A serious discussion about abridging the story quest 1-50 (discouraging new players)

[Yellow]

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I understand where you are coming from, but unlike other mmorpgs, this isn't really about a race to the finish. There's actually some really awesome stuff that goes on in the storyline, and I'm worried that if we shorten it too much then it'll lose quality.

It's taken me around 3 - 4 days to go from level 35 storyline to 2.3 Ramuh as we speak. I really think rushing to 60 will just leave people bored. We have plenty of time, we should sit back and enjoy it all while we can because we only have to do the storyline once (unless you have alts... which I can't understand why in a game like this).

[Lisotte]

I think if they cut out just the annoying filler quests and summarised them, that would be sufficient to satisfy most people. But then again I think that would take a lot of time, effort and money for SE to do, it would involve practically rewriting the story over again.

Though then again, maybe that would be better, the story felt very generic and cliche... up till some point between 2.0 and 2.5. Actually even most of the post 2.0 stuff was not awesome too, until it got all game of thronesey, which while pretty derivative, was more interesting than what came before (which was mostly primal this empire that).

[Skullmaker]

I agree that the MSQ contained a grotesque amount of filler. However, part of this was because the focus of leveling was intentionally moved away from party-based monster camping.
The story quests were meant to provide enough experience to get one job to level 50 in conjunction with running the dungeons. Fates and other side content were meant for leveling additional jobs.
If the fetch quests were removed, an NPC would literally have to be inserted in each resulting gap telling the player to go do some fates or something, much like the job quests do.

[Orbital-Dragon]

I agree in a sense. Iv made a post about this as well. The new jobs should not of been story gated.

[Kaedan94]

I'm in complete support of abridging the more useless parts of the main quests of ARR. The issue with most of the threads up until now has been that people have been demanding to be able to skip over it altogether.

For a new player, they're going to have to get to 50 in any case to participate in Heavensward. And the best way to do that is through the MSQs. But I agree that there is a lot of needless "filler" that could be glossed over. Make it an option but still have important cutscenes and the need to go through all the trials and dungeons. Good compromise IMO.

[Kona4me]

I'm now in heavensward missions & i can only agree with you OP... 2.0 MSQ is really painful to do! of course i mean most of it & not all.

[Yuri_Hyuga]

They could splice some of the MSQ fetch quests & make them into optional sidequests...

Besides that, I love that idea of having an item to port to quest-giver for 2.x content.

Could be a recruit-a-friend perk.

[RichardButte]

We have plenty of time, we should sit back and enjoy it all while we can because we only have to do the storyline once (unless you have alts... which I can't understand why in a game like this).

Most of it just isn't all that great, though. There's not much to "enjoy" except for the trial battles and dungeons. You can't people to slow down and enjoy something that they're already not enjoying.

ARR's storyline wasn't really amazing. It finished very strong, but a lot leading up to that point was kinda meh, IMO, and I already feel like HW's story is a bajillion times better because it's actually gripping me right off the bat.

My main concern stems from the fact that I've already lost two friends who would otherwise be playing FFXIV with me to how egregiously long the story quests are (only one of three even made it to 50, sadly, and he nearly didn't make it through the story grind last night).

I have one more I'm hoping to play with, but I pretty much KNOW he's not going to make it through the 50 story grind.

HW's story is very concise, thus far, and every leg of the quest is actually interesting and I've not yet felt like I'm being subjected to any busywork. I also love how Alphinaud actually FIGHTS now, giving me worlds more respect for him.

I just don't know what to tell these friends, except to offer to log in and grind through the story quest for them as an act of desperation to keep them playing (and when you've reached that point, you KNOW something is wrong... ).

[Edellis]

I can't agree with this for the simple fact that playing the game as a race to the finish line is playing specifically to ignore what I think is one of the defining traits of what makes XIV a good game and a unique MMORPG.

I just don't know what to tell these friends, except to offer to log in and grind through the story quest for them as an act of desperation to keep them playing (and when you've reached that point, you KNOW something is wrong... ).

I'm going to pull out the old line again and just suggest that they're seriously playing the wrong game. Them getting to Heavensward is not going to stop them from doing story missions, hell it's going to get even worse, EXP at 50 is scarcer than ever.


And what would they be discouraged for ANYWAY...

Leveling in ARR is extremely easy, there is no enemy grinding associated at all. The chance that you'll be cut off from story missions due to being underleveled is extremely low.

Partaking in literally anything (FATEs, Hunting Logs, Challenges, Dungeon Roulette, Rested EXP) is going to assure you're overleveled for your story quests, and EVERYTHING lv50 to Heavensward has been nerfed to hell and back.

If they've played any MMORPG in existance and are discouraged by XIV's grind to max level, they have to be exceedingly lazy.

[Titor]

I would really like an option to skip the MSQ myself. I play more for the MMO aspects of the game, and less for the single-player-ish RPG parts of the game. If content such as dungeons and trials would unlock upon reaching the appropriate level, that would be really wonderful, and much more fun for me to level alts with (I RP too, so having alts is nice)