Seriously, I don't mind the grind from 1-50...and the grind from 50-60 isn't bad either. HOWEVER, the worse most annoying part that about makes me want to quit is the grind from ARR end game to HW start. What is it like 100 quests? It takes FOREVER and that's even with skipping and sprinting through everything. It's just ridiculous and tedious.
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06-03-2016, 06:55 AMDarkside302
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06-03-2016, 07:22 AMZojhaIt takes...about one day of gametime, if you skip it all. That's what it usually takes me on my alts.Quote:
Originally Posted by Darkside302
My main gripe with the whole process is: Fetch quests. From F'lhammins earring over Tatarus tea leaves to distributing the uniforms. I dunno, I find storytelling along the lines of:"And then the WoL went on the toilet, washed his fingers and went to get the groceries" not overly compelling. -
06-03-2016, 07:36 AMMoomba33
I took an alt though the 2.X patch stories recently. The only parts that really bothered me were during 2.1 when you have to do a bunch of chores and fetch quests around Vesper Bay and Mor Dhona for the Scion's move and during 2.2 when there were some quests that forced you to go to different zones for just a couple of lines of dialog before telling you to change zones again. I found 2.3-2.5 to be pretty solid.
I don't see having to do the main story to unlock content as big deal but that's because the story is the main reason that I play. SE has said that you won't need to finish Heavensward to unlock the next expansion's content but as far as I know they haven't stated if you'll still need to finish all of ARR + the patch stories yet. -
06-03-2016, 07:49 AMNiwashiGiven that the story in the later 2.x patches were leading into the Heavensward story, and not into whatever 4.0 will be about, the reason for requiring them won't really exist. I expect, however, that 4.0 will have its own lead-in story. The part that isn't clear yet is whether that lead-in content will be released in base-game patches prior to 4.0 (the way it was done for 3.0) or whether the lead-in content will be released along with the expansion itself. But in either case, it can't very well just dump us into a completely different area without any storyline about how we came to be there or what our interests are there, so an equivalent to those quests is going to exist and be required, just not these particular ones.Quote:
Originally Posted by Moomba33
My prediction (based on nothing more than the fact I think it would work) would be that Heavensward gets wrapped up within the next patch or two, and then we get a couple patches that are part of the base game instead of HW, though their levels span from 50-60, so would require having one or another of the expansions (either 3.0 or 4.0). Those patches branch off starting after 2.0 ends (The Ultimate Weapon) and could be played (by anyone who can meet their level requirements) either before or after the 2.x patches and HW, and their story explains why we're heading into the 4.0 content. The 2.0 story and those new lead-in patches would then be required to unlock the main portion of the 4.0 expansion. -
06-03-2016, 08:04 AMSDaemonFrom what I understood, SE was considering doing a recap cutscene of HW events for those that don't play through the HW story, so they can get caught up to speed and go into 4.0 since the next expansion won't require the completion of the main story. I imagine though that the 4.0 expansion will still require you to have bought ARR and HW to have access to 4.0 and that it will still be designed for post HW levels and gear.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niwashi
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06-03-2016, 08:17 AMNiwashiWhile I suppose that's possible, I certainly hope they don't. It would totally spoil the story for anyone who doesn't have HW yet at that point, but might want to play it at some later point down the road. It's better to just branch off and keep the two separate.Quote:
Originally Posted by SDaemon
I've never heard of any game that required purchase of past expansions before you could play the latest one, and I really can't imagine that happening here. Designed for post HW levels and gear, certainly, which would be plenty to make playing HW first the preferable way to get there. (Anyone who skips HW would have a lot of level grinding to do in place of it.) But they can't very well require HW unless they switch to giving it away for free, and I can't see them giving up the revenue on it.Quote:
Originally Posted by SDaemon
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06-03-2016, 08:22 AMMilesSaintboroguhI don't think the devs said that they would require 3.0 to get access to 4.0.Quote:
Originally Posted by SDaemon
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06-03-2016, 08:34 AMNiciHmmm...if this is true i wonder how they will make the classes that were introduced into HW...AST, DRK, MCH available to those new players who opt to skip 3.0, will they be made available in a different way?Quote:
Originally Posted by MilesSaintboroguh
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06-03-2016, 08:42 AMbass9020You don't own HW you don't get the jobs. Most classes/jobs are always linked to expansionsQuote:
Originally Posted by Nici
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06-03-2016, 08:42 AMNiwashiThose jobs are part of Heavensward. Players who skip HW (and don't even purchase it) wouldn't have access to them. Of course, you could buy HW and only use the first bit that gets you into Ishgard so you could unlock the jobs, without playing through the rest of the HW story, but SE isn't going to give away three of HW's biggest features to players who don't pay for it. If you want to play Astrologian, Dark Knight, or Machinist, or if you want to play as an Au Ra, you have to buy the expansion that gives you those.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nici
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06-03-2016, 08:49 AMTankHunter678
They could do what WoW did and make it so that HW is combined into the base game and the next expansion takes its place for being purchased.
