Expectations for Occult Crescent?

[Musashidon]

The sole skill issue check in either Eureka and Bozja is BA(and also DRS but DRS doesn't have any story connection), and even then BA will boil down to "follow basic callouts on Discord", so long as you don't die you will clear, since most decently packed runs aren't don't ever get close to hitting the various enrages.

eureka's BA was a whole different ball park when it was first launched the reason BA is super easy now is because of echo and skill changes since SB. its sorta like with the elemental lvls coming back aka knowledge lvls we will get stomped by NM's higher lvl than us unlike bozja that was just learn the fight even if you learn the fight if you are under lvl'd you can't hurt the bosses course this part will only last about a day til the groups start getting high knowledge lvl and farming them.

[Hallarem]

A fate roulette with somekind of progression system and a few raids. Thats about it.

[Mawlzy]

I'm guessing it'll be quite fun internal leveling content, then further progress will be gated by a controversial, poorly-tuned dungeon.

[Ardeth]

I honestly expect to not like it. I hope I'm wrong, but so far exploratory zones are 0 and 2 for me.

Eureka was better, but the over-reliance on others killed it later. And if you have to DC travel to do a piece of old content it's dead and that's coming from someone with the Ozma mount.

I just can't shake the fact that this isn't going to be Bozja 2.0 with all the issues intact.

I want to like it as there is nothing to do currently in the game, but I know in my heart it will not be my cup of tea.

[Ryaze]

I am expecting to feel exactly like Eureka, with the improvements made to the action system by Bozja, I expect there to be something like CLL and Dalradia, and an instanced raid like Delly Regina that you can que for.

Ultimately I am outright hoping it is not particularly innovative, I simply want an area like Eureka and Bozja, but I am at level 100 instead of 70/80, and I have a new progression system to tackle, I personally think those are some of the best content in the game.

Unless they change something, they've already laid out a broad roadmap for the Occult Crescent content this expansion. They've made no mention of any separate instanced content like DRN/DRS. There will be a "dungeon" at the end of, and within, the 1st field instance "Fork Tower". They said they designed it similar to BA in the sense of requiring community collaboration, but whether that's true or not who knows. And regarding the difficulty, will it be like CCL/Dal or BA difficulty or harder, we'll just have to wait and see. More phantom jobs to come in 7.4X and a 2nd field instance to come in 7.5X, but nothing other than that.

[RenegadeInferno]

I just hope that it's fun and engaging.

I'm a simple man with simple wishes.

[NaoSen]

I am looking forward to it, I greatly enjoyed Eureka and from everything I've seen they

- Fixed or at least improved exp gain when playing with friends
- Added a alternative combat option (Critical engagements)
- Re-packaged logos actions into bundles making it easier (and cheaper) to use in the form of Support Jobs
- Removed the magia system

If anyone disliked eureka for any reasons other than those then they'll probably not like Occult Crescent

[Valence]

eureka's BA was a whole different ball park when it was first launched the reason BA is super easy now is because of echo and skill changes since SB. its sorta like with the elemental lvls coming back aka knowledge lvls we will get stomped by NM's higher lvl than us unlike bozja that was just learn the fight even if you learn the fight if you are under lvl'd you can't hurt the bosses course this part will only last about a day til the groups start getting high knowledge lvl and farming them.

It's also been figured out and when you get into a discord group aimed at going through it, everything is made so that only the few leaders have the responsibilities, tell people where to go, what to kill, and as a team monkey you literally learn nothing and have little idea of why this is happening and just blast through things. They're clearing the instance for you. That's what my experience of BA has been since I haven't run it when it was current with a group (the requirements to get in were too steep back then). But I can definitely imagine how even once figured out and streamlined for clears it was more engaging and meaningful with the older battle system and the lack of powercreep. SE really have a problem with content shelf life...
I like the idea behind, but I think it's badly executed as always with those devs. CLL/Dalriada were much more enjoyable.

[VeyaAkemi]

In general Bozja handles those elements better, BA ends up fostering that type of gameplay because it is so punishing, a failed BA run will also delevel you, take god knows how long to have another attempt, so on, and that leaves a huge *feels bad* feeling everyone wants to avoid, DRS is much more learning-focused because there is little penalty to failure, you just zone out, reinstance, and try again, with the only thing being lost being essences and however much Mettle you had on you.

Modern MMO design in general focuses on removing or minimizing penalty for failure so failure can happen more often, Eureka specifically focuses on being archaic in that regard since it is based on FF XI, and even then it is not as punishing as XI was to my understanding, and that type of design just leads to players guarding themselves against failure as much as possible, it's just an element of human nature, and some people, me included, actively enjoy the process of pre-planning and execution, the fact there are people out there with thousands of BA clears proves there is an appeal to that, so to say it is simply "badly executed" is incredibly reductive.

Also if you learn nothing, skill issue, it's fair to say you don't have to learn it, but surely if you are familiar enough with this game, you will be able to put together why each callout is is given at sight.

[Valence]

In general Bozja handles those elements better, BA ends up fostering that type of gameplay because it is so punishing, a failed BA run will also delevel you, take god knows how long to have another attempt, so on, and that leaves a huge *feels bad* feeling everyone wants to avoid, DRS is much more learning-focused because there is little penalty to failure, you just zone out, reinstance, and try again, with the only thing being lost being essences and however much Mettle you had on you.

Modern MMO design in general focuses on removing or minimizing penalty for failure so failure can happen more often, Eureka specifically focuses on being archaic in that regard since it is based on FF XI, and even then it is not as punishing as XI was to my understanding, and that type of design just leads to players guarding themselves against failure as much as possible, it's just an element of human nature, and some people, me included, actively enjoy the process of pre-planning and execution, the fact there are people out there with thousands of BA clears proves there is an appeal to that, so to say it is simply "badly executed" is incredibly reductive.

Also if you learn nothing, skill issue, it's fair to say you don't have to learn it, but surely if you are familiar enough with this game, you will be able to put together why each callout is is given at sight.

I don't doubt that running it enough and associating this with guides on the side makes learning a thing. That's not what I was saying however. What I'm saying is that 90% of the party's grease monkeys those days can perfectly clear by going in blind and just follow instructions like little mammets. It's boring.
I actually do love pre planning and managing resources. But BA didn't even tickle that for me. When it was current it was just making you grind the base tedious content further to buy tickets so you could get in.
I think they made it way too binary, with a crappy shelf life once figured out.