Can we please have flight unlocked as part of the main story?

[Kasenai]

They shouldn't feel like it's a forced part of the game to have to complete content they don't wish to do just to get an ability Square Enix is advertising as part of the expansion.

We shouldn't feel like it's a forced part of the game to complete content we don't wish to do just to get level 60 which Square Enix is advertising as part of the expansion. /sarcasm

[Colt47]

Should be allowed to fly off the bat. Once you get flight all your quests are done. No one does the fates. You'You'll do hunts for a bit till you can do alexander. But after that it's a gimmick.

While if you have it off the bat it will seem more useful than it is now.

Well, they certainly did make the zones a pain to navigate compared to the older ones, but that's probably not going to come to pass until they get to patch 3.5 or something way down the line. Plus I don't think the community at large is going to react well to this. You can see the previous page of posts about easy mode and random tongue in cheek from some of the vocal advocates on their feelings about just having it unlocked when story mode is done. The only reason I can see someone doing what they are doing on the previous page is that they went through it and now don't want anyone else getting it more easily then themselves. Sort of like coil gear when they nerfed it with echo.

However, I try to generally avoid going into tongue in cheek because they have a point through all that mushed up insanity as well that should be considered.

[Colt47]

We shouldn't feel like it's a forced part of the game to complete content we don't wish to do just to get level 60 which Square Enix is advertising as part of the expansion. /sarcasm

It depends on the class. I actually observed how this panned out for a lot of my friends, and it seems that those who played DPS were more likely to complete the overworld content because the queue times of getting into dungeons meant they needed something to do while waiting. Meanwhile healers and tanks generally got in faster and would level without doing a lot of the overworld quests.

I'd also say dps probably has more fun soloing, but given the fact the monsters have a lot of HP compared to what they used to and the fact Dragoons and Monks depend on positional damage... yeah one of my friends wasn't too thrilled.

So for some people it's not an issue, for others it is because they end up having to backtrack after hitting 60 to wonder around places on foot like Cloud Top and the dravanian highlands to complete things they were forced to skip past due to the leveling up process and zoning.

[Malevicton]

That's great! And meanwhile, it's the only way to reach a hunt if it spawns on an inaccessible ledge, thereby forcing people who aren't into that sort of thing to have to go wonder around a maze of a zone trying to get to aether currents, or find quests that give them that. It's not as simple as run in X direction.

Also, some of us want to spend our time in other ways, like running things with friends. I mean, that was the point of making dungeons part of the main story, right? Why should someone more interested in doing things with buddies be forced to run around doing fetch and kill quests solo and run around an entire zone for an hour solo?

You can easily get the aether currents while you're leveling in the zone. Hunts are a non-issue unless you were procrastinating and refusing to do your currents.

Playing with friends also a non-issue. You could do all the quests and aether hunting with your friends if you wanted. It's not keeping you from playing with your friends, you just don't feel like doing them and are grasping for some excuse to try and make your personal opinion sound like it's more than just a personal opinion.

[Felis]

After looking at the progress someone can make through the game without even coming close to doing all the quests required, along with flight being necessary to reach Hunts effectively, it seems like this really should be a feature that is unlocked per zone via completing main story quests rather than running around gathering nodes and doing a bunch of likely boring and repetitive quests. There is very little fun to be had running around a zone trying to find green swirling vortexes, or having to pour over a quest log to figure out which quests aid in attunement.

During mainstory your NPC group expect to walk with their foot to the next destination. So flying should be unlocked after the MSQ, not during.

[Colt47]

You can easily get the aether currents while you're leveling in the zone. Hunts are a non-issue unless you were procrastinating and refusing to do your currents.

Playing with friends also a non-issue. You could do all the quests and aether hunting with your friends if you wanted. It's not keeping you from playing with your friends, you just don't feel like doing them and are grasping for some excuse to try and make your personal opinion sound like it's more than just a personal opinion.

That was a bad posting on my part. I think one of my later postings better illustrates what I'm getting at.

[Colt47]

During mainstory your NPC group expect to walk with their foot to the next destination. So flying should be unlocked after the MSQ, not during.

Yeah that is what I meant. I didn't realize I put "during" in my original posting.

[Devils_Lawyer]

Flying is not needed to progress thru the game but if you want the benefit of beeing able to do so then you need to do what is required, boring or not.

This may seem unfair but its like asking for a relic weapon without having to go thru the grind to obtain one.

[Airget]

They aren't even that hard to find, and it's kinda sad how people don't want to explore in an MMO. They complain about linearity and yet when offered the option to go off the rail and explore and discover to unlock something they whine about having to go off that trail to earn the benefits of something like flying.

[Raist]

A lot of the arguments are "side story" grade content---you are not required to do them...it is optional content. Personal flying mounts are not needed to complete MSQ...in fact for some legs you are expected to traverse the landscape--it forces you to follow a route of sorts with little purple circle instances and destination markers along the way.

Where flight would be needed for main story, they provide a method of travel to get you there.

Just like you are expected to attune to aethyrites and register with chocobo keepers and summoning stones to facilitate travel around the zone with those options, for a personal flying mount you have to gain access to a flying mount (quested) and attune with the aether currents in a zone. It really isn't all that different from the gating for other modes of convenient transportation in game.