A serious discussion about abridging the story quest 1-50 (discouraging new players)

[ThanMazus]

I know that if they made the entire MSQ optional it would keep more new players.

"A serious discussion about abridging the story quest 1-50 (discouraging new players)"

So you agree with the thread title's premise?

[Zabuza]

"A serious discussion about abridging the story quest 1-50 (discouraging new players)"

So you agree with the thread title's premise?

Insofar in that it could discourage some new players who have no patience, yes, I agree. Where we differ is I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing for the game. I'd rather they keep the loyal fanbase who stuck with them entertained than pandering to some instant gratification kiddies. As I said earlier, not all the new players will leave. Quite a few who enjoy story, who enjoy the game, will stay. I already stated several times I have no problem getting rid of the useless fetch quests in the MSQ. Where I have the problem is where quite a few people are demanding the entire MSQ be optional.

[Tuathaa]

you do realise that the thread is no longer about just streamlining the main story right? hasnt been for a long time

the chance most ppl want is to make story completly optional, which is what "we" dont want to happen

if u acutally bother to go and look i doubt you will find a single post that is against streamlining the main story quest

Actually I have been pretty active in this thread since the start. Very few people want to make it optional and no one seriously asked for level 50 boosts. The vast majority of people who have talked about it and flipped out are people against the idea or have no idea what is going on in this thread.

[Tuathaa]

She does have an idea... Main Story Quest IS NOT OPTIONAL, deal with it. The patches MSQ however is definitely TRASH and could be trimmed for sure. If you are new player, the MSQ 2.0 and 3.0 is excellent source of "down time" in between "brain freeze" dungeon grind of doing the same thing over and over. They also move you along to new areas, and give exploration some meaning, and free XP. The patches mission however, again, pure garbage and filler in the worst way possible. These can be made totally optional and just keep the key missions that let you fight primals and dungeons.

Not if she seems to think that this thread is about level 50 boosts and skipping the msq until the end then no she doesn't. Which was the whole gist of her post.

[elemental10]

The thread is about cutting some of the MSQ's time-consuming quests that yields little to no return on material investment.

I.e. fetch quests that don't give much exp or gears or gil, quests that want me to talk to this person 6 feet away from the quest giver, quests that are just plain dialog and quests that seem to lead to nowhere.

The thread is not about making MSQ optional nor letting new people have instant lvl 50's the minute they've got into their main city. It is also not a thread about cutting the story in anyway, simply making the journey from one chapter to the next chapter more bearable and streamlined. Right now, the MSQ's will give you quests that stretch from one point in Eorzea to the other and come back to complete it with little reward given.

However, if you take a look at how streamlined the quests actually are, you'd be surprised at how each quests are strategically placed. For example, I started in Ul'dah as a GLD. The first quest is Momodi. After completing that, side quests will appear around the city, ranging from fetch quests to kill-and-loot quests. The side quests themselves are not hard and some of them give gears, they are also placed just outside the boundary of Ul'dah, in central thanalan as well as western thanalan. But these side-quests are completely optional. Just want to point things out that SE doesn't just let side-quests pop up that make you back-travel all the way from point c to point a just to do one thing.

MSQ's on the other hand are quite streamlined, where players go from this city to the next city and discover new places as they go. But according to some people, they are too long and filled with senseless running from one point to another point with no real materialistic value. They are asking SE if there is any way to shorten these quests and filter objectives that doesn't relate to the story in any important way.

For example, Momodi's 3 objectives quest. First, you have to attune to the aetheryte of Ul'dah, second to go the GLD guild, and third to speak with the person that will introduce you to the market.

As an example, let's abridge that quest. Instead of 3 objectives that stretch out as far as the market. Let's shorten it to only attuning to the aetheryte and talk to your guildmaster. That's it. This will shorten the quest in a way that will not affect the story BUT will only affect your knowledge of the location of the market in Ul'dah. Players can have the initiative to explore Ul'dah in order to know about the market or they can just get lost and ask people around. The outcome is the same.

This is how some people want to "abridge" the MSQ while still maintaining the streamline of the story, in order to ease the burden of new players that want to get to the current content without sacrificing too much time doing the story.

This is what I understand from the thread.

[RichardButte]

Well, it took them a few years but we FINALLY got the feature.

Looks like you can allow people to boost past the MSQ entirely and the world doesn't suddenly end. Who knew, right? :P

[Vhailor]

Well, it took them a few years but we FINALLY got the feature.

Looks like you can allow people to boost past the MSQ entirely and the world doesn't suddenly end. Who knew, right? :P

Holy necro Batman.

That said, I think it's ridiculous that SE is charging money for these boost potions. They're also forcing upon players a choice between two extremes (full storyline vs. full skipping), rather than simply going back and allowing players to select a "condensed" option that cut down on the fetch quests or implemented auto-teleports or the like. I guess the boost potions are better than nothing, but it's an embarrassingly half-assed solution to a problem entirely of SE's own making.

[RichardButte]

Holy necro Batman.

That said, I think it's ridiculous that SE is charging money for these boost potions. They're also forcing upon players a choice between two extremes (full storyline vs. full skipping), rather than simply going back and allowing players to select a "condensed" option that cut down on the fetch quests or implemented auto-teleports or the like. I guess the boost potions are better than nothing, but it's an embarrassingly half-assed solution to a problem entirely of SE's own making.

I get why they did it, and they give players the option of going back to an inn room and watching the entire MSQ via cutscenes. It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing.

Also, their jump potions are WAAAY more reasonably priced than WoW's equivalent: FF's $25 vs. WoW's whopping $60 for a level 100 character.