I mean really, look at WoW right now. ~20$ gets you everything from Vanilla to Warlords of Draenor.
The thing I would say to not take from WoW is a free character boost with the latest expansion purchase. THAT right there just ruins everything. -
06-03-2016, 09:10 AMVelisraJust so you know... There are probably at least a few others like me who really have no idea what "FF is about" at all. Call me a clueless gamer, whatever. I've never been into consoles and while my kids played other FF titles when they were younger, I didn't pay a lot of attention to what it was all about. Why would I?Quote:
Originally Posted by Yasuhiro
For the record, I did come here from WoW during Blizzard's "maybe we'll let you fly in WoD, but wait, no we won't let you fly... oh okay fine then, but you have to do x, y and z, AND a, b and c before you can fly, and it will be weeks, not months, before you can" BS, but I LIKE the story in FFXIV. I didn't expect anything necessarily and I was put off initially when I looked at FFXIV some time before the flying kerfuffle in WoW because in FF you MUST do group content to progress and level your character--and I HATE group content. I decided to try it out anyway after reading about it on the WoW forums.
So, the story is fine, I just wish they'd make it so I could do the story but the dungeon/trial bit was optional. /shrug
Different strokes for different folks. -
06-03-2016, 09:11 AMCodingSquirrelIf all I wanted to do was talk with my friends I would call them instead of playing games with them. Challenging cooperative content is what we have fun playing together, hiking back and forth across Eorzea picking flowers and harvesting 20 moogle spleens isn't.Quote:
Originally Posted by ohmRICE
My point is being lost in trying to pick apart the specifics of me referencing those first few dungeon quests. I wasn't interested in nor trying to give specific examples of when and where you unlock certain dungeons. I made a poorly worded reply to someone else who mentioned the first dungeon and I continued by referring to it instead of the more general concept I was trying to convey. And that is: you are drip-fed these dungeons over a long and drawn out questline. When you just want to get to the "fun part" (in this case, playing group content with friends) going through all that story is a chore, especially when it drags on during the post-50 quests. Saying, you can get a few low level dungeons early on isn't really an answer when so much of it is locked behind many hours of content. There are tons of trials, dungeons, and raids in this game, but you're telling me that if I don't want to spend so much time on the story that I should be satisfied with just a couple because those are the ones that can be unlocked quickly? Sure...Quote:
Originally Posted by Niwashi
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06-03-2016, 09:19 AMSDaemonI would imagine the cutscene would be only for those wishing to skip the story regardless and would be an in-game selection not something imposed like an opening cutscene.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niwashi
Also I honestly can't imagine them just letting people buy 4.0 and leveling from 50 to the new cap from that without needing to have purchased HW to be able to reach 60 first. It makes sense that they would require you to purchase HW and then the 2nd expansion. They already offer both ARR and HW in a bundle that can be purchased together.
