Forcing us to the entire story quest to unlock the new classes is just bad business

[Vicus]

So I quit the game awhile back because I wasn't enjoying my class. I also lost motivation at the time to re-level something else and I had a big life change when I retired from the military. Now with the expansion I became excited again to get back into it because I felt that with all new expansion it gives ample time to catch up. But finding out that you have to do around 100 separate quest on the story just to allow us to try one of the new classes takes the wind out of my sail. "Cont"

[Vicus]

I don't understand the point in this? I am sure you would increase your subscription rate by 15-25% more people at least for the first month or two just because people want to play the new classes. Also there is no real difference in these classes over the ones that are currently in, and what I mean is they aren't overpowered or "elite" classes that should only benefit the high level people. Heck the DK and Mec are getting a lot of negative feedback that they are actually under powered.

I just don't get why you had to go this route. Im forced to either play a class that I got to 50 and don't really enjoy or relevel a different class I like better...just to unlock the CLASS I actually want to play..and O level that all over again. By then I will be burnt out from leveling the same crap over again. "Cont"

[Quixotica]

Personally, the new classes are pretty much the only thing in the expansion I have any interest in. The fact that all the expansion content is locked behind a weeks worth of story quests - half of which are mmo busy work (seriously? I'm making soup now for my story quest? what purpose does this serve if not mindless filler?) is the reason I didn't bother buying it.

There's literally no reason for someone without a pre-existing level 50 to own heavensward. Even the new race, if you like it (I personally think it looks lazy and uninspired. The women look like reskinned mithra and men look like slightly edited human/elvaan with scales glued to them), isn't an incentive since you can just race change.

[Vicus]

With the changes you made to bard (WM) and locking out new players to all the classes without a few weeks worth of work to do, I really wonder if you actually research anything prior to releasing it. "Cont" Its so mind boggling that you guys can do so many things right that players love and then throw in some really out of character dumb and dumber type game mechanics.

/rant off

Sorry just not looking forward to grind my way thru this story quest on a character I don't intend on playing as my main.

[Raist]

Just a side note about the character limit...just edit your post. You don't have to keep continuing with new posts. As this post may well demonstrate.

On the topic:

You aren't finishing the story in order to access new jobs. The story continues into Ishgard, and Ishgard is where you unlock the jobs. This is nothing new to the FF online way. Try making your way through unlocking PUP in XI without being sufficient level (or with appropriate leveled assistance) to deal with the True Sight/True Sound aggro along the way. Just saying...sometimes there is a valid reason--as in your protection.

The game is story driven. The story restricts you from access to a region because of the lore. In order to access that region and explore/plunder/etc. and take full advantage of that region's resources, you must gain access to said region. That requires advancing through the story line until you reach the point that you are welcomed into that region. That process has quests that require you to be a certain level on a job in order to complete them. That is common practice in the franchise.

Oh... and you also aren't starting those jobs at level 1, you start at level 30. In previous installments you had to start at level 1.

[Vicus]

Yeah but lets fast forward to 3-4 years from now. What if they introduce a new class in the next expansion, are they going to make someone who loves the way the new class sounds have to level 1-70 and get through the storyline? When does it stop? Why is it at that point to begin with? Just because you did it in a game that released 10+ years ago doesn't mean you do it because its tradition? Getting a character to 50 and finishing the main Ultima storyline would of been plenty enough, not force people to go through hardmode trials/dungeons and 100 fetch quest.

P.S. thanks for the edit tip, was unaware.

[Raist]

This is not WoW.

This is not SWTOR.

This is not LoL.

This is not any other franchise you want to compare it to.

It is a Final Fantasy intellectual property....and with that comes a deeply entrenched story requirement. Always has. And yes... that is binding this game to a tradition. A tradition that has sustained something like two dozen games over nearly a quarter of a century. That is what is expected of those more familiar with the franchise.

