[Feedback] Optional Content Relevancy Adjustments

[Bonette]

Good day dev team!

I'm pretty much a ghost to these forums, but I thought I'd start putting my thoughts down on paper regarding how to keep previous content relevant. Note, the majority of these opinions/suggestions involve very little new content, and are intended to require as few labor hours as possible.

I'm just really getting into the Island Sanctuary and it's a super good time! I noticed that Endwalker-tier Materia can be bought with the cowries, and thought: hmm, why not add Materia as it becomes available, since this was apparently made with current content in mind?

Doing so would give newer users cowry dumps, keep the content current, and wouldn't damage the markets too terribly. If the concern is people dumping all of their cowries the moment a new expac comes out, then don't add the newer Materia in until a major patch or two down the road, after the initial surge of crafter/gatherer melding. It's important to keep the old Materia available, though! This would allow it to be useful throughout any future expansions, as Materia is gated by level and gear.

I have other suggestions for previous optional content as well.
Eureka could:
- Give tokens through NMs that could be traded for different combat-centric Materia.
- Give some unique Blue Mage abilities, or add transformations that can play with elemental weaknesses and resistances, combining optional content for unique gameplay. This one is one that would require more labor hours.
- Reconsider the old Diadem Diablo-esque gear system. What better place to have tradeable randomized gearsets than Eureka? This would also require more man-hours, but considering the system is likely vaulted/stored somewhere, hopefully less. It would also allow for future free-roam style content to be built the same way. I recognize Bozja is likely the system that will be used going forward, however.

Bozja:
- I don't have many suggestions for Bozja, as it allows class leveling and gives plenty of assorted drops. Maybe the same Materia recommendation I posted for Eureka. I just wanted to include this as I mentioned it above. I do think it's important to separate it from whatever new chapter that will be introduced in Dawntrail, so I hope it's not just a clone.

[Eyrilona]

Eureka could:
- Give some unique Blue Mage abilities, or add transformations that can play with elemental weaknesses and resistances, combining optional content for unique gameplay. This one is one that would require more labor hours.

Blue Mages have never been able to enter Eureka, nor can you switch to the job while in there. I know how that sounds -- the only job that still does elemental alignment, can't play the only field exploration focused on elemental alignment. Don't ask me who came up with that.

[Mecia]

It would definitely be nice if all the non DF content wasnt left to rot in some aspects. Adding new materia would be one way and id love to get old relics for new jobs. Deep dungeons already get new weapons even if theyre simpler additions.

I would kill for Delubrum Reginae to become more accessible.

[LibitIncarne]

Island Sanctuary:
It's fine as-is. Maybe the EXP can be sped up a bit now.

The Firmament/Diadem:
Outdated content but it's fine as it is. Modern innovations like Higher Stats and Revisit make farming a lot easier there.

Deep Dungeons:
Palace is fine but Heaven on High and Eureka Orthos need more of an incentive for players to run it that isn't "Clear it 4 times for a mount", since HoH isn't as popular and people level in Bozja instead of Orthos due to how braindead Z3 Mettle Farming is compared to the only deep dungeon where every telegraphed attack is a oneshot.

Eureka:
It already gives you Materia. It's in the Lockboxes that you get after killing NMs.
You'd know this if you actually played the content.

Bozja:
Bozja is good, the only problem with it is that other players don't know how to play to its advantages.
Infact, it would be better for the health of the zone's gameplay balance if EXP rewards were removed from Skirmishes and quadrupled in Critical Engagements, but reduced for each vuln stack that you suffer on each boss.

Delubrum Reginae:
They should make it so that if a party of 8 is queueing in, they don't need to wait 10 minutes for the pop. Barely anyone actually does 24man runs anymore.

Variants:
They're fine as-is, people just don't like it.
Maybe giving them a massive EXP payout would help, since that led to Aglaia being even more popular than Crystal Tower in Alliance Raid Roulette, even if it was only temporarily.

[Bonette]

Island Sanctuary:
It's fine as-is. Maybe the EXP can be sped up a bit now.

The Firmament/Diadem:
Outdated content but it's fine as it is. Modern innovations like Higher Stats and Revisit make farming a lot easier there.

Deep Dungeons:
Palace is fine but Heaven on High and Eureka Orthos need more of an incentive for players to run it that isn't "Clear it 4 times for a mount", since HoH isn't as popular and people level in Bozja instead of Orthos due to how braindead Z3 Mettle Farming is compared to the only deep dungeon where every telegraphed attack is a oneshot.

Eureka:
It already gives you Materia. It's in the Lockboxes that you get after killing NMs.
You'd know this if you actually played the content.

Bozja:
Bozja is good, the only problem with it is that other players don't know how to play to its advantages.
Infact, it would be better for the health of the zone's gameplay balance if EXP rewards were removed from Skirmishes and quadrupled in Critical Engagements, but reduced for each vuln stack that you suffer on each boss.

Delubrum Reginae:
They should make it so that if a party of 8 is queueing in, they don't need to wait 10 minutes for the pop. Barely anyone actually does 24man runs anymore.

Variants:
They're fine as-is, people just don't like it.
Maybe giving them a massive EXP payout would help, since that led to Aglaia being even more popular than Crystal Tower in Alliance Raid Roulette, even if it was only temporarily.

