How to make the game better for new players?

[Recon1o6]

Honestly, what they need to do is make the game better for new players, without making it worse for older players than it already is.

First: an actual, mandatory tutorial that reflects reality on how to play the game. No more going into sastacha not knowing what tank stance is. msq/scenario skips disabled till after tutorial.

Second: return some bumped up job abilities down to the lower levels to make the game more engaging in line with class quests. Add the missing rewards back in (eg: I reached 30 marauder on an alt...what is this butcher's block, where is it? as a veteran i know its deleted but a sprout wouldn't)

Third: lower ilvl limits and capstone based potency boosts. Since every expansion potencies are increased, restoring the old potencies for what they were balanced at would go a long way.

Fourth: lower the exp rate early in the game but have it increased with an invite code item. That way new players on their own won't power level and players invited by friends can catch up

Fifth: make the tank and especially healers less homogenised and with more offensive buttons for healers. Currently you go into the first dungeon with LESS than you had in 2.0, healers especially from level 4 onwards do not get a change in their damage abilities for the whole of the msq- that's a turn off. Imagine if as a blm you onlly got thunder and blizzard for the 80 levels- thats what new players see opening up a healer.

[Dzian]

I think it shouldn't be skimmed or cut, but coming up with a crossroads in the story for people who want a summarized version that fast-tracks events may be something to consider if it's getting too long.

They could cut a lot from the msq and it wouldn't change the story in any real way.

However the cross roads idea could work and allow sections to be skipped. Like those annoying bits where you've just defeated a mighty primal and then Alphinaud says "Hey, want to come run some errands with me?"
Click no skip the next few filler quests and leave Alphinaud to go and pick some crops, deliver a letter, kill some bugs or other such filler that has no real impact on the actual plot..

Where as now Alphinaud asks you, you click NO and Alphinaud just says "Oh how you just" and you end up going any way.
And the point of the choice was???

[Seraphor]

They could cut a lot from the msq and it wouldn't change the story in any real way.

However the cross roads idea could work and allow sections to be skipped. Like those annoying bits where you've just defeated a mighty primal and then Alphinaud says "Hey, want to come run some errands with me?"
Click no skip the next few filler quests and leave Alphinaud to go and pick some crops, deliver a letter, kill some bugs or other such filler that has no real impact on the actual plot..

Where as now Alphinaud asks you, you click NO and Alphinaud just says "Oh how you just" and you end up going any way.
And the point of the choice was???

We already have that, it's called sidequests. You can choose to do them, not not.
This 'optional fetch quest' feature would simply relegate a portion of the MSQ to being sidequests, and in turn, they'd likely make the mandatory MSQ just as long to make up for it, and there would still be portions that people find boring.

[Dzian]

We already have that, it's called sidequests. You can choose to do them, not not.
This 'optional fetch quest' feature would simply relegate a portion of the MSQ to being sidequests, and in turn, they'd likely make the mandatory MSQ just as long to make up for it, and there would still be portions that people find boring.

Thats not really a problem. one of the biggest complaints about the MSQ is that much of it shouldnt be in the MSQ and should be side quests already. this has been true with every expansion and you can guarantee it'll be the same in 6.0 as well

You wouldnt have to make the MSQ longer becaue of it at all.. The only reason the msq is as big as it is in an expansion is because it aims to grant enough exp to get you to the level cap..

making sections of it optional. would allow players that want the EXP to go and do the optional parts.. but players who don't or have already levelled ahead of the story could just say No thanks Alphinaud catch ya later.. and cut the filler out. and resume the story where it goes back to the main plot..

[Seraphor]

Thats not really a problem. one of the biggest complaints about the MSQ is that much of it shouldnt be in the MSQ and should be side quests already. this has been true with every expansion and you can guarantee it'll be the same in 6.0 as well

You wouldnt have to make the MSQ longer becaue of it at all.. The only reason the msq is as big as it is in an expansion is because it aims to grant enough exp to get you to the level cap..

making sections of it optional. would allow players that want the EXP to go and do the optional parts.. but players who don't or have already levelled ahead of the story could just say No thanks Alphinaud catch ya later.. and cut the filler out. and resume the story where it goes back to the main plot..

