Length MSQ from all the expansions - it is getting insane

[PyurBlue]

Depends on how the enemy levels are used.

Yes, a level system can be designed to still facilitate cooperative play across level ranges, although I think there are better progression systems out there if promoting cooperation is the goal.

When an area has a wide range of levels it enables looping progression that essentially has players return to areas multiple times at different stages of the game. Enemy stat growth per level in FFXI was probably it's largest incentive to party up for content at higher levels, Having looping progression to get higher level players routinely returning to even early game areas made it easier for lower level players to get help if needed.

I don't have experience with 11, but this used to be more common in 14 and is still common in the hunt scene and there is a noticeable problem in that the high level players are too strong against low level enemies. A low level player can enlist a high level player for help, but that often ends up in the low level player doing nothing while their quest objective is melted away just because the high level player looked in its general direction. This is great for mindless speedrunning, but less fun if you actually want to engage in the game. Maybe 11 had some solution, I wouldn't know, but 14 would be vulnerable to this problem.

My ideal solution would be to just get levels out of the way, though I guess you could perhaps keep the leveling system and reduce the power gap from 1 to max.

You could argue that FFXIV's social aspects have suffered immensely due to how easy an overwhelming majority of the game is paired with it's extremely linear design.

There is definitely merit to this idea, not to mention that a significant portion of the game (the MSQ) pushes you away from parties (solo duties).

I would love campaign battles in the overworld or besieged where hordes of monsters invaded uldah and the other city states.

Things like this would be interesting to see. A huge issue with 14 is that the overworld just doesn't matter.

[Nebelheim]

Yes, a level system can be designed to still facilitate cooperative play across level ranges, although I think there are better progression systems out there if promoting cooperation is the goal.


I don't have experience with 11, but this used to be more common in 14 and is still common in the hunt scene and there is a noticeable problem in that the high level players are too strong against low level enemies. A low level player can enlist a high level player for help, but that often ends up in the low level player doing nothing while their quest objective is melted away just because the high level player looked in its general direction. This is great for mindless speedrunning, but less fun if you actually want to engage in the game. Maybe 11 had some solution, I wouldn't know, but 14 would be vulnerable to this problem.

My ideal solution would be to just get levels out of the way, though I guess you could perhaps keep the leveling system and reduce the power gap from 1 to max.


There is definitely merit to this idea, not to mention that a significant portion of the game (the MSQ) pushes you away from parties (solo duties).


Things like this would be interesting to see. A huge issue with 14 is that the overworld just doesn't matter.

I would like to have more open world stuff also instead of open world style content shoved inside an instance when everything is instanced.

[Avantgarde]

I completely understand your sentiments. Just last night, I dozed off while seated, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of cut scenes. It's astonishing how many of them seem superfluous, filled with mere nodding heads and slow walks. The imbalance is stark: roughly 10 minutes of action drowned in a whopping four hours of cutscenes! I'm hesitant to skip these scenes, fearing I might miss crucial elements of the story. However, it seems this long-winded approach is a deliberate style choice for the game, which is quite regrettable. Overall, it feels like a missed opportunity for a more engaging and dynamic gaming experience.

[Atelier-Bagur]

I completely understand your sentiments. Just last night, I dozed off while seated, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of cut scenes. It's astonishing how many of them seem superfluous, filled with mere nodding heads and slow walks. The imbalance is stark: roughly 10 minutes of action drowned in a whopping four hours of cutscenes! I'm hesitant to skip these scenes, fearing I might miss crucial elements of the story. However, it seems this long-winded approach is a deliberate style choice for the game, which is quite regrettable. Overall, it feels like a missed opportunity for a more engaging and dynamic gaming experience.

Im just wondering the consensus between the audience being receptive to future expansions having less story but more gameplay or heck just pull a WoW and allow access to every zone and focus on just one questline per area with multidud of open world content. The problem is the lack of gameplay during the leveling process

[Amenara]

I completely understand your sentiments. Just last night, I dozed off while seated, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of cut scenes. It's astonishing how many of them seem superfluous, filled with mere nodding heads and slow walks. The imbalance is stark: roughly 10 minutes of action drowned in a whopping four hours of cutscenes! I'm hesitant to skip these scenes, fearing I might miss crucial elements of the story. However, it seems this long-winded approach is a deliberate style choice for the game, which is quite regrettable. Overall, it feels like a missed opportunity for a more engaging and dynamic gaming experience.

