Noticed something interesting about the lvl 70 Mch job quest

[MisterSpamtastic]

I was hanging out in the novice network and they were talking about how cool the stormblood Mch job quests were. I personally didn't remember them being all that great so went back and watched the level 70 job quest cutscenes. That's when I saw noticed rostnsthal seemingly dual wield an axe and a gun. New job? Lol

https://youtu.be/pmjKltErxe8

[Nezerius]

Not to burst your bubble, but he's been wielding an axe and a gun since the very first MCH job quest.

[Iscah]

I think it's not a new job but a leftover from an old one - the never-implemented gun class based in the same building as the Marauders' Guild in Limsa.

However, I've been meaning to post because I noticed something else interesting in that cutscene and the fight that followed it...

Stephanivien isn't actually a machinist!

I hadn't even thought about it before. He runs the guild. He's wearing the relic gear.

And he's fighting that Lv70 battle with a pitifully small mechanic's wrench.


So now I'm starting to go through that plotline again with a second character, and sure enough he never actually fights. Rostnsthal is in charge of training, Joye is their best shooter, Steph just invents things and runs on boundless optimism.

I just did the level 40 instanced battle - he stands there and warns us when different locations are under attack, but I don't know if he actually joins in the fight. In any case, I could see he's again equipped with just the wrench, no gun or aetherotransformer - the character AI may be functioning as a gladiator (as he does in the Lv70 fight) but that's all.

So yeah, for all his enthusiasm about it being a weapon that anyone can use, apparently he doesn't.

Maybe he's just a really terrible shot.


So... incoming 'mechanic' crafting class for Garlemald expansion? But more importantly, imagine Stephanivien getting to go there (once we've resolved the whole enemy empire thing). His excitement level is going to be through the roof.

[KisaiTenshi]

I was hanging out in the novice network and they were talking about how cool the stormblood Mch job quests were. I personally didn't remember them being all that great so went back and watched the level 70 job quest cutscenes. That's when I saw noticed rostnsthal seemingly dual wield an axe and a gun. New job? Lol

https://youtu.be/pmjKltErxe8

That's a callback to V1.0.

[Soupa]

Theres a ton of lore behind this. If you started in Limsa in 1.0, the first battle on the boat Rostnsthal (Who formerly was known as Sthalmann) fights alongside you and Y'shtola. Later he is the only one who acknowledges that there was a voice he could hear while fighting. (Asking anyone outside of him and Y'shtola about this will mock you, meaning he likely has some form of Echo because Echo was NOT common in 1.0 like it was post 2.0) Using the way he holds his firearm in the 1.0 gun guild gets you kicked out cuz holding the gun like that means you run the streets and the guild is a strong family values place.

Later he tries to overthrow the Admiral by stealing a horn from Seal Rock, (Which is stolen by Travanchet during and given to Mide way later shortly before 3.0 who oopsy daisy summons Alexander) and messes up so bad he changes his name, becomes an alcoholic, and then runs off to Ishgard at the job offer from the MCH guild. Its basically a 1.0 leftover and for legacy players its nice to see some of the characters from before the calamity still kicking and influencing the world.

[Iscah]

I got to the Lv50 solo battle last night and was looking to see if Stephanivien was equipped with the wrench again (he is) but noticed something else rather surprising about his 'battle NPC' model....



He has a completely different hairstyle to his normal model! So I'm guessing one of two things is going on:
(A) they redesigned his appearance at some point in development, and didn't update this model along with the normal one
(B) battle NPCs may have the same design restrictions as retainers, not being able to access hairstyles that aren't in the standard character creator list, so they just had to pick the closest-looking one and hope that nobody noticed! (and they nearly get away with it because it's not too noticable under his hat.)

I should be able to work out which of those is the likely case once I get to redoing the HW bard quests, since there's a character in that storyline who has the same hairstyle and joins you in a few battles.

Maybe this is why they avoid having Stephanivien participate in battles unless he really needs to be there for the sake of plot.

[Canadane]

This is how he was in 1.0.
Same how Merlwyb has 2 guns.

Planned idea that never came to be.