All quests in the game should be party or 'team' friendly

[Culex]

That includes MSQ and related trials, Job quests and related trials....

I understand the game wasn't designed to be this way, but still... I feel my friends and company members can't join with me on like half of the game

Since it takes a while to complete Main Scenario Quests (like months!) and unlock various content, I feel it negatively impacts your best friends from being able to participate in a lot of stuff. We all have separate lives on the outside, so it is quite unreasonable to expect that myself and my best friends will be able to do the same dungeons together :c

[Okamimaru]

Uh... help your lower friends clear those dungeons... ask higher friends to help you clear what you need... I'm not sure what the problem is...

[Culex]

Uh... help your lower friends clear those dungeons... ask higher friends to help you clear what you need... I'm not sure what the problem is...

Quests!... Not dungeons. The entire game is not party friendly!

- *Party disbands* why? "I have to do this job quest alone."
- *Party disbands* why? "I have to do this main scenario quest alone".
- *Party disbands* why? "I cannot accept this Grand Company Levequest while in a party."
- *Party disbands* why? "I cannot 'initiate' this Levequest while in a party because I accepted it as a party and the members are not close enough to my position."

Frankly, all of this makes for a somewhat fragmented and confusing system. You basically have to fail to understand it! A more inclusive party system is required. One that allows a party with any number of members to stay grouped with each other regardless of what the content is!

[Zojha]

It's a Final Fantasy game - Final Fantasy games are solo games.

The brand is renown for features that don't work very well in multiplayer games, so in attempting to deliver the brand experience, the multiplayer experience is gonna suffer.

I doubt they're gonna change much in that regard - Normal leves maybe, grand company leves not because muh lore, and solo duties? Nah. That's too much effort for them to even begin to bother. I find it quite annoying as well, especially that the majority of the multiplayer content is gated by swathes of solo content you first have to wade through, but it is what it is.

[MistakeNot]

It's a Final Fantasy game - Final Fantasy games are solo games.

Most of them are. Not all, and not this one. FFXIV is an MMO - about as far from a solo game as you can come.

[MistakeNot]

Quests!... Not dungeons. The entire game is not party friendly!

- *Party disbands* why? "I have to do this job quest alone."
- *Party disbands* why? "I have to do this main scenario quest alone".
- *Party disbands* why? "I cannot accept this Grand Company Levequest while in a party."
- *Party disbands* why? "I cannot 'initiate' this Levequest while in a party because I accepted it as a party and the members are not close enough to my position."

Frankly, all of this makes for a somewhat fragmented and confusing system. You basically have to fail to understand it! A more inclusive party system is required. One that allows a party with any number of members to stay grouped with each other regardless of what the content is!

Yup, all that is very annoying. A simple solution would be to let you remain in a party even when you do solo-duties. Much like they finally let us keep our chocobo summoned while queuing for and doing dungeons.

[Lambdafish]

Since it takes a while to complete Main Scenario Quests (like months!) and unlock various content, I feel it negatively impacts your best friends from being able to participate in a lot of stuff. We all have separate lives on the outside, so it is quite unreasonable to expect that myself and my best friends will be able to do the same dungeons together :c

How can your friends participate in cutscenes? You can do that things while in a party, and the rest of them will stand around and watch your cutscene marker, but im not sure what you would do differently that wouldn't require the MSQ to be group content.

If you are talking about the rare instances like the grand melee, the quest in the azim steppe, or the fight just before you unlock Ala Mhigo as a dungeon, two things come to mind:

1) Group content requires it to be in the DF, which causes problems with needing it to be replayable (see hildibrand trials)

2) Content would need to be designed around multiple players, meaning that you cannot have the option to go solo if you so wished. The solo instances are designed to be instantly accessible, directly relevant to the players MSQ, and in such a way that it can be used as an interactive narrative piece rather than a structured fight.

[ManuelBravo]

Wasn't bad enough that lvl potions were introduced so that people can catch up with their friends? The content is not that hard and can easily be soloed just need to be proper level and gear and their are way too many options as well. Personally I rather solo for Main quest and Side quest I hear less complaining that way. There is also FC options, I mean that is a reason why people join FC's right so that they can work together. Let's not ruin the game any further -.-. It's already been tarnished by too many people complaining it's too hard when they can't even put any effort on their end.

[Okamimaru]

how are people gonna be able to party together when there are three starter cities? this means at the very beginning youre still going to have to play solo unless all your friends started in the same city as you.How are you going to each take on your class and job quests as a group? and half this content would be a joke in its current state if they didnt buff the encounters... which would make it impossible to complete solo...also lore wise we as "the Warrior of Light" (not plural) do most of this shit solo anyway with some scions tagging along behind... youre literally asking them to remake the game (once again) just so you and some friends dont have to disband your party every now and then...

[Niwashi]

There's some content that I really think should remain solo content (especially in job quests), and there are a number of solo instances in the storyline that are solo either for narrative reasons or because otherwise SE would have to provide a wide range of differently balanced versions depending on who's there with you. (Unless they were all made mandatory grouping instead, but that would just upset a different subset of players.) I don't really think we should have any less of that solo content.

What would really help, however, is the ability to keep your party formed while you do it. Telling your party you need to take a few minutes for a solo instance (much in the way you might tell them you need to AFK for a few minutes), but then you're still in the party once you exit, would be a lot easier than having to break up the party when you need to do a solo instance, and then have to find them all again to re-create the party afterwards so you can continue to play together.

So yeah, sure your party members wouldn't be able to join you in that solo instance, but they'd still be in your party, you'd still have access to party chat throughout, and when you exit, you're back to playing together again without the interruption of having to re-create a party you'd already been in.