I hope 7.0's has a way to skip most of the current story

It would be nice if they did this. In FFXI, a new player could get up to a certain point in the story and begin the other expansions. The first 2 more or less continued the main story but Treasures of Aht Urghan took us to a whole separate part of the world and was only tangentially related to everything else going on in the main story.

It gets harder each expansion to recommend this game to new players when they have 100+ hours of MSQ to catch up. I'd like if new content could reference past stuff if you've done it, but it was its own thing that had nothing to do with Garlemald (unless there's yet another rogue legion doing their own thing), Ascians, or Ancients.

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Originally Posted by SannaR

Yeah I'm a bit confused as to why they'd choose HW as the exit ramp to jump into whatever 7.0 will be. Now I'm not saying 7.0 couldn't be a fresh starting point, but going directly from HW into 7.0 to me would feel a bit odd and could be fairly confusing for newer people. Especially if there isn't any explanation of oh the guys in black robes are gone and Estinien is now a Scion. There's just so much that would be left unexplained if you just jumped from 3.0 or even 3.55 into 7.0. It'd be like going from season two of a show and then jumping right into the current season with no cliff notes.

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Probably because the free trial ends with HW. They'd have to create new quests to make the transition from HW to 7.0 make some sorta sense along with add a detailed primer for those that want to know what happened in between.

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Originally Posted by Kikosho

Probably because the free trial ends with HW. They'd have to create new quests to make the transition from HW to 7.0 make some sorta sense along with add a detailed primer for those that want to know what happened in between.

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I think a better option would be to allow people to continue the original main story, but a new option to do this other new storyline at the same time. No primers or quests or anything needed. 7.0 could have a cast of new characters and the Scions could just show up randomly for a brief enough amount of time that doesn't contradict any sort of character growth or what they're doing at any moment (except I guess Shadowbringers when they're all in a coma). The Ascians don't have to be behind every bad thing that has ever happened so something bad happening on the far side of the world doesn't need to reference them and any possible disappearance. There are a few of them unaccounted for just like there are still some Garlean legions out there, but personally I'd rather just deal with something new that has no connection to anything else that has happened so we can start fresh with no baggage.

If I remember correctly, parts of FFXI's expansions could be started at lower levels and lower completion points of the MSQ and more would be unlocked as you went along with both and that would both give new players something new to do that everyone else is doing and give them incentive to complete parts of the original MSQ. The only problem would be how would you balance this out for new and old players doing the same content and satisfying both of them, but I'm not a game developer.

I do think there needs to be some sort of time skip to set a new starting point for players. They could then sell the starter kit to include an optional story skip to 7.0 which would be better.

The MSQ is a huge part of ffxiv. But at this point it is getting insanely long. People can pay to skip but the time skip is needed

Kupo would wager that over 1/2 the fun in FF14 is playing through FF14. The End game is glamour kupo <3 so enjoy the story/mechanics ...you are paying for the content anyway why not enjoy it kupo <3 ?

Would you pay for a show and only watch the end kupo <3 ?

i would like it if they connect quests even more with each other. so... no thanks

There are several ways to do it.

1. Branch off at the start.
2. Branch off at the envoy quest.
3. Branch off at 3.3 because Stormblood and Shadowbringers have a lot of self-contained parts.
4. Branch off at the end of 6.0.
5. Branch off at 6.5
6. Don't branch off at all, but allow people to start at 7.0 with just vague references to the past.

I think the last one is likely, the one before it is possible and starting at the envoy quest is what I would prefer.

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Originally Posted by Kikosho

Probably because the free trial ends with HW. They'd have to create new quests to make the transition from HW to 7.0 make some sorta sense along with add a detailed primer for those that want to know what happened in between.

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That's where it ends for now, sure. But I doubt they would keep it at 3.55 forever. Also this is coming from someone who seems to be up to date on the story. So they either A just don't want to do all of SB, ShB and EW again or B they have people they want to get into the game but don't want to have to play through most of the story to get to whatever 7.0 is starting at. I doubt you wouldn't get access to those other expansions if you jumped from the free trial to the full game. Again not saying 7.0 can't be used as a fresh starting point. I just don't see it happening due to how the devs do things.

It's perhaps worth digging up this tidbit from one of the Live Letters:

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[W]e’ll be adding a glossary for players who begin playing from Patch 6.1 or later. Even now, for example, people who used a Tales of Adventure item may be thinking, “Wow, why is Alphinaud so outgoing all of a sudden?” which is the kind of confusion we’d like to avoid. Glossary entries will be added automatically as you progress through the story, so you won’t need to go out of your way to collect them.

The Unending Codex is still in the planning phase, but within the next ten years, we may eventually need something that allows people to play the game without starting from the very beginning, which is what we’re preparing for with this feature. If possible, we’re hoping to include entries on important lore concepts such as aether and the six elements.

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Pure laziness.