Main Scenario Restriction Bloodstorm - Very Very Bad idea.

[TarynH]

Snip.

Yes, the OP cited 60. But look at their other post(s). They mentioned people watching their streams, and wanting to be able to join them in end-game content immediately. This implies skipping even the HW story. They even mentioned side quests being boring. So why not skip those? Where does it end? They'll obviously want to skip 4.0 story as well.

Skipping the story is only one side of it. They in essence want to skip the entirety of the gating process. In other words, they feel entitled to the "end" of the game from day one, though they have done nothing to earn it. They think buying an "expansion" entitles them to all previous content as well.

Three years from now, this system would be abused. You give someone an inch, they will want a mile. And that's not even mentioning RMT. You think they won't pay-to-win?

[Belhi]

Yeah, they could do it fairly easily.
As for skills, I'm not too worried there. PotD has shown they can just give us the skills at level, and they're talking about changing up stuff about skills anyway.
I've not leveled all the Jobs just yet so I'm not really sure how many would necessarily need the Heavensward Job stories, but from what I have seen it shouldn't really be that hard to just have the Heavensward and Stormblood stories disconnected.

But they aren't. Heavensward is a continuation of the existing storyline. I'm also not too sure at the idea of removing the role of Job quests as part of Job progression. I also doubt they will ever have a single zone that lets you go up 12 levels in a single zone.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

question: FF14 is a game based on it story first, was always and will be always.... how the new player that did jump directly to 60 will understand why they fight? or for who they fight? who are the scion? who are the ascian? what is a primal? who is the empire? and stuff like this.... if they skip all the story quest that explain this? how they will feel involved into stormblood if they know nothing about the world where it happend?

People who opt to skip ahead generally don't give a damn about the story. They're playing because they like raiding, crafting, roleplaying or some other reason. So who the scions are will isn't going to matter to them. I have a linkshell where a few people will farm Sophia for hours and want to poke at Savage because it looks fun. Story? Yeah, they skipped every cutscene. Others will watch them all like a movie in the Unending Journal or level an alt for the sole purpose of experiencing the story without feeling like they're missing out.

Worse. Much worse. WoW is a prime example - quite a few people are completely new to the game, purchase a level boost to reach end game immediately and then have very little clue as to what, exactly, they're meant to be doing.

Wanna know how I leveled Dragoon-- my current main? Ten hours one day grinding nothing but fates. I literally went from 34 to 52 in a single day. I looked up guides on the rotation because I certainly didn't learn it by playing the actual game that way. I'm leveling Dark Knight right now and unless I do big pulls, there are very few reasons I'll ever need to pop a cooldown. You generally learn the jobs through third party guides not playing through the MSQ. Dark Knight's questline actually handles it better than Warrior's has by at least making you need some mitigation to survive. I haven't finished Warrior's yet though, so maybe that changes. Dragoon? Monk? Either ever tell you what your rotation will be. I watched Dervy and MrHappy's rotation videos. So if I ever did want to just level skip, I'd basically be in the exact same position I was back then because I fate grinded.

Now I wouldn't want to skip ahead because I like story. But I think you're overestimating the impact this would happen on duty finder.

[Kondor]

True. MSQ it's only "click" that npc, gi to the next noc and "click" it. People don't teach anything from main scenario. For most people its just exp and they skip all of them. Someone asks me why I don't help new players in unsync - your answer is in few posts here with blame for players who don't know how to play. I'm lvl 60 and new guy on 15 how unsync will teach how to play that guy when I kill everything in one hit? And I don't have time and reason to go sastasha on lvl 15 because it take a 40 min to do it. And in last 3 years I have been there more than 500times. People will go on twitch and watch streams form bloodstorm. They will hype and they will play will all players. And they will get a sastasha, and they will quit the game. Then we old players will have more optional items and less content because no one will appear to the game.

[TarynH]

People who opt to skip ahead generally don't give a damn about the story. They're playing because they like raiding, crafting, roleplaying or some other reason.

