New Player Experience Sucks! - Impending Expansion Problems

[SturmChurro]

So how do you propose they help new players?

Free skip potions will be like throwing someone into the deep end who doesn't know how to swim, leveling dungeons are far harsher than any end game dungeons and the potion will still force players to level at least 10 levels going into these.

Streamline msq ok they did that with HW and it had atrocious level jumps at launch(I think there was like 4 lv56 msq quest before the Vault a lv57 dungeon) a bit of padding is good it can help flesh out things for people like me and SE can pace things out more appropriately SB is the best paced .0 for story/level pacing and it still has a few bumps (58-60 range is so fast)

I really can't think what the devs could do here they use so much story yes even from the fetch quests into other parts of the game where they expect you to know about it already that it would probably require a whole redesign of the msq for ARR that i doubt they would do anything about it. The devs are currently in the damned if they do damned if they don't scenario here and it seems the dev's vision is with the damned if they do it crowd so they probably won't bother until it truly starts to affect things later down the line.

I had gathered my thoughts and had a small debate with another (imaginary) friend of mine over Steam. If I would brainstorm ideas. I would think a streamlined ARR, "trimming the fat", making it more fun, and updating it. It is objectively archaic, but I'm sure some will still disagree with me on that point. New players or characters without a boost (or chose not to use) should start here like everyone else did. The boost should be free with an expansion in the future, and that experience should be streamlined and restructured. A brief overview of what has happened in the story (who the characters are, what has happened) - relevant to the plot at hand - over the course of a tutorial tailored to your specific role (DPS, Tank, Healer). At the end of the tutorial overview, you should be placed somewhere at the start of the most recent expansion or plot line leading to it, i.e. the start of any one story arch.

Players who choose to use a boost should be able to go back and do the story that they missed at their own leisure, to experience it personally, and to get full context of the situation. If they have boost regret, and choose a class they don't like that is on them, they should have to level a job from scratch like everyone else, or buy another boost. In short, a complete overhaul to the new player experience, boost or not. While continuing to have story player a large role. However, this is just a brainstorm, I am no game designer. All I know is the leveling experience right now is absolute crap, and needs to be restructured, overhauled; streamlined.

[LyraKuroneko]

if some people want the mmo more than the jrpg, why force them? No one is saying remove story from the game. They are just saying give those who dont want to do story, or want to do it on their own terms, that option.

Because they are other game that focus on that, and that a game shouldn't be change because a little part decide they only wanted the half of it.

[Pywalli]

The game is not as complex or difficult as people try to make it sound.

Do you know how many ppl dosent even know what mech look like. Everyday i see a guy lvl70 who don't understand and fail stackmarker mech because they never saw it.

Not everyone is brand new to mmorpgs. Some playing others like WoW or another type of mmo.

Not the same game. If you think because you are good at wow you are good at ff14 that's a prob.

If you speedrun DS1 you can't speedrun sekiro

[Crushnight]

Cutting out the unecessary quest could help.

Leveling wasn't too slow when I tried on my alt. So mainly cutting the quest could help. After that know since I don't know how it'll go yet.

Thats fine but then we are needing huge exp buffs on the msq quests as well as any cramming of important lore shoved into as few quests as possible, there was a reason i stated HW was atrocious on release for leveling while doing msq and also the reason why ffxiv moogles are probably the most hated moogles in ff franchise since you were forced to deal with their side quests for exp on multiple occasions again this was on release HW they had sinced nerfed the experience so it is no longer as wonky while leveling.

skip is an option, they wont use it if they dont want it. They will still have to level their charachters, they can just take advantage of more content while doing it, on their own schedule. Mostly it will only be people who actively want to avoid/choose when to do story, and have friends, or believe they can jump in who will use these types of things.

And with the skip option the devs are going to be doing everything they can do reasonably with new game+ does it help new players who use them yes but doesn't help new players who go through everything so which type of player does SE cater to. well they decided to cater to the one shelling out more money this time as well as the veteran players who wanted to redo story/story instances (this has been requested for quite some time and although probably different to most people's view on the matter it still allow this).

