Extra questsssssssssss

[LalafellDown]

It's almost like they don't work on this game for free and have a company to manage! Do you know literally anything about game development on any scale that isn't Minecraft? Try to educate yourself before asking for impossible things. And FYI, time is money.

https://youtu.be/GAyt3KUVkrY

[Iscah]

I'm not wishing for more text.
I'm not wishing for less text.

Really? Because that seems to be exactly what your issue is in your original post.

Why do I skip them? Why do I smash next button?
When I enter a NEW area, I'm following the MAIN STORY QUEST. And that is fine. But extra quests are SO numberous I just can't take them. I'm following the MAIN STORY QUEST and I ALREADY have a LOT to read, to hear, to play [...]

When I have completed MSQ, I read so much, I heard so much, I played so much that I want to play at my own pace. I don't want to spend dozens of HOURS completing extra quests just to remove their icons from the maps.

"There's too much text and it takes too much time to read it after I've already played the main story."

If the text takes too much time, then adding "playable sections" is going to make them even longer, and you can't skim through a fight the same way you can skim through dialogue.

If you're not asking for less text, then you are asking for more gameplay and more time spent traveling to objectives in addition to the existing amount of text.

Perhaps this is getting lost in translation, but you are not being consistent about what you want out of this, which is why people are "misunderstanding" you.

[yotsuffy]

Really? Because that seems to be exactly what your issue is in your original post.




"There's too much text and it takes too much time to read it after I've already played the main story."

If the text takes too much time, then adding "playable sections" is going to make them even longer, and you can't skim through a fight the same way you can skim through dialogue.

If you're not asking for less text, then you are asking for more gameplay and more time spent traveling to objectives in addition to the existing amount of text.

Perhaps this is getting lost in translation, but you are not being consistent about what you want out of this, which is why people are "misunderstanding" you.

It is quite possible that I am not expressing myself clearly. Maybe I choose the wrong words or present my reasoning badly.
It is an important point in a debate: helping the other person to clarify his point to be sure that he makes himself understood. Then we can talk about it.

More playable sections, more gameplay will also mean more time to do them. That's true. But it will also mean that all those quests that allready demand hours to be followed and are only about read-move-read-move will then include playtime. FFXIV is not a book. FFXIV is not a TV show. FFXIV is a game. When I start a quest, I expect to play at some time.

In a game, all the storytelling should lead to playtime.

Please SE, change something.

When I take them, I take the most I can at once.
When I do them, I smash "next" button without even reading.
When I do them, I sometimes have NO clue about where to continue and complete them. So I fail, do all others I have and start again. Because the one I failed is the only one left so I can see.

Why do I skip them? Why do I smash next button?
When I enter a NEW area, I'm following the MAIN STORY QUEST. And that is fine. But extra quests are SO numberous I just can't take them. I'm following the MAIN STORY QUEST and I ALREADY have a LOT to read, to hear, to play (that, don't change it. It's awesome).

But extra quests... I skip them because I follow MSQ (and blue quests). When I have completed that, I can travel and move around freely. And I go to the next area.

When I have completed MSQ, I read so much, I heard so much, I played so much that I want to play at my own pace. I don't want to spend dozens of HOURS completing extra quests just to remove their icons from the maps. Just to remove them from the maps. Because removing them from the map is finally the only goal about doing them, even if I am levelling up another class. Because if I am levelling up another class, I want to LEARN & PLAY it. Not 1) read some story, 2) go there, 3) read some story, 4) go there... and SOMETIMES try to play my class for 10 seconds just to rescue some random ambushed someone.

Extra quests are only about reading and moving. Even the answer choices we may have have NO influence. So I don't do them. But they're there. Always. And they promise huge exp. So I think: well, they'll help when I level up another class. I won't learn my class, I won't play my class, but eh, extra exp?
So I start them. I don't learn my class, I don't play my class and I just spam "next" and move. For hours. And I get my only reward: removing them from the map. Because, again, instead of that I could have learned and played a new class.

Then I quit the game. To have some fun doing something the little time I can, IRL, grant it. This is the reward for doing your extra quests. Needing to leave the game.

Please SE, change something.

-----
N.B.: French player, trying to reach english-speaking people.

