Future .5 MSQ

Can we stop splitting the .5 MSQ in half please? You can really tell this story, which was really good btw, wasn't meant to be 2 parts. There's not really a cliffhanger per say. It just kinda... stops. Granted we only have to wait a few weeks instead of a few months for the next part but... it was just really jarring to be going 30 mph and then hitting a sudden stop.

SPOILERS

And yes I know Zenos taking the field at the end was a set up for the next act but we already saw that in the Shadowbringer trailer.

expansion is too far away for them not to split it.

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Originally Posted by SendohJin

expansion is too far away for them not to split it.

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Unless you only do one of the MSQs a week the MSQ takes a few hours at most depending on how fast your read. And we are not getting another Dungeon in the next MSQ. Maybe a trial. They have other content they can stagnate to keep people playing. Like what they are doing with Blue Mage, Hildabrand, and the other stuff they have planned that I can't remember right now ><

Next part doesn't come out til March though.

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Granted we only have to wait a few weeks instead of a few months for the next part-

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Doesn’t part 2 of the patch come out in late March?

Was it March? I thought it was in like February >< my mistake. Sorry.

To be even more specific, Yoshi P stated in an interview that they plan to release 4.56 (or part 2) AFTER the Japan Fanfest. That leaves the date for 4.56 to be March 26th.

I agree... it was a lot of production, but not much happened... and it just- stops.

I'll probably finish up the new content pretty quickly and cancel until April.

4.55 is March

5.0 is.. "Summer". Most likely June or July...


4.55 is where they end they properly set up the MSQ for the next expansion, and going by Shadowbringers trailer, something's gonna happen with Thancred as he's shown with a Gunblade...

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Originally Posted by Burningskull

Can we stop splitting the .5 MSQ in half please? You can really tell this story, which was really good btw, wasn't meant to be 2 parts. There's not really a cliffhanger per say. It just kinda... stops. Granted we only have to wait a few weeks instead of a few months for the next part but... it was just really jarring to be going 30 mph and then hitting a sudden stop.

SPOILERS

And yes I know Zenos taking the field at the end was a set up for the next act but we already saw that in the Shadowbringer trailer.

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Have patience and let the Devs pace the story as they see fit... they already have enough on their hands trying to deliver great cutscenes to warp up Stormblood while also working feverishly to get 5.0 completed. If splitting the patches into two parts is what it takes so as to maintain curiosity and interest until this summer, then so be it.

Have some patience.

There's also the chance that something in the latter half is a class/race/etc spoiler they're not ready to show yet.

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Originally Posted by Ramesses

Have patience and let the Devs pace the story as they see fit... they already have enough on their hands trying to deliver great cutscenes to warp up Stormblood while also working feverishly to get 5.0 completed. If splitting the patches into two parts is what it takes so as to maintain curiosity and interest until this summer, then so be it.

Have some patience.

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I don't think OP is being impatient. I had the same feeling of "wait, we're stopping here?" going through the MSQ too. It abruptly comes to a screeching halt as if they only released exactly enough to fulfill the dungeon quota for the patch. I don't feel teased or excited, just slightly confused that they didn't even try to make it less noticeable. Like, okay, I guess I'll twiddle my thumbs until March then... got work to do, other games to play, etc. I remember feeling a lot more amped up around this time in HW.

The 4.5 part 1 MSQ is awkward, it's just a fact. The pacing since 4.4 is questionable to say the least, although the story behind is good.

I would actually prefer them to swap whatever is coming later, and have no MSQ on .5 in the first part. Then deliver the whole MSQ later in the patch, so at least the feeble immersion is kept whole. I won't go into too much details cuz I'm idiot and don't know how to use spoiler hide on the forum, but I'm not happy with 4.5.

It's not about being impatient to get the second part, it's more a feeling of "... wait what? all this for that?"

Because we know how fast the content just added will last for many players. Which i think is part of the reason they split it up

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Originally Posted by SendohJin

expansion is too far away for them not to split it.

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Then they should just start making x.6 patches instead in future.

I would also love to have at least the story in one patch and not splitted that much. We have enough other content that will come out in other smaller patches so why was the story necessary too, especially since this one really ended quite strange.

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Originally Posted by Maero

Because we know how fast the content just added will last for many players. Which i think is part of the reason they split it up

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For a weak or 2. Split will not make it longer. People that dont want to play will not. Split will not make them stay

Like this has been the first awkward story stop. Also how does both sides are taking a breather a bad place to stop?