[ADarklore]

Why doesn't SE offer 'free' skips... because they are a business, not a charity. If you want to skip, then pay to do it, otherwise put in the time like everyone else. I've never understood people who come to an MMO and expect to jump to end game right away without even knowing or understanding the story or even their own class skills... then people wonder why so many feel that endgame community experience is so horrible. An MMO is meant to be an experience done over years, if you do not have the time to commit to a long journey, then perhaps an MMO, particularly an MMORPG isn't for you.

[Skivvy]

Why doesn't SE offer 'free' skips... because they are a business, not a charity. If you want to skip, then pay to do it, otherwise put in the time like everyone else. I've never understood people who come to an MMO and expect to jump to end game right away without even knowing or understanding the story or even their own class skills... then people wonder why so many feel that endgame community experience is so horrible. An MMO is meant to be an experience done over years, if you do not have the time to commit to a long journey, then perhaps an MMO, particularly an MMORPG isn't for you.

I don't believe anyone here is pushing to skip 100% of all quests and jump right into end-game. Perhaps more streamlining, less forced completion of every single last mission.

Lets not pretend that SE has the best process out there and there's no room for improvement.

[SturmChurro]

I don't believe anyone here is pushing to skip 100% of all quests and jump right into end-game. Perhaps more streamlining, less forced completion of every single last mission.

Lets not pretend that SE has the best process out there and there's no room for improvement.

You won't get through to these people with extremely arrogant takes. Sad to see, and sad to say.

[LyraKuroneko]

Thats fine but then we are needing huge exp buffs on the msq quests as well as any cramming of important lore shoved into as few quests as possible, there was a reason i stated HW was atrocious on release for leveling while doing msq and also the reason why ffxiv moogles are probably the most hated moogles in ff franchise since you were forced to deal with their side quests for exp on multiple occasions again this was on release HW they had sinced nerfed the experience so it is no longer as wonky while leveling.

Could buff the rest of the quest xp, doesn't sounds like a problem.

The rest might need to be adjust but there is nothing wrong in that.

You won't get through to these people with extremely arrogant takes. Sad to see, and sad to say.

I might be a little rude there and sorry for that but, see yourself in a mirror before saying that

edit :

Yes, I am the arrogant one for wanting to streamline the experience to be more welcoming to larger community.

Nice dodge but you know I'm not talking about that.

[SturmChurro]

Could buff the rest of the quest xp, doesn't sounds like a problem.

The rest might need to be adjust but there is nothing wrong in that.

Buffing exp is again, a bandaid not a fix. You still have to go through all of the slog to get to what you want. The only difference is you way over level, everything you are doing is a joke, and you wish you were at level content. Your quests give you outdated gear, no money. If you have to buff exp to make it (supposedly) less of a slog, then that is a non-fix to the situation, and only highlights how bad it is [EDIT] A total restructure and streamline of the starting leveling experience is what is actually needed.

I might be a little rude there and sorry for that but, see yourself in a mirror before saying that please.



I might be a little rude there and sorry for that but, see yourself in a mirror before saying that

Yes, I am the arrogant one for wanting to streamline the experience to be more welcoming to larger community.

[Penthea]

Playing MSQ with a friend is like, oh, ill wait 40 minutes until you get to the next dungeon. Meanwhile the person knowing their friend is waiting feels pressure to finish faster.

I'm sorry but what's stopping you from doing something else while they do their quests? Nothing is forcing you to sit around doing nothing. Do your daily hunts, go gathering, visit the gold saucer, craft some things, do beast tribe dailies...I could go on for a while. My friends didn't feel pressured because I assured them they could take their time, and they knew I was doing other things I wanted to do while they did their quests.

The gates just dont work well for dealing with friends.

Not been my experience at all. But then again I didn't sit around doing nothing while my buddies did their quests.

If you and your friends got two hours to play together, that might only be 2 dungeons due to MSQ and lockouts.

Two hours isn't a lot of time in a mmo regardless of whether you're doing msq or not.