[Moomba33]

Personally I like it when they add non-combat focused quests to the game. Like the ones where you have to solve a riddle, or find a location based on picture, or those ones in SB where you had to pinpoint a location with the help of some Namazu, ect.

I don't mind the quests that are just reading/moving/picking up objects.

Combat quests aren't terrible, but I also don't find them particularly interesting. The enemies tend to just be trash mobs with no mechanics as they need to be soloable by every job. I guess I feel like I spend enough time in this game fighting trash in Fates, Clan Hunts, ect. that I don't feel I need more from side quests.

[AnotherPerson]

I am honestly confused at the person who made this post.
You don't have to do yellow sidequests - you can skip them entirely and focus on levemetes (the NPCs with cards) to get exp. Doing those is Completely Optional and reading the storyline for those is even more optional since they have no relevance to the story. The Blue ones with + markers actually unlocks content - which would be a better use of the time spent.
You can do deep dungeon (Palace of the Dead / Heaven on High) for exp.
You can spam leveling dungeon & roulette for exp multiple times.

You don't have to read the story to progress with the game. It's not a mandatory thing to do unless you're in the Main Scenario Castrum/Praetorium Lv 50 dungeons, and even then that's the only situation where the cutscenes are mandatory. You have the option to SKIP all the dialogue and not read it if you don't want to.

No one is enforcing you to read through MSQ. You won't understand what happens in the storyline, but that should be a given if you don't want to read anymore text. You can progress through the MSQ at your own pace. No one stops you from deciding to take a crafting profession or a gathering profession in the game. At no point do you not get exp to go to the next level until you reach the max level cap the game offers you - (Lv 80 if you have ShB expansion bought, Lv 50 if on regular game, and Lv 35 if on free trial).

A big part of MMORPGs is actually getting content and storyline - where you do run into others, talk to other NPCs, travel around, do nonsensical things as a WoL, and fight. That's the whole point of an RPG. A lot of places are gated by the MSQ and that's because you just don't have access to it due to storyline purposes. It just doesn't 'exist' yet because your character has no purpose to go there / have knowledge of the existence of that area / time has not progressed far enough where the area is available at your current progression of the game. From what I understand, you don't want to read the storyline, so just skip it. If you want to read the storyline and you can't stand the text, just take a break. The whole plot of the game isn't supposed to be done in a couple of hours - ARR is designed to be a full 20 - 30(+ depending on if you have no idea how to level up or plan on leveling other jobs/classes) hours of gameplay - and 10 to 20 of those hours are purely cutscenes which can be skipped.

A lot of MSQ can be moving around which helps the player Explore the world and that's perfectly fine. If you have destinations you already been to, just spend some gil to teleport using Aetherytes, and use the mount you get to speed up traveling. It's not that bad - unless you never bothered attuning to aetherytes and didn't unlock the Chocobo companion.

[MeeDeggiThePunisher]

It's almost like they don't work on this game for free and have a company to manage! Do you know literally anything about game development on any scale that isn't Minecraft? Try to educate yourself before asking for impossible things. And FYI, time is money.

We also don't play this game for free. Which is why SE reads the forums and even encourages us to request things like bunny boys, fancy hats, and maybe even better side quest design. I don't keep track but haven't we got things like egi glamour this way.

[yukiiyuki]

It's supposed to be a single unique game that falls in the genre MMO. It doesn't have to follow what other games do exactly. It's already known for being more story-based and talky than other MMOs, so why shouldn't sidequests be the same?

The thing is, if we dont count ESO, there's alot of upcoming mmo games that already have a better vision on questing in general.
For like 5 years I havent seen them really trying to improve leveling experience gameplay-wise, they copied some ideas from WoW here and there, but it was outdated even for WoW itself, because nowday's they're always trying to create something fresh, so you wont have just kill/read/gather quests.
It's 2020 already and the game still feels like it stuck in 2013.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

The thing is, if we dont count ESO, there's alot of upcoming mmo games that already have a better vision on questing in general.
For like 5 years I havent seen them really trying to improve leveling experience gameplay-wise, they copied some ideas from WoW here and there, but it was outdated even for WoW itself, because nowday's they're always trying to create something fresh, so you wont have just kill/read/gather quests.
It's 2020 already and the game still feels like it stuck in 2013.

What upcoming mmos?