I didn't mention the ones I felt were in an alright place, but as for Eureka, you're telling me it gives current content endgame-tier Materia? Which was the entire point of this post, catching previous content that has separate or unrelated level-scaling up to current content? Hmm, I'll have to go out and finish the last five levels of content I hadn't yet done to see if I can nab some.

[Fawkes]

I'm just really getting into the Island Sanctuary and it's a super good time! I noticed that Endwalker-tier Materia can be bought with the cowries, and thought: hmm, why not add Materia as it becomes available, since this was apparently made with current content in mind?

Doing so would give newer users cowry dumps, keep the content current, and wouldn't damage the markets too terribly. If the concern is people dumping all of their cowries the moment a new expac comes out, then don't add the newer Materia in until a major patch or two down the road, after the initial surge of crafter/gatherer melding. It's important to keep the old Materia available, though! This would allow it to be useful throughout any future expansions, as Materia is gated by level and gear.

I don't hate the idea, but I was able to fully pentameld my last set of level 90 crafter and gatherer gear pretty much funded only with cowries, and now I have more cowries than I did then. It probably would impact the markets somewhat if there are enough people out there maxxing cowries every week. They should probably just stick with putting new materia in the new beast tribes and cosmic exploration.

[CuteBucket]

Yes, PLEASE! There is so much wonderful older content in this game that is left to rot after it's no longer current. It really doesn't need much work to give just a little incentive for people to play it. I like the idea of being able to trade for materia for each level cap reached. Or only add current materia in later patches as previously mentioned. Yes, this will make some materia cheaper than it currently is, but I don't see that breaking the economy that badly if it still takes time and effort to acquire it. It kind of sucks that I poured all this time and energy into my Island Sanctuary as it built up over the patch cycle for the last two years, and now I can't even get much use out of it now that Endwalker is over. Maybe things could also give out the "lesser" of the two current tomestones? I can see them wanting to keep the newest tomestones to only new content, but why not let us collect more Poetics + the noncapped current tomes from some older content if we're max level? (also would love getting more stuff to do with Poetics in general. I'm running out of old relics to collect).

I love collecting relic weapons and some of the crafted EX trial weapons, and would love to see some newer jobs (any from ShB onward tbh) added to some of the older weapons. They used to do this more during Stormblood and somewhat during Shadowbringers, but seem to have mostly given up as of Endwalker. Like Shinryu EX got Dancer and Gunbreaker crafted weapons after Shadowbringers, but Hades EX never got Sage and Reaper weapons after Endwalker. Why not?? Endsinger EX doesn't even have crafted weapons yet, and I doubt we'll get Pictomancer or Viper weapons for it if and when it gets them.

Also make syncing down suck less but that's a discussion for another thread.

[LibitIncarne]

I didn't mention the ones I felt were in an alright place, but as for Eureka, you're telling me it gives current content endgame-tier Materia? Which was the entire point of this post, catching previous content that has separate or unrelated level-scaling up to current content? Hmm, I'll have to go out and finish the last five levels of content I hadn't yet done to see if I can nab some.

Why should outdated content give you Current Endgame tier rewards?
Eureka gives you V and VI Materia, which are useful in-content when you're melding that Kirin's Osode/Vermillion Cloak, plus Logograms that you can use to power up inside Pyros/Hydatos.
Bozja is all about Forgotten Fragments for the Lost Actions, though you can get some VII or VIII materia from the Lockboxes.
You can buy VII and VIII Gatherer/Crafter Materia with Skybuilders' Scrip in the Firmament/Diadem.
And IX/X Gatherer/Crafter Materia with your Cowries from Island Sanctuary.

Flooding more people who are only going into something for vague rewards instead of for the love of the area will only decrease the enjoyment of everyone involved. Suddenly every fight is taking almost twice as long to clear and you can't make as many mistakes without several players dying. Why? Blind idiots who barely even press their 123 combo aren't using the tools they have access to to be as strong as they can be in Bozja so the 8 players who are doing double the usual damage have to deal with 16 players who are dealing half the damage they should usually be doing and now we can't meet the DPS check in this Critical Engagement because the effective damage is as if no-one was using any Lost Actions at all.

Do you want to complain about Stormblood, Shadowbringers, and Endwalker Hunt Marks giving outdated Materia tradein Clusters that can only be traded in for Materia from that expansion?
If all you want is Materia, and you aren't pentamelding, go on a few DT A Trains and you'll have more than enough for the raid tier.

I'm sorry that you don't have the carrot on a stick telling you to go do old content, but if you need that to be able to run it, then it isn't for you.

[Jojoya]

They're not going to place current end game materia in old content. It does not make sense to do it when there are players below level cap who still use the old materia.

Older content tends to stay populated (if not as high as when current) because of the cosmetic/vanity rewards and achievements.

If you're having difficulty getting sufficient end game materia, it's a sign you're not doing very much (if any) end game content. Otherwise you'd be getting most of what you need from extraction and the materia/cluster drops from doing end game content would cover the rest.

To be honest, if you're not doing end game content you really don't need end game materia. Any content you do level/ilvl synced loses the stat benefit gained from materia. You're effectively putting shiny but useless pieces of crystal on your gear that doesn't even change the appearance of your gear. Yes, you're going to want materia on your gear if you're doing synced EX/Savage/Ultimate but otherwise it's pointless for combat jobs. It's a shame the game isn't more transparent about how it works.

[AddictedToWitches]

Im sorry to say this but the dev team does not read the forums