Story Mission Re-design - Yay or Nay?

[Feldt]

Hell no! Why? well SE would need to give us the chance to redo the story ourselves because i wouldn't be happy with creating new character and starting all over because someone is ... ekhm...

Beside this actually storyline is what keeps me attached to the game, it's really great and remind me of good old FF's from 4 to 6 <3 (the Japanese ones, so no FF3 isn't FF6)

[gifthorse]

If they don't intend to redo the storyline, they should:

-Condense the storyline to once every two ranks, not four.

-Touch up the existing stories with more voiceovers

-Fix the existing bugs (i.e., monsters not fleeing when they are supposed to, "the levequest monster is now fleeing" messages which don't make sense in a story quest considering that you aren't even ON a levequest to begin with, general glitches with the AI of path companions, music sequences being cut prematurely).

-Make the stories flow more logically (many of the quest cut-scene sequences don't flow smoothly and feel disjointed, and there is a lot of room for improvement from a cinematography standpoint).

-The 'echo' should be more noticeable. It's rather confusing to tell when you are experiencing the echo and when you aren't, adding to the confusion of the cutscenes.

-The mobs you encounter during story cutscenes should be consistent with the ones which pop when you exit the cutscene. They should also be running towards you as per the cutscene, not strolling about as if they forgot what they were doing two seconds before.

-You should not undergo a teleport animation when moving from cutscenes into instances. Ever since beta, they made you teleport into instances as though you used anima or something. It makes no sense at all. Maybe they thought it looked 'cool'?

[Davorok]

So I do not know which would be the correct balance to strike in order to gain the most players. If they focus too much on one playerbase, they risk losing the other. So for all the good a single-player story mode will do for the game (especially considering the potential market for it is tentative), it might only end up doing just as much bad.

Why not do both? SE has actually created a game mechanic that gives them the opportunity to have something every other MMO lacks...re-playability. The game mechanic is the GuildLeve.

(I posted another topic on this subject here: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-wrong-with-it. ...if you care to read it.)

I know some people dislike the GuildLeves but the problem is how they have been implemented. The system is actually genius..this is why...and how it could work. The Leve system can be tailored to different play styles...solo, small party and Large Party. The problem now is that the Leves are all the same whether you solo or party. It was a bad idea to change the Leve difficulty based on party size. It would be better to have seperate Leves for Solo, Light Party and Full Party with seperate story arcs and CutScenes.

The Solo/Casual player can grind solo leves (from the Guild) to his/her hearts content with a cool story arc (somewhat different for each Class) that is unique to the Solo experience. He/She can also level all the way to cap without ever having partied if they so choose. Hopefully it was so much fun they want to do it again as another Class and get a different experience. Everyone would do these LeveQuests rank 1-10.

AT Rank 10 you can choose to do Light Party Leves (2-4 players) These would be available in all Cities, esp Guilds, are harder and have cutscenes featuring all 2-4 party members (Smile..pose for ScreenShot). Hopefully it was so much fun that just doing them again with different people, as well as different Classes feels new.

At Rank 20 you can choose to join Full Party Leves. These would mostly be available (or send you) deep into BeastMen territories, Dungeons, Defense Posts, etc., are very hard and require teamwork to win. The rewards are higher tho and encourage replay for the Drops (Gear/Weapons/synth items, etc.) The CutScene Reward is a nice KillShot video of the member that had the Killing Blow/Spell/DOT. Hopefully it was so much fun that these Leves can be endlessly replayed as different Classes and different PT's (and to get that coveted KillShot of Ifrit).

Imagine all the players gathered at the various Guilds signing up for Leves. LS mates signing up for Full Party Leves, maybe they need 1 more person, "Hello, are you interested?", one of the Casual Players signing up for Solo Leves decides to give it a shot...hey, new friend and LS member made (or banned).
2 groups of 3 friends doing Light Leves combine to do a Full. A Full Party loses members, no replacements? scale down to Light Leves and/or Solo...which brings me to another suggestion...

Increase the number of Leves you can sign up for, (combination up to 16 with ability to cancel/trade) but keep the Limit per day you can commence (but up it to 10?) You can do whatever you want depending on availability of players.

I think the GuildLeve's just need to be tweaked to create an enjoyable experience for every type of player. Maybe some of this is what the Grand Companies are going to encompass and if so maybe the GuildLeves can stay the way they are but then I agree with most others here that the Story CutScenes need to be remade.

[gifthorse]

Why not do both? SE has actually created a game mechanic that gives them the opportunity to have something every other MMO lacks...re-playability. The game mechanic is the GuildLeve.

(I posted another topic on this subject here: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-wrong-with-it. ...if you care to read it.)

I know some people dislike the GuildLeves but the problem is how they have been implemented. The system is actually genius..this is why...and how it could work. The Leve system can be tailored to different play styles...solo, small party and Large Party. The problem now is that the Leves are all the same whether you solo or party. It was a bad idea to change the Leve difficulty based on party size. It would be better to have seperate Leves for Solo, Light Party and Full Party with seperate story arcs and CutScenes.

But don't stories lose their importance if replayed? They become as systematic as the levequests inevitably become. Also, if the story is soloable, then good luck trying to convince people to take time out of their days to help with your story quest if you want to duo it.

