Info about the Chinese Cash Shop "Level Jumping Potions"

[Stanelis]

This doesnt affect any of you BUT still complain like the spoiled kids you all are "I worked too hard for this, they need to work as hard as I did".

Actually it does.

If SE releases a jump potion and use it as an excuse never to fix the leveling process (and the MSQ one) when vertical expansions rolls out, it is going to be an issue for everyone.

[Belhi]

Actually it does.

If SE releases a jump potion and use it as an excuse never to fix the leveling process (and the MSQ one) when vertical expansions rolls out, it is going to be an issue for everyone.

How would you propose they fix the levelling process and how do they account for the ever expanding MSQ?

[Stanelis]

How would you propose they fix the levelling process and how do they account for the ever expanding MSQ?

a) by decreasing the XP required to level up till the players reach the new expansion level range.
b) by making each expansion MSQ independent (as in FFXI).

It's common sense, I m not inventing anything.

[Belhi]

a) by decreasing the XP required to level up till the players reach the new expansion level range.
b) by making each expansion MSQ independent (as in FFXI).

It's common sense, I m not inventing anything.

(a) could be done probably pretty easy.

(b) is another matter entirely. Maybe if their questing system wasn't tied to progression but it is. Apparently just letting people go back and replay old story quests would require resetting a players progression all the way back to that point. Its also the reason the Journal can't take into account story choices when it replays cutscenes. I complete overhaul of the questing system would likely be a pretty major amount of work.

More to the point (b) would undermine one of the things I most love about FF14's story: the sense of continuation and progression of narrative. My character has a history and it is recognised and impactful on the world. I walk into 4.0 with all that history behind me and the allies I have made along the way and it sets the tone for the story I will play. Changing this is something I would most definitely be against.

[Stanelis]

(b) is another matter entirely. Maybe if their questing system wasn't tied to progression but it is. Apparently just letting people go back and replay old story quests would require resetting a players progression all the way back to that point. Its also the reason the Journal can't take into account story choices when it replays cutscenes. I complete overhaul of the questing system would likely be a pretty major amount of work.

In order to make any given storyline optional you just have to modify the prerequisite from the first HW (or stormblood) quest.

More to the point (b) would undermine one of the things I most love about FF14's story: the sense of continuation and progression of narrative. My character has a history and it is recognised and impactful on the world. I walk into 4.0 with all that history behind me and the allies I have made along the way and it sets the tone for the story I will play. Changing this is something I would most definitely be against.

The jumping potion already does just that, so I don't really understand what your point is.

[xLucia]

Nope. Please SE, don't follow World of Warcraft

[DarkB]

so i am just curious to understand how anybody can be against this. I've played xi for years hardcore, played xiv since alpha release hardcore, leveled a crapton of classes to max, i've been playing for so long i lost the count.

But i can tell you something for sure, after you played xiv trough main scenario quest once, you can not do that again, you can not get the same xp boost you get from these quests because you already have done these, so you are left into a mindless fate grinding or spamming the same dungeons (you have been doing) over and over.

Now can please someone sane explain me where is the fun in that for you to complain about intruducing a leveling potions? If you have fun in doing what i've just explained, just do it, the potion wont remove anything from you, go ahead, your choice, but why do you have to complain about an alternative?

It is quite objective that leveling is extremely boring, especially since you can not benefit from the main scenario quests xp and gils. When FATEs came out everyone was complaining about how boring was that system, yet it was never changed. Now complaining because someone doesnt want to do a repetitive boring grinding that litterally doesnt help you trough anything (unless you are new to the game, in that case i can understand but still you have a choice to play the game trough MSQ or not) in particular, makes me laugh honestly.

It is a good thing and personally i'd just let people have all old MSQ completed even if they are new to the game, full access to Heavensward to everybody and 1 class already at 50 as soon as you start the game.

Are you one of these players that love storyline, read all the text, do all the quests? do it, no one prevents you to
Are you one of these players who gets bored after the same quest over and over, click here, teleport there, talk with this npc, talk with that npc, report to that npc? buy the potions and skip it.
Are you one of these players who love to bild your character step by step, level by level, you want to grind and love to exp at your own pace? go do it.
Are you one of these players who doesnt like to level other classes after your main because it is just repetitive mindless grinding on a game that is already so much repetitive with weekly lockouts and recycled content? buy the potion and skip it.

