Heavensward release

Hello,

I wonder if when Heavensward is released, I still will be able to play FFXIV: ARR without installing Heavensward, and if Im forced to install it in order to keep playing, what will happen with all the main story quests and sidequests unfinished.

Thanks for the answers and please forgive my ignorance.

You don't need heavensward to play the base game only need the expansion to play the expansion content.

Yoshi-P say in liveletter that people who dont have the addon can play with people who have it, can group with them but you cant go to ishgard, cant play the story, cant create an au ra and dont have the new three jobs.
It will be the same as it is.

You maybe struggle to get people for the lower level group content though. I hope they don't find ways to make us do 1-50 content at 60 like they do now.

Thanks for your fast answers! Its a relief to know that I will be able to do old stuff even when adon is released.

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Originally Posted by Zentsa

cant create an au ra

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pretty sure he didn't say you wouldn't be able to create Au Ra without the expansion... if he did please post the source

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Originally Posted by Wildsprite

pretty sure he didn't say you wouldn't be able to create Au Ra without the expansion... if he did please post the source

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I'm pretty sure Au Ra is expansion content and doubt it will be available without the expansion unless they specifically said it would be. If he did please post the source.. :P

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Originally Posted by DoctorPepper

I'm pretty sure Au Ra is expansion content and doubt it will be available without the expansion unless they specifically said it would be. If he did please post the source.. :P

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they mentioned that the Au Ra would be introduced with Heavansward not that it was expansion content, but we will see. they mentioned that the new area, new jobs and quests would be locked.I did not see anything about the new race being locked anywhere and if there is one thing I have learned about SE is you don't assume anything with them so unless they confirm or deny it at this point I'm going to wait and hope the new race isn't locked content and prepare for it to be.



as for who should post the source

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Originally Posted by Zentsa

Yoshi-P say in liveletter that people who dont have the addon can play with people who have it, can group with them but you cant go to ishgard, cant play the story, cant create an au ra and dont have the new three jobs.
It will be the same as it is.

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this person specifically stated that Yoshi said it in a live letter yet I can't find anything in any of the live letters that confirms their statement about the Au Ra

lol I was just being sassy.. don't mind me. I still doubt that Au Ra will be available without purchase though simply because it's being added with the expansion and is being used in the marketing for the expansion.

Heavensward in itself won't be needed on your machine, but ARR will probably have quite a weighty update to add the new race, new weapons, skills, animations, models, mounts, minions, items, etc.

It will only restrict you from playing what's "inside" Heavensward. This includes the new race, new jobs, new dungeons, or simply going in Ishgard.


Sidenote: Remember that, in order to access to Ishgard and the new Heavenward content, you need to complete all 2.x story quests (including the upcoming 2.55 quests)... So, in short terms, if you are below level 50, the vast majority of Heavensward will be unavailable to you anyway until you catch up with that.

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Originally Posted by DoctorPepper

lol I was just being sassy.. don't mind me. I still doubt that Au Ra will be available without purchase though simply because it's being added with the expansion and is being used in the marketing for the expansion.

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yeah you could be right there

some confirmation from a community rep would be nice

Going off of this

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...801-08-2015%29

the last question and answer

"A: FINAL FANTASY XIV: Heavensward is a new expansion pack that will add onto FINAL FANTASY XIV. You can purchase the expansion for several thousand yen, and by installing it you’ll be able to enjoy new jobs, a new race, a lot of new maps, new dungeons, and various other content. You can imagine that a whole new FINAL FANTASY XIV will be added on. We’ll have both a standard edition and a collectors’ edition for the expansion.

In regards to the question, even after the expansion is implemented you will still be able to play the content from FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn, so please do not worry about that. Also, even if you don’t install the expansion, you’ll still be able to see elements of the expansion on your screen for the players that have it installed. You’ll be able to see it, but in order to actually play it you’ll need the expansion.

Recently I’ve been asked quite often if the 2.x storyline will be concluding. Think of it like television series. The FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn arc will be concluding and a new story arc with start that involves the Dragonsong War. The main scenario characters as well as brand-new characters will make an appearance. In Patch 2.5 the Realm Reborn storyline will be concluding and a new adventure will begin in the expansion. "

I am going to assume, you need expansion to play Au'ra

Not to be snarky (OK I love being snarky) but the race announced during all the Heavensward panels, featured on the back of the Heavensward boxes (if you squint, since we only have box mock-ups right now) and shown touring the Heavensward zones is, indeed, going to require Heavensward to use.
Bonus races are very rarely given out for free, and if they do there's always a large amount of fanfaire emphasizing that point.