They won't require 3.0's main story to be completed is the only word I've ever seen on the matter. I'm positive they will still require you to have HW on your account as Heavensward is required to reach level 60 and 4.0 is likely to increase the level cap from 60 onward and be designed with that increase in mind.Quote:
Originally Posted by MilesSaintboroguh
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06-03-2016, 09:26 AMLexiaThat just sounds like people being cheap, cause by the time 4.0 comes out HW will be like $10. I have already seen it selling for $15-20 so really no reason for a person not to pick it up so I agree with others if they don't buy HW then none of the HW jobs should be available to them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nici
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06-03-2016, 09:35 AMbass9020Yea I'm sure they will have some type of bundle that includes both games. XI used to do that with each expansion it would just add the next one to it and it was fairly cheap.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lexia
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06-03-2016, 09:37 AMYasuhiroThat's fine, but you'll always be the minority though a lot of people and I mean a lot, play this game because it's a Final Fantasy title. I'm not even being elitist about it there's no rule stating which FF to start with but it just seems really pointless to complain about FF tropes/staples and for the record I do hate all the BS WoW tier quests in ARR that I wish were cut down like Titan's quest chain seriously that reminded me of why I played WoW for an hour.Quote:
Originally Posted by Velisra
also lol, got a bit of deja vu :P
Quote:
Originally Posted by Velisra
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06-03-2016, 09:57 AMVelisraThe entire World of Warcraft series is like that. You always have to purchase all of the prior expansions before you can purchase and play in the current one.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niwashi
When I started playing in mid-late Wrath of the Lich King, I had to purchase the base game, Burning Crusade (the first xpac) and WotLK (the second xpac) so that I could progress to max level. The franchise is still like that today; the only difference now is that the base game and all five xpacs have been bundled together for $20 (or if you're really smart, you can get it on Amazon for $5 right now).
Blizzard started bundling it all together sometime in the early to middle months of Cataclysm (the third xpac), and they've been doing it ever since. As soon as a new xpac is nearing release, they bundle the prior one with all the others. You still have to play through them all in order to progress to max level. -
06-03-2016, 10:06 AMMusashidonthey will most likely take out the storyline requirement to enter ishgard so people can go there and get the jobs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nici
sounds like they meant storywise since you can't enter ishgard without doing all of 2.0Quote:
Originally Posted by bass9020
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06-03-2016, 11:15 AMohmRICEWell I guess if that's how y'all roll that's how y'all roll. More power to ya, man.Quote:
Originally Posted by CodingSquirrel
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06-03-2016, 12:22 PMSnugglebuttThey better not. They need to keep the ARR>HW gating and I explained why I think this couple times in here. I am fine with opening up every piece of new content like cities, zones and such after that gating without requiring the completion of the HW 3.0+ main storyline but the end of ARR into HW one needs to remain so RMT and their armies of bots stay the hell out of those new zones and cities. I hate RMT and bots with a vengeance, they destroyed the enjoyment of leveling and playing a gatherer class in ARR, I am very happy they and their armies are still stuck outside of HW zones and content which is thanks to the forced story gating which included some hard level 50 trials and dungeons as part of that story which they could not just bot their way through.Quote:
Originally Posted by Musashidon
They could add new future classes to ARR zones instead of HW/future zones plus other game features added to ARR zones and cities but in terms of new cities and zones etc...I think the requirement of passing HW gating aka story and it's more difficult level 50 dungeons/trials should still be required. The current gating works and the RMT bot armies are stuck/trapped in ARR content because they cannot clear all the story and level 50 hard dungeons and trials en masse, likewise the RMT city /say and /shout chat spammers infecting ARR cities also remain locked out of HW cities even if does not stop them sending /tells one by one. It does keep them out and it would be a dumb move to remove that gating, opening up HW and future content to RMT bot infestation like is the case still for ARR zones which they remain trapped in.
