So Long, Thanks for all the Fish

[Vidu]

It's not doing the hard mode Trials that was the problem. It was the "Oh by the by, go do this quest that ISN'T a MQ to unlock this stuff to DO the MQ" nature of it.

What do you mean by this? Are you refering to Qarn being added to the MQ? Because I really dont recall having to do HMs in order to unlock MQ - only in order to unlock coil, which isnt mainstory at all.

About getting tea leafes for Tataru... yes, we know thats a filler. We know it was only there to drag out the MQ-patch at the time it was relevant. Yes, we've heard how much it sucks that you have to play through the story with all those fillers when you only want to go to Ishgard and become a DRK.
And, here are the good news: The devs listend to complains like this and said they gonna change the requirements to play the 4.0 story.

[StormDisciple]

In the 7th astral era quests, the requirements to do Good Intentions I am required to have the bowl of embers, howling eye and navel unlocked. Which means I gotta do the series that starts with If Ifrit bleeds, we can kill it.

Thats what I mean.

[Vidu]

In the 7th astral era quests, the requirements to do Good Intentions I am required to have the bowl of embers, howling eye and navel unlocked. Which means I gotta do the series that starts with If Ifrit bleeds, we can kill it.

Thats what I mean.

Oh, you're indeed correct... do makes me wonder why they've included that though... and while I can understand the frustration of reaching a point in the MQ that requires you to do something diffrent to progress - isnt that what you liked? ;P Like, trials...?

Still, it seems weird that they added such a requirement... anyone recalls some reasons for doing so?

[The_Last_Dragoon]

snip

I'm pretty sure those quests just require you to talk to someone, attune to their crystals and then kill them in duty finder to complete, it's hardly something to throw a fit about. Keep in mind that newer players to FFXIV will benefit more from actually involving themselves in the story and have either friends or a free company to help them out with Duties that have longer queue times. If all you're playing for is end-game and you don't care about immersing yourself in the world and the story, then you will burn out.

Hopefully they add a way to essentially skip patch content for newer players or at least condense it into a cutscene, but that kind of thing will require an expansion for them to implement. Stay strong, and maybe try to change your mind set over the game, since there's a lot of story here and just diluting it to the basics will rob you of a good experience.

[Moomba33]

Oh, you're indeed correct... do makes me wonder why they've included that though... and while I can understand the frustration of reaching a point in the MQ that requires you to do something diffrent to progress - isnt that what you liked? ;P Like, trials...?

Still, it seems weird that they added such a requirement... anyone recalls some reasons for doing so?

I think it's because (spoiler for 2.5)

The quest givers for the HM Trials are Thancred, Yda & Papalymo, and Y'shtola. It'd be weird to have them hanging out in the Waking Sands still after 2.55. Granted we have that problem with the Sultana still appearing in the CUL 50 quest if you do it during that time but it isn't as bad as the npcs hanging out in the field like nothing's wrong.

[Reinha]

What do you mean by this? Are you refering to Qarn being added to the MQ? Because I really dont recall having to do HMs in order to unlock MQ - only in order to unlock coil, which isnt mainstory at all.

I've recently leveled an alt and there is a requirement to do Garuda/Titan/Ifrit HM before starting the story for patch 2.5. It was not a quest objective, but rather a hard requirement to begin ARR finale quests.

Speaking of that alt... I've finished ARR and am now past level 35 on a Heavensward job, while I still have a sprout icon! I would be sad to see the existing story become shorter. Maybe there are some unimpressive fetch quests here and there but it makes the important stuff more meaningful.

But indeed as Vidu said, the level 50 story will not be required for the next expansion. I'm glad they found a way to please both camps. No story arc will be butchered but people also don't have to play through all of them.

[Moomba33]

What do you mean by this? Are you refering to Qarn being added to the MQ? Because I really dont recall having to do HMs in order to unlock MQ - only in order to unlock coil, which isnt mainstory at all.

The HMs are required to accept the first quest of 2.5, "Good Intentions". http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...735b3d4280abe6

For what it's worth TC that's the last patch of ARR and Heavensward is more streamlined overall.

[bass9020]

If they didn't have the fetch quests how would you level? People begged SE for a quick way to level up since 1.0 MSQs were fewer and offered no rewards. Blame the player base for wanting this exp/fetch quest stuff.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

If they didn't have the fetch quests how would you level? People begged SE for a quick way to level up since 1.0 MSQs were fewer and offered no rewards. Blame the player base for wanting this exp/fetch quest stuff.

Buff the EXP to accommodate. We managed in Heavensward despite fetch quests being substantially decreased. Nonetheless, it isn't fetch quests in and of themselves, but the sheer amount that tends to bog people down.

A particular egregious example is the lead up to fighting Titan, wherein the whole company of heroes nonsense takes up twenty six quests of nothing. You aren't advancing the story, you aren't even preparing for Titan himself. You're literally running errands for some random nobody because he's being a stubborn twat. Y'Shtola yelling at him for precisely wasting your time borders on fourth wall breaking because it's certainly how I felt doing that questline. Compare this to say, recruiting for the Crystal Braves. Both technically have you running around, but only one feels like you're accomplishing something whereas the other breaks immersion (at least for me) and feels like the devs ran out of ideas and decided to simply pad things out.

That arc is one of the few instances I legitimately considered skipping all the dialogue because I was bored and annoyed. In a story centric game, those aren't feelings you want your audience to have.

[Mwynn]

In the Time someone complains in here, they could basically have done 10 of these Quests...
People always make an Elephant out of a Fly when it is not even neccessary *rolls eyes*

Heavensward already has a really cut down Main Story with almost a very few Fetch Quests compared to ARR.
Cutting all that Stuff from ARR away means you're cutting Part of the Lore World away.

Might aswell get the Lore Book, rip out some Sites and burn the Book afterwards because curse these extra Pages