I remember seeing it posted that people playing on multiple platforms would have to buy Heavensward for each, but was it ever explained how that works? If someone had Heavensward on PC, made their character an Au Ra Dark Knight, and then logged into the same character from a PS4 that only had the base ARR game, what would be available? Things like quest and dungeon access in the new areas could readily be cut off while playing on a platform that doesn't have it, but wouldn't an ARR platform have to still have access to the character you'd been playing on it, even after you added stuff from a Heavensward platform? Does anyone understand how this works?

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

I remember seeing it posted that people playing on multiple platforms would have to buy Heavensward for each, but was it ever explained how that works? If someone had Heavensward on PC, made their character an Au Ra Dark Knight, and then logged into the same character from a PS4 that only had the base ARR game, what would be available? Things like quest and dungeon access in the new areas could readily be cut off while playing on a platform that doesn't have it, but wouldn't an ARR platform have to still have access to the character you'd been playing on it, even after you added stuff from a Heavensward platform? Does anyone understand how this works?

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If you made an au ra and then tried to log on on the unpurchased platform in that case, you'd get an error message.

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Originally Posted by kyuven

If you made an au ra and then tried to log on on the unpurchased platform in that case, you'd get an error message.

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that will serve only to piss off a lot of people. seriously I can see locking the jobs and the new areas. even the level cap. but the new race being locked will serve to only hurt their reputation if they make it so making an Au Ra on 1 platform locks you out of another.

I really hope they aren't stupid enough to do such an idiotic thing.

again some comfirmation from the community team about the Au Ra would be nice.

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Originally Posted by kyuven

If you made an au ra and then tried to log on on the unpurchased platform in that case, you'd get an error message.

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Is that from SE or an assumption on your part?


It's easy to see how quest and dungeon access can vary between different machines on the same account.

I can see how region access can vary between different machines on the same account. (Just set a rule such as that if you logged out in Ishgard, then when you log back in from an ARR-only platform you wake up in the inn of your home city.)

Though a bit more of a stretch, I can even kind of see how most job access could be blocked from an ARR-only platform after being unlocked on a Heavensward platform. (If you logged out as Dark Knight, Astrologian, or Machinist, then when you log back in from an ARR-only machine, all your skills are blocked, as is DF and maybe even joining a party, so you have to switch to an ARR accessible job in order to do much of anything besides wandering around town.)

Race, though, presents a harder problem. I can't really see SE saying that a bought and paid for copy of ARR is no longer valid and you can't even log in anymore just because it doesn't have Heavensward attached while another of your platforms does. A more straightforward approach would be to require Heavensward to be able to create an Au Ra (including fantasia-ing to one), but then allowing any of your platforms to play it. That way your ARR copy would still be valid and able to play the same characters you'd been playing on it all along.

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

A more straightforward approach would be to require Heavensward to be able to create an Au Ra (including fantasia-ing to one), but then allowing any of your platforms to play it. That way your ARR copy would still be valid and able to play the same characters you'd been playing on it all along.

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this would make more sense. making it so you're Au Ra char that you made on 1 platform is not playable on another platform without buying heavensward will just make a lot of angry customers. and basically give an up yours to the people that support SE as a company. I really don't think they want to do that.

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Originally Posted by Wildsprite

pretty sure he didn't say you wouldn't be able to create Au Ra without the expansion... if he did please post the source

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I did know it before but now you have it from official :
http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/commen...d_other_stuff/
You need HW to be an Aura. No other conditions.

Everyone is going to be downloading Heavensward, even if you never bought it.

You just won't be able to go into ishgard because you don't have the "License" for it on your SE Account :x

What will you download?
Its not only Ishgard lol, you dont have the whole expansion, no lvl 60, no new jobs, no alexander etc.
You will have FF14 how is it at this moment.
But i see, some ppl dont think that, so you will see it at release date ( i see "why i cant create aura" threads incoming)

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Originally Posted by Zentsa

What will you download?
Its not only Ishgard lol, you dont have the whole expansion, no lvl 60, no new jobs, no alexander etc.
You will have FF14 how is it at this moment.
But i see, some ppl dont think that, so you will see it at release date ( i see "why i cant create aura" threads incoming)

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If I understand correctly (possible that I am wrong), everyone download the new stuff, but you need a Key (game purchase) to unlock the newly downloaded stuff.

You only will download anything if you buy the addon.
If you dont buy it, you download nothing.
oh man.

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Originally Posted by Zentsa

You only will download anything if you buy the addon.
If you dont buy it, you download nothing.
oh man.