I have yet to see a single RMT bot army in HW zones, if SE remove the current gating that would change instantly and HW and future zones would be flooded with them like ARR zones are. I will always and passionately argue against anything that allows that to happen. -
06-03-2016, 12:41 PMNiwashiOh, they certainly won't be doing that. To enter Ishgard you need to do the full story that gets you into Ishgard. That's true regardless of whether you want to get there for the questline, dungeons, job unlocks, or just to gather from DoL nodes located there. If they were ever going to allow that, they would have done so from the start (though of course we'd be dealing with a different story in that case).Quote:
Originally Posted by Musashidon
It's just that the next expansion will have its own separate story requirements that won't include the Ishgard part. (But of course, the next story also won't require unlocking Dark Knight or whichever you're interested in. You'll be able to skip the 2.x patch quests, but only if you're willing to forego everything that's gated behind them, which is all of HW except for the Au Ra race.) -
06-03-2016, 12:58 PMNiwashiYou contradicted yourself there. If (as I agree is most likely) the next expansion raises the level cap again and goes from 60 onward, then it too would give you a level cap raise, and HW will no longer be the only way to get one. ARR goes from 1-50, HW goes from 50-60, lets assume 4.0 goes from 60-70. That would mean someone with just ARR and 4.0 (but not HW) would have a level cap of 70 (which 4.0 gave them), but their content would go from 1-50, then have a gap before it picks up again from 60-70.Quote:
Originally Posted by SDaemon
That wouldn't be the ideal way to play. Generally, they'd ask their friends "how do I get through this long empty patch from 50-60?" and be told to get HW so they can have a full expansion worth of fresh new content while they do it. If they take that advice, then nice for SE, they get another $10 or $20 bucks out of it that way. But if the player doesn't take the advice and keeps just ARR and 4.0, then they have to level from 50-60 on just the level 1-50 content. Quite a slog, but there is a lot of level 50 content, so it's certainly doable. -
06-03-2016, 01:06 PMSDaemonI still see them having to "progress" in the 3.0 story to go into the 4.0 story. Its just you view a recap cinematic rather than play through the quests/content. Its the only way to make things logically flow from 2.0 to 3.0 to 4.0. Because if the story went from 2.0 to 3.0 OR 2.0 to 4.0 it wouldn't work. The ending plot of 2.0 doesn't leave any room except for 3.0 to occur.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niwashi
That isn't a contradiction. That is a flow. HW raises the cap from 50 to 60. 4.0 would raise the cap from 60 to XX. One precedes the other as a prerequisite. You are assuming just by buying 4.0 that you could level from 1 to 70. Using your idea they would have to design content in the 4.0 expansion specifically to level from 50 to 60 to accommodation a larger level gap rather than utilize the content they have already developed for that purpose.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niwashi
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06-03-2016, 01:19 PMNiwashiIt's not the story gating that's keeping bots out of Ishgard. It's the fact that they'd have to make another purchase. Bot-scripting quests is easy, and it's clearly already being done or the bots wouldn't be in level 50 content either (which already takes a much longer series of quests). But they're trying to make money and aren't going to spend any more than they have to to do so. So long as their bots can make enough gil to sell while in ARR regions, they're not going to buy an expansion.Quote:
Originally Posted by Snugglebutt
I agree with all your conclusions and with your secondary reasons, but this, which seems to be your primary reason, is bogus. -
06-03-2016, 01:27 PMSnugglebuttIt is not specifically that they have to click through some dialogues of the quest, that is not what I was referring to but it is the fact those quests involve tricky/hard level 50 dungeons and trials that are part of those quests which stops them from botting their armies en masse through into HW. I doubt RMT care much about the cost of HW expansion which is very cheap already, even cheaper when bought in large quantities that reduces the overall cost via discounts for large orders and would allow them more ways to make gil, especially since most of the gathering materials and such from HW zones remaining far more valuable still due to no incursion/saturation by RMT bot armies into those zones currently. RMT bot armies still suck dry the ARR market value for most bottable materials but the HW materials remain fairly untouched by them thanks to the gating.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niwashi
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06-03-2016, 01:48 PMNici
Lol...i think were pretty much derailing this topic train a bit hahahaha, but its nice having different types of discussions like this.
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06-03-2016, 02:09 PMNiwashiOnly so long as that "recap cinematic" doesn't spoil the story of everything that went on in Heavensward. Some people will still want to play HW later and not want it's story spoiled.Quote:
Originally Posted by SDaemon
(Sure there might be some odd bits here and there if you go back and do the different stories out of order, just like there are already if you do class/job quests out of the order with where you are in the MSQ. But that doesn't spoil their stories.)
The ending plot of 2.55 doesn't leave any room except for 3.0 to occur. That's why it wouldn't make sense to require those patch quests before anything other than Heavensward (as story-wise they're essentially part of HW already). But the ending of 2.0 (after The Ultimate Weapon) is much more open ended and could lead into any of a multitude of following stories, so I think that makes a better branching off point.Quote:
Originally Posted by SDaemon
Regardless of what else they do, 4.0 will certainly need some leadup storytelling to explain why we're moving on to whatever area and plot it involves. Those leadup quests (comparable to the way the later 2.x patches lead into HW) would form a prologue that's required before moving on into 4.0.
But the most logical place to do that would be to have the story (though conceptually following 3.0) only require the base 2.0 completion and then those leadup quests that serve as a prologue to the 4.0 story. Most players would play through everything in order, but going from the end of 2.0 into the prologue chapters leading towards 4.0 would also work.