I remember when archage released, and everyone said it was going to kill xiv, the BDO. This happens every new release. And yet those games are ftp p2w cash grabs worse than anything on the mogstation, and xiv still going strong.

[yukiiyuki]

What upcoming mmos?
I remember when archage released, and everyone said it was going to kill xiv, the BDO. This happens every new release. And yet those games are ftp p2w cash grabs worse than anything on the mogstation, and xiv still going strong.

>BDO, ArcheAge
>everyone said it was going to kill xiv
Like how? WoW's killers meme arised from the copies of World of Warcraft that spawned one after another after BC anc WoTLK success. ARR was builded around WoW ideas of theme park MMO, BDO is an MMO about PvP, you can call it ArcheAge killer, Lineage 2 killer, but comparing it to Theme park MMO's is really stupid in the first place.
Also, "killing" something is a difficult task, Fallout 76 can't kill itself, people still playing this hot garbage. FF11 still alive, somehow, but it's niche and won't become a big thing ever.
But back to the topic, if you want good example, I don't need even bring up korean ones (Genshin Impact and Project BBQ looks good though), those will be killed by publishers anyway. Blue protocol is a good example of a game, that made in Japan, will be story focused, devs really listening to community, made on Unreal Engine 4, have more modern combat system and even cutscenes dont look sluggish.
Does XIV announced any plans to improve the game experience drastically? No, and let's be clear, everything in a schedule, so people will go and try new things for sure, especially since there is no good MMO's right now so gamers just stick with what they have nowadays.
If Blue Protocol will be successful, it will bring up alot of FF players, because its another MMO with 2D girls that you can dress up, other anime MMO projects could find a new players as well, UE4 graphics will help with that for sure, and I'm not even talking about the Shadowlands, if that's will be successful, it will bring up MANY players mostly from 14 that fled after BFA.
Ignoring the fact that there is new projects on the way will be very harmful to XIV popularity and SE should not ignore it or we'll go back to HW times, where 300k subs was peak and game was more a project for FF fans and nothing more.

[SamRF]

In general FFXIV is definitely lacking in questdesign imo, relevant quote from different thread:

Other MMOs usually have much more interesting quest design. Just looking at other major MMOs like WoW, GW2, ESO. Quests there are much more interesting and they give you more autonomy and variance. They don't feel as much of artificial step by step triggers like in FFXIV. There's also extremely low amount of combat in FFXIV quests, you usually won't be required to kill more than 3 mobs per given quest, not even sidequests, which makes you long for any combat at some point.

Let's take WoW quests for example, from escort missions on vehicle to literally turning into a flying elemental and killing a giant boss on top of a huge volcano I was astounded by fun I had with quest objectives in that game compared to FFXIV (I played FFXIV first).

Examples:

• There could be a quest in which you have to collect 10 items by killing mobs, then combine the items to perform a ritual for example, then after you do the ritual a huge demon spawns. This all as 1 objective which you can all do without interacting with anything specific which makes it much more immersive and gives you a feeling of having autonomy.
• A quest you sometimes get on your own without the involvement of an npc, you might have to investigate a crime scene or something and you keep going further on the investigation (which you accept and complete on the go).
• Quests in which you have to talk to npc's in which you can choose dialogue that can turn the NPC against you.
• Small bits of parkour
• Converting mobs and making them follow you and help you with ongoing fights.
• Having to escort NPC's, going to fight some kind of boss together with your questgiver.
• Having to steal a key from guards to open the locks of prison crates to free your allies (and in return they help you fighting for example).
• Quests in which you transform in some different entity in which you travel and fulfill some duty
• etc, probably other stuff as well since there seems much more possible in terms of variance.

Things like this are unheard of in FFXIV. Compared to this, our quest objectives feel incredibly boring imo. Likely has to do with the instanced nature of this game, scripting and engine that may make it impossible to have too much variance or mechanics in open world content. You can see that there's an attempt to introduce more variance and interesting quest mechanics in later expansions, but they feel and play kind of awkward imo.

I took WoW as an example, but the other major MMOs and others might have even more interesting quest design. ESO is a pretty unfair comparison I guess since it's basically an Elder Scrolls game disguised as an MMO.

Bottom line imo is that FFXIV is notably lacking in this aspect.