Famitsu interview with Yoshida after NA's FanFest

[Belhi]

People aren't going straight to 70 with this. At end game they are still going to have to have levelled through 10 levels of expansion to get there. All it does is skip pre expansion stuff.

Jumping features have a price because it keeps them from being exploited by Botters, Gold Sellers and the like. Without that disincentive you would see an explosion in both in Stormblood content. That said, it would make sense to include a free one in the expansion.

Trying to change it so you can enter later in the MSQ isn't simple either. One of the most appealing things about FF14's story is its sense of continuation and progression. You get to know people and experience their growth with them. You go through events and earn your fame. That's hard for a random new guy to step into particularly given the fame involved in being the WoL.

This isn't to say that Jumping features can't be bad. Its that they don't have to be that bad. It all depends on how SE deals handles it and the freshly jumped player experience.

[alimdia]

No, it's not. They did it for profit and people allowed themselves to believe otherwise.

They reorganized quests, but early leveling in WoW is still a terrible experience, the first time I tried it I quit after experiencing how extremely boring and slow it is to level up in that game, I only came back to the game after a friend offered me a level boost, I wouldn't have played the game at all if it wasn't for level boost.

Also Outland is still terrible and I don't recommend it to anyone, even if vanilla maps didn't make me quit Outland would have.

So I disagree, level boost has a good reason to exist. If the concern is people not knowing how to play there are ways to address that, this has been repeated many times but you guys seem to ignore it.

[FinalWolf]

Cool 10 levels to learn their job.

[Kaurie]

Surprises me that so much was talked about in this interview, and the only thing discussed for 20 pages is the potion boost. Why do people even care? Players are already terrible in DF, and you can boost and practice and not be terrible. The leveling process doesn't do a great job of teaching you how to play your class.

Where's the discussion on

raid difficulty, and not adding midcore content, but adding even more hardcore content?
the increased details on what Yoshi meant by a revamped battle system and skill pruning?
removing Parry and Accuracy, further reducing the number of secondary stats we have? (Yes, I want those stats gone too, but removing and not replacing them means we'll have even less choices on our gear)

etc.?

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

Already touched on, and the general consensus seemed to be, "Wait and See". I'm withholding Judgement until I get more information.

[Genaxx]

I don't get why people are in such a rush to get to the end when theres nothing there.

[FinalWolf]

I don't get why people are in such a rush to get to the end when theres nothing there.

Gotta justify boosting their alts somehow.

[ZhaneX]

They missed out on all the content and have to go back and do it if they want to?

This is just something that LITERALLY does not impact me in any way

Ultimately, I think this is what it comes down to. I still think these level-jumping potions are a horrendous idea, but if they are in fact implemented, oh well. I think the reason I loathe the idea so much is because it makes totally irrelevant all the content I've previously done and enjoyed, removing that experience for future players. People will bitch and argue about the quality of that content, but I enjoyed it. It's why I've stuck with this game since it launched on PS3. But regardless of that, the simple fact remains, I already did it. I had my fun. If future players choose to ignore and skip over that content, that's their loss. Doesn't affect my experience in the slightest.

Sure there's the possibility of "Jump Players" mucking up DF with a complete ignorance of how to play their job, but as many have pointed out, that already occurs with disturbing frequency. The addition of these "Jump Potions" is not likely to make it any more endemic than it unfortunately already is.

[Vaer]

WoW only added their boost like 9-10 years after the game was released during the end of their 4th expansion. XIV is barely even on the second/third one (if you count 2.0 as xpac). At that time, WoW already had 90 levels. The leveling was also complete garbage when they added it, as people facerolled through dungeons or 1 shot quest mobs with heirlooms anyways and it took forever. It's like running dungeons with unsync on in XIV but at the dungeon's level. I leveled a character from scratch with heirlooms and it was awful. Some of the content in that game is older than the entirety of XIV (Outland is like 9 years old now). I wouldn't wish the leveling process on a new player in that game with no heirlooms. Even before the character boost, they already had Recruit a Friend for a long time which made leveling a joke anyway if you had a friend to play with at 3x exp you sailed through the levels.

I'm mostly neutral about the potions in XIV. Maybe make it available with the expansion purchase but not allow them to be purchased in unlimited qualities in the mog station. If people really just want it to catch up with their friends they don't really need more than one in that case.

[Felis]

I don't even think concept art of Ala Mhigo exists, and we aren't even going there, our new hub city is this little hamlet. :/