E.W.

[TheNight]

It's unfortunate to see them seemingly doubling down on Island Sanctuary and Variant Dungeon, which are two rather unsuccessful systems. There aren't any major systems that seem poised to shake the game up in any way.

This is honestly the first time I haven't really felt hyped towards an expansion announcement; At least I finally feel at peace just letting my house get auto-demo'd.

This was an anti-hype event.

[TheNight]

The problem is they don't listen to any feedback, or acknowledge any real criticisms we have of the game so we can't count on them making any improvements if they aren't even willing to address the problems in E.W.

Oh my, I am afraid you are wrong here. You see, they actually do listen to feedback. They simply choose to arrogantly ignore it and then tell players to get over it, such as by telling healers to play Ultimate (and of course, these healers magically never have to play anything other than Ultimate such that their concerns are assuaged).

[TaleraRistain]

The problem with exploratory zones is there is no system in place to keep them alive after the initial FOMO rush when everyone gets what they want and stops doing them. It's a bit ironic that Variant gets the same complaints but they have more future-proofing since they will be something that we will be able to go do at our leisure far into the future. Criterion is a little more limited but still has the factor that you can kind of choose when you want to interact with it.

The more involved aspects of exploratory content aren't designed like that. They rely either on large numbers of people to be able to get through without things like essences or lots of pre-planning and organization. They're not something you can just choose to jump into and be assured you will be able to progress. So they're popular at first when those large numbers of people are available but get more difficult to tackle when those numbers fall off. When I finally finished Eureka recently, most instances in NA prime time were lucky to field 30 to 40 people and most only when a popular NM was up. And the Echo can help but it isn't tuned high enough to make up for the loss with everything. And these are instances that have a maximum of what, 100 something?

Bozja is even worse. I've been languishing at mettle level 23 because I'm often the only person out there doing FATEs unless they lead to something. Most have gotten what they wanted from this content so there isn't a reason to go back to it and the game design makes it difficult to tackle it on your own.

Until they can fix that aspect of exploratory zones, why would they utilize development time for something designed with such a short shelf life?

[Reimmi]

The problem with exploratory zones is there is no system in place to keep them alive after the initial FOMO rush when everyone gets what they want and stops doing them. It's a bit ironic that Variant gets the same complaints but they have more future-proofing since they will be something that we will be able to go do at our leisure far into the future. Criterion is a little more limited but still has the factor that you can kind of choose when you want to interact with it.

The more involved aspects of exploratory content aren't designed like that. They rely either on large numbers of people to be able to get through without things like essences or lots of pre-planning and organization. They're not something you can just choose to jump into and be assured you will be able to progress. So they're popular at first when those large numbers of people are available but get more difficult to tackle when those numbers fall off. When I finally finished Eureka recently, most instances in NA prime time were lucky to field 30 to 40 people and most only when a popular NM was up. And the Echo can help but it isn't tuned high enough to make up for the loss with everything. And these are instances that have a maximum of what, 100 something?

Bozja is even worse. I've been languishing at mettle level 23 because I'm often the only person out there doing FATEs unless they lead to something. Most have gotten what they wanted from this content so there isn't a reason to go back to it and the game design makes it difficult to tackle it on your own.

Until they can fix that aspect of exploratory zones, why would they utilize development time for something designed with such a short shelf life?

Short shelf life???
bozja and eureka are still popping to this day (in large part because we didn't get one in endwalker)
And doing bozja when it was current, i never had a lack of players in there.

[TaleraRistain]

Short shelf life???
bozja and eureka are still popping to this day (in large part because we didn't get one in endwalker)
And doing bozja when it was current, i never had a lack of players in there.

Are they? What are the numbers like when you're in there every day?