Quest Hubs issues

[Hasrat]

While I don't mind (most) traveling quests, I do think it would massively improve the flow of the game if you could simply be teleported to the next NPC to talk to, if the current NPC you're talking to is going to be at your destination anyway.

[Dirich]

Shot in the dark here but did you buy a jump potion to 60? TBH the SB quests are rather tame compared to HW/2.0-2.55. Those were even more annoying. i.e Putting quest givers up on a cliff when you have no flying and having to go all the way around.

Though I will say the quests you are talking about aren't aimed at "gotta go fast" players. That's why they are sidequests, yellow ones are mostly optional if all you care about is getting to the end. You can skip a large portion of them if you don't care. You just have to do ones that advance the story. Just run a dungeon or roulettes to make up the exp loss if combat is more engaging, that is another option.

I did MSQ and side up to lvl 20 (pretty much 2 starting zones), then only MSQ. I finished ARR I was 60, so I only did MSQ in HW too. I was 64 at beginning of SB, so I burned through MSQ until far east, where I thought that only doing MSQ would leave me underlevelled due to lack of road-to-60 bonus. Which made side quests a necessity.

Thanks for the suggestion of alternative approaches, but the issue here is not what I can do now to sidestep the problem, but a suggestion to the devs to avoid it in future content.

[Dirich]

Agreed....the whole concept/idea behind Final Fantasy is just being "tossed out the window' with this "hurry up and skip content" mindset. Yes..to each their own - but its just sad.

As a note, it's an MMORPG, and the game starts at max level. Unless you wish to play it as a single player, which is also fine, in which case you might enjoy being lower level too. But being max level is also important if you want to play with your friends on content they care about. That is, without forcing them to do pointless content, which is something they might not enjoy, albeit they'd do it just to play with you. It's literally in the game genre (unless you go back to pre WOW when MMORPGS were only levelling).

But this is really beyond the point of the thread. And many, not just you, have misunderstood the topic.
The topic has nothing to do with how you like the game or what we can do now to level fast. It's about feedback on things that I deem to be bad design decision, so that they don't do it again the next time.

Everybody, regardless of play style and taste (rush-to-70 or not), are affected by too much travel time and excessive use of point-and-click type quests (quests not using any interesting mechanic, be it the combat one or some special non-combat one, like the "zoom + search + sleep dart the target").

Everybody that wishes to play FFXIV as a MMORPG (rush-70) is affected by the lack of a skip option for text dialogue that allows to skip the -very long- dialogues and the -very long- pauses caused by emotes (even when performed by other characters). This is mainly an issue for the first job, as you are forced to go through MSQ to unlock content (albeit, personally, I'd use it on the side quests only, many I know would use it on MSQ too, since they don't care about the story at all).

[MomomiMomi]

As a note, it's an MMORPG, and the game starts at max level. Unless you wish to play it as a single player, which is also fine, in which case you might enjoy being lower level too. But being max level is also important if you want to play with your friends on content they care about. That is, without forcing them to do pointless content, which is something they might not enjoy, albeit they'd do it just to play with you. It's literally in the game genre (unless you go back to pre WOW when MMORPGS were only levelling).

I actually find that the game ends at max level. You run out of max level content to do very quickly. The majority of this game is in its story quests.

[Vaer]

I did MSQ and side up to lvl 20 (pretty much 2 starting zones), then only MSQ. I finished ARR I was 60, so I only did MSQ in HW too. I was 64 at beginning of SB, so I burned through MSQ until far east, where I thought that only doing MSQ would leave me underlevelled due to lack of road-to-60 bonus. Which made side quests a necessity.

Thanks for the suggestion of alternative approaches, but the issue here is not what I can do now to sidestep the problem, but a suggestion to the devs to avoid it in future content.

That's the thing though. Other people might prefer the opposite (like some of the people in this thread don't mind the quests). Forcing them to change them so 75% of them are just fighting trash mobs (I find fighting them kind of dull since they usually aren't even a threat, it's like killing a striking dummy with maybe a circle or cone telegraph to dodge) is somewhat removing options or variety from people.

So maybe they can bring the ratio to 1:1, but there is already content that is geared toward killing things if efficiency isn't the problem but I suspect it is most of the problem.

Hunts which are somewhat what you are asking for basically skipping the bs and just killing mobs, so that is there as well, there is no text to skip, just tells you to kill a bunch of stuff for EXP. There are FATEs where a lot of them is literally just kill stuff, don't even have to read anything.

There is quite a bit of stuff that is for people that just want to kill things already. I just don't see the point in taking a hatchet to non combat content that other people like in the game just to add more stuff where you kill trash mobs that are almost no threat when there are already FATEs, hunts and tons of dungeons, trials, etc you can do.

I wouldn't care if they added a skip option but I personally don't find that it takes too long now just to spam through the text.

[Xelanar]

I like sidequests the way they are. The combat portion I do not care about at all. As an astrologian it takes forever to kill stuff, and doing that by spamming a single button is far from being fun.

Sidequests are supposed to be related to lore and help players getting a "feel" for an area, in case they are interested in learning more. If combat is what you are looking for, nothing stops you from just killing enemies. There is plenty of them around in every region. Also there is an entire FATE system catered towards players who like "sidequesting" with a focus on combat. There is no need to adapt a portion of the game to combat as well, that is mostly there for those who like to learn more about the world.

[Dirich]

That's the thing though. Other people might prefer the opposite (like some of the people in this thread don't mind the quests). Forcing them to change them so 75% of them are just fighting trash mobs (I find fighting them kind of dull since they usually aren't even a threat, it's like killing a striking dummy with maybe a circle or cone telegraph to dodge) is somewhat removing options or variety from people.

