Gating the whole expansion

[Imoye]

The point here is that this is a big problem. How can someone be OK with paying for an expansion and being the required level only to find out that they have to run through tons of stupid Pre-expansion bullcrap quests in order to access the main content that they paid for? The answer to me is it is NOT ok and a total stupid move on SE's part. I paid for the expansion and am the required level. Yet I am STUCK doing pre-expansion bullcrap.

WoW sounds like the kind of game you'd like to play. Everything on a silverplatter.

[FoxyAreku]

The point here is that this is a big problem. How can someone be OK with paying for an expansion and being the required level only to find out that they have to run through tons of stupid Pre-expansion bullcrap quests in order to access the main content that they paid for? The answer to me is it is NOT ok and a total stupid move on SE's part. I paid for the expansion and am the required level. Yet I am STUCK doing pre-expansion bullcrap.

You're playing a story driven game. If you can't deal with that this may not be the MMO for you.

[MsCroc]

I pre-ordered the expansion and am currently playing. However, I am sad to find out that there was No point in doing so.

snip

Wait. So you're telling me that that one user constantly complaining about 'house eviction' not being a thing didn't even get past Leviathan? And yet such a person seems to talk with authority about what he KNOWS is best for the game?

I can't....I just....I don't have enough facepalms for this.

[Sin_Nombre]

I for one am glad they did it this way. At the least, it helps even out the load and spread the population during launch time. At the best, it helps make this game a final fantasy game, and not generic MMO X.

[TohruHonda]

I also realized this after buying the xpac. Just completing the 2.0 main story was torture. After that, I got as far as unlocking the Moogle King fight and called it quits. The MSQ in this game is just painful from start to finish. All I do in this game is fish/craft/gather and now I'm punished for having a noncombat play style.

[Catwho]

That's comparing apples and oranges here. SWTOR's MSQ stuff was all entirely, without exception, single-player content. Meaning, no group finder or duty finder stuff needed to progress. Every expansion can be worked on solo: they didn't lock you out b'cuz you didn't complete x,y,z 8-person operations and a-thru-e 4-person hard modes and stuff.

This game, on the other hand, does.


I'm currently stuck behind a DF quest until I can get a healer or a ranged dps at a high enough level to continue, and then pray - when the time comes - that that DF is still relevant enough for ppl to click DF. But what I'm really dreading is the post 2.0 stuff. Endgame stuff. The stuff that many had done or will only do only once and hope never to touch again (cuz it's hard af).



Any one know if there is a way to throw money at SE to make the problem go away?

If not I'm seriously considering hiring a friend for $1000 with too much time on their hands to power level & grind out all the stuff in the way to Ishgard, and record all the cutscenes and boss fights for me. I'm not even joking. A minimum two-year lockout just to play content that I just purchased seems a little cruel and unusual.

Personally, I really only care about getting the 3 new jobs from this expansion. Everything else is secondary.

DF is still relevant, trust me. I just did Lowbie Roulette this morning. Gives the level 50+s a really big chunk of exp to do the roulettes, and they also get dungeon exp in the 15-49 dungeons (but not the 50 capped ones.)

Post 2.0 stuff is not hard. People will do their daily trials for exp as well, and just blitz through. Titan HM was a road block a year and a half ago - now it's just a yawn. As much as we whine about things like Chrysalis or Steps of Faith, even a bad group will clear on the 2nd try.

[Able]

The point here is that this is a big problem. How can someone be OK with paying for an expansion and being the required level only to find out that they have to run through tons of stupid Pre-expansion bullcrap quests in order to access the main content that they paid for? The answer to me is it is NOT ok and a total stupid move on SE's part. I paid for the expansion and am the required level. Yet I am STUCK doing pre-expansion bullcrap.

That's the thing though. It was repeatedly stated for the last few months that you needed completion of the MSQ through 2.55 to access the new content. You have no one to blame but yourself for pre-ordering. And please stop comparing this to other MMOs. The story is obviously a central part of the experience, especially for leveling.

[smilingtolerantly]

As a returning player who only played a month during patch 2.4, I'm ok with content gating. Wish more games would take a similar philosophy, though FF XIV's class/job system does give it flexibility on main scenario quests (and gating) that most other MMOs don't.

However, as a "fresh" level 50 prior to taking a break, I am woefully undergeared (ilvl 54). After spending six hours since EA started, unless I'm missing something really obvious, I'm seeing a really long slog on the gearing side....not necessarily the main scenario side. My ilvl started at ilvl 53, and now is at ivl 54.

Am I missing something incredibly obvious here? The guides on reddit, etc, don't seem very relevant.

[Kyonika]

...... Even if they hadn't locked entering Ishgard behind full completion of 2.x story, you wouldn't be able to do anything but run around the town anyway.

A least that would have been something. It would've justified my CE pre-order purchase. But right now, I feel disappointed and cheated.

I'd have been happy to just wander the streets, take in the sights, fly around in circles on my new lion-bird...oh and pick up the three new jobs while I'm at it ... and then gtfo and continue on with my MSQ. Yeah, that would've been awesome, and fully worth it to me. And then, in like two more years from now, I can enjoy Heavensward's content in full and have it all make sense.


---

As it stands right now, this new expansion that I had bought (and read on these forums from the devs months ago, promised at least getting into Ishgard and picking up the new jobs) offers absolutely zero benefits. So um...how is that even fair? And, I'm not saying that I want it all. I just want a very small part of a premium version of an expansion that I paid for in good faith.

I also realized this after buying the xpac. Just completing the 2.0 main story was torture. After that, I got as far as unlocking the Moogle King fight and called it quits. The MSQ in this game is just painful from start to finish. All I do in this game is fish/craft/gather and now I'm punished for having a noncombat play style.

QFT. Did the dev team even consider the feelings or standpoints of crafters/gatherers?

DF is still relevant, trust me. ...

Thank you for that. That gives me hope for the near future of questing in DF

[Seig345]

As a returning player who only played a month during patch 2.4, I'm ok with content gating. Wish more games would take a similar philosophy, though FF XIV's class/job system does give it flexibility on main scenario quests (and gating) that most other MMOs don't.

However, as a "fresh" level 50 prior to taking a break, I am woefully undergeared (ilvl 54). After spending six hours since EA started, unless I'm missing something really obvious, I'm seeing a really long slog on the gearing side....not necessarily the main scenario side. My ilvl started at ilvl 53, and now is at ivl 54.

Am I missing something incredibly obvious here? The guides on reddit, etc, don't seem very relevant.

It's been a while for me, although I'm getting close to the same point on my secondary character, but gearing up is a combination of running the highest dungeon you meet the requirements on, and using tomes you earn from them. At some point you get a Tome reward just for completing, while also having a chance of higher ilvl gear for your job to drop. Gearing up is a combination of luck on the drops, while supplementing that luck with the tomes by trading them in for the gear that hasn't dropped for you yet.

If you try to approach it purely with drops or purely grinding for tomes, it may feel a little worse than it is. At the same time, the luck half of it is that RNG business people tend to complain about on the forums, but that really only gets bad for people wanting to complete a whole set, since the set you buy with the tomes isn't technically the same set that drops in the dungeons, but they serve your ilvl the same way. Throw in the glamour system so your gear doesn't look like patchwork and it smooths out in the end.