Possible level/story jumps....really?

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Fron my experience with MMOs (limited primarily to this game and hearsay about XI), The very opportunity to play/clear content is itself a reward for clearing other content. In which case getting as far as assessing Coil and Alexander from day one would be seen as P2W, (Also there is also the fact that Dusk Vigil is tuned to around i110, the very same ilevel as 2nd Coil)

This is where I find P2W very subjective. My definition has been people being able to use real world money to gain an advantage over others. Skipping the story doesn't mean you'll be able to clear any content without learning how to play your job, thus I don't feel a jump potion is P2W. Now if SE added say, Beast Tribe token bundles to the MogStation so people could skip the Anima grind. That's when you start crossing murky waters imo.

[Istaru]

There is a P2W aspect to it though. 2 people start at the same time, one uses potions and one does not. The person who potions gains access to tome gear and rewards faster than the other person. The person who did not use a potion will have a longer wait time until they get to that level. By the time that person reaches tome gathering stage, the other person has already gained a number of items. In this example, someone could make the case that the payment was for tome items since that is what they gained in the end. I am not saying that is my position, only that the statement could be made and have a level of validity to it.

While, using a potion does not give them an advantage over everyone, it does give them a tangible advantage over some people.

[Teryaani]

If you define Pay to Win as paying for a power increase, it's pay to win. If you (kinda narrowly) define pay to win as "pay to clear or help clear current end tier content" then you have a small amount of wiggle room on it.

If they did this 3-4 years from now I think people would care a lot less.

[Bloodb]

I don't want them to do this now or 3-4 years from now. Isn't there any way to avoid it?

Can the MSQ for say 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 etc.. eventually be unlocked from every other expansion? So if the max level is 100 with various ways of leveling up, you don't have to follow a 2,000 part quest-chain to get access to the latest expansion content. It'd make the game more fun and have the story and rewards waiting for people who want to experience it.

[Tisharu]

For people that say it's not Pay to Win, don't forgot that using the potion you also get 300k, chocobo feather, and complete i70 gears to start. Meaning you can jump right in the game. For people who can't offord or pay for the potion, they are at a disadvantage. Person with paying for the potion will always be ahead of the game.

[Teryaani]

I don't want them to do this now or 3-4 years from now. Isn't there any way to avoid it?

Can the MSQ for say 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 etc.. eventually be unlocked from every other expansion? So if the max level is 100 with various ways of leveling up, you don't have to follow a 2,000 part quest-chain to get access to the latest expansion content. It'd make the game more fun and have the story and rewards waiting for people who want to experience it.

Sure. Nothing says they have to do it. We're only talking about it because Yoshi mentioned it in passing. Which he does to a lot of things that never happen. They're already streamlining the MSQ and 4.0 won't have the same gates that 3.0 did.

[Reaperking386]

FF14 is not WOW. The casual content is much harder and confusing for any new player. If you let players hit lvl X for the price they paid, they would complain until the end of days asking for content to be nerfed for them. FF14 is one of the only few remaining games that provide a proper challenge for the casual community.

[Teryaani]

FF14 is not WOW. The casual content is much harder and confusing for any new player. If you let players hit lvl X for the price they paid, they would complain until the end of days asking for content to be nerfed for them. FF14 is one of the only few remaining games that provide a proper challenge for the casual community.

I don't buy this argument. You can reach cap now without knowing how to play your class at all and allowing your gear to do the work for you. I don't like the potion to increase level thing, but this wouldn't create a new problem that we don't already have.

[Velhart]

There are two sides to the argument.

1. When we get to expansions like 5.0, 6.0, or 7.0. Lets say we are at FFXIV 7.0. The first time player who wants to catch up to their friends have, but even if you are skipping CS's, there would be a ton and a ton of content to catch up. It is already quite a trip to catch up from 2.0 to 3.3. Imagine how much you would have to do to catch up, it could be pretty insane.

2. On the other hand, FFXIV is a story driven game, and giving you instant access to areas that you couldn't at your level or progress in the story is a messy thing to program and can be damaging trying to maintain it in the long run.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless SE can come up with something clever, I believe the best route to take is no pay to level feature. Instead, make it so you can get 1-50 from doing only MSQ's alone. Same from 50-60 in 3.0, then 60-70 in 4.0, and so on. Not having to do side quests takes a large chunk of time off. They have already practiced this some for ARR content.

The difference with WoW, despite having a lot of background lore, is not entirely a story driven game. Giving someone access to get to the content their friends are at makes more sense for how that game is structured. In FFXIV's case, I believe it would just be a big mess.

FF14 is not WOW. The casual content is much harder and confusing for any new player. If you let players hit lvl X for the price they paid, they would complain until the end of days asking for content to be nerfed for them. FF14 is one of the only few remaining games that provide a proper challenge for the casual community.

Proper challenge? Like what? If we are going WoW vs. FFXIV, WoW (or at least they use to) has challenging casual content that doesn't completely hold your hand like 95% of FFXIV's content does. SE made Weeping City slightly harder than Void Ark (which was dumb easy) and then people came to complain it was too hard.

[Leowilde]

I'll just say this: enabling players to straight out skip levels is the start of a very bad path. Nothing the devs have said earlier have actually frightened me, but this does. I really do not like this direction they're considering.