Possible level/story jumps....really?

[bass9020]

So the Gamer Escape interview with Yoshi came out and I found this little juicy answer SO INFURIATING... is this honestly needed? Why do people play games if they don't want to work for anything. We already have people who can barely play there jobs and now you want to hand them already leveled/story completed characters? ill just never understand.

Yoshida: In terms of the story- the narratives are continuous. The expectation is that the players will start with ARR and continue through the expansion. The lesson with having 3.0 released was that all of the content of the expansion wasn’t accessible until you beat ARR. The feedback, especially from the Western audiences, was that players weren’t able to access any of the Heavensward content until having completed 2.0. We would still like players to get through the story content, but some of the elements in the expansion we’re considering letting players access certain elements without having to complete content from ARR.

Another thing we’re debating internally is whether or not to have something like World of Warcraft’s jumping potion that would work with both levels an story. The Chinese version actually has something similar to this already. I’m trying to decide if something like this should be timed with 4.0.

WoW would have players pay to jump over and skip levels and it’s something that can be considered for FFXIV as well. Of course this isn’t so we can make money off players wanting to skip the content, but there has always been the debate of when we bring in new players, or if an existing player wants to bring in a new player, there’s disparity with the level gap between them, especially if the player has gone through all the content and their friend is just starting. It would be such an effort for the new player to catch up. I feel that we might want to bridge that gap and have that available as an option. Whether or not to actually implement that or offer it as a purchasable option still hasn’t been decided.

We still have some time until 4.0 so we’re hoping to gather more feedback from players out there to see what would be the best course of action for handling this. I’ve talked to a lot of players familiar with WoW and some of them have said “well why didn’t you have your jumping potion with 3.0?”.

Full interview here: http://gamerescape.com/2016/06/17/e3...naoki-yoshida/

Here is another thread that has a poll going so incase people would like to vote or check out the votes! http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...Please-vote%21

A thread detailing the potion from the Chinese version with similar discussions- http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...umping-Potions

[Dualblade]

To be fair, most MMO xpacs don't require you to beat the story of the base game/previous xpac to access as far as I remember. Not even XI outside of maybe needing to beat the initial story for whatever city you started in (Never played XI so not honestly sure.)

Personally I'd like to keep having to DO the story kept in to access the next xpacs story, but have certain ways to get into the new zone that don't require the story. Like Crafters/Gathers level 50 quest could give them access to Ishgard. Like Miner leads to this well enough on its on as you are a contractor from the Miner's Guild working in Ishgard. No mention at all of how you normally get there, don't even need it.

[Enkidoh]

Oh goddess no... please... please tell me this is a bad joke.... please pinch me because I think I'm sleeping and having a nightmare... o.o

The thing with "people complaining about not being able to access Ishgard without levelling/playing through the storyline" is misleading, as really the main reason new players want to access Ishgard is just to unlock the new Jobs and not the city itself. If new Jobs were made accessible from the starting cities (like what was done with ROG/NIN) then it would not be an issue. And if you can have players skip ahead levels to level cap without doing any levelling in between, then what is the whole point of having exp, levels and unlocking abilities in the first place? It creates a whole generation of ignorant, lazy players who do not know anything about their class, how abilities work, how to act in a party, dungeon or raid, positioning etc. It basically reduces the game to a mindless action fest.

I really hope Yoshi does not follow through with this idea (the level skipping I mean) - I can sort of understand the 'no story requirement to access the next expansion area' though and respect that, even though personally I would much prefer it to be restricted again to storyline completion, but I'm probably in the minority here, as I feel this would contradict SE's statements in the past about this game being not 'pay to win' and content based. But I digress...

[Seraphix2407]

Like when the maps was already open in 3.1? I forgot which patch it was. Many don't even wanna explore. Oh well.

To be fair, most MMO xpacs don't require you to beat the story of the base game/previous xpac to access as far as I remember. Not even XI outside of maybe needing to beat the initial story for whatever city you started in (Never played XI so not honestly sure.)

