Chocobo License quest is very off-putting for newcomers and inconvenient for everyone

The chocobo license quest stands out as very archaic in its structure now that virtually everything else has been streamlined. My brother is joining FFXI next month, and I know he's not going to react positively to this quest. And anyone who's tried to explain this quest to a noob knows that it's frustrating. And right now, I'm working on it for a mule. If you somehow forgot how ridiculous and convuluted the quest is, read this link.

Issues

1. "Chocobo on the Loose!": players are forced to flag this quest when they approach the stables. This is misleading and confusing. The ONLY way to know that this is not the chocobo license quest is if you're following a walkthrough or if a veteran is explaining it to you. This early in the game, not many players are following FFXI wikis like they're the Bible, so this is very misleading and inconvenient. Even after it's flagged, dialogue for this quest prevents the flagging for the license quest unless you talk to Brutus multiple times in a row.
2. The quest takes a minimum of 6 game days (6+ hours) to complete. Noobs have trouble making it back to Jeuno, and if they set it as their home point, they have trouble making it back to their home nations. Forcing them to either dink around in Jeuno this many hours on such an inconvenient and uneventful quest or forcing them to chug along at a wamouracampa's pace without a chocobo because they don't want to stay in Jeuno for 6 hours is like begging noobs to unsubscribe from the game.
3. Gausebit Grass is classified as a weapon in the auction house. No noob in the history of noobdom has ever figured out on his own that he should look in the weapons category of the AH for freaking grass. Also, it has a tendency to be sold out or prohibitively (by new players' standards) overpriced.

Modern-day FFXI Solutions

1. Make completion of "Chocobo's Wounds" required before "Chocobo on the Loose!" can start. Players who flag the quest before the update can complete it normally, but after the update, the cutscene should only activate for players who already have a chocobo license.
2. This is the WORST-case scenario, but the minimum required to make it reasonable: Remove the two days from the quest that the chocobo refuses your grass. Make the rest of the trades once per GAME hour. For example, Noobynoobnoob could trade at 3:53 VT, 4:01 VT, 5:30 VT, and 6:02 VT, where VT = Vana'diel Time. Or better yet, cut down the required trading even more.
3. Add Gausebit Grass to the nearby chocobo shop NPC.

Please?

Devil's advocate here.

1) I agree with. All quests are vague and hard to figure out without a guide.
2) Getting to and from Jeuno if you set your homepoint there should be a non-issue. Chances are they have done FoV/GoV and have tabs to spend on repatriation or homing instinct. Or just death warp back to Jeuno.
3) Gausebit Grass is tricky to find on AH. But it is really simple to farm from flies in Mer. Mountains.

Well, as I suspected, the convoluted Chocobo quest majorly turned my brother off. And I had to pay 20,000 gil to buy his gausebit grass. For a measure of what the average noob might have when they reach this quest: he had about 1.6K gil. The grass needs to be sold for cheap by an NPC nearby, not just at exorbitant prices in the Weapons category of the auction house. The chocobo escape quest needs to come after the license quest (he had to talk to the NPCs in the chocobo pen so many times for the license quest to finally come up). The trade speed needs to be much faster, and the number of trades needs to be reduced.

FYI you can teleport between homepoints now so it is not at all difficult to get back to towns anymore.

Grass also drops from mobs in meriphataud mountains - so 100% free... this is a game, you may have to play it occasionally to make progress.

I agree the quest is kind of annoying but with teleporting from crystals now chocos are barely needed...

Before we know it Square Enix will be adding Chocobo Licenses to be bought w/ Sparks!

Google is your friend. Google will most likely introduce you to ffxiclopedia.com, and from there you can decide for your brother if taking 15min of your time farming 4 gausebit grasses (opposed to grossly overpaying on the AH) is worth it. The flies that drop the grass have a very high drop rate and can be killed by any job Lv20.

EDIT: If your brother had taken the farming route, he might have noticed that people buy these things often, at 5k each, and are easily farmed not far from Jeuno. Turns that 1.6k he has into multiple thousands just by doing a little himself.

Let me put it another way.

