Random thought about being ilvl synced.

[BillyKaplan]

As far as a comment I saw earlier suggesting that the "gather your adventurer friends" was a new thing with Stormblood, it was actually part of the 2.0 story content leading up to the assault on Cape Westwind, and then Castrum Meridianum.

That part of the story is unique in that sense - they're canonically there. They even show up in the cutscenes. The big difference is that when you're fighting the empire, there are no Primals to potentially temper your party members so the story can acknowledge other people being there. Otherwise while they don't deny other Echo blessed individuals exist (Arenvald for one) it'll be too much of a hassle to acknowledge their presence beyond lampshading jokes. That part is also one of the few parts in the game where canonically you would've had enough time to put a group together, not so much when you're in the Ananta cave and Lakshmi just turned on you.

[DRKoftheAzure]

It's really not 'usually', as far as I remember it's a pretty recent addition that started more heavily in SB. But look at all the canon scenes before and after we run stuff - even running Sastasha, we're the ones who return to Limsa and reap the credit, not a single mention of our supposed allies. Even before the dungeon you run into Edda and Avere and the rest of their party, which would imply a party setup, but you're on your own because the party only forms when you queue and logically speaking, you would have had your party with you by then, no? Then there's one of the more important examples being after you beat Thordan and he's basically wetting himself. His question of what are you even loses a lot of its impact if you canonically acknowledge you weren't the only one beating him up, doesn't it?

This is why we need MSQ sharing... for expanded story and promoting static groups... MSQ is glorified single player at this point...

[BillyKaplan]

This is why we need MSQ sharing... for expanded story and promoting static groups... MSQ is glorified single player at this point...

You can share any quest that isn't in a solo instance so long as all party members are on the same quest and the same stage in the quest. And solo instances are not exclusive to the MSQ. Meanwhile it is the MSQ who, despite the lore and immediate story not adding up, keeps forcing you into group content. Personally I'm ok with this, as the alternative would've been trying to create a story that would cater to all possible party makeups - not to mention they'd have to start tuning the formerly-solo instances towards that goal as well. Development time much better invested in other things, imo.