Possible level/story jumps....really?

[Belhi]

Jandor, if a jump potion was included as part of the price of the expansion as a kind of one free with the price of the expansion (since autoleveling to access the expansion would require the expansion in the first place), would that be satisfactory in your eyes? This means that while people wanting to auto lvl more than one character might need to spend extra, most players would not be paying any extra plus it would still deter bots and RMT groups.

Yeah it means that anyone who loves alts is either going to have to pay extra or do the slog but it still effectively gives legitimate new players their first jump potion free.

[Jandor]

Snip.

I don't consider level boosters acceptable at all in a sub game, one coming free with the expansion is a compromise I could probably live with for now, but I would still be unhappy about it if that was the route they chose to take.

Back in 2.4 when the cash shop came out it was promised that it would be "vanity only, absolutely no pay to win."

Even if you don't think tangible character advancement in exchange for real money is pay to win, it is definitely not vanity only.

2.4: Cash shop, but vanity only we promise.
3.4: Thinking about level skips for money.
4.4: Who knows, we're going down a worrying path though.

[Jas710]

The big problem is what everyone has mentioned, that access to HW content is locked behind the msq. The issues just snowball from there.

My recommendation to address it would be to allow players access into Ishgard to start the HW msq as soon as they hit 50, regardless of where they are at with the ARR msq. They could always backtrack later to do ARR, of which they would be inclined to do at some point anyway when they start realizing some of the lv.50 dungeons might still locked. But at least it would be the player's choice in managing how to tackle it.

Change a few of the first msq scenes to adjust for the transition, and/or any other story tidbits that might reference ARR, and everyone is good to go.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

snip

As stated before, that would screw up the questline because everything runs off of each other on whether or not a quest was cleared. Making it where HW unlocks at level 50 means the game assumes you finished all of the ARR content because of how the flags are structured. And why would you bother letting people into HW if they can't even do anything because they can't unlock anything until they finish ARR?

[Jandor]

As stated before, that would screw up the questline because everything runs off of each other on whether or not a quest was cleared. Making it where HW unlocks at level 50 means the game assumes you finished all of the ARR content because of how the flags are structured.

"Warning: Accepting this quest will automatically complete all main scenario questlines previous to this. This decision cannot be undone."

Do you accept? Yes/No.

Then the game assumes you finished all ARR content, seems simple enough. Even if it's not, they'll have to do something about it to make jump potions work anyway, so it hardly seems a valid reason to write the idea off.

[Jas710]

As stated before, that would screw up the questline because everything runs off of each other on whether or not a quest was cleared. Making it where HW unlocks at level 50 means the game assumes you finished all of the ARR content because of how the flags are structured. And why would you bother letting people into HW if they can't even do anything because they can't unlock anything until they finish ARR?

Because new people beelining it to HW just want to unlock the damn jobs and move on to playing what it is they paid for. They signed on to play 3.0, and ARR is a barrier.

And as I ALSO SAID, there would need to be obvious adjustments. But it's not an impossibility to sit down and figure out where. The script isn't written in stone.

[Derio]

Wouldn't it put more bots in higher lvl areas.

[Lambdafish]

move on to playing what it is they paid for.

What they paid for is a levelling experience and an endgame experience, the jobs just so happen to be endgame. I bought FFXV, do I demand to get the cool looking endgame glamour at the start because I paid for the game? The restrictions were made many many months before HW came out and what the players purchased included this limitation.

I'm not saying having access to the jobs without levelling isn't better (NIN worked much better), but demanding that the developers change the game because you pay for it is an awful attitude that strips them from any creative integrity. Sure, leave feedback, it was a bad move, maybe don't do it in SB, the devs may take that on board, but don't parade around acting like you "paid" for the new jobs, you didn't, you paid for an expansion pack that had jobs as a selling point within the ishgard area.

[Jandor]

Does any other game offer these boosts other than WoW?

Is copying a game well past its prime a good idea? Certainly doesn't seem to have drawn in new players in over there.

I can't think of any other, every expansion I can think of either lets you in as part of the price, or makes you play through at least a chunk of the base game.

[Enur]

Does any other game offer these boosts other than WoW?

Is copying a game well past its prime a good idea? Certainly doesn't seem to have drawn in new players in over there.

I can't think of any other, every expansion I can think of either lets you in as part of the price, or makes you play through at least a chunk of the base game.

Star Wars the old republic, Guild wars 2, world of warcraft (as you mentioned) all offer a lvl boost. They are also the three main MMO's that come to my mind when thinking "Popular MMO"

I see no reason why copying another game is a problem. Especially when its a feature that could draw in more players to the relevant content.