Quality of Life Improvements and MSQ Gating for New Players

[ElHeggunte]

It's not invalid as a statement, just not complete.

Oh, bravo. I was trying to figure out how to say this in so many words and decided instead to wax poetic for want of something to do. This is a beautifully succinct way of explaining it, thank you.

[RiyahArp]

Twisted, if they sped it up, players would raid log in a month. Leveling your first job to cap is the longest, most engaging content in this game. You want to rush to cap for what, do for 4 endgame fights every 6 months? To cap tomes?

[TwistedTea]

Part 2: "This is a story-based game..'

Exactly. FFXI's expansion stories were more coherent and cohesive (even if certain ones took forever to finish being released...) because they didn't have to keep building on a single, continuous narrative as well...

For XI: You could also run to the vast majority of zones at lv1, were you so inclined, without being blocked unless it involved a boat or airship. Could unlock every job in the game (and all future expansions) once you hit lv30, regardless of your progression in any part of the story so long as you could reach the NPC(s) required.

[Krotoan]

Addressing, "This is a story-based game" arguement:

FFXI also punished you harshly for failing, locked bag expansion behind invisible rep grinds and gated you from getting to later cities with nail biting sneak runs past monsters who would aggro a low level from far away enough that it was almost impossible at beginner levels. My only experience with FFXI WAS early though, so these may have been mitigated later, but there were many time gates in FFXI, just not that one. FFXI did have an incredible story it was based around even if you didn't do it though, I'll admit you didn't HAVE to but you lost out on a lot if you chose not to.

[SonKevin]

Here's my argument.

We've been getting less and less content with every patch and a high level of 'junk' content that sneaks in and is usually dead or useless even before the next patch drops. I don't want a team that's been reducing content with ever single patch to use their resources to go back and fix the ARR quests. It's pointless and if you don't want to play the game, you probably weren't going to play the game that long anyway. If you really don't want to do the quests than you can drop the cash to bypass it all. You have your options, but don't waste my chance at getting what little content we started receiving to fix an issue that has other options to bypass it.

[RiyahArp]

FFXI also punished you harshly for failing

...yeah this person must never have played it. Just getting utsusemi: ichi was far more tedious than anything this game has to offer. And SMN in general was effectively unlocked at 50 for most people, because trying to get all summons solo at 30 is far harder than any savage fight in this game, and was worse than maat imo because there is zero way to cheese it.

[SonKevin]

...yeah this person must never have played it. Just getting utsusemi: ichi was far more tedious than anything this game has to offer. And SMN in general was effectively unlocked at 50 for most people, because trying to get all summons solo at 30 is far harder than any savage fight in this game, and was worse than maat imo because there is zero way to cheese it.

Ugh, don't remind me. I was able to get all my summons outside of Leviathan. You needed to rely on money for the potions, could only do it every 2 hours because you needed your two hour, had to wait for the right in game day for the summon to be weakest, and had to get someone cast the highest level of Protect and Shell on you. It was a nightmare. I still wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night thinking about how many times it took me to just get Shiva.

[TwistedTea]

FFXI also punished you harshly for failing, locked bag expansion behind invisible rep grinds and gated you from getting to later cities with nail biting sneak runs past monsters who would aggro a low level from far away enough that it was almost impossible at beginner levels...

I'm sure FFXI is imperfect in many ways. However, I brought up those quotes as evidence that there's already a precedent for 'optional/'semi-optional' MSQ.

Let SE implement the best of 'freedom'/'options' from FFXI for FFXIV is my proposal while discarding things which do not work.

[DreadRabbit]

A casual player who just wants to hang out with friends in Stormblood areas/do the newest content has to slog through at least 3-4 months of MSQ (ARR to the start of Stormblood),assuming they're playing 2 hours daily.

If they want to get into raids at this point, at least another 2 months to get geared up.

Eh, I think trying to lump this as a problem for casual players is missing the mark. I am hyper casual and have zero interest in raiding or end game content because I find it boring. I'm here for the MSQ and all of the other activities (like Gold Saucer, crafting, etc). The MSQ is actually paced for casuals to get through in chunks, so I don't think that's the problem.

The real "problem" is that emphasizing story telling is...well, unusual in MMOs. Most of the people into MMOs probably aren't into story heavy games (at least not their multiplayer games). There is no other MMO I can really think of that places such a heavy emphasis on a continuing narrative. WoW sort of does, but it's done mostly through lore (if I remember correctly). It's clear FF14 was aiming to nab fans of the single player FF games, and they did that pretty well.

So on the one hand, yes: the slog between ARR and HW should be trimmed down. I also believe that the exp you get from the main quests should actually carry you to the appropriate levels by themselves (mid 30s I had to veer off to fate grind or PoTD. Shouldn't really have to do that just to progress 5-year old MSQ content). That alone would speed things up exponentially.

On the other hand though as others have said I think it comes down to preference. If people don't like playing through the MSQ then they're probably never going to enjoy FF14 down the road either, because I don't really see it changing. We're nearly 5 years in and clearly they want a narrative. I really don't think it's catastrophic that people that don't like that approach don't play this game. That's not to be elitist or be all "deal with it," that's honestly just a matter of what games you enjoy playing. I personally don't understand the appeal of skipping stories in RPGs, so games like Skyrim are not my cup of tea. So I don't play them.

I'm curious: what would you propose to be used in the MSQ's place for unlocking certain things? (not being mean or sarcastic, honestly curious) If the MSQ were made optional then there would have to be other things implemented that people could use. Would people really rather just run PoTD or fate grind until they could hit the appropriate levels? I don't personally see how that would stop folks from dropping game since I see that as boring (but I'm biased towards the MSQ).

[RokkuEkkusu]

My two cents:

1. Keep the requirements for the Hard mode trials from 2.0 to 2.4 (Ifrit, Garuda, Titan, Mog, Leviathan, Ramuh, and Shiva).
2. Cut half of the filler-like quests after the player is introduced to Yugiri and the Domans in 2.2. Yugiri is probably the only important character out of all of them, yet most of the quest don't involve her until later.
3. Cut 2 or 3 quests from the first half of the 2.3 story. I believe that some of those quests are not relevant to either Ramuh and the situation that occurred in Uldah during the patch.

I'm fine with the other portions so far. 2.4 is the patch where the transition to Heavensward starts to really take place. Also, free gil and exp is nothing to sneeze at if you're the type that makes a little go a long way.