If the style of this game is not for you, than it may be better if you move on....but if you've paid for the content you should at least give it a try first. We have seen reports of people getting into Heavensward in a week's time (in some case less). You might be surprised at just how easy it is to progress through this particular game in it's current state...trust me, it was much MUCH worse in previous IP's in the franchise. Heck... it was worse in the 2.x ARR chapters. I got 1 million exp today---just from running my daily roulettes. I dinged 57, advanced story to my next dungeon, ran that dungeon... and am already halfway through my ~3 million TNL to ding 58. And it's only just now hitting 9pm. Ate some dinner, watched my show, gonna log back in to do some more missions and such--I might even ding 58 tonight, who knows.

Progression is NOT that hard with the adjustments they made to accommodate that initial run through.

[Vicus]

I have been playing MMO's since ultima online, top end game blah blah....the start of my post had nothing to do with the game being hard or I can't get thru progression or that I didnt have time to play. My point is that its a stupid business model that is costing the company money and players for NO REAL VALUE. What do they get out of it? Nothing. Its not like its preventing a ton of noobs from coming in and ruining the game. Its not flooding the game with new characters that is going to drastically change how the endgame/story is. Those three classes are just different ..and new...so allowing people to play them WHILE they do the story doesnt take away from the game in anyway. But forcing someone to play a class they arent interested in just to unlock a new class they are interested in is BAD BUSINESS. THIS IS FINAL FANTASY BUT THIS IS A MMO so comparing it to the other 12+ console ports is pointless. Compare it to FFXI sure, but besides story the console have nothing in common. This game allows players to play together so trying to recruit a friend to play and telling them they can't try any of the new classes because they have to play a different class first...isn't a great opening selling point. Games not hard, its actually one of easiest MMO's on the market in terms of gameplay because the GCD literally forces you to play a specific way and doesn't allow you setup multiple styles of play (see the secret world). At the endgame everyone uses the same rotations/macros. Gating an entire expansion is just not smart...and if they gate every expansion from this point on...you are going to see the playerbase drop drastically instead of growing. If you really love the STORY driven game, then you would realize that making better business decision benefits NEW AND OLD players.

This is not WoW.

This is not SWTOR.

This is not LoL.

This is not any other franchise you want to compare it to.

It is a Final Fantasy intellectual property....and with that comes a deeply entrenched story requirement. Always has. And yes... that is binding this game to a tradition. A tradition that has sustained something like two dozen games over nearly a quarter of a century. That is what is expected of those more familiar with the franchise.

If the style of this game is not for you, than it may be better if you move on....but if you've paid for the content you should at least give it a try first. We have seen reports of people getting into Heavensward in a week's time (in some case less). You might be surprised at just how easy it is to progress through this particular game in it's current state...trust me, it was much MUCH worse in previous IP's in the franchise. Heck... it was worse in the 2.x ARR chapters. I got 1 million exp today---just from running my daily roulettes. I dinged 57, advanced story to my next dungeon, ran that dungeon... and am already halfway through my ~3 million TNL to ding 58. And it's only just now hitting 9pm. Ate some dinner, watched my show, gonna log back in to do some more missions and such--I might even ding 58 tonight, who knows.

Progression is NOT that hard with the adjustments they made to accommodate that initial run through.

[Whiteroom]

Yeah but lets fast forward to 3-4 years from now.

No ultima wouldn't work, the point is, you have to earn the Ishgardians trust to be able to enter their city. Ultima has nothing to do with Ishgard. Stop thinking of it in gated terms and in story terms. No, it doesn't take long to do. And yes it makes sense for a story driven game to make you play the story. As for 3-4 years, it has already been mentioned that as time goes on they will streamline the story in various ways to make it quicker. But "I WANT IT NOW!"

btw, the 2.55 and on story is more than worth the dumb fetch quests from before it.

[LegendWait]

Yeah but lets fast forward to 3-4 years from now. What if they introduce a new class in the next expansion, are they going to make someone who loves the way the new class sounds have to level 1-70 and get through the storyline? When does it stop? Why is it at that point to begin with? Just because you did it in a game that released 10+ years ago doesn't mean you do it because its tradition? Getting a character to 50 and finishing the main Ultima storyline would of been plenty enough, not force people to go through hardmode trials/dungeons and 100 fetch quest.

P.S. thanks for the edit tip, was unaware.

They are meant to make you a better player, if you'd pick up a new job right away and play end game, you aint gonna have a good time. See it as a reward for your efforts.