The main quest feel like a burden now with the EXP increase

[Rasikko]

Massive Multiplayer Online Single Player Role Playing Game.

While that wasn't meant to be funny, I gotta admit, I got a good laugh out of that when I repeated it out loud.

[Rufalus]

Hopefully they don't do the giant single player quest series with their next MMO. It would be better if mandatory quests were only every 5 levels or even 10 levels, with everything else being optional sidequests.

The small number of mandatory story quests could be given more dev time for things like motion capture and every line voiced. Quality over quantity and fewer prereqs to reach the group content.

Also I feel like the era of flooding maps with filler sidequests for exp is over. Most of the na/eu players I know seem to hate questing, even the class/job quests required to unlock abilities and traits. I've got far too many friends who reluctantly go back and unlock their buttons years after they leveled past the point they should have them.

I'd like the next generation of mmos to rethink the way story is delivered and how group battle content is unlocked and accessed.

[Jojoya]

It's not the MSQ that's the problem when it comes to outpacing MSQ level. It's doing a lot of side content, along with the Road to 70 bonus if you're on a preferred world. If you stick solely to the MSQ, you'll end up falling behind in level and will need to do the additional content to get caught up in a few places (notably Coerthas and Northern Thanalan).

If your brother wants to be doing the side content with you, like roulettes, I'd suggest he pick up a second job now while he's still fairly low level and in the early part of the MSQ. It's fairly easy to level 2 jobs at the same, using one for MSQ and then switching between the two for roulettes and side content depending on which needs more XP. I do that on an alt I level with a friend's alt.

Hopefully they don't do the giant single player quest series with their next MMO. It would be better if mandatory quests were only every 5 levels or even 10 levels, with everything else being optional sidequests.

The small number of mandatory story quests could be given more dev time for things like motion capture and every line voiced. Quality over quantity and fewer prereqs to reach the group content.

Also I feel like the era of flooding maps with filler sidequests for exp is over. Most of the na/eu players I know seem to hate questing, even the class/job quests required to unlock abilities and traits. I've got far too many friends who reluctantly go back and unlock their buttons years after they leveled past the point they should have them.

I'd like the next generation of mmos to rethink the way story is delivered and how group battle content is unlocked and accessed.

It's a franchise known for its story. Players will be unhappy if the story becomes scarce and most of their time is spent with random grinding. I don't seem them changing a formula that has worked for them.

[Rufalus]

It's a franchise known for its story. Players will be unhappy if the story becomes scarce and most of their time is spent with random grinding. I don't seem them changing a formula that has worked for them.

I mean still have the story (only the high quality quests, no filler) but make most of them separate sidequest lines with different characters in each that can be done in any order, not one giant MSQ with the same characters stretching through every expansion with all of the multiplayer content locked behind it.

They said themselves a lot of players quit the game entirely at a certain point in 2.X MSQ. I think they can do a better job to appeal to different types of players than they did with FF XIV. I'm a lore guy too but I see the complaints of people wanting to jump into an mmo with their friends as very valid.

They are getting locked behind weeks of single player quests and quitting before they experience some of the game's best pve content. I think there's a better middle ground between mmo and single player story adventure. It's too late for xiv but the next time they make an mmo from the ground up I'd like them to rethink the structure and new player experience.

[Cithaerias_pyropina]

It's a franchise known for its story. Players will be unhappy if the story becomes scarce and most of their time is spent with random grinding. I don't seem them changing a formula that has worked for them.

If SE ever makes another MMO I'd rather they absolutely forego the story for drastically higher quality playable content that, you know, lasts longer than a week. And it's an MMO not a singleplayer game. The MSQ drains a huge amount of the game's budget and voice acting alone is a large portion of that.

Less mandatory story quests = higher quality story quests and higher quality playable content (and higher quality cutscenes, less standing still and using emotes and more actual action). Quality>Quantity, if the quality of your content is great people won't complain it's boring. If there's an abundance of something, and it's terrible (most of the MSQs in FF14 are ye olde fetch quests with no action), people will complain.

[Morningstar1337]

If SE ever makes another MMO I'd rather they absolutely forego the story for drastically higher quality playable content that, you know, lasts longer than a week. And it's an MMO not a singleplayer game. The MSQ drains a huge amount of the game's budget and voice acting alone is a large portion of that.

Would have to drop the numbering if not the entire brand, as the comment you reply to mentioned, it is a story-driven franchise, and I thinkthat emphasis helps to seperate it from WoW a little.

Less mandatory story quests = higher quality story quests and higher quality playable content (and higher quality cutscenes, less standing still and using emotes and more actual action). Quality>Quantity, if the quality of your content is great people won't complain it's boring. If there's an abundance of something, and it's terrible (most of the MSQs in FF14 are ye olde fetch quests with no action), people will complain.

I agree,but I want to see if the XIV devs can consistnly apply the "quality over quantity" principle to their current game going forwardsince we are getting less content compared to 2.X (3 Dungeons per patch compared to the single one we get now, among other things).

[Gemina]

Progressing the MSQ as a healer is a snorefest, and I'm surprised I did it for as long as I did. It doesn't get much better either. Many healers feel less engaged in a lot of content because encounters don't require full use of their healing kits, and they have very few DPS skills to compensate for that downtime. For MSQ instances, quite often there will be NPC who heals, which basically takes that responsibility away from them as well.

In short, it would be a good idea that your buddy has a really good idea what he's getting into with the healer role. Not that I discourage playing it. There is a reason why I main this role, but it gets very little love from the devs. Clutch saves though, are always appreciated from the players you're with and nearly makes up for the devs neglect towards healers.

[Floortank]

288 MSQs from 2.0 to the end of 2.5 is waaaay too many. They need to cut it drastically back and I don't think the 13% they cited (which will cut it back to 250) will be enough, but we'll see if they cut enough steps for it to be fine.

[Barraind]

If SE ever makes another MMO I'd rather they absolutely forego the story for drastically higher quality playable content that, you know, lasts longer than a week. And it's an MMO not a singleplayer game. The MSQ drains a huge amount of the game's budget and voice acting alone is a large portion of that.

The msq will be somewhere between 1 and 2% of the total time spent playing ff14.

It probably has more design time spent on it than the rest of that 98% combined, and it shows more and more each expansion.

[RVallant]

I think it is okay (just). I just finished ARR and did most of the side stories and managed to finish the game at level 50. Well, the final quest made me level 51 but whatever. Having said that though, I cheesed it by using quests to feed exp to my fisher class.

I understand what the OP means about overleveling too much. Content starts to feel irrelevant, and you don't get to use your full kit when a quest sends you out into the open world, especially if it gets so bad that you can one or two shot mobs. I just wrapped up the 2.1 story quests as a Samurai and I'm now level 53 going on 54 thanks to ARR 'end game' content. I haven't touched the level roulette, that's ARR-2.1 end took me from 51 to 53 and I haven't even started Hildibrand intro quests yet. Again, I don't strictly mind it at this stage since trying to stem the tide is a losing battle. However, by the time I get to Heavensward, I'm going to faceroll content that I'm not synced down to aren't I? I'm already facerolling content like the Beast Tribes or whatever.

Yes, okay you can 'get around it' by picking up another class, but some people don't want to be switching classes. Some people like to stay on one class, it's a matter of playstyles IMO.