Question for the Devs; will Heavensward include a new STARTER City-State?

[kaynide]

Honestly, in my opinion I would like them to do away with the home town concept entirely. As I feel, I am some random adventurer who just happened to wander into Gridania and adventure it up. I then went to Ul dah and took up Gladiator. Finally I settled in at Limsa and am in Maelstrom... Outside of quests I have not spent any meaningful time at Gridania so I really don't identify as bring Gridanian...more it was somewhere I worked for a bit.

Also, @polyphonica, as I understand it Dark Knight will be played just like any other class from level 1. I got the impression basically that YoshiP did not like the job and class system and just wanted it to be straight Dark knight from start to finish, no secondary nonsense. I got this from the London live feed.

Again, that is what i think YoshiP means by playing DRK right away... It is Drk from level 1 and not level 30.

[LeCard]

Hon
Also, @polyphonica, as I understand it Dark Knight will be played just like any other class from level 1. I got the impression basically that YoshiP did not like the job and class system and just wanted it to be straight Dark knight from start to finish, no secondary nonsense. I got this from the London live feed.

The real question should be what will the skills menu look like. Will all of your skills be under the job tab as a DRK or would there be some new tab just for the new job style? will the jobs appear in the "Class/job levels" list in the row of classes or jobs. and if they appear alongside the jobs will they just continue out past the class list the way smn/sch have? how will its cross class skills work? Can you cross class anything until level 30 or will it be restricted to two "select" classes (because there wont be any real basis for what two)?

[kaynide]

-snip-

Honestly, I think DRK will be a class from the start with 2 classes to pick from. It's just my opinion, but I think those classes will be MRD (some tanky skills) and SMN (and not THM). Again, just me, but I think DRK's mechanics will be in debuffing hte enemy to mitigate damage, rather than overwhelming defense or massive HP. Things that slow the target or reduce their damage output and SMN's miasma/bio stuff fits that bill.

[polyphonica]

Also, @polyphonica, as I understand it Dark Knight will be played just like any other class from level 1. I got the impression basically that YoshiP did not like the job and class system and just wanted it to be straight Dark knight from start to finish, no secondary nonsense. I got this from the London live feed.

Again, that is what i think YoshiP means by playing DRK right away... It is Drk from level 1 and not level 30.

I guess you could take what was said at London Fanfest either way. What they basically said is that there was no base class and you'd be able to play right away after you buy the expansion. That said, they also made it sound like it wasn't 100% finalized yet, so I guess we'll have to wait and see.

[Zumi]

New race probably will get retconned.

[Terin]

Like I said, it would just be awesome to get a response one way or the other. I want to know whether or not I should bother waiting to create a new character or not.

[Tiggy]

Like I said, it would just be awesome to get a response one way or the other. I want to know whether or not I should bother waiting to create a new character or not.

My recommendation. It's 6-7+ months out. Don't wait either way. Although I'm still convinced based on that quote about rogue I posted earlier that there is no chance in heck of this happening since they'd have to rewrite much of the existing dialogue from 2.0 and the patches in order for it to make any sense. I don't believe they are going to do that.

[Saseal]

What could happen is the new classes that aren't already tied to a city-state (like gunner would be to Limsa) are tied to a new city-state.... if a person started out as one of the new jobs (or even as the new race), they would start in that city state and they would be locked into all the quests and and storyline from THAT land (whereas we're locked into the current storyline, having started in Limsa, Gridania or Ul Dah).

So those that start out as a new character as one of those jobs would not see the storyline that we do - but that land's storyline (a 'meanwhile, in ------- city-state' while we have our stuff going on). Those starting in Limsa/Ul'Dah/Grid won't see the same story as those starting in the new city and vice versa... just like how the start and early progression, of when you first start in one of the cities, all somewhat differ before converging into one storyline (very minor differences between them, but same concept). At the early point, no one had normal story-progressed or regular access to the city-states (with exception to a dangerous run from Ul'Dah to Gridania, and so on) before given access to the airships. Whats to say players of the new race/jobs don't start out the same way.... and their part of the storyline merges into the portion of OUR storyline where the refugees arrive at Vesper Bay.... and thats where the storylines converge.
...and then a new ferryline back and forth for current players to access those other guilds/jobs/city.
The players from that storyline would probably be more tied to reporting to Yugiri than Minfillia/Alphinaud/etc.

TLDR; They could do two separate storylines kept apart by continents that eventually merge together (perhaps at the Vesper Bay refugee section since thats at the point that the new race would be pouring in at the ports anyway - and possibly not as long a duration as we have to get to that point...).

Would be nice to see what happened to Doma in storyline, though. I guess it would require to have another character to be made to see it, though.

I believe Doma (even if destroyed) and another nation were mentioned to be on a totally different continent (and not to mention the hinted at floating island that the scholars were from) - so it's possible that Heavensward is more than just added classes, added race and added storyline - but also another continent/island/landmass (not saying specifically Doma, though).

I guess as someone said, people seeing the new race of players that are ahead of the storyline would just have to see them as a 'mysterious race from a mysterious place'. Kind of like if a new player were to start in Ul Dah, then see a SCH/SMN with a summon out, and not know what those are (as they haven't done the arcanist job storyline).

*Derp*

Just some ideas

[Freyt]

Probably considering Yoshida said you'd probably be able to start as a Dark Knight.

Then again I think he said that for Rogue too.

[Terin]

I'm still insanely curious about this. As someone who actually suffers from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, I know that your "City-State" is always present on your character-sheet, and if there *IS* going to be a new STARTER City, then I'd rather hold off, so that my new character will show that one, as well (not to mention, if I remember correctly, the Fantasia potion still keeps track of your starting Job, too, right?).

I mean, I would still *prefer* to have a new Starter-City, but it isn't that big of a deal. I'd just like to know in advance.