How would you *fix* battle content?

[Kirutsuki]

Make fights require skill instead of perfect memorization.

Sadly even games that do require skill ultimately boil down to perfect memorization.
But randomness in enemy AI does allow skill expression, or atleast expression of experience.

I would wish more trials and raids would include a bit of randomness to what mechanic they are going to use on each cycle.
that alone would help a bit even on a tab targeting game.

[AmiableApkallu]

I would wish more trials and raids would include a bit of randomness to what mechanic they are going to use on each cycle.

I was doing the On the Hunt CE in Occult Crescent (a.k.a., the Oracle CE) when the server decided to skip 11 beats and start the fight off with the combination of rotating line and circle AoEs… going off at double speed. It was absolutely hilarious and turned what would have been my millionth boring run of the CE into something memorable.

[Kirutsuki]

Yup I bet. And there's so many mechanics they could just put all of them into like a package that bosses can randomly choose one (not that we need more packaged content),
but the notion that some generic boss could throw us a mechanic from like an ARR dungeon sounds incredibly fun to me.

Or doing like an ARR dungeon and suddenly you gotta solve numerations for no reason. :'D

[XtremePrime]

Sadly even games that do require skill ultimately boil down to perfect memorization.
But randomness in enemy AI does allow skill expression, or atleast expression of experience.

I would wish more trials and raids would include a bit of randomness to what mechanic they are going to use on each cycle.
that alone would help a bit even on a tab targeting game.

On normal atleast, it still needs to keep the fight intro where they have a fixed pattern to allow new players to learn what a mechanic does in a "safe" showcase, and once all mechanics are presented it can start going randomly somewhat.
But I don't think just randomness in the cycle is enough to add skill, just which part of the memorization script I need to account for and show that I'm paying attention

1. Some form of job "specialization system" to give jobs identity.
   
   White Mage could specialize into Green Mage or Illusionist OR stay as White Mage.
   choosing either one would give you 2 abilities that are highly specific to situations, but do not add damage,or more heals or mitigation.
   

Honestly I really like this idea in particular. We already have something like this in PvP except it's role based instead of job based, but I think it'd bring a great deal of personality to each person's job if they can get to choose between a few abilities!

I... Cannot find this tab button on my controller... That being said, targeting isn't 'that bad' of an issue. There are many ways to target, even different options in the menu. I'm all for other options, but tab and the f keys aren't your only options. Soft targeting is a thing... At least for controllers.

I don't have an issue with the tab-targeting (as opposed to skill targeting where every swing has a collision mesh on the weapon's trajectory or arrows are actual projectiles as in other games). The issue is regarding how do you add skill checks on attacking to a game where you're always targeting the enemy and can't miss your attack swing (unless underleveled).

[MetaBoi]

I guess I would be approaching it with the idea that players should choose their difficulty. Let's say you completed the new dungeon. You unlock "shifting" version of it. In there you get options such as:
"Bosses are more complex"
"Bosses have a time limit to defeat them"
"Mob pulls are more complex"
"There is a constant DoT effect happening"
"Tanks take more damage"
"Occasional clouds that seal weaponskills and spells appear"
"Everything has more HP"
and so on. Nothing too hard on it's own but when all is chosen it can be as hard as Criterion Savage. Players can choose the difficulty they want to have while playing with friends or PF. Or randomly put into an easy preset (such as "DoT + Clouds") when using DF. For rewards it can give coins that can be traded for Augmentation materials, Materia, or even gear. Same can also be applied to extremes and savages should raiders want to challenge themselves or train for Ultimates or whatever.

Secondly I would change how the syncing system works, such that your stats and your abilities can be synced independently while you're in a group. Want to do an old dungeon with level 100 skills but that dungeon's item level? Now you can. This change will help Unreal content I think. They can just put content from older expansions randomly each week to rotate.

For the content design itself I would include moments like Mountain Fire from the DT EX1, even in normal modes. A tank buster that creates a safe zone around the tank. A tower that splits the arena so that ranged players can still attack while dealing with stuff there. And so on. It should feel good that you are the one whose interacting with that mechanic because of your job choice. Players should feel "I'm glad I was the [Insert Role Here]." when doing those. There are some mechanics in DT that feels like that (look at Mountain Fire from DT EX1) and I think there should be more of that.

For job design.... I don't know there is a balance to be struck between making each job unique and making sure each job can clear every content. PvP designs oozes with personality, so they can take some clues from there.

[Kirutsuki]

I guess I would be approaching it with the idea that players should choose their difficulty. Let's say you completed the new dungeon. You unlock "shifting" version of it. In there you get options such as:
"Bosses are more complex"
"Bosses have a time limit to defeat them"
"Mob pulls are more complex"
"There is a constant DoT effect happening"
"Tanks take more damage"
"Occasional clouds that seal weaponskills and spells appear"
"Everything has more HP"
and so on. Nothing too hard on it's own but when all is chosen it can be as hard as Criterion Savage. Players can choose the difficulty they want to have while playing with friends or PF. Or randomly put into an easy preset (such as "DoT + Clouds") when using DF. For rewards it can give coins that can be traded for Augmentation materials, Materia, or even gear. Same can also be applied to extremes and savages should raiders want to challenge themselves or train for Ultimates or whatever.

I think this would gamify the content abit too much. And people would still just choose the most optimal "shift" and only use that 99% of the time anyway.

[Uzephi]

Instead of developing for hardcore first and dialing back or removing mechanics, maybe try a midcore approach and increase/decrease as needed. The reason midcore and casual is so boring is because the fight wasn't designed for that slower pace and forgiving play style.

Edit: instead of adding 9 billion damage as a 'mechanic' that must be followed, adding any of the plethora of debuffs you have in the game could work. When was the last time the debuff Misery was used in the game, or Disease in a raid/AR? You have the tech right there to give us more engaging content than 'avoid bad.'

[Hallarem]

Huge overhauls to the overworld, how they treat loot and job identity and gearing would be on the top of the list, but a lot of it only works if they work on all of it.

But definitely top of my list is that the overworld needs to stop being a fate/hunt simulator with a sprinkle of flavor quests. It needs to matter, farming items, drops for glams, anything.

SE is so mortified of change though, so I doubt we'll see anything except more flashier effects on 8.0

[Masekase_Hurricane]

I think it's clear that it can't change