Game needs to be more newcomer friendly, but NOT with level-boosts

[Souljacker]

What they likely thought was that people would sit down and enjoy the story all the way through, and then enjoy what the game had to offer when they finished the story. Planning ahead for those who want to skip a significant portion of your first several dozen hours with the game probably wasn't on the table very often.

Perhaps, but that just shows how absolutely out of touch they are with how mmos play versus how offline games play. In an mmo it's a rush to get to the content that everyone is doing. When you start playing a game where everyone is farming Nidhogg Ex, and you have to still play through a bunch of story and other content that other people don't have to do anymore because everything is artificially gated, well, you might get frustrated and give up. It's not just locked behind level; it's locked behind a progression that has long since been completely obsolete.

The other concern is this hammering of old content with putting grind items behind it. I am already so sick and tired of doing old raids, but I understand that it's important to force veterans into them because they were so tied to story. Still, that's only going to take SE so far. Eventually the majority of folks will get tired of running this content. It won't be today, it won't be tomorrow, and they might get another year or two out of artificially adding grind tokens behind it, but eventually players will move on to other mmos that have a better blueprint for earning powerful weapons; a blueprint that doesn't involve doing low level dungeons ad naseum. When you think about it, it really doesn't make sense to put a relic behind a lot of grinding that isn't even at the current level cap.

Sooner or later the subscriptions will start falling if they keep this model, and new subs will not make up the difference because players know there's too much of a wall between them and end-game.

[Naunet]

- Make all new Classes/Jobs playable from the start

Gods, yes. I'm returning from a lengthy break and wanted to start fresh on a new server with my husband (one that would give us an actual opportunity to have a house - there is zero chance of that on Balmung). While we're happy with the characters we made, we are both incredibly frustrated at how such basic things are locked from us behind what is honestly a ridiculously high wall. Not only do we have to get to 50, but we need to finish the entirety of the old story chain. And FFXIV's story has never really grabbed us, both in how it's presented (rather static, silent cut scenes) and in the quality of its storytelling. That's an awful lot of fetch quests to get through when we really want to be able to play the new classes. I can't imagine how a new player must feel, looking at everything they need to do.

If they're serious about playing this game, then yes, they are. It took my wife and myself four months playing together to get through the MSQ to the point where we could unlock DRK and AST. It took us quite a bit of time to discover the ideal way for us to level, given our situation where we have small children who often demand our attention and make running dungeons with strangers nerve wracking. That only slowed us down, not stopped us. Yes, it was annoying to have to grind through all of the 2.x patch MSQ's, but that's the story, and Final Fantasy has always been about telling a story.

This is a really silly thing to say. This is a GAME. I can't think of a single GAME where I can choose my class where I'm forced to play through the entirety of the old content just to get to the class(es) I want to play.

[FunkyBunch]

The one thing I constantly asked myself during the MSQ when I was starting out is what is the point of a linkshell if your going to force me to come ALL the way back to base to tell me all of 2 lines of text? Couldn't you just tell me to go see someone or investigate rather than wasting my time and money walking all the way back?

Put an Aetherite in Vesper Bay, 99% of the problem solved.

[Ersilon]

This is a really silly thing to say. This is a GAME. I can't think of a single GAME where I can choose my class where I'm forced to play through the entirety of the old content just to get to the class(es) I want to play.

No, that is a really silly thing to say. Nice self-defeating argument, by the way.

Put an Aetherite in Vesper Bay, 99% of the problem solved.

AlphaFox was referencing the quests where you actually have to go back to Vesper Bay just to hear something they could have easily stated over the story linkshell. It's like your boss calling you on your phone and telling you to come to his office so he can tell you what he wants you to do rather than simply tellin you over the phone.

[bass9020]

Put an Aetherite in Vesper Bay, 99% of the problem solved.

Limsas boat takes you straight to Vespar Bay. I know one extra click is too hard for people.

[NaesakiAshwell]

Put an Aetherite in Vesper Bay, 99% of the problem solved.

There is currently an in-game reason for why there isn't one to be fair but its still SE being complete and utter trolls.

The reason being the Scions didn't want to pay the rent/cost for it since the proceeds would be going to Lolorito, so as his own troll he built a statue of himself in place of were the crystal would have stood.

[Terin]

I mean, I actually love the story for FFXIV, though it does take a little while to get rolling. I think there are just a couple of unnecessary speed-bumps along the way.

As far as Jobs/Classes are concerned, they just need to change their approach, plain and simple. If you think is was a mistake to gate them, and the Devs think it was a mistake to gate them, then... I'm not sure why you're trying to defend it? They can still hold off on the cooler story moments, as long as the play style is there. Also, yes, player fantasy IS hugely important in an MMO. FFXIV is an RPG, and people need to feel connected to their characters from the very start.

If the Devs add Samurai in the next expansion, and a new player looks at it and says "That looks really cool, I want to try this game out", there is no way in shell he is going to spend 120+ hours working towards unlocking Samurai, and no amount of storytelling is going to change that. Not even "eliminating filler content" will fix that.

Remember; this is an MMO. The Devs can always make changes, and restructuring the New Job stories reintroduced them a little earlier on is a fairly straight forward change at that. Since the jobs are already balanced to be playable when scaled-down, it stands to reason that they could implement low-level "Class" counterparts fairly easily, as well.

[Ersilon]

I think you mistake what I've said. I'm not defending it. SE isn't even defending it. I've simply stated how it is, and that, in my own opinion, it's not unreasonable a requirement. You're talking about them adding in a whole pre-job class, associated class quests, etc., for DRK, which, for the sake of fairness, requires them to do the same for AST and MCH as well. They've already flatly stated that there's not going to be any more classes, only new jobs. Could they unlock AST, DRK, and MCH from the storyline with 4.0 to keep them competitive with any new jobs? God, I hope so. That isn't the same as making a class running up to it just for flavor. As far as level scaling goes, it ain't broken, so why monkey with it?

And specifically about your mentioning of Samurai? Yoshi-P's already stated that the new jobs will not be gated by needing to play through Heavensward. Hopefully, that means just level locked and getting to the region, time will tell.

[FunkyBunch]

Limsas boat takes you straight to Vespar Bay. I know one extra click is too hard for people.

It's not one extra click. And I never would have known that there's a boat that goes from Limsa to Vesper Bay. After getting two chars to 60 I had zero clue there was a ferry there.

Even your way,
It's tele to Limsa (one click)
Aethernet to Fishers Guild (three clicks)
Walk to Ferry
Vesper Bay (two clicks)

Instead of just Teleport. (one click).
Your way is 600% more clicks. Plus walking time than teleporting.

[FunkyBunch]

There is currently an in-game reason for why there isn't one to be fair but its still SE being complete and utter trolls.

The reason being the Scions didn't want to pay the rent/cost for it since the proceeds would be going to Lolorito, so as his own troll he built a statue of himself in place of were the crystal would have stood.

I totally didn't remember this. But it's still pretty silly.