Forked Tower: Blood Needs A Normal Mode

[AmiableApkallu]

If Delubrum Reginae is this super-amazing, flawless, example...

It's not. No one's said that.

Delubrum Reginae Normal is the sort of thing that PUGs would queue for... if only they could do so while hanging out in Southern Front or Zadnor.

Delubrum Reginae Savage has exactly the queuing mechanism one might expect for content that requires significant organization.

Forked Tower literally takes the worst aspects of both DR versions.

[ChrysOCE]

It's not. No one's said that.

Delubrum Reginae Normal is the sort of thing that PUGs would queue for... if only they could do so while hanging out in Southern Front or Zadnor.

Delubrum Reginae Savage has exactly the queuing mechanism one might expect for content that requires significant organization.

Forked Tower literally takes the worst aspects of both DR versions.

Also, to that, DRN was something that you did in the course of Bozja and your relics. Of course it doesn't get run widely now. I still see PFs for it every now and then, from someone going through Bozja fresh or wanting to complete a relic. DRN is a different audience to those that do BA/DRS.
But, even if they did a normal Forked Tower and it was queued outside of OC, it would get run constantly, as it would be current content.

[Supersnow845]

I have one very simple question for people asking for a 'Normal Mode' of Forked Tower.

Baldesion Arsenal is so popular to this day that many players will go out of their way to join Discord groups for clears.

Delubrum Reginae is PF-able, and yet there's practically zero listings for it most of the time.

If Delubrum Reginae is this super-amazing, flawless, example that the devs should follow to the letter for ALL content relating to Occult Crescent, why is it comparatively dead from a player interest standpoint?

BA isn’t popular and it’s clear rate today is dwarfed by DRN/DAL/CLL when they were current. BA is a small community of people who mostly rerun the content for fun because BA is such a well designed raid once you get into it

I used to host BA and I could probably make a case for being one of the top 10 highest all time clearers of BA and basically all my runs were the same 25 people going round and round with maybe 10 new people each time who just wanted ozma

They will be absolutely insane if the next zone requires gear upgrades from this zone. Maybe +1 would be fine but not +2 unless they want even worse playerbase pushback.

If they do it that way they will 100% make sanguinite accessible in north horn

[TaleraRistain]

I have one very simple question for people asking for a 'Normal Mode' of Forked Tower.

Baldesion Arsenal is so popular to this day that many players will go out of their way to join Discord groups for clears.

Delubrum Reginae is PF-able, and yet there's practically zero listings for it most of the time.

If Delubrum Reginae is this super-amazing, flawless, example that the devs should follow to the letter for ALL content relating to Occult Crescent, why is it comparatively dead from a player interest standpoint?

You're comparing FT to the wrong thing. You shouldn't be comparing it to DR. You should be comparing it to CLL and Dalriada. Those are both accessed inside the instance the way BA and FT are. And they are both still popular. I just took friends through Dalriada right before OC dropped so they could finally finish Bozja. You don't see the maximum numbers of people like when it was current, but there is still plenty of interest from those inside the instance and it's very easy to clear. I did CLL not too far back as well and it also wasn't an issue. Bozja is not hugely populated and can be hard to get people interested in FATEs but the instanced CEs still get plenty of participation from those inside the instances.

[Valence]

You're comparing FT to the wrong thing. You shouldn't be comparing it to DR. You should be comparing it to CLL and Dalriada. Those are both accessed inside the instance the way BA and FT are. And they are both still popular. I just took friends through Dalriada right before OC dropped so they could finally finish Bozja. You don't see the maximum numbers of people like when it was current, but there is still plenty of interest from those inside the instance and it's very easy to clear. I did CLL not too far back as well and it also wasn't an issue. Bozja is not hugely populated and can be hard to get people interested in FATEs but the instanced CEs still get plenty of participation from those inside the instances.

CLL and Dalriada are the only things that proved both 1) popular and 2) engaging in the whole history of field exploratory content. BA only satisfied to 2), and for Forked, while certainly not satisfying to 1) either, remains to be seen about 2).
Everything else has always been gated behind boring grindfiestas no matter the iteration just to access the actual good parts. The way this game is often designed is like players shouldn't have too much fun. Just a little is enough.

[Mawlzy]

CLL and Dalriada are the only things that proved both 1) popular and 2) engaging in the whole history of field exploratory content. BA only satisfied to 2), and for Forked, while certainly not satisfying to 1) either, remains to be seen about 2).
Everything else has always been gated behind boring grindfiestas no matter the iteration just to access the actual good parts. The way this game is often designed is like players shouldn't have too much fun. Just a little is enough.

Credit where it's due, if that is the intent, SE has nailed it.

[FuturePastNow]

CLL and Dalriada are the only things that proved both 1) popular and 2) engaging in the whole history of field exploratory content.

So popular they put the Deinonychus and Gabriel Mk III in OC bronze chests to make them worthless.

[Dragondancer]

Absolute agree that Forked Tower needs a normal mode.

I was *so* excited to level thief up and be able to unlock doors in dungeons and find traps, because that is my character's specialization in his characterization but isn't represented in the game- except when thief came out in Occult Crescent.

I farmed gold below a level that made sense for it out of sheer determination to get thief and then maxed it, absolutely thrilled to be able to unlock doors and find secrets in this cool dungeon!

...only to find out that this is savage content and it wasn't a dungeon + cool mechs and something I could explore and discover at all.

I am a savage raider but from experiences with CAR getting a bunch more people together to do a raid is a pain (even though CAR is not that hard as savage content goes, coordinating that many people is rough. But at least CAR is thoroughly optional and not tied to any other thing or story- and you fight that boss in a normal raid!). I'm still farming CAR because the rewards require a bajillion runs to get enough rewards, which is a different complaint. I'll try to get to learn FT after if anyone is still doing it, but it sucks to have to learn things ahead of time and study guides and prog it rather than explore and have fun, which breaks the fantastic exploration feel of the rest of OC. My savage group also usually does a blind run for fun for our first fights, but this feels like you can't do that without letting down a whole bunch of people, since there's also no easy reset. So there's no real way at all to just explore and have fun and use the in-dungeon skills I was so excited for.

So from my perspective, Forked Tower breaks multiple promises. Not only is it savage content with no normal option, it promised me cool thief skills I can't even use in any normal content yet.

They can totally go back and make a normal mode, and should.

[0blivion]

I mean, how are you gonna make the trap aspect matter on normal mode considering they can already be cheesed as-is, and making them not even instakill would defeat the point of having them in the first place? Like sure, I think the skills could have alternate effects for outside FTB, but in general, much like DRN, all the unique parts of field exploration content become entirely inconsequential the second they don't actually kill you.

[Supersnow845]

I mean, how are you gonna make the trap aspect matter on normal mode considering they can already be cheesed as-is, and making them not even instakill would defeat the point of having them in the first place? Like sure, I think the skills could have alternate effects for outside FTB, but in general, much like DRN, all the unique parts of field exploration content become entirely inconsequential the second they don't actually kill you.

Basically do to Forked what DRN did to DRS

DRN’s traps still killed you, you could still precept them. All the skills still worked the same (other than arguably pure essence of the divine) it’s just the fights themselves were easier (and they removed very problematic aspects like minotaur and slimes/golems)

Just take forked, make the bosses easier, remove hard checks like using stop to stop the idols from casting raidwides, possible either delete bridges or make it much more simple and make the support puzzle a small extra thing one party can do like Lyon in the final boss of CLL