New Player Flag... off?

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Originally Posted by Moonfish

The only way to permanently remove the sprout icon is to play the story. I believe the first quest in Shadowbringers will knock it off. Good luck.

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Hahaha oh man it lasts that long now? I've been redoing story on my alt and wondering when it kicked in these days.

I love running with it on her because I can watch the cutscenes again and people think I'm an awesome sprout who picks up on things lightning fast. Kind of glad I get to keep it so long.

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Originally Posted by TaleraRistain

Hahaha oh man it lasts that long now? I've been redoing story on my alt and wondering when it kicked in these days.

I love running with it on her because I can watch the cutscenes again and people think I'm an awesome sprout who picks up on things lightning fast. Kind of glad I get to keep it so long.

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The duration of the sprout icon changes after each expansion. You lose it when you finish the previous expansion. So as of now, finishing Stormblood 4.5x. I agree it is long, the game should have keep it at ARR 2.5x ending.

As I said, one doesn't have to be at the level cap and running the hardest content to no longer be a newbie. If I haven't ran a given dungeon before, I mention so when I join a team running it. Often a 'regular' dungeon's specific mechanics are easy to figure out on the fly. Assuming of course that it has a specific mechanic other then "BBEG is a big sack of HP". Other times, might need someone to explain them. If it's got a reputation for being hard, I do research on what mechanics I might have to watch out for before running that dungeon as well. But that doesn't mean I'm a newbie still, just that I haven't ran that specific piece of content before. In FFXI I stopped being a 'newbie' in a couple months since I'd had a LOT of experience in various MMOs. By the time I was level 40 with my first class, I was familiar enough with the game to no longer be a newbie. I'd at least played every base class enough to know how it works and what to expect from them. Granted, by the time I'd gotten monk to 40, I'd also leveled Red Mage to 30, White Mage to 20, Black Mage to 20, Warrior (I think) to 20, and had started working on leveling Dancer. Did I know all the mechanics of every dungeon, or where to find every resource? No, but I knew the base mechanics, how to play my character, and how to look up info I need using the various resources.

Here in FFXIV I stopped really being a 'newbie' by the time I reached level 18 as a pugilist. Granted, by that point I'd actually put in well over a hundred hours in the game due to also leveling every crafting and gathering job alongside Monk. If I make a rookie mistake in a dungeon, it's not because I'm a new player. It's because I just haven't done that particular dungeon before, and thus might have missed an important mechanic or critical tell for where an enemy aoe is going to hit. Things which I can, and do, learn on the fly. First time I did the first Primal fight, I got hit by most of the aoe because I didn't recognize the tells of 2/3 of his attacks. 2nd time I did it, I recognized the tells and avoided most of the aoe. If I don't figure a mechanic out immediately, I ask.

Or are you going to claim that when the next expansion hits everyone should be classified as a "new player" just because there are dungeons they haven't ran yet? Hell, this past weekend i spent at least 20 hours alone crafting and gathering resources.

In FFXI it also has a 'new player' flag. But it can be disabled at any time, so once you have a handle on the game's systems and mechanics you no longer get branded with that stigma. It baffles me that FFXIV doesn't let you permanently disable it until you've completed the main storyline for all but the newest expansion. What, will they move that goal post again with Endwalker's release, so you have to complete Shadowbringers as well in order to remove the "new player" flag? If that's the case, why not just call it what it really is, a 'campaign completion' flag.

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Originally Posted by Titania40

My experience is that a "new player" flag that's visible to everyone all the time is actually detrimental. It doesn't encourage people to be helpful. Instead it merely makes it easier for them to discriminate against new players.

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This isn't WoW, most of the time the New Player status just encourages help here.

I'll give you some advice though, any player who blindly disregards help and assumes they know the game because of experience from other MMO's or because "it's easy", will not become a great player. You're making assumptions on almost everything. I'm sure you're in a hurry to be one of the big kids, but you're not. You're a new player. You have a lot to learn later on. Settle down, enjoy the journey and stop caring about the icon over your characters head, because no one else does.

Well, not trying to be mean, but jobs change quite a bit depending on level. You (OP) may know how monk plays at 34 but the job is very different at 60/70/80. So in a sense until you have the full kit of a job, you can't be said to fully understand it, at least in my opinion. I'd go so far as to say one needs a job of each role at 80 before they can attempt to say they understand how the game truly plays since then they'd have exposure to all variations of responsibility.

I'd rather the game tell me if someone is new so I can tell them not to wipe our group by chasing us down with AoE ( the markers don't always stay consistent some are unique to the fight ).

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Originally Posted by Plushy

This is a very odd thing to be upset about not gonna lie. Not gonna assume a thing about you but hope you're not one of those people that get mad just because someone gives you advice about your job when they see you doing something wrong.

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Getting advice, no that doesn't make me mad. I will ask for info if I need it. Getting booted from groups for the crime of 'being a noob' without the team even seeing if I know what I'm doing? That is something that's happened in MANY mmos, especially if they have a flag that tells everyone at a glance you're new. It's happened in FFXI, it happened last time I had subscribed to FFXIV (in 2019 I think). Hell, my first attempt at running Sastasha back then I got booted for the offense of actually watching a cut-scene. WoW is one of the few MMOs I haven't gotten booted from teams for being a 'noob'. Instead it was for daring to try running a dungeon in 1st expansion when the expansion had just released without being decked out in gear from the base game's raids. Please ignore the fact that random loot drops from trash mobs were superior to that raid gear. Also ignore the fact that I don't tend to raid specifically because I don't like the "only this one specific build and tactic is allowed, play like a robot or not at all" mentality of hardcore raiders.

Hell, yesterday I got vote kicked from a Copperbell Mine run after the first couple groups of enemies by a group with 3 people that didn't have that sprout icon above their head and next to their name. The stated reason was because I wasn't using any aoe attacks. Er, Pugilist/Monk doesn't get an aoe attack until the level 25 class quest. Copperbell Mine syncs you down to 20 if you're too high of level, thus greying out any ability gained after level 20. Going through the ability lists, Bard and Dancer are the only physical DPS classes that get an aoe before level 25/26. And some classes like dragoon. don't look to get any aoe at all. Or if they do, it's not until the 40's. BTW, one of the group was a lancer, not a dragoon. This implies he was leveling a class that was new to him, and hadn't reached level 30 as Lancer yet. Which leads me to believe not using AOE wasn't the real reason I got booted, but rather I was booted for being 'new'.

I am sorry...
But I have a VERY hard time believing that you got booted in a low level dungeon for being new...

Not the stated reason, no. The group last night claimed it was because I wasn't contributing DPS due to not using an aoe (which I didn't have access to). And the previous time, the reasoning was "wasting our time by watching a cut-scene".

I mean... people are going to be able to tell that you're new even if you turn the icon off - they can check your profile quite easly, see what your highste level class/job is and conclude from that that you cant have been playing that long. The sprout icon just makes a little easier/more convient/obvious.