FFXI did have some story you needed to finish to get to certain places, like sky and sea. Many people couldn't beat 6-4 mission of chain of promathia (omega weapon). Many struggled with it and only way to get to sea was to beat that guy. I loved sky too, how you had want to make a full alliance to beat the arch angels in sky... Memories that will never fade away, that game was a real MMO and never held people's hands. I want FF14 to have some more content wall. Steps of faith was abosultely amazing when I first did it and tbh I beat it on second try before nerf. I don't know and understand how people could fail on it. I seriously question myself the skills people have these days on game, it's either they don't follow what's going on the screen or simply just don't want to put some decent effort, sad, just sad.

[Black_Wing]

To be fair, most MMO xpacs don't require you to beat the story of the base game/previous xpac to access as far as I remember. Not even XI outside of maybe needing to beat the initial story for whatever city you started in (Never played XI so not honestly sure.)

Personally I'd like to keep having to DO the story kept in to access the next xpacs story, but have certain ways to get into the new zone that don't require the story. Like Crafters/Gathers level 50 quest could give them access to Ishgard. Like Miner leads to this well enough on its on as you are a contractor from the Miner's Guild working in Ishgard. No mention at all of how you normally get there, don't even need it.

Areas in each XI expansion are accessible from the outset of release with a few exceptions (Dynamis for example). With the exception of Rise of the Zilart, you can start any of the expansions stories as long as you met the level requirement. Rise of the Zilart requires you to have cleared City Mission 5-2 (aka Shadowlord) to trigger the intro cutscene of the expansion to start it. But yeah, all cities/jobs are accessible as long as you have the expansions installed/registered and met the level requirement(which is having a base job(warrior, monk, white mage, black mage, red mage, thief) at level 30 for access to the advanced jobs).

[bass9020]

Im all for more features being unlocked from having the expansion but skipping story and getting maxed level characters just doesn't fly with me and shouldn't with others! I mean even the new jobs starting at lvl 30 was annoying to me.

I think we as xiv fans need to make a stand and get this instant gratification crap out of the game and show Yoshi we don't want this for our future! Again though having features like areas, and classes/jobs not being locked is understandable.

[The_Last_Dragoon]

Look, I understand if new or returning players want to skip all of the Patch storyline, but I don't agree with players skipping the 1-50 story or jumping in level. The fact that there's 60 levels of content for a new player is a gift, not a chore. When you let new players suddenly jump to level 50, you're inviting them to be overwhelmed with systems that they don't understand and literally robbing them of the unique experience of getting to know the game at a more enjoyable pace.

So basically SE, go ahead and create a Time Mage NPC that will allow players to skip the patch content with a 20 min cutscene detailing everything that happens inbetween 2.1-2.5 and 3.1-3.X. That will genuinely help the game in the long run, but do not, and I repeat DO NOT allow players to skip levels. This will turn your most loyal players against you and only invite players who joined the game on a whim of a friend and will unsubscribe as soon as the new expansion is no longer the "newest MMO content to hit the shelves." I would also implore you not to try and follow World of Warcraft's model since it currently is losing more subscribers than it's gaining.

[Yasminou]

To be fair, most MMO xpacs don't require you to beat the story of the base game/previous xpac to access as far as I remember. Not even XI outside of maybe needing to beat the initial story for whatever city you started in (Never played XI so not honestly sure.)

In FFXI, the story was given when going through Missions. In the original game, the missions were separated by Nations and you could go from Mission 1.1 until Mission 5.2, where you fought the Big Bad Guy. Although the Missions were separated by Nations, Missions 3.3, 4, 5.1 and 5.2 (so, the end of the original game) were the same whatever your Nation was. You could even do the battles with people from another Nation.
The first expansion pack, Rise of the Zilart, brought two types of missions all requiring to have beaten 5.2: Nations Missions 6.1 until 9.2 (those were different depending on the Nation) and Zilart Missions.
We could also change our nation and go through the story of every nation.

However, the next expansion packs brought new Missions, independant (completion-wise) from the Nations and the Zilart Missions, which could be started whenever one wants. That does not mean that all these new stories were not related to the previous ones though.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

From 4.0 I wouldn't mind new players starting at 30 to be honest, although I would increase the Hall of Novice trials and make them compulsory.

I don't agree with producing items on the Mogstation that give any boost to the player whatsoever. If you wanna give players that item then give them it for free. Mogstation glamour items only, once we say yes to this it is a slippery slope to it becoming a p2p and f2p game.

[Cakekizyy]

With exception of people not learning class, why would you care if someone skips story and/levels?