Forked Tower: Blood Needs A Normal Mode

[Valence]

It's not like people have manifested their feeedback to get more CLL/Dalriada on these very forums way before the patch, but heh, must be the same vocal minority that's never happy about anything and should just leave the game right?

[Khryseis_Astra]

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.

They also said “having multiple difficulty levels would’ve been ideal.” So yes this was the intended difficulty level for the harder version, no question about that, which we know is the original, since they start hard and scale down for most things.

So when they go on to say: “unfortunately, with the time constraints that we had, we lacked the development resources to design and debug two separate difficulties in addition to creating large-scale battle content like Forked Tower from the ground up.” That makes it sound like they probably did intend for two versions originally, but due to “time constraints” and “lack of resources,” the Normal mode got scrapped, and they thought it would be okay because those that cleared could just carry everyone else, essentially.

Still the way they say “the next large scale dungeon” leads me to believe that we’re in for the same thing in North Horn: “Although we couldn't do it for Forked Tower, we've started discussing the possibility of designing Normal and Savage versions of the next large-scale dungeon.” Both Horns have their own Forked Tower, so I’m not hopeful that North will have two modes, and even if it does, it will feel unbalanced if they don’t add one to South as well.

[Jeeqbit]

Still the way they say “the next large scale dungeon” leads me to believe that we’re in for the same thing in North Horn: “Although we couldn't do it for Forked Tower, we've started discussing the possibility of designing Normal and Savage versions of the next large-scale dungeon.” Both Horns have their own Forked Tower, so I’m not hopeful that North will have two modes, and even if it does, it will feel unbalanced if they don’t add one to South as well.

I feel 100% confident they meant that North Horn will have both normal and savage.

You've got to remember this is translation and things get lost in translation. It's pretty obvious to me they meant North Horn will have a normal mode and they've got around a year to find the development resources.

[Khryseis_Astra]

I feel 100% confident they meant that North Horn will have both normal and savage.

You've got to remember this is translation and things get lost in translation. It's pretty obvious to me they meant North Horn will have a normal mode and they've got around a year to find the development resources.

Hoping you’re right! They usually seem to be very careful with the official translation so as not to have anything be misconstrued, but this one felt like it could go either way to me.

But also hoping that since they have a year, they realize how uneven it is to have FT: Part 2 be easily accessible to casuals while Part 1 is not, and create Normal modes for both at the same time to balance out the content.

[Eight]

Honestly if they just added the ability to queue in it would solve the problem and would make the need for a normal mode unnecessary. The current FT is challenging but realistically it's not that bad and most people can clear it. The problem is it takes so long to actually go in and the fact that it kicks you out if the party wipes creates an artificial wall that slows people from progressing. If they just had a queue people would be able to just go in and practice and I guarantee you there would be a huge number of people clearing and none of this would be an issue. The content is more than doable by everyone but SE decided to make it over complicated as usual.

[Supersnow845]

Honestly if they just added the ability to queue in it would solve the problem and would make the need for a normal mode unnecessary. I think they really don't need a normal mode because the current FT is challenging but realistically it's not that bad and most people can clear it. The problem is it takes so long to actually go in and the fact that it kicks you out if the party wipes creates an artificial wall that slows people from progressing. If they just had a queue people would be able to just go in and practice and I guarantee you there would be a huge number of people clearing and none of this would be an issue. The content is more than doable by everyone but SE decided to make it over complicated as usual.

Dead stars is not being casually pugged even with no restrictions on entry and death

Slimes is fine, like I mean even TA normal people will kill you if you don’t align hot and cold. Snowballs is 6 coordinated wildcharges followed by a tether stretch that’s straight up a wipe if done wrong. Delta attack does way too much damage for casual pugs unless you luck into a really competant SCH who can ignore the mechanic with spreadlo. Then fire towers is a mechanic where every single person has full raidwide responsibility, a single person standing in the wrong spot on fire towers can and will wipe the raid and unlike something like snowball tether stretch or meteors on tablet it’s not just “hope you don’t get the raid wide responsibility mechanic” because everyone has to participate in towers

People can barely hold 8 man prog groups together through more than 2 wipes of content people are supposed to know. You would be very unlikely to get many groups casually through dead stars and if you start tomestone checking for making it to marble dragon you are basically in the same position you are now

This is assuming you even reach dead stars and not just all run in, realise nobody has thief and then wipe to someone blowing up a super trap in hallways

[TeresaFortell]

Then in this instance, for OC, people were expecting more CLL, Dalriada, DRN/DRS for the field op content and instead got BA the sequel. Which feels like a backwards step in the entirely wrong direction.

FT provided the BA entry while offering us DRS Lite content, talk about adding insult to injury.

I think Bozja, for all my dislikes of it, had that nice balance of dungeons not being too easy right away, but not being so hard that it killed the fun of it, or kept people from even attempting it. FTB fails on that.

Had loots not been so terrible in OC, it would have given people a reason to do the content, even if there weren't an endgame dungeon/raid. Now, all phantom jobs maxing is just to get buff to your character so that perhaps one day you may go to prep and try FT.

[TeresaFortell]

Honestly if they just added the ability to queue in it would solve the problem and would make the need for a normal mode unnecessary. The current FT is challenging but realistically it's not that bad and most people can clear it. The problem is it takes so long to actually go in and the fact that it kicks you out if the party wipes creates an artificial wall that slows people from progressing. If they just had a queue people would be able to just go in and practice and I guarantee you there would be a huge number of people clearing and none of this would be an issue. The content is more than doable by everyone but SE decided to make it over complicated as usual.

Having difficulty entering the content is indeed a part of the problem. The main issue, however, is that FT is not a raid that relies solely on personal responsibility. Additionally, you have role responsibility and group responsibility that everyone must adhere to when interacting with the bosses' mechanics. Just as in a chaotic raid, especially in the second phase, if a single person or two commits a mistake in the run, it will not only kill themselves but also likely wipe out the entire raid. Therefore, simply having a queue system would not be enough, as too much coordination is required for groups even to contemplate completing the raid.

[AmiableApkallu]

The main issue, however, is that FT is not a raid that relies solely on personal responsibility. Additionally, you have role responsibility and group responsibility that everyone must adhere to when interacting with the bosses' mechanics. Just as in a chaotic raid, especially in the second phase, if a single person or two commits a mistake in the run, it will not only kill themselves but also likely wipe out the entire raid. Therefore, simply having a queue system would not be enough, as too much coordination is required for groups even to contemplate completing the raid.

Requiring coordination is fine. It's what turns a bunch of solo players vibing to their own tune into an actual party making their way through a raid, dungeon, whatever.

In terms of a normal mode FT, the issue is making mistakes something other than ridiculously punishing.

[XtremePrime]

The content difficulty is arguable, but it's fine.
The real issue is the way it was introduced still makes me wonder who exactly it was meant for?

The lack of premade/queueing to it and having the free for all "just go there to join" system makes it seem like it wants to appeal to casuals who want to "try it out" when it pops, but the amount of personal responsibility and coordination in both jobs and mechanics required makes it seems like it's meant strictly for statics.

I'd love to read the design doc of FTB just to see how it was presented and argued.