Allow MSQ Fast Track To Latest Expansion

[Wilan]

I agree with OP, especially having seen the daily complaint coming from my server's novice network: FFXIV really needs an abridged MSQ.

No need to censor anything or have players miss out on content, either. Most of it, especially in the early days, is filler whose only purpose is to drag things for longer, which is OK when the game is new but not so much when you need to catch up, and this filler is most of the time inconsequential.
Or to put it in other words, having to go sniff chocobo rears doesn't really add anything of importance to the plot.

I really like the direction they're going with the latests patches; have only half a dozen quests per patch, make them ALL relevant to the main plot, and everything else is a side-quest that you can do at your own pace. If they could go back and make so the old MSQ behaves the same way it'd be perfect I think.

[LunaFaye]

Depends what point they're starting from. If they finished, say, 3.0, and are trying to push through 3.x, yeah, I'd agree. If they're starting from the end of 2.0, it's quite a grind, patience-wise as much as anything else. And if they're wanting to start a fresh character to ease back into things (which is what I did in January), finishing by the time SB releases would almost surely trigger burnout.

If you start a new character and skip everything and only focus on MSQ and dungeon unlocks, you can get from 1-60 and even gear in ilvl 230-260 gear within 2 weeks, and that's when playing only 4 or 5 hours every day. Done it with alts lately and it isn't big a deal. With potd even faster if you chose to do that, but then you will have to back track and do MSQ/Job Quests and unlock quests, which will most likely take much longer than just rushing through with skipping.

The grind starts, if we want to call it that, if they decide to do an anima weapon or more then one till SB releases, or wanting to fully gear (ilvl270) their job or multiple. That will take a while even with the scripture cap raised to 900 per week, since you gotta bother getting upgrade materials from the 24 mans (if you're not raiding) and we all know what kind of disaster that has been lately lol.

I am not against jumping potions, more alts for me, but it's absolutely not necessary at the current state of the game.

[Maero]

Skip potions are on the way, this has long been discussed. This will be after Stormblood however.
And of course long time players will be caught up and moving on to the next expansion, it is unfortunate that certain things are tied to old content.
It could just be served as a lesson perhaps and going forward hopefully they do not do the same thing over again.

[Berethos]

dead ghost towns of previous content and once they finally catch up everyone is in the new expansion content is done with it.

With the roulette system set up the way it is, there's really no "dead ghost towns of previous content" unless you're counting some of the side optional stuff, and even that stuff gets run pretty regularly just not as often through duty finder.

And unless they plan on being part of progression raiding, people as a whole aren't done with the current expansions content until really the next expansion. We're less than 50 days out from Stormblood and queues for most content still pop quickly.

[Berethos]

And of course long time players will be caught up and moving on to the next expansion, it is unfortunate that certain things are tied to old content.

Roulettes keeps old required content populated, so this isn't nearly the issue it is in other games in terms of doing old content.

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

The ARR leadup to HW msq's can certainly due with some editing. Many of the quests don't even have to be removed simply relegated to sidequests or +unlock quests. Editing down those 100 msq's to get into HW is certainly a good idea IMO. With that said, I don't like the idea of people outright SKIPPING the story. The story is the whole point of FFXIV. It's the very meat and potatoes of the game. Skipping the story is like paying to not play the bulk of the game. Now if there's some sort of "abridged" version of the required msq's available as an alternative for those returning or just far behind, I wouldn't be opposed so long as the abridged version at least gives them the gist of the story so they have an idea of whats happening and aren't going in blind.

[Berethos]

An abridged version is an interesting idea (though a careful look at the story there does reveal that trimming it is harder than it first appears) but it's not as feasible from the development side - eventually they'd need to do abridged versions of each expansion as the game gets older and the story gets longer and might reach the point where even the abridged version is too long for new players, especially if it remains required.

Things like that take dev time - rewriting for clarity in multiple languages, testing quest triggers, developing the systems for two versions if said current system doesn't easily allow it (assuming it would work at all currently), and that will inevitably begin to cut into dev time for future content.

Ungating it from content unlocks but leaving it intact and requiring one to go through it if they want to experience the story is ultimately the more elegant solution.

[Belhi]

Here is the problem with an abridged version:

1) It would take a lot of resources:
It isn't just cutting out quests. It requires checking and altering dialog, modifying cutscenes, checking and adapting story flow to insure important information buried among the filler isn't lost and then all the QA that would be involved. That requires developers working on it. That means developers not working on endgame content. To do this they would have to cut back on the patch content we receive.

2) It would be a very short term fix:
The MSQ isn't stopping anytime soon. What happens in an expansion's time when SB has been added to the MSQ? What about the expansion afterward? There is a lot less filler to cut from HW so the actual gains you get will be limited.

Clearly its an issue but cutting back on the existing story won't really work. The other suggested solution, unlinking the story from progression doesn't sit well with me simply because I strongly suspect that such a change will almost certainly impact the story in a way I would find negative, if not simply to the story then to immersion. It would make far more sense to just let people skip forward in the story if they don't want to do it. Let the stories structure remain how it is. Just give people the option to skip forward.

[Minsue]

The jump potions are mostly for people who are wanting to get an alt up or don't care about the story and might just gloss over it they exist me personally this would be a god send since i had to restart. x.x

[Canadane]

I wonder if the jump potions also unlocks the achievements for completing the story quests.