Forked Tower: Blood Needs A Normal Mode

[Khryseis_Astra]

Posted in another thread, but felt like it needed to be its own topic.

They should have made room in the schedule for a FTB Normal mode… and I still think they should make one, even though it’s after the fact. If it was like CLL or Dalriada, or even DR Normal, the cipher entry would be seen as story immersion, rather than the pain it is now, because it would actually make sense to run the content with whoever showed up. Anything that requires the level of coordination just to enter, let alone run, should be a separate entry with PF freely available.

The problem is that they’re going to fix the entry method for the Hard mode, to an extent. But there’s not going to be a Normal mode in zone, and there’s no other instanced dungeon equivalent for people who are not or don’t want to be progression raiders, especially with the amount of coordination a 48-person run requires, and the potential to be that person who makes a mistake and wipes the entire attempt.

Field op content is one of the things a lot of casuals look forward to, and after all the jobs are leveled and all the gear collected, there’s no way to complete the rest of the zone story without having to schedule a run of content that many feel is over their heads.

What they should do is take the current Forked Tower, dub it Savage Mode, add their PF fixes, and let it be queued for directly outside the zone. Then make a Normal mode which will continue to use the in-game cipher entry, 1 per person, first come, first served. Dial down the difficulty by removing rez restrictions and any mechs where one player can wipe the entire group, but leave in some of the interesting parts to use phantom job skills. It would be about the equivalent of CLL/Dalriada/DR Normal. (And probably a lot of fun to run with both friends and randoms!) Despite any complaints people may have about Bozja, the in-zone dungeons were one area where they got it right, and it feels like going backwards.

Rewards? Savage keeps the mount, maybe higher drop rates for any field notes that are random (think a couple are just survey points?), more currency than it currently gets, maybe the addition of gold or armor upgrade materials as well. Normal gets field notes and TT card at whatever the current drop rate is, to encourage running it for more than just phantom xp.

It makes no sense for them to add a story mode next zone and leave this zone undone! I know this isn’t as easy to do as the PF hotfix they’re planning, but it absolutely should be done. If they have to wait and release it alongside the next zone, that’s fine, but it needs to be there so that there’s no break in story continuity for those that either can’t or don’t want to schedule and prog a 48-person raid.

[Laphael]

Yes, we need a normal mode.

The alternative would be to implement the queueingfix as planned in 7.3 and let everyone who likes the challenge beat it like this and then in 7.4 NERF it down to DRN/Dalriada difficulty.


Sadly i fear the SE alternative will be: pretend it doesn´t exist after 7.3

[Raim]

Most people I asked thought it was quite silly that we got CLL/DR systems, everyone got to play them, and then we took a step back and used the BA entry system instead. It was wild hearing Yoshida basically say "It was too convenient that so many people were running our content, so we made it harder to enter on purpose" during the live letter.

[FuturePastNow]

Needed, past tense. Too late now. Those development resources have moved on to the next patch. The change to allow alliance parties to enter South Horn will make it easier for organized groups to get their reclears, but casual players can write this off as accessible content.

[Volgia]

It doesn't.

[ServerCollaps]

i think its very accessible for randoms, once you can queue for it. There are sooo many newbie prog groups. Just get over your social anxiety and join a discord, its an mmorpg in the end and not a single player game

[Raim]

i think its very accessible for randoms, once you can queue for it. There are sooo many newbie prog groups. Just get over your social anxiety and join a discord, its an mmorpg in the end and not a single player game

If the mechanics in your game cant be reliably conveyed without needing a third party voice program to coordinate them you've failed at game design.

[Jeeqbit]

If the mechanics in your game cant be reliably conveyed without needing a third party voice program to coordinate them you've failed at game design.

I mean, they can. But here's the thing.

A lot of people who play FFXIV are not very good at playing FFXIV.

They are not very good at looking with their eyes, or being raid-aware. If they actually used their eyes and remembered basic telegraphs taught in Hall of the Novice, it wouldn't be an issue, but when you have players dying in dungeons regularly, or still failing mechanics like the gaze on Cat's Eye (A rank), it shows that people just aren't raid aware a lot of the time.

Even if they are raid aware, mechanics take prog. I could compare it to many Dawntrail S ranks that obliterate everyone present and leave bodies everywhere. If you learn the mechanics you can do them flawlessly, but many people never learn them or take a very long time to understand them. Voice callouts would of course accelerate that prog and understanding.

So the voice callouts are basically a way to carry them and by doing that it trivializes it for them and allows the clear rates to be higher and faster. It has nothing to do with the game not making the mechanics clear - it's easy to see if you actually use your eyes, read cast names, do 2+2 and hover your cursor over any status effects.

[Khryseis_Astra]

i think its very accessible for randoms, once you can queue for it. There are sooo many newbie prog groups. Just get over your social anxiety and join a discord, its an mmorpg in the end and not a single player game

I’m not looking for a single player/solo experience… Normal mode would still be a 48-person dungeon, but puggable. It was done better in Bozja with CLL, Dalriada, DRN, and to go back to a BA style instance, especially in the middle of the content, was a bad choice.

I want a Normal mode, because it belongs in this type of content, first and foremost. But beyond that, it’s not even about “social anxiety.” If I have no other option, I’ll eventually do it. The hassle of scheduling is one reason I haven’t done BA. It annoys me that I’m missing out on whatever story bits that entailed, but at least it wasn’t right in the middle of the content!

But social anxiety aside, first off, there are players that don’t feel like they are skilled enough to go through content with a rez restriction. For my part, I know I spend more time on the floor than not while I’m learning anything new, and the time commitment to both schedule and prog this is a bit too much when I’ll probably strike out on my 3 rez limit, at least once if not more. I’ll wait until a clear is practically guaranteed, but I’m sure the next zone will be out by then. Secondly, for players not confident in their skill level to begin with, no one wants to be that one person who makes the raid-wiping mistake, causing others to waste all the time they put into it. That prospect alone makes it daunting.

But in the end, all other arguments aside, there needs to be an option for those who just care about the story of the zone. Not everyone wants a challenge. There should be a path for both those who do and those that don’t. Especially in what is arguably one of the most popular pieces of content for more casual players.

[Gurgeh]

(agreed with OP, cancel ultimate completely. Cancel the next savage tear. Do what you have to to make it happen without losing more casual content. But make it happen.
Yes people will be pissed. But it's bad enough that that might be the only option. Or stop housing demolition so people can unsub while you pause everything else and get caught up. Then resume other content when FT norman drops.
Redo Cloud while your at it to get rid of the body checks. Incentivise raid/duty finder for prog.
The fact you won't is an indication of just how much you don't get it, and the fact that people don't seriously expect you to in 1,000,000 years indicates how rock bottom their expectations are.)