I hope 7.0's has a way to skip most of the current story

[Iscah]

The void quest line after the shb rolequest is such a neat quest but because it's locked behind getting a job from each role to 80 it will forever be an obscure questline that gets a passing comment at most. Even when the 6.1 MSQ basically screams to ask beq lugg, unukalhai and taynor for advice.

Walling it off from MSQ doesn't have anything directly to do with obscurity of access to the quest though. Even if it had no additional requirements, it's still a side story and they're not going to reference it in MSQ (beyond a passing mention) unless they can be sure that you've done it first.

It's possible they'll add more locks in that vein over time, like they did for the Crystal Tower, but otherwise side story NPCs are off-limits unless they can be used without seeming out of sequence.

You also need to complete all the HW Extremes to unlock that sub story which is a bit of a shame since it's some neat lore.

HW extreme trials are extremely easy now unsynched, so it's not a major barrier.

[NekoMataMata]

Walling it off from MSQ doesn't have anything directly to do with obscurity of access to the quest though. Even if it had no additional requirements, it's still a side story and they're not going to reference it in MSQ (beyond a passing mention) unless they can be sure that you've done it first.

It's possible they'll add more locks in that vein over time, like they did for the Crystal Tower, but otherwise side story NPCs are off-limits unless they can be used without seeming out of sequence.




HW extreme trials are extremely easy now unsynched, so it's not a major barrier.

They could make an alternate version of the quest lines so people could understand that portion of the story and so that it could be included in the MSQ. They've done that for side content before.

[GeminiReed]

HW extreme trials are extremely easy now unsynched, so it's not a major barrier.

Challenge is but one of many barriers especially for a side story that seems to be related to at least the 6.x patch storyline. Whether or not it'll be relevant to 7.0 is another question.

[Saraide]

Walling it off from MSQ doesn't have anything directly to do with obscurity of access to the quest though. Even if it had no additional requirements, it's still a side story and they're not going to reference it in MSQ (beyond a passing mention) unless they can be sure that you've done it first.

It's possible they'll add more locks in that vein over time, like they did for the Crystal Tower, but otherwise side story NPCs are off-limits unless they can be used without seeming out of sequence.

And it's a shame really. It would have a made a lot of sense to work together there with beq lugg. The idea proposed by OP would expand this to MSQ aswell.

[Cach]

SWTOR has this thing where once you reach a certain level you can choose to skip your current storyline to a more advanced one. I wouldn't mind something similar even if it is for alts only.

They could also make the new arc start at level 1, (in the same way we start Eureka at level 1). This could indirectly solve the number bloat problem most modern MMOs have to contend with.

[Havenchild]

They will eventually bring the MSQ to a solution that fits both parties. That is a GUARANTEE. They've already acknowledged the length is getting a bit much. I imagine it won't be too different than what they have in WoW, but I think the break points will be the story epochs themselves.

Starting points:
2.0 ARR -> 6.5
7.0 -> "Onward"

Depending on how 7.0 starts will likely determine if they will use it as a future starting point down the road or not, but I would imagine it's going to set us up on a different world / continent not Eorzea or the Source in order to transition narratively with no issue.
Your starting point then being, either the WoL who arrived here, or your character is from "new location". If you start your character there, you get a synopsis of events or you just get the lore book with information to read and generic entries to understand the characters motives and personailties.

Dungeons and Leveling would be probably be the main issue.

They could technically reset everyone to level 1 (probably the easiest thing to do), but allow those who crossed over to have all of their abilities out the gate (make people feel somewhat rewarded for the inconvenience of starting over), whereas those just starting a new character only have the skills as they level up. The only extension to this rule is that you are forced to choose a starting job, and the rest of your already leveled classes are either locked until you reach max level, or you can choose to start it over at level 1 if you want to play it immediately.

That's only an example of ways they can do it all and keep the balance attached to everyone, both new and old players. I'm sure they have other creative ways in planning already to approach it both narratively and balancing wise.

[Iscah]

They could make an alternate version of the quest lines so people could understand that portion of the story and so that it could be included in the MSQ. They've done that for side content before.

They just don't do story that way. Either you've played the quests and events have happened, or you haven't and Unukalhai is still elsewhere and Taynor is trapped in the rift. They simply are not available if you haven't made them available.

Side story characters can occasionally make the jump into MSQ (or a different strand of side story), but only really if preceding quests for them don't alter their status, so they're basically the same person in the same situation whether you've previously encountered them or not.

[kaynide]

If you don’t have the patience to do the story, story skip exists for you. If you aren’t bothered to enjoy the actual full story, what motivation would the devs to develop an alternative one that you’d just ignore also.

No, story skip with a cliff notes 1 page synopsis per expansion in the glossary is enough.

That said, sure, there may come a day where it naturally works out with an alternate start point, but I can’t help but feel the devs are jaded at this point with how much people complain when they put extra stuff in they didn’t need to (new races being a prime example).

[Supersnow845]

If you don’t have the patience to do the story, story skip exists for you. If you aren’t bothered to enjoy the actual full story, what motivation would the devs to develop an alternative one that you’d just ignore also.

No, story skip with a cliff notes 1 page synopsis per expansion in the glossary is enough.

That said, sure, there may come a day where it naturally works out with an alternate start point, but I can’t help but feel the devs are jaded at this point with how much people complain when they put extra stuff in they didn’t need to (new races being a prime example).

Yeah cause it’s totally the players fault the devs decided to gender lock races in 2022

[Bookie]

You may as well just play other games.