Please Allow 50's to Enter Ishgard w/o having completed MSQ

[Madsamurai]

Probably if SE makes it so that the new jobs requires specific lvl 50 jobs to learn then they probably won't be complaining about Ishgard being gated behind content. But then again.. they will be complaining to demand that those jobs be available right on the get go the moment they make a new character. Well that might happen in the next expansion. Anyway having the new area be gated away is really not an issue because it's to keep the story experience more in line with ARR.. like some pointed out, even if it is not gated, there really isn't much new players could do in there since there will be literally no quest for them to do there. At least SE aren't taking any pre-heavens ward story/events away even after the launch so everyone gets to experience what transpired before Ishgard is opened to the masses. Unlike a certain other game that creates pre-expansion events only for a limited time before becoming a feat of strength (woops) and new players who just started playing the game basically misses out on all those pre-expansion events and going right into the new content totally clueless about everything which makes for zero immersion and knowing no head nor tail about the lore. Oh but wait, if you're aren't even playing for the story but go in with the "OMG-GIMME-MOAR-DUNGEON-RAID-COOL-LEWTS-MOAR-LEWTS-OMAGAD-LEWTS" mindset.. then maybe don't play this game or in general don't even play MMOs at all.

Go play Diablo.. shoo.

[Sapphic]

Actually people don't. Traditionally MMO expansions attract new players and traditionally game companies want and need those new players. This expansion gates off content and unless they either trim the MSQ's down or every class starts at 30 new players face a huge grind. That's a shame as the more players we have in game the better for everyone.

All MMO expansions have gated access based on level. Also you are seriously exageratting to try and prove a point (hint it doesn't work, it just makes you sound desperate). New players will have to level to 50 to access the new content to start with, and their levelling will naturally take them along the MSQ path, so it will be natural progression.

But sdmit it, you arent arguing for the new players, you are arguing for yourself.

As what gives any of you the right to argue for others you have never met, have no idea how they will see the set MSQ progression for unlocking content? Yet, because it affects you in some way, you try and play the sympathy card by dangling "new players" in your arguments. When we all know that is bullcrap and reason players are arguing against it is for solely selfish reasons.

[Sapphic]

Short answer. Yes. Let them start at lvl 1. New players don't give a flying f*k about the story sorry. They want to play the game. This game contrary to popular belief is not hard. Tedious yes. Hard no.

So every new player has the exact same attitude as you? And you have the gall to call someone else elitist?.... Egocentric at its finest.

Would you play an open world FFA PVP game and complain theres PvP in it? Which is what you are doing with a storycentric MMO.

Playing a game you refer to as tedious instead of something you don't find tedious is the height of stupidity.

[reillyblair]

any mmo you play that has been around even for 1 year theres going to be catchup i really dont see the problem with this its a fun story to play a part in and really the only losers in this scenario are gil sellers and rmt i look forward to some peace and quiet from the constant tells lol

[Eidolon]

Why the hell would you FATE to level 60 on DRK? Hello, tank instaqueues?

Once rested EXP runs out, running dungouns starts to slow down in terms of EXP gain, and FATE grinding becomes more beneficial as it gives you not only decent kill/mob in a good party, but also rewards you with gil and exp at the end every time.

And let's not neglect, that's only for DRK/AST. I feel for those Mechanists who will basically be grinding fates solo while que'ing for duty finder. The job wasn't even the important part in my statement, it was moreso about having people be trained on what they want to play as.

When I leveled my PLD to 50 and lacked Bonus, I relied on FATE's. Mind you, I did most my leveling pre-themassive dungoun buff with most jobs so I can't recall if I had that option or not (been a while), but even still, I think that you're overestimating how lucrative the dungouns can be compared to an 8-man fategrind party burning things down.

It's also a double-edged sword on both of them. FATE parties can take too long to kill some fates when there's a lot of weaker members. Meanwhile dungouns suffer from idiots. I've seen people get hung up on a boss for 20+ minutes (multiple tries) and sadly I'm compelled to stay and try to teach instead of thinking about myself and ditching out.

