Low level gameplay: A growing problem

[PangTong]

One of the biggest and most common complaints I hear from both new players and veterans alike in XIV is that the gameplay takes forever to get fun. Whether it's someone going through the story for the first time, someone leveling a new job, or a higher level player synced to low level combat, it seems like almost no one enjoys the low level experience in XIV. Everyone who has played through to endgame has experienced the frustration of queueing for leveling roulette and getting something like Sastasha or Tam-tara and losing 80% of what makes your job fun to play.

Yet every expansion, the devs somehow see fit to make low level gameplay even more excruciating by pruning abilities from the lower levels so that new abilities can be added to the new levels brought in by an expansion. We're currently at a point where jobs learn close to half of all their actions after level 50, which is DOZENS of hours into the game's main story.

People literally quit the game because they can't stomach the slow and boring low levels, and it's honestly hard to recommend the game to new people when you basically are forced to tell them "yeah the combat doesn't get interesting until 50-100 hours in". SE's position on this seems to be "if you want to skip the low levels then buy a jump potion on the store", but the problem with this is that if someone is not enjoying a game, why would they drop another 25-50 bucks on it just on the hope that it gets more fun?

Every expansion the issue seems to get worse because of job redesigns. Even getting synced to level 50 is now extremely painful because you're losing up to half your job's kit, and there's lots of roulettes with level 50 content in them. Monk at 50 for example only has 8 total rotational actions that they'll use on a single-target boss fight, barely more than half of what Monk had at level 50 in ARR 2.0.

This isn't just a minor annoyance for veteran players, this literally affects Square Enix's bottom line because new players actually quit over the boring early combat.

I really think the devs should strongly consider a reshuffling of abilities so that much more of every job's toolkit is unlocked at earlier levels. I'm not suggesting that a whole job should be unlocked at level 10 or anything, but any amount of increase to the rate of skill unlocks would only help at this point.

I understand the need to have new abilities in an expansion while also keeping the number of buttons about the same to constrain complexity, but I don't think it's necessary for every single expansion to have 3-5 new skill/trait unlocks exclusively for the new level cap. Players don't need a big stack of new skills to be motivated to level up, they're going to do that anyway just to do the MSQ and get to endgame content. While it makes sense to have a "capstone" ability at the max level or something, simply filling up all the high levels with new skills is only serving to make the low level experience worse and worse.

Rather than increasing the pace of new skills as you increase in level, I think you should get most of them in the low levels and the pace should slow down as you approach the level cap. The excitement of getting a new skill for the first time wears off quickly, but the boredom of being synced to low level content is something players have to deal with every day. I think more people would appreciate having their regular day-to-day play be more enjoyable at the cost of getting lots and lots of new skills while progressing through the high levels, and it would make the game more palatable for new players too.

[MOZZYSTAR]

Yes, yes it does take forever to get fun. orz And even now, I'm finding that cap level content isn't even fun. There's not a whole lot of various skills to use and weave, like there was in SB. I'm not sure about learning most skills in lower levels, though, because DNC learnt most of his routine in low levels and it makes level 70-80 feel kind of lacking/empty.


I definitely do think there should be more skills to use at low levels (and high levels). Even if there are more skills than we can use/put on our hotbars, we can at least choose which ones we use for our own unique styles of battling - kind of like pokemon, where your pokemon can learn 100 spells or so over the course of its life, but you can only have so many at any given time. Not sure if that's the best way to go... but... Maybe then it wouldn't feel so lacking? Not sure.


I do like what they've done with some skills automatically upgrading or downgrading to any level. like Malefic I, II, and III. So, maybe some more skills can be like that where they're accessible but lower versions of themselves in lower dungeons... but also while adding more/other skills that can offer variety.

[Hazmick]

I'll have to disagree with you there. Back when I first started playing the game, I found it fun after approximately 14 seconds into the game - and still do.

Low level stuff could always use tweaking though, and I actually would like SE to go back to ARR (base game) systems as a whole (including character creation) and polish things up a bit - ShB is absolutely stunning in every regard and bringing previous parts of the game closer to that standard could only ever be a good thing.

[Nariel]

I'll have to disagree with you there. Back when I first started playing the game, I found it fun after approximately 14 seconds into the game - and still do.

Low level stuff could always use tweaking though, and I actually would like SE to go back to ARR (base game) systems as a whole (including character creation) and polish things up a bit - ShB is absolutely stunning in every regard and bringing previous parts of the game closer to that standard could only ever be a good thing.

Same here, had a blast when I first start this game and would love to restart everything all over again with fresh memory. The only drawback is not being able to do bahamut coil as easely I would be able to do Alexander or even omega.

I'll grant 2.1 to 2.5 have quite a lot of filler quest that bring nothing interesting and could be cut from the game without losing anything.

The fact we gain skill over time is to add to the progression feeling, as you gain in level so you gain in mastering your job, it make sense to be a begginer early on.

[OhnoozeMyToes]

I'm a fairly new player and I have to say you are 100% correct. The slow gameplay at lower lvls is so boring and you really have to force yourself to push through it. It gets better but it takes a while.

[SturmChurro]

They would have to do an entire overhaul on more than just the combat; gameplay. The story itself would have to be pruned. Just as many new players leave due to story fatigue.

[Halivel]

To be rather honest, low level dungeons (up to 50) feels for me better now than in was after 3.0 and 4.0 redesign. Maybe it's just me, but I think they did work better this time. And I'm glad there is no 60 button overblow which would not feel any fun, it would be annoying as hell.


As for MSQ.... I'm tired to see how new players come and cry "I want my shinies right now, why I have to work for them!?" Just... duh???? But I will not argue about this, because this will be meaningless hassle part 900000.

[Rubiss]

Perhaps they should do what they did with the healers and give you most of your rotation before level 10. They can trickle in buffs and skills you hardly use until 60+.

[MistakeNot]

The story/MSQ is just fine the way it is. No need to change that.

I do agree however that it is a problem that so many classes and jobs do not get even their base rotation until quite late. They need to get the base rotation skills as well as some of the more iconic other skills earlier. Waiting until near level cap for the good skills is not a good idea if the level cap ever increases - as it does in FFXIV.

The only problem then becomes what to give people at later levels so those levels do not feel empty. Some skills can of course be saved until late levels, and apart from that one can increase the use of improved skills that we already see some of. ("Stone" becomes "Stone II" and then "Stone III", etc.)

[kidalutz]

New game +

aside from that EVERY MMO has the same low level experience