For reference, story covered in the previous X.5 patches:

2.50:
- Crystal Braves operation at Highbridge that makes them seems suspicious
- Keeper of the Lake dungeon
- Midgardsormr seals Hydaelyn's blessing
- Nabriales invades the Rising Stones
- The Chrysalis trial
- Moenbryda's death

2.55:
- defending Ishgard
- Steps of Faith trial
- Tataru's failed arcanist training
- accompanying a scholar taking aether readings
(interestingly "there has been a widespread decrease in ambient aether concentrations following the Calamity"...)
- discovery of Wilred's murder
- invitation and leadup to the banquet
- everything goes horribly wrong
- seeking refuge at Dragonhead


3.50
- M'naago arrives with warnings about The Griffin
- Baelsar's Wall dungeon
- summoning of Shinryu
- Papalymo's sacrifice to bind it

3.56
- Nero returns
- proposal to use Omega
- Gosetsu arrives with news from Doma
- Omega vs Shinryu
- Lyse reveals the truth of her identity
- preparations for war
- first brief appearance of Zenos

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Originally Posted by Iscah

- Tataru's failed arcanist training

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That's what you call peak performance.

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Originally Posted by Ramesses

Have patience and let the Devs pace the story as they see fit... they already have enough on their hands trying to deliver great cutscenes to warp up Stormblood while also working feverishly to get 5.0 completed. If splitting the patches into two parts is what it takes so as to maintain curiosity and interest until this summer, then so be it.
Have some patience.

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It's not about being impatient...The story literally ended during a cutecence. I get that they have a few more patches before the big reveals coming in 5.0 but I feel like they're splitting everything to squeeze out every bit of content to prolong interest in the game which...I also understand. There have been patches where the story leaves off on a cliffhanger like the one where Shadowbringer was introduced which was great. I was hyped for the upcoming patches. Same with the previous patch story ending...But this one just felt so...empty. We had a few interesting converations between the main characters but ultimately, nothing too eventful happened and then it just...ended. The full story should have been released.

The problem with the Devs is that they're not creating fufilling content releasing things that are small and can be finished within a few hours and expect players to be content for the next few months. And this is coming from a casual/mid-core player. I went through the story and completed the dungeon on the first try within about 2 hours and I finished the Ivalice Raid. I haven't done Seiryu bceause I just don't have any interest in it personally. Those things mentioned being the "main attraction for the most part...You can finish that stuff in a few days if you're really playing the game. And then you're left repeating the same content over and over again to gear up.

Point being, if you're splitting content, gating players off and basically telling them how far they can progress...It's not really going to hold their interest like they're expecting.

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Originally Posted by DarthSanguine

Then they should just start making x.6 patches instead in future.

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I would actually be ok with them not releasing the whole story till .55 or .56 patches. The problem tho is the dungeon is normally gated behind the MSQ. Either way tho I would really like the whole story instead of it being split.

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Originally Posted by DarthSanguine

Then they should just start making x.6 patches instead in future.

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they are never going to call it that.

x.2, x.4 increases the iLv and releases new tomes and new raid tiers. x.6 would imply it should do the same and it won't.

It is just SE trying to splice small amounts of content in little parts in hopes of getting more sub income, been a constant theme for SB.

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Originally Posted by Hestzhyen

I don't think OP is being impatient. I had the same feeling of "wait, we're stopping here?" going through the MSQ too. It abruptly comes to a screeching halt as if they only released exactly enough to fulfill the dungeon quota for the patch. I don't feel teased or excited, just slightly confused that they didn't even try to make it less noticeable. Like, okay, I guess I'll twiddle my thumbs until March then... got work to do, other games to play, etc. I remember feeling a lot more amped up around this time in HW.

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...I see.

Then allow me to juggle your memory.

Almost two months ago during the Fan fest, Yoshi and the Devs clearly let the world know... upfront... that there would be two parts to the 4.5 patch and clearly justified their reasons for proceeding with this direction.

No problem there and most of the player base even cheered to the bloody rooftops.

Fast forward to our present timeline, you have completed part one, reached the obvious cliffhanger... and because you view it as an impasse... you suddenly now have a problem with how the patches have been scheduled into two parts? Sounds awfully like impatience to me.

Your argument would have had much more substance if you had mentioned your dissatisfaction with this schedule and complained back in November.

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Originally Posted by Mansion

The 4.5 part 1 MSQ is awkward, it's just a fact. The pacing since 4.4 is questionable to say the least, although the story behind is good.

I would actually prefer them to swap whatever is coming later, and have no MSQ on .5 in the first part. Then deliver the whole MSQ later in the patch, so at least the feeble immersion is kept whole. I won't go into too much details cuz I'm idiot and don't know how to use spoiler hide on the forum, but I'm not happy with 4.5.

It's not about being impatient to get the second part, it's more a feeling of "... wait what? all this for that?"

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...See my previous post above.

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Originally Posted by Ramesses

...I see.

Then allow me to juggle your memory.

Almost two months ago during the Fan fest, Yoshi and the Devs clearly let the world know... upfront... that there would be two parts to the 4.5 patch and clearly justified their reasons for proceeding with this direction.