[Sapphic]

with lots of expansions, and still has one more big one planned (think it is due in 2016 or something?).

Rhapsodies of Vanadiel is a 3 part content release which will be FFXIs final content, first part went live, 2nd and 3rd will be relased over this year. Only info about 2016 is that they are dropping support for the consoles and willbe PC only.They will cantinue with bug and balance patchews, but no new content after RoV.

[Duuude007]

How many times must you hear that even streamlined, that's a LOT of time to invest into getting to the ONE class you want, and a good number of people might lose their interest by that point?

Um, too bad that they can't spend a little time doing fresh content just so they can gain access to more fresh content? Their choice. If they would rather play a sandbox game, then this game is not designed with them in mind, nor will it EVER be.

Let's also not kid ourselves here - Not everyone's going to skip the story and try to zergrush to 50 using the most efficient leveling method. At 2.0, I had the option to transfer my character in, but I instead chose to start a new character (originally on Cactuar) and leveled him to 50, enjoying the story, sidequests, etc...

Funny, the 'zergrush' method IS doing story in Heavensward. So the point is moot.

Also, why does your number randomly decrease? It goes from "18 hours to 50 and Steps of Faith" to "5 hours of work"... Where did the other 13 go? Or are these made-up numbers?

18 hours is based on several accounts in this thread, if you read back. and that is at patch 2.55.
Itemized, that comes down to 9 hours story, 9 hours grind.

Yoshida's statement was that MSQ will eliminate the need to grind for XP or gear, because MSQ will provide more than two times as much XP AND ilvl 90+ gear, allowing you to easily coast to Ishgard explicitly doing MSQ.
Grind eliminated, level 1 to 50 (with i90+ gear) would then be 9 hours flat.

Your special scenario ruled out needing to level from 1 to 30, so I did an estimate and said half as much time is needed to catch up for a level 30 player. So 4.5 hours.

Honestly, I wouldn't mind finding out how long it takes a -new- learning player to get to 50 / steps of faith as a good comparison, but I think we lack the access to that information. Shame.

Don't worry, we will have a large influx of data beginning the 23rd. And we are sure to get plenty of those newbies being carried by friends. Which is also a shame, as they won't learn jobs properly, but I digress.

You may say it "Only takes 18 hours", which, if someone plays an hour a day, is slightly short of 3 weeks just to get to a point where they can unlock a new job that they want to play. Some people might lose interest in the game by that point.

And if they play 20 minutes a day it will take two months. But neither of these time=progress sums really mean anything. To bring it up is just a distraction. People decide on whatever time they can commit, saying someone who plays less is owed more advantages is just plain silly.

Fun Fact: Not everyone likes to play multiple jobs. I know plenty of people that only play one job because it's the "One they enjoy." Tryhardertolookcool. Then go getgud. :P

Fun fact: If you want DRK, you had better be leveling MRD and GLA or you will suck. I mean. suck. No provoke on a tank? really? No extra cooldowns for survival? Skipping to DRK would be suicidal and punishing other players trying to "deal with you".

You would WANT to level a tank if your goal is DRK. You would likewise want to level a healer if AST is your goal, or LNC/ARC if you want Machinist. These really are advanced jobs in the sense that they lean on what you learned in the other jobs of the same role.

And let's not neglect, that's only for DRK/AST. I feel for those Mechanists who will basically be grinding fates solo while que'ing for duty finder. The job wasn't even the important part in my statement, it was moreso about having people be trained on what they want to play as. .

If the player were smart and wanted fast leveling for MAC, they would level it to 50 and THEN begin the 3.0 MSQ. Yoshida already said the new MSQ will be more than sufficient to get a class from 50 to 60. So there's that.

[Onikimaru]

Fun fact: If you want DRK, you had better be leveling MRD and GLA or you will suck. I mean. suck. No provoke/flash on an MP based tank? really? No extra cooldowns for survival? Skipping to DRK would be suicidal and punishing other players trying to "deal with you".