The chocobo quest is no fun, and the wait times are pointless. Can we agree on that?

Let's agree on one thing: hundreds of thousands have completed this quest as it is, and waiting 4-5 ingame days is nothing compared to the "annoyances" he has yet to face, and certainly small beans compared to the patience & effort required to progress pre-Abyssea.

People have got to stop this attitude of BIGGER, BETTER, FASTER, MORE, ZERRGGGG!!! They are killing these types of games. If you have no patience, please move on to FPS's and let the RPG players be.

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Originally Posted by Eyeballed

Let's agree on one thing: hundreds of thousands have completed this quest as it is, and waiting 4-5 ingame days is nothing compared to the "annoyances" he has yet to face, and certainly small beans compared to the patience & effort required to progress pre-Abyssea.

People have got to stop this attitude of BIGGER, BETTER, FASTER, MORE, ZERRGGGG!!! They are killing these types of games. If you have no patience, please move on to FPS's and let the RPG players be.

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Then there's the JP midnights for things like BLU's and their af quests. Pretty sure off and on it won't kill somebody to wait a little o.O

I am new and I ended up farming the grass in wadi. I didn't bother going to Jueno until I left the dunes around 32. Once I hit town I turned in one grass and went outside to batalia downs to exp and farm boxes for armor I needed. I barely felt the quest being annoying, I just kept myself busy so it wasn't bad at all actually. I did however have money for the grass but I am stubborn and rather just go get it then spend money when it just takes a little effort on my side.

Exactly, it's not like you have to stand there and wait while doing the quest. You can go do other things and homepoint back. I did the quest while I was playing another game and just set a timer to check on it every hour. Now with homepoint warps, you can just come back now and then, and the reason to even need a chocobo is almost gone.

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Originally Posted by bungiefanNA

I did the quest while I was playing another game and just set a timer to check on it every hour.

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If the game is not keeping you engaged and playing it, rather than another game, there is something wrong with the game in question.

I multitask a lot since I have multiple monitors, and a lot of games to play. Heck, I'm playing now, and posting to 3 forums, and running a DS game.

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Originally Posted by lyndshade

I am new and I ended up farming the grass in wadi. I didn't bother going to Jueno until I left the dunes around 32. Once I hit town I turned in one grass and went outside to batalia downs to exp and farm boxes for armor I needed. I barely felt the quest being annoying, I just kept myself busy so it wasn't bad at all actually. I did however have money for the grass but I am stubborn and rather just go get it then spend money when it just takes a little effort on my side.

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We need more people like you, who realize it is possible to do one thing while waiting for a time to count down for something else.

Unrelated to the topic title, but have you done any Record of Eminence? Sparks you get as rewards can be used to buy low-mid level armor. Might work better than relying on the RNG to give you something to wear from a casket. :)

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Originally Posted by Edyth

The chocobo license quest stands out as very archaic in its structure now that virtually everything else has been streamlined. My brother is joining FFXI next month, and I know he's not going to react positively to this quest. And anyone who's tried to explain this quest to a noob knows that it's frustrating. And right now, I'm working on it for a mule. If you somehow forgot how ridiculous and convuluted the quest is, read this link.

Issues

1. "Chocobo on the Loose!": players are forced to flag this quest when they approach the stables. This is misleading and confusing. The ONLY way to know that this is not the chocobo license quest is if you're following a walkthrough or if a veteran is explaining it to you. This early in the game, not many players are following FFXI wikis like they're the Bible, so this is very misleading and inconvenient. Even after it's flagged, dialogue for this quest prevents the flagging for the license quest unless you talk to Brutus multiple times in a row.
2. The quest takes a minimum of 6 game days (6+ hours) to complete. Noobs have trouble making it back to Jeuno, and if they set it as their home point, they have trouble making it back to their home nations. Forcing them to either dink around in Jeuno this many hours on such an inconvenient and uneventful quest or forcing them to chug along at a wamouracampa's pace without a chocobo because they don't want to stay in Jeuno for 6 hours is like begging noobs to unsubscribe from the game.
3. Gausebit Grass is classified as a weapon in the auction house. No noob in the history of noobdom has ever figured out on his own that he should look in the weapons category of the AH for freaking grass. Also, it has a tendency to be sold out or prohibitively (by new players' standards) overpriced.

