SE: Can we get back skip cutscene in Main Scenarios?

[One_Time]

Just keep reciting in your head "4 million xp". The more I am forced to watch these cutscenes though the more I see the Garleans are right in their actions. If we'd quit fighting them and let them bring their technology to the primitive nations and fight the Primals/Eikons for us then Eorzea would be a better place. It's the damn Ascians who make them seem evil!

[Merceus]

If it gave 50-60% of a level in exp per queue, it MIGHT be worth it. If you got increased gil/seals/tomestones also from what it is now.

I've done it once since they made cut scenes unskippable. NEVER AGAIN.

[Shougun]

I think they already are working on a "solution" but until that time I don't think they should, imo at least.

I've conceptualized it as this:

There is a language class with three groups of people in it, and the subject.

A. The people who want to learn the subject (story experience).
B. The people who want a passing credit and get the thal out of there.
C. The "teacher assistants" who are there by the system, government/duty finder, to help A and B through the class.


In this way I see people who want to skip the class that are from group C as people who shouldn't queue for the content then, they're telling the students "I'll do your homework for you, I don't have time or patience to let you learn normally but I get credit even if I do it - so I'm going to do it for you". Or at least I don't think they should be rewarded to the extent of someone who would actually be a teacher assistant to the "course", if they remove the no skip then I think the reward could be lowered a lot. Of course group B loves that group C wants to do all the homework for them, they didn't want the class in the first place.

As an experiment though I think if you made two queues one that was story skip with low reward and one with huge reward and no skip that at worst it would be 50 50, but I imagine after a few days most people would go back to the huge reward no skip version.

I don't think that the class should be catered to passing through credit (skip it all group B), at least as the system is now. I also think that telling people to experience the content "sloppy" the first time and then again in the inn via disjointed scenes the second time is a very meh suggestion, as that first time experience is much better (imo, from what I saw and felt before this change was put in place). However, I'm thinking SE will at some point change it so NPCs complete the story with you and then A and B win (skip or watch their choice) and C is told to get out and not come back (loses a great exp source).

I also think that there are enough C people that those who can't handle the cutscenes can stop queuing and it'll be fine for the class, and I don't think C people deserve the massive exp reward if they don't want to wait (imo). I do believe SE could make it more fun for those who want to skip cutscenes (both group B and C) but I don't think SE will do that (it would be nice if they consider making it more fun for B and C while not ruining that first time experience of the class/group A).

For example they could have combat mini games (dodge bullet hell) the better you do the more you earn (no dying, failing just means the mini game stops and you can wait around watching others), a mini boss that moves from cutscene to cutscene (saves hp/info between the cutscenes, if you kill it before the end of the dungeon you get a big reward), or huge waves of monsters incoming between the cutscenes that drop relevant like currency (the more you kill by the end of the dungeon you could be earning even end game tomes and perhaps other goodies, like at certain ranks you might get a random buff.. free teleports for the next 3 hours, exp buff, etc). Put some Eureka content rewards in that little mini game, I think people would be okay lol.

So.. Imo, they'll probably fix it at some point if the queues get too low or too many people complain by letting players do it by themselves and in the end the only ones who will miss out were the ones using the duty.

[LineageRazor]

This has been new to me since I just came back, and I hate it. Literally unbearable. I just tab out of game, or do other things, DURING the mission. Can't you just watch them later in your innroom?

Well, setting aside the VERY VALID argument that watching the cutscenes in the inn is a VERY different experience then seeing them in context, there's the problem that EVEN IF players are willing to skip the cutscenes, they still have to deal with the blackscreen loading before they're able to skip. That might not seem like a lot of time, but for folks who've already run the dungeon and can autoskip, it's plenty of time to progress through the dungeon to ANOTHER cutscene, forcing the poor newbie to once again wait for the blackscreen to load before they can skip the scene. This is particularly notable in the Praetorium, where the cutscenes are more densely packed.

I'm not fond of the solution that SE came up with, particularly since folks are forced to watch the cutscene even if every single party member has already done the dungeon. It was certainly the case, though, that newbies were doomed to a bewildering and nonsensical dungeon run under the old system, constantly falling behind while frantically mashing skip on their cutscenes, missing out on boss fights, seeing people clicking on things and having no clue WHY! It was a wretched way to cap the very first storyline of the game. Not a great way to impress new players and entice them to continue playing. From a business perspective, it was probably a good move, but I'm certain there must be a better way.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Running it for the first time on an alt, I spent the cutscenes making bad jokes.

More than half of that group ships Cid/Nero, apparently.

[Pepsi_Plunge]

I can see where everyone is coming from. I don't want to watch those cutscenes for the third or forth time, but as a first-timer I want to see them and people are not always so polite and wait for you to do so. Once I was literally locked out of a bossfight while watching one of the longer scenes before the second round with Gilgamesh. When the scene ended all I could do was watching the fight from the sideline.

[Niwashi]

The guy never said that everyone else should have to skip the cs too

That's the problem. It isn't possible to let some people skip the cutscenes while still letting others watch them. Either the run moves forward or it doesn't. It cannot simultaneously do both. That's why, when the cutscenes were skippable, it was impossible for anyone to actually play the dungeon as designed, and see the climax of the story. So saying "let's let people skip if they want to" is functionally equivalent to saying "let's force everyone to skip, and eliminate the story from the game entirely." That's what was happening the whole time they were skippable, and it's what would happen again if they reverted back to it. And it's why they won't, and shouldn't, revert back to it.

[Mixt]

I remember when i did these dungeons the first time, a little under two years ago now.

I got the whole "Lol, u are not allowed to watch cutscenes, watch them at the inn instead" spiel.

I was pissed, i had no idea what was going on, running around in confusion like a headless chicken and yelling "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!!!?" in the party chat the whole way and demanding that they stop and explain what is happening, since they wouldn't let me find out the normal way.
No explanations were forthcoming of course.

I abandoned the instance and started over multiple times in hopes of getting to see the cutscenes, but the same thing happened every time.

And watching the cutscenes at the inn was messed up, the timeline was all disjointed and out of place, and the experience just made me even angrier.

I wanted to reach through the screen and punch people in the face, i wanted to cuss them out, i wanted to forcibly delete their accounts and tell them "Why play the game? You can just watch it on Youtube instead lol!"

As it was i had to settle for seething to myself.

It's not like anyone was going to compensate me for ruining my experience like that.

So yes, i fully support the cutscenes being unskippable, it means that this kind of crap can't happen anymore.

This whole issue is a bit of a sore point for me.

[BillyKaplan]

So yes, i fully support the cutscenes being unskippable, it means that this kind of crap can't happen anymore.

Spite is a strong motivator but it's far from the best reasoning in this case. I get you, don't get me wrong, I ran the first time through the place and had a very similar experience, but then mercifully my FC took us newbies through the instances so we could enjoy the entire thing.
But the way things are now isn't a solution either. We have seen in these very forums a lot of complaints from first timer players who hated it. Either they didn't care for the cutscenes and wanted to skip, or they were interested, the pace was either too slow or too fast for them. And that's before people who are forced to go through those dungeons on alts

When your target demographic complains, your solution is broken

SE should make the cutscenes skippable again, 100%
Once they revamped these instances into solo duties.

[Seraphor]

Perhaps the Trust system will solve this.
Want to watch the cutscenes? Bring Thancred, Y'shtola, Yda and Papalymo with you.