Small rant as a fresh lvl 50

As a new player I wonder whether the developers are completely out of touch with players like me. I wonder whether they have gotten any feedback about this atrocious experience upon reaching lvl 50 with a brand new character experiencing the game's story for the first time.

I am well accustomed to the duty finder, having used it for every pre-50 dungeon, trial and guildhest. And multiple times I have indeed skipped the cutscenes and chose to view them at the inn, but for the most part I enjoyed the story that was carefully weaved together.

Then, hitting 50, I wanted to enjoy the culmination of the story arc. Yes, you know it, I reached the point where I have to do Castrum Meridianum and the Praetorium. Great, let's queue in the duty finder! Entering castrum, I viewed the cutscene, and because nobody COULD leave me behind, nobody did. It's only when I viewed the second cutscene that I realised, nobody cared what I was doing. It wasn't the case that they were annoyed that I was viewing a cutscene and couldn't progress without me, nor was it the fact that they were waiting for me to finish before continuing. They. Just. Moved. On. And didn't care at all if I was there or not. Rather than being left behind in the dungeon, I chose to skip the cutscenes. Either way I was going to have my first experience of the story ruined, I could choose to skip the cutscenes or not do the dungeon which is tied in with the story. I was annoyed when we were finished, but not enough to make my first post on the forums to rant about it.

Bracing myself for having to skip all the cutscenes in the Praetorium I entered duty finder again, how could it get worse? Well, it did get worse. They were doing a speedrun, and the method of doing it? Tank grabs aggro of all the mobs, runs for the exit. They were clearly notified that they were getting a bonus for having us new players along on the ride, and I was annoyed enough in castrum for having to skip the cutscenes to actually do anything in the dungeon, but I was even more annoyed here when nobody clued us in to what they were doing. Yes, US, because there was more than one of us who were new to the dungeon. I was one of the ones with quicker wits because I was able to figure out that I should die and respawn to access the shortcut. Some poor chump had been on the ground quite a while waiting for everyone until he realised that he had to respawn himself. Then came the point with the magitek armor. One individual was kind enough to mark out the terminal for us to use the id on, but not kind enough to mention it in chat. It was only after going up the lift to the magitek armor that i realised what was going on, and by that point everyone else, bar 3 of us, had gone off on their own leaving us behind. After interacting with the terminal, some random mobs aggroed me, I don't know where from. All I knew was that I was being attacked when i got into the magitek armor, everyone was gone, and I was lost. I hadn't actually failed a duty before, wiped, but never failed, but this one I just gave up and abandoned.

Partially, I abandoned in spite, so that they wouldn't get their bonus. But seeing as there were other two new 50s, they would probably get their bonus anyway. I guess it didn't really matter what I did because they'd carry on regardless.

This rant was brought to you by the amazing walking set of Allagan tomestones.

Whew, got that off my chest :o

If I see someone still watching a cut scene in those two, I will hang back, regardless of what role I am. To both let them enjoy it, and to show them how to catch up with the group.

We've all been there. I was forced to skip the cut scenes or be left behind. I also remember not grabbing the key and wondering why everyone but me had magitek armor. ;( Fortunately, that experience is unique to those set of quests.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CherrySoda

As a new player I wonder whether the developers are completely out of touch with players like me. I wonder whether they have gotten any feedback about this atrocious experience upon reaching lvl 50 with a brand new character experiencing the game's story for the first time.

---

This was a much discussed topic when the game was first released and you'll be happy to know that the developers never use this kind of format again. After the concluding events of 2.0 most cutscenes relating to story dungeons happen before and after the dungeon, not in the middle, and what few cutscenes do happen mid way are short.

Wish you were with the party I had the pleasure of joining a while ago. Everyone waited for the new person to watch the cutscenes and not a single person made a complaint. Ah..I wish I could see them again. Quite rare that you meet such amazing people. I'm sorry you had to deal with those kind of runs. Wish people had more patience when it comes to new players and those two dungeons.

