Will 8.0 Expansion Cap @ L55 ?

[YumieYumiki]

It's just a number with an arbitrary meaning, I think there are more pressing issues with the game than "number too big"

[Deejudanne]

But none of those new players are likely to go back and play the bits they skipped, especially when they have veteran players breathing down their neck all day telling them everything before level 110 sucks to do. (Just like they do now where "only level 100 matters".)

legit never heard anyone say that

[ReynTime]

legit never heard anyone say that

Then you don't go around online much because it's extremely common on big discords, twitch, youtube, reddit, etc...

[TheDustyOne]

I don't see any need for a level squish. New players will already have to scale the wall that is MSQ in order to get to the endgame, just because their level says 60 instead of 100 after 200+ hours of story won't change how long the MSQ. If a skip is provided to get to the latest expansion, you could just as easily have this new player start at 90 or 100 and already at the start of whatever expansion is latest.

That said, I also don't want to go beyond 100 either. I feel it's a good stopping point for levelling if they're willing to go down other avenues of growth. But that's just me, more than likely whatever system they come up with will end up being level 110 in all but name.

[Veritas-Ancora]

That said, I also don't want to go beyond 100 either. I feel it's a good stopping point for levelling if they're willing to go down other avenues of growth. But that's just me, more than likely whatever system they come up with will end up being level 110 in all but name.

That's really the whole point. I think stopping at L100 or squishing things is the way to go. Telling a brand new player that they have 109 levels to go is a lot to ask for anyone.

[Deejudanne]

Then you don't go around online much because it's extremely common on big discords, twitch, youtube, reddit, etc...

twitch streams is the most boring shit ngl reddit idk i got 80k points there discord im in every single eu raiding one, "oh no why arent you in normal 14 discords?" because it gets old seeing the same posts over and over "oh no i got aurum vale again rip"

[Iscah]

That's really the whole point. I think stopping at L100 or squishing things is the way to go. Telling a brand new player that they have 109 levels to go is a lot to ask for anyone.

So just don't tell them in those terms. I didn't start the game with any expectation of what the end point would be.

Plus it makes it sound like the whole game as an obstacle rather than an experience they might want to enjoy.

Also, regardless of how you present it, the real count is "six RPGs" and changing the level count isn't going to make it any shorter.

[SalamanderIX]

Whatever they do, I really wish we'd be level 99 instead of 100 next time around.

It's hard as a final fantasy fan.

[Mikey_R]

But none of those new players are likely to go back and play the bits they skipped,

Maybe not, but the option is there if they do want to.

especially when they have veteran players breathing down their neck all day telling them everything before level 110 sucks to do. (Just like they do now where "only level 100 matters".)

This isn't what I see ingame, at least, not in my circles. The vast majority of the time it is more along the lines of 'Enjoy the story', 'Take your time', etc. The only place I see the more negative sides are on social media and the majority of the criticisms are from veteran players who have the experience of max level content. New players do not have the max level experience to alter their view of the early level combat. So this is an issue of the player base projecting their own feelings on someone else rather than letting the player make up their own mind. (Just as an FYI, this also doesn't mean low level combat couldn't be improved).

You might bring some people in but I can't see this kind of setup KEEPING them in the game when they've "seen everything worth doing" in their free month and are told they can quit and come back in a few years to do 120 content because that's the new "only thing that matters". It's short-term gains at best, and all while equating ARR/HW/STB/SHB/EW/DT to being the "filler arc" now because new shining starting point with none of that stuffy old baggage of a story to stop people from sitting in endgame PFs all day instead.

Most people do not have the time to go through 2 expansions worth of story (assuming this is when 8.0 releases and they can skip to DT) and the end game stuff in one month, between jobs, family, other hobbies, they might only have about 10 hours a week to dedicate to the game, if we assume 30 hours for the story, that is 60 hours for 2 expansions worth and that doesn't even count the end game stuff, which is going to be varied depending on when they join. So, assuming 10 hours a week, you are looking at 2-3 months worth of 'content' to get through and even then, this is assuming that all they do is content and don't do other things with their friends. Maybe, once they do finish the story, they want to know how they got to that point, so they start working though the story that was skipped to get all the context.

Ultimately no one really knows how someone is going to play the game or what their experience is going to be, so looking at things from a narrow, specific point of view, it is potentially going to look bad. But expand that view and you have a much larger scope of the types of players that play the game and realise, not everyone is like that. Different people play for different reasons and we shouldn't ignore them.

[Catwho]

I disagree that we need to stat squish. I think starting at level 100 in 8.0 is fine.

What they need to do is make the 8.0 story something that can be jumped into without playing levels 1-100, include the option to start over in ARR as a level 1 OR to start at level 100 in the new content of 8.0 with a unique speed run tutorial on the chosen job.

Level 100 job skip and story skip edition costs an extra $10 over the base 8.0 expansion, for people who just want to jump into the action.

Maybe the level 100 newbies wake up in 8.0 with amnesia, don't remember anyone or anything, get a montage echo flashback of everything that happened in those levels, but have full access to The Unending Journey if they want to ARR. And they can go back to Eorzea and start over on a job quest at any time, or New Game Plus if they are lost in the plot.

Regardless, whatever the 8.0 story is should be severed enough from 7.0 that you don't need to have played it to be invested.