Returning player questions and Shadowbringers CE upgrade

Hello everyone. I've not played for quite a long time for a variety of reasons, but I've been considering coming back to FFXIV.

My first question is perhaps most topical at the time - The vast majority of legitimate vendors offering pre-orders of Shadowbringers seem to have only the Standard edition. In the past I've always purchased the Collector's Edition (digital in recent years) from the start, so I was curious - if I buy a key for the digital Standard edition w/ pre-order bonuses intact, could I immediately upgrade to the CE digital extras from MogStation? I'm pleased that MogStation offers those who missed CE in-game content from any era to upgrade to it, but I wasn't sure if Shadowbringers CE could be upgraded immediately or will not be available for some time after launch. If it is available currently, what is the cost?

The rest of my questions regard other elements of gameplay. I know returning shortly before launch of a major expansion means that most focus of existing players will be on the new content and I'm sure I'll get there, eventually. However as someone who left more or less during the ARR at around 20 on my highest class, I'll want to experience everything leading up to it as well.

Will it be likely Ill be able to have access to (in that, certain story elements or content aren't removed/bypassed/updated to the point they dont exist anymore) and find others to share that content alongside? I figure it is at least more likely given the multi-job leveling opportunity, running older content and unlocking / collecting older equipment/mounts/quests/cosmetics for aesthetic purposes. I remember reading about Gold Saucer's elements, building Airships in Heavensward, new expansion area content and further exciting things in Stormblood etc. Housing is of interest to me as well, but I hear that it can be difficult to obtain depending on server and location; even "Apartment" housing being limited to say nothing of quasi-instanced "Neighborhood" plots.

I should mention my eldest character is on Balmung, which I am to understand is a blessing and a curse given its population. Is it still a concentration of roleplayers like it used to be?

One of my characters is lucky enough to have the "Mark" of history, from the 1.0 era. I was wondering if by now they flag the entire account if of sufficient age to allow for characters to all be marked in a related way? In addition, if a character with the "Mark" uses a Fantasia, can anyone confirm that the mark remains regardless of changes?

Seems I've run out of room. More to come in another post if possible..

One of the few things that concerns me a bit though is monetization. I'm more than happy to pay as subscription and I could greatly commend the FFXIV team for striking a solid balance, resisting the urge to sell a lot of a la carte cosmetic content. I recall how the items for sale were either major services (ie transfers, Fantasias, Insta-boost level/content skips, the non-free options for Weddings) or inexpensive items from past limited-time promotions like Holidays; Obtain for free in game, or purchase should you miss them. The few exceptions were a couple of account-wide mounts, limited an infrequent enough (2 of which being recolors of MagiTek armor I'm told can be earned in game) that it didn't seem an issue. Looking now, I see all matters of additional cosmetics that are, unless I am mistaken, exclusive to a la carte purchase? Clothing, mounts, things for housing, even emotes, poses, and dances! Is/was there some way to acquire these in-game without additional financial expenditure or were they just added to the store? It bothers me a little more when some of these seem to be character specific, rather than account-wide.

If I did not miss anything and these are really content exclusively for purchase atop the subscription, does anyone know if there's any plans to offer other methods? I personally favor an increased subscription fee option with full access to all cosmetics and relevant extras (obviously, not unlimited services like boosts etc). Another player told me there's something like that in the works, but I have not been able to find any data to support it.

In any event, thank you for your information.

To answer your questions in relative order:

1) I don't think you can upgrade to the Collector's Edition from the Standard version until Shadowbringers officially releases on July 2nd; that being said, I presume that it'll be available as soon as the expansion officially launches. If you want to purchase it now, the digital Collector's Edition is available through SE's digital store.

2) Most old content is still available for play in one way or another. Pretty much all casual instanced content - dungeons, normal/hard trials, raids - have roulettes that keep the queues filled, and the harder content (EX trials, savage raids and the Coil raids) can usually be done through Party Finder without too much trouble, though you may have to do them unsynced; you'll still be able to get mounts/emotes/etc. that way, though. Gold Saucer stuff mostly sticks around aside from some GATE events, I believe (and I could be wrong about that, too - I don't spend much time in the Gold Saucer). Housing is unfortunately more of a problem; if you're on Balmung, you probably won't be able to get a house, though apartments are plentiful enough that getting one of those shouldn't be too much of an issue (though Balmung's permanent congested status may make it more difficult than another server). Airship stuff is usually done through Free Companies, so you'll need to join one if you haven't already.

3) Balmung is still considered to be a major RP server and has been permanently congested for a very long time, though there are definitely others as well; the new Crystal data center that Balmung is now on is often stereotyped as the "RP data center", though that should be taken with a healthy level of skepticism as with all stereotypes.

4) I don't really know much about the 'marks' of characters carried over from 1.0, but aside from subscriber bonuses accounts don't get equivalent marks simply due to age. That being said, Fantasias shouldn't remove Legacy markers, I believe.

5) I don't think anything on Mogstation is obtainable in-game; that being said, a lot of the stuff on there are items from previous seasonal events that are no longer obtainable, exclusive items from real-world events like Fanfest, or items from the Chinese/Korean version of the game that were ported over to this version, so that isn't that different. It's also important to note that the amount of mounts/emotes/glam outfits/etc. available in-game vastly outweighs what is available on Mogstation, so don't feel like you can't get anything in-game. The character-specific thing is a little annoying, but that's about the only problem I have with Mogstation's stuff.
5b) As far as I'm aware, there aren't any plans to offer other methods of obtaining most of the Mogstation stuff; it sounds like the other person was probably just passing on a rumor.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RanceJustice

One of my characters is lucky enough to have the "Mark" of history, from the 1.0 era. I was wondering if by now they flag the entire account if of sufficient age to allow for characters to all be marked in a related way? In addition, if a character with the "Mark" uses a Fantasia, can anyone confirm that the mark remains regardless of changes?

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The Mark of the Twelve is specifically for characters that were created during 1.x. Other characters created after the closure of the 1.x servers do not get the Mark. If you ever delete your 1.x character, you can never get the Mark back. The Mark does survive Fantasia.

If I may say a few piece... the mechanics of the game overall are user friendly, and i feel like you are worrying about some glassy things with mixed feelings. There are special things to obtain, be it a t-shirt, an achievement or something else, but it is unrealistic to think you will get it all. I would encourage you to try to your hearts content to be the best you can be, and your friends will be there to pick you up when you fall. What you want to focus on is playing the game, see what it will give you and what you cannot have, but keep in mind that things have changed in the past and I would wager will change in the future, so focus on what is important to you. One thing I would recommend from the Mog-station is a Heavensturn head piece or something from the Mochi Daikan. roll with the punches