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

[Lewtskie]

You're arguing that I want to take away the structure of the main story, yet you support allowing people to skip it almost entirely via jump potions. Hypocritical much?

There's a HUGE difference between the pots and what you're proposing. The pot is an OPTION, you literally said to just cut dungeons out of the main story and cut any ties any side content might ever have.

One affects a player by choice, another affects everyone, whether they want it or not.

Placing fluff quests as side quests to be done in between story moments would be a great idea, having more instances with NPCs would be too. But how exactly would you structure a primal fight with basic operation NPCs? The mechanics would have to be so watered down and simple that it would make even the current story versions of primal fights look difficult by comparison. How is that fun? Any end boss to a dungeon be made a simple tank and spank type where the damage done is so laughable you could go in there as a DRG and never worry about dying?

Call me a hypocrite, but I'm actually trying to preserve what currently exists for those who enjoy it. You'd prefer making everyone pay a price.

[Moonlite]

People seem to be stuck on this belief that (general) we don't want people skipping the story because "lore". I'm saying it's not an option because of the crummy system the devs have in place; they can't let people only skip certain quests without it affecting quests ahead of it. Heard of sequence breaking? That's what the whole thing entails to. Do things in a different order or skip certain flags and the game will freak out and break certain things, which means even more time wasted patching a system for a bunch of players that will probably still whine about having to go though the MSQ anyway, cut quests or not.

No I have been saying for a long time the game is designed poorly (for whatever reason). Lets move from the fact they can't fix old questing type system, hundred percent on board with this. Why two years later have they decided to lock 4.0 content behind 3.55? When they know they can't fix the system.

People say we need that lock for lore of Ala mhigo. Also they pretend it stops rmt. Your from Balmung you know how much crafting goes on. The players literally could not keep that many shards/crystals in circulation.

SE the company that doubles down on mistakes charges you for it and people rejoice.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

I never said anything about RMT and that's a whole can worms for another thread. The devs did say they wouldn't lock 4.0 but why they changed their minds I don't know.

I don't craft much so I can't relate or know what their problem is.

[Moonlite]

I was just getting the people who defend the locks say it stops rmt. Rose coloured glasses stuff.

[Lewtskie]

No I have been saying for a long time the game is designed poorly (for whatever reason).

It's clear at this point the devs stand firm on how they've chosen to design their story, and that is completely in their right. DoH/L should have realized at this point that the game, while providing them a near-career in the content, is never going to just let them be DoH/L. This was made clear when HW released, and this was made clear when specializations were restricted. They made a compromise with players by separating new jobs from the gates, because they understood how much a selling point those were to bring in players new and old.

Something could be done to support the pure DoH/L demographic, but not by making the devs restructure how they have chosen to make this game. Again, this a proposition that disrupts the artistic integrity of the game. It as well makes everyone pay a price for the benefit of some. A better solution needs to be made. There possibly will be something in wait that will benefit this demographic, the pot isn't planned for release anyway so maybe something else will exist.

These are not mistakes, these are just a course of action you do not agree with.

[Adire]

.....

I like how you completely ignored this part of my post:

They could even opt to allow players a choice between a streamlined version of main story quests or the full package.

But nope, jump potions are the only option!

And yes, there is a huge difference between what we're proposing. You're proposing a paid, scorched earth, skip everything method. I'm proposing a preferably optional, streamlined method that leaves the important stuff intact, that doesn't push us further along the cash shop route.

I don't care for the story in this game, mostly because of the bad first impressions I got from the quest after quest of uninteresting, irrelevant to the big picture errands that had to be done particularly in ARR. I'm exactly one of the kinds of people who would love to skip through that. But jump potions are NOT the way to go.

If an NPC can just do the quest for you, then why are you even there in the first place if you have no purpose?


Regardless of how much you hate fetch quests and boring story, everything leads to a build up in relationship with other characters as the story progresses.

Our purpose as warriors of light should be to protect Eorzea, not go shopping for tools for a lazy NPC. Our time is better spent elsewhere.

Look at how they did HW, especially the last few patches. Very little errand running and fetching. The story is full of actual meat.

Slaying some goats for forgettable NPC number 20, for some skins so the NPC won't be cold when he leaves his house, only to never to be seen again by us doesn't really help me build any kind of relationship with anyone important. That kind of stuff is just filler "content" in between important events. It can easily be skipped and if necessary, still have the basic info of what happened available in the quest log.

[Yasuhiro]

ARR's questing was the 'least Final Fantasy experience I've played in any game in the series and I struggled and endured FFXIII.
Collecting boar butts is not what I want out of a FF game, keep it in WoW.

[MrMagnificent]

ARR's questing was the 'least Final Fantasy experience I've played in any game in the series and I struggled and endured FFXIII.
Collecting boar butts is not what I want out of a FF game, keep it in WoW.

Least Final Fantasy experience? How is killing 5 boars any different than fighting 20 random battles while walking down a hallway? How is grinding leves for dungeons any different from grinding random battles for bosses in FF1-FF10? And lets not get into some of the 'side content'.

[Lewtskie]

I like how you completely ignored this part of my post:

I didn't ignore it, I read it. It's nothing new and has been made as a suggestion time and time again. Trimming the fat, as it were. Not necessarily a bad thing to do in the long run, but in the here and now, no, it's not a smart idea. It's not a simple task that just happens in a weekend, it's a planned project all its own that would require sufficient time and effort from the team.

No, see, you had a proposal. A very clear one. You suggested they should just cut large chunks of meat from the main storyline for ease of access. Not fat full of filler. But dungeons and trials? It was a ludicrous idea that was not at all optional in any way, that would clearly have an adverse effect on other players.

That I have a clear issue with. But you have yet to defend it further.

Pots aren't the only solution, nor the perfect one, but as you are the one fighting against it you need to come up with something better. Something that doesn't trade the satisfaction of one group for another. Something that won't take away from current development efforts. Everything comes at a cost, but who's supposed to pay the price exactly?

[Adire]

....

If you can't be bothered to read the suggestions that many others have made, I don't know what to say. I'm not going to repeat and elaborate on what others have said throughout the thread over and over for people who aren't interested enough to look for it themselves.

Making dungeons all be optional in Stormblood would be perfectly fine and possible. This is the only MMO I've played that forces you to do dungeons as part of the main story actually. Others (like The Secret World) has dungeons that are related to the story, but not crucial or mandatory to progress the main storyline. That's how it should be in Stormblood, with the crucial bits in instances with NPCs that actually make sense to be fighting with you. Why are the WoL and 3 random people always the ones doing the heavy lifting? Why can't the Scions or other allies be involved in the major fights? As it is right now, they're cut scene warriors and backdrops for the most part.

I do not advocate making current dungeons skippable.

My suggestion as I've said numerous times is to streamline the old storyline, preferably making the streamlined version optional. Skipping it entirely as a cash shop option is not healthy. If SE can't make that happen before Stormblood launches, they should work on it as they go (or take another suggestion).