ARR to HW to 4.0 should work. ARR to 4.0 should work. ARR to 4.0 to HW could have some out of order oddities, but shouldn't spoil any of their stories.
No, they wouldn't need to design any new content for that range. As I said, without HW there would be (and should be if SE wants to get the extra revenue) a big gap in the content. That gap is what would continue to encourage players to buy HW even after it's no longer the latest expansion. The smooth way to play it, or the flow as you say, would be to buy both expansions and play them in order.Quote:
Originally Posted by SDaemon
But there's a difference between talking about what's the best way to play through a game and talking about what's required to unlock the next piece of it. There's no reason for HW to be required. To be the best way to play, the smoothest, easiest, best flow, etc. yes, that it would be needed for. But what makes for a smooth flow and what's required by direct content gating are two different things. -
06-03-2016, 02:18 PMSDaemon
Only so long as that "recap cinematic" doesn't spoil the story of everything that went on in Heavensward. Some people will still want to play HW later and not want it's story spoiled.
(Sure there might be some odd bits here and there if you go back and do the different stories out of order, just like there are already if you do class/job quests out of the order with where you are in the MSQ. But that doesn't spoil their stories.)
That would be the entire point of the cinematic, to bring the player up to speed on the 3.0 story, so of course it would spoil the story. That is why they are choosing to watch the cinematic instead of playing through 3.0. For those that don't want to watch the cinematic they would opt not to and proceed as we have into Ishgard. I think you are confusing this option with an opening cinematic like the one we have with Ishgard that spoils the ending of 2.55?
The ending plot of 2.55 doesn't leave any room except for 3.0 to occur. That's why it wouldn't make sense to require those patch quests before anything other than Heavensward. But the ending of 2.0 (after The Ultimate Weapon) is much more open ended and could lead into any of a multitude of following stories, so I think that makes a better branching off point.
Regardless of what else they do, 4.0 will certainly need some leadup storytelling to explain why we're moving on to whatever area and plot it involves. Those leadup quests (comparable to the way the later 2.x patches lead into HW) would form a prologue that's required before moving on into 4.0.
But the most logical place to do that would be to have the story (though conceptually following 3.0) only require the base 2.0 completion and then those leadup quests that serve as a prologue to the 4.0 story. Most players would play through everything in order, but going from the end of 2.0 into the prologue chapters leading towards 4.0 would also work.
ARR to HW to 4.0 should work. ARR to 4.0 should work. ARR to 4.0 to HW could have some out of order oddities, but shouldn't spoil any of their stories.
You are suggesting SE design and devise branching timelines to accommodate your desire to not have 4.0 tied to anything? They would have to completely void every bit of story and branch it elsewhere for no reason. They have a story that is still developing with the Garlean Empries and the Ascians that is further developed in 3.0. They are not likely going to discard that just to reset from 2.0 and build elsewhere. Because 2.0 ends off at a very different stage than 2.55 does or even what 3.0 will, with the world and characters being in very different places and circumstances.
No, they wouldn't need to design any new content for that range. As I said, without HW there would be (and should be if SE wants to get the extra revenue) a big gap in the content. That gap is what would continue to encourage players to buy HW even after it's no longer the latest expansion. The smooth way to play it, or the flow as you say, would be to buy both expansions and play them in order.
But there's a difference between talking about what's the best way to play through a game and talking about what's required to unlock the next piece of it. There's no reason for HW to be required. To be the best way to play, the smoothest, easiest, best flow, etc. yes, that it would be needed for. But what makes for a smooth flow and what's required by direct content gating are two different things.
You are suggesting SE leave the giant gap from 50-60 content there as if HW didn't exist to give incentive for people to buy HW? I honestly 100% do not see them doing this and instead it is far more likely they will just have HW on your account be required to play the 4.0 expansion. There is no reason for them to do otherwise and leave players in that kind of situation. -
06-03-2016, 02:45 PMTankHunter678
Isn't there a natural branch point where you get the first bit of info on the missing scions from Tataru during HW that can be used? It's after Raubahn and the 2.55 subplot wraps up. The MSQ "Aetherial Trail".
