actual content

[Baxta]

but with mmo's in the end your still grinding xp there just giving you a direction to go in.


not vanilla ffxi missions there about the same as ffxiv not much going on till you hit the zilart missions and that was an expansion.

I see this kind of comment bandied about a lot on the forums here, "not in vanilla XI" etc. It's true I guess and don't get me wrong, I loved XI, but that game came out knocking on 10 years ago now. The times they are a changing and I'm not really sure why SE didn't draw on that experience. Whatever, what's done is done I guess, but it's a weak argument to say the least.

[Felis]

Well the 7th umbral era is supposed to be starting before 2.0

My guess is that this story wont appear until or after jobs, since after jobs the only big changes that need to be done are linkshell control and mail. After that I'm guessing they'll mainly be focusing on content to see what will do better come 2.0

The 7th umbral era story has started already. Look in the sky at night to the little red moon. I think the big showdown is coming with 1.23, the last update before 2.0

[Tonco]

Personally I prefer the more sandbox style MMO as you feel more a part of the game world, its more of your own adventure rather than one all laid out on a linear path for you, the problem with games like The Old Republic is that you start your character and your pretty much restricted on where and what you do next, do these quests and move on to the next bunch of quests, sometimes you feel like just stepping back and wanting to have the freedom to just do what you want to do rather than what the game is wanting you to do, I enjoy questing on XIV but I'm glad its mostly optional, free to do when you want and not the only way to progress.

[Jennestia]

FF11 also suffered from a lack of low level storyline aswell, hopefully they will sort this out by the time 2.0 is launched.

Hm...nope. Various nation quests, (some that were actual quest chains, i.e Star Onion Brigade), the nation missions lines that were up until rank 7 were doable between level 1 - 55, not to mention when CoP released (1 year after NA launch) that was the capped storyline, which was level 30 - 50 cap all the way up intil chapter 6, which was then 60 cap.

So Vanilla > Zilart > CoP there was plenty of low level storyline and quests.

Considering FFXIV is being overhauled there's not a serious focus on content versus a serious focus on making the game work, and lack of content isn't the game's biggest issues, even SE stated the foundation is very poor -- Which is the most important to any video game, content comes second so when they're done overhauling the game, you'll see an influx of content. Look at FFXI, you have an endless supply of content to do because they aren't overhauling the game -- Whether you want to is a different story.

free to do when you want and not the only way to progress.

Yeah, I'm honestly sick of quest based leveling -- People complain about Guildleves, yet they don't realize quest based leveling MMOs are essentially the same things, just plows you to different areas on a set path till you're stuck doing PvP and the same type of instances over and over.

Very rarely do quest based leveling actually offer much of anything in terms of a coherent storyline, they're thinly veiled kill quests with an occasional picture slideshow or cutscene.

[Altanas]

I look at SWTOR as just having guildleves with cutscenes.

In FF11, the lore is already in place, its just implemented in a lazy fashion. As a consequence, it makes the game feel lacking in content and lacking in empathy for the characters and world.

A more structured approach linking the adventurer's guild -> camps -> open dungeons could enable SE to craft a more story orientated cutscene approach to levelling and give the impression of content.

As a basis, there are three factions (Horn and Hand etc). It wouldn't be too hard to edit / add a bit of lore in linking the guildleves per camp into one engrossing faction storyline starting at say camp blackbrush /bearded rock/etc and ending at the final highest level camps per region. In three regions, thats three storylines I can play on one character (without re-rolling alts like in SWTOR)

Faction leves are perhaps the most interesting, especially the "Wanted:..." leves. It would be more engrossing if the subject matter of those leves (i.e the criminals) had a presence in the game world outside of leves, perhaps as dynamic spawns or random NMs, HNMs

Turning all the summary text in the guildleves into cutscenes you encounter at the start, during and end of the guildleve, could easily add hours upon hours of content. It would make each leve a story in itself. Each leve story would be an episode. A casual will be satisfied playing one episode a day. And how many leves are in game? (ZAM counts 237 leves, thats a lot of content that has been implemented in a lazy fashion).

If the leves were "acted out" in a cutscene fashion, it would trump games like SWTOR, and not needing voiceacting, it can be done a lot quicker. SWTOR will stall for months because of voice recording.