Honestly, if I get bored I follow the simple "If SE bothered voicing the CS it's worth watching, if it's not voiced I can probably skip it and still understand what is going on" formula.

[RitsukoSonoda]

Honestly, if I get bored I follow the simple "If SE bothered voicing the CS it's worth watching, if it's not voiced I can probably skip it and still understand what is going on" formula.

I'm actually prone to essentially fast forwarding most voiced cutscenes in games in general because I can read the text far faster than the VA's can speak it. So unless the CS has actual meaningful visuals or animations and isn't just jumping to different PoVs for hand gestures and facial expressions I read the intended dialogue then force jump it to the next part.

[Lunalepsy]

Since I am a veteran MMO player, played them since 2001.
I hate this hand-holding that this game has.
Also, the number of hours you have to spend to play through the ALL msq is just insane.
I am the type of player who likes to have tons of alts and does not like the idea of having all classes on one character.
I like playing every class on different characters like in all other games out there.
It feels like SE is forcing me to pay story skip since it takes me more than 30 days to complete msq on single character. Mostly because I hate it, and I hate it because it is not voiced and there are too many fetch quests. The old republic has all quests voiced, maybe because the number of them is so much smaller than FFXIV.

They learned from WoW. This game is babyproof. If you want something more challenging, play Ragnarok Online or FFXI.

[Kathleen612]

I buy skips as well on my alt. Just bought the ARR on my main because I did it several time by myself and just want to enjoy the rest of the story with a friend playing with me and discovering the story! I know ARR is very long, especially once you have finished the main story, so sorry I skip.
For my alts, I buy the entire skip.

[Raven2014]

To the people who keep asking for full VO, you should realize it's a double edge sword. Since you all love to cite KOTOR as an example, I will also use it as an example:

Full VO was the reason why the majority of the launch companions just become souless battlebots after the launch story. With the game tanking, Bioware couldn't justify the budget to continue the crew's story, even for features as popular as the romance questline. It was laughable that after years, in the 4-5th expansion they finally acknowledge the original romance by ... having that character sending you a mail ('cause that need no VO). It was jarring the games continues for years, through 2-3 expansions with the old companion getting almost zero development. When every single interaction requires VO, you're faced with the choice of creating expensive content, or just don't do it at all. Basically, if it wasn't because of the VO requirement, KOTOR could have continue the companions story line through out every expansion.

At that point, the full VO requirement become a bane of creativity. That's why I think the semi VO in games like FF14 is the preferred choice. You have VO for the main MSQ segment which arguably the most important bit in term of conveying the atmosphere of the game. But not having a hard requirement for VO allow people on the team some creative freedom, more side contents to be proposed and approved interally .etc. Rememebr out of everything that's needed, VO is one thing that can not be done in-house. It means every single piece of content must be part of the official pipeline, and the development structure just gonna become very rigid because of that.


And none of the above was my own conjecture. I was a founder of KOTOR, and was the last player who signed off on a server that was shut down and merge. Those was the Bioware's response and reason after years of us asking why companions were basically abandoned after launch, and it was because their VO's expensive was to continue. It wasn't a boon, but a bane on content.

[Avoidy]

It's funny because they simplify so much fun stuff with the goal of accessibility. When certain jobs have a learning curve, instead of telling players to just deal with it, they streamline the job until it's a shell of its former self, for example. But when it comes to letting new players who -do not care about MMO stories- just skip to the end, they don't. In this one strange instance, you're told to just suck it up and deal with it. Which is kind of weird, because ARR is such a hurdle for most people that literally every friend I've recruited to play this game has quit during A Realm Reborn, citing its slow pace and general lack of voice acting as the reason. Most people don't like buying a game and then having "the fun parts" gatekept behind a really dry, boring story that "gets better" after like 50 hours.

But it's weird because even though we can all acknowledge this is true for many people, where's the inclusivity here? You guys neutered AST and ruined BRD and dumbed down SMN and deleted Kaiten and ruined healing and dumbed down tanking to make it all feel better for people who were too lazy to just deal with it and learn the systems. Where's that approach for the MSQ? Why haven't you streamlined that, too? Oh, right. You make money selling story skips. Yes, of course.