Level 50 quests, solution "softener"

[Jojoya]

It’s come up before, but just to restate: a lot of the fluff can be cut from required MSQ and made into side quests. There is no need at this point in development to have a bloated “between expansion” quest chain for early expansions.

They've already cut most of the fluff from post-ARR MSQ. There are a couple of stray pieces that could probably go

(does the WoL really need to resort to bullying people for information about the refugee riot when that could have been done by a couple of Flames or Sultansworn?)

but there's really not that much that isn't needed. Just about everything left provides information related to something that happens later.

The last thing I want here is for it to end up like WoW where you don't know what the heck is going when a new expansion starts because the set up took place in a book or pre-patch event that was in the game only 2 weeks before being removed. Players shouldn't be forced into side content to understand what's happening in the main story. It's bad enough that Crystal Tower is now required.

[kaynide]

They've already cut most of the fluff from post-ARR MSQ. There are a couple of stray pieces that could probably go

(does the WoL really need to resort to bullying people for information about the refugee riot when that could have been done by a couple of Flames or Sultansworn?)

but there's really not that much that isn't needed. Just about everything left provides information related to something that happens later.

The last thing I want here is for it to end up like WoW where you don't know what the heck is going when a new expansion starts because the set up took place in a book or pre-patch event that was in the game only 2 weeks before being removed. Players shouldn't be forced into side content to understand what's happening in the main story. It's bad enough that Crystal Tower is now required.

The entire sequence leading up to Brayflox (essentially fetch quests to make a feast) could be neatly done in maybe 3 quests.. Maybe one with the imposter, 1 delivery and then the actual braflox dungeon.

Or in Coerthas, one place has us track down a mob, kill it, deliver it, then deliver 3 cooked steaks. This could just have been 1 quest with all of the same information storywise contained. We need not actually deliver steaks to people in the same room we got the quest.

..and that’s the general problem with a lot of the quest chains. You could get the gist of it and keep the actual story beats in maybe 1/3 of the quests. When the game is new it makes sense to pad it out to retain players, but we are at a point it should get another cull maybe by end of 6.x.

[Izar_Chillen]

ARR , get rid of /dance , /psych , /soothe nonsense and just click the npc and it reacts . Remove the god awful default mount speed (which is roughly the same as the sprint ability) and make the default speed the one you get once you reach a certain point in the msq. With flying in ARR the extra speed maps you used to buy via daily/weekly hunt tokens is now redundant due to post Prae flying , so make those map speeds the new speed once you complete the msq for that zone making regular ground mounts traverse all these back and forth quests much less depressing.

ARR is still bit of a drag because , your slow , you have limited FT points as a new player , and you have an utterly dull skill set for many tens of hours. If you're a DPS your stuck waiting for longer dungeon queues to proceed your MSQ . All these factors build up the frustration and boredom. Post prae now is much less aggravating due to be able to fly about the map with the various back and forths we still have to do.


Also add more abilities to the lower tiers of leveling for goodness sake . A rogue for example only has a 2 button combo to press for the first 25 levels , thats utterly appalling for a melle class. In all my years playing various MMO's, FF14 is the one that utterly baffles me with their choices for new players to experience the game and to try be thrilled to play for hours on end. In SWTOR all classes by the 50s have all of their core abilities and by then your familiar very with its playstyle . After that its passive talents and come 60-75 the end game stuff trickles in .

Its so strange why its been made to be slow when you would think that during the revamp designs talks they would have done more to enamor new players especially as they had the intent to offer the very generous lvl 60 endless trial.

[Missbone]

Honestly, the best think you can do is just buy a story skip for lvl 50 so you can start at HW directly. You get a fresh char to lvl 50 pretty fast doing just msq, your jobquest and a bit lvling roulette. Most of the time you dont even finish the first main campaign before hitting 50. If you just lvl an alt go an buy the story skip for your char, it will save you a lot of time and your sanity. The end lvl msq quest of each expansion that you need to finish before you can unlock the next zones are nothing more than a stupid time sink and there should be another faster solution to unlock the next expansion zones.

For example after finishing the 3.0 HW main story from 50 - 60 there should be an option that ask you if you want to skip the other lvl 60 msq and directly jump to the start of 4.0 Stormblood if you allready finished all the quest once on your account or server.

