For stormblood do you want the gated conten path of hw, or the free roam path of arr?

[Aramina]

Id have to disagree with that, in arr you could level simply by unlocking The Sunken Temple of Qarn, Cutter's Cry, Dzemael Darkhold, The Aurum Vale, all of these could be done without being caught up in the msq. Also your job quest for all jobs could be done without msq. You can go to any area you want, without needing a flying current, you can get tomes gear if you are the right level , instead of having to be at the end of the game as you have to be in hw. Hw is 100 percent gated every step of the way Arr wasnt like that and you have alot more freedom outside of the path of doing msq.

Disagree all you like, but my opinion stands as it is.

[bswpayton]

Disagree all you like, but my opinion stands as it is.

Not giving players options is never good in my opinion , simply because when I actually did the msq for arr it took me less than three days, so the hw story line could literally be done in like less than a week with the other thing on the otherside of that content being, waiting on the devs to make new content every three months. Trying to raid, spamming the same two dungeons over and over again, and farming for gear there is nothing on the other side that would actually make things worth rushing the story so whats the point in gating it?

[JunseiKei]

so whats the point in gating it?

Except it has always been gated. There's just more distractions in ARR for you to forget it's gated in the first place.

[bswpayton]

Except it has always been gated. There's just more distractions in ARR for you to forget it's gated in the first place.

Anyone coming to the game will notice the difference, in Arr now you can be level 50 and still be on the level 25 quest in msq, but still have access to a ton of content like all the dungeons i mention 4 dungeons, that arent tied to the msq. And you can travel to any area you see fit thats in arr you cant do this in hw, also your job quest wernt locked behind what areas you where in within the msq, like it is in msq so I dont see the similarities here, with how easy it is to level now I see no reason for the things to be gated like they are now in hw.

[JunseiKei]

Being able to access some content without having done MSQ doesn't suddenly make it free roam. Four dungeons out of eleven others that need the story quest? All of the primals, sans Odin, are locked behind ARR MSQ. Like I said, even switching to another class requires at least some MSQ done and you can't travel all the land without airships- also gated behind ARR MSQ. Granted, it's early in the story, but the gate is still there.

I'm not sure why anyone would want to skip MSQ as it is, considering it offers some of the most efficient experience there is to gain.

ARR was equally gated as HW. I found they changed a lot of things in Heavensward (for the worse), but gating content behind MSQ and/or time isn't one of the things they changed.

It's possible they removed restrictions as time passed.

The only gates I can recall them lifting were:
- completing Titan EX to gain access to Ifrit EX;
- completing Moogle EX to access Levi EX;
- completing Levi EX to access Ramuh EX.
I honestly think those were the only gates they removed. Pretty sure none of the story gated stuff was actually removed.

But the question was , tho would you rather a system like hw where you have to have walls to dungeons walls to job quest, walls to different areas are would you prefer to do the msq when you wanted to.

I'd honestly keep said walls and gates because in story, pacing is everything. A lot of the jobs in HW are linked to direct conflicts going on with the main story. After having concluded the Dragonsong War while still leveling alternate classes, you can see where events tie in directly. Events or key information that I now know as false but were heavily implied at the time the job quest was to be done, if it was your main, would keep to the story. This is pacing. Even in FFXIV is an MMO, it is still a Final Fantasy game which has always been about the story.

[Kaurie]

The only gates I can recall them lifting were:
- completing Titan EX to gain access to Ifrit EX;
- completing Moogle EX to access Levi EX;
- completing Levi EX to access Ramuh EX.
I honestly think those were the only gates they removed. Pretty sure none of the story gated stuff was actually removed.

A great many dungeons were gated behind the MSQ, the roulettes were gated behind accessing these dungeons. It's the exact same as it is in Heavensward.

