So how is everyone feeling about Occult Crescent now that it’s been a few days?

[Andevom]

I love the content, but I have no idea why three Phantom Jobs only cost 1000 silver coins while three others cost 1600 gold.

Silver is incredibly easy to farm in the instance, whereas gold requires farm parties that are at least thrice as hard to get going.

[TaleraRistain]

The way things were worded in the scenes I thought implied that instead of a two-pronged, singular tower like in FFV it's a pair of towers, one each at the end of one of the horns of the island(if you look real closely when Forked Tower weather it active you'll noticed Forked Tower:Blood seems to be situated at the end of the South Horn point). My best guess is that we'll get Forked Tower:Magic as a regular story-difficulty dungeon like CLL/DR/Dalriada, and Forked Tower:Blood will remain as the hardcore raider dungeon, likely with some changes to the entry situation after all the negative feedback.

I'll need to go back to my screenshots but it did sound like the two towers were going to be important to discovering just who the architect of Occult Crescent is. If that's true and Blood just remains some hardcore premade only thing, then we won't be able to finish the story without joining a Discord. Which is not awesome.

I love the content, but I have no idea why two Phantom Jobs only cost 1000 silver coins while two others cost 1600 gold.

Silver is incredibly easy to farm in the instance, whereas gold requires farm parties that are at least thrice as hard to get going.

Especially since people don't want to party up for gold in the instances since there's a far superior solo option. I foresee that getting nerfed hard.

[Regis_Paran]

Spent an hour there today, in fates group. This is not for me.

Manically running all over the map to maybe be fast enough to land two shots in a fate. CE every 5 min, way too chaotic for my old brain to enjoy (I don't mind dying, but sheer chaos is just not fun for me). Story is whatever, so not really a hook to progress.
I'd rather try getting those atmas via DT fates.

[AurisNix]

Fun but awful and non sense caveats to it, forked tower (same as DA, DR, CLL and Dalriada) should be treated/reworked as a regular duty like chaotic, occult crescent should be an off duty area like cosmic exploration where you can que in for regular duties and stuff, it should be lvl 90 like bozja was, and needs way more fates or scale the amount of fates depending on how many ppl are in the instance, i just see ppl all standing around the aetherythe and as soon a fate pops everyone teleports and melt the fate in seconds its annoying/boring. I still think bozja was way better in that sense. Also gold and silver items discrepancy is weird. i dont really feel a progression system like bozja this OC is just go here and talk the tomberry

[ForteNightshade]

I'd say it's by far the worst implementation of exploratory content we've had. Which is ironic considering they put so much emphasis on wanting to build off the strengths of Eureka and Bozja yet seemingly missed the mark on both.

The sheer cost of everything is such a blatantly obvious stopgap to keep the zone alive because we're essentially not getting much of an update until next year. Now that wouldn't be inherently bad if the loop had any real staying power. It doesn't. Within a day, you'll have experienced pretty much everything OC offers, and very likely experienced it several times, in fact. I don't dislike the content, but I'm just struggling to see its longevity. CEs have far too much HP relative to their mechanics so they end up looping through each one 5-6 times, coffer loot tables seem all over the place and both currencies are completely separated from each other. Another complaint I'm starting to see is the pace of everything. You basically never stop moving because everything spawns and dies so fast.

Then we get to Forked Tower which is downright baffling on how poorly implemented this is. The portal system from Eureka was widely criticised though JP seemed to make it work. Shock of all shocks, SE only pay attention to one demographic again. Ironically, even they're complaining because a 72 instance makes it challenging even for them. The cherry on top is going in with less than 24 people is an instant wipe. Just... how does something like this get past any sort of testing? This is early Heavensward type mistakes not five expansions later. It's decisions like this that genuinely make me feel like a B or even C team is working on XIV nowadays.

On the whole, OC actually has a decent enough foundation, but there's just so many misfires that drag it down imo

[FuturePastNow]

- Fork Tower
There is the whole fiasco about making all the party of a premade enter the same instance : it's a nightmare for organised runs, and seems to difficult to do in pick-up : the content needs organisation and planification. I'm not sure not having a normal version and more difficult one was the right choice. Most people are just not interested in doing more difficult content. There is an argument that it will be easier with time, when people get the zone gear upgraded, but did you look at the cost needed for that? Most player won't do it, and we all know how it will turn out : people without the gear will be gated out. I feel they should have gone the Delubrum Reginae way, with one Normal and one higher difficulty. Especially since there are hints part 2 will be gated behind the fork tower (Fork tower is central in the story, I don't see how they can continue the story without people clearing it).

