As the pool of alliance raids, trials, and normal raids continues to grow with each expansion, being matched into a specific raid or trial becomes increasingly rare. This is not an issue by itself, but if you've been paying attention, you've probably seen the complaints about queue times for older content.
The reason is fairly obvious: a level 100 character can queue for any released content they have unlocked, while a level 50 character can only be matched into content available at that level, such as the Crystal Tower series.
Because of this, the content that becomes increasingly difficult to find groups for is usually found in the "middle" expansions, namely those between Heavensward and Endwalker. Current-expansion content generally does not suffer from this issue, but even content from the previous expansion is already becoming noticeably harder to queue for.
To address this, I'd suggest adding a new rotating roulette. The purpose of this roulette, tentatively called Rotating Roulette, would be to help players find groups for older content while preserving the spirit of the roulette system: providing incentives for experienced players to revisit content they've already cleared and assist newer players.
The key difference is that, unlike existing roulettes, this roulette would only draw from a rotating pool that changes with each daily reset, and players would know the possible outcomes in advance.
For example, after Sunday's reset, the Rotating Roulette could be set to "Heavensward + Endwalker Alliance Raids," meaning it would only select alliance raids from those expansions. The following day, it could rotate to "Stormblood + Shadowbringers Raids," limiting the selection to the Omega and Eden raid series.
To prevent certain duties from being excluded due to insufficient participation from high-level players, the roulette's requirements should be based on the highest-level content in the daily pool. Using the previous examples, this would mean meeting the level and minimum item level requirements of the final Endwalker alliance raid or the final Shadowbringers raid.
The rewards could then be balanced around these stricter requirements.
To be clear, this is not a complaint about having to run Crystal Tower raids. That's not an issue for me, and I don't think it is for many others either. Rather, the goal is to provide additional support for players who want to clear older, less frequently played content without having to wait for peak hours on their data center.
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The reason is fairly obvious: a level 100 character can queue for any released content they have unlocked, while a level 50 character can only be matched into content available at that level, such as the Crystal Tower series.
Because of this, the content that becomes increasingly difficult to find groups for is usually found in the "middle" expansions, namely those between Heavensward and Endwalker. Current-expansion content generally does not suffer from this issue, but even content from the previous expansion is already becoming noticeably harder to queue for.
To address this, I'd suggest adding a new rotating roulette. The purpose of this roulette, tentatively called Rotating Roulette, would be to help players find groups for older content while preserving the spirit of the roulette system: providing incentives for experienced players to revisit content they've already cleared and assist newer players.
The key difference is that, unlike existing roulettes, this roulette would only draw from a rotating pool that changes with each daily reset, and players would know the possible outcomes in advance.
For example, after Sunday's reset, the Rotating Roulette could be set to "Heavensward + Endwalker Alliance Raids," meaning it would only select alliance raids from those expansions. The following day, it could rotate to "Stormblood + Shadowbringers Raids," limiting the selection to the Omega and Eden raid series.
To prevent certain duties from being excluded due to insufficient participation from high-level players, the roulette's requirements should be based on the highest-level content in the daily pool. Using the previous examples, this would mean meeting the level and minimum item level requirements of the final Endwalker alliance raid or the final Shadowbringers raid.
The rewards could then be balanced around these stricter requirements.
To be clear, this is not a complaint about having to run Crystal Tower raids. That's not an issue for me, and I don't think it is for many others either. Rather, the goal is to provide additional support for players who want to clear older, less frequently played content without having to wait for peak hours on their data center.
Continue reading...