What's gonna happen with story quests when the expansion comes?

[FoxyAreku]

I was thinking, in regards to how this game gates everything behind the main story, how is the expansion going to work for new players who hit level 50 after the expansion comes?

Are they going to have to do all the primal fights that no one will be queueing for anymore still? Or will all the 50 quests (that don't even give experience) be made optional content?

I really hope it's the latter. I can picture a lot of people being really irritated if they can't play the expansion without lots of needless catchup in all the level 50 content that they missed with hour long queues at every turn. Just some thoughts.

[WellFooled]

it's hard to say. I could see 3.0's story being a separate addition, but that would be difficult to swing story-wise unless it doesn't deal with the scions at all.

The latest live letter also suggests the possibility of doing dungeons solo, with grand company npcs to fill out our party. It's possible that the nessecarily group content in the story could be completed with that system, so it wouldn't matter what the queues were like.

[FoxyAreku]

Not sure I like the idea of AI controlled teammates, but I guess it's a solution to queues.

I just don't think it's okay to sell an expansion people can't even play due to main story gating, they should be able to go to it right when they hit 50 imo, but I'm used to WoW.

[BobbinT]

well... just wanted to relate with the old brother...

When I first started XI after XIV 1.0 ended, I kinda didn't understand alot. Didn't even realize when I accidentally started main stories on each expansion until I checked xiclopedia later on. Ofc, my only concern at the time is to cap level 1 job, which is beastmaster. And then I spend time gearing up the job until I was quite adequate for doing story quests.

I first started with the original main story and finished it for all 3 nations before I moved on to Zilart, then Promathia, Aht Urhgan, and WotG. Suffice to say, you can do them in any order you like, for example, when I bumped into difficulty finishing ToAU last battle as solo, I proceed doing WotG missions while I ask linkshell and shouted for assistance.

In the end, each progress won't gonna affect each other, until you need to do certain end game stuff which needs specific progression on certain main stories. For example, fighting Diabolos to obtain it as summoner call requires you to beat it 1st in main story mission. XIclopedia has complete information about certain requirement needed before you can do said content.

That being said, you do need to have your level reached certain point before you can unlock other content, even expansions. This wouldn't be a problem if you're concentrating on capping your level 1st though.

1 thing I forgot to mention:

For XI's 1st expansion - Rise of the Zilarts, you do require to finish main story of 1 nation before you can proceed to start that one. This might be same case with current ARR story-wise since the direct expansion kinda heavily related with main story. The later expansions however (CoP, ToAU, WotG, SoA), won't gonna need main story finished as requirements.

[Dotsusama]

Unless they completely rewrite things, it will be nearly impossible to hop into Ishgard as a fresh level 50 and know anything about what is going on, the situation between the nations, and what their purpose will be in the new land. I'm sure they'll come up with some plans to ease the main scenario queues and quest requirements, but I hope they do not cut down or eliminate the need to finish them in order to enter Heavensward content. It would cheapen the experience.

Besides, just because those quests (and perhaps the level 50 dungeons too) don't give XP and comparable rewards now, doesn't mean they won't in 3.0 when the level cap is increased. After all, they have tweaked XP values for dungeons and also the rewards dropped several times before. Leve rewards, too.

[Amelia_Pond_Behemoth]

I could see the the story branching into two questlines after 50. Maybe give Heavensward story quests a different icon. I also see them tweaking the current level 50 quests to give exp. Even the side quests such us the Manderville quests.

[Antonio_Xul]

If the old quests that are already done like all the past Main Story Quest & Hildibrand end up giving XP, those who completed them already should get a boost of XP once we get the level cap. It'll suck if we missed out on that XP, just because it was already done before level cap was raised.

[kyrios91]

Maybe give Heavensward story quests a different icon.

Actually this is neat. Since the current main story quest icon is the ARR meteor icon, would be awesome if Heavensward main story quest icon is the Heavensward icon (a dragon symbol kinda thing).

[AspectOfWinter]

I'm especially curious as to how the Leviathan & Ramuh Egis for SMN will be affected by the level cap increase. Will you have to have completed the Level 50 content to get them, just like the first three? Or will you be able to do it at Level 55/60 regardless as technically the player "canonically" has defeated all the Primals?

Personally I think that having to do three Level 50 storylines just to get those two pets, and by extension queue for dungeons that hardly anybody goes to anymore, would be a HUGE turn-off for new SMNs who level the class after Heavensward goes live. The DPS queues for all the dungeons you need in Main Scenario are bad enough as it is.

[RyuDragnier]

Personally I think that having to do three Level 50 storylines just to get those two pets, and by extension queue for dungeons that hardly anybody goes to anymore, would be a HUGE turn-off for new SMNs who level the class after Heavensward goes live. The DPS queues for all the dungeons you need in Main Scenario are bad enough as it is.

It wouldn't surprise me if you have to complete all the storylines anyway, they build on top of each other, all leading into 3.0. And since 3.0's story is most likely going to be a continuation of 2.0's, expect that you will have to complete them.