A Realm Reborn Revamp / Lack of Race Diversity / Class locked glamours

[Yoshihara]

First time posting on the forums, I didn't know where to leave suggestions, but given this is a prime time for picking up new players I'd just like to discuss a really serious gripe I have that affects enticing new players into joining the current playerbase. Well, 3 of them, the last of which is easy to fix.

I have attempted to convince many new players into playing FFXIV and staying, many players are those who wish to defect from World of Warcraft given its current state.

• However a lot of these players are put off by how outdated the "A Realm Reborn" content is. and quit playing the game before even hitting lvl 30. So far I've been able to convince 1 out of 10 players to stay as a result. The Heavensward and Stormblood content is great but so few players are willing to play through A Realm Reborn content to get that far, which would convince them to stay.
  
  One could argue that you could "Pay" to skip that content, but good luck convincing new players to do that.
  
  Given we have been able to shed the limitations of the PS3 and its memory problems, would it be a good time to update and inject new life into ARR content without changing it too much?
  
  
• Another major complaint that drives potential players from the game is the character creation:
  People were generally upset that the only class choices were varying forms of human of varying sizes with features stuck onto them. The upcoming Viera race is essentially also just a human race with bunny ears (and feet). Some people have been interested in playing less human-looking races but have been turned off from the game because of the lack of race diversity. This may be a bit harder to implement into the game though.
  
  
• The last thing which should be incredibly easy to fix is to lift the restriction on class restricted glamours. A handful of players refused to even start playing because they like to check what they can eventually mix, match and wear. When they find out that a certain class can only wear a certain piece of clothing even after glamouring due to a class restriction, they don't even pick up the game.
  
  I'm pretty sure almost nobody would miss a restriction on class based glamours.

I'm pretty sure some of these must've been mentioned before but it'd really help in getting new people to play and stay in the game.

[Yoshihara]

Another argument given is:

"Just play Palace of the Dead"

I admit that Heaven on High has made some serious improvements on the Deep Dungeon concept, but can you honestly tell me that grinding Palace of the Dead over and over again for new players (which new players have to also find out is the most efficient way to get classes to lvl 50 / 60) is engaging content? The one person I've convinced to stay in the game is taking a break from the game because of how mind numbing the grind is from lvl 1-60 from just playing Palace of the Dead over and over again. He's a bit of a completionist so he wants to be able to choose which class to play through Stormblood content as.

That being said, said friend of mines should probably just buy the level skip instead of slowly murdering his soul

Palace of the Dead can be pretty alright, but once you get to your 100th+ play-through for the sake of experience grinding, your soul may as well join the dead inside the palace. Now this won't affect me at all given I have all my classes at lvl 70, but is there a possibility to add or buff alternative ways of getting experience from lvls 1-60, or simply further buff the experience points received from Palace of the Dead?

[briarth0rn]

As far as I'm aware, the devs are working on streamlining the quests in ARR and cutting down on the filler, but it's a lot of work and at the moment no one can be sure if that'll be ready for Shadowbringers' release or not. It's a known issue and gets brought up frequently though, I'm sure it'll be update eventually.

Regarding races: If we take the devs' at their word as of last Fan Fest, Viera are probably the last new race we're getting, so there's not much else to be done about that. There's rumors/speculation of a second race coming in ShB that supposedly resembles the Ronso from FF10 which might satisfy people wanting a more bestial looking race, but they're still fundamentally human shaped. Viera heels have been said to be enough of a hassle to model gear around, so I really doubt we'll ever get a playable race that's not human-shaped. Which is too bad, I would've loved to see bangaa or seeqs at some point.

As for glamour restrictions, most people want this, but it seems like SE is sticking to the approach of just making new, restriction-free versions of particularly popular sets as glamour rewards occasionally. Whenever a new expansion is released a lot of gear from the last one gets recycled and the new versions might be restriction-free or available to a new role or dyeable where they weren't before, but I think they've said they're against lifting all restrictions in the game. I don't mind the current approach, but I really wish they'd give casters/healers some heavier or metal armor that isn't gated behind being the top 100 in competitive PvP on your datacenter.

[Yoshihara]

As for glamour restrictions, most people want this, but it seems like SE is sticking to the approach of just making new, restriction-free versions of particularly popular sets as glamour rewards occasionally. Whenever a new expansion is released a lot of gear from the last one gets recycled and the new versions might be restriction-free or available to a new role or dyeable where they weren't before, but I think they've said they're against lifting all restrictions in the game. I don't mind the current approach, but I really wish they'd give casters/healers some heavier or metal armor that isn't gated behind being the top 100 in competitive PvP on your datacenter.

Yeah I never really understood the class restriction. Everyone knows what class you're playing from the icon next to your name and what abilities and weapon you're using. I mean yeah sure, it makes sense you should class restrict glamouring the weapon you're using but for everything else just seems a little fundamentally flawed.

The Lupin race looked like a suitable candidate for another race given they're essentially humans was squashed dogfaces, and we've seen that they can wear other clothing other than Doman and Imperial copy pastes (Hildibrand Adventures "Wolf Burglar" Ninja Lupin, Shirtless "Young Lupin" FFV Warriors of Dawn Reference in Eureka Cutscenes). That being said I can imagine having to remodel every headgear being a nuisance, that and there don't seem to be any female Lupins.

It's nice to know they're considering updating the Realm Reborn content despite the amount of work it would take though.

[Allegor]

My bf is just about to finish 2.0. He really wants to try out MCH and AST but I don't have the heart to tell him about 2.1-2.55 in fear he'd quit.

[Yoshihara]

My bf is just about to finish 2.0. He really wants to try out MCH and AST but I don't have the heart to tell him about 2.1-2.55 in fear he'd quit.