Modern-day FFXI Solutions

1. Make completion of "Chocobo's Wounds" required before "Chocobo on the Loose!" can start. Players who flag the quest before the update can complete it normally, but after the update, the cutscene should only activate for players who already have a chocobo license.
2. This is the WORST-case scenario, but the minimum required to make it reasonable: Remove the two days from the quest that the chocobo refuses your grass. Make the rest of the trades once per GAME hour. For example, Noobynoobnoob could trade at 3:53 VT, 4:01 VT, 5:30 VT, and 6:02 VT, where VT = Vana'diel Time. Or better yet, cut down the required trading even more.
3. Add Gausebit Grass to the nearby chocobo shop NPC.

Please?

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I can help when he start playing. Just look me up.

The first time I ever played XI I had my husband complete this quest for me while I was at work. Ain't nobody got time for that...

Greetings,

Thanks for the feedback! :D

The development team is endeavoring to make improvements to any inconvenient aspects when it comes to character growth speed and play time, so if there are additional requests or suggestions please be sure to let us know!

Please note, though, that there are parts of the game where the development team would like players to experience cutscenes and other aspects, so they do not plan on simplifying everything, but they will be looking into addressing various things.

As a side note for other planned improvements, we will be making adjustments so that that a single person can open the door in Sacrarium, which currently requires the use of the Sealion Crest Key and the Coral Crest Key.

Additionally, we'll be making adjustments to the door in Phomiuna Aquaducts that utilize lamps, so a single person can open it more easily.

While it will be a bit difficulty to implement the above two adjustments in the January version update, we are planning to address them in the version update to follow.

What about getting around solo in The Eldieme Necropolis that's a pain in the butt

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Please note, though, that there are parts of the game where the development team would like players to experience cutscenes and other aspects, so they do not plan on simplifying everything, but they will be looking into addressing various things.

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Please be a little more vague. You're not vague enough. :p

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

Please be a little more vague. You're not vague enough. :p

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Well, I'm sure they are proud of the ladder climbing in Phomiuna Aquaducts, so you know that is there to stay.

Is nice you changing them , but eldieme is an absolute pain getting anyone to help you get the door open, why not make a key item like citadel has?

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Originally Posted by Xantavia

Well, I'm sure they are proud of the ladder climbing in Phomiuna Aquaducts, so you know that is there to stay.

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Don't diss the ladders, bro! Those cutscenes are classic.

I think what Camate is getting at is this: each time the chocobo eats the grass, a cutscene plays. However, no cutscenes play the two times he refuses it, so I think those can be cut, or allow for consecutive trades in that case. Like, you shove it in the chocobo's face three times, and third time is the charm. That would remove two wasted days from the quest.

I second Eldieme: solo travel needed please.

On a side note: Was the quest "Synergistic Pursuits" removed from the game (except for people who flagged it before the removal) when the key item was made purchaseable? I've heard people are unable to start the quest. However, I think the quest should be available for adventurous people who don't want to spend gil, and who would like to see those cutscenes.

Other random improvements for convenience:
1. It would be pretty sweet if Aht Urhgan staging point doors had the normal door opening range.
2. It would be great if the campaign ops menu didn't default to the "give me a 45-minute tutorial about campaign ops." Oh, how many times I've read, "Okay, listen close, Edyth... (Spagettysburg Address commences)."
3. It would nice if the Dominion Ops menus would default to acceptance of an operation after you choose one, so you can just mash confirm after you go to the correct number.
4. My heart would burst with love for the woolly monster in my Mog Garden (AKA my Green Thumb Moogle, in case he is less self-deprecating in the Japanese text) if his menu were to default to "Buy and sell items" rather than the "Look into my mog house" option, which is available on the main menu without even speaking to him.
5. It would be great if Abyssea maws, when clicked, defaulted to the option to enter the maw, rather than the "OMG don't go in the giant mouth!" option.