Those quests are there for a reason. So that you don't complete the MSQ for an entire expansion in just a couple of hours.
They will add in enough fetch quests to pad out the MSQ to the length they want it to be, and to maintain pacing. They don't want you rushing through each new open world zone in 30 minutes, they want you to fight enough things in there, and talk to enough NPCs, to make it feel like you've used what they've given you.
Again any 'optional' questing in any capacity is literally just side quests.

[AnnRam]

We have a few points of view here.

1) Players who find old content extremely easy, to the point that some dungeons/raid like Crystal Tower bosses die before reaching phase 2 even with everyone synced.
2) Players who wants to experience old content like old days , were you actually need to think before pulling the entire dungeon and killing mobs with big AOE's (which you don't even need the highest item level)

But then when relics weapons appears we have to grind old content as fast we can because let's be honest here, nobody misses the old days in ARR when you had to farm fates for about 3 hours and don't get a single atma drop. Some players stuck in one phase for a month or straight wait a few patches for huge nerfs.

The process of doing MSQ its one in the entire life of your character, once you finish Stormblood for example you don't need to comeback anymore in terms of MSQ. SE gave new players the tools to catch up current content as soon they can.

[Recon1o6]

We have a few points of view here.

1) Players who find old content extremely easy, to the point that some dungeons/raid like Crystal Tower bosses die before reaching phase 2 even with everyone synced.
2) Players who wants to experience old content like old days , were you actually need to think before pulling the entire dungeon and killing mobs with big AOE's (which you don't even need the highest item level)

But then when relics weapons appears we have to grind old content as fast we can because let's be honest here, nobody misses the old days in ARR when you had to farm fates for about 3 hours and don't get a single atma drop. Some players stuck in one phase for a month or straight wait a few patches for huge nerfs.

The process of doing MSQ its one in the entire life of your character, once you finish Stormblood for example you don't need to comeback anymore in terms of MSQ. SE gave new players the tools to catch up current content as soon they can.

Guess what, we have a thing called "unsynced" for relic grinds

[Colt47]

We have a few points of view here.

1) Players who find old content extremely easy, to the point that some dungeons/raid like Crystal Tower bosses die before reaching phase 2 even with everyone synced.
2) Players who wants to experience old content like old days , were you actually need to think before pulling the entire dungeon and killing mobs with big AOE's (which you don't even need the highest item level)

But then when relics weapons appears we have to grind old content as fast we can because let's be honest here, nobody misses the old days in ARR when you had to farm fates for about 3 hours and don't get a single atma drop. Some players stuck in one phase for a month or straight wait a few patches for huge nerfs.

The process of doing MSQ its one in the entire life of your character, once you finish Stormblood for example you don't need to comeback anymore in terms of MSQ. SE gave new players the tools to catch up current content as soon they can.

The issue with every long running game is that eventually the established player base exceeds that of the new player base, and it causes a lot of issues in prioritization of features when building the game going into the future. I've seen the issues doing leveling roulette late in the expansion like now, where you have your job mastered and some new people are leveling up blm, not knowing how to properly do rotation. Literally they have no way to do it properly because the game doesn't present them with the tools: they have to go online to a third party site to learn the rotation, then practice on a target dummy for potentially 30+ minutes to get the initial hang of the job. The devs should know the optimal intended rotation of the job and provide tools to inform people how to perform that rotation.

[Limecat]

You've got to think outside the box. How about every time a new account pays the sub for the first time, the currently oldest account is wiped and forced to start over?

[Seraphor]

You've got to think outside the box. How about every time a new account pays the sub for the first time, the currently oldest account is wiped and forced to start over?

Calm down there satan.