The Solo/Casual player can grind solo leves (from the Guild) to his/her hearts content with a cool story arc (somewhat different for each Class) that is unique to the Solo experience. He/She can also level all the way to cap without ever having partied if they so choose. Hopefully it was so much fun they want to do it again as another Class and get a different experience. Everyone would do these LeveQuests rank 1-10.

AT Rank 10 you can choose to do Light Party Leves (2-4 players) These would be available in all Cities, esp Guilds, are harder and have cutscenes featuring all 2-4 party members (Smile..pose for ScreenShot). Hopefully it was so much fun that just doing them again with different people, as well as different Classes feels new.

At Rank 20 you can choose to join Full Party Leves. These would mostly be available (or send you) deep into BeastMen territories, Dungeons, Defense Posts, etc., are very hard and require teamwork to win. The rewards are higher tho and encourage replay for the Drops (Gear/Weapons/synth items, etc.) The CutScene Reward is a nice KillShot video of the member that had the Killing Blow/Spell/DOT. Hopefully it was so much fun that these Leves can be endlessly replayed as different Classes and different PT's (and to get that coveted KillShot of Ifrit).

If I didn't already mention, SE likes to make timesinks to compensate for taking the easy road shortcuts. They don't like to make unique, story progression systems because it's too much work for them. They like to make grind progression systems and then throw in a couple of stories. So while I would like your proposal, is SE able to actually carry it out?

Imagine all the players gathered at the various Guilds signing up for Leves. LS mates signing up for Full Party Leves, maybe they need 1 more person, "Hello, are you interested?", one of the Casual Players signing up for Solo Leves decides to give it a shot...hey, new friend and LS member made (or banned).

If SE decided to go a story mode progression with either solo or party play, I would support that. But there would need to be so many guildleves and they would need to be way less repetitive and also less systematic for this to be viable. We are overestimating SE if we think them capable of ever achieving this in our lifetimes. Sorry, but let's be honest.

I would like something like this, because it would encourage people to play together provided the stories were tentatively based around eachother without firm prerequisites. But I'm not sure SE is up to this.

Just thinking of a way to implement meaningful quests where multiple players can team up and conveniently do them seems like a logistical nightmare though.

The way Guild Wars 2 is handling this seems to be fun: dynamic events where players just hop in and join the fray. But in that situation, there is no cutscenes or any such thing, is there?

2 groups of 3 friends doing Light Leves combine to do a Full. A Full Party loses members, no replacements? scale down to Light Leves and/or Solo...which brings me to another suggestion...

Increase the number of Leves you can sign up for, (combination up to 16 with ability to cancel/trade) but keep the Limit per day you can commence (but up it to 10?) You can do whatever you want depending on availability of players.

I think the GuildLeve's just need to be tweaked to create an enjoyable experience for every type of player. Maybe some of this is what the Grand Companies are going to encompass and if so maybe the GuildLeves can stay the way they are but then I agree with most others here that the Story CutScenes need to be remade.

Perhaps if they discarded the current guidleve system (grind model) in favour of the one you are suggesting (story model), then everyone might be pleased. The aetheryte camp thing is pretty boring after all. I'm sure no one would miss it. I mean, let's be perfectly frank.

But again, the unsurmountable work for SE to make 200,000 SP worth of quests when they can just make us grind our way to R50 doing stupid guildleves... hmmm, I wonder which one they will go with?

[Bayohne]

To speak to the concern about a lack of new stories, quests, etc. - Of course we'll be adding new events and quests filled with more robust and varied forms of storytelling. We'll also be adding story-related content geared towards parties, as well. However, the implementation of these new high-quality events and quests are planned to make their debut after the implementation of raid dungeons and battle adjustments/tweaks.

[Arcell]

The storyline is definitely going to go back to your home city in some form or another. Whether this entails the story splitting up again or all players resolving the issues of each main city, we'll have to wait and see.

As far as the Limsa story line goes we have tons of loose ends to tie up. Sthalman, Seal Rock, that mysterious Elezen, the Sahagin. You think they're just going to leave all that and just abandon it?

[Boricua]

The storyline is definitely going to go back to your home city in some form or another. Whether this entails the story splitting up again or all players resolving the issues of each main city, we'll have to wait and see.

As far as the Limsa story line goes we have tons of loose ends to tie up. Sthalman, Seal Rock, that mysterious Elezen, the Sahagin. You think they're just going to leave all that and just abandon it?

Amen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p4T7...tailpage#t=34s

[Vanguard319]

I think the main scenario quests are ok, though they could be a bit more challenging. The only one I had trouble with was the r38 quest, and it was easier to kill everyone rather than parley. I do think we need some city quests though, as there is little incentive right now to go anywhere other than Ul'Dah atm (A pity, since Limsa Lominsa is my favorite and starting city.)

[Evenstar]

To speak to the concern about a lack of new stories, quests, etc. - Of course we'll be adding new events and quests filled with more robust and varied forms of storytelling. We'll also be adding story-related content geared towards parties, as well. However, the implementation of these new high-quality events and quests are planned to make their debut after the implementation of raid dungeons and battle adjustments/tweaks.

Bayohne for president

[Volcano_Taco]

cant wait to see this dungeon content ^^