Possible level/story jumps....really?

[bass9020]

So the Gamer Escape interview with Yoshi came out and I found this little juicy answer SO INFURIATING... is this honestly needed? Why do people play games if they don't want to work for anything. We already have people who can barely play there jobs and now you want to hand them already leveled/story completed characters? ill just never understand.

Yoshida: In terms of the story- the narratives are continuous. The expectation is that the players will start with ARR and continue through the expansion. The lesson with having 3.0 released was that all of the content of the expansion wasn’t accessible until you beat ARR. The feedback, especially from the Western audiences, was that players weren’t able to access any of the Heavensward content until having completed 2.0. We would still like players to get through the story content, but some of the elements in the expansion we’re considering letting players access certain elements without having to complete content from ARR.

Another thing we’re debating internally is whether or not to have something like World of Warcraft’s jumping potion that would work with both levels an story. The Chinese version actually has something similar to this already. I’m trying to decide if something like this should be timed with 4.0.

WoW would have players pay to jump over and skip levels and it’s something that can be considered for FFXIV as well. Of course this isn’t so we can make money off players wanting to skip the content, but there has always been the debate of when we bring in new players, or if an existing player wants to bring in a new player, there’s disparity with the level gap between them, especially if the player has gone through all the content and their friend is just starting. It would be such an effort for the new player to catch up. I feel that we might want to bridge that gap and have that available as an option. Whether or not to actually implement that or offer it as a purchasable option still hasn’t been decided.

We still have some time until 4.0 so we’re hoping to gather more feedback from players out there to see what would be the best course of action for handling this. I’ve talked to a lot of players familiar with WoW and some of them have said “well why didn’t you have your jumping potion with 3.0?”.

Full interview here: http://gamerescape.com/2016/06/17/e3...naoki-yoshida/

Here is another thread that has a poll going so incase people would like to vote or check out the votes! http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...Please-vote%21

A thread detailing the potion from the Chinese version with similar discussions- http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...umping-Potions

[Dualblade]

To be fair, most MMO xpacs don't require you to beat the story of the base game/previous xpac to access as far as I remember. Not even XI outside of maybe needing to beat the initial story for whatever city you started in (Never played XI so not honestly sure.)

Personally I'd like to keep having to DO the story kept in to access the next xpacs story, but have certain ways to get into the new zone that don't require the story. Like Crafters/Gathers level 50 quest could give them access to Ishgard. Like Miner leads to this well enough on its on as you are a contractor from the Miner's Guild working in Ishgard. No mention at all of how you normally get there, don't even need it.

[Black_Wing]

To be fair, most MMO xpacs don't require you to beat the story of the base game/previous xpac to access as far as I remember. Not even XI outside of maybe needing to beat the initial story for whatever city you started in (Never played XI so not honestly sure.)

Personally I'd like to keep having to DO the story kept in to access the next xpacs story, but have certain ways to get into the new zone that don't require the story. Like Crafters/Gathers level 50 quest could give them access to Ishgard. Like Miner leads to this well enough on its on as you are a contractor from the Miner's Guild working in Ishgard. No mention at all of how you normally get there, don't even need it.

Areas in each XI expansion are accessible from the outset of release with a few exceptions (Dynamis for example). With the exception of Rise of the Zilart, you can start any of the expansions stories as long as you met the level requirement. Rise of the Zilart requires you to have cleared City Mission 5-2 (aka Shadowlord) to trigger the intro cutscene of the expansion to start it. But yeah, all cities/jobs are accessible as long as you have the expansions installed/registered and met the level requirement(which is having a base job(warrior, monk, white mage, black mage, red mage, thief) at level 30 for access to the advanced jobs).

[Dualblade]

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Both of you get likes for the info.

Also I agree with Enkidoh, the ultimate reason why most people wanted to skip straight to Ishgard was for the new jobs. If new jobs aren't gated behind a new xpac city that isn't readily accessible then the request for jumping straight into it will die down a bit.

Though if new jobs continue to start at lvl 30/any level beyond 50 there should be some form of gating. Mostly just having atleast one other job up to its level should be enough, or putting it in, say, Mor Dhona.

[Yasminou]

To be fair, most MMO xpacs don't require you to beat the story of the base game/previous xpac to access as far as I remember. Not even XI outside of maybe needing to beat the initial story for whatever city you started in (Never played XI so not honestly sure.)

In FFXI, the story was given when going through Missions. In the original game, the missions were separated by Nations and you could go from Mission 1.1 until Mission 5.2, where you fought the Big Bad Guy. Although the Missions were separated by Nations, Missions 3.3, 4, 5.1 and 5.2 (so, the end of the original game) were the same whatever your Nation was. You could even do the battles with people from another Nation.
The first expansion pack, Rise of the Zilart, brought two types of missions all requiring to have beaten 5.2: Nations Missions 6.1 until 9.2 (those were different depending on the Nation) and Zilart Missions.
We could also change our nation and go through the story of every nation.

