Quality of Life Improvements and MSQ Gating for New Players

[Awha]

Sorry mobile device. Also it is silly that if I did stick around with the jump potions not only are skills gated behind MSQ also armor venders. Meaning if I wanted to update my gear I would have to buy it from the MB where players Jack up the price of the items. All this is truly inviting to new players. For the life of me I do not see how people can defend this.

[SannaR]

It's too hard to ask someone to go and buy the vendor gear for you? When you get handed higher quality via the msq and side quests. Heck you could also befriend a crafter that could make said gear for you. Most crafters can get back the gill they would have to spend on the mats if they didn't go out and farm them within a day if not by the end of the week. Part of the problem with leveling is if you are on a world that gets the road to 60 is you will out level where you can get to if you do anything else but everything attached to the msq. So if being able to face roll things won't take away from the enjoyment of doing the story then go and do that.

[Awha]

Let us be real most people will not something for nothing. Personally I do not see why I should have to ask another player to get me gear from a vender. Leaving that aside, what should I have done about being gated behind a new class abilities and class I wanted play? Speed blitz the story, doesn't that go against the philosophy of enjoyinga story. This game likes to promote the story but it really does not let the player enjoy it at their own pace. If they made the story optional players could enjoy it at their own pace and not feel forced to burn through it ASAP. Rushing a story is not my idea of enjoying it.

[DreadRabbit]

Here's the thing: regardless if you enjoy the MSQ or not, that doesn't change the fact that the game is designed around it. I'm A-Okay with the MSQ becoming optional, but making the MSQ optional isn't as simple as flipping a switch. Games are like spider webs: changing one thing is absolutely going to end up affecting a bunch of other things you may not have considered.

Let's take unlocking mounts for example. At level 20 you reach a point in the MSQ where grand companies are explained to you. This leads you to joining one and unlocking the quest "My Little Chocobo" to get your first mount.

So let's say the MSQ is now optional. A player reaches level 20. So what happens?

- Do they receive a pop up explaining grand companies are a thing and encourage the player to go join one?
- Are grand companies optional now? (not going to lie, I'd be okay with this).
- If they are optional now, then not only do you need to redesign the Chocobo quest so that it's not tied to one (thus creating yet another sidequest line), but there's also features like housing that require certain GC ranks. Do we remove those restrictions from housing or keep them in place? Would that affect PvP in any way?
- Do we let people join grand companies as soon as they enter the game since they're no longer gated by the MSQ? Or do we still gate this behind a side quest line not tied to the MSQ?
- Do we forgo a sidequest completely and just grant players a Chocobo the moment they ding 20 (by having a Moogle come deliver it or it just appearing in your inventory?)?
- Are free companies still going to be linked to grand companies or no?

That's just one example of all the questions you have to answer if you make the MSQ optional.

As for what I think are the most likely solutions we could get (or should get) to help fix this issue:

1. Adjust the exp gained from MSQ be all you need to reach 1-50, 50-60. There's no reason for players to have to veer off to do other things if they're aiming to burn through the MSQ.

2. Offer a free Main Scenario Skip potion with every purchase of an FFXIV expansion. Frankly I thought it was dumb that Stormblood didn't offer this to begin with. Do it via a redeemable code on Mogstation so that people who don't want to use it can give it to a friend/someone who does.

What should be done but is (unfortunately) very unlikely:

1. Edit down some of the fetch quests from the MSQ. Especially post ARR.

2. Implement a different gating option so that folks who don't want to play the MSQ don't have to. This would require far more effort though, which is why I don't really see it happening.

[bass9020]

Yes, because The Company of Heroes questline was integral to defending Titan. And collecting flowers for Minfilia's mother nearly saved the world! Let's be honest, when people complain about the MSQ, it's primarily on the boring fetch quests which litter ARR. I wager quite strongly, you'd see far less complaints if the game began at Heavensward due to how much better paced everything is. Jump potions were implemented simply to make a quick buck over players leveling their alts and not wanting to spam through the story again. Even WoW offered one for free with their latest expansion.

I also said in another post if they could trim down the main quest line without butchering it then they totally should. I know you played BDO since we have both discussed it before but im not sure if you have recently. They attempted to redo the whole beginning story line and it turned into a huge mess. Now I know they are a different company with different goals and views but maybe its something SE does not want to screw up.

If SE was to do anything I think it should be:

• Removing HW jobs from being strictly locked behind 3.0 and allow you to start them when you get lvl 30 and reach Coerthas area, they could have the guild NPCs stationed in those areas until you get to Ishgard
  
• Turn some of the fetch quests into side quests this way they are still there but optional
  
• Maybe rework the Grand Company quests to be flagged when you reach that level and you can do it when you want.
  
