My idea for Crystal tower raid...though im sure at this point in time it has already been started by the dev team..
a HUGE raid.. a multi tiered, multi faceted instance. think from below the bottom up, such as black temple, in world of warcraft. but imagine that at a HUGE scale, with bosses from all over the final fantasy universe, with new levels and sections themed after the expansions as they come out. Hugely realized levels/area's each with a theme from the final fantasy series (think fire/ice/air/water, or, esper, endboss, judge, rare monsters reamagined as raid bosses)
the levels could be introduced in teirs, say 4-14 bosses per level/section, also branching sections that may drop special items say with a miniboss/normal/heroic boss in them.( a PARTICULAR piece of gear, say a forest themed mini section's boss has a chance to drop a special current tier BiS Archer item)
each level/section must be cleared before the next can be accessed, each level/section has an "easy mode" that may be joined using the content finder, and may be run as much as wanted each lockout period, though loot is only eligible once from each boss per week in content finder mode.
content finder mode may not be accessed for a particular level/section until the next level/section/tier is released, then the previous may be experienced in content finder mode.
*NORMAL* mode - single lockout per section per week, harder than content finder, easier than ---->,
(HARD MODE):normal mode +1, harder bosses, in that they hit harder, have larger health pools, but do not introduce any more advanced mechanics] single lockout for Crystal Tower per month, if you have already on a previous lockout cleared a section/level, you may teleport ahead of it to current content.
In doing this, members of a raiding guild may participate in a month long guild run, while also pugging during down time, or if they cannot make the guild run, or if the main hardmode run is full they may make secondary groups of lesser geared players to run normal mode which will be easier to get a group together for because each section locks out separately. Also, a good way to blast through previous tier sections/content in order to gear newly made characters.
[[[*INSANE* mode - Single lockout per section per week. Designed for players who have already cleared normal mode and are able to clear and are familiar with hard mode encounters. New and advanced mechanics introduced, including INSANE mode only bosses. ]]]
Structure,
Starting with the first tier upon release, say a 6 boss raid.
NORMAL MODE -
these mode bosses will always have the same values and mechanics throughout the games lifespan.
HARD MODE -
these mode bosses will always have the same values and mechanics throughout the games lifespan.
INSANE MODE -
these mode bosses values will scale so that they are always "current content", though the mechanics will remain the same so that while players who have completed them when they were "current content" learned the tactics, the margin of error does not increase because on gear level (called gear carrying to us raiders)
Upon each new content tier that is released, INSANE difficulty will retain its one lockout per section per week, but if you have completed a section/tier/level, you may, like before, teleport ahead of it to NEW INSANE mode content.
As for gear. let DUNGEON be initial vanilla end game dungeons.
let Ex1DUNGEON be expansion pack 1 dungeons.
Timeline
INITIAL RELEASE- first Crystal Tower (henceforth CT) tier released
DUNGEON - available
Normal CT - DUNGEON +1
Hardmode CT - DUNGEON +2
INSANE CT - DUNGEON +3
SECOND CT TEIR RELEASED=================================
Normal CT Tier 2 - DUNGEON +3
Hardmode CT Teir 2 - DUNGEON +4
INSANE CT Teir 1 - DUNGEON +4.5
INSANE CT Teir 2 - DUNGEON +5
THIRD CT TEIR RELEASED===================================
Normal CT Tier 3 - DUNGEON +5
Hardmode CT Teir 3 - DUNGEON +6
INSANE CT Teir 1 - DUNGEON +6.5
INSANE CT Teir 2 - DUNGEON +6.5
INSANE CT Teir 3 - DUNGEON +7
xxxxxxxxx XPAC 1 RELEASED xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ex1DUNGEON - availible
Normal CT Teir 4 - Ex1DUNGEON +1
Hardmode CT Teir 4 - Ex1DUNGEON +2
INSANE CT Teir1 - Ex1DUNGEON +2.5
INSANE CT Teir2 - Ex1DUNGEON +2.5
INSANE CT Teir3 - Ex1DUNGEON +2.5
INSANE CT Teir4 - Ex1DUNGEON +3
FIFTH CT TEIR RELEASED====================================
Normal CT Tier 5 - Ex1DUNGEON +3
Hardmode CT Teir 5 - Ex1DUNGEON +4
INSANE CT Teir 1 - Ex1DUNGEON +4.5
INSANE CT Teir 2 - Ex1DUNGEON +4.5
INSANE CT Teir 3 - Ex1DUNGEON +4.5
INSANE CT Teir 4 - Ex1DUNGEON +4.5
INSANE CT Teir 3 - Ex1DUNGEON +5
SIXTH CT TEIR RELEASED=====================================
Normal CT Tier 3 - Ex1DUNGEON +5
Hardmode CT Teir 3 - Ex1DUNGEON +6
INSANE CT Teir 1 - Ex1DUNGEON +6.1
INSANE CT Teir 2 - Ex1DUNGEON +6.1
INSANE CT Teir 3 - Ex1DUNGEON +6.1
INSANE CT Teir 4 - Ex1DUNGEON +6.1
INSANE CT Teir 5 - Ex1DUNGEON +6.1
INSANE CT Teir 4 - Ex1DUNGEON +7
This is just something that came to me as i was sitting here thinking.... probably cant be used at all because this content has already been made, but maybe the devs can use some of the ideas.