Naoki Yoshida's Comment in Regard to Jump Potions/Boost Potions

[Belhi]

People keep talking about other in game options. Can anyone suggest one that the existing quest system will allow for and that won't require a overhaul of the ARR MSQ. I wouldn't be opposed to an overhaul in theory if it wasn't for the fact that doing so would mean a lot less endgame content for people who have already completed the MSQ.

Any quest overhaul will take a great deal of resources and those resources will come directly out of our content. Further any overhaul will only be useful until the next expansion. The problem isn't just the quality but the length. There is only so much MSQ a person can grind through in one go before it gets to being too much.

[Jerbob]

People keep talking about other in game options. Can anyone suggest one that the existing quest system will allow for and that won't require a overhaul of the ARR MSQ. I wouldn't be opposed to an overhaul in theory if it wasn't for the fact that doing so would mean a lot less endgame content for people who have already completed the MSQ.

They could replicate the proposed jump potion nonsense in-game just as easily by introducing a "memories NPC" that would, through various shenanigans, auto-complete quests in exactly the same way as the potion. That'd be one extreme.

If that's not what people want, there's a whole spectrum of options between that and doing nothing. Perhaps an "auto-complete fetch quests" option that skips all the unimportant jobs and leaves us with just the plot-relevant cutscenes? A "play all the cutscenes in order without any travelling required" option? The choice to auto-complete certain sections but not others? There are tonnes of choices that SE could make that would require no editing to the cutscenes (and thus very little work, work that's probably already been done in preparation for these potions). They could even implement multiple options - that'd be really nice for people who have different tastes and opinions on this matter.

A visual streamlining of the questline, with new condensed cutscenes and dialogue - yes, that could potentially be difficult and expensive to do, I'll freely accept that. But I don't believe that's the route they have to take.

[Exidrial]

People keep talking about other in game options. Can anyone suggest one that the existing quest system will allow for and that won't require a overhaul of the ARR MSQ. I wouldn't be opposed to an overhaul in theory if it wasn't for the fact that doing so would mean a lot less endgame content for people who have already completed the MSQ.

Making all the content ilvl and level gated. In essence making the MSQ optional.
All this would require would be a simple change in content unlock requirements. They wouldn't even have to touch the MSQ for that.

There is NO reason to implement a level skip potion other than making SE money.

[Meeka19]

Making all the content ilvl and level gated. In essence making the MSQ optional.
All this would require would be a simple change in content unlock requirements. They wouldn't even have to touch the MSQ for that.

There is NO reason to implement a level skip potion other than making SE money.

@Yoshida

Why not this honestly?

Main quest series is a source of lore/immersion, exp, gear, glamours (mount/some outfits/minions) and structure. People can use it until they get bored, for the guidance or story, and the people that want to skip just get a plethora of dungeons and new areas to explore, with the people with friends able to easily be gifted a full ilvl 145 set bought from npcs for less than 100k total I think.
When it comes to lvling, they were gonna do the dungeons/potd/fates and etc anyway, out of curiosity and in duty finder's case for the second chance points.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Making all the content ilvl and level gated. In essence making the MSQ optional.
All this would require would be a simple change in content unlock requirements. They wouldn't even have to touch the MSQ for that.

There is NO reason to implement a level skip potion other than making SE money.

Your "simple change" isn't actually easy to implement. By adjusting flags to account for ilvl, they would still have to overhaul entire quest system because accessing Heavenward could happen before you've completed half ARR. Therefore, it requires extra development costs. Regardless, who cares if their sole motivation was financial profit? Square Enix is a business. Why shouldn't they attempt to capitalize on something practically every other MMO does? One could argue they're simply collecting the sub time you would have paid had you gone through everything at reasoned pace. If they bundle these potions with the expansion, it'll essentially be a free skip to whomever wants one. At that point, it's difficult to call them money hungry.

[Exidrial]

Your "simple change" isn't actually easy to implement. By adjusting flags to account for ilvl, they would still have to overhaul
entire quest system because accessing Heavenward could happen before you've completed half ARR. Therefore, it requires extra development costs. Regardless, who cares if their sole motivation was financial profit? Square Enix is a business. Why shouldn't they attempt to capitalize on something practically every other MMO does? One could argue they're simply collecting the sub time you would have paid had you gone through everything at reasoned pace. If they bundle these potions with the expansion, it'll essentially be a free skip to whomever wants one. At that point, it's difficult to call them money hungry.

What? How would they have to overhaul the entire quest system? They just have to remove the "blahblahQuestCompleted" flag from any duties. This doesn't require an overhaul of the entire quest system.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by saying accesing HW could happen before ARR. HW Dungeons are 51+ while ARR Dungeons are 50- .

Capitalizing on something like this is not a nice thing to do, especially if your customers disagree with the implementation of the 'feature'.

Edit:

T
The way they described how the questing and flagging system worked it doesn't sound like it would be simple. In fact it would probably require substantially modifying how that system works. Right now they cant allow you to replay old questlines without completely resetting all your progress back to that point.

Even if they did, this would effect things such as phasing and the story mechanics with effects on such aspects.

Great, that's why you should code in such a way that systems can easily be modified or expanded upon.

Now we have to pay for it -.-"

[Nestama]

People keep talking about other in game options. Can anyone suggest one that the existing quest system will allow for and that won't require a overhaul of the ARR MSQ. I wouldn't be opposed to an overhaul in theory if it wasn't for the fact that doing so would mean a lot less endgame content for people who have already completed the MSQ.

Players weren't all that happy about 3.1, if I recall (and all the FFXIV team did was take a break for two weeks or something after HW's release). Delayed and rather lacking in the endgame department.

[Eldrakkyn]

Wonderful. Make a joke of all the pointless clicking everyone's had to do to get throught the turgid MSQ and fully enable gil sellers to jump on in with a high level char and job.
These pay solutions might be acceptable if we weren't already paying a sub.