It wouldn't be the anniversary without some thread on people not letting new players watch one hour of cut scenes where Cid opens a door or some enemy rambles on for ages. These two dungeons used to be farming dungeons that people did all the time so a lot of veteran players are sick of it. Now there is barely any reason to go other than rush friends through old content. But yeah it was a stupid idea and they learned from it.

It was a poor design choice by SQEX, but they have learnt from it and it doesn't happen again after those 2 dungeons.

To get the full experience of those dungeons, use party finder and set the requirements as No Cutscene Skipping and try get some FC mates to join you. To make it even more fun, tick the option of minimum item level.

Noone is entitled to your ideal fresh 50 experience. It may be new to you, but for a majority of people who you'll meet in story trials it's old content and only necessary for their dailies. The occasional actual newcomer won't make a major difference between ~7 other people who've run the same thing dozens of times.

It's commendable if people are willing to wait and explain things somehow, but in no way something a newcomer should expect / demand.
Because that'd be just as selfish.

This mostly applies to old content that doesn't require a lot of explaining in the first place, you dying and being left behind most likely won't make a big difference to the run. If that's such a big deal to you, use the PF and find the right people for it.

I always let people watch cutscenes in dungeons as long as it's a reasonable length. An hour long cutscene is just ridiculous though. People can wait 5 mins or less for someone else but if you're trying to watch something that long just skip it and watch it at the inn. That's definitely bad design though what were they thinking lol...

I'm surprised this topic has never been brought up before

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by randysquirrel

I'm surprised this topic has never been brought up before

---

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/...20110419012743

I came back to the game a few months before heavensward and promised a friend to help them get through praetorium with my tank.It was her first time doing it.I couldn't believe how bad the attitude had gotten over the cutscenes.
The reason it's gotten so bad is not because people are sick of it.It's because they are so overgeared they can get away with i ditching half the party to watch cutscenes while they race on like there lives are depending on it.
There is no reason for people to act like this.I know it's in a daily roulette but the bonus you get from it isn't great anyway.I say if you don't want to let people enjoy it then don't join.

The 2 places were designed to be enjoyed with the cutscenes.I love those 2 places for that.It made the run of the places much more interesting.

Don't ruin it for the new players and blame devs.They are not the ones forcing players to skip cutscenes.Whats causing this is a bad impatient player community plain and simple.

They don't even care about the tomestones bonus. I'm maxed on poetics and I won't spend any for the foreseeable future bc I just don't need them anymore and have nothing else to spend them on. Eventually they will be phased out like the soldiery no one can get anymore.

My GF will be doing Castrum soon. I'll be forming a party beforehand with two tanks and two healers. We will either turn our cutscenes on or inform the remaining party we are letting the adorable Lala watch the cutscenes.

I expect a fair amount of ragequitting but hey, just like they could progress without cutscene watchers, we will progress without them.

The thing is, I believe it is wrong to blame this on fellow players. The ones who decided to place 50 minutes worth of cutscenes into dungeons that take 20 minutes at best are Square devs. I personally would not attack anyone who has been through them a bazillion times for wanting to complete these dungeons as fast as possible. They brought their share of patience be sure of that, but there's only so many runs until you can't see it anymore. And I bet the majority of those who are new now will understand in time, when they are presented with the exact same situation on the other end of the rope. You will know then what it means to not be alone in your group, to wait forever for others. However. The mistake to even create such an abomination is on Square alone. And yes they learned from that, they didn't repeat the same thing afterwards. Good for them. But we are still stuck with this one case, this one exception, and it will never be fixed. Live with it.

And then there's that bit. Those cutscenes. Not only can you watch them over and over at the inn. But also. Look at them, closely. They. Are. Hardly. Worth. Watching. Really. I mean that. They show you exactly nothing, aside from the ending which you may very well watch in full length without bothering anyone since the dungeon is done at that point. But the other cutscenes are just optical flavor. A bit cheesy pointless yada yada here and there, ok, but ultimately the bosses you kill tell you more of what's happening. You're missing out on story by watching story cutscenes, isn't that genius.

All in all. I know people will hate me for that, but even I did it, and I'm as much a story enthusiast as anyone. Do yourself and everyone else a favor and skip those cutscenes. At least in random groups. It's just in those two dungeons, you can live with that, and it's not even the end of the story anymore. All will be good. Promise.

