MSQ teleports - A simple band-aid for discouragement of new players in ARR

[PondHollow]

Many of us know potential new players who are discouraged by the time sink of A Realm Reborn (@Square-Enix - these people are lost money!).

Presumably we can assume computing requirements will be raised on the onset of 5.0.

So for the whole of 2.0-2.55, we can preload multiple ARR areas.

When the player is done interacting with one NPC while doing the 2.0-2.55 main scenario quests, prompt them to teleport directly to the next point they need to go to at no charge. If this "point" is an area with an animal to be killed, nerf the animal and reduce the number of killings to 1.

Should the player decline any MSQ teleport, keep the ARR-MSQ teleport available by clicking the MSQ indicator that now ordinarily shows up in the top left of the screen.

When 5.0 is released, perhaps both A Realm Reborn and Heavensward should be expedited in some manner.

It's already not easy to watch new FC members plod through 400 quests to get to Stormblood, and I'm already noticing we are getting more "transfers" from people who are already 70 than true new adventurers.

[Genz]

Answer from SE : "Buy a jump potion. xoxo"

[Areic]

Answer from SE : "Buy a jump potion. xoxo"

Squeenix really should just take a note and offer a boost upon buying the game like WoW does, toss them in a little tutorial and put them 5-10 levels below cap

But that would take away from mogstation sales, lawd knows we gotta sell them boost and them 12 dollar single emotes.

Maybe give people the option upon start up of doing the MSQ from the start or skipping it.

[Vexander]

But that would take away from mogstation sales, lawd knows we gotta sell them boost and them 12 dollar single emotes.

This is an unfairly harsh criticism of the Mog Station and SE's sales practices. They're implementing World Visiting, which is going to drastically REDUCE the sale of Server Transfers, and reduce the sales on the Mogstation as a result. They're actively de-incentivizing one of their cash shop services. Most of what is on the Mog Station is purely cosmetic or convenience as is.

[Keddera_StormMoon]

As a new player who recently slogged through that mess (and did it again on a alt with the wife) - they have so many unnecessary steps in some of these quests that could of been condensed. Anything to help the people behind me I have no issues with... nobody should have to go through that because they're late to the party. (FFS, I still have to finish Stormblood's MQ)

[Dhaid]

prompt them to teleport directly to the next point they need to go to at no charge.

I'm.. not a fan of this. I've leveled up a few alts (not to 60, but at least to 30) and the biggest annoyance was bots instakilling the mobs I needed. Letting them teleport even more, for free, would certainly boost that annoyance.

I agree with condensing quests and rewarding exp to keep the leveling smooth, maybe even altogether removing a bunch of quests to have a side-story about them. Getting to heavensward didn't feel like an accomplishment, it felt like a FINALLY!

[bass9020]

Here we go again. Did this really need a whole new thread??

[Powercow]

Maybe not every single quest step, but for ones halfway around the world or in the corners of Coerthas? I wouldn't mind. That run back and forth in Coerthas was annoying, plus every time you have to go to the Waking Sands it's just irritating. A lot of modern quests do it too, and it's a welcome surprise whenever it pops up.

[SaitoHikari]

Didn't the devs say something about reorganizing ARR quests during fanfest? I could have sworn there was something about that.

Either way, just teleporting players to the next step in the MSQ seems possible now. A lot of duties in SB automatically dump you right in front of the NPC that finishes the quest, regardless of where you were when the duty began.

[Berethos]

Didn't the devs say something about reorganizing ARR quests during fanfest? I could have sworn there was something about that.

Yep, and it was a similar response to a similar question asked back at the live letter around when E3 happened.

Basically - they've been exploring how to condense the required quests and trim out the non-essential stuff (and likely make it optional), but their focus right now is on the expansion. At E3 Yoshi-P even suggested they have a plan for how they want to make the changes, but it's not a small task and so may take some time before the changes are made.

Which might seem counterintuitive if you're used to how other MMOs handle their story, where non-relevant quests are off to the side and all...but given how relevant plot points and non-relevant elements are so frequently mixed in the 2.x series, I can understand this - and to make matters trickier, plot that wasn't relevant from 2.1-2.3 when HW was the expansion suddenly became relevant in Stormblood...and then there's weird connections like the 60-70 Alchemist quests relying on you having met Minfilia's adoptive mother and having developed a working relationship where she trusts you (not to mention voiced scenes in very dramatic moments in the 3.x series involving her)...and so while there's a suite of quests involving her introduction that are fluff and filler, she can't just be cut entirely without significant rewrites of several pieces of later content.

Those kinds of connections exist throughout both mandatory and optional content, so making some of it optional while rewriting some mandatory stuff to work in such a way that the narrative flow isn't completely broken by the changes means taking the time to do it right.

Obviously some stuff can be changed much more easily, the way they removed the requirement to complete two specific guildhests as part of the 2.x series (which wasn't problematic in and of itself...except that you had to do them in order to unlock, and they were like 8 and 9 in the list) and just made you fight a few monsters in the area as a symbolic "we need these issues taken care of and we'd like you to show the newbie adventurers how it's done" (the new adventurers now being NPCs, whereas before they were actual players via guildhests). More self-contained content like that takes significantly less work to change without messing up other things...but it's also not the majority of content in the 2.x series.

So while those reworks are being done...I agree with at least the teleportation element suggested by the OP, especially since they already use it to great effect in Stormblood. "Pray return to the Waking Sands" lose some of its annoying bite if you're conveniently brought to the front door of said HQ.