My Alt is an Idiot

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Anyway, she's gathering Aether Currents in Labrynthos, and it's hard.
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Not because she's dead, she's fine but because how these zones keep FORCING her to not go wherever the plot hasn't gone yet.

For a first time playthrough it's fine, and even a fun way to get more out of a zone, but re-doing this for an alt is mind-numbingly tedious.

LOOK, SHE'S GROWING WHITE HAIRS BECAUSE OF THIS
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I'm not even supposed to be down here yet, but I used a powerful cheat someone flew me down here to make this grind not as bad.
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Also, this is some of the random stuff that she needs to mindlessly complete just to be caught up.
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Dear Square: Please help her. Look at her! Do you want her to keep beating Mandragoras with a book for the rest of time??
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I have a third alt, but this is seriously turning me off from ever getting her this far.

Now, the obvious question: Why get an alt? You can play everything on one character and there's Data Center travel.
An my answer to you is: Because I'm an idiot, that's why.

It's not even the previous xpacs. Endwalker specifically is turning out to be a slog to re-clear without flying and other quality of life things you just have in NG+, and I may eventually even drop Hilda too, but I'm forcing myself to push through for now. I have no idea if I'll have it in me to get her caught up with Dawntrail in the future.

I love XIV, but the game being so alt-unfriendly just kills me. It's costing me hours and making me dislike content I otherwise love.

Anyway, I may take a break from the forums for a while. I need fresh air or something.

Have a good day and take care!

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Originally Posted by DiaDeem

It's not even the previous xpacs. Endwalker specifically is turning out to be a slog to re-clear without flying and other quality of life things you just have in NG+, and I may eventually even drop Hilda too, but I'm forcing myself to push through for now. I have no idea if I'll have it in me to get her caught up with Dawntrail in the future.

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Yepppp.
I know this because for the alt I use for the forums I had to reclear 6.0. And boy howdy did Endwalker's pacing on replay make me want to pull my hair off. It's a huge slowdown from the previous expansions.

Ugh I am not looking forward to this. My wife has decided to play so I made an alt to go with her and it's just a slog. Cuz I am trying to go thru the story with her I am not doing any scene skips.

I have other alts but I stop at 70 so I can do Eureka.

Aren't those field Aether currents completely worthless to you until you get the last few locked behind the MSQ anyway, and that lock usually lasts until you can explore the entire zone?
I'll admit I didn't pay attention to it in EW and can't remember HW but during SB and ShB that seemed to hold true so if they didn't change things you're doing this to yourself for no reason.

I have played an alt in XIV only once, when the first batch of new servers launched and the only goal was getting to 30 with all the XP buffs to get free subscription time, and that experience completely turned me off ever wanting to have an alt in this game. Never have I seen a game as alt-unfriendly as this short of the games that give you only the one character slot to begin with. I consider myself truly lucky that in all the years of playing my grumpy old man I never had the urge to regularly change anything but my glamour, it's no wonder Fantasias (and skips) sell like hot cakes if the alt experience is ...this.

An acquaintance likes to liken playing XIV to watching The Sixth Sense - the first time around it's great, the second time it loses a lot of the charm because you're aware of the twist/miss all the little QoL features the game keeps from you. While I personally still enjoy watching that movie every now and then they have a point, none of the repeats ever reach the twist hitting you for the first time. I can't even imagine subjecting myself to a reclear of XIV, constantly waiting for the game to get to "the good part".

As Astrus points out, getting the Aether currents sooner does no good because you still have to complete the MSQ story for the zone to get the final one. Why go out of the way early when the MSQ will take you to those currents?

As for playing alts in general, that's personal choice. Just what is "caught up" supposed to be and why is it important to you?

I look at your journal and see a bunch of quests listed that I haven't done on most of my alts (or any in a couple of cases) and don't plan to do. My main is the character that experiences everything I'm interested in/capable of at least trying. My alts don't need to repeat everything my main has done or collect everything my main has. They're mostly to repeat MSQ since NG+ doesn't feel the same without the corresponding character progression, get extra hits in on timed nodes and have extra housing (apartments are still fun even if not the same as a house). If there is side content I found particularly fun and has something I will actively use on an alt, then I'll repeat it on the alt. If there's no reward the alt will use, I'll stick to repeating it on my main.

Again, it's personal choice but I don't see why an alt should be granted immediate credit for content completion and given rewards just because a player has already done it on a main. What's the point of having an alt if it's little more than a display mannequin that's not actively being played because everything was already done on the main?

More threads like this!

10/10

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Originally Posted by Astrus

Aren't those field Aether currents completely worthless to you until you get the last few locked behind the MSQ anyway, and that lock usually lasts until you can explore the entire zone?

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Exactly. Instead of detouring to those places now ahead of time for the sole purpose of collecting aether currents you can't use yet, just carry on with MSQ until it takes you down there and you'll walk straight past at least some of those currents along the way.

Some of the currents that come from sidequests don't unlock until very late in the second half of MSQ there, so field currents have no immediate value until then.

I would just do six FATEs so the gemstone trader sells the land speed boost, do the minimum questing necessary, and move on to other parts of the game for now, rather than assigning yourself inefficient goals and then grumbling about their inefficiency.

(Certainly the game does inflict a fair bit of inefficiency on its own, but you're making it worse for yourself.)


As for sidequests, do them because you want to re-experience them or you want glamour from them, not for some arbitrary need to be caught up.

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Originally Posted by Astrus

Aren't those field Aether currents completely worthless to you until you get the last few locked behind the MSQ anyway, and that lock usually lasts until you can explore the entire zone?

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

As Astrus points out, getting the Aether currents sooner does no good because you still have to complete the MSQ story for the zone to get the final one.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

Instead of detouring to those places now ahead of time for the sole purpose of collecting aether currents you can't use yet, just carry on with MSQ until it takes you down there and you'll walk straight past at least some of those currents along the way.

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I have to get them no matter what, and I'd rather do it right away. Zones like Garlemald and Il Mheg (and a few others across xpacs) let me go wherever I want as soon as I set foot in them. The idea of segmenting a zone for the new player is to bring them back later in the story for new surprises, and I'm down for that but... I'm not a new player. There's no surprises left in the map for me, yet I'm still forced to stay inside the proverbial cage. I don't like that.

Or... I'm an idiot, whichever works better for you.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

As for sidequests, do them because you want to re-experience them or you want glamour from them, not for some arbitrary need to be caught up.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Just what is "caught up" supposed to be and why is it important to you?

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Oh, the laundry list of things? It's just dungeons base raids, so I could run them with friends, nothing more. I don't think I'm being unreasonable.

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At the end of the day, the game simply offers no solution for leveling an alt beyond some expensive skips that aren't even useful for Endwalker at this time, and it bothered me so I decided to make a funny thread.

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Originally Posted by DiaDeem

The idea of segmenting a zone for the new player is to bring them back later in the story for new surprises, and I'm down for that but... I'm not a new player. There's no surprises left in the map for me, yet I'm still forced to stay inside the proverbial cage. I don't like that.

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Mind you, the real idea of segmenting a zone (specifically the now-typical two starting zones) is because devs are savvy enough to divide the player base starting a new expansion so that we don't end up with a first zone that's too congested to get into (see: Stormblood). I'd say it's less about "new surprises" and more just disguising how players get distributed through an expansion. (but I also expect you fully understand all of that as well)

Personally, I'd just as soon see all these split zones actually split. If I'm done in the low level region, let that region be done and unlock flying. Huge open empty zones don't really feel all that more impressive anyway.