[dev1228] Ain't no noob gonna know which of the 100 NPCs in the zone is noob helper.

[Vold]

They could just give these NPCs wild, colorful, out of place outfits to catch the eye. Such as Abyssea NPCs. Normal names but wild, eye catching outfits. You just see the outfit and you know their purpose. They can add text to the very first CS to give new players a clue.

Since the beginning NPCs with specific jobs were given specific outfits that identifies them. It works for us when we see them on sight and know what they are, why not new players?

[Stompa]

When you are born, you are a baby, and you can not speak English, and you can not walk, and you don't know what all the big objects in the world are.

You are not born as a baby who speaks fluent English and is able to drive cars and cook meals. You learn all this stuff, slowly over time, by absorbing information from the world around you. FFXI is no different, your New Adventurer is baby-like, and needs to explore surroundings the same way a toddler baby does. And as children make mistakes, and learn from "trial and error" so can you learn FFXI by just adventuring and talking to random NPC's.

In this analogy, the child's school would be replaced with the new player's ffxiclopedia info pages.

I learned what the NPC's wanted to talk to me about - by talking to them! If they didn't want to talk to me, I left them, but I would sometimes go back later to see if they had new things to say. It was fun!

By this method I learned a lot about the new areas. Also I like the fact they had real names, and look like real people. If they have a big glowing flag over their head and are called "Quest person for collecting moat carps" I would have totally, totally uninstalled FFXI after <Short time.>

[Grekumah]

Hello, everyone!

Thanks for the feedback! The development team had actually looked into adding some kind of special indication to the names of the NPCs, but they found that there were cases where the NPC name display would become cut off and it was difficult to address in the end.

However, to accommodate new players, along with the addition of these new NPCs in the August version update, we’ve also added a short segment introducing these NPCs in the opening cutscene. Additionally, we made it so the location of these NPCs are marked on the map during the opening cutscene.

We’d definitely like to hear from new players about these additions and if they have any suggestions for the future!

[Mizuno]

Get real. Most noobs are lazy and quit at the earliest sign of a struggle.

[Draylo]

Please do NOT add little exclamation marks, that is the last thing the game needs haha.

[Kraggy]

I learned what the NPC's wanted to talk to me about - by talking to them! If they didn't want to talk to me, I left them, but I would sometimes go back later to see if they had new things to say. It was fun!

Because running around an entire city talking to every NPC in case they have something new to say to you because your rep is now higher when you knew nothing about the rep system because the game never mentions it except for an oblique set of replies from the 'rep NPC' that totally make no real sense until you read about it on-line .. is a great way to play.

You found it 'fun' you claim. I suspect you did little of that and ran for the fansites like every other NA/EU player ever did.

FFXI fundamentally fails as a game since you can only really play it by reading guides, the fact SE officially published 'Brady' is testament to the fact it was largely unplayable using only in-game information. The tutorial NPCs already added to the game, the tutorial section of ROE etc. are evidence of this original failure.

Nearly every quest is totally devoid of any real hint of what you have to do, and many quests actually revel in their total obscurity. I defy you or anyone else to say with a straight face you managed to get very far in any of the mission chains, let alone side-quests, without running to FFXIclopedia or something similar.

I know many FFXI 'vets' like to pose as superior as they had to do without it, fact is no non-JP player ever had to deal with the game without the crutch of FFXIclopedia and it's ilk.

[Stompa]

Because running around an entire city talking to every NPC in case they have something new to say to you because your rep is now higher when you knew nothing about the rep system because the game never mentions it except for an oblique set of replies from the 'rep NPC' that totally make no real sense until you read about it on-line .. is a great way to play.

You found it 'fun' you claim. I suspect you did little of that and ran for the fansites like every other NA/EU player ever did.

FFXI fundamentally fails as a game since you can only really play it by reading guides, the fact SE officially published 'Brady' is testament to the fact it was largely unplayable using only in-game information. The tutorial NPCs already added to the game, the tutorial section of ROE etc. are evidence of this original failure.

Nearly every quest is totally devoid of any real hint of what you have to do, and many quests actually revel in their total obscurity. I defy you or anyone else to say with a straight face you managed to get very far in any of the mission chains, let alone side-quests, without running to FFXIclopedia or something similar.

I know many FFXI 'vets' like to pose as superior as they had to do without it, fact is no non-JP player ever had to deal with the game without the crutch of FFXIclopedia and it's ilk.

My strat was always to run around spamming TAB and seeing if any of the NPCs reacted to the quests I was on lol. I would do that for hours in 2004, under the sweet Remora skies. Eventually I would either tie up the quest, or go online and seek help guides.

I'm sitting here next to bookcases that are full of stacks and stacks of (now valuable collectors items!) C&VG / Crash etc. magazines from the 1980s when I started mashing keyboards in 1981, I started buying the monthly computer mags and got all of them from the early 80s until the early 90s. Every month there would be pages of hints and tips for games, maps, diagrams etc. Without those guides even the simple 1980s 2D games were sometimes tricky to work out. And you had to go to the shop to buy the magazine and sit reading through it to hopefully find some advice about the game place you were stuck on.

And the point is that FFXI is a huge game, and if we needed hint guides for the simple 1980s games, you know we must need hint guides for the much more complex 21st century games like FFXI. And we have the luxury of the Web, just type the words into a little magic box. No running to the shop to buy magazines lol.

[Vivivivi]

Please do NOT add little exclamation marks, that is the last thing the game needs haha.

I support this... 75%? One of the things I still love about XI is its sense of immersion with the lack of in-game icons and such. I however wouldn't be opposed to this feature so long as the player has a ? icon next to their name which I think goes away after level 10. It would be helpful for new players.

[camaroz]

I mean really why don't they add a Navi. It can say hey listen or look!

[Kari]

Please do NOT add little exclamation marks, that is the last thing the game needs haha.

I'm mixed on this. Exclamation marks wouldn't work in FFXI because the quest system is already so odd. It's not a typical MMO where quests give exp/money and occasionally equipment. 99% of them give you nothing of worth.

But I am supportive of anything that gets new players going. I cannot invite a friend to play FFXI and expect them to enjoy it without my help.
New players want to know what they should be doing. My biggest complaint from starting this game was that I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing. The answer ended up being whatever I want, but it took a long time for me to be comfortable with that.

Most MMOs have a main story to guide you along the game, then you get into endgame where most of the game is. FFXI just expects you to grind to 75+ before you do anything cool. Missions start off really slow and boring. And as I said, most quests are pointless. With the current state of the game, the goals of a new player are to get 99 + merits, subjob, cap fame + gobbiebags, and start grinding endgame gear while finishing up missions. Missions are basically just a load of work at this point, nobody does them at the appropriate levels because there's no reason to. Anything solo pre-99 wasn't fun anyways, and good luck getting parties for missions.

Starting to ramble, but yeah. Anything that gives new players a goal is welcome. Though, idk where SE expects new players to come from. FFXI isn't worth a subscription fee anymore, especially if you're new. (You will not get your money's worth as a brand new player in the first month, fact.)