Everyone is happy, not sure why you want to deny other people to be happy too, sounds selfish to me.

Oh and in case you pulling out the card of "but people dont learn their class if they get boosted to 50", that is simply bs, there are people that played for years and they are still crap, so skipping 50 levels wont make the difference between a good and a bad player. if you understand how the game works you'll be fine.

[ZhaneX]

It is quite objective that leveling is extremely boring

Hardly. Since I can tell you that I had a good deal of fun leveling everything up, and feel a tad bored with end-game progression by comparison. That might not be your experience, but saying that leveling is boring is an objective fact is objectively wrong.

Now yes, you do have a point. I would utterly ignore these potions, they would not influence how I choose to experience the game in the slightest. I'm free to delve as deeply into the game's world as I like as I always have. Those who choose to just skip everything? Their loss.

But while that is true, I and many others I'm sure, feel that it sets a worrying precedent. It has been mentioned previously in this thread that, contrary to what some like yourself claim, such potions have had a negative influence, and oftentimes create more problems for those who use them than they solve. Moreover, I personally feel that encouraging such outright lazy options will only encourage further lazy behavior; both in players and, more worryingly, in the developers. Now I can't say that this is a certainty, merely a [potentially unfounded and paranoid] fear of mine. But all the same, regardless of how little an impact they may have on my personal experience, I will maintain that such things are a bad idea, plain and simple.

[Chocolys]

When you start very late a game, it's very often that you misses the community action.
For example in multiplayer game, unless it's very popular game,, it's not unusual to have hard time finding people to play with, because the lobbies are empty and most players have moved on.
It's also true for MMO. It's not unusual for "newbie towns or newbies activities" to be deserted, which its kinda of shame since it's the opposite of what MMO should be, you should not be alone.

A real example that happens to me in FF XIV:

I took more than a 2 year break from the game and have come back for a little less than 2 months. Right after I joined I did all the MSQ + SQ that had been released since I quitted and then gained access to Heavensward.
I was really looking to explore around and also enjoying all these new Fates. Right............... Excepted there is kind of nobody doing fates, besides the rare players doing quickly few fates for their Anima.
And soloing Heavensward fates is slow and painful compared to ARR. So I asked my friends about it, and they said everybody was doing Fates when Heavensward was released. But now it's kind of dead, and sadly I was hoping to level my alt-classes doing these new fates.( I know some will say go level alt in POTD or whatever, but I really enjoy leveling-alt classes in Fates, and I'm not interested in POTD.)

That's just one aspect of the game but there are others that are less active. Trying to complete old duties if you play at odd hours, is like falling asleep waiting for the queue to pop in Duty Finder. And it's very unlikely you wind find a group with the Party Finder for old duties even during populated hours, leaving you only to use the DF with random people. PF-wise most of the action is the current end content or people farming ex-trials for Khloe in PF.

Basically coming late to the game, leveling becomes more of a chore than originally because of lack of potential teammates to share in the activities matching your progression. So I understand why someone new to the game would want to start at the current stage where most of the community is active, so they can enjoy where most of the action in the game is currently at.

So while I'm not interested in using jump potions, I understand if someone wants to use a potion that would allow an unique class per character to be boosted to the level entry for the current expansion, with a basic set of gear, and the previous MSQ completed.

I am however against JOB potions like on the Chinese servers. Having an unique class auto-leveled is enough to enjoy the last released content with the rest of the community. Having the possibility to level-up every classes on a single character with just potions is just a luxury and I don't think it's necessary, I personally don't welcome it.

[Belhi]

In order to make any given storyline optional you just have to modify the prerequisite from the first HW (or stormblood) quest.

If that was true then replaying quests would be much simpler and wouldn't require the reset on progression of all other MSQ quests set after it.

The jumping potion already does just that, so I don't really understand what your point is.

No it doesn't because the people using the Jump Potion are choosing to opt out of the story progression. For them it would be like starting on the 5th chapter of the book. They might get a summary of the earlier 4 chapters but the book would just continue on as if you have already read the first 4. No effect on me since I wouldn't use the Jump Potion.

On the other hand if SE has to go out of their way to Streamline the MSQ as much as possible to allow people to rush through it, or design it so that it doesn't require previous knowledge it will effect me as a player which frankly bothers me a lot more.