Cosmic Exploration: Dead on Arrival

[HyperiusUltima]

So, there’s been some discussion about CE as of late and in regards to how some servers completed their phases in a matter of hours. What was supposed to be a long, long community-driven effort has been made a huge waste because of players who want in on content on Day 1.

Look, I get it: we want that experience - but the fact is that we won’t get to see things now because people have obligations outside of the game. PTO? Sure. Call off? Not everyone can. This is a nightmare because of the fact that the developers and Yoshida himself greenlit this and made progression get crushed in a day.

Now, I’m going to pull out the Elephant in the room, and this goes for all content: Community Driven FOMO. Remember when Firmament released? That took weeks to actually build up across 2 or 3 patches, and sure: people weren’t able to see how housing was being built. Let’s take Ultimates for example as well. If I’m trying to get into say FRU, people will stick around for only so long. They’ll come back, but usually by then a majority have already got their bag - this is visible in regards to High-end Content such as Savage being released since everyone wants to do the new thing.

Yet, as time goes on, if you never have the time to get to the new thing, then you get left in the wash and miss out. Thankfully people still revisit them, either an expansion ahead or when it’s current and weekly lockout is gone. Still, it does not change that people have moved on from things and you just can’t get that experience anymore because the community doesn’t want to do it or already has done it.

Trying to find like-minded people can be difficult for certain content in this situation as well. So, the question I’d like to pose for this thread is this:

How do we prevent content from getting flushed out within the First Day when it is tied to community progression per server?

This is still in regards to Cosmic Exploration of course, but my solution would be to make it so that the community as a whole is challenged to meet a target. Per server. If I have 10,000 people active? Make the goalpost a Million XYZ. It’d stretch out the content, but you’d be working as a community long term towards it.

[Jeeqbit]

This isn't unexpected. We had this all with Ishgard Restoration. They will do it in iterations so there will be more opportunities to participate.

[Mawlzy]

Can someone who likes this content give me the ELI5 on why I should bang rocks on the bleak lunar surface rather than somewhere attractive?

Like the main difference I'm seeing is CE involves timers. Not clear to me how this helps. It's still basically solo content.

[angelar_]

You can make a whopping 80K on the brand new dyes that have been here for less than 24 hours, but only if you win the lucky lotto!

[Supersnow845]

Can someone who likes this content give me the ELI5 on why I should bang rocks on the bleak lunar surface rather than somewhere attractive?

Like the main difference I'm seeing is CE involves timers. Not clear to me how this helps. It's still basically solo content.

Cosmic has really interesting crafting distributions

[hydralus]

You can make a whopping 80K on the brand new dyes that have been here for less than 24 hours, but only if you win the lucky lotto!

Chump change. I sold the new lotto mount for 15 mil.

[Mawlzy]

Cosmic has really interesting crafting distributions

Okay. Which could have been incorporated into master recipes or similar.

Meanwhile the FATEs are one-button numbers vaguely reminiscent of being an F1 monkey in EVE, but without the exploding spaceships.

The crafting and gathering seem emotionally disconnected from the base progress. Like if we have a big bucket to fill with a specific ore, which crafters then use to make I-beams, that are then used to make a building it would have an engaging flow.

Somehow SE has done something that must have absorbed a lot of resources that is less interesting than regular crafting and gathering.

[Supersnow845]

Okay. Which could have been incorporated into master recipes or similar.

Meanwhile the FATEs are one-button numbers vaguely reminiscent of being an F1 monkey in EVE, but without the exploding spaceships.

The crafting and gathering seem emotionally disconnected from the base progress. Like if we have a big bucket to fill with a specific ore, which crafters then use to make I-beams, that are then used to make a building it would have an engaging flow.

Somehow SE has done something that must have absorbed a lot of resources that is less interesting than regular crafting and gathering.

Yes it can be integrated into master recipes outside of cosmic, but I don’t think it’s a knock against cosmic that it tried it first

[CidHeiral]

That seems to already be the case. Similar to the Firmament, the first phases went quick because they contain essential NPCs and whatnot. After that everything slows down dramatically. Right now on Hyperion we're on the habitation module step and the bar is moving at a snail's pace. Is there a server already beyond that step?

EDIT: Discovered there's a site tracking progress. As of this post nobody is anywhere near completing that step. Most are around 20% done or less after working at it all day. https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...oration/report

[Mawlzy]

Yes it can be integrated into master recipes outside of cosmic, but I don’t think it’s a knock against cosmic that it tried it first

That's fair. Might have saved some time had they just done it without the whole moon-base thing though.