Solutions to the main scenario problem

[Halivel]

HW 3.x part isn't long tho, it's 44 quests (ARR 2.x is 100 quests in comparison, and SB 4.x is 40). Even 2.x isn't that long. Just when you make all of these quests in one step it's... as if you came to the restaurant and they served to you the complete set of dishes at once instead of serving it partly, I suppose.

On the other hand, if you are attentive, you will actually notice that after every update people complain "why story patches are so short!?" (well guys... because you begged to not repeat ARR situation?) I bet that if they will do a golden middle for ShB 5.x (let's say 70 quests) to make story patches a little bit longer there will be whining in 6.0 "why so loooong" again. Fail&fail situation in any case. /shrugs

Anyway, they stated that they do some adjustments on ARR story as far as I remember so I would wait until they release it. HW and SB do not need adjustments, they are already short enough.

[savageink]

It's not blasphemy to want to skip the arr stories, but it is an attempt to skip your hazing. You can do it with a skip potion, but then you will always be "that skip potion guy". You won't have the joy of experiencing the existential angst of 'Tataru's Big Adventure'. You aren't "one of us". So, the general concensus is, "Get your level 14 subligar on, drink the spiked punch, and wait for us to write things on your face in permanent marker." We did it so you should do it too.

If you go back on this board to when skip potions were introduced nobody wanted them, at least not for new players. If you had already done the story on one character, you could buy them. That was ok...unless you are one of those anti-alt people. Personally, I don't get paying for a game twice so you can avoid playing the game, but hey whatever floats your boat. There are lots of games that don't have plotlines worth mentioning.

[Wynn_Storm]

Now that i think more on it, the skip potion is not a real solution at all.

If you think about it, lets see how much it cost overall.

You have to buy the game, buy the expansion, buy the story skip, AND a job boost. Sure you can skip all the MSQ, but doing that will leave you at a low lvl. You will need a high lvl job to start playing the new content.

So game + expansion + story skip + job boost.

And somehow this is a solution and the answer to those that want to skip ahead to get to the newer content?

I know people reuse those tired comebacks like "The story is important" "Its a final fantasy game" "Why play if you are going to skip the game?"

People play for different reasons. Do people not realize this is an mmorpg and there are MANY different types of players that play this game.

I just find it absurd how people on this forum can be so jaded, and think just because they had to eat dirt, all the new players years later should have to eat dirt too.

[Shougun]

I wrote a bit on a few vague sketches of an optional accelerated start in another thread, if you care to read them I could find them in a bit but that's personally how I think it could work. So something like #3. Of course it wouldn't recap everything because that's too long and potentially very boring (exposition city) but it would spark note you up to some basic speed (if painting in massive brushes the game isn't that complex to explain, lots and lots of nuance lost though). Things to be sure to touch upon would be who is bad (main ones), some of your friends, what you are going to do next, where are you starting, some general combat/system intro, stuff like that. More info and direction than you get from the start of a Bethesda games, much less than you'd get from playing the game for 100+ hours of MSQ lol. If the player after starting out accelerated then wanted to learn more in depth they could new game plus.

There existing a growing list of reasons why I think it's better than just a skip potion or no option but you said this thread isn't for that sort of discussion and honestly thats probably a good thing. The discussion is just going to be a circular argument of people disagreeing on core concepts and how the game has to or has not to be in the eyes of other players.


It'll be interesting to see how streamlined the ARR story will be after they go over it though. May help waylay this issue.

[Lersayil]

Now that i think more on it, the skip potion is not a real solution at all.

If you think about it, lets see how much it cost overall.

You have to buy the game, buy the expansion, buy the story skip, AND a job boost. Sure you can skip all the MSQ, but doing that will leave you at a low lvl. You will need a high lvl job to start playing the new content.

So game + expansion + story skip + job boost.

And somehow this is a solution and the answer to those that want to skip ahead to get to the newer content?

I know people reuse those tired comebacks like "The story is important" "Its a final fantasy game" "Why play if you are going to skip the game?"

People play for different reasons. Do people not realize this is an mmorpg and there are MANY different types of players that play this game.

I just find it absurd how people on this forum can be so jaded, and think just because they had to eat dirt, all the new players years later should have to eat dirt too.

Call me jaded or whatever, but I see it as sort of a filter. A LOT of people leave the game before reaching max level because they don't like the MSQ. Sometimes I agree, that is the MSQ's fault (thinking ARR mostly) because the story is boring and largely non-consequential. Other times however it gets rid of people that don't really appreciate the story focus, and in the long run probably wouldn't like the game anyways for a sustained amount of time, thus saving them some time (and money) before coming to this conclusion anyways.

I also speculate that it might have something to do with the sort of community we have, and why its generally considered pretty decent in the larger scheme of things.

Naturally this view is completely anecdotal and my personal belief not backed by any hard data.

TLDR; I think the MSQ should be refined at some points, chiseled down at others, but should not be skipped under normal circumstances.

[Erza_Scarlets]

Biggest issue is how many pointless msq arr(pre and post 50 ones) had that could be moved to side quests and would not affect the msq. That part by far needs the most refinement.
Heavensward and Stormblood had far less pointless fluff that wasn't even part of the msq in the msq quests.

[Hash_Browns]

It’s too long, simple as that. New players will easily outlevel the main scenario as they are leveling up. I’ve a friend who I brought to this game and he started months ago and has hit level 70 and is barely halfway through Heavensward. It’s way too long, and I’m not interested in arguing that. This thread is going to assume you agree with this and is purely for discussing possible solutions to this assumed problem, and I’m not interested in arguing if it’s a valid problem.

Some ideas to get things started:
1) Cut out the 100+ quests between ARR and HW down to 10 or so composite quests that remove all of the unnecessary parts.
2) Create composite quests for everything from ARR to Stormblood that greatly increase XP and greatly lower the number of quests.
3) Start Shadowbringers players in a special story arc in which the WoL loses their memories and strength and have a special questline parallel to the 70+ msq in which they recover their levels and memories of the past, until at level 80 they have fully recovered and unlocked all past cutscenes at the inn.

More ideas!

In all fairness, the MSQ is for story progression. My brother is at the end of Heavensward, and he finds that he has to level other classes to get EXP now (70 Monk, 66 PLD). That's really fine. Dungeons sync you down anyways, and any major instances aren't exactly difficult at the level they are designed for anyways.

People already have to suffer though 100s of quests, I don't think forcing them to do sidequests to suffer through more is a good idea.
Levels aren't really hard to get in FFXIV, gear progression and learning skills is more important.

[Stanelis]

The quest bloat at 50 needs some pruning, there are too many filler quests that aren't relevant to the story.

[Derio]

They just need to fix ARR thats it. The problem is alot of the minfillia fetch quests need to be removed, and they cant be turned into side quests due to story reasons.

[LyraKuroneko]

Remove the fetching quest. And nothing else story wise.
Thise game is still called FF after all. And it's a numbered.
There is still the option to buy the story skip potion for those that hate the story too much.