The Problem:
The Alliance Raid roulette almost always selects from the Crystal Tower series, especially Labyrinth of the Ancients. The only way to have a reasonable shot at getting a newer raid is to queue for it directly, forfeiting any roulette bonuses, and even then there are very long waits to get a full group.
The roulette bonus is the same regardless of which raid you get, so players are motivated to cheese the item level to get the quicker and easier Crystal Tower raids ad nauseum. The problem will only get worse as more raids are released, spreading the player base wide and thin, making it even harder to get into non-CT raids.
The Solution:
Expanding on an idea I posted here:
Replace the Alliance Raid Roulette with a daily challenge that rotates each day, cycling through all the alliance raids in the order in which they were released, selecting only the current raid of the day. For example it would start with Labyrinth of the Ancients, the next day would be Syrcus Tower, and so on until reaching Orbonne Monastery, after which it would loop back to Labyrinth of the Ancients, and the cycle would continue. When the next expansion is released, the YoRHa raid series will be added to the rotation.
To encourage players to do the longer, harder raids when they are up, those raids would provide greater rewards, i.e. Orbonne Monastery could grant 200 poetics, 200 goetia, and 100 phantasmagoria, while Labyrinth of the Ancients could grant 50 poetics, 50 goetia, and 25 phantasmagoria.
Possible Drawbacks:
The main drawback I can think of is that new players wanting to unlock a given raid and progress progress the raid's storyline (And also players who just want to experience a specific raid) would have to wait until the raid they need is up for the day, which would take anywhere from 0 to 8 days (11 after the YoRHa series gets added to the rotation). However I still think that would be better than players wanting to do an Ivalice or Mhach raid (New players included) having to sit in a very slow queue and hope enough people queue up for it.
Another possible drawback would be that if you are using it to level, you would be deprived of it if you are below the level of the raid that is currently up. I.e. if you are between levels 50-59, you will be deprived of the challenge 6 days out of 9. This could be mitigated by increasing the experience reward for lower level players to make up for only being able to raid 3 days (6 days if you are level 60-69) out of every 9.
Continue reading...
The Alliance Raid roulette almost always selects from the Crystal Tower series, especially Labyrinth of the Ancients. The only way to have a reasonable shot at getting a newer raid is to queue for it directly, forfeiting any roulette bonuses, and even then there are very long waits to get a full group.
The roulette bonus is the same regardless of which raid you get, so players are motivated to cheese the item level to get the quicker and easier Crystal Tower raids ad nauseum. The problem will only get worse as more raids are released, spreading the player base wide and thin, making it even harder to get into non-CT raids.
The Solution:
Expanding on an idea I posted here:
Replace the Alliance Raid Roulette with a daily challenge that rotates each day, cycling through all the alliance raids in the order in which they were released, selecting only the current raid of the day. For example it would start with Labyrinth of the Ancients, the next day would be Syrcus Tower, and so on until reaching Orbonne Monastery, after which it would loop back to Labyrinth of the Ancients, and the cycle would continue. When the next expansion is released, the YoRHa raid series will be added to the rotation.
To encourage players to do the longer, harder raids when they are up, those raids would provide greater rewards, i.e. Orbonne Monastery could grant 200 poetics, 200 goetia, and 100 phantasmagoria, while Labyrinth of the Ancients could grant 50 poetics, 50 goetia, and 25 phantasmagoria.
Possible Drawbacks:
The main drawback I can think of is that new players wanting to unlock a given raid and progress progress the raid's storyline (And also players who just want to experience a specific raid) would have to wait until the raid they need is up for the day, which would take anywhere from 0 to 8 days (11 after the YoRHa series gets added to the rotation). However I still think that would be better than players wanting to do an Ivalice or Mhach raid (New players included) having to sit in a very slow queue and hope enough people queue up for it.
Another possible drawback would be that if you are using it to level, you would be deprived of it if you are below the level of the raid that is currently up. I.e. if you are between levels 50-59, you will be deprived of the challenge 6 days out of 9. This could be mitigated by increasing the experience reward for lower level players to make up for only being able to raid 3 days (6 days if you are level 60-69) out of every 9.
Continue reading...