Regarding Heavensward sidequests

This is feedback mostly aimed at the development team.

From a recent interview:

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So you thought about completely removing the experience reward from sidequests?

Y: Even though sidequests are based around story, if you want to progress through the game quickly you can click your way through them without reading anything. Because our questing system is not all that elaborate, the tasks themselves are limited to a small number of variations like "Kill X of that monster" or "bring this thing to that person". Of course we are working on including more varied tasks, and we are also working on main the story itself interesting. Still, we had to ask whether a system that allows you to earn experience just by clicking things was really needed at this point from a game design perspective.

So you had that conversation in the development team?

Y: In the team as well, there were people asking "can't we just remove them already?", but we were worried that if we only allowed players to level through group activities like dungeons and hunting open-world mobs, then we wouldn't be able to provide for those people who want to experience all aspects of the game on their own. There were arguments in favor of both sides, but in the end we felt having experience rewards from the main quest wasn't hurting the game in any way, so we decided to add side quests as originally planned.

How have players reacted to this?

Y: I was expecting a few more comments like "We're sick of them" or "There are too many errands", but I think we were able to make the story interesting enough to cover for the monotony of the activity itself. In the end, expect for one particular set of quests, we didn't receive that many complaints. I think this is thanks to our writing team's efforts.

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For my part... I'm not overly fond of sidequests for the reasons touched on, but I do feel the writers did a bang up job. There were some story/quest lines that were really very good.

I think varying the tasks is a good idea but I hope the writers will keep it up too.

I don't really mind sidequests as long as they can be completed at the same time as the MSQ and don't slow down your progression through the story. The only place that really became an issue was in the Churning Mists (re: helping whiny moogles run errands for about a day straight when there were pressing matters in Ishgard), which is probably the one instance Yoshi-P is referring to where players got fed up with the sidequesting.

Most of the lines were pretty good, though I was particularly taken with the lazy Vanu tribesman who "tried" to become an adult through mostly our effort. Need light-hearted moments like those to break up the tension.

The stories in the game are the whole reason I play it, so I like the side quests. I think they did a pretty good job with the side quests in Heavensward. If they had removed experience from quests I don't think I would be able to continue to play. I can only stand doing dungeons for tomestones because I need the gear for further stories. No way I would have been willing to take my first job to 60 via dungeons and FATEs.

When I read the part about the "One Quest Chain" I automatically thought "Lazy Moogles no doubt".

That was the only quest chain where I hated the fact that I couldn't let the little shits experience darwinisim the hard way. Of course my own personal hatred for everything Kupo probably wasn't helping the exasperation I was feeling because of them.

I never understood the hate for the moogle quests, the ones required for the main story were short and few, and the side quests featuring them are so full of humor that they're always a pleasure.

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Originally Posted by WellFooled

I never understood the hate for the moogle quests, the ones required for the main story were short and few, and the side quests featuring them are so full of humor that they're always a pleasure.

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Personal reasons:

1. Most of the things they ask you to do are things the moogles are supposed to do themselves.

2. What isn't supposed to be their task is often said moogle simply being lazy.

3. Churning Mists is a massive map and very difficult to traverse without flying, making getting around without it a chore in and of itself.

4. Assuming you don't have rested EXP and are just following the story, even doing every sidequest as it pops up will leave you about a level short to progress after finishing the Aery - and then again shortly afterward, meaning you can either help (lazy / cowardly) moogles run errands or grind dungeons / FATEs until you ping 57 and can do the Vault.

5. Aside from a short line with some dragoons, the only quests up there are... running errands for moogles. We had various questgivers and lines beforehand, but Churning Mists is all moogles all the time. Cute as they may be, after a day straight of doing tasks for the lazy cowards they're supposed to do themselves I wanted to strangle the little blighters.

... just my two cents.

I highly enjoyed the side quests that fleshed out the world. Particularly around Trine in forelands, I felt they gave some inside into dragons and how different they view the world. Most quests felt as if they added to the story... My issue with the moggle quests where there was so little story for the amount of tasks to do.

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Originally Posted by Cilia

Personal reasons:

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... just my two cents.

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My thoughts exactly, only better worded with far less profanity and derogitory moogle slander.

I quite enjoyed most of the sidequests as the writing is fantastic for a lot of them. That said, Churning Mists was a mess. It's more vertical than the previous two areas, making the fact that flight is locked behind not only nested sidequests but also main story progression pretty annoying even if I see that they want you to experience the environment from the ground before just zooming past everything in the air. But the biggest question regarding the moogles is how the heck they survived the past millenia of tending to Hraesvelgr's needs if they are that incompetent. That part of the quest design/writing really made no sense, despite Nidhogg's increased aggressiveness being one excuse I suppose.

If anything, I think that quests that give you an aether current should have a wing marker on them instead of the usual question mark.

If we are looking at quest mechanics, sure they need an overhaul but sidequests in FF14 present a great way of expanding the narrative and fleshing out the world. Some of my favourite storylines in FF14 came from sidequests.

The Churning Mists was I think the only issue where there was a problem with side quests, particularly from a story perspective.

Having said that, not all of them were bad. The Mog Squad one is probably the worst candidate. They were irritating and foolish. There were also probably a few too many random fetch quests that the Moggles seemed capable of doing them selves which made the Moggles all look really lazy.

The Pomguard quests and the Mogleo quests on the other hand weren't bad. Mogleo is genuine in his efforts and he himself feels unworthy since he ends up having to rely so much on the WoL. The point at the end was that even if he wasn't as strong as the WoL, is intentions to help others and his bravery to stay even when he was at great risk are what gave him passing marks.

The Pomguard quests actually gave me some respect for the Moggles. I had to admire their tenacity when handed a near impossible task and the fact they have stayed true to it for a thousand years. The Pomguard didn't run and hide. They fought to the point where they all get beaten down. Plus you have to give some credit to Moggles who manage to kill dragons on their own.

The Moggle Archeologists were alright too. They gave an awareness of the significance of the site I didn't get my just passing by. Having said that, mechanically that particular chain was quite repetitive and the 3 dimensional nature of the terrain made finding location a bit annoying.

Also, though I have heard that their was complaints about it, I didn't mind the Broom quests in the Hinterlands. It was a bit novel doing a bit of thinking on what I was looking for.

I think having more instanced-off quests like that MSQ one where you wander Western Coerthas through a snowstorm, the fight with the Illuminati where Y'shtola goes all bamf... That sort of thing. I realise it takes a lot more development effort, but it feels a lot more worthwhile than clicking through text messages, even if said text is often pretty interesting.

The quests need a higher pace and more unexpected things. There's some pretty good quest arcs but they're not presented in an engaging way.

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Originally Posted by seekified

I think having more instanced-off quests like that MSQ one where you wander Western Coerthas through a snowstorm, the fight with the Illuminati where Y'shtola goes all bamf... That sort of thing. I realise it takes a lot more development effort, but it feels a lot more worthwhile than clicking through text messages, even if said text is often pretty interesting.

The quests need a higher pace and more unexpected things. There's some pretty good quest arcs but they're not presented in an engaging way.

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My favorite was Halatali where we rescued Raubahn. It'd be cool if we could do those instance battles again.

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Originally Posted by Kaiser-Ace

My favorite was Halatali where we rescued Raubahn. It'd be cool if we could do those instance battles again.

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Yeah, that one was great. Having an option to replay these somehow would be nice. Still, if sidequests could pull stuff like that as well it'd make them a lot more worthwhile.

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Originally Posted by Cilia

1. Most of the things they ask you to do are things the moogles are supposed to do themselves.

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But...but, they have such tiny wings! And so many natural predators! D: