Will the storyline be different for 1.0 characters?

[Magnesium02]

May contain spoilers.


In the beta last week I ran through the story quest to about r20. You start as a fresh faced adventurer entering the big city for the first time. You attain fame for noble acts and gain recognition from the free company leaders as well as the circle of twelve. You receve flashbacks to previous events (now the 1.0 calamaity), have the matter of the 1.0 adventurers being wiped from common memory and now the mysterious forgotten Warriors of Light, and are introduced to the bad guy. Then you are uncovered to have the gift of the echo.

For the most part it follows the same pattern as 1.0. However I felt a strange discord when going through the story. After thinking about it I realised that it was because I am a 1.0 player I am technically one of the forgotten WoL. The storyline I was following would be the storyline that anyone new to the game would be following. It teaches them about the history of Eorzea and sets up their own personal adventure.

This got me thinking about the storyline as returning 1.0 characters would see it. We are supposed to have returned from statis, yet we would seem to be fresh faced adventurers with no previous history in our world. At some point I assume the storyline should recognise that the 1.0 characters have returned and the NPCs would have their memories about us restored, but oviously this wouldn't work for players who are brand new to the game. So will a part of our 1.0 character setup have some kind of flag that will trigger separate storylines for parts of the story where it would be different for 1.0 and new characters?

I am not trying to make a "let Legacy get extra special stuff" thread, I am just confused as to how the storyline can fit for new and 1.0 characters. Do you think we will have separate storylines? Do you think we should have separate storylines? Or do you think the one storyline will work for both kinds of players?

[NoloeTazier]

May contain spoilers.


In the beta last week I ran through the story quest to about r20. You start as a fresh faced adventurer entering the big city for the first time. You attain fame for noble acts and gain recognition from the free company leaders as well as the circle of twelve. You receve flashbacks to previous events (now the 1.0 calamaity), have the matter of the 1.0 adventurers being wiped from common memory and now the mysterious forgotten Warriors of Light, and are introduced to the bad guy. Then you are uncovered to have the gift of the echo.

For the most part it follows the same pattern as 1.0. However I felt a strange discord when going through the story. After thinking about it I realised that it was because I am a 1.0 player I am technically one of the forgotten WoL. The storyline I was following would be the storyline that anyone new to the game would be following. It teaches them about the history of Eorzea and sets up their own personal adventure.

This got me thinking about the storyline as returning 1.0 characters would see it. We are supposed to have returned from statis, yet we would seem to be fresh faced adventurers with no previous history in our world. At some point I assume the storyline should recognise that the 1.0 characters have returned and the NPCs would have their memories about us restored, but oviously this wouldn't work for players who are brand new to the game. So will a part of our 1.0 character setup have some kind of flag that will trigger separate storylines for parts of the story where it would be different for 1.0 and new characters?

I am not trying to make a "let Legacy get extra special stuff" thread, I am just confused as to how the storyline can fit for new and 1.0 characters. Do you think we will have separate storylines? Do you think we should have separate storylines? Or do you think the one storyline will work for both kinds of players?

What Louisoix may literally have done is transported us away with the use of aether. Think of it this way, memories are aether, the power of the Echo is given to us by Hydaelyn and we're able to view this aether in the form of the Echo and we see the past. If Louisoix sent us away and somehow all aether is connected..this missing aether (us) is why the people who remember us have a hazy remembrance of us. They know who we were and remember us...but not entirely, everything is cloudy because our aether in the flow is gone. With our triumphant return I believe everyone will be able to go "OOOH YEAH" as they recognize our faces and features.

As for the story lines. 1.0 characters period will have a different story line than new/fresh adventurers. We are the Warriors of Light and will be returning, probably returning literally to the exact spot we were teleported away from. Whether this is Cartaneau Flats or an area near we don't know yet. NPCs will interact with us differently and the story line up until a certain point will be different. New players shouldn't view this as a bad thing, because they will be given major summaries of what they missed and what the Echo is and who everyone is. As for us, we know who they are (mostly, I can see how someone who left early in 1.0 wouldn't know the NPCs) and they know us. So we will be treated differently.

So ACTUALLY to experience the difference you'd have to have your 1.0 character and a new character to see the differences and how the story line is different. But for new players I'm sure SE has made it so they aren't completely left out, meaning they won't be missing the story line that we will have since they aren't a 1.0 character. I believe most of the story line for us will be refreshing what happened when we were ported away..essentially what happened in the rest of the CS..which EVERYONE will be able to see at Launch and should be amazing as SE stated the End of an Era CS is only halfway of what it will be. So while we get summaries and explanations of this, new characters will be running quests and meeting the Circle of Knowing Archons and the major NPCs of the city-state that they chose..the story of the Grand Companies and the Eorzean Alliance. So in actuality new players will probably experience more story, while we receive refreshments.

[Catapult]

From a practical standpoint, I suspect the writers are trying to kill about ten birds with one stone.