Never forget you are Tataru's errand boy now and forever

[Alteriius]

ARR would be fine if it wasn't bogged down by mundane quests. I have really important things to do, but let me stop to deliver wine to this guy in the woods, so I can immediately be sent back to ask him about a leaf? Can the primsls just kill me, instead?

My fiance and I ended up using the story skip when we're realized we had something like another hundred or so quests of that slog.

Really hoping they do end up going back and cutting down on the filler. Be a lot easier to convince people to jump into the game if I didn't have to preface my pitch with "finish 200 quests before you get to the good stuff" or feel like a jerk for not mentioning it at all.

Definitely agree on the other two points, too, but I don't see much opportunity to fix the issue of racial diversity at this point.

[MistakeNot]

Another argument given is:

"Just play Palace of the Dead"

Palace of the Dead is boring in large doses, but luckily there are many other ways of leveling your characters. I have never found it necessary to do PotD for leveling purposes, even though it does help when you are on your third or 10th class.

[Gemina]

I have attempted to convince many new players into playing FFXIV and staying, many players are those who wish to defect from World of Warcraft given its current state.

However a lot of these players are put off by how outdated the "A Realm Reborn" content is. and quit playing the game before even hitting lvl 30. So far I've been able to convince 1 out of 10 players to stay as a result. The Heavensward and Stormblood content is great but so few players are willing to play through A Realm Reborn content to get that far, which would convince them to stay.

One could argue that you could "Pay" to skip that content, but good luck convincing new players to do that.

Given we have been able to shed the limitations of the PS3 and its memory problems, would it be a good time to update and inject new life into ARR content without changing it too much?

Yes, you are indeed going to have trouble getting players to join or stay if they can't deal with even 30 levels in ARR. So I wouldn't even try. As welcoming as the community is towards new players, it's a bit more difficult to warm up to those who are half in, half out before even acquiring their first soulstone. The skip potions are there for the players who just can't deal with getting through the story and/or the exp grind. If this is not an option, and neither is the grind; then the only one left is to not sub to FFXIV.

Trimming the fat from previous expansion MSQs in order to shorten them would not only take away valuable resources from additional content, giving the players who have gone through all of it less to do; it also won't do anything. The gripes about having to go through it will remain, so all that work will have been for naught. No longer supporting the PS3 is not the same at all. This actually frees up the dev team instead of tying their hands behind their backs.

Another major complaint that drives potential players from the game is the character creation:
People were generally upset that the only class choices were varying forms of human of varying sizes with features stuck onto them. The upcoming Viera race is essentially also just a human race with bunny ears (and feet). Some people have been interested in playing less human-looking races but have been turned off from the game because of the lack of race diversity. This may be a bit harder to implement into the game though.

You're right. At the end of the day, your race choice is just glamour. Though your choice of race and gender will place certain restrictions on the gear you can and cannot wear. But this is OKAY. It's OKAY for there to be uniqueness amongst choices to actually diversify them. And you are also right that it would be extremely difficult to implement a non-humanoid race.

The last thing which should be incredibly easy to fix is to lift the restriction on class restricted glamours. A handful of players refused to even start playing because they like to check what they can eventually mix, match and wear. When they find out that a certain class can only wear a certain piece of clothing even after glamouring due to a class restriction, they don't even pick up the game.

I'm pretty sure almost nobody would miss a restriction on class based glamours.

I'm pretty sure some of these must've been mentioned before but it'd really help in getting new people to play and stay in the game.

Oh yes. It comes up a lot here. Most players have some level of an issue with the game's glamour restrictions. Some just want gear that is reasonable for anyone to wear to not have any restrictions such as the hempen sets; others are more adamant and push to have all restrictions removed, even from gender locked and AF gear sets. There is no way SE can make everyone happy here, so probably best to just leave things as is where they know they have a certain level of acceptance with the status quo.

[MistakeNot]

First time posting on the forums, I didn't know where to leave suggestions, but given this is a prime time for picking up new players I'd just like to discuss a really serious gripe I have that affects enticing new players into joining the current playerbase. Well, 3 of them, the last of which is easy to fix.

I have attempted to convince many new players into playing FFXIV and staying, many players are those who wish to defect from World of Warcraft given its current state.

However a lot of these players are put off by how outdated the "A Realm Reborn" content is. and quit playing the game before even hitting lvl 30. So far I've been able to convince 1 out of 10 players to stay as a result. The Heavensward and Stormblood content is great but so few players are willing to play through A Realm Reborn content to get that far, which would convince them to stay.

In what way is it "outdated"? Yes, you have to do a bunch of mundane quests - you are a fresh adventurer trying to make a name for yourself, and that is just what adventurers do!

HW and SB aren't really much better in this regard - there are still tons of mundane quests to do. The only difference is that here the MSQ is more focused and actually tells a coherent story (unlike the ARR MSQ which is the story of how you become famous), but the MSQ is only a small part of the game (though an important one.)

But I am surprised that World of Warcraft players would find it boring, considering that the early parts of WoW is even more of a slog without even a hint of any overarcing story.

Another major complaint that drives potential players from the game is the character creation:
People were generally upset that the only class choices were varying forms of human of varying sizes with features stuck onto them. The upcoming Viera race is essentially also just a human race with bunny ears (and feet). Some people have been interested in playing less human-looking races but have been turned off from the game because of the lack of race diversity. This may be a bit harder to implement into the game though.

The problem with this is partly that most players want to play human-looking races.
A bigger problem is making gear look good on non-human looking races. That would require a lot more work from the gear designers compared to now.

Another problem from a lore-based view is that all the races in the game that do not look much like humans are collectively known as "beast-tribes" and are discriminated against in many places. They are not even allowed into several of the main cities.