Make FFXIV More Alt-Friendly... Please??????

[silverwell]

I really want to give my one alt more attention, I really do!
I would love to make more, too!
I'm sure there are lots of RPers (and other players!) that want to make more characters, but find themselves turned off at the lack of Alt-Friendliness in FFXIV.
Lots of players like to play a variety of different characters.

One daunting task I find (and often read complaints about) is the MSQ.
Yes, the game is story driven... But why force players to drag themselves through a crap-load of quests multiple times just to access much of the game on their alts?
Proposal: Group together MSQs relative to where your character is sent and what they do (like when Minfilia sends you to the sylphs for the first time), and when the group of quests is completed on one character, it is considered complete on your account for all characters.
I know, there's an issue. "What if I want to do those quests on my other characters!?!?!" This is where the Neverending Journal in your Inn Room comes in. All the quest chains/groups can be flagged to be redone on all characters. Just hit a "do these quests" button and head on over to the quest giver that starts it. Ok, maybe there's another issue of "What about the quest rewards?" The rewards will be given the first time the character does the quests, but no more rewards for repeating the quests.
"But what about the chocobo license quest?" Simple: Just make it a non-MSQ quest that unlocks at level 20 and offered at all the Grand Company HQs.
And... maybe the issue of story related dungeons and the primals... I don't know how those quests would be made mandatory, unless all characters on the account got it unlocked after the first character completes the quest. It's not like you can queue for Ifrit below level... what was it, 20? 25?
TLDR - Make MSQs optional on alts as you complete them on your main, BUT let the players who want to complete them on their alts to continue their progress.

Eh... Maybe this post is more of a rant about doing the long, long list of MSQs on every character.
I would likely have half a dozen alts by now, if it wasn't for the MSQ.

[StriderShinryu]

I agree with this completely. I love my main and have no interest in changing her via potion but I would still really like to have a couple of other characters. Every time I think about it, though, I remember just how much time you have to spend doing things on one character just to get even the basics down, particularly in doing things that you may not have even enjoyed the first time (like levelling a class just to get the requisite cross class skills). I'm certainly not saying you shouldn't have to do things at least once but it would be great if there was some sort of shortcuts in place so you wouldn't have to do them again.. and again.. and again.

[Bixillarla]

I totally agree with this. I have some low levels that I would love to play but the thought of going through all the MSQs again turns me off. I love leveling through dungeons, when I hit 15 would be awesome if I could just level all the way to 60 via the dungeons without having to go through the MSQs again.

[Lemuel81]

The game wasnt designed to have many "Characters" but rather 1 toon who can switch to different jobs. There are other games out there that is not gated behind the story progression, perhaps try one of those. I personally do not want them to change how the MSQ works.

[T2teddy]

The game wasnt designed to have many "Characters" but rather 1 toon who can switch to different jobs.

So explain why we have so many character slots available per world, then?
I have 5 or 6 chars on Sargatanas, all different classes. I LIKE having to go thru the entire story repeatedly because I always find something I never noticed in the quests the previous times. Plus it makes it a snap to level up the characters without mindless fate/leve grinding. Gawd I loathe that...and I loathe the fact I can't mail unneeded armor or whatever to the ones who could use it. So dumb.

[Kosmos992k]

Gawd I loathe that...and I loathe the fact I can't mail unneeded armor or whatever to the ones who could use it. So dumb.

Free company chest....

[T2teddy]

A good portion of the player base is NOT in a Free Company.

[BarghastTimes]

Lemuel: "The game wasnt designed to have many "Characters" but rather 1 toon who can switch to different jobs. There are other games out there that is not gated behind the story progression, perhaps try one of those. I personally do not want them to change how the MSQ works. "

That's nice, can I swap races instantly without buying Fantasia? I like to play different races, and write different stories for each character.

Instead of telling people to GTFO, maybe try some constructive criticism?

Or do you want a dead game? Cause nobody wants to play with a populace of "Then leave, lol. I like it, so it's perfectly fine. Because I'm the main character of the universe. I, Karen, rule all."

[Jpec07]

But why force players to drag themselves through a crap-load of quests multiple times just to access much of the game on their alts?

Because at the end of the day, despite it being an online game, it's still an RPG. The MSQ is a function of this, and it's what makes it as such. If you wanted an online game without the MSQ, and without the leveling story, go play Destiny. Or WoW.

Honestly, by adjusting the MSQ EXP as they did in 3.0, they made it so that you can basically do nothing but MSQ, your hunting logs, and your roulettes and get to 60 with your job in advance of the end of the story. It's a good story, and a solid game 1-60, and whereas leveling alts in other games feels like a slog, in FFXIV, it's like visiting with an old friend.

Proposal: Group together MSQs relative to where your character is sent and what they do (like when Minfilia sends you to the sylphs for the first time), and when the group of quests is completed on one character, it is considered complete on your account for all characters.

Given how little connection there is between alts and different characters on an account (which, I suspect, is part of why they have such a hard time dealing with RMT), this would be extremely difficult to implement.

It also lends to a slippery slope: if the end-goal is making alt-leveling easier, allowing alts to bypass MSQ doesn't actually accomplish this. Running MSQ is the fastest way to get from 1-60--take that out, and the leveling game takes a lot longer. The answer is to make it easier--but then this affects first-time players by making it too easy to level.

[Amariel34]

I don't mind going through the MSQ multiple times, but I also would like the game more friendly to alts. Mainly, the ability to mail items to my alts on the same account and same server. Or even some kind of shared account storage in the Inn room. I know of two other games that have account-shared storage (same server only), so would be nice to have something like that here. I DO get that this game wasn't made for alts, but there are just some players like myself that like to have alts for whatever reason. For me, it's all about having different characters that look different and are different races and/or genders. And I'm sorry, but I won't spend tons of money on Fantasia bottles.