Possible level/story jumps....really?

[Yasuhiro]

snip

But the "it's a final fantasy game" argument does have some weight to it though. This game decided it's going to be the next entry into the mainline series and as such it follows main game tradition of having a story with a supporting cast. This game is also an MMORPG if people don't want to level up or do RPG things in a Final Fantasy game or spend the effort doing as such then there's plenty of other games out there like LoL or various other F2P MMO's


I came into the XIVth entry of Final Fantasy expecting Final Fantasy and I got just that. Yes, this game is designed to be an entry level MMO for newcomers but I'd argue that this game is more aimed at Final Fantasy fans with the massive amounts of shout outs and fanservice. If people want to come over to this game and play it as their first Final Fantasy game that's really fine. What I don't want is people trying to change what I and many others who are long time fans like about this series and grew up with just because they for some reason never did any research jumping into the 14th entry of series and complain about something that's been a staple since Final Fantasy IV and arguably Final Fantasy II.

I don't like XIV's story either I think it's not very memorable and I think it's really bad especially with the stock emotes and the "PRAY MAKETH SUCCOR" speak added for flavor but I wouldn't want to take it away from people just because I don't like it.

tl;dr a mainline Final Fantasy game shouldn't change because of a few WoWtransfers

[ADVSS]

Cant agree more to that statement, i will only mention how old content goes down the road dumpster and queueing might have been a problem cept for levelling and mentor roullettes, they need another one for story trials maybe for more bonuses

[Voltyblast]

tl;dr a mainline Final Fantasy game shouldn't change because of a few WoWtransfers

Except, it is already changing: have you noticed the lack of 8 men scenario dungeons? Have you noticed the lack of trial requirements from Hildibrand? Have you noticed how they simplified raid locks (Let's face it, Coil's silly lock out was stupid)?
The story is still there for now, but they're slowly making it less and less mandatory: 4.0 is supposed to be open without the MSQ completed, which is already a big change. Not a bad one considering that, whoever wants to jump into the expansion they'll be able to without interruption. The game is changing, but mostly to be more accessible to new players and that can't be a bad thing: you want more players to access the game. And if they like the story, that's a plus for them. But locking an entire expansion behind a story (that wasn't even advertised on the game cover)? That's bad as business decision and, yes, Square Enix is a company. They need dosh from us, and if a lot of players can't get into the game because of a limitation, they won't. It's not 2000 anymore where we had only 2-3 choices of mmorpgs: we have severals now.

Yes this is a Final Fantasy game, but if Wildstar taught us something is that being niche for a small demographic doesn't pay anymore (as wildstar paid tribute and listened to the old vanilla hardcore raiders).

[bass9020]

Except, it is already changing: have you noticed the lack of 8 men scenario dungeons? Have you noticed the lack of trial requirements from Hildibrand? Have you noticed how they simplified raid locks (Let's face it, Coil's silly lock out was stupid)?
The story is still there for now, but they're slowly making it less and less mandatory: 4.0 is supposed to be open without the MSQ completed, which is already a big change. Not a bad one considering that, whoever wants to jump into the expansion they'll be able to without interruption. The game is changing, but mostly to be more accessible to new players and that can't be a bad thing: you want more players to access the game. And if they like the story, that's a plus for them. But locking an entire expansion behind a story (that wasn't even advertised on the game cover)? That's bad as business decision and, yes, Square Enix is a company. They need dosh from us, and if a lot of players can't get into the game because of a limitation, they won't. It's not 2000 anymore where we had only 2-3 choices of mmorpgs: we have severals now.

Yes this is a Final Fantasy game, but if Wildstar taught us something is that being niche for a small demographic doesn't pay anymore (as wildstar paid tribute and listened to the old vanilla hardcore raiders).

Yoshi said he still wants to have a continuous story through the expansion and hopes people can understand that. He said certain features will not require the MSQs like what happened in 3.0.

Hildibrand not having trials is because it was rushed out due to the demand for it because majority felt the Scholasticate wasnt living up to what Hildibrand was.

And you are correct its not 2000 anymore, games need to be different to survive with interesting features that set them apart. Why do they all need to be clones?

[Atoli]

@Khalithar:
Then you'd get complaints that people wasted their money on jumping to that level of progress only to get a roadblock there, so you'd either have to make the trial so easy it wouldn't matter or piss off the people who'd want to buy that potion, making the whole introduction of it pointless.
And it still wouldn't fix any of the other problems, like the huge impact on economy, the fact that the new players would straight jump into 2 out of 54 instances and miss out on the remaining 52 (because, let's face it, most of the content in FFXIV isn't in endgame, especially not right after an expansion hit).

[TankHunter678]

You can have your level skip potion when you then have to play through the entire storyline. Fact of the matter is that without the buffer of playtime many people do not learn anything about their class. In fact, many people would play through a tutorial and ignore it, because it is "boring" and blocks them off from going and doing raiding.

It would be FAR BETTER to go the opposite of a level skip potion.

Make it so you can select a player target and level sync match. Change all story scenarios to allow for parties. Add in a "story sync" function that allows one to be at the same story step as the target they are level sync'd to. This way when someone invites a friend in they can play at the same level, together, through the story from start to finish.

Sorry if I sound hostile, I just got out of a dungeon run where the assigned tank only knew how to use Fast Blade and hit the stun button on occasion. And he was fucking level 40.

[Nestama]

That's... not exactly a good reason (and gil is still mostly worthless). Anyway, I proposed an idea where the level up potion will still require you to go through the ARR and 2.1-2.5 MSQ's, but abridged (it will also force you to do the Class/Job quests when you hit specific level points in the MSQ). If the MSQ you're doing is leaning more towards filler than plot relevance, then they become Side-Quests. If you recall the pointless goose-chase you had to go on before you could fight Garuda, that would be changed into side-quests and Garuda would be available after getting one 'dark crystal.'

[Lexia]

Hey a person wants to pay to skip the MSQ fine but no insta-50/60 or w/e the level cap may be at the time.

[Vespar]

Why play a story driven game if you have no intention of watching the story in the game?

Otherwise wouldnt something like LoL or overwatch or FPS's be better suited to you?

[Remus]

Why play a story driven game if you have no intention of watching the story in the game?

Otherwise wouldnt something like LoL or overwatch or FPS's be better suited to you?

Story driven for me is a consistent update on story like SWTOR is doing where each month there is a story update and they even create new zones majority of the time for it. Having story come every 3 months starts to make me not care as much about it anymore and the development of the story in FFXIV is so slow with that 3 month gap.