At that point you could have a MSQ "second set" of information/rumors that lead you to Yda/Papalymo instead of Y'shtola/Thancred and gets you rolling in the 4.0 MSQ. With modified scenes as necessary. Which should not be that many scenes, provided the excuse for why Yda/Papalymo do not come join you in HW content is good. Which would probably be a Primal issue of some sort that needs to be monitored and Yda/Papalymo are already in position to do just that. -
06-03-2016, 03:00 PMNiwashiI'm not suggesting anything of the sort. There's no branching timelines here, just multiple game expansions. The timeline always follows the expansions and patches in order. A given player might get the expansions in another order, just the way a person might read the latest book in a series or the watch the latest episode of a TV series, and later go back and read or watch the rest. It doesn't branch the timeline of the stories. The stories remain fixed in a set order. It just means you read/watched/played a story that came later in the timeline and then might read/watch/play a story that comes earlier in the timeline.Quote:
Originally Posted by SDaemon
Personally, I prefer to start any series (TV, books, or whatever) at the beginning and follow it straight through in order. But many people don't. -
06-03-2016, 03:14 PMBelhiWith how they have designed the game that might be somewhat tricky to implement, particularly with areas that reflect things that have happened in the story. It would require an overhaul of a great many aspects of the design including how the game is unlocked. Their system might not be designed in such a way that you can hop back to earlier parts of the story once you have passed them. In addition, unless they have some type of auto level feature, it will still require players to get enough gear and experience to get to the endgame. Even if you skip the story your still grinding to 60 and getting gear to survive the new content.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niwashi
Its an interesting idea and it would open the chance to allow people to replay parts of the story but I'm not sure how realistic an option to implement it is. -
06-03-2016, 03:15 PMSDaemonSo letting players jump from the beginning to various parts of the middle of the story at will? While that could work in theory I don't see SE taking that route and if they did it would be riddled with recap cut-scenes so that players were getting the full story. They'd also have to redo how certain parts of the game are unlocked.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niwashi
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06-03-2016, 05:42 PMNiwashiIt's already handling lots of different storylines concurrently. You have a quest line for each of your classes or jobs. There are a few sidestory questlines. And there's the Main Scenario. If it can already keep track of where you're at in each of them, then it should be able to track where you're at in both Heavensward and whatever expansion comes next.Quote:
Originally Posted by Belhi
As for areas reflecting what's happened, if they have each expansion open new areas (like they did with the current one) then that takes care of most of the issue. Ishgard and its surroundings would reflect your Heavensward progress. The next expansion's areas would reflect your progress in that expansion's story. The only place they'd need to be careful with are the ARR areas that are already unlocked with just the base game. But even there, they could still have changes so long as they're not mutually exclusive open world changes.
(Some mutually exclusive changes could be handled with instancing. For example, if in the early part of HW you're supposed to meet a character in Mor Dhona who shouldn't exist if you're playing the 4.0 or 5.0 expansion, then they'd just need to be in a room that you enter as part of that quest that requires them. That's pretty much how its currently handled if you're playing a 2.0 class quest after you're past 2.55 in the MSQ, since we can already take stuff out of timeline sequence in cases like that where they're in different quest chains.)
There's no need for an auto level feature when we've got perfectly good leveling features already. There's lots of dungeons, FATEs, and numerous sidequests already in the game (quite a glut of them at level 50 in fact). Do all the level 50 content and you'll likely be nearing 60 anyway. Do some of it a few extra times, and you're there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Belhi
Meanwhile, you can craft or buy good enough gear to serve as starter equipment for the next expansion. Or perhaps those prologue quests that set up the reasons for heading into the next expansion (since those quests are going to be needed regardless) would reward some decent starting gear for it.
I'm not sure I'd describe a single point at the start of each new expansion as "riddled with" but if they have to do a recap to kick off an expansion it should be a very limited one that's more of a "where we left off" summary than an actual recap. You get the full story by playing the full story.Quote:
Originally Posted by SDaemon
Recaps, if they're to exist at all, should be limited to just brief bits and pieces, providing only the parts most necessary to the following expansion that you're heading into without telling any more than absolutely necessary of the preceding expansion(s) that they're re-capping. Any story threads that were already brought to conclusion shouldn't be mentioned. Nor should any that aren't going to make much of an appearance in the new expansion you're heading into.