• Allow access to all non city regions, have NPCs speak to you differently or flat out ignore you. We already have text differences ingame so I dont see this as an issue.
  
• As much as I hate this idea but give an option to teleport directly to the end quest NPC to turn the quest in. Each expansion they can add to the previous one before it.

[KisaiTenshi]

Why are people defending this practice? Gating content behind story only makes it that much harder for newer players to jump into the game. Also clearly SE knows this is an issue since the new jobs are not gated behind story like the HW ones are. Time will only make this issue worse and for those that claim FFXIV should not cater to everyone. The reality is allowing for more options of play is not a bad thing and they are losing out of potential subscribers. This would be an investment in the future of the game.

I swear every time I've brought up these awkward batches of filler quests that slow down the story people crawl out of the woodwork to defend the most mundane fetch quests. Fixing earrings, gathering flowers, setting tables- there are plenty of quests that can be condensed without snagging continuity.

As stated, if you don't want to play the storyline, there's the jump pot. It was people complaining about having to do the MSQ that they made the Jump pot in the first place, and story-defenders were against it then and still are. I'm sure the story writers and the staff they employ to ensure lore consistency, and the localization team would be heartbroken to hear about people putting down hard on their work, which is what you're all doing when you ask to not play the story.

If you don't like the story, and the story is getting in the way of getting your friends into the game, you are playing the wrong game. If you really want to skip the story, there's the jump pot you asked for. Stop trying to wreck the story for everyone else who actually want to experience it and like all the lore that goes with it.



They didn't gate Red Mage or Samurai the same way because you need to be level 50 and have the expansion. Thus you are still denied from playing those without paying for both the MSQ skip and a job skip for a job you may not have wanted to start with anyway.

You know what I'd change? I fix the initial character creation to have no job assigned (Freelancer class.) This would allow the player to get to a maximum of level 15 (eg play all the non-job quests) to where they can now get on the airship and go to any of the guild's to pick up any of the jobs. They must pick a class/job to do the dungeon content and progress any further. Any of the combat up to this point would have a generic "Fight, Magic, Defend" command with no main hand gear. If you want to pick a class/job at any point you can. Therefor, by playing the freelancer class to level 15, you automatically get ALL combat jobs to level 15 the first time you switch to them (quests still need to be done to unlock the skills,) which is where the game has the longest slog for.

That's how you "streamline" it.

I'd also retroactively fix AST/MCH/DRK and SAM/RDM so that they can be started at level 1 without HW/SB. Because of how the game has been designed to date, this would require making Ishgard (but none of the level 60+ areas) available from the start, and also creating a storyline for level 1-30 for AST/MCH/DRK. SAM/RDM, really they shoe-horned this.

[Zojha]

I'm sure the story writers and the staff they employ to ensure lore consistency, and the localization team would be heartbroken to hear about people putting down hard on their work, which is what you're all doing when you ask to not play the story.

Meanwhile the Raid designers, the designers of Lord of Verminion and pretty much every single person involved in the swathes of optional content in the game are crying in the corner of neglect, because apparently it's perfectly fine to put down their efforts, but not that of the guys in the story department. #SecondClassCitizen.

[Awha]

I do think the main reason they did not gate Sam and Rdm behind SB story is because people did complain about having to get to HW to play the new classes. If I am not mistaken only gate to getting the new jobs is the level requirement. Which does go to show that are aware of the situation. Also let us say they remove the story gates what harm would it bring to players that enjoy the story content. If those that enjoy the story want to go through with it those that want it to be optional are taking nothing away from the story. That is what I do not understand I understand that this game is story driven but from a company point of view does it make sense to alienate future potential subscribers for what reason story continuity. Do not think that matters for people that do not enjoy the story.

[Awha]

Mobile device sorry. In short you claim making the story optional ruins it for others, why is that? If people want to play the story they can do just that. No one is asking to get rid of story all together just make it so it is not a barrier to play the game for those that are not interested in the story and are into other aspects like raiding for example.

[LaylaTsarra]

Mobile device sorry. In short you claim making the story optional ruins it for others, why is that? If people want to play the story they can do just that. No one is asking to get rid of story all together just make it so it is not a barrier to play the game for those that are not interested in the story and are into other aspects like raiding for example.

It is optional you can buy skip potions. They've thought about these requests and have provided a solution for those who DON'T want to do the story. They're not going to get rid of the skip potions to satisfy the wants of the skip the game crowd. They have better things to do with their development time.