Level 50 quests, solution "softener"

[kaynide]

It’s come up before, but just to restate: a lot of the fluff can be cut from required MSQ and made into side quests. There is no need at this point in development to have a bloated “between expansion” quest chain for early expansions.

[Jojoya]

It’s come up before, but just to restate: a lot of the fluff can be cut from required MSQ and made into side quests. There is no need at this point in development to have a bloated “between expansion” quest chain for early expansions.

They've already cut most of the fluff from post-ARR MSQ. There are a couple of stray pieces that could probably go

(does the WoL really need to resort to bullying people for information about the refugee riot when that could have been done by a couple of Flames or Sultansworn?)

but there's really not that much that isn't needed. Just about everything left provides information related to something that happens later.

The last thing I want here is for it to end up like WoW where you don't know what the heck is going when a new expansion starts because the set up took place in a book or pre-patch event that was in the game only 2 weeks before being removed. Players shouldn't be forced into side content to understand what's happening in the main story. It's bad enough that Crystal Tower is now required.

[kaynide]

They've already cut most of the fluff from post-ARR MSQ. There are a couple of stray pieces that could probably go

(does the WoL really need to resort to bullying people for information about the refugee riot when that could have been done by a couple of Flames or Sultansworn?)

but there's really not that much that isn't needed. Just about everything left provides information related to something that happens later.

The last thing I want here is for it to end up like WoW where you don't know what the heck is going when a new expansion starts because the set up took place in a book or pre-patch event that was in the game only 2 weeks before being removed. Players shouldn't be forced into side content to understand what's happening in the main story. It's bad enough that Crystal Tower is now required.

The entire sequence leading up to Brayflox (essentially fetch quests to make a feast) could be neatly done in maybe 3 quests.. Maybe one with the imposter, 1 delivery and then the actual braflox dungeon.

Or in Coerthas, one place has us track down a mob, kill it, deliver it, then deliver 3 cooked steaks. This could just have been 1 quest with all of the same information storywise contained. We need not actually deliver steaks to people in the same room we got the quest.

..and that’s the general problem with a lot of the quest chains. You could get the gist of it and keep the actual story beats in maybe 1/3 of the quests. When the game is new it makes sense to pad it out to retain players, but we are at a point it should get another cull maybe by end of 6.x.

[DPZ2]

The entire sequence leading up to Brayflox (essentially fetch quests to make a feast) could be neatly done in maybe 3 quests.. Maybe one with the imposter, 1 delivery and then the actual braflox dungeon.

The entire quest sequence leading up to Titan was greatly reduced during the Great Quest Purge. You may consider these as mere 'fetch quests'.

They are actually there to get you to places you need to go to anyway for the rest of ARR.

You go to the South Shroud (and get the Aetheryte) around the same time you have to go there anyway in order to get your Chocobo Companion started. You go to the Sagoli Desert (and get the Aetheryte) around the same time you have to go there anyway to for your Grand Company hunt log.

[kaynide]

The entire quest sequence leading up to Titan was greatly reduced during the Great Quest Purge. You may consider these as mere 'fetch quests'.

They are actually there to get you to places you need to go to anyway for the rest of ARR.

You go to the South Shroud (and get the Aetheryte) around the same time you have to go there anyway in order to get your Chocobo Companion started. You go to the Sagoli Desert (and get the Aetheryte) around the same time you have to go there anyway to for your Grand Company hunt log.

Yes it ultimately leads to Titan, but post Brayflox it’s not that bad and mostly on point. I just ran through these last week to get to Titan and it is absolutely still a slog.

Having quests that take us to ARR areas just for the sake of going there is not useful or good storytelling. At this point with the massive xp gain, there is really no drive to work on Grand Company logs until you’re already 50 and want to buy property. And the chocobo thing could just as easily be in the stables where most other chocobo quests are done. It’s just done the way it is to pad things out.

We just really don’t even need to go to several of these zones until later plotwise. They existed in 2.0 and sure might as well use them to pad content in 2.0’s game world. In the current state though, there are other story beats that utilize some of those zones in a much more useful way (like Little Ala Mhigo relating to stormblood), or alternatively job,quests like Whm take us through these zones which is a perfectly valid use.

[Iscah]

Maybe because the content is also just speak with A, then Speak with B, then Speak with C... repeat, then go to certain marked zone where you inspect the terrain, there are forces you kill em, and thats it...

Ive come to the point i just skip the filler quests. I know when something important is comming up.

But that's my point. It's all story, presented the same way, except quests during the levelling phase level you up and quests during the non-levelling phase don't.

You go to the South Shroud (and get the Aetheryte) around the same time you have to go there anyway in order to get your Chocobo Companion started. You go to the Sagoli Desert (and get the Aetheryte) around the same time you have to go there anyway to for your Grand Company hunt log.

That's back-to-front reasoning though. The reason your hunting log has hunts in those places is because that's where the MSQ sends you at that point. Likewise why the quest to unlock your battle chocobo start with someone in the South Shroud (ie. positioned where you'll come across them while you're there for MSQ) whose only role is to direct you to Bentbranch where the bulk of the quest actually happens.