Main Scenario Restriction Bloodstorm - Very Very Bad idea.

[Kondor]

Welcome.

Two days ago Yoshida-Sama Says about restriction to enter a Bloodstorm - We have to complete a Main Scenario form A realm reborn and Heavensward. I Really love this game but also i'm a leader of Free Company and i see how many people bounce from this game because first 50 lvl are birring and arenas form A realm Reborn are empty. Now i have to tell my new players they have to make 400 main scenario quest and spend almost 300 hours to do it to reach content with all players want.

Sorry for that but i have to say it: Are you Fu... Kidding me?! Yoshida! Expansion is the best moment to reach new players - they must have options to reach new content as possible and play together with us because if they will be leave in central shroud alone they will just leave the game.

MAKE FINAL FANTASY XIV GREAT AGAIN and make possibility to start game form lvl 60 with all main scenario for people who buy Bloodstorm.

[Daranion]

Best you get is skipping 2.x and 3.x quests with a AND THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED AFTERWARDS cutscene. But the main stories will always be necessary. It's a single player final fantasy game with multiplayer tacked on. BEst get used to it

[FoxyAreku]

It's a single player final fantasy game with multiplayer tacked on.

It's really funny to me that there is someone out there who thinks this.

[Kurogaea]

Best you get is skipping 2.x and 3.x quests with a AND THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED AFTERWARDS cutscene. But the main stories will always be necessary. It's a single player final fantasy game with multiplayer tacked on. BEst get used to it

Single player my butt. You can't even run through a dungeon alone without waiting for 3 other people because you alone are the Warrior of Light yet you rely on everyone around you to stay alive. This is a heavy multiplayer game with a single player story. Not only that, but if they actually allow players to go right into Bloodstorm that can open new story arcs for some players, instead of meeting Scions the normal way, you can actually be a native of Ala Mhigo, seeing how life was through their eyes when the garleans took over. Perhaps there's a resistance group within Ala Mhigo, and later on we meet the Scions. I'd actually start a new character just to experience that.

[Greedalox]

I believe in the continuation of the story, and therefore the restriction. So maybe the "Are you fu... kidding me?!" is over the top. There's always the idea of being able to skip story up to that point if you're that gungho about it, but story is the easiest way to level your first job to max level, so I don't really see the problem overall unless new players prefer getting to 60+ with FATES instead of using Story EXP to their advantage.

[Vaer]

This has been an ongoing topic but I don't actually remember him saying anything like that. As far as I know they were considering a skip potion or item but have not said whether or not they are going to restrict the story or allow people to skip. They got feedback from people that want to skip the old stuff and jump in at the expansion/play through a condensed version of it to get to the new stuff faster.

[Xlantaa]

Very Very Very bad idea let players skip stuff or give them level 60 by the face. Games starts form the beggining, not from the end. Sorry but the XXIth century "gamer" mentality of "please give me all here and now without time and effort" is the worst thing hapenning in the videogame world. So, I won't support such thing. Games start form the beggining.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Very Very Very bad idea let players skip stuff or give them level 60 by the face. Games starts form the beggining, not from the end. Sorry but the XXIth century "gamer" mentality of "please give me all here and now without time and effort" is the worst thing hapenning in the videogame world. So, I won't support such thing. Games start form the beggining.

It's not just a time and effort issue. Some people are simply not interested in the story. I have plenty of friends who love FFXIV yet couldn't give less of a damn over cutscenes. They skip everything. When an expansion comes out, the hype is around the new jobs, new areas and atmosphere of thousands of players. When Legion launched, no one stepping in for the first time wanted to go back and do hundreds of quests for old content. I, myself, have no interest in pre-Legion WoW at the moment. If they didn't offer a means of skipping ahead, I wouldn't even consider playing it. That has nothing to do with effort. I am more than happy to dedicate hours upon hours on new content-- perhaps visiting what I missed out on at a later date. But I want that option. Heavensward may not be nearly as obnoxious with pointless fetch quests, however it will still deter people who don't want to spend weeks pushing through all of A Realm Reborn only to find out they have another 60+ quests gating them.

For those worrying about Duty Finder. People who are genuinely interested in the game will inevitably learn content of their own volition. Those who don't care will never bother no matter what obstacles you put in their way. They'll also be the first to quit, especially once people start kicking them from parties.

All this does is make me believe a jump potion is all but guaranteed.

[Lulu89]

It's not just a time and effort issue. Some people are simply not interested in the story.

Then maybe ppl need to play an MMO that's not Final Fantasy!
Final Fantasy is a Story based GAME! Not a free hand out of crap.
The story is what make this game Final Fantasy!
The story will always come 1st! Befor endgame befor open world.. Befor PvP and
befor you! Because that is what make this game Final Fantasy! <3

[KitingGenbu]

...

Yet XI still allowed people to start separate expansion content regardless if they had did the previous or not....And that can't be done here? FF game after all. Personally, most new people only care about the new jobs and nothing more. A blue quest could've easily be put into Camp Dragonhead about going into Ishgard to deliver something without breaking anything in the story. You don't even do anything in the HW zones on the new job stuff until 50+ anyway, so it could've worked.

They've handled the retainer system with rather fair balance. In that the retainers cannot get you everything in the game. For the entirety of 2.0-2.55 they could not gather items from unspoiled nodes. These were later added after or during 3.0's launch. They currently cannot bring you the highest items (folklore, etc.) from HW. And a single retainer cannot bring back more than what the actual player could. In fact, it is sometimes more productive to gather the majority of the items yourself. I'm sure most people could bring back more than 20-30 iron ores in an hour.

I wouldn't necessarily call it paying to "win" as they don't "advance" the player in any certain terms. They can provide you with easily gathered materials, but it's still on the player to advance their character. They are more of a convenience. And like you said, you have to gather whatever they gather first, in order for them to unlock it. You also have to level them, and gear them. So they can't exceed what your own personal character can do yourself. The player is literally investing the time to make the retainers advantageous, not the other way around. The only thing I will admit they can advance, is your pocketbook. But then, I've seen it mentioned countless times that gil doesn't matter in this game. :P

I consider pay-to-win as something that advances your character past/thru content. Paying to level a character to 50 or 60. Paying to jump past story/dungeon content. Paying for gear that increases ilvl. Retainers cannot advance you in this way. They can only bring you things you have already succeeded in obtaining yourself.

You're talking about direct gear advance and I'm talking about money which can be put towards direct gear advancement. Item for glamour and even normal mats can be acquired passively by these retainers so I do not see how you think that is "balanced." Put it like this. Lets say I have 8 mining retainers that can pull in some new type of ore in SB. They pull in an average of 20 usually so that's 20x8=160. So I'm averaging almost 2 stacks of 99 that a person will probably buy for 100k~. I can make almost 200k a hour at the start of an expansion without doing anything other than checking on these things. One could say that gearing would be an issue but they would be wrong since there will be vendors who sell gear and if you have leves saved before the expansion, getting 61-62 wouldn't take more than a few hours of you time. So lets say someone has 1M to burn on all of that plus 5 hours of their time. Just to start passively making 150-200k after that point per hour because they were able to rent 6 more retainers than someone else. Not p2w?

The fact remains that the person who reaches the end first sets the standard until the market becomes oversaturated and then they are forced onto something else. That's fine if everyone is given the same tools. But its not fine if you can get extra tools outside of the confines you are working in and compete with others.