For sidequests, there could be more linking in. At the moment its all very disjointed. You do a sidequest for one NPC then never have to talk to them again.

Another point to note is the "gotta catch em all" mentality. If, say, you could only enter Cassiopeia Hollow after doing the questline for Bearded Rock -> Bloodshore, that would as a consequence entice players to undertake the content. Similar in FF11, people went through ROZ , COP, TAU to open new zones/end game, in WOTG everything was open from the get go (at least when I played) so no one was interested in doing much except campaign.

There should have been some form of trade off however
a) for guidleves you should always be able to have aspect on in every leve (i.e. erase a limit on aspect and just apply a 50% bonus on all leves), and you complete a storyline to unlock areas or faction related things
b) for open world xp parties, you should have gotten guildmarks or something per kill
(i.e. something to make both methods of xp relevant and complement each other, not excluding each other)
c) company leves could easily stay as is for minor quicker solo content

That would in my opinion solve the questing for xp problem. And include story content. By locking content/areas away and unlocking them in logical stages, it would give players a sense of accomplishment.
You would also have welcome tangents in the faction quest lines (like for example, Cass Hollow would be a pirate related tangent, whereas the quest line towards the final camp would be preparing the player to go off against the Kobalds)

[Zezlar]

You haven't ran out of quests on a game that came out 4 days ago. Well I would hope so >.>

The reason there isn't content coming out every month is because half the team is divided. Once 2.0 is finished the entire team can come together and probably produce the first expansion for the game.

[Gramul]

People complain about Guildleves, yet they don't realize quest based leveling MMOs are essentially the same things...
Very rarely do quest based leveling actually offer much of anything in terms of a coherent storyline, they're thinly veiled kill quests with an occasional picture slideshow or cutscene.

Well, yeah, if they SUCK.


Really though. At the very least, normal sidequests have you progressing through the game world or at least through a simple story. Guildleves have you running to the same blasted desk to pick up the same blasted quests to do at the same blasted camp sites.

I have always hated quest distribution like that. It's always felt very cold, mechanical and dull. I'll take zone and character variety over the DMV/DPS sterility of leve distribution any day.

[Zanfire]

Hm...nope. Various nation quests, (some that were actual quest chains, i.e Star Onion Brigade), the nation missions lines that were up until rank 7 were doable between level 1 - 55, not to mention when CoP released (1 year after NA launch) that was the capped storyline, which was level 30 - 50 cap all the way up intil chapter 6, which was then 60 cap.

So Vanilla > Zilart > CoP there was plenty of low level storyline and quests.

Considering FFXIV is being overhauled there's not a serious focus on content versus a serious focus on making the game work, and lack of content isn't the game's biggest issues, even SE stated the foundation is very poor -- Which is the most important to any video game, content comes second so when they're done overhauling the game, you'll see an influx of content. Look at FFXI, you have an endless supply of content to do because they aren't overhauling the game -- Whether you want to is a different story.



Yeah, I'm honestly sick of quest based leveling -- People complain about Guildleves, yet they don't realize quest based leveling MMOs are essentially the same things, just plows you to different areas on a set path till you're stuck doing PvP and the same type of instances over and over.

Very rarely do quest based leveling actually offer much of anything in terms of a coherent storyline, they're thinly veiled kill quests with an occasional picture slideshow or cutscene.

for once i agree with you.

[kanjitai]

I see some people saying wait til 2.0 for content. That is flawed. If they add little to no content over the next year I for one won't be interested when there are other things to do that are more fun. I'm having more fun reading books on my kindle with XIV right now. In fact one book has more content then XIV right now.

and for those that say wait it's been a year. 5-7 if you count the time it was in dev and testing just saying.

[Jennestia]

I see some people saying wait til 2.0 for content. That is flawed.

It's not flawed. 2.0 is:

1. New server infrastructure up and going for the public.
2. New Client.
3. New Engine.

What this means is, they'll no longer be overhauling the game and can focus on adding content, which they have quite a bit planned that won't be introduced until the foundation is fixed, i.e switched over to new client and servers. They're adding the content they can add between now and then but we won't be seeing patches dedicated to content versus patches dedicated to fixing the game.

and for those that say wait it's been a year. 5-7 if you count the time it was in dev and testing just saying.

3ish years, if you count actual production then the fact the game is going through an overhaul.