No problem there and most of the player base even cheered to the bloody rooftops.

Fast forward to our present timeline, you have completed part one, reached the obvious cliffhanger... and because you view it as an impasse... you suddenly now have a problem with how the patches have been scheduled into two parts? Sounds awfully like impatience to me.

Your argument would have had much more substance if you had mentioned your dissatisfaction with this schedule and complained back in November.

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Why are you so aggressive about a minor complaint about story pacing? It's natural to be caught off guard by such a quick end to the MSQ; it's not a crime or even heavy criticism. SE saying "we're gonna do it in two parts" does not naturally lead one to think "they're going to take one patch's worth of story and axe it off as soon as possible to give the required dungeon then save the rest for later". I thought there would be long segments leading up to and following the instance, but we only got the scenes before. If the flow of the narrative had gracefully paused instead of cutting off, I would not have felt much dissonance. As it is, I got out of the dungeon ready to see more talking heads and debates but instead got a quick chat and "To Be Continued". It's not a deal-breaker but it's very obvious they cut it off so they could parcel it out later. Which again, fine, I have plenty of other things to do in the meantime. It left me feeling a bit confused and unsatisfied, but I will be back to finish it when the March patch drops.

Also, an x.6 patch will be an even numbered patch which means there should be two new dungeons which they probably don’t have...

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Originally Posted by Renato

It's not about being impatient...The story literally ended during a cutecence. I get that they have a few more patches before the big reveals coming in 5.0 but I feel like they're splitting everything to squeeze out every bit of content to prolong interest in the game which...I also understand. There have been patches where the story leaves off on a cliffhanger like the one where Shadowbringer was introduced which was great. I was hyped for the upcoming patches. Same with the previous patch story ending...But this one just felt so...empty. We had a few interesting converations between the main characters but ultimately, nothing too eventful happened and then it just...ended. The full story should have been released.

The problem with the Devs is that they're not creating fufilling content releasing things that are small and can be finished within a few hours and expect players to be content for the next few months. And this is coming from a casual/mid-core player. I went through the story and completed the dungeon on the first try within about 2 hours and I finished the Ivalice Raid. I haven't done Seiryu bceause I just don't have any interest in it personally. Those things mentioned being the "main attraction for the most part...You can finish that stuff in a few days if you're really playing the game. And then you're left repeating the same content over and over again to gear up.

Point being, if you're splitting content, gating players off and basically telling them how far they can progress...It's not really going to hold their interest like they're expecting.

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Well, at least you have established your side of the argument with some critical points, Renato and I can respect that.

In response, allow me to list some very obvious facts:

• There is absolutely no MMORPG on the global market today that releases quality updates and content as often and as sophisticated as FFXIV. That is a cold hard fact.
• It is a very difficult and painstaking process to actually develop even just mediocre storyboards, dialogue drafts, sounds, theme music, and rendering of cutscenes with 3D software tools. People in the know and in the gaming industry are actually astounded at the FFXIV's team's ability to keep cranking out a very decent body of work within every four months. This is another fact.
• Same as any of your on-going favourite television shows, web series or anime, the FFXIV Devs have similarly employed the current cliffhanger for Stormblood in a manner that leaves us all groaning in irritation because we always want more.
• Yoshi had clearly mentioned at the FanFest, during subsequent interviews and during the Letter From The Producer broadcast right before Christmas that there were elements to the tale and the lore that needed to be shrouded in mystery until the FanFests in both Paris and Tokyo. Hence, to anyone who had been closely following the lore since 1.0, an abrupt cliffhanger was expected.

These guys are working themselves ragged trying to get a lot done... releasing Blue Mage job, the upcoming Fanfests, Eureka Hydratos, and finishing up Shadowbringers. So what if they had to dredge out the Stormblood story a little more?

I reckon these handful of players complaining could quit the impatient whinging and be more appreciative... they should go run Orbonne Monastery some more or have fun seeing how fast their FC can repeatedly down the new Seiryu battle... I personally found both battles amazing.

Or perhaps go try to get all the doggies from the Primals. Even better, start reconnecting with their friends on other servers so they can start scheduling Blue Mage test runs when it drops next week... I dunno... go do something until the next patch is fully baked and ready.

Again... have some patience and let them continue to work furiously to meet expectations.

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Originally Posted by Hestzhyen

Why are you so aggressive about a minor complaint about story pacing? It's natural to be caught off guard by such a quick end to the MSQ; it's not a crime or even heavy criticism. SE saying "we're gonna do it in two parts" does not naturally lead one to think "they're going to take one patch's worth of story and axe it off as soon as possible to give the required dungeon then save the rest for later". I thought there would be long segments leading up to and following the instance, but we only got the scenes before. If the flow of the narrative had gracefully paused instead of cutting off, I would not have felt much dissonance. As it is, I got out of the dungeon ready to see more talking heads and debates but instead got a quick chat and "To Be Continued". It's not a deal-breaker but it's very obvious they cut it off so they could parcel it out later. Which again, fine, I have plenty of other things to do in the meantime. It left me feeling a bit confused and unsatisfied, but I will be back to finish it when the March patch drops.