[Swimcito]

Why does every individual quest need to be "worth it"? You're just playing through the game story.

Maybe because the content is also just speak with A, then Speak with B, then Speak with C... repeat, then go to certain marked zone where you inspect the terrain, there are forces you kill em, and thats it...

Ive come to the point i just skip the filler quests. I know when something important is comming up.

[Pirana1]

Maybe because the content is also just speak with A, then Speak with B, then Speak with C... repeat, then go to certain marked zone where you inspect the terrain, there are forces you kill em, and thats it...

Ive come to the point i just skip the filler quests. I know when something important is comming up.

Right there with you. I skip all filler quests, notably all the post ARR quests prior to HW. People can always catch up on the story through the Inn or someone usually has the quest chain posted on Youtube.

This mmo isn't much different than most. The world is in peril and you have to save it. Only real difference is there's much more story to it. When I first ran through the post ARR stuff, after about five quests, I started skipping every cut scene, wasn't worth my time. I play games for combat, and maybe some story mixed in, but to run through all that stuff again, people may have to question their sanity. As mentioned in post #14, purchase the story skip if you intend level alts. Not everyone likes to focus on one alt and the purchase, last I checked was only $11.00, time v money. Your choice.

[DPZ2]

The entire sequence leading up to Brayflox (essentially fetch quests to make a feast) could be neatly done in maybe 3 quests.. Maybe one with the imposter, 1 delivery and then the actual braflox dungeon.

The entire quest sequence leading up to Titan was greatly reduced during the Great Quest Purge. You may consider these as mere 'fetch quests'.

They are actually there to get you to places you need to go to anyway for the rest of ARR.

You go to the South Shroud (and get the Aetheryte) around the same time you have to go there anyway in order to get your Chocobo Companion started. You go to the Sagoli Desert (and get the Aetheryte) around the same time you have to go there anyway to for your Grand Company hunt log.

[kaynide]

The entire quest sequence leading up to Titan was greatly reduced during the Great Quest Purge. You may consider these as mere 'fetch quests'.

They are actually there to get you to places you need to go to anyway for the rest of ARR.

You go to the South Shroud (and get the Aetheryte) around the same time you have to go there anyway in order to get your Chocobo Companion started. You go to the Sagoli Desert (and get the Aetheryte) around the same time you have to go there anyway to for your Grand Company hunt log.

Yes it ultimately leads to Titan, but post Brayflox it’s not that bad and mostly on point. I just ran through these last week to get to Titan and it is absolutely still a slog.

Having quests that take us to ARR areas just for the sake of going there is not useful or good storytelling. At this point with the massive xp gain, there is really no drive to work on Grand Company logs until you’re already 50 and want to buy property. And the chocobo thing could just as easily be in the stables where most other chocobo quests are done. It’s just done the way it is to pad things out.

We just really don’t even need to go to several of these zones until later plotwise. They existed in 2.0 and sure might as well use them to pad content in 2.0’s game world. In the current state though, there are other story beats that utilize some of those zones in a much more useful way (like Little Ala Mhigo relating to stormblood), or alternatively job,quests like Whm take us through these zones which is a perfectly valid use.

[Iscah]

Maybe because the content is also just speak with A, then Speak with B, then Speak with C... repeat, then go to certain marked zone where you inspect the terrain, there are forces you kill em, and thats it...

Ive come to the point i just skip the filler quests. I know when something important is comming up.

But that's my point. It's all story, presented the same way, except quests during the levelling phase level you up and quests during the non-levelling phase don't.

You go to the South Shroud (and get the Aetheryte) around the same time you have to go there anyway in order to get your Chocobo Companion started. You go to the Sagoli Desert (and get the Aetheryte) around the same time you have to go there anyway to for your Grand Company hunt log.

That's back-to-front reasoning though. The reason your hunting log has hunts in those places is because that's where the MSQ sends you at that point. Likewise why the quest to unlock your battle chocobo start with someone in the South Shroud (ie. positioned where you'll come across them while you're there for MSQ) whose only role is to direct you to Bentbranch where the bulk of the quest actually happens.