Forked Tower: Blood Needs A Normal Mode

[Mawlzy]

I'd say they were pretty spot on with their analysis of Chaotic's difficulty.
Now me saying all this doesn't mean you can't be dissatisfied with how FTB turned out, but saying they don't know how to balance content is wrong because pictomancer is a job, not content lmao. They designed FTB's mechanics exactly how they intended to, people just wanted something different.

I think think is probably correct, but leaves us with the conclusion that SE consistently designs content that is of no interest to the bulk of the player base.

Given we are also told there is a lack of "resources," it would seem this is a deliberate decision to keep one segment of the player base engaged, while being prepared to shed the rump.

[Fawkes]

And on the topic of CAR, can anyone find the developers mentioning it was supposed to be extreme difficulty? I'm pretty sure we gaslit ourselves into believing "oops its savage" because we heard one single fan-translated line from an LL (If only LLs had official translation...)

I don't have the quote from Yoshi-P but here's a post from the japanese thread about Dawntrail's difficulty, that references him saying Chaotic was supposed to be extreme but they made savage instead.

実際に滅は極程度の難易度で発注してたけど零式レベルになりました！そのままだします！ってやってますしね。
発注通りじゃないなら作り直させるべきだと思ったし、それでそのままお出しするならターゲット層も変わってくると思うんですけど、ディレクションどうなってるんでしょう。

[Khryseis_Astra]

I really don’t think when they said “forked tower” they meant blood AND magic. While we know that the other one will be magic we can’t even guarantee it will be called forked tower specifically

Regardless this just reads like “next raid will plan to have a normal” which is forked tower magic

I hope you’re right, but the name of the dungeon is “Forked Tower: Blood,” and the next will likely be “Forked Tower: Magic.” It reads to me like these are mirror images of each other; two halves of a whole. Guess it depends on how the devs see them: as one overall dungeon in two parts or as separate entities. They’re usually very careful in their wording/translation on these digests, which is why it takes so long after the LL for them to be posted.

At any rate, if they’re not going to do a Normal mode for both, they should look into things they can do so the zone isn’t totally ruined for those that can’t or don’t want to deal with the current Tower format. Some ideas would be an exploratory mode like I suggested a few pages back to allow all five field notes to be collected. I’m sure even those that clear the Tower would appreciate being able to go back in for gpose purposes, since you probably don’t have much time in there after the last boss before the instance timer runs out. I would also add the TT card to the Sanguinite shop for a modest amount, maybe 10, like the furnishings that are Sanguinite exclusive and don’t drop from zone chests. And finally, added incentive to spawn the support fate for those outside the Tower. With the way they’re fixing the instances, it should NOT be made mandatory, because it will now be possible to have an empty instance for just the Tower alliance. But they should beef up the rewards for both inside and outside, to overcome the current trend of groups skipping it altogether. Maybe 5 Sanguinite outside (adjusting for the rarity of seeing the support fate at all), and extra for the Tower group plus maybe some gold to add to the chests.

[Infindox]

At the very least, they could allow for some way for the field notes, TT card and Sanguinite to be obtainable outside the Tower, since everyone has decided the support fate is too time-consuming to deal with.

Hoping they treat the field notes and TT card like they did past areas like this and slap them as another method (for instance, all the harder to get TT cards in Eureka are on an NPC in Kugane, all you need to do is unlock access to Hydratos to be able to play for them.) Not sure how they would implement the field notes, but if they decide to make a mount for getting all those again, there will probably be backlash. (The notes aren't guaranteed drop right? Even people running FT at least once for the mount will be annoyed about it if there's not another option)

[Daralii]

Hoping they treat the field notes and TT card like they did past areas like this and slap them as another method (for instance, all the harder to get TT cards in Eureka are on an NPC in Kugane, all you need to do is unlock access to Hydratos to be able to play for them.) Not sure how they would implement the field notes, but if they decide to make a mount for getting all those again, there will probably be backlash. (The notes aren't guaranteed drop right? Even people running FT at least once for the mount will be annoyed about it if there's not another option)

The final one(#30) is a survey point in the final room, not a drop. Unless we get to explore that room as part of a quest at some point, you'll still need to clear FT:B.

[FuturePastNow]

"we believe the difficulty level overshot what players were expecting before release" is an absurd statement that tells me their battle content team needs a shorter leash

[Fawkes]

"we believe the difficulty level overshot what players were expecting before release" is an absurd statement that tells me their battle content team needs a shorter leash

[Chasingstars]

"we believe the difficulty level overshot what players were expecting before release" is an absurd statement that tells me their battle content team needs a shorter leash

Yeah. If they admit to overshooting the difficulty, that is also an admission of overtuning the content. Which to fix overtuning, means nerfing aspects about the battle content in order to allow for a higher percentage of clears. As if they simply admit to it but don't really do anything else about it, it might as well be a "sorry you feel that way" apology.

[Jeeqbit]

Yeah. If they admit to overshooting the difficulty, that is also an admission of overtuning the content. Which to fix overtuning, means nerfing aspects about the battle content in order to allow for a higher percentage of clears. As if they simply admit to it but don't really do anything else about it, it might as well be a "sorry you feel that way" apology.

No it is the intended difficulty, because they intended it to be high-end.

The issue is players were expecting a normal mode instead and they acknowledge that. It doesn't mean they will magically make it not high-end content.

Their solution is that future field areas will have a normal mode.

[Khryseis_Astra]

Hoping they treat the field notes and TT card like they did past areas like this and slap them as another method (for instance, all the harder to get TT cards in Eureka are on an NPC in Kugane, all you need to do is unlock access to Hydratos to be able to play for them.) Not sure how they would implement the field notes, but if they decide to make a mount for getting all those again, there will probably be backlash. (The notes aren't guaranteed drop right? Even people running FT at least once for the mount will be annoyed about it if there's not another option)

From what I saw on a wiki, 4 currently drop from chests; don’t know if they’re random or guaranteed drops. Wording is “obtained from a personal spoils coffer after defeating X.” Maybe someone who has completed the Tower can clarify. The last one is a survey point in the dungeon’s final room.

An NPC for the Triad card could work, assuming they add a card to the Magic tower as well. I doubt they’d create an NPC for just one card. Eureka had 4 iirc. Bozja’s cards were purchaseable with the clusters, so that’s why I suggested the Sanguinite shop.