(google this cuz lazy) here is a list of the first bit:
Lvl15 Sastasha (story dungeon for quest "It's Probably Pirates.")
Lvl16 Tam-Tara Deepcroft (story quest "Fire in the Gloom.")
Lvl17 Copperbell Mines (story quest "Into a Copper Hell" )
Lvl20 Halatali (OPTIONAL)
Lvl24 The Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak(Story "Into the Beast's Maw")
Lvl28 Haukke Manor (Story "Skeletons in Her Closet,")
Lvl32 Braflox Longstop (Story "The Things We Do for Cheese.")
Lvl35 Sunken Temple of Qarn(OPTIONAL)
Lvl38 Cutter's Cry(OPTIONAL)
Lvl41 Stone Virgil (Story "In Pursuit of the Past")
Lvl44 Dzemael Darkhold (Optional but needed for some Grand Companies)
Lvl47 Aurum Vale (Optional but needed for some Grand Companies)
Lvl50 Castrum Meridianum (story)
Lvl50 Praetorium (story)

Then there were post 50 dungeons that were story as well, Keeper of the Lake comes to mind. I can't recall if there was 1 per patch that was story driven (but I think that was the case?)

[JunseiKei]

~snip~

.__. I know. To me, saying four dungeons not being locked behind MSQ is - well look at everything else that is. Plus all the primals, sans Odin, were all locked behind MSQ, which vicariously meant, so were all the raids (as Coil required Garuda, Ifrit and Titan killed).

[bswpayton]

Being able to access some content without having done MSQ doesn't suddenly make it free roam. Four dungeons out of eleven others that need the story quest? All of the primals, sans Odin, are locked behind ARR MSQ. Like I said, even switching to another class requires at least some MSQ done and you can't travel all the land without airships- also gated behind ARR MSQ. Granted, it's early in the story, but the gate is still there.

I'm not sure why anyone would want to skip MSQ as it is, considering it offers some of the most efficient experience there is to gain.

I never said to skip the msq, Im simply talking about playing from ahead with having msq quest to do later on , I personally would rather get the things that prob wouldn't interest me on its on out of the way. Capping scripts and tomes must be boring because all I hear are people complaining about the end game. I like to always have msq remaining because it is my favorite part of the game, so the other parts arent, getting my gear to max level if that is the only thing I have to do and my story is gone is gona be boring. I have always played games being 10 to 20 levels ahead of where I am in the story ,from ahead and so do others from what Ive seen but how hw is set up it makes that option pointless, because you have no access you have no access to fates of the level you maybe on, you have no access to job skills because its locked I have a level 60 now and unless I bomb rush the story I will have no access to 230 or higher gear even tho I do hunts and things of that nature. So what Im saying is by forcing people to complete the story if thats something that they love about the game then whats to keep them there once they have finished it if the other things dont interest them. So why would it be a good idea to use the same formula for the next expansion , there isnt enough story they could create that would even last a month so why lock it if you want people to play the game longer than that amount of time. And as far as item lvl requirements I could go on mb right now and buy 250 gear or get someone to make it for me , item level will never be a factor anymore so even with an expansion if someone can craft and put it on marketboard people could have the right gear and still be locked from content, note I never said dont lock story dungeons but if we are talking optional stuff that you have the option to do or not to do there is no reason to tie it in with msq.

[Kosmos992k]

This is a false comparison. ARR is the base game, you had free roam (as in you could walk/ride anywhere) as long as you could survive that area, because that was the game. Content such as dungeons was gated behind story and level requirements, as is normal. With Heavensward, it's an expansion to the base game, and you have to progress to Ishgard before you can travel anywhere else.

You *DO* actually have free roam in most Heavensward zones as long as you have been able to travel to Ishgard. Your travel otherwise is gated only by how brave you are at lvl 50 to roam higher level areas. But once again certain content such as dungeons and trials is story/level gated, as per normal for an RPG.

If you are referring to the gating of HW content by Steps of faith, that is a completely different question.

[CorvinusV]

Anyone coming to the game will notice the difference, in Arr now you can be level 50 and still be on the level 25 quest in msq, but still have access to a ton of content like all the dungeons i mention 4 dungeons, that arent tied to the msq. And you can travel to any area you see fit thats in arr you cant do this in hw, also your job quest wernt locked behind what areas you where in within the msq, like it is in msq so I dont see the similarities here, with how easy it is to level now I see no reason for the things to be gated like they are now in hw.

I agree that HW felt a bit more gated than ARR. HW made leveling a character exclusively for solo crafting/gathering a bit more difficult than it was in ARR.
Maybe SE can land right in the middle of the two but if I had to pick one or the other, I lean more toward ARR's style.