To be honest, though, I think the divide is basically Newcomers vs. Veterans who've run Praetorium and Castrum Meridianum so many times. Back before Heavensward I dreaded a little of doing Castrum Meridianum in Main Scenario quite a bit due to its length, but the first time I ran it I wanted to actually play through everything. It didn't matter if Cid was slow as **** on his magitek armor. It didn't matter if the mob pulls were weak. What mattered was the feel of the first time you play through the dungeon.

Take Alexander as an example. The first week of release, everyone was hyped up for it until they found out it was the Illuminati behind it all. #FFXIVConfirmedForIlluminati
The fights were pretty fun with A2 being an interpretation of T4 and even the new mechanics that new raiders could learn on the fly(provided people who were grinding already didn't have overly high expectations in DF). Of course, for those who've run it over and over, it can become bland and just turn into a grind or just if you feel like running it for fun(Crystal Tower needs some more people running :<).

Same goes for basically any end-game story boss, basically. You get that fun feeling of fighting this huge, epic boss(i.e. Ultima Weapon) at the end of the ARR story-line, and I can see how people can whine about their experience being ruined by veterans who've run it X amount of times. I think the good thing to do is(if they have a bonus) is to allow those new people to experience those moments like Ultima Weapon, and ESPECIALLY the final boss of Heavensward if they have the expansion.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Egnasya

snip

---

Thankfully the devs learned from this mistake and don't have CS in dungeons/raids anymore. Doesn't fix the problem not but it's the first and only time this happens. Maybe let us play Triple Triad to pass the time in the dungeon >.>

This problem has always existed for castrum/praetorum. There have been numerous threads like this, some people even being brought to tears and quitting the game over having their story experience ruined by other players.

I made a suggestion once that I thought was pretty solid. It would take some dev time away from new content, but this problem has upset so many people already. My idea was to rebalance these two instances for solo play rather than full party. Cid and maybe some other NPCs join you. New players get to enjoy all the story cutscenes and play at their own pace. Main scenario roulette would be removed as veteran players would no longer be needed to join these instances. And the Ultima's Bane trial is still there for the more epic 8-player version of the Ultima battle.

Vets want that new player bonus. Vets don't want new players to enjoy cutscenes. You only get to experience it day / week / MAYBE month of release.

New players want to experience the story as it unfolds. Not experience bits and pieces and watch bits and pieces out of order later on in the inn room.

Vets say want to not skip cutscenes, use PF.

New players say want to skip cutscenes, use PF.

Yeah there really is no win on this, as it currently stands.

This is one example of a .. dynamic .. that you'll see often: different people have different reasons for being there. Roulettes are a big part of this: one person is correct level and wants to kill everything, watch cutscene, whatever .. While another person came in on the roulette, has done it a billion times before, and just wants to get to end for the bonus there.

Both Castrum and Praetorium are horrible for queuing up cause everyone speed runs those (i don't know why cause their is no reward for speed running like their is in WOW). I only did it once for my story then when i was done never qued up for it again and no one tells the new players about the magitek armor either, it gets better though higher level players allow new players to view cutscenes in Keeper of the Lake and Snowcloak, at least in my experiences.

with one of my lower level characters i might watch cut scenes next time just for the LOLZ and if they leave me behind. hey that's less work i have to do to complete it

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by PogueX

Both Castrum and Praetorium are horrible for queuing up cause everyone speed runs those (i don't know why cause their is no reward for speed running like their is in WOW).

---

That's like asking "Why do people drive fast in cars, if there is no reward for this (there may be even penalties for driving too fast)."

Because they want to save time. Skipping cutscenes and doing big pulls saves you more than 15 minutes minimum (cutscenes alone are >10 mins in Castrum) per run/day.

And with all the timegated gathering more people want to complete daily easy leveling content as fast as possible than ever before (doesn't matter anyway, I'll always come out of a dungeon 5 EZ-mins after the node went away).