And I want to send a thank you to the developers who made the monstrosity menus always default to the things we want! (Enter the passage, participate, and warp to the area! I can just press confirm over and over!) Monstrosity menu defaults are perfect. :)

Would also be handy if new players were actually told of a sub job via initial quests, met a monk today who had no idea you could sub a job, because he was new to XI, so spent best part of an hour farming for him (happily) but I can see his point, there was never any mention of it.

Also AF quests IMO need to be looked at, so many say "oh it's fine when your high level you can solo them" but what about those that want to wear the armor for the level it's originally designed for, try getting random strangers to help with NM fights!
I'm personally stuck on the THF one in dangers wadi, can't complete it due to parts being in lvl 99 areas, moment invis drops, I'm dead due to placement of it

Aht urhgan access for new players, wiki might be your friend but if your new to the game and want to be a BLU etc your pretty much screwed due to the pup, cor, BLU class quests being in areas a level 30 really should never be

To add also, sorry on a roll haha
Sparks weapons are great, but post 50 when they stop to 99 your stuck with low level weapons, as AH is forever empty
Two suggestions,
1) randomly fill weapon slots on AH in that bracket means people still need to buy them,
As in once an hour so many weapons get refreshed on AH automatically

2) add a single weapon per tier to the sparks npcs

On to spells, as someone that played years ago, I realise you need to farm a lot of spells, as a new player you wouldn't know that, maybe a caster tutorial? Or basic tier 1 spells become job abilities auto learnt
I'm not talking arise, meteor etc, I'm talking, stone 1, protect 1 etc

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Originally Posted by Stompa

Choco license quest, which is very easy, was a primer for the long-term FFXI game system of deferred gratification.

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And a mechanic that needs to be consigned to the bin of history, along with HNM camping and umpteen other mindless time-wastes you and many other FFXI 'vets' love so much.

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Originally Posted by Xantavia

Well, I'm sure they are proud of the ladder climbing in Phomiuna Aquaducts, so you know that is there to stay.

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My wife always got a bit uneasy doing that thinking she was playing resident evil and Nemesis was on top waiting for her lol.

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Originally Posted by Camate

Greetings,

Thanks for the feedback! :D

The development team is endeavoring to make improvements to any inconvenient aspects when it comes to character growth speed and play time, so if there are additional requests or suggestions please be sure to let us know!

Please note, though, that there are parts of the game where the development team would like players to experience cutscenes and other aspects, so they do not plan on simplifying everything, but they will be looking into addressing various things.

As a side note for other planned improvements, we will be making adjustments so that that a single person can open the door in Sacrarium, which currently requires the use of the Sealion Crest Key and the Coral Crest Key.

Additionally, we'll be making adjustments to the door in Phomiuna Aquaducts that utilize lamps, so a single person can open it more easily.

While it will be a bit difficulty to implement the above two adjustments in the January version update, we are planning to address them in the version update to follow.

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Trying to fish after making a character and only being able to fish up 10 fish a day for a month is also very off putting. Please consider removing some of the caps on new players in regards to fishing.

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Originally Posted by Tile

What about getting around solo in The Eldieme Necropolis that's a pain in the butt

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LOL
I'm kinda surprised that there isn't a mini-quest KI thing like for Jugner Forest and that crescent pole KI.
Especially because it and the Aqueducts are the only places that still require 2ppl....

But soon the aqueducts will be soloable... so... LOL

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Originally Posted by Camate

As a side note for other planned improvements, we will be making adjustments so that that a single person can open the door in Sacrarium, which currently requires the use of the Sealion Crest Key and the Coral Crest Key.

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This is good. I was stuck on this part of the quest for about 6 months before someone helped me through it.

Also you can start synergy without a quest? Please someone tell me that's true. I hate questing.

Also I spent 2 hours trying to steal a quadav stew for my THF AF knife that I DON'T EVEN WANT (I just want access to AF1 for future upgrading). If you're going to make THF steal stuff for quest flavor can you make it a higher success rate?

