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

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

Making dungeons all be optional, non-story related dungeons.

Worst. Idea. Ever. You not liking that dungeons have a story is a personal gripe, it's one of the things I love most about this game.

[Adire]

Worst. Idea. Ever. You not liking that dungeons have a story is a personal gripe, it's one of the things I love most about this game.

Spoken like someone who had the point fly completely over their head. Try again. I love dungeons having story. Dungeons being a required part of progressing the main storyline I can do without.

[Yasuhiro]

Least Final Fantasy experience?

Because in this game those quests are made out to be like you're a glorified errand boy but they sugar coat your slave labour saying "oh you're soooo good Warrior of Light, wow, you're amazing" I don't believe any other FF game has had me go forward and back as much as FFXIV did just for a pat on the back. So I stand by what I said, the game didn't start to feel like a Final Fantasy adventure until Heavensward or arguably just before the praetorium, so yes it is different and geez even after beating Ultima weapon they still had the guts to make you hand out freaking uniforms!!!
In those other games I was doing something that advanced the story, keep the boar butts to side missions please.

ARR is just generic Koreran MMO #4562 garbage
HW is what I'd expect out of a Final Fantasy game with MMO elements

The difference between ARR and HW is night and day.

I never mentioned killing either, I said collecting

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

Spoken like someone who had the point fly completely over their head. Try again. I love dungeons having story. Dungeons being a required part of progressing the main storyline I can do without.

No, I know what your point is. I heavily don't agree with it. I like that the dungeons are connected to the MSQ, there's plenty of sandboxes where people can wander wherever they want without rhyme, reason, or lore. I like that we actually have an in-game reason to do the things we do, especially because said reason is not 'For teh Luls'.

[Adire]

No, I know what your point is. I heavily don't agree with it. I like that the dungeons are connected to the MSQ, there's plenty of sandboxes where people can wander wherever they want without rhyme, reason, or lore. I like that we actually have an in-game reason to do the things we do, especially because said reason is not 'For teh Luls'.

There are plenty of ways to strongly connect a dungeon to the main story without forcing it in. That's what I'm trying to say, so we really agree I believe.

Plenty of other games do it. The Secret World as an example does it quite well.

Doing everything with The Scions then suddenly they're sitting on the sidelines while I do a dungeon with random people I've never met is incredibly immersion breaking and not at all in line with what's going on in the story.

[Claymore65]

While I agree that streamlining the story is good from a "New Player Experience" standpoint, it's not a great solution for the overall "story/leveling bloat" that the level boosts solve far more easily.

• What counts as "Filler"? : One major problem with pruning "filler" is how to define it. Every person has a different definition of "filler", as you can even see in this discussion. For example, Tataru's attempts to become an Arcanist could be defined as "filler", but for others it was a fun bit of character development establishing that combat is not, and won't become, her strong-suit. For others, it was a waste of time. There are some parts most can probably agree were a problem, such as the "Company of Heroes" plotline (when you literally mock NPCs wasting your time, you probably shouldn't unironically do that), it's still a difficult decision. Do we cut out the quests with the Doman Children? Those decisions are very difficult to make, especially with the current love of continuity in this game (1.0 NPCs still keep randomly showing up, "random NPC you helped in Quarrymill" ended up being important etc). Plus, if Heavensward is any indication, they've gotten much better at reducing "filler" in the main quest.
• Story Continues to Grow:One major problem with "just" pruning the MSQ is that this is a compounding issue. Sure, there's plenty of filler to cut in ARR, but what about when the next expansion comes out? Do they have to cut tons of "filler" from Heavensward, which (in my opinion) has very little to cut? Do they then have to trim Stormblood? At some point, a skip is going to need to be allowed.
• Difficulty of Change: I don't know enough about their code-base to speak for certain, but I imagine this is a BIG change for them. Depending on the lengths you want to go, it might necessitate new cutscenes/voice acting (which is very expensive), new duties (if dungeons are to be replaced), enormous content revamps (making MSQ "optional" may be nearly impossible without redoing much of the game), and storyline considerations. The linear plot is both a boon and a bane for this game, as it allows them to tell stories other MMOs are incapable of, but it certainly has its downsides as well. Without redesigning much of the game, "simple" changes might break everything. There are currently over 300 Main Story Quests for them to sift through and evaluate.
• Doesn't help those who ignore the story: If you ignore the story already, "making it shorter" does nothing to help you. Skipping through 150 cutscenes instead of 200 doesn't make your experience any better. For those who don't care about the story, or just want to catch-up to friends, making it slightly shorter won't help.
• Doesn't Help Veterans: This is a big deal. Reworking the entire story would cost a LOT of resources. Those resources don't come from thin air. In WoW, there is a frequent Dev Statement/joke of "Yeah we could fix that old issue, but it'll cost you a raid tier." It's not exactly wrong. Time spent toward fixing old issues is time that isn't spent on new content. The level boost gets new players into the "relevant" content now, but this won't. Do you want them to cut things from Stormblood (and likely future expansions if we have to keep trimming)?

