An option for characters to start at level 50, pre-heavensward, for FREE

[Vahlnir]

I think that ARR's lvl 50 story quests need to be consolidated. Beyond that no, I don't think much needs to be done.

[ForteNightshade]

I think that ARR's lvl 50 story quests need to be consolidated. Beyond that no, I don't think much needs to be done.

This comes with an unfortunate caveat though. The devs have admitted consolidating the sheer amount of quests would take considerable work. Therefore, if they prioritize it, we, the veteran players, may lose out on new content for something none of us will ever see unless we level alts. It's easy to say "new players should do the story but just make it more streamlined." But far too many people forget there's a cost involved. For myself, if it came down to losing a trial, BA, Ultimate, more fleshed out side quests or really anything of significance, I'd be quite annoyed because as mentioned, fixing the myriad of pointless fetch quests in ARR won't have any impact on me whatsoever. I'll just have even less to do.

[Vahlnir]

This comes with an unfortunate caveat though. The devs have admitted consolidating the sheer amount of quests would take considerable work. Therefore, if they prioritize it, we, the veteran players, may lose out on new content for something none of us will ever see unless we level alts. It's easy to say "new players should do the story but just make it more streamlined." But far too many people forget there's a cost involved. For myself, if it came down to losing a trial, BA, Ultimate, more fleshed out side quests or really anything of significance, I'd be quite annoyed because as mentioned, fixing the myriad of pointless fetch quests in ARR won't have any impact on me whatsoever. I'll just have even less to do.

It is hard for me to sympathize with SE when they say "but muh workload!" They are a huge name in the gaming industry and are fully capable of doing what needs to be done when they want to in order for them to turn a profit. They have talked about this in the past though and I'm pretty sure they are keen on doing it. It'll just be a matter of when imo.

[ForteNightshade]

It is hard for me to sympathize with SE when they say "but muh workload!" They are a huge name in the gaming industry and are fully capable of doing what needs to be done when they want to in order for them to turn a profit. They have talked about this in the past though and I'm pretty sure they are keen on doing it. It'll just be a matter of when imo.

Money isn't the issue. Whether they throw thousands at this problem or do it on the cheap, it still requires people from the dev team to commit their time towards something else. That inevitably means they have less people working on new content. Think of it this way. If they had 100 people all working on new content but this consolidation required 30 due to all the work associated with adjusting code, possibly rewriting dialogue and etc. That means only 70 people are left working on things for Shadowbringers, which may result in longer delays or less new content overall. Yoshida has acknowledged this the precise reason they have yet to touch ARR.

I, for one, wouldn't want to lose content just so they can make ARR less of a slog.

[Vahlnir]

Money isn't the issue. Whether they throw thousands at this problem or do it on the cheap, it still requires people from the dev team to commit their time towards something else. That inevitably means they have less people working on new content. Think of it this way. If they had 100 people all working on new content but this consolidation required 30 due to all the work associated with adjusting code, possibly rewriting dialogue and etc. That means only 70 people are left working on things for Shadowbringers, which may result in longer delays or less new content overall. Yoshida has acknowledged this the precise reason they have yet to touch ARR.

So they should hire a few more people. I realize it's not as simple as that. They would probably need some training and such...but it would benefit them as a company in the long run. Sometimes a business has to spend money to make more money.

[Kleeya]

So they should hire a few more people. I realize it's not as simple as that. They would probably need some training and such...but it would benefit them as a company in the long run. Sometimes a business has to spend money to make more money.

If only it was that simple.

While FFXIV will continue to strive to maintain a regular 3.5 month major update cycle, we must also ensure that sufficient time is secured for the meticulous development of new content—or else the quality will invariably drop. This is a complex problem that can’t be solved simply by throwing more money or people at it, as it impacts both debugging and QA.

https://gamerescape.com/2019/05/10/l...producer-lxii/

I can understand that very well. At my last work the more new trainees were launched at me, the more time i did lose ensuring they were not making any mistakes that would impact the entire team afterwards, making my usual personnal tasks less and less efficient. It was way better working without them, and a relief when they were thrown at someone else XD

[Vahlnir]

If only it was that simple.

https://gamerescape.com/2019/05/10/l...producer-lxii/

I can understand that very well. At my last work the more new trainees were launched at me, the more time i did lose ensuring they were not making any mistakes that would impact the entire team afterwards, making my usual personnal tasks less and less efficient. It was way better working without them, and a relief when they were thrown at someone else XD

They can say they can't throw money at problems, but what do some players feel inclined to do to get around the limited inventory space? That's right, throw money at them, and magically they have more inventory space. If they weren't monetizing a known limitation then maybe they would have a fair point and I would be willing to cut them a little slack. Training people? Yeah, I can definitely understand why they might not want to, but I personally think that they would be better for it if they trained a few people to do what they need to do. I know they probably won't though.

[Ronduwil]

So they should hire a few more people. I realize it's not as simple as that. They would probably need some training and such...but it would benefit them as a company in the long run. Sometimes a business has to spend money to make more money.

The Mythical Man Month was first published in 1975, but it still holds true today. More people don't necessarily speed up software development. In fact, throwing more people on the team often has the opposite effect. I say that as someone who has worked as a software developer for 18 years.

[Kaedan]

I think that ARR's lvl 50 story quests need to be consolidated. Beyond that no, I don't think much needs to be done.

Agreed.

They should definitely revisit their "New Player Experience" and consolidate a lot of the ARR quest lines to make them a bit more palatable. But short of that, starting new players at 50 in HW I simply can't agree with at all. If people really want to, they can buy the potions.