Steamline the Newbie Experience!

[Schellering]

With the advent of Stormblood, my friends and I have been discussing the newbie experience. There are attempts to try to help newbies, but they don't streamline the number of quests and levels required to reach other players.
Suggestion number 1: Make the newbie ring give bonus xp up to lvl 50.
Suggestion number 2: Make LEVELING ROULETTE ACTUALLY LEVEL YOU! Just make it auto level you by one, or better yet just make any dungeon within 4-5 levels of your current level auto level you
Suggestion number 3: With the scrapping of classes, make unlocking ARR jobs start you at level 30 like it does for heavensward.
Suggestion number 4: Make a potion that allows you to skip the ARR story. This needs streamlining, there are way too many quests to get through and so much effort needed to catch up to anyone who has been in the game for a long time.
Suggestion number 5: Make a potion that allows you to auto level 1 job to lvl 50.

[TitaniaZero]

I cannot say much of the first 3.

But 4 and 5 will happen. Not sure when but it has been talked about before.

[Belhi]

4 and 5 will likely happen sometime during Stormblood's patch cycle.

For 1 it would make more sense just to buff EXP earned. They actually already did with HW. You don't need to do a great deal outside the MSQ to level. They will probably buff HW MSQ exp too in Stormblood.

For 2 at low levels the Roulette practically gives you a level as it is. Higher up its lower but its not supposed to make it that quick. If it was there wouldn't be any need for a potion. I mean the only real reason for needing this is for levelling alt jobs and as it is you get a 100% exp buff for every job after the first up to 50%.

The issue with 3 is the assumption they are scrapping classes which they aren't. If they change the class/job system Yoshi P said it would be in 5.0 at the earliest and made no promises it would even be then. As for unlocking ARR jobs at 30, if they do overhaul classes this might happen but I don't expect it to yet. For a start, quite a few of those Job questlines reference the class ones and SE would have to at least go through and rework those quests to avoid that.

[The_Last_Dragoon]

Suggestion number 1: This actually already exists in the form of Company Actions. You should find one that is active but doesn't use it's actions very often and ask them to activate them for you. This not only helps you in the long run, but it could set you up with a thriving community of players who will help you progress through end-game. This may eventually exist in the form of items, but there's already a ton of ways to boost your experience, so I'm pretty sure that if they do anything it'll probably be through Recruit-a-friend.

Suggestion number 2: I don't think this kind of thing would actually work well, since it practically does just give you a level at lower levels, but in areas such as Heavensward, you really don't need to be gaining a level every day just from doing a single dungeon. I should also point out that dungeons are only relevant within a 3 level range, which is shortened to 2 levels in the expansion. So it really wouldn't make sense if you could auto level by doing a dungeon that you're being level sync'd for.

Suggestion number 3: With the scrapping of classes, you won't have to level a side class anymore to get your job class, you really don't need to "start" at level 30 since you'd be eliminating some crucial learning quests for those classes. Not to mention that I would not like to once again bring about the era of GLD/PLDs who queue up for Brayflox's Longstop and then suddenly realize that they aren't a damage dealer job.

Suggestion number 4: While I'm sure they are already thinking up a way for people to skip patch storylines, I'm also certain that players will not be able to skip the main storyline. Not only would it leave you completely lost in the game's narrative unless you watched a lengthy cutscene equivalent to a feature film, but it would overall hinder the experience for that player since they would never be able to return to said story.

Suggestion number 5: Literally no one wants this, ever. Either it's only available to new players, and you completely overload them with information and they are lost when it comes to actually playing their first job (this is also implying that you'd be able to skip the main storyline, which would be awkward if you couldn't), or you make it available to everyone, and then it becomes a question of whether or not that becomes a pay to win type of item. Hell, if you're willing to go that far, why not just make Zodiac weapon replicas available for purchase on the Mog Station when 4.0 comes out.

Honestly, judging from the suggestions you're putting forward, it feels like you want to literally take the experience out of the newbie. There's already a bunch of ways you can increase your experience gain so that you don't need to bog down with side quests, and all of them literally lead the player to being more sociable and active in the game's community.

[Schellering]

My only problem with #5 is that it would be a 1 time thing. The leveling options seem in my honest option too limited. The fastest way to level is PoTD at least from 1-50, and even after buffing the amount of xp each quest gives, you still have the issue of running out of quests to level with. Perhaps making some side experience quests repeatable would be nice. If I were to rework the #5 suggestion that I put out there, I would say that make it available for purchase in the mogstation and make it an auto boost to level 30.

[The_Last_Dragoon]

The fastest way to level is FATE grinding

There, fixed it for you

I would say that make it available for purchase in the mogstation and make it an auto boost to level 30.

That would be passable as long as you still had to do the Main quest in it's entirety.