Again, great and all. Like the story. Don't like the story. It still doesn't answer the questions being raised...

Why should anyone have the option to be able to skip 60 levels of content?
Why should they be able to skip the line ahead of someone that is playing the game the way it is intended?
How is this not being seen as a pay-to-win scenario, in the fact they can skip over all of those fights and dungeons?
How do you compensate others who might feel disillusioned by the fact another player can skip past them at any given moment, by simply paying more?
How does this scenario not effect game balance?

There are a lot more issues at stake here, besides simply "skipping a story."

[Nestama]

Just have the Stormblood city accessible, then. Let newbies get their new Jobs once they hit level 30 on whatever Job they are. Don't make players be forced to level a Job they may not care about to 60 before they can even touch the Job they're interested in. Level 30 should be the minimal requirement.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Yes, the OP cited 60. But look at their other post(s). They mentioned people watching their streams, and wanting to be able to join them in end-game content immediately. This implies skipping even the HW story. They even mentioned side quests being boring. So why not skip those? Where does it end? They'll obviously want to skip 4.0 story as well.

Skipping the story is only one side of it. They in essence want to skip the entirety of the gating process. In other words, they feel entitled to the "end" of the game from day one, though they have done nothing to earn it. They think buying an "expansion" entitles them to all previous content as well.

Three years from now, this system would be abused. You give someone an inch, they will want a mile. And that's not even mentioning RMT. You think they won't pay-to-win?

And? If they want to skip all the way to Stormblood, and probably pay an extra $40-50 doing so. I don't care. It doesn't effect me. Those types of players either won't stay subbed regardless or won't even play the game without a MSQ skip option. They're essentially free money for Square. Now skipping Stormblood? No. That is the new game. They have to do that like the rest of us since it's currently relevant. A Realm Reborn and Heavenward? If they want to skip one or both and just jump right into Stormblood. Go right ahead.

They don't necessarily feel entitled. They just don't care about the story or old content. I'll cite my friend again. She's never touched an extreme primal fight. Not one of them. She hasn't even unlocked all the dungeons yet she logs in every day to roleplay. That's what she finds fun. She skips all the story and only does stuff if she absolutely has to. She'll finish Heavensward just to access Stormblood then go back to ignoring all the dungeons and crap again.

You're jumping to conclusions here. Even in your scenario, none of it would be P2W because you actually have to learn fights to beat them. Leveling is just busy work. I could go into The Creator right now in only ilvl 240 gear and beat it if I were good enough. Jumping levels wouldn't make me good though. I'd need to practice the fight and/or watch guides. Nonetheless, there is nothing to abuse since it would only jump people to Stormblood. If they want to go further than that, too bad. Wanting to skip old content doesn't mean most want to skip everything. They just don't want to have to run around doing 300+ quests-- many of which will be four years old as of Stormblood's release.

[EusisLandale]

I also doubt they will ever have a single zone that lets you go up 12 levels in a single zone.

I do agree that it's unlikely that they will do such a thing, but it's not entirely wise to rule out the possibility to bypass expansions when the mechanics to skip are already in place and that about the only thing missing would be an easily inserted "how we got here" type scene for people choosing to skip.

[Lexia]

Lot of current day gamers just want to skip to "end game" so they can do what? Play it for couple weeks maybe a month and then complain about how it boring and nothing to do?

[silentwindfr]

wait wait.... role player that don't give a damn of the story? you don't feel like you are kinda saying something.... kinda.... weird.
it's them choice to not like this, but it's the main focus of this game, when they come here, they know it. and honestly... i did help friend do them dungeon in unsync, it take almost no time to do it in solo. and like said, doing the msq allows to get tons of exp for the first jobs...

anyway, i did see a lot of this sort of player ingame, they don't give a damn to the story and are often the first to complain about the content given by the patch.... because well they don't care about the msq or the secondary quest. then do i care for them? no... why they will have the right to pass stuff when other will do it? a free pass? no way! no pain no gain.