So maybe they can bring the ratio to 1:1, but there is already content that is geared toward killing things if efficiency isn't the problem but I suspect it is most of the problem.

Hunts which are somewhat what you are asking for basically skipping the bs and just killing mobs, so that is there as well, there is no text to skip, just tells you to kill a bunch of stuff for EXP. There are FATEs where a lot of them is literally just kill stuff, don't even have to read anything.

There is quite a bit of stuff that is for people that just want to kill things already. I just don't see the point in taking a hatchet to non combat content that other people like in the game just to add more stuff where you kill trash mobs that are almost no threat when there are already FATEs, hunts and tons of dungeons, trials, etc you can do.

I am not skipping hunts and FATEs. Also, I'm not suggesting to go back to the "grind your way through 70 levels" that was the standard in the old games.


I'm saying that the majority of the quests I had to go through had dull mechanics (point and click to immobile object). The devs should either use some cool or unique mechanic (like the examples I made previously, or card battle or whatever other mini game is already available in the game) or use the main game mechanics (combat). Moreover, since combat is the main game mechanics, you can't use it just once every 10 quests, or it's not the main mechanic anymore (the exact ratio, 1:1 or 2:3, is not particularly relevant in this context, as long as it is fairly balanced and not 10 to 1).

I wouldn't care if they added a skip option but I personally don't find that it takes too long now just to spam through the text.

You are talking qualitatively, saying that it doesn't take too long. I gave numbers: I played 3 hours, of which less than 15 minutes were combat, the rest was all running around and clicking on non-moving stuff or clicking through dialogues (or watching/reading MSQ stuff).

We can discuss if reading MSQ text is "playing" as it is a necessity for the story to advance (I'd rather not though, as it is a bit out of topic), but the fact that a major activity is "waiting for character to move from A to B" is an issue regardless of it.
The fact that "skipping text I don't want to read" is another not irrelevant part of the time, is another issue, albeit it only affects part of the player base. How much of it, only a proper statistic by the devs can tell.
In my experience in MMORPGS, though, the majority rushes max level without reading, a minority either reads everything immediately or rushes first and then goes back and reads the side quests (maybe on an alt). If your experience differs -and you don't have the habit to be in an roleplay or lore-geek community- then count me surprised. Regardless, neither yours nor mine are proper statistics unless we back them with numbers and proper sources.

[InkstainedGwyn]

I started SB on 60 and was 70 before I got to the Peaks/Lochs. Never once did I have to grind fates or extra dungeons for XP, and I didn't touch a single side quest. I did my levelling roulette daily, that was it. And I never had Road-To-60.

Sidequests are unnecessary, and if for whatever reason they become necessary, the 1/3 of a level or whatever that you might need to get is better found elsewhere. Leave the side quests for the people who want a more nuanced story; there are plenty of quick-hit grindfests in the game that can serve your purpose. Honestly, I think getting your actual class levels is probably the easiest thing in the game.

[Dirich]

I like sidequests the way they are. The combat portion I do not care about at all. As an astrologian it takes forever to kill stuff, and doing that by spamming a single button is far from being fun.

So you wish to have the following:
1. one side quest in each corner of the map, requiring 30 minutes of walking (but without the chance to leave the character on autorun). So time for quest completition is 30 minutes (walk) + 5 minutes (read) + 30 seconds (actually doing the quest).
2. all the quests require to click on immovable objects. No fun mechanics like card games or minion battles, no challeng like a "click on something that's moving". You ABSOLUTELY do not want quests to involve fun unique mechanics like minion combat, card game, or the ton of mini-game available in the other parts of this game.
I'd fire anybody presenting to me this design, but it's your taste and you are entitled to have it.
If you say this is not what you want, then you are agreeing with me on my main points, beside the balance of "combat to non-combat" quests. In which case, read the next part of this post.


As a note, your problem with combat not being fun is a design issue.
You are 100% right that for 50 levels it's "spam 1 button" for many classes, especially healers. FFXIV suck big time in this regard. WoW had the same issues in the beginning, then each class was given a way to specialize in damage that allowed for an effective solo levelling experience, even if its "iconic role" was tank or healer. Moreover, each class gets pretty soon the majority of its main no-cd skills, which allow to have a non-monotonous gaming experience.
The way WoW improved is because people gave feedback and the devs listened. Which is what I'm trying to do, and it is what you should be doing, if you feel that playing the game (beyond the story-reading experience) is not fun.

[Dirich]

I started SB on 60 and was 70 before I got to the Peaks/Lochs. Never once did I have to grind fates or extra dungeons for XP, and I didn't touch a single side quest. I did my levelling roulette daily, that was it. And I never had Road-To-60.

Sidequests are unnecessary, and if for whatever reason they become necessary, the 1/3 of a level or whatever that you might need to get is better found elsewhere. Leave the side quests for the people who want a more nuanced story; there are plenty of quick-hit grindfests in the game that can serve your purpose. Honestly, I think getting your actual class levels is probably the easiest thing in the game.

I started at level 63 in Far East (switched from the main class that was 64) I did almost all the side quests in the 3 Far East zones, I never did the roulette (I had 3 free days in a row and I just focused on getting to 70, so I could have done 3 days' worth of roulettes), I did hunts whenever I wasn't blocked by some cutscene and boss fates when they were near me. I had "rested bonus XP" all the time. Still, I was only ~10% of the level away from 70 when the last MSQ of the first SB chain became available.

How many days exactly did it take you to go from 60 to 70? That is, how many roulettes have you done?
Please don't answer that I shouldn't rush, because I've got friends that are at max level, and forcing them to play old content they don't care about gets old pretty fast.

P.S.
road-to-60 doesn't really matter since we are talking about 60 -> 70.