Friends of mine, new to the game, becoming discouraged by STORY QUESTS

[Derio]

Considering the next expansion will allow you to skip 3.0 entirely. However you wont have access to 3.0 content should you choose to not buy HW, plus you would miss out on a ton of story. And now they are adding another FC XP boost so it will be even easier to level.

My question is since they are going to allow people to skip 3.0 when 4.0 comes out, what happens if a person buys HW after they buy the next expansion.

[Felis]

After I unlock that first dungeon, no matter how much I play it or how far I level I can't do anything but that single dungeon unless I do hours more of the story.

Not right.
You can also do Guildhest. And after you did Sastasha once you can unlock the next dungeon right away (you only have to speak with 2 NPCs).

[Snugglebutt]

Considering the next expansion will allow you to skip 3.0 entirely. However you wont have access to 3.0 content should you choose to not buy HW, plus you would miss out on a ton of story. And now they are adding another FC XP boost so it will be even easier to level.

My question is since they are going to allow people to skip 3.0 when 4.0 comes out, what happens if a person buys HW after they buy the next expansion.

You can still do 3.0 but can also do 4.0 at same time if wanted bit like doing Hildibrand and Moogle Postman quest lines maybe. You don't have to complete Moogle to do Hildibrand but doing Moogle wont impact Hildibrands either. At least that's the impression I got but I could be wrong. Personally I think they should keep the linear progression of the MSQ rather than split into two separate MSQ.

As long as they keep the requirement of making you at least clear 2.0 and pass that gating to do 4.0 despite not needing to do 3.0 then that is fine but the 2.0+ gating must remain unless they want to give easy access to RMT to the new content (cities and zones), allowing them to infest and ruin any value to the materials and ingredients from those zones plus infect the new cities with their chat /say and /shout gil selling spam characters. I would rather have the few new players who do not like questing as much spend a day or two doing those level 50 quests (which include some harder level 50 dungeons and trials) once on that character than giving carte blanche easy access to RMT and their bot armies to the new content and zones by proxy undoing the good work and impact the gating has had in keeping RMT and their bot armies out of 3.0+.

[ohmRICE]

Considering the next expansion will allow you to skip 3.0 entirely. However you wont have access to 3.0 content should you choose to not buy HW, plus you would miss out on a ton of story. And now they are adding another FC XP boost so it will be even easier to level.

My question is since they are going to allow people to skip 3.0 when 4.0 comes out, what happens if a person buys HW after they buy the next expansion.

At this point I'm more excited to see how they pull off 2.0 -> 4.0 than what 4.0 actually contains. I'm guessing though that you can either run both scenarios concurrently or have to complete the selected expansion (assuming they do the branching storyline which is what I've seen in other story focused MMOs) then head to the other expansion content.

[Felis]

While I suppose that's possible, I certainly hope they don't. It would totally spoil the story for anyone who doesn't have HW yet at that point, but might want to play it at some later point down the road. It's better to just branch off and keep the two separate.

I think this will be what SE is planning. A parallel storyline.
Where at the end of 2.55 story the player can choose, if he want to go into exil in Ishgard (3.0 storyline) or if he want to leave Eorzea and want to try his luck in a new country, where nobody know him (4.0 storyline, also lv 50-60)

[Duuude007]

Have they even hinted at such a possibility where vertical growth stagnates like that? This doesn't make any sense to me.

[Jermz]

If spent less time complaining and more time doing you would probably be done by now.

Oh trust me, If i had the opportunity to play at work without repercussions i would. Alas, I get to post a few things on the forums while I'm here instead. I'm not alt tabbed complaining on the forums instead of playing. I'm not the only one that thinks the story quest gate for new players is a bit much to get the game unlocked and in a state where they can play with people who have been here a bit longer. Some of the responses in this thread have been very intelligent and thought out about making this a bit more bearable in the future.
2 of my friends are tanks, dungeon queues aren't a thing when I'm helping them out. we run it, they're done, they go about their story again
btw, Six hours of play time a day is still quite a bit more than your average person will play this game

I think everyone here so vehemently against altering the way story quests are handled needs to step back and think as a new player starting now. Not someone with an Alt that knows maps/quests/where to go and the quickest way to get there, or has gear in the bank and plenty of gil.You start with nothing and have HUNDREDS of MANDATORY quests you HAVE to do to unlock basic parts of the game. You've got a friend or two that were already 50 pre-expansion and they have started doing things that benefit their character. Meanwhile, your stuck in the post 50 ARR story grind (a month or so after starting), running dungeons and story quests that reward you with obsolete items and a very small if any sense of progression. and there's a LOT of old 50 stuff to get through. Then you look up a wiki site to see how many quests you have left and are a bit demotivated seeing 100+ more to go before you get to do the stuff your friends are doing. This is the issue I'm wanting to bring up. I understand most MMOS have time gates, but these are drastic.

[Duuude007]

running dungeons and

Wait... what?

What dungeons besides Kotl and Snowcloak are even gated with post 2.0 msq?

You are making this seem much larger than it really is. A ridiculous amount of lv50-to-ishgard access content is entirely skippable. Optional.

[Snugglebutt]

@Jermz

Firstly everyone knows where to go even if new player for those quests, you have map indicators telling you exactly where to go so just follow that and you will get there just as fast as someone with an alt who has done it before. Secondly you do 99% of those quests in between leveling and part of the leveling process which they also teach you how to play and about the games features, make you gil and gears your character from quest rewards, they unlock more things for you along the way and give you insight into the lore and setting of the game so stop pretending like SE dumps 100's of pointless quests on you to do all at once. Fact is you only have to do them once on a character too.

They do not take long each and if you choose not to spend a few minutes doing them while leveling then that is a problem you made for yourself. So the excuse of there is hundreds of quests is not a good excuse because those quests help with your leveling and are done mostly during that period in between other things alongside having multiple benefits from them. Even the level 50 quests now also give EXP and many of which give T4 materia which make you a lot of gil so your not wasting your time doing them anyways, a couple days in an 'MMO' to clear those is not long...it's around 6% of that single month subscription period time wise to complete. You should of made friends or joined an FC by the time you hit 50 and those friends who might be higher level also can help speed up the process using unsync mode on the dungeons and trials.

[Derio]

If your friend was a true friend he could quickly run you through those low dungeons that way you wouldnt have to wait for queue times. Especially if you arent a healer or tank class.