What would it take for you to like field content it you don’t currently like it?

[VerdeLuck]

That seems to be the problem. Not enough people like the content so they aren't doing it once there are no rewards left that they want. Those who like the content aren't finding enough others to keep the zones active so they're looking for ways to attract others back into them.

Players have become too reward focused. If they aren't getting a "proper" reward for the time spent, they aren't interested. Criterion is an excellent example of this. The content itself has had good response. The rewards haven't and so players don't bother with it.

It's not a problem unique to this game but FFXIV lacks the heavy RNG reward systems that other MMORPGs use to drag out content longevity. It's good in that players generally don't have to wait years to get that one neat item they want. It's bad in that players with more time to play run out of things they want to do faster. There are the occasional players like Supersnow that love a piece of content for its own sake and not the reward but they're the exception.

If you want a quick way to get players back into Eureka and Bozja, add in new rewards that they want and won't be able to get through other methods. It would only be a short term fix since they'd quit doing the content once they got those rewards but those zones would be very busy for a while.

Adding new rewards to those areas wouldn't really work that well at this point. Most people who are done with these zones have maxed out the power in those zones so they would just go right to the activity it drops from, grind it out, and then leave. It wouldn't populate the right areas for player progression.
If you've seen zadnor recently you'll know what I'm talking about, on crystal now Z1/Z2 are dead with maybe a handful of people there, everyone else will be farming z3 fates. What's stopping the people from just going in, doing the one specific thing that they need for the reward, not engaging with anything else or helping anyone else, and then leaving?

[Jojoya]

Adding new rewards to those areas wouldn't really work that well at this point. Most people who are done with these zones have maxed out the power in those zones so they would just go right to the activity it drops from, grind it out, and then leave. It wouldn't populate the right areas for player progression.
If you've seen zadnor recently you'll know what I'm talking about, on crystal now Z1/Z2 are dead with maybe a handful of people there, everyone else will be farming z3 fates. What's stopping the people from just going in, doing the one specific thing that they need for the reward, not engaging with anything else or helping anyone else, and then leaving?

Why I said it would be a short term solution at best. It would only get people to stay in there as long as they needed to continue grinding to get what they want.

I have ideas for an exploratory type zone but I don't know what people would think about them.

Yes, wall of text incoming. It's fine if you don't want to read it.

- zone has no job level requirements beyond whatever point SE would want it to be unlocked. Personally, I think level 50 is fine. No reason why newer characters shouldn't have access to extra content.

- no exp grinding, no reputation grinding, no death penalties. Let's keep it fun.

- combat based activity in addition to other types if deemed appropriate.

- Combat is a BLU mage type system where players are given 2-3 actions to start with then the rest are learned in combat with creatures. If you don't want to make the actions creature specific, they could be learned Lost Action style.

- Let players have up to 10 learned actions active at a time. New actions can occasionally be added in for new effects.

- Include shapeshifting in the actions where the form offers a special perk. Cheetahs could have an enhanced sprint, turtles could have enhanced defense, etc. Alitoad and Alphitoad return.

- Stress again that none of this is tied to any sort of leveling system. Any player could learn any action at any time.

- creatures would mainly drop a currency in random amounts. Spin the wheel 1-10, no telling if you're going to get 1 or get 10.

- rare creatures would drop large amounts of currency and perhaps other special items. Other than a few creatures with special (and outrageous) spawn conditions (kill 10,000 Mandragora - go, Delger, go!) most would just have a highly variable respawn timer 1-24 hours instead of 4-6 or whatever with a high number of spawn points that they all share.

- Rare creatures would patrol the zone until dead. Make them exciting instead of target dummies.

- place obstacles in the zone where players have to choose between going around it or taking some sort of debuff to go through it. Don't make the penalties harsh, just impactful. (then imagine chasing a rare through them)

- create places to explore where players might come across personal loot chests with rewards similar to what the rare creatures have. Make their spawns random enough that there's no point trying to actively seek them out unless in the mood to explore but they'll be exciting when one is found.

- what to buy with the currency: glamour, of course. But specifically that untapped market of cosmetic replica of dungeon sets.

Someone been trying to get that Skalla chestpiece forever? They can buy the replica and use it for any of their jobs instead of just those in a specific role. Dungeon replicas would retain a level restriction for use (so job gear would still need to be for level 70 or higher jobs to use that Skalla chestpiece).

Unique cosmetic glamours could also be added at a higher price. All these rewards to purchase will bind on purchase so players have incentive to enter the zone to farm the currency instead of just going to their local marketboard.

- If there are any extremely rare reward items from the personal loot chests or from rare drops, those could still be marketable but it's important that normal glamour rewards are not.

- the available rewards to choose from could easily be added to the game as new dungeon gear is added. If the vendor data base gets too large, SE could always remove the less popular items from the vendors.

- if there is fear that players will go in to farm a large amount of currency all at once then sit on it for years, currency could be reset with every x.x patch

I'm sure there are pros and cons that others can think of. It's a bit difficult to come up with ideas for a zone that would be truly evergreen.

[Shurrikhan]

<snip>

I'm sure there are pros and cons that others can think of. It's a bit difficult to come up with ideas for a zone that would be truly evergreen.