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Originally Posted by Olor

Also I spent 2 hours trying to steal a quadav stew for my THF AF knife that I DON'T EVEN WANT (I just want access to AF1 for future upgrading). If you're going to make THF steal stuff for quest flavor can you make it a higher success rate?

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Have you tried killing the quadav after a failed steal? When I did mine, I kept missing until I finally killed it, then successfully got it next time. There is the very slim possibility that the stew has already been stolen so there is nothing left for you. Better safe than sorry.

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Originally Posted by Xantavia

Have you tried killing the quadav after a failed steal? When I did mine, I kept missing until I finally killed it, then successfully got it next time. There is the very slim possibility that the stew has already been stolen so there is nothing left for you. Better safe than sorry.

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Yes I killed every one of them... what else was I going to do, run around with every quadav in the zone chasing me?

:P

Remove the restriction of 1 item per real life day on Pup, Blu and Cor. Especially now that we're required to have this gear to get the 109 and the 119 gears. It's just silly. Back in the day, when it would have taken you up to a week to acquire these levels, it was not an issue. People going from 1-99 in a day... makes it so. One game day should be sufficient without even changing any dialog.

Also, can we have more then 1 assault tag per day? I know the reason for it but it's kind of silly now. It takes a ridiculous amount of time to get captain. Minimum 50 days if you go every single day. And another 50 to redo them all making a mythic a 6 month quest when all of the other weapons can be done in a matter of days.

Good bye double exp, I will miss you and all your other event goodies

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And another 50 to redo them all making a mythic a 6 month quest when all of the other weapons can be done in a matter of days.

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Yeah, Mythic is the best weapon for SMN by far (of the three and perhaps altogether), and I don't even want to bother trying. It's ridiculous.

Thanks for all the other suggestions! We've informed the development team about each one. :)

I also would like to share a comment from Akihiko Matsui in regards to a couple of other suggestions for quality of life improvements.

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Originally Posted by Akihiko_Matsui

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Eliminate the tax for bazaars in Whitegate

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Based on the current conditions of Whitegate, we've decided to eliminate the bazaar taxes. We are looking to address this in the February version update.

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Make it so doors to buildings open automatically

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This would be difficult to address as there are an enormous amount of doors in Vana'diel and interacting with some activates cutscenes.

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Can you improve the rigidity between drawing your weapon and disengaging and also the time delay between when you can start re-casting a spell after it has been interrupted via movement.

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Movement while your weapon is drawn affects battle balance and there are animations issues associated with that, and the time required to re-cast a spell when it is interrupted has been establish as a penalty, and thus we are not planning to change either of these.

While this deviates a bit from your question, there is an issue with rigidity when you are cured right when you are raised. As this affects battle difficulty, we would like to fix this moving forward.

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Originally Posted by Akihiko_Matsui

the time required to re-cast a spell when it is interrupted has been establish as a penalty

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Isn't having the spell interrupted enough of a penalty? Especially when it's caused by even the slightest movement, or sometimes no movement at all?

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Isn't having the spell interrupted enough of a penalty? Especially when it's caused by even the slightest movement, or sometimes no movement at all?

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Others

[1→2→3→4→5]
Max combo: 10
Max per item: 5

• Enmity Increase (+1 per upgrade)
• Enmity Decrease (-1 per upgrade)
• Critical Hit Rate (+1% per upgrade)
• Enemy Critical Hit Rate (-1% per upgrade)
• Spell Interruption Rate (-2% per upgrade)

Total merit points needed to master ONE skill : 15

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Originally Posted by Krashport

Others

[1→2→3→4→5]
Max combo: 10
Max per item: 5

• Enmity Increase (+1 per upgrade)
• Enmity Decrease (-1 per upgrade)
• Critical Hit Rate (+1% per upgrade)
• Enemy Critical Hit Rate (-1% per upgrade)
• Spell Interruption Rate (-2% per upgrade)

Total merit points needed to master ONE skill : 15

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I don't really know what you're getting at. Spell interruption merits/gear/spells have no effect on movement-induced interruptions.

Or did I just get wooshed?

I was as lost as you.