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Yet this isn't like the first msq to have an abrupt halt and even in the story they say that everyone is getting ready for round two and that we should put Alisaie into the huge bed we're stickin everyone else in. Heck it's not even the hardest hitting abrupt end that we've had at least not in my mind.

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Originally Posted by SannaR

Yet this isn't like the first msq to have an abrupt halt and even in the story they say that everyone is getting ready for round two and that we should put Alisaie into the huge bed we're stickin everyone else in. Heck it's not even the hardest hitting abrupt end that we've had at least not in my mind.

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"It's not the worst" isn't a reason to absolve the game of it's little issues. And if this isn't the first time then shouldn't SE know or care how to avoid this by now?

It's not going to stop me from playing or liking the story. But it was really jarring, and SE should do better. They want this content to be meaningful and engaging, so it should be treated with care instead of being lazily chopped off. A few extra scenes to bait more hype wouldn't have hurt.

I understand it has to stop somewhere (and probably around that point) but it did feel like it needed more of a wrap-up.

Although I suppose they might be looking at how the story will be presented long-term as well, and they can't have it come to too much of a halt for a player who will experience both parts of it without this forced break.

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Originally Posted by Ramesses

...See my previous post above.

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Don't see the relevance though. Maybe you did not get my point which I will try to make clearer.

We know X.5 MSQ is alway split and Iscah made a reminder that is quite striking.
I'm addressing 4.5 MSQ specifically, not the split. I'm saying its pacing is not equivalent to 2.5 and 3.5, which had their peaks to justify the valleys.
4.5 is more of a flat land. And I said it ; the story remains interesting, that is not the problem. But it has a slower paced build up. In itself, it's not a problem. It becomes one when you are drawing links to future MSQ, setting expectations considering the gap that is necessarily coming, because of the patch mechanic. For me, since 4.4 the story does not fit the model of patches, that's just it.

I don't see an impasse in Part 1 end; I see a weakness in writing, considering FFXIV's general storytelling.
Thus my suggestion of sacrificing the mechanical way of doing, and if the story does not work with the shape, then let's change the shape. Give MSQ in one time but later. It's not a valid argument to say MSQ keeps people busy like a trial or new raids do.


And by the way, people cheering on what is said during a Fanfest has no weight in a discussion. People have not reached Blizzard's audience level of discontent. People are hyped by those events, and it's an experience from within, just like people will cheer if on the next fanfest they will announce Shadowbringers can be preordered yet not everyone will preorder it.

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Originally Posted by Hestzhyen

"It's not the worst" isn't a reason to absolve the game of it's little issues. And if this isn't the first time then shouldn't SE know or care how to avoid this by now?

It's not going to stop me from playing or liking the story. But it was really jarring, and SE should do better. They want this content to be meaningful and engaging, so it should be treated with care instead of being lazily chopped off. A few extra scenes to bait more hype wouldn't have hurt.

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They probably didn't have to avoid it because until this expansion the first part of a patch tended to be top heavy so the major complaint was about the overall patch not just the awkward stop of the msq. The old complaint of basically everything being done within the first two weeks and asking for thing to be more spread out. Now we have it spread out and this time we mostly got story so of course people are going to pick on it's faults more. Course it seems that right now people will complain about anything SE does just because it wasn't what a person wanted to a T. Just look at relics people complained about it asked for how it's done to be changed and they changed it and now people are going no lets go back to the old way.

I don't mind the story of the .5 patches being split apart. It's just never felt as sudden stop to me before as this one did. There wasn't a set up for the next part like there was in 3.5. Granted the 3.X patches were all over the place and didn't set up 4.0 until 3.4 or 3.5, but with the first part of 3.5 you got Griffin summoning a primal and Papalymo sacrificing himself to stop it. So the set up was how are we going to deal with the sealed primal, what was Garlamld's reaction going to be, who was the primal Griffin summoned. Here in patch 4.5 we get a lead up to a new war but only have one battle then everyone "takes a break" cause Alisaie passes out. Then it just ends. No set up or anything just "take a break" till the Garleans come knocking again.

Don't get me wrong. I love 4.X story. Even the story we got in 4.5. My favorite part is how each patch has been leading up to 5.0 just a little each patch. With the introduction to the Popularis and Shadowhunter hunting Ascians and such. I just think that when SE knows they are going to split the MSQ of a patch in half they should have the first half build up to the second half, and then that second half leave you over the moon for the next expansion. Which all of 4.X has done for me.