Forked Tower: Blood Needs A Normal Mode

[Uzephi]

I think they proved that they are cappable if designing difficult/fun content with the latest savage fights etc (unless its a different team)

That misses the point. Sorry for being cryptic. I'll define a bit more. When you pick up a new game, most people won't try the hardest content first. You start with the easy stuff. Look at this game's progression. If I get bored with normal fights, what will keep me to try the harder ones? I'll just move on to a better experience. If the easy content isn't fun, no one will stick around to try the hard.

[Khryseis_Astra]

On the topic of whether or not OC is enough content if you don’t do the Tower, brought up in another thread:

Everything does lead to the Tower, which makes it feel incomplete without a Normal mode. The phantom jobs, while fun to play, have skills that are only really useful in the Tower. You can’t get your gear to +2 without the Tower, because for outsiders that relies on support fates, of which I’ve only seen 2, for a whopping total of 4 pieces of sanguinite.

Bozja had 2 dungeons - CLL and Dalriada - both of which were slightly challenging at first but eased up as you leveled in the zone with mettle and actions. Plus it had DRN/DRS. Forked Tower is a descendant of Eureka’s Baldesion Arsenal, but what makes those such different experiences? One, Eureka had the big Fates for each zone that acted as kind of zone bosses. And those bosses had rare drops that were used for special items to give an in-zone advantage, and tradeable on the mb for millions to this day. Two, BA came at the end of the content so it felt like optional bonus content, as well as not having as many wipe mechs so newbies could be carried through. FT comes right in the middle, has 20-some places where a single person’s mistake can mean game over, and locks the last gear upgrade of the zone’s gear behind it, putting non-Tower clearers at a disadvantage going into the second and final zone. Third, and perhaps the most important to me, it locks rewards that should be Normal mode level, behind Hard mode content. The last FIVE field notes are in there, along with a TT card. This did not happen with either Eureka or Bozja: BA and DRS only had a mount, Bozja’s field notes were obtainable without doing DRS and their cards were sold in the cluster shop, Eureka had no field notes, but their cards were obtained from boss NMs and an NPC outside the zone.

As far as I’m concerned, current FT can keep the mount, and maybe higher drop rates for all the other stuff, but it needs a Normal mode so that everyone can go through and get the notes and have a chance in hell of getting the card (which honestly should be in the sanguinite shop anyway), as well as sanguinite for gear upgrades.

I’d also add that I haven’t gone to OC for about a week now… my only other goal is to max out gold and silver before the next zone comes out and I just honestly don’t feel like it. I’ll probably go in and max out the new phantom jobs when those come out, but that’s about it. Not having a Normal mode Tower to repeat for rewards definitely makes the zone feel lacking to me. You can only grind the same Fates/CEs for so long until it gets old.

[ZephyrMenodora]

Yes, it would be nice if this content was accessible for everyone.

[legg]

Tbh its more fault on OC game design than FT:B as a whole lmao.
Instead of having normal CLL and HARDCORE SAVAGE CLL i rather have CLL and DR(S).

So i dont agree on normal version of FT:B, because it WILL be easier by the next time we got new Phantom Jobs anyway.
But puggable super dungeon with a difficulty as Ridorana/Orbonne? Hell yeah.

[Khryseis_Astra]

Tbh its more fault on OC game design than FT:B as a whole lmao.
Instead of having normal CLL and HARDCORE SAVAGE CLL i rather have CLL and DR(S).

So i dont agree on normal version of FT:B, because it WILL be easier by the next time we got new Phantom Jobs anyway.

What’s going to make it any easier? The 2 new jobs aren’t going to make anyone invincible. You can’t get +2 gear without doing the Tower first, outside gear isn’t going to super-power you. Then there’s the 3-rez limit and 20-some places where one person can wipe the raid, which is what makes this hard mode to begin with, and nothing we’re getting is going to counteract that.

[Iwashiwash]

What’s going to make it any easier? The 2 new jobs aren’t going to make anyone invincible. You can’t get +2 gear without doing the Tower first, outside gear isn’t going to super-power you. Then there’s the 3-rez limit and 20-some places where one person can wipe the raid, which is what makes this hard mode to begin with, and nothing we’re getting is going to counteract that.

tbf, you don't need +2 or hell even +1 gear to do the tower, all it does is just gives you some extra damage. Personally I think this raid is definitely not on savage level, feels more like extreme.

[Daralii]

tbf, you don't need +2 or hell even +1 gear to do the tower, all it does is just gives you some extra damage. Personally I think this raid is definitely not on savage level, feels more like extreme.

I would consider it a step above extreme because of the player count. It requires a minimum of 24 warm bodies, so at least 3 times as many potential points of failure.

[legg]

What’s going to make it any easier? The 2 new jobs aren’t going to make anyone invincible. You can’t get +2 gear without doing the Tower first, outside gear isn’t going to super-power you. Then there’s the 3-rez limit and 20-some places where one person can wipe the raid, which is what makes this hard mode to begin with, and nothing we’re getting is going to counteract that.

The passive 2% buff of maxing the ph job, currently its capped at 24% (12 phj) and the newer jobs will make every one of us stronger.
+2 is nice but not necesary, you could actually survive most raidwide and TB with your usual 730 gears/arcanaut by Ranger + Spread Critlo.
The 3-rez limit shouldnt be a problem since you could, like, practice the fight and try to not die the next time you alive, but the rest is not the game fault, its basic human behaviour and is expected to get mistake (and thats okay!)

[Supersnow845]

The passive 2% buff of maxing the ph job, currently its capped at 24% (12 phj) and the newer jobs will make every one of us stronger.
+2 is nice but not necesary, you could actually survive most raidwide and TB with your usual 730 gears/arcanaut by Ranger + Spread Critlo.
The 3-rez limit shouldnt be a problem since you could, like, practice the fight and try to not die the next time you alive, but the rest is not the game fault, its basic human behaviour and is expected to get mistake (and thats okay!)

TBF the +2 and the master stacks are basically irrelevant to your chance of clearing anyway because if you wipe in forked you are wiping to fire towers or holy lance or some such, not enrage

And because of the way those mechanics work they are never being made easier no matter how much gear you have because you can’t even skip them

The most use horizontal progression in forked gets you is bigger spreadlo shields but SCH is already hilariously more powerful than SGE in forked (and both are so much more useful than regen healers hosts will reorganise parties if a shield healer permanently dies)

[Khryseis_Astra]

tbf, you don't need +2 or hell even +1 gear to do the tower, all it does is just gives you some extra damage. Personally I think this raid is definitely not on savage level, feels more like extreme.

If it weren’t for both the rez limit and the plentiful wipe mechs, maybe. Those in place puts it beyond Extreme level. Plus the fact that it is an entire dungeon and not just a multi-phase boss fight to try and learn. The sheer amount of time it would require to both schedule and prog is beyond most casual players, and to me it pretty much kills any fun of it for it not to have a more relaxed, repeatable Normal mode.