Once again, I'm not saying the "Story Pruning" would be a bad idea necessarily (it would substantially improve the "New Player experience"), I'm just saying it's a poor solution to content bloat. The level/story skip has none of these problems. Not interested in the story? Skip it. Not interested in leveling, but want to see the story? Level boost. Since these are already implemented in other regions, this solution costs far less development time and/or money, and will infringe on Stormblood's new content far less.

There was some good discussion on "Story Pruning" on the reddit a while back if you want to see some more discussion. (https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme..._magic_bullet/)

As for the exact details on the Level Boost, I believe there's much more room for debate. For example, I'm of the opinion that either Stormblood, or the "FFXIV Complete Edition", or even the "FFXIV Online Starter Edition" should come with a level/story boost, since that's more or less standard with most major MMO games (Guild Wars 2, World of Warcraft Legion). It's then up to the player if they want to use it. Those who care about the story won't use the Story Boost, those who don't will and move on to "current" content.

[RaijinSupreme]

There are plenty of ways to strongly connect a dungeon to the main story without forcing it in. That's what I'm trying to say, so we really agree I believe.

Plenty of other games do it. The Secret World as an example does it quite well.

Doing everything with The Scions then suddenly they're sitting on the sidelines while I do a dungeon with random people I've never met is incredibly immersion breaking and not at all in line with what's going on in the story.

well I mean that's not happening regardless. That's the structure the game is built upon. It's been this way since 2.0's release as far as I know (could have even been this way since 1.0) and considering all the thousands or millions of people who played the game, It must not have been a real issue lol.

[Moonlite]

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

I am slightly confused. What do you call it when the developer admits the current course of action is detrimental to recruiting new players. Yet they can't fix current course of action within current system. So they wish to bypass it with money. They then chose to repeat same system a second time.

But my poorly designed comment was more from a technical stand point. For example in the past the game prioritizes fresh ques over people who are in partially formed parties. That seems pretty poorly planned to me. Inventory needs to be refreshed every millisecond, so they charge for retainers that don't need to be refreshed. Those types of issues that are more about design issues.

[dragonseth07]

But my poorly designed comment was more from a technical stand point. For example in the past the game prioritizes fresh ques over people who are in partially formed parties. That seems pretty poorly planned to me. Inventory needs to be refreshed every millisecond, so they charge for retainers that don't need to be refreshed. Those types of issues that are more about design issues.

Good old "We coded this terribly years ago and can't fix it now." Reminds me of when Blizzard tried to upgrade the backpack in WoW. In tests, it totally wiped people's characters among other horrible things. It was like some horrible keystone that no-one is allowed to touch ever because of how it was set up originally.

[MrMagnificent]

Because in this game those quests are made out to be like you're a glorified errand boy but they sugar coat your slave labour saying "oh you're soooo good Warrior of Light, wow, you're amazing" I don't believe any other FF game has had me go forward and back as much as FFXIV did just for a pat on the back. So I stand by what I said, the game didn't start to feel like a Final Fantasy adventure until Heavensward or arguably just before the praetorium, so yes it is different and geez even after beating Ultima weapon they still had the guts to make you hand out freaking uniforms!!!

What i'm trying to say is that you can't expect a single player RPG not have common tropes found in MMORPGs. I'm not defending some of these errand quests, but lets not ignore the fact that they are side quests that don't advance the plot in other RPGs (including the FF series).

I found the ARR storyline to be decent, but that is just my opinion.