However, the next expansion packs brought new Missions, independant (completion-wise) from the Nations and the Zilart Missions, which could be started whenever one wants. That does not mean that all these new stories were not related to the previous ones though.

[Enkidoh]

Oh goddess no... please... please tell me this is a bad joke.... please pinch me because I think I'm sleeping and having a nightmare... o.o

The thing with "people complaining about not being able to access Ishgard without levelling/playing through the storyline" is misleading, as really the main reason new players want to access Ishgard is just to unlock the new Jobs and not the city itself. If new Jobs were made accessible from the starting cities (like what was done with ROG/NIN) then it would not be an issue. And if you can have players skip ahead levels to level cap without doing any levelling in between, then what is the whole point of having exp, levels and unlocking abilities in the first place? It creates a whole generation of ignorant, lazy players who do not know anything about their class, how abilities work, how to act in a party, dungeon or raid, positioning etc. It basically reduces the game to a mindless action fest.

I really hope Yoshi does not follow through with this idea (the level skipping I mean) - I can sort of understand the 'no story requirement to access the next expansion area' though and respect that, even though personally I would much prefer it to be restricted again to storyline completion, but I'm probably in the minority here, as I feel this would contradict SE's statements in the past about this game being not 'pay to win' and content based. But I digress...

[Nominous]

I really hope Yoshi does not follow through with this idea (the level skipping I mean) - I can sort of understand the 'no story requirement to access the next expansion area' though and respect that, even though personally I would much prefer it to be restricted again to storyline completion, but I'm probably in the minority here, as I feel this would contradict SE's statements in the past about this game being not 'pay to win' and content based. But I digress...

This is the only way they can reach potential subscribers outside of our current ecosystem, that's all there is to it. They'd be alienating (and overwhelming) almost everyone else if they don't do this. From the sub side (us) the pros could never outweigh the cons. Think of those on the outside looking in though, where you might as well slap a sticker on the Stormblood box for them that says, "Requires 100+ hours to access Stormblood content!"

I welcome it, it just needs done right.

-Require Level Jumpers to be put in Novice Network, thoroughly explaining what the Novice Network is before they jump in the game.
-Have an FC request function when they start the game. (Something like a party invite that says, "Would you like to join X Free Company? Free Companies are a group of players that will help you on your adventures! You also get bonuses for playing while in an FC!) (Only for FC's that request they be put in the request system)
-Require Level Jumpers to complete Hall of the Novice, and Hall of the Intermediate (if they decide on doing that like they said), before they can do ANY duty finder content.

That's just my 2 cents, though.

[Jandor]

This is the only way they can reach potential subscribers outside of our current ecosystem, that's all there is to it. They'd be alienating (and overwhelming) almost everyone else if they don't do this. From the sub side (us) the pros could never outweigh the cons. Think of those on the outside looking in though, where you might as well slap a sticker on the Stormblood box for them that says, "Requires 100+ hours to access Stormblood content!"

Yeah, but on the flip side of that, who the hell is buying RPGs and not expecting to have to start at level 1?

WoW jump potions are used as an example, but I can't be the only one who thinks that those were more to entice old players back rather than draw new ones in?
At this stage in this games life, selling level boosts comes across more as charging for cheat codes than an honest attempt to help new players. Especially when other options exist.

[Nominous]

Yeah, but on the flip side of that, who the hell is buying RPGs and not expecting to have to start at level 1?

Nobody. It's not about the level they expect to start at, but the content they want access to. It just so happens that those two things are tied together, meaning you need a level jump in order to access the new content.

It's really simple- Nobody wants to buy a new game to play old content. No matter how you want to explain the concept and break it down, that remains the core. Similarly, no matter how you break it down, the only group that benefits from the lack of Jump Potions, is going to be the current subscribers. We should be considered, sure. But I'd rather everyone's friends (new and returning players) be included in the expansion fun than protect my own interests, pride, and such.

There should certainly be some requirements for using the jump potion, in the form of tutorials. But I think that's enough.

[Greedalox]

Nobody. It's not about the level they expect to start at, but the content they want access to. It just so happens that those two things are tied together, meaning you need a level jump in order to access the new content.

It's really simple- Nobody wants to buy a new game to play old content. No matter how you want to explain the concept and break it down, that remains the core. Similarly, no matter how you break it down, the only group that benefits from the lack of Jump Potions, is going to be the current subscribers. We should be considered, sure. But I'd rather everyone's friends (new and returning players) be included in the expansion fun than protect my own interests, pride, and such.

There should certainly be some requirements for using the jump potion, in the form of tutorials. But I think that's enough.

I whole heartedly disagree, at least speaking for myself the initial leveling process in an MMO is a lot of the allure. Watching my growth into a character capable of max level content is exciting.