By implementing the bit about the warriors of light being unrecallable in memories, it means that NPCs can treat surviving characters exactly the same as new characters when speaking to them in dialogue. It even further removes the need to worry about flags that differentiate mere meteor survivors with those that progressed to Killing a Raven.

This reduces the amount of text you have to write (and localise) to a small fraction of what it would otherwise be.

From a loremongering perspective, I imagine there being some interesting moments where I scream out "BUT DOOD, THAT WAS MEEEE!!!" and I'll be intrigued to see how they handle those moments.

The beta also makes a point about no one having a consistent story about what happened in those final moments. Unpicking this is clearly part of the main story, so I'm going to withold speculation until I've experienced it. Then we'll see what gaps remain.

[Anonymoose]

I'll be intrigued to see how they handle those moments.

When you pull a move like this amnesia, you take out a sort of lore debt that can only be paid back in so many ways. Either A Realm Reborn (this expansion's content) ends with a dual-script that treats Meteor Survivors different, or there's going to be somewhere between a few and just one character(s) with a dual-script, and they'll pulls us aside somewhere between a few and one time(s) to say "I KNOW. IT'S YUUUU. But for sakes of those poor sods outside, we'll have to keep it between us *winkz*"

Or both.

I can't really think of any other way to get out of it by the end of the storyline that leaves the door wide open for everyone to be treated equally from then on.

[Mjollnir]

By implementing the bit about the warriors of light being unrecallable in memories, it means that NPCs can treat surviving characters exactly the same as new characters when speaking to them in dialogue.

Well at least one NPC remembers who Thal Icebound is!

Seriously, if that's not just in for lulz in the Beta, it raises some interesting questions.

[finiteHP]

My thoughts might be moot since I wasn't able to get the end of what we have of the storyline last weekend due to being stuck in a certain line-up in Thanalan.

My concern is that the whole "we don't remember who the Warriors of Light are" thing is the dev team's way of avoiding treating us differently. I fully expect that either no one fully realises that we're the Warriors or all player characters will be the Warriors and the amnesia applies to our characters as well as the NPCs. This makes me sad since didn't they at some point say that we would get a different opening? Or am I just remembering a rumour? We might have our answer tomorrow when we are able to bring in our 1.0 characters.

[Teakwood]

I very distinctly remember reading, although I'm not sure -where- I read it, it was from an official source - if I can find a link and put it in the post, I will - that there were enough changes between the two dialogue trees that there were a number of voiceacted segments, even, that they had to do twice in different ways. Presumably by the end of A Realm Reborn, the Warriors of Light and the New Warriors of Light (since non-Legacy characters are deliberately being groomed for or cast in this role) will be on equal footing, but until then... it'll definitely be different to -some- extent up to and including different VA'd cutscenes.

Edit: Hopefully we'll have the answer to this question in detail tonight/tomorrow, yes. I'm really looking forward to it~!

Edit the Second: Twelve yeah, I found the link I was talking about. "Straight from Yoshida's mouth" is about as official as it gets, amirite? http://www.novacrystallis.com/2013/0...per-interview/ (Also a really excellent interview in general.)

Nova Crystallis: Will the story content differ for Legacy characters, either with acknowledgement from NPCs or extra cutscenes?
Yoshida: Yeah, there are some things that will be different for Legacy players. Some of the voice events as well – we’ve taken lines for both Legacy and newer players.

[finiteHP]

Twelve yeah, I found the link I was talking about. "Straight from Yoshida's mouth" is about as official as it gets, amirite? http://www.novacrystallis.com/2013/0...per-interview/ (Also a really excellent interview in general.)

Nova Crystallis: Will the story content differ for Legacy characters, either with acknowledgement from NPCs or extra cutscenes?
Yoshida: Yeah, there are some things that will be different for Legacy players. Some of the voice events as well – we’ve taken lines for both Legacy and newer players.

Good enough for me. Hopefully these will be implemented at the start of phase 4 (or maybe even tomorrow). Since progress in phase 4 will most likely carry over, I'd hate to miss some of the differences just because I decided to use my 1.0 character in phase 4 instead of holding off till launch.

[Teakwood]

Given that Hvinire said...

You just might notice a few changes in the intro when logging in with a version 1.0 character.

I think we can get our hopes up for this being included in Phase 3 tonight.

[Andreas-Lycaeus]

Did anyone get far as a 1.0 character this weekend? I stuck to Moogle since my friends are playing on that server, but I'll probably continue my Legacy character for a bit at launch to see what the differences are.

Honestly I'm still a bit gutted that there's no option to have the 'Legacy story' for 1.0 players wanting to start on a fresh server. Not a full character transfer, due to the fresh economy [I'd gladly give up all my items, levels and Gil] but just a story continuation. I guess Yoshi has made his mind up concerning that, but hopefully I'm not the only one wanting this.