2.55 Main Scenario Requirement.

[zx10r]

I highly encourage Square to make this known to older players returning to the game. I guarantee you half of the purchases for the expansion will not realize they cant just play as the new Jobs and will be angry. And right now there is nothing much out there with a Disclaimer that content is dependent on completing the MSQ.

Personally i think this is a utterly terrible business decision. Forcing someone to have fully used the old product before they can enjoy the fruits of the new one.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

I can't wait for people to buy the game and realize they can't even play it. Lol.

[Gralna]

I highly encourage Square to make this known to older players returning to the game. I guarantee you half of the purchases for the expansion will not realize they cant just play as the new Jobs and will be angry. And right now there is nothing much out there with a Disclaimer that content is dependent on completing the MSQ.

Personally i think this is a utterly terrible business decision. Forcing someone to have fully used the old product before they can enjoy the fruits of the new one.

I can't wait for people to buy the game and realize they can't even play it. Lol.

Guess if they are brand new to the game, they'll just have to suffer the 2.XX storyline for the first time, exploring all the areas for the first time, lvling their classes for the first time, running duties/trials for the first time. Why on earth would anyone want to play the base game, when there is a whole expansion, built off of the base game, tempting them out there.

[Dhex]

It feels like CoP all over again heheh.

[Fuma]

So many threads like this, so many people thinking their thought is unique enough to create another thread instead of adding to another one...

[Blueyes]

I highly encourage Square to make this known to older players returning to the game. I guarantee you half of the purchases for the expansion will not realize they cant just play as the new Jobs and will be angry. And right now there is nothing much out there with a Disclaimer that content is dependent on completing the MSQ.

The closest I've found to that was on the Heavensward promotional site which is probably the best place to release such information. It says you need to have made "sufficient progress" in the main scenario, but it doesn't clearly state that what's considered sufficient progress is the completion the entire story. It also only says that information specifically in relation to early access and not the expansion as a whole. It's been said that this sort of thing could make sense from a business perspective if their goal was to get people to buy and subscribe to the game now instead of waiting another month, but that only works if the information is publicized to the masses.

* In order to enjoy the benefits of early access to Heavensward content, you need to be playing FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn and have made sufficient progress in the main scenario. As such, early access will not be available to new players who pre-order the FINAL FANTASY XIV Online all-in-one bundle and have yet to begin their adventures.

[LineageRazor]

It feels like CoP all over again heheh.

Nah, it's not like CoP at all. While CoP DID have areas that were locked away until you completed content, ALL of the content you had to complete was included with the expansion. You didn't have to make a speck of progress in the base game or in Rise of the Zilart. As long as you could bring your character to Delkfutt's Tower, you could start the CoP missions and eventually access everything that expansion had to offer.

When it came to Chains of Promathia, players had a choice after they purchased the expansion. They could do Main Scenario, if they wanted. They could do Chains of Promathia. Or, they could do both. It was all up to them. In Heavensward, there is no choice.

On top of that, CoP added numerous zones that WERE accessable immediately upon release. Places like Bibiki Bay, Carpenter's Landing, Attohwa Chasm - you could march right in. These areas came in a variety of level ranges, so you didn't have to be capped to enjoy them. The CoP missions themselves had a variety of level requirements, along with level capping (handled much less gracefully than in FFXIV, admittedly - you had to buy extra sets of gear of the appropriate level, or wind up naked!).

CoP had its problems to be sure, but excluding new players from the content was not one of them. New or old, everyone could dive right in the moment the expansion hit the shelves.

Heavensward more closely follows the model of Rise of the Zilart, FFXI's first expansion - but even there, RotZ was MUCH more accessable than Heavensward. Once again, numerous areas were accessible right from launch, at a variety of level ranges (the Elshimo jungles, Altepa Desert, the Sanctuary of Zi'tah), and the new jobs that were offered did not require any Main Scenario progress to unlock - but you DID need to complete all the base set Main Scenario quests before you could access the RotZ Main Scenario. So I say "more closely", but it's still not very close at all...

[faris]

I have to sit through storyline while I play a Final Fantasy game.
Oh no.

Nah, it's not like CoP at all. While CoP DID have areas that were locked away until you completed content, ALL of the content you had to complete was included with the expansion. You didn't have to make a speck of progress in the base game or in Rise of the Zilart. As long as you could bring your character to Delkfutt's Tower, you could start the CoP missions and eventually access everything that expansion had to offer.

I think the dude you're talking to meant Rise of the Zilart. That requires rank 6 in your home nation (vanilla scenario completion, for those that haven't played FFXI) and is more similar to Heavensward, given the fact it's content is designed for level 50+, included a level cap rise, new jobs, new areas, new endgame, and Heavensward is pretty much the same thing. The comparison to CoP is obviously moot, given that CoP was designed for levels 30+ since combat started in Promyvion.

[LineageRazor]

I think the dude you're talking to meant Rise of the Zilart.

Nah, pretty sure he meant CoP. There was a lot of outrage in that game when it was learned that so much of it was locked behind storyline progression. "We can't even go to Lufaise Meadows unless we beat the Promyvions, and the Promyvions are haaaaard!" The whining is similar now (minus the "haaaaard" part - there are very few that will claim that vanila FFXIV ARR has much in the way of challenges to offer to complete Main Scenario; the complaint now is how friggin' MUCH of it there is), but I feel like it's much more justified since in CoP the content locking you away from CoP content was... other CoP content.

I also addressed RotZ in my post, and acknowledged the fact that it did require vanila Main Scenario completion. I also noted that it, too, offered plenty WITHOUT Main Scenario completion, including new zones of a variety of level ranges, as well as access to all the new jobs.

[Gralna]

I also addressed RotZ in my post, and acknowledged the fact that it did require vanila Main Scenario completion. I also noted that it, too, offered plenty WITHOUT Main Scenario completion, including new zones of a variety of level ranges, as well as access to all the new jobs.

We don't know for sure that all of the new 3.0 zones will be gated behind MS completion, so far all we know for sure that is gated is Ishgard and the new jobs. They already hinted at West Shroud being added, and I'd be surprised if an area so far away from Ishgard was gated behind it.