Confirmed: ARR campaign will be pruned

[TheMightyMollusk]

I did the 100 quest ARR thread.

It is too long.

Simply put.

Was it too long for the original players? No. It came out in bite sized chunks.

Is it too long now? Yes.

The rewards are negligible and it is an unnecessary hurdle that stops players from reaching the first expansion.

The only sections needed are:
1. Establishing a connection to Isshgard.
2. The near-assassination of Nanamo.
3. The rescue of Rauban.
4. The awakening of Nanamo.
5. The hard mode fates.

Playing tag with kids? Totally unneeded.

3 and 4 happen during Heavensward.

[Bonbori]

Honestly, the length of AAR could probably be halved if every time Minfilia calls you on the linkpearl to pray return to the Waking Sands, only to then tell you where to go next, she could just... send you there directly in the same linkpearl conversation. Literally no relevant story or character development would be skipped and players would have less of a reason to despise poor Minfilia so much.

There is zero reason to be summoned halfway across a continent to a 2-minute face-to-face conversation in a world where phones exist. Ubiquitously. MINFILIA.

[Barraind]

Gee, I wonder how they tolerated such awfulness) or spending resources on "pointless fetch quests" (which are prevalent on every MMO) instead of new content?

Mashing escape and praying it would be over soon.

Or doing it in small chunks 4 years ago.


"Fetch me this random useless thing for no reason and then teleport all over the place because why use linkpearls" wasnt exactly gripping content back in the day either. Now its mostly unnecessary bloat that turns people off.

[JohnSpawnVFX]

Mashing escape and praying it would be over soon.

Or doing it in small chunks 4 years ago.


"Fetch me this random useless thing for no reason and then teleport all over the place because why use linkpearls" wasnt exactly gripping content back in the day either. Now its mostly unnecessary bloat that turns people off.

The only people who got it in small chunks were people playing since ARR launch. I started when HW was out, did the "bloat" in one chunk . People starting in SB did the same "bloat". People who started now in ShB have to do the same "bloat".

It hasn't changed, it hasn't worsened and it's not a big deal. Game isn't bleeding subs because of it.

If you want to skip story, that's on you. But don't blame the game for it. Ultimately it's your choice to mash Escape.

[Hasrat]

Honestly, the length of AAR could probably be halved if every time Minfilia calls you on the linkpearl to pray return to the Waking Sands, only to then tell you where to go next, she could just... send you there directly in the same linkpearl conversation.

I've seen this complaint a lot, and honestly, I don't get it. That feels like what 90% of all the quests are. "We're done talking at this location, meet me at the next location so we can continue talking." Because, obviously we can't all just travel to the next location together, discussing the topic along the way or something.

Complain all you want about Minfilia, but, the truth is, the entire game would be massively sped up if the player were instantly transported along with the NPC to the next quest objective location, assuming your next objective is to talk to the same NPC you've just talked to, or if they are present. But, it would also probably start feeling less like a game and more like just watching a series of videos at that point.

[MsQi]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post5126663

snip

There is a difference between Pruning and Compacting.

I disagree with all the stuff you list. Many of those are about establishing characters and locations.

There are ways to streamline without losing content.

[Komarimono]

The only people who got it in small chunks were people playing since ARR launch. I started when HW was out, did the "bloat" in one chunk . People starting in SB did the same "bloat". People who started now in ShB have to do the same "bloat".

It hasn't changed, it hasn't worsened and it's not a big deal. Game isn't bleeding subs because of it.

If you want to skip story, that's on you. But don't blame the game for it. Ultimately it's your choice to mash Escape.

You do realize that the bloat, which had little to do with the story, very little... Was nearly as long as the entire HW expansion MSQ? It wasn't even interesting story, it was fetch this, then ok, a problem has arrived, now go fetch this. Oh no, something else, go do this real quick... a big big massive loop around and around... to finally do the one thing to go forward.

That is what needs pruned. It is not fun, even people just coming to the game found it tedious and boring, since the story was not there. I only made it through it since friends kept saying only so many quests to go until HW. The constant traveling all around to do something so trivial, to just go back again, and then do something trivial again, made the game feel like a fetch game in the App Store for a phone.

