When will Forked Tower stop keeping players Hostage in instance?

[FuturePastNow]

I don't mind being in a low-population instance since almost everything scales really well. It's silly that the support fate isn't mandatory, though.

[TaleraRistain]

It's not the entry system, per se. It's the fact that the up-to-48 people in Forked Tower still count against South Horn's population cap of 72 per instance. So, there can be only up-to-24 other players wandering about South Horn.

Yep, this, exactly. And if you zone out and try to find another instance especially during prime time, you run into another instance with a raid going on. So you can't even go find a fresh instance to do FATEs and CEs in sometimes.

And the people in FTB are taken into consideration so some things can take forever if they just disappear into there. Plus less people at CEs means less people to help raise and more potential to fail the CE. I've seen that happen with Calamity because that's often rather disorganized in how the portals are hit and it's usually numbers that helps mitigate that.

Things may be a little better with 7.3 because they're going to change things to lock the premade instances for some time period, though we don't know how long. It would honestly probably be better to just keep it locked since they went with this system so premade FTB stays off in their own instance and doesn't have to worry about random entries, and people who want to South Horn activities can do the activities without losing over half the people in the zone. I can see where that may tax their instance server, though. But they have definitely created another problem with this most recent change.

[Chasingstars]

This part is already live — at least in the sense that if the currently-filling instance doesn't have enough space for the premade to enter as a whole, then a new instance is started.

(Did they actually say something about locking the new instance? I'm not seeing it, but maybe I'm skimming too quickly…)

Its the follow up after the live letter:

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...27e42cc330d08e

Where they state:

Intentions Behind the Changes

As stated during the PLL, the update required to improve the Forked Tower experience would comprise several key elements:

1. The ability to enter the Occult Crescent instance with a preformed alliance of up to 48 players
2. Allowing auroral mirages to generate sooner after the Occult Crescent instance has loaded
3. Improvements to the cipher offering UI
4. Delaying auroral mirage generation until an active critical encounter has ended

And further down the line, after additional deliberation and discussion, we plan on further expanding the system with updates, such as:

5. Enabling exclusive access to the Occult Crescent instance for a set time when joining with a preformed alliance

We believe these combined changes will function in unison to improve the Forked Tower experience. However, given the outsized impact of 1., even in isolation, we have chosen to prioritize its implementation. Furthermore, to alleviate the issue of players waiting for prolonged periods to access the Forked Tower due to the time taken for an auroral mirage to generate after the Occult Crescent instance loads, we will also be implementing 2. in advance.

The remaining changes listed above will be implemented in Patch 7.3, as previously discussed, along with other minor adjustments and updates. Please accept my apologies for the delay.

[FuturePastNow]

Once #5 is implemented, they will have strayed fully from their original design intent of allowing random players to organically join the dungeon. Why will the ciphers still exist at that point?

[ACE135]

Once #5 is implemented, they will have strayed fully from their original design intent of allowing random players to organically join the dungeon. Why will the ciphers still exist at that point?

Well, players inside OC are still able to form groups and enter FT if they want.

[Chasingstars]

Forked Tower Blood really do be like:

At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus

[Brandr]

This whole Forked Tower design is so stupid... So amateurishly...

Feels like it was created by two kids challenging each other who can create "the hardest dungeon ever!"...

[TeresaFortell]

This whole Forked Tower design is so stupid... So amateurishly...

Feels like it was created by two kids challenging each other who can create "the hardest dungeon ever!"...

Having a challenging dungeon is fine. Having that dungeon behind such a frustrating entry system--and on top of that, including so many body checks--feels completely disconnected from what the content should be.

[Alahard]

Once #5 is implemented, they will have strayed fully from their original design intent of allowing random players to organically join the dungeon. Why will the ciphers still exist at that point?

I mean apparently their design intention was randoms were to be carried in an instance that one person can cause a full wipe? Also that it's a possibility to be left out of your friend group on a run. They really didn't think this through.

[XtremePrime]

If they wanted FTB to be meant for actual hardcore skilled, they should've just made it a separate instance that PF can queue up for outside of OC. I know they wanted it to be inside OC for narrative purposes, but they could've kept the narrative one in the OC instance for a normal mode that players can just try out on a whim.