Different expansions do generally have different focuses. Some overarching plot developments will carry over from one to another, but there's also a lot of story about the more current or local issues that will be brought up and then concluded within the same expansion. The former could perhaps get a recap, but the later should be restricted to when you're actually playing that content. -
06-03-2016, 09:36 PMSDaemonI would, as each new expansion came out they would need to add more recaps at each new "start point". And each new "start point" would have longer or shorter recaps depending on how far ahead in the story they are jumping. You don't get the full story by playing the game because if you don't own/play part B to the story, your story would literally go Part A -> Part C. They must add a recap of some sort so as to fill the gaps left in the story. Simply saying they'd get it by playing is silly if they don't own part B (though again I fully see them requiring HW to be on your account for 4.0 to work).Quote:
Originally Posted by Niwashi
Recaps should give the full general idea of what the story that they are skipping is about. They don't need every minor detail or death or decision, but it would need to be clear, concise and cover all the story that they would be skipping. Of course story threads that began and concluded should be included if they were stories that started and ended within an expansion so long as that story is part of the MSQ.
Just because 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 and so on have their own focus in the story doesn't mean that the stories are isolated events. Events that happened throughout 2.0 impacted 3.0. Events that happen in 3.0 are going to have an impact on everything as well and continue on to 4.0. The MSQ is a linear progression and while the direction of the story may change the main cast of characters has flowed with it, changing to each event. 2.0 Minfilia isn't the same as 3.0 Minfilia, Aymeric here in 3.0 isn't going to be the same Aymeric that would be in 4.0, Raubhan in 2.0 isn't the same one we have now in 3.0. All of this because as the story progressed things happened to them during the MSQ. A doesn't need to be recapped currently because B required A to have been played, but assume is doesn't. B would need to recap events A, C would need to recap events A and B, D would need to recap events A, B and C. So that players at A who now jump to D would have a summary of the MSQ up to that point. -
06-03-2016, 10:30 PMReinha
I think a recap is a bad idea. It will diminish the experience of anyone who would want to go back to do 3.0 some day. If the story of 4.0 is not built on 3.0 (which has been hinted I think) then it's not necessary to make a short version of HW story. Those who care can go back to do it when they wish.
^Agreed.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niwashi
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06-04-2016, 12:27 AMNiwashiThink of it like the recap scenes included at the start of an episode in many TV series. Even though they show things that have happened previously, they're doing that in order to explain the current state of the world and characters rather than to summarize those past stories. A story thread that was already concluded in the previous episode or previous season won't be included. Only those events from previous episodes that are going to carry over into the current episode's plot are recapped. (Though in many cases those may not have even been the significant major plot points at the time they occurred.) If you want to know what else happened last season (like last season's main plot), then you need to watch last season's episodes.Quote:
Originally Posted by SDaemon
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06-04-2016, 12:46 AMDuuude007
I literally had a playtime stamp of 4 days, 9 hours the moment my alt first entered ishgard. At level 52 PLD upon entry, and crossclass abilities already earned.
This was before the "brand new ring" with the huge XP buff was available.
Your friends' problem is not a problem. They are just likely to be easily distracted and making the process take so much longer. -
06-04-2016, 01:11 AMJermzLeveling isn't the problem, gated game with required story quests is what I was addressing in this thread.Quote:
Originally Posted by Duuude007
Your play time was 4 days 9 hours, thats 105 hours. How many hours are you playing a day? My friends and I do the same job, 8am to about 4:30/5:30pm Monday through Friday, we might be able to play 3-4 hours a night, little more on the weekends. if that continued exactly the same every day, it would take about 26 real life days to get to that play time. Thats if its done every night without fail. Real life doesn't allow this. more reasonable is 2-3 nights at 4 hours a piece, maybe a few hours on the weekends or more depending on free time.
2 months works out, but take into account the fact they are new players (yes, probably distracted) its going to stretch out a little farther. -
06-04-2016, 01:21 AMSnugglebutt
If spent less time complaining and more time doing you would probably be done by now. Took me a day or two to get through the 50 set of MSQ quests and into Ishgard and that was around half dozen hours a day too. Pre-50 the quests do not take long in between leveling, the person you are talking about with 4 days and 9 hours play time includes leveling but in terms of quests within that leveling period it does not equal 4 days and 9 hours of doing MSQ. MSQ's don't take long within themselves, few minutes normally each and between 15-30 minutes for dungeons/trials. When in queue for those your still doing other things including leveling so your not wasting your time unless you choose to do so. Truth is if you wanted it done quickly you would do it quickly, if your taking your time with it and dragging it out but complaining it's taking too long then that is substantially a problem you are making for yourself.