I suggest to new players to do it with friends who will wait for you to watch the scenes. You can do it with 2 lvl60-friends for example, there is no XP anyway and it can't get more dull than with a full group which is skipping everything and starting bosses without you.

I solved the problem by not running these atrocities again.

Sorry you had to deal with that. :( I was warned before hand about this problem so I formed my own (untraditional) party. They allowed me to watch the cutscenes and offered to help me again with Praetorium.

However they weren't around for when I wanted to do it so I decided to try my chances and got SUPER lucky because both me (healer) and the other healer were new and wanted to see the cutscenes. And the other party members didn't complain and just accepted that. They still sped run through it but I got to watch everything.

I think for those two dungeons you should always just form your own party.

Well this stuff was implemented a while back and luckily they have changed the nonsense of having 30 mins worth of cut scenes in a dungeon that is being farmed thru roulette. It was a bad design choice for sure. If you want to really experience the end I'd recommend making a PF for the two dungeons and write that its for story mode or RP and you'll get a good group to have a fun time with. Likewise you can do the INN thing if you'd rather not go thru the dungeons again.

When they add EXP to level 50 dungeons, they need to make it impossible to speed-run. I stop doing Main Scenario roulette because Preatorium is like suddenly becoming sonic the hedgehog.

i agree with you too, i did not get to do the bosses because i was watching cut scenes and i was not about to let me story enjoyment ruined by a bunch of speedrunners. I don't blame them, i blame SE terrible implementation.

So I just undersized Praetorium with a friend because they wanted the storymode version of it, and it put me into a position of some sympathy for the speedrunners, because.... have you tried sitting still long enough for everyone to watch every cutscene in that place? It is BORING. AS. SIN.

I'm not going to say whether anyone is obliged to skip cutscenes or wait for people to finish cutscenes, but I will say this; both sides of the argument are being incredibly selfish. And that's... kind of the problem, isn't it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Erit

So I just undersized Praetorium with a friend because they wanted the storymode version of it, and it put me into a position of some sympathy for the speedrunners, because.... have you tried sitting still long enough for everyone to watch every cutscene in that place? It is BORING. AS. SIN.

I'm not going to say whether anyone is obliged to skip cutscenes or wait for people to finish cutscenes, but I will say this; both sides of the argument are being incredibly selfish. And that's... kind of the problem, isn't it.

---

Are both sides incredibly selfish though?Most of us who started when realm reborn originally launched watched the cutscenes and nobody had an issue.So why is it selfish that new players want to experience those 2 places as they were meant to be experienced?Anybody who does story roulete is a aware that if they do it they will be in one of 2 dungeons full of cutscense.Nobody has deceived the older players into thinking otherwise.

This brings up soooo many memories. Oh my first time in Castrum...beat the first boss and I watch the cut scene to come out and no one is there. It took me a bit to figure out where to go...I was stressing on that....LOL. After that I never watched another cutscene in there and still to this day have not seen them...now that I am thinking about it...I will have to go and watch those now. I am so glad that someone made this post, I forgot. I always wait for the new players to watch their cutscenes just because of what happened to me and I don't want that to happen to anyone else.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Metalwrath

-snip-

---

Except with the player population balanced as it is right now, the majority of the group usually lands in those dungeons by way of the roulette; the majority are selfish to deny newbies the experience that the dungeon was built to provide, while the newbies are selfish for keeping up to seven other people who they've never met before waiting on their wants. Both sides naturally think they're justified in wanting X thing to happen, so who can say which side is wrong? At that point we delve into philosophical debate on the nature of morality.

This is pretty simple.

SE would have to implement some way to lock an area down until all CS are over. Until then most groups are going to run them fast. I don't even queue anymore, but when I did 3/4 parties didn't even contain a new player. The ones that did usually there was only one person. This becomes a needs of the many vs. the few situation. The only reason those people even get a queue in the DF is because people are running it for tomes and exp. Last of all, if you wanna do a dungeon and keep it storybased, make a PF. More often than not people will run it out of pity for someone and let them watch the CS. Ive done it, and not its even easier if you can run it uncapped. You can clear it with 2-3 people I would assume.