Can't Access 3.0 until you complete 2.0-2.55

[Shadow1xd]

FFXIV is a story-heavy game. That's how the developers designed it. Expect content to revolve around stories.

If you are not a fan of this type of MMO,*you may want to try another that is less story-centric.

I agree with you and love the idea that people will need to be up to date in the main story

it also gives me a resin to push others in my FC to complete the story because most of the guys in there are still very low level even tho they've had the game for longer then me and I'm up too Before the fall stuff :?

[MistyMew]

I have mixed feelings about this one.

It really doesn't matter for me anyway because, like most everyone else here on the forums, I'm caught up with the story and can jump right in.

On one hand it is nice that they're so focused on the story that they couldn't see a way around this - you have to witness the events of the previous quests, such as with Midgarsormr, Iceheart, and Aymeric, for Heavensward to make sense to begin with. In so many MMOs there is a lot of negativity amongst players toward the story (they only care about endgame lootz) and the developers play into that by making the story less important, and it's nice to see FFXIV stick with it, as it's a core component of the Final Fantasy name. Perhaps most importantly, they clearly intend to continue with some long-standing plot points such as what primals and ascians really are, and it's incredibly difficult to try and present progress on those mysteries out of order.

On the other hand, people don't want to pay $40 to be locked out of content, and not everyone is a diligent forum-goer who finishes all their story quests. In MMOs people enjoy things in different ways, and it's tough to tell people to just deal with it because the story quests are easy anyway. Additionally, it may become more difficult to get through them as time goes on; roulette bonuses only go so far to keep old content alive. There are also sometimes ways to "cheat" at separating out story content if you plan ahead for it. Not that it directly applies to what's going on with Heavensward, but in FFXI the expansions were absolutely intended to take place in order, especially the first two. But you could still play them out of order and they used some tricks to make them make sense that way too (most notably, Esha'ntarl "filling in" for Kam'lanaut even though you know he's dead if you did them in order). Finally, there's a ton of other areas in the game where they clearly said screw the lore because they wanted to add something, for something to be more accessible, or to use lore as an excuse for game functions - female chocobos were supposed to be locked away by Ishgard but there sure are enough for the Gold Saucer suddenly, Yugiri was added to introduce both Au Ra and Ninja but players can already be ninja without story progress and most likely we be able to be Au Ra as well, ridiculous quest text like for the Crystal Tower weekly, etc.

I think the best solution is to attempt to balance things as time goes on. Allowing people into old instanced content solo and separating out some of the utterly ridiculous filler quests into side quests are two of the biggest and easiest ways to do this. That way even if people have to play through an original game plus two expansions worth of story to get caught up with everyone else, it would at least be possible and reasonably quick to do.

very much agree with the section I set to bold

[Zfz]

very much agree with the section I set to bold

Just a friendly reminder. All bold is hard to read. If you feel so strongly about something, just quote it, and delete everything else. All bold and all caps just make people want to turn away. :3

[LalaRu]

... the perspective of someone that hasn't yet touched ffxiv but saw some heavensward trailers and thought I might pick it up, I'd be kinda bummed I can't jump right in...

That's the reason for "expansion" word, you will be picking an expansion of something existing, so you have more to expect to clear content first, before go to new one, than a "start from scratch" of the new shinies. WoW too, had expansions with starting area picking from older level cap. It were the Lich King? I just remember that any random drop green gear were better than my old epics

[Keydah]

I was definitely very happy with it. I was upset when I learned that new players could play rogues/ninjas just like anything else when they reached level 10, when neither ninjas nor rogues nor Domans had been introduced yet in their storyline at all. Picking up rogue should've required completion of 2.3 imo.

My philosophy is that new players shouldn't be barred from everything but they shouldn't able to just dive into everything with no regard for whether or not it makes sense. FFXIV is an amazing, story and lore filled game, and you should experience that. Sadly, I've met a few people who disregard that completely and just want to beat stuff up. As long as those people don't change the game, I don't care about them.

[Gillionaire]

Are they not expecting to get any new players once expansion hits? Or do they simply expect the new players to go through all the old content before getting into any of the expansion??

[sayafrost]

Are they not expecting to get any new players once expansion hits? Or do they simply expect the new players to go through all the old content before getting into any of the expansion??

I'm also a little confused, so for example I go and create a char from beginning, i make him au'ra and a rogue - it doesn't have much sense till the late main scenario.

BUT I do understand that I can't do quests before I finish the 2.X quests to go on; I'm more confused on, so if I don't do 2.55 (I will when it comes out as I finished story till now) then I can't go into the "heavensward" part of the game till I do that? Or is that just about the main story?

[LalaRu]

... create a char from beginning, i make him au'ra and a rogue - it doesn't have much sense till the late main scenario....

Rogue have sense, it were existing from the beginning. About Au'ra it needs more details about lore. Hardly SE had made it avail to scratch without thinking to fit that into lore. Will that avail from scratch? I remember had read about some kind of 'unlocks' on characters.

[Yumi_umi]

Im pretty sure SE will make the fetch quest parts of the MSQ route less tedious as we all know
Too well how much they like
-find npc A
-npc A gives u a list of things/ ppl u need to find
-find npc/items
-talk/ collect
-go back to npc A
-go back to other npc or to new npc
Repeat a few times
Unlock dungeon
Finish dungeon
Repeat or hit level roadblock and resort to fates to level up.

Its good they r making it a requirement as we all know how awkward it'd be if they haven't met titan ifrit or garuda lol.

[sayafrost]

Rogue have sense, it were existing from the beginning. About Au'ra it needs more details about lore. Hardly SE had made it avail to scratch without thinking to fit that into lore. Will that avail from scratch? I remember had read about some kind of 'unlocks' on characters.

Yeah actually, forgot about the rogue lore, you are right
In the end we just need to wait and see, and we'll get our answers