I feel like this is hardly "Field Content" as could apply to what exists in XIV thus far, but I'd dig it. Sounds pretty fun.

Tangent:
I'm reminded of an old idea that sparked by Sandpark's Frontiers idea (if I recall the name correctly). I called it... "Ascent", I think? It was basically what you'd imagine from a combination of XIV-style job-switching/skill-accretion and the Rise trailer for League of Legends, with a bit of Rogue-like twists atop all that. Get to the top, surmounting the challenges on the way.

As you climb, you accrue strength and options to use against challenges of increasing absolute and even relative difficulty. Bonuses for not wiping; further bonuses for not dying at all. (In the PvEvP mode, a wipe means your out altogether.) You start with a relatively minimalistic but decently satisfying set of skills, per your chosen starting class, and gradually add new skills as part of your class or others', job options unlocked, or special ability/trait-granting gear, or party-wide special modifiers (some increasing challenge in certain ways for further reward).

Three options: Forray (1-8-player content, scaled; randomly dropped positions in a gigantic map with some horizontal progression possible, but mostly just moving straight up if quite skilled; less than 2 hours to fully complete), Expedition (Up to 40 players, made up of any number of parties that are conditionally pseudo-shared away from each other before being able to meet up to approach far greater challenges collectively), and Tournament (PvEvP. 1-4 people per party. Smaller parties means those party rewards all go towards one person, allowing a soloist to be surprisingly competitive even if far from optimal).

[Jojoya]

I feel like this is hardly "Field Content" as could apply to what exists in XIV thus far, but I'd dig it. Sounds pretty fun.

Tangent:
I'm reminded of an old idea that one of sparked by Sandpark's Frontiers (if I recall the name correctly) idea. Called it "Ascent" and it was basically what you'd imagine from a combination of XIV-style job-switching/skill-accretion and the Rise trailer for League of Legends, with a bit of Rogue-like twists atop all that. Get to the top, surmounting the challenges on the way.

As you climb, you accrue strength and options to use against challenges of increasing absolute and even relative difficulty. Bonuses for not wiping; further bonuses for not dying at all. (In the PvEvP mode, a wipe means your out altogether.) You start with a relatively minimalistic but decently satisfying set of skills, per your chosen starting class, and gradually add new skills as part of your class or others', job options unlocked, or special ability/trait-granting gear, or party-wide special modifiers (some increasing challenge in certain ways for further reward).

Three options: Forray (1-8-player content, scaled; randomly dropped positions in a gigantic map with some horizontal progression possible, but mostly just moving straight up if quite skilled; less than 2 hours to fully complete), Expedition (Up to 40 players, made up of any number of parties that are conditionally pseudo-shared away from each other before being able to meet up to approach far greater challenges collectively), and Tournament (PvEvP. 1-4 people per party. Smaller parties means those party rewards all go towards one person, allowing a soloist to be surprisingly competitive even if far from optimal).

Was any sort of reward structure announced for the content? While there are the references to reward, there's no hint what was intended.

Rewards seem to be a sticking point here when it comes to content longevity. There's also nothing that says a reward has to be an item. Achievements and rank on a leaderboard (or even just going for a new personal best) could also be a reward. I've wondered if Criterion would have had more staying power in the community if there was a leaderboard for speed runs.

[Shurrikhan]

Was any sort of reward structure announced for the content? While there are the references to reward, there's no hint what was intended.

Literally anything. Extrinsic rewards are arbitrary. There's nothing to say that Field Content must progress Relics or Relics must be progressed through Field Content, etc. Stick onto it whatever rewards provides breadth enough to see casual/passing and longterm/invested interest.

Give it some tomes, exp, and gil, for instance. Heck, you could automatically convert the rewards if/when they'd overcap (exp -> weekly tomes -> 2k tomes -> poetics -> gil). Or even have it drop a form of unique currency that can be turned into any of the above. It does not matter.

As for the more intrinsic, sure, give it a Leaderboard. Maybe even give it tiers.

What matters most to me, though, is just that the content is fun and at least doesn't feel like a significant reward-loss (relative to other content).

[kaynide]

I wish they did more to make the actual overworked rewarding to do stuff in. Like, I dunno.. put randomly spawning treasure chests here or there. Make some puzzles to jump through.

Not grindy stuff, but actual exploration/adventure stuff. Maybe some actual threat of dying.

[OgruMogru]

I keep thinking about it and maaaan I really miss the feeling of scuttling around Anemos hiding from cyclops and the inescapable death spirals of being smacked by a dullahan and then rezzing and getting smacked by the dullahan til sunrise. When I first started ARR [in 2015 aaAAA] I got too close to the Cactaur hunt in Thanalan and he punched me to death. Eureka felt like that but all the time and I really dig it. My big extra special wish for field/overworld content is that instead of self-contained fates an entire area/zone of the map goes all wrong and horrible, kinda like the end of 1.0 with the horrible mob spawns, aetheryte travel is inaccessible, no mount travel and the mobs get super buffed so you have to set out from set places and re-traverse the now unfamiliar familiar to reach a set location at the centre of the map and idk defend a point or kill a boss, or whoever gets there first gets to do a duel or escort something like the bunnies for goodies.