Unless it was translated wrong, they said in the live letter that it isn't necessary to the story. In fact Forked Tower doesn't seem to have any story, it's just a thing that is there, challenge content for people who want challenge content (and who have a high tolerance for the BS entry requirements). I don't like the way it was implemented but I don't think anyone will ever be required to do it

[Mawlzy]

Unless it was translated wrong, they said in the live letter that it isn't necessary to the story. In fact Forked Tower doesn't seem to have any story, it's just a thing that is there, challenge content for people who want challenge content (and who have a high tolerance for the BS entry requirements). I don't like the way it was implemented but I don't think anyone will ever be required to do it

Has that demographic not got enough "challenging" content recently, or by rule does SE have to provide streamers with something new to use for clicks?

I'd argue that if an element of new content has no reason to be there, then the resources devoted to it would have been better spent elsewhere.

Here's a wild thought: if SE is going to throw in a random raid or dungeon that is dislocated from the story and apparently pointless, how about construct it so that the majority of players can enjoy it, rather than the same minority who were handed other "high points" of this expansion like CAR?

[Shutaro]

Underwhelmed.

The entirety of the game-play loop is getting in a party, looking at the aethernet window, and scrolling through the list waiting for FATES and CEs to spawn.

Mobs in the world feel completely inconsequential. I don't really understand why they're there or if I should be killing them or not. It doesn't seem like grinding them is any better than doing FATES and CEs.

The FATES die too quickly, there isn't enough of them (if you're trying to farm Demiatmas), and getting to them is a pain (even with the riding map). It doesn't feel good to run from a teleport point to a FATE only to have it die as soon as you get there. If I don't teleport to the location immediately I'll miss it. This means I have to spend all my time looking at the teleport window during downtime. The FATE-grind loop has already been done countless time in this game. This isn't hard, just let me fly already.

CEs are fine, but they feel repetitive after the 4th of 5th run. Overall I really like the added mechanics on the FATES and CEs... But, due to the lack of variety among their CEs and the high HP, I find myself checking out about half way through most of them (player fatigue is a thing). I usually finish them dead, because my contribution doesn't really have any impact on the rewards I may or may not get and a raise at the end is guaranteed.

I don't really understand what the point of the job system is, beyond the 30 minute buffs. They don't really seem to synergize with my job (MCH) at all. If there's something I'm supposed to be doing with them other than Number Go Up, the game doesn't make it clear.

The RNG on the demiatmas feels broken. Some drop all the time, others never drop, and demiatmas beyond 3 are completely useless (please AT LEAST allow us to exchange these for tomes/currency!!!). Devs seem to understand that this is either purposely bad/thoughtless design, based on my characters cut-scene reaction. The relic grind seems openly disrespectful of my time as a player, and I will probably not bother with it any further.

Overall, I will probably get to level 20, finish the story, and then forget it exists.

[Daralii]

Has that demographic not got enough "challenging" content recently, or by rule does SE have to provide streamers with something new to use for clicks?

I'd argue that if an element of new content has no reason to be there, then the resources devoted to it would have been better spent elsewhere.

Here's a wild thought: if SE is going to throw in a random raid or dungeon that is dislocated from the story and apparently pointless, how about construct it so that the majority of players can enjoy it, rather than the same minority who were handed other "high points" of this expansion like CAR?

Savage, Ultimate, Chaotic, and 48-man Chaotic are the four key pillars of Final Fantasy XIV Online. If you aren't playing them, you get the privilege of funding them and 30 random games instead.

[FuturePastNow]

Has that demographic not got enough "challenging" content recently, or by rule does SE have to provide streamers with something new to use for clicks?

I'd argue that if an element of new content has no reason to be there, then the resources devoted to it would have been better spent elsewhere.

Here's a wild thought: if SE is going to throw in a random raid or dungeon that is dislocated from the story and apparently pointless, how about construct it so that the majority of players can enjoy it, rather than the same minority who were handed other "high points" of this expansion like CAR?

I think this game's developers genuinely believe that players wanted harder content, and lots of it, and I think they misunderstood the real complaints that things like the Endwalker alliance raids were too easy. They have overshot the mark obviously