Fun fact: DRK will have it's own version of flash

[Owatatsumi]

Somebody mentioned before that they like to play this game to be a crafter or gatherer... and that up until Heavensward, they could effectively do so with very minimal combat required... forcing them through MSQ (in doing so, forcing them to play a combat class deep into lvl. 50 content)... I highly dislike that direction.

As well, not everybody plays this game for the story. It's great that you want to push the story SE, but this being a themepark MMO & offering many avenues of play... I think you should offer an alternative way into Ishgard for 50's.

I know there are story-ties to getting into Ishgard... but other ways can be made... example:

A gatherer in search of legendary Ishgardian spoils is sent on an epic voyage to Ishgard through alternate means, etc.

Please give us a minor sidequest arc to get into Ishgard from 50 w/o MSQ entirety fulfillment.

This will only benefit the game, newcomers, & recent players. Win-win-win.

I disagree with this completely. People keep on trying to clamor for Yoshi-P and team to abandon the original game, ARR, for some reason and this seems to be another case.

Why is Ishgard open? Because of the main story quest you feel people don't need to play. This is a Final Fantasy game. It is story-driven. Heck I don't even hear a call to abandon the story so much even in MMOs that aren't story driven. It perplexes me. It wouldn't make sense for people who haven't completed the main story arch to even be allowed in Ishgard. Your "alternative means," though it is only an example, doesn't hold up very well as an explanation for allowing people in considering how they rarely let strangers in. Players entering Ishgard is an extreme exception granted by the Holy Si due to the ARR story culmination.

The development has made it known from day one they want everyone to have at least one battle class/job to progress through the main story and unlock content. They haven't shied away from the fact and I don't think it is realistic to expect them to do so now. Your asking more than allowing access to Ishgard for crafting classes but a change in the games philosophy and progression.

Your reasoning for why level 50s doesn't make a ton of sense to me. First the main story quests won't take a ton of time to get caught up on and are an integral part of the game and everything leading up toward the expansion. Two, the main story quests don't require a ton of combat and the combat they do make you do is very easy compared to other endgame combat like dungeons or raids. With this in mind, I don't get where you are getting "forcing them to play a combat class deep into lvl. 50 content." Three, the design team already has a system they will be implementing to help new and returning players get caught up not only in story but also in gear while still allowing them to experience the content and get acclimated to what is required in trickier content like dungeons. By just letting player bypass the story and older content, not only are you abandoning this part of the game but you are making it increasingly difficult for those who want to experience it to. The set up right now funnels players through content in order to unlock further progression. This guarantees that new players and those who want to experience the content, which I believe are in the majority, will have people to do it with and won't feel major pressure that they HAVE to get caught up to the end game content right away. And finally, SE requiring you to complete old content before jumping into the expansion isn't something new or novel. Pretty much every MMO runs the same way. The only difference might be something like WoW which has been out for 10+ years and has had 5 expansions worth of content to get through. This game is less than 2 years old! Far cry from the need to streamline content.

In closer, I feel you are mistaken. Completing the main story quests is in no way a deviation from the precedent set forth and communicated by the design team on how to unlock and progress through the game. The combat is still minimal (Have you completed the main story quest to know this isn't the case?). As you yourself admitted this is a Final Fantasy Theme Park MMO. The story is an integral part to it and from the start it has been the way to unlock content (remember unlocking airship travel way back when?). You should've known when you started playing that this is the way they are going to run the game. I'm not saying don't voice your opinion or to play another game, but realize that this shouldn't be some new revelation to you and you shouldn't expect them to deviate too much from it. What you are proposing won't help the game in the long run but harm it. It will cause players to enter higher level content unprepared, make it harder for the people who want to enjoy the story to, and most importantly take this game in a direction that isn't in-line with its predecessor numbered Final Fantasy titles. I encourage you to consider what I have said and go back and read/watch Letters from the Producer Live. Think again about the plan they have for this game and if it is the type of game you want to play still. I can't stress enough they have been upfront from the start about leveling at least one battle job throughout the game and that the main scenario is how you progress and unlock things.

[Duuude007]

Fun fact: DRK will have it's own version of flash

Fair enough, but that doesn't rule out the very obvious function of crossclass abilities.