How to Make The New Field Content Fun For All.

[strawberrycake]

So atm I'm still not sure what new field content will really be, and how it will play out. But from whats been said it seems the new cosmic area will be our exploration(relics)/restoration/Lifestyle content. And Ofc we'll get more clarification later, and I can have misheard.

But I have had an idea for a while People have complained about instanced content and the tome stone grind for a while now, and I feel the best way to approach things is to kill two birds with one stone, but not in the traditional way.

There should be a new instanced area, but it should support more casual ways to contribute to a goal and the goal would be triggering a playable dungeon/raid and Rare hunts/duels for people who want PvE content, and more casual crafting and gathering for people who may be coming in from work who are tired and might not wanna get into anything major.

And ofc there would be more involved crafting and gathering as well as more relaxed PvE content. Imagine killing unique b ranks and doing smaller fate chains for the more casual PvE content, and having to sneak and make your way into enemy heavy territory to fish and gather rare items and huge fish.

This could also lead to seeing the area where people craft and do turn ins slowly change over time with each update and the instance expand for more content to be released within. People would feel rewarded for contributing and it would create a seemless way to transition from casual relaxed content to people going for more engaging group based content to earn our relics.

To add clarification this is due to relics most likely being attached to this and that I genuinely don't trust them to create an alternative that won't end up like Zadnor where you're better off farming CT and normal raids over doing Zadnor to complete your relic. And while I think just back loading the relic alternative for people who don't want to participate would be fine, I do think there are many other ways to approach it.


That also being said it is true that this most likely would then come at an over simplification of the content in question as they'd want to get people in fast and have a low gate to entry for it all. Relics in of themselves are decisive and This is so far one idea that did stick. I definitely don't want to see more things dumbed down but I also look at the fact that SE is liable to lump as much side content together as a means to *increasing multiplayer interaction* in the simplest ways possible.

As much as I don't like making massive assumptions, their track record for things point to them doing something that would in a basic sense, be multiplayer content, which would make the criteria to them, and possibly not us. Because I think what we want, multiple forms of unique and interesting multiplayer content, and what they'll offer, a hub that has multiple forms of multiplayer content, which will all blend together and not be unique, is the most likely case. Not trying to be cynical, but while they have acknowledged how things didn't pan out well with EW, they have said nothing of being better with giving us what we have asked for, and then them not really hitting the mark, see variant/criterion dungeons.

So my goal is to hopefully steer things in a better direction IF any of this were to be the case.

[Dorito_Burrito]

If they bring back essences I'm gonna rip my nose off.

[Supersnow845]

If they bring back essences I'm gonna rip my nose off.

Essences are literally the best part of eureka and Bozja because they give infinite build variety

Do you really want to spend more content pressing your same rotation you do everywhere else when you could be doing 20 times your damage, have fun gap closers you don’t usually have, infinite life steal and the ability to run faster forever

Essences are the best thing field content has going for it

[Dorito_Burrito]

Essences are literally the best part of eureka and Bozja because they give infinite build variety

Do you really want to spend more content pressing your same rotation you do everywhere else when you could be doing 20 times your damage, have fun gap closers you don’t usually have, infinite life steal and the ability to run faster forever

Essences are the best thing field content has going for it

Only essences. Everything else (actions, banners, items) is fine, though honestly it was a huge mistake enabling players to skip them altogether. Also it wasn't nearly as fun going ham with your holster loadout if there weren't many others doing it too.

I think it would be a neat idea if the essence was its own separate system with the rays from Zadnor baked in. You would start with the basic buffs (damage, healing, HP) but unlock more options as you progress though the zone.

[Supersnow845]

Only essences. Everything else (actions, banners, items) is fine, though honestly it was a huge mistake enabling players to skip them altogether. Also it wasn't nearly as fun going ham with your holster loadout if there weren't many others doing it too.

I think it would be a neat idea if the essence was its own separate system with the rays from Zadnor baked in. You would start with the basic buffs (damage, healing, HP) but unlock more options as you progress though the zone.

Still what was wrong with essences, they were just as much the cornerstone of making the system work as the lost actions considering they generally held the primary effects that the lost actions built off

[Tint]

You don't make it fun for all.

You make it fun for the people who actually enjoy grinding and field content.

I mean. I don't enjoy savage raids. Should they make them easier for me? I don't think so.

[Ilisidi]

They could do it similar to the Raids that have a normal mode for story and a savage mode for the grind. Short easy quest for the story giving you the first weapon or even just an ilevel 1 replica, long long painful storyless grind for the real weapon and all additional weapons.

[Valence]

Essences in concept I have nothing against, but in eureka they were an absolute nightmare to get for a lot of them at release, and the scarcity felt like I had no choice but to spend millions on the marketboard to counter my bad luck at stupid bunny fates that only accepted 8 players out of the 150 in the instance at a time. I legit spent so much money in pyros that I still have nightmares about it. Everything legitimately felt like gacha mechanics to me.

Anyway, they can do whatever they want with field content, I never liked it even if eureka had a great vibe, because it is essentially designed to be a huge grind, and I hate grinding with a passion. I hate fates, I was bored of Eureka's NMs or Bozjas encounters after having done them once each, duels were so gated it was only realistically possible to get into them the first days when everybody was failing at CEs. It's the bottom of the barrel of game design and I'll die on that hill. On the other hand, if our reptilian brains like it, then great for them, and I won't argue against SE to invest resources into that part of the game.

The only thing I wanted out of those field operations were two things:
- story, because I like stories
- relics, because SE has so far never been able to come up with a fair system where you either can grind them inside those field operations, or casually outside with tomestones by doing roulettes and other types of content you actually enjoy.


In short, and while I don't dismiss the thin possibility to have fun gameplay in field operations that isn't boring fate grind or mob grind where the only joy I have is actually listening to the history of rome podcast in order to stay awake (praise be to that podcast when I went through pre nerf eureka in SB, you saved my sanity), all I'm asking is to have a story progression that's not longer than Bozja to go through (and it was already long enough, but compared to the literal months of eureka for almost no story whatsoever, I'll take it), and relics that I can realistically get from side content that I actually enjoy, I'll be fine I guess.

[strawberrycake]

- story, because I like stories
- relics, because SE has so far never been able to come up with a fair system where you either can grind them inside those field operations, or casually outside with tomestones by doing roulettes and other types of content you actually enjoy.

If they were smart they would make it so it's an equal amount of time grinding content in and out of the instance and they would add the ability to get currency from savage and EX and not have it all on easier boring content. And this si my main issue with rouls, the odds of getting fun content is always a 50/50.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

I think adding something for DoL/H to do inside Field Content is fine.

That being said, at the risk of grossly oversimplifying of what OP meant: don't make it fun for -all-. That's just impossible. Make it fun for people who likes Field Content---design it for them. Don't like essences? Too bad for you (general you). Oh you also don't like the added DoL/H endeavors inside? Then maybe leave it to us who actually enjoy it and accept the fact you're not going to get your shinies until you make the effort. Thanks.