My problem with FF 14

[Valence]

I dont know, I find DT's areas the best we've had so far in terms of mood and flavor. But maybe that's the environment artist in me talking. Plot wise... may be a different story and we're not exactly going back in time exploring the wonderland of the Ancients, although the world building was A+ for me in this expansion, probably its biggest redeeming feature.

I actually didn't find living memory pleasing at all, it was very disagreeable visually to me.

Either way, I don't think there is a budget issue on creative resources, visual, sound, music, etc. But on the side of programming and game design, I'm really, really wondering what the hell they're doing. Viera/Hrotgar hats? Glamour slots? Job design? Encounter design? And so on.

Sorry, I assumed that because that's one of the main things most people cite when saying dungeons are the same. "It's just 2 packs always".
I agree that would be nice but dungeons are also just meant to be a way to tell the story and a nice visual spectacle. They could have stuff like saving prisoners since arguably there is that in Sastasha, but it would need to be really easy for the MSQ-only players.
True. They have been trying to go back somewhat though, because in the expert dungeons you have the maze mechanic, the dolls that do lots of AoE, the boss with dolls running around like crazy and the last boss in that dungeon is really more interesting than what they normally do.

They haven't parted with the 3 bosses and trash formula, but it is a start with going backwards to the older design philosophy you could see with bosses in Heavensward, I just wonder if they will actually keep it up because all the next expert roulette dungeons will be required for MSQ.

I've often wondered when doing Praetorium why they don't do the mount riding thing more. My assumption has always been that they want players to fight themselves as their chosen job, not all do it the same in a mount, but it would still shake dungeons up a bit to have mounts with unique attacks sometimes.

It could be one pack, two packs, or even ten, what matters is their damage output and combined level of threat. Hell it could even start with a single mob and slowly fill the room with more and more until a specific objective is achieved or you die of mob snusnu (something they almost did in Alzadhal actually...). Remember the first boss of Dusk Vigil? You used to need to get rid of the adds, it was a matter of party resources and healing past a point. Now we just bruteforce through it like all old content because we have lost most of the battle system on the way... They've started adding back some adds timidly in DT leveling dungeons during bosses but they die in 2 hits. Like... come on, really?

It could be one more boss like in brayflox, or maybe one less, or maybe there is no fucking boss, as long as the rest is fresh and fun idk. Not like we don't have enough bosses in the game already... everything is turning into bosses those days, even solo instances.