To put it in perspective, I was 63 when I got into Heavensward, from all the tiny XP quests plus the road to 70 buff. That's a lot of quests...

[HWalsh]

I'm lvl 73 and still in Heavensward.

[Avidria]

You do realize that the bloat, which had little to do with the story, very little... Was nearly as long as the entire HW expansion MSQ? It wasn't even interesting story, it was fetch this, then ok, a problem has arrived, now go fetch this. Oh no, something else, go do this real quick... a big big massive loop around and around... to finally do the one thing to go forward.

That is what needs pruned. It is not fun, even people just coming to the game found it tedious and boring, since the story was not there. I only made it through it since friends kept saying only so many quests to go until HW. The constant traveling all around to do something so trivial, to just go back again, and then do something trivial again, made the game feel like a fetch game in the App Store for a phone.

To put it in perspective, I was 63 when I got into Heavensward, from all the tiny XP quests plus the road to 70 buff. That's a lot of quests...

Yeah, so according to what I see on the wiki, there are

185 level 1-50 MSQ quests
100 level 50 MSQ quests (Seventh astral era quests)
94 HW MSQ
44 quests at level 60 (Dragonsong war quests)
122 StB MSQ
40 quests at level 70 (Legend returns quests)
106 ShB MSQ
For a total of 691 main scenario quests (give or take a few if I miscounted a couple)

So basically, there are more quests at level 50 than there are leading to 60, and almost as many as the entirety of every other expansion pre-patch MSQ. AND more than twice as many as there are at 60 and 70. A few more than both combined, in fact.

The only people who got it in small chunks were people playing since ARR launch. I started when HW was out, did the "bloat" in one chunk . People starting in SB did the same "bloat". People who started now in ShB have to do the same "bloat".

It hasn't changed, it hasn't worsened and it's not a big deal. Game isn't bleeding subs because of it.

If you want to skip story, that's on you. But don't blame the game for it. Ultimately it's your choice to mash Escape.

That's the thing - and I'm gonna go to the side a bit, broaden the argument a little here, but it has worsened.

That wall at level 50 is not a small chunk of quests, and it sits right smack between new players and the first expansion of the game. It's got, imo, a fair chunk of filler, and room to be compacted - which is what SE is apparently in the process of doing. Nobody's asking them to chuck the story out the window, just to make it a bit shorter.

As for how it's worsened? Those quests don't exist in a vacuum. They're a huge chunk of the beginning of the game, yeah, but the game as a whole has gotten bigger. You don't just have 100 MSQ to get to the next expansion. You have 100 MSQ, and then close to 300 more to get to endgame now. Now being the key. Because SE has already stated that they're already working on expansion #4.

Point being, that the MSQ is gonna keep getting bigger and bigger, and a huge chunk of content (not just the rest of the MSQ, mind you) is gated behind it. Some people are always gonna be turned off by that, and if they're just not into the story and it turns them off the game then yeah, hey, maybe it just wasn't for them. But there is still a lot to get through, even for someone who does enjoy the story. Enough that I myself paid for a story skip on my alt, so I didn't have to do those 100 post-50 quests a second time. And I actually sat through them the first time! Didn't skip a thing!

So yeah. At the end of the day, I'm glad they're making the ARR story more "compact." Whatever that means, I seriously hope it'll help ease new players into the game - help make the story a bit less daunting for those who find it to be. I stand by this being a good thing for the game.

[Iscah]

Yeah, so according to what I see on the wiki, there are

185 level 1-50 MSQ quests
100 level 50 MSQ quests (Seventh astral era quests)
94 HW MSQ
44 quests at level 60 (Dragonsong war quests)
[...]

So basically, there are more quests at level 50 than there are leading to 60, and almost as many as the entirety of every other expansion pre-patch MSQ. AND more than twice as many as there are at 60 and 70. A few more than both combined, in fact.

Quest length is important to account for, too. From memory there were a lot of "quests" in there that were simply "go talk to A, who will explain the next step of the plan". Victory fanfare, yay you completed a quest.

I think they thought 100 quests would sound impressive, not off-putting.

In any case, while they could definitely do with some compacting, they set up a lot of important and ongoing plot points during those quests.