An option for characters to start at level 50, pre-heavensward, for FREE

[Labyxt]

What’s next? Request to skip all story and start directly at endgame?

[bass9020]

No. /thread

[Vahlnir]

If only it was that simple.

https://gamerescape.com/2019/05/10/l...producer-lxii/

I can understand that very well. At my last work the more new trainees were launched at me, the more time i did lose ensuring they were not making any mistakes that would impact the entire team afterwards, making my usual personnal tasks less and less efficient. It was way better working without them, and a relief when they were thrown at someone else XD

They can say they can't throw money at problems, but what do some players feel inclined to do to get around the limited inventory space? That's right, throw money at them, and magically they have more inventory space. If they weren't monetizing a known limitation then maybe they would have a fair point and I would be willing to cut them a little slack. Training people? Yeah, I can definitely understand why they might not want to, but I personally think that they would be better for it if they trained a few people to do what they need to do. I know they probably won't though.

[frostmagemari]

They can say they can't throw money at problems, but what do some players feel inclined to do to get around the limited inventory space? That's right, throw money at them, and magically they have more inventory space. If they weren't monetizing a known limitation then maybe they would have a fair point and I would be willing to cut them a little slack. Training people? Yeah, I can definitely understand why they might not want to, but I personally think that they would be better for it if they trained a few people to do what they need to do. I know they probably won't though.

It can be daunting to train new people, because training people does lower the output a little, but it really is worth it in the long run to train more people.
I have to wonder, is there no one in the crew that is trusted to help new hires get their footing in the crew? To start them out on something less pressing to do so the main team can work on the important work? Square Enix is hardly unique in the idea that new staff can be an issue when introduced to existing projects.. but it is universally seen as worthwhile practice to add more manpower to a team as long as it's needed and useful.

And yes, i agree with the assessment that money can be thrown at SQE to fix almost every problem they say they have. Bank/retainer space? Give them money and you miraculously have more space. Server full and it can't accept more people? Give them money and you can bypass most server creation lock outs. (etc...)

[shaiel]

I agree that ARR is a slog compared to HW and Stormblood, and post ARR takes too long. Something should be done. However, I don't think people should start out at 50 as if they took a story skip / job boost. I highly discourage this because you get too many things unlocked at once and it will be overwhelming. In case you don't remember there's also so so so many things that unlock once you get to 50. I started playing in January and it took me 4 months to get through ARR-HW, then HW was just around 1 month maybe less for me to complete. I mostly got bored of the ARR and post ARR quests. So they can improve the quests, in my opinion, while keeping leveling as it is. They should fix the way quests are handed out for MSQ in ARR - less fetch and return to waking sands, and have like 10 quests just be one block of activity and you turn it in the one time. This is just an example, they could do something else entirely about it. Even as a long time MMO player, there are things I learned through the tutorials from leveling up to 50. And it's not just the little combat popups per class / per job, there's so many qol things that are explained in the tutorial and how stuff works like when someone handed me an in game wedding invitation so I could attend. The little things like that would be far too overwhelming if they all appeared at level 50. For players new to MMOs or RPGs in general they'd be even more confused, I imagine.

[Sarevok_Thordin]

I think they said at one point they were going to shuffle the quests between ARR and HW.

[Seraphor]

I don't know why people are so against this.
If people want to skip it, that's their choice.

As time goes on, there's more and more content people will want to skip, and being unable to do that, without paying extra for the privilege of having less content, will turn people away from the game.
As each new expansion comes out, and the skip to the current level cap comes out, then all previous skips should decrease in value in kind, making the ARR encroaching on $0 anyway.

It's not like the entire ARR story hasn't just been ruined by the Shadowbringers launch trailer anyway...

[Hasrat]

Just a whole patch focused on fixing what we already have and making it better.

It's a fine idea, except when you consider how this game has a cycle of players coming and going. Current-content players will often un-sub when they've caught up with nothing more they really want to do, and re-sub at next patch to stay current.

Suggesting they dedicate an entire patch to previous content tweaks is ensuring those players stay un-subbed for even longer. It'd be another repeat of this pre-5.0 lull, right in the middle of the expansion, rather than at the end (or, if that patch is at the end, just makes the lull even worse).

With the dedicated patch cycle time frame they have, there's just no easy way to get major work done on old content like this, without taking it piecemeal as they have time/resources to spare. It's easy for us to say "Just hire enough people that they can all get it done in time." But that's a tough cost/benefit analysis to sell to the people in charge of the money.

[Bearded]

What incentive is there to the developers to provide this feature? As far as I am aware (and correct me if I am wrong) the subscriptions and new players in FFXIV are healthy and probably increasing. For them to introduce something that skips past loads of content and releases an unprepared level 50 into the world is not a wise move in my opinion.

You have tons of skills at level 50 and will have no way of knowing how to use them. Not only that you will have no idea about the mechanics of all the duties you have "unlocked" due to your instant level boost.

I am quite happy with the paid for service as that boosts level only but does not skip content (unless you purchase that also) - that way people can learn by doing.

[Miminming]

Maybe for seconds character,
Peolle should play their first char to follow the story