Possible level/story jumps....really?

[AnimaAnimus]

This game just keeps getting more and more disappointing...

It made sense in WoW, 1 class per character. I couldn't imagine having to run thru this story 5 times for 5 jobs but since we can switch at will, this is just absurd. But the people who say they cannot play because they have "real lives" and tend to only sub for a few months outta the year anyway will get it because "it's not fair" or some blah blah blah.

And it is about making money, if it wasn't they wouldn't charge, they know they are going to bank off rmt and people who just want pay to win features, which imo is exactly what this is.

[Dualblade]

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Both of you get likes for the info.

Also I agree with Enkidoh, the ultimate reason why most people wanted to skip straight to Ishgard was for the new jobs. If new jobs aren't gated behind a new xpac city that isn't readily accessible then the request for jumping straight into it will die down a bit.

Though if new jobs continue to start at lvl 30/any level beyond 50 there should be some form of gating. Mostly just having atleast one other job up to its level should be enough, or putting it in, say, Mor Dhona.

[The_Last_Dragoon]

With exception of people not learning class, why would you care if someone skips story and/levels?

This is something that can't be excused, and in a game where time = money, it is essentially making it so that a player with infinite cash has an in-game advantage over another player.

From 4.0 I wouldn't mind new players starting at 30 to be honest, although I would increase the Hall of Novice trials and make them compulsory.

I don't agree with producing items on the Mogstation that give any boost to the player whatsoever. If you wanna give players that item then give them it for free. Mogstation glamour items only, once we say yes to this it is a slippery slope to it becoming a p2p and f2p game.

Technically you can easily hit level 30 in 2 days if you were recruited by a friend since you get the Circlet and potentially get the exp boost from the FC. I agree that it's a slippery slope, and it's one I hope they don't even give a wayward glance towards.

[Theodric]

It seems rather redundant to me to encourage players to skip large portions of the game if they haven't seen and completed it for themselves already. Furthermore WoW does a terrible job at keeping old content relevant whilst FFXIV actually succeeds due to the way in which the roulette system works. If instant gratification is going to be given a priority over fun, engaging and meaningful content then I fear my enthusiasm for FFXIV will dwindle in the same way I lost interest in WoW as more and more updates to the game pushed it a similar direction.

[Iromi]

No...just no. This is border line pay to win.

[Fynlar]

Locking *everything* (primarily the new jobs, but also the new areas) behind 2.x story content was honestly pretty dumb, in both a practicality and business sense. It doesn't encourage anyone who isn't yet through with it all to actually get the expansion.

Expansions could have been handled a little more like how they were in FFXI, where there were actually reasons to get an expansion even if you were not up to date on story content. Even Chains of Promathia, probably the most restrictive of FFXI's expansions in terms of story gating the content, still had some areas you could at least reach without any mission progress.

It sounds like they learned this lesson and will probably be trying to do something more like this in the future, and I only approve of it because it is really the smart thing to do.

As for the automatic levels/story skip though, that's a different kettle of fish. I don't really have that much of an opinion on it. If people wanna pay money to have the game played for them, I guess that's their prerogative. At that point I'd rather just watch a Let's Play on youtube or something... but as we all know, people fork out RL cash for silly things already, so this isn't anything new.

[LDR]

I'm sorta neutral to this but slightly sided on the Yes.

Reason being is I tried to get someone into this game but lost them to the 2.x slog.
The base 2.0 AAR 0-50 MSQ? fine, that wasnt an issue, but it was all the post 50 stuff from the 2.x updates that made them drop.
Sure, XIV is a more story heavy mmo, and some love that, but not everyone, and others simply dont care and just want to play the content; all people play this for different things and its often disheartening when people just tout out "why would you pick up this mmo if you dont want to do all this story"

Personally i'd rather they maybe implement something like this in the method of it skipping the story, but not the leveling, or at least not giving you a straight 60 to wreck havoc with.

Also i would LOVE for at least this to be an option for alt's because as someone with 6 characters its, well, ive seen the story enough times already and i just want to be at the end of it now its no longer fun.

[AreciaRhi]

As long as everyone took the time to learn their class. I'm not sure if it would still be the same though seeing as I meet level 60 players confused on their class. None the less, I look at this game because it's Final Fantasy, not WoW.

[Nalien]

I don't see the point in EXP if you're just going to let people skip leveling... Work on more content for the mid-levels and people will be in less of a rush to reach the cap... Palace of the Dead seems to be going in that direction and as usual I'm going to suggest Besieged/Campaign... FATEs are really rubbish... They seem to have gone for quantity over quality with them, XIs Campaign was a vastly superior system that could have worked a lot better with a better Grand Company system too... Having Hamlet Defense back as a new and improved Besieged would be great, too... Stuff that feels like an event that you don't have to be Lv60 to participate in, basically... FATEs just don't feel like an event... They're a boring, lazy grind-fest...

Aside from that, just don't lock new Jobs behind the MSQ again... That was the biggest fault with 3.0 from a new players perspective... Pretty much all of 3.0 was locked behind 2.55, that was a mistake... The geography and lore of the expansion made that slightly difficult, but that can be avoided... Having it so a new area opens up for people in the mid-level, with Jobs and quests being there, would provide a lot... Then you just tie it into the MSQ later... Might seem a waste to work on mid-level quests when the expansion is Lv60-70, but we'll have new Jobs, right? The only quests my Dark Knight had for EXP were Dark Knight quests, if there were mid-range quests in Heavensward to accommodate people not yet at the cap, it would benefit everyone. I'd have more quests to level new Jobs, new players would have new quests to speed up their progress.

Ideally, for 4.0 I'd probably split the story into two paths. A mid-level story focusing on a new area (like Thavnairia) with new Jobs being there, perhaps a few mid-level dungeons and trials. Then a continuation of the main story, following on from 3.5 into somewhere (like Ala Mhigo). Then, as a new player, I'm not left out of the expansion, I have new quests to do and areas to explore. As a Lv60, I have a choice; I can jump right into the story following on from 3.5 as I go for Lv70, or I can pick up the new Jobs and work on leveling that alongside a new story. Eventually tie both stories together, so progress in the high level story requires completion of the mid-level story, and you're done. That's how you make an expansion that doesn't annoy new players... Leveling potions strike me as a lazy, unimaginative solution... Craft a better narrative and work on better content... Slapping better gear on old MSQ quests also isn't what I'd have done, I'd have introduced some new system for mid-level players that makes leveling and gearing up much faster... New players use it to speed up their progression. Existing players use it for new Jobs. Lv70 players end up grinding it for Relic progression... New mid-level content is only a waste if you let it be...

[bass9020]

As long as everyone took the time to learn their class. I'm not sure if it would still be the same though seeing as I meet level 60 players confused on their class. None the less, I look at this game because it's Final Fantasy, not WoW.

Thats what would make this even more scary since people out there already can't play correctly. I really don't want to be helping people who bought a leveled character and know absolutely nothing.