[Shougun]

Dunno if making everything a rush actually helps streamline things.. :/, I think of streamlining as more of making it fit and sleek, easy to understand.

Imo what could really help is creating a better recommendation tool, like a Adventurer LS you get early on that sort of sets up this cute communication with you and the leader of whichever inn city you relate to, a neat interface that helps me know when I have job quests available, where the heck I'm supposed to go for the next new dungeon, MSQ WHERE?, I'm in a zone hook me up with leves, hunts for THAT area, and suggest me to some FATEs, haven't been to the GS yet - you've earned a break.. etc. Even if there is a level jump potion there is still a LOT of stuff that you should be guided on, like just hit 50.. WHERE do you go? Armor, ilvl.. what? GC? What's a GC? So much wut.

When I came back I was like WHERE IS THE MAIN STORY PERSON~? lol I had to go into my journal, find the last quest I completed and then go online and read the quest chains to figure out the next one - cause the game wasn't recommending me to go there. Then I had to go figure out where many of the dungeons which the system didn't recommend either. It's certainly more old school / "immersive" that way but if we're talking about people joining really late wanting to logically get things done, then having to check online for a massive guide isn't the most ideal.

/la (linkshell adventurer) hook me up. Will get you a laundry list of things to do in that zone with consideration of your level and if you have a job quest, with bonuses for doing them in an order that keeps you doing new things (no 24/7 fates, dungeons, or w.e). Experience the open world and the new dungeons, and at lower levels yes reward large sums of EXP but making sure they're trying it all.

/la anything big? could be an easy way to check for new dungeons, MSQ, what have you.

Of course there would be an interface too, don't have to type if you dont want.

Could move some of the nice server messages into the communication too
/la Goodmorning Wubrant! (or whatever time frame it is)
/la I have a request in for an adventurer to check out an issue at Quarrymill, perhaps you should gather some friends! (text comes with a link to map so you can teleport there, marks on your map an npc you should go talk to to learn that scary girl is back and you need to go into X HM dungeon again).
/la Alphinaud would like to speak with you at " "

So by typing "hook me up" in the LS and then it starts a stream of content - she recommends you go to this fate while she looks over the leves, finish that and she has a leve in a nearby location with two minor monster hunts, finish the leve and the two hunts, you go back to the aetheryte for a quick rest - leve reward and you pick up a gift she prepared for you (2 potions, 1 meal), looks like some adventurers are getting ready to do a dungeon would you like to join them (prepares a dungeon queue for you while you do other stuff), looks like you just unlocked a job quest shows a map link, now that you're a higher level she asks if you want to see the beach, a great canyon, or deep forests - you click one and now you're doing your next bracket of content in a new zone.

Would be helpful for DoH and DoL too, especially DoL lol - where the heck you should be leveling and mixing in nice exp rewards while varying the content as much as possible.

I've considered they could also make it far more simpler (but the recommendation system still needs a bit more improvement) and they could make it a moogle buddy.. since I really want one of those anyways.

Kicking a person to level 50 doesn't really sound like the first step in streamlining the newbie experience, that's imo making it much harder to streamline.. because now you have all a sudden thousands of quests you can be doing, some of which are very important, as well as so many areas to visit, dungeons to check out, its just a massive all a sudden unlock. I think a system that could guide you around the game in both a beneficial and less grindy manor could be helpful. Even if you're still being booted to level 50, specifically making you level 50 isn't the key to streamlining.. that's just the key to making sure you can play with friends, but you'll still likely be massively confused (unless your friends are good guides).

[Schellering]

That would be passable as long as you still had to do the Main quest in it's entirety.

And by that you mean ARR, 2.X patch progression and Heavensward correct? That brings up another can of worms. The patch progression between ARR and Heavensward often stigmatizes the game as a long grind of filler.

[The_Last_Dragoon]

And by that you mean ARR, 2.X patch progression and Heavensward correct? That brings up another can of worms. The patch progression between ARR and Heavensward often stigmatizes the game as a long grind of filler.

Yeah, the Development team already said they were going to make it so new players could "skip" patch quests and content, but they definitely didn't say anything about the 2.0 and 3.0 main storyline.

[Schellering]

Kicking a person to level 50 doesn't really sound like the first step in streamlining the newbie experience, that's imo making it much harder to streamline.. because now you have all a sudden thousands of quests you can be doing, some of which are very important, as well as so many areas to visit, dungeons to check out, its just a massive all a sudden unlock.Even if you're still being booted to level 50, specifically making you level 50 isn't the queue to streamlining.. that's just the key to making sure you can play with friends, but you'll still likely be massively confused .

I understand where you are coming from, and I agree that the suggestions all together would make leveling too fast. Not all of them are meant to be implemented together, thus separate suggestions. I talked with a few newbie friends of mine on another server, and the main issue they brought up was the patch progression, especially the 2.X between ARR and Heavensward