About the achievement rewards from Jonathan...

[Espritduo]

Adding the tokens to Jonathas was to help new players get the increasingly out of reach veteran rewards before they died of old age, which was an increasingly loud complaint with each new tier of rewards. It was never about giving veteran players who already had all the rewards something to do.

Also, most new achievement-related rewards nowadays seem to be tied directly to the achievement itself and are acquired at the time/place of the achievement or from something/one related to the content like a vendor or a quest. Rather than the old method of do something here, then go talk to Jonathas there to get an additional reward in a completely unrelated and disconnected fashion. I suspect they've moved towards the former method of rewarding achievement items because, if this forum is any indication, ALOT of new players are frequently confused about how to get the rewards the achievement says they should get when Jonathas needs talked to.

[Jojoya]

Adding the tokens to Jonathas was to help new players get the increasingly out of reach veteran rewards before they died of old age, which was an increasingly loud complaint with each new tier of rewards. It was never about giving veteran players who already had all the rewards something to do.

Also, most new achievement-related rewards nowadays seem to be tied directly to the achievement itself and are acquired at the time/place of the achievement or from something/one related to the content like a vendor or a quest. Rather than the old method of do something here, then go talk to Jonathas there to get an additional reward in a completely unrelated and disconnected fashion. I suspect they've moved towards the former method of rewarding achievement items because, if this forum is any indication, ALOT of new players are frequently confused about how to get the rewards the achievement says they should get when Jonathas needs talked to.

The new method isn't any better. Before, talking to him at least gave it to you with a little dialog thanking you for sharing a specific tale. Now unless you know you've earned a specific achievement and that achievement rewards an item, there's nothing to indicate there's something to be claimed. You have sit there and click on every single category one by one to see if you've earned anything and whether or not you've claimed it yet.

I feel even more disconnected because it's become a mechanical process as opposed to "surprise! here's a gift for you".

The core problem is the game does a bad job of introducing the new player to Jonathas. There's no quest saying "hey, there's this guy hanging around in Old Gridania that loves to listen to stories of an adventurer's travels". Maybe the player notices him standing there if they pass through the area, which they have little reason to do unless a SMN or they stumbled over the quest for the Sightseeing Log. Maybe they even think to talk to him if they do notice him. Usually they don't.

[InkstainedGwyn]

I hate the new menu. There's no way to easily go through that list, and I have no idea if I have something new until I go down the entire list. I get achievements here and there, often when I'm in the middle of doing things already, and I don't usually have the time to just open my menu and see if I got a "present" from it. They should have kept the old way as well as added the new, if people really do like it.

[Iscah]

I hate the new menu. There's no way to easily go through that list, and I have no idea if I have something new until I go down the entire list. I get achievements here and there, often when I'm in the middle of doing things already, and I don't usually have the time to just open my menu and see if I got a "present" from it. They should have kept the old way as well as added the new, if people really do like it.

Yeah, I think a combination of both systems would work better. The initial "here, you've earned this" conversation and then the menu to revisit and reaquire anything you threw out.

I feel like it got redesigned by someone trying to fix one problem, without realising the new system created a different issue instead.

[Canadane]

I miss telling him a tale, rather than poking at his menu.

[Espritduo]

The new method isn't any better. Before, talking to him at least gave it to you with a little dialog thanking you for sharing a specific tale. Now unless you know you've earned a specific achievement and that achievement rewards an item, there's nothing to indicate there's something to be claimed. You have sit there and click on every single category one by one to see if you've earned anything and whether or not you've claimed it yet.

I mean the way they do new achievements, not the new way they do old achievements. In general, the achievements of SB have either directly given you the reward as part of accomplishing the achievement, or items associated with an achievement are gotten from a vendor or quest. There was only one item added in SB that you have to go talk to Jonathas to get (the crown for all classes 70), and it was more as a continuation of that previous chain of achievements. Every other achievement that has been added since 4.0 has had nothing to do with Jonathas for rewards. It seems SE is trying to steer away from Jonathas being the guy for that and focusing on making him just the guy for turning in achievement point tokens for token-based rewards.

As far as the claiming method of old achievement rewards, I wasn't aware they had even changed that, since I've long since gotten them all. Does he not still automatically give you the items your eligible for if you talk to him?

[Marxam]

would be nice if long time players can use said points to buy fantasia but that's just me.

[InkstainedGwyn]

Does he not still automatically give you the items your eligible for if you talk to him?

Nope. You can only get them from the retrieve menu, which suffers as so many other menus do from a lack of a back button.

[Anselmet]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but have we received a new veterans items since HW? The last item I seemed to remember getting was the ffix Zidane outfit and then we were able to purchase everything from Jonathas. So perhaps we won't get anything in Shadowbringers either and this is just gonna be some archaic thing left to sit and rust?

[Vahlnir]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but have we received a new veterans items since HW? The last item I seemed to remember getting was the ffix Zidane outfit and then we were able to purchase everything from Jonathas. So perhaps we won't get anything in Shadowbringers either and this is just gonna be some archaic thing left to sit and rust?

Stormblood brought a Magitek Claw mount and a minion. I honestly don't remember anything else.