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You'll need to download the race, armors, and mounts, of course, because other players will have them and be out and about in 2.0 areas, but I don't see any reason you'd need to download all the new areas if you have no access to them whatsoever. Of course, I've never played an MMO with an optional expansion so I don't know. At the bare minimum, though, you'd have to have Au Ra/armors/mounts patched in.

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Originally Posted by Keydah

You'll need to donwload the race, armors, and mounts, of course, because other players will be or have them, but I don't see any reason you'd need to download all the new areas.

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Thats what i mean.
Understand the question above wrong maybe.
Sure you download some parts but you dont have anything for YOU from the addon if you dont buy it.
Why would Yoshi-P say "you will need Heavensward to create an aura" if everyone will get it? Makes no sence.

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Originally Posted by Zentsa

Thats what i mean.
Understand the question above wrong maybe.
Sure you download some parts but you dont have anything for YOU from the addon if you dont buy it.
Why would Yoshi-P say "you will need Heavensward to create an aura" if everyone will get it? Makes no sence.

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i think they mean it will be added visually only to a patch for those who havent got heavensward expansion otherwise the ARR only players wont have the visual data to actually see/interact with au'ra characters etc same with no data they wouldnt be able to see the new jobs cause wouldnt be any data in thier file..

for example if some1 with heavensward enters a dungeon via DF and theres a machinist in there with no downloadable data outside the actual expansion then its doubtful the player with just ARR would be able to see it ;/ im a noob with technical stuff but i assume thats why they are hinting at :P

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Originally Posted by Zentsa

Thats what i mean.
Understand the question above wrong maybe.
Sure you download some parts but you dont have anything for YOU from the addon if you dont buy it.
Why would Yoshi-P say "you will need Heavensward to create an aura" if everyone will get it? Makes no sence.

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This is how it works:
EVERYONE will be forced to download the Heavenswars patch. No matter what. Even if you don't have the license.
ARR Players are still able to play with others who are "Au Ra", can see the new jobs, gear, etc.

The only thing that the game won't et you do is to access Ishgard. Why? Because the account doesn't posses a "Heavensward" license.

Hope this clears it up.

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Originally Posted by Zentsa

You only will download anything if you buy the addon.
If you dont buy it, you download nothing.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zentsa

Sure you download some parts but you dont have anything for YOU from the addon if you dont buy it.
Why would Yoshi-P say "you will need Heavensward to create an aura" if everyone will get it? Makes no sence.

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Whether you have access to it for yourself and whether you download it are two different questions. You definitely DO have to buy the expansion in order to use the new areas, quests, jobs, race, and possibly an assortment of more minor features. That doesn't mean those who buy the expansion are the only ones who download it, though.

The most simple and straightforward approach is to maintain just a single version of the FFXIV software for each platform type. So everyone who plays FFXIV, regardless of whether they have the expansion or not, will download the entire expansion, so that they have the exact same software and data as everyone else. Those who have purchased the expansion have access to actually using the new jobs, race, regions, etc. Those who haven't purchased it have all that content locked and unavailable. They still have the same software running on their machine, though. The locking and unlocking of content is controlled at SE's end based on your licence, not based on what software you're running.

There are two reasons for that being the usual preferred pattern. One is that the locking and unlocking of content has to be controlled at SE's end anyway. If the client-side software was able to control your access, then it could be hacked.

The other reason is complexity. If it was split out into separate software versions, then any update that's supposed to affect the entire game has to be done on each of them. For now, with this being just the first expansion, that would already double the number of versions SE would need to maintain. As more expansions are added, though, it increases exponentially, because some people may have just ARR, others ARR+HW, others ARR+whatever comes next, others ARR+HW+whatever comes next, so at that point it's four software versions that have to be maintained for each platform. And so on, with each expansion doubling the complexity of being able to add any sort of feature or fix to the game as a whole. It's far simpler to have just a single current version of the software that has major sections locked behind whether your account has purchased access to them.

Those are why it's the most usual and expected pattern. It's not the only possible pattern, though. SE could decide to do it differently and maintain separate software for each expansion. It's just that that would be a lot more work for little to no benefit, so we're not expecting it as likely.

I assume Au Ra would be there on the character screen but will be unhighlighted because the expansion isn't installed. And no, the only things that are being added to the vanilla game is Job Data, Gear Data, Character Data, Minion and Mount Data. When you buy Heavensward, it will add in the areas and the rest of the other data. Other than crafted gear, SE is very adamant on making sure people without the expansion do not have access to almost anything the expansion has to offer.