"In from the Cold" Scenario, any way to skip it?

[LisSquid]

There would have been a lot to better design this duty:

More intuitive mob AI: I have been dodging around mobs since Eureka, so that wasn't hard. It does suffer the same flaw where mobs don't have a set path (like the Thancred mission) or suffer from odd density. Stealth play is hard in a game that isn't designed for it, and not a lot was done in this case to make it feel more than "it's just hard". Didn't feel rewarded for ducking and weaving around spazzing ghouls.

The only other part of that sequence that broke it for me was the canister. It's on a magitek. That's great, but there are quite a few of those and the one you need is back down the path you came. You.. should probably already have the idea to pick up the fuel because of what we saw earlier in the MSQ. You should be able to pick it up because it would be useful, just like how you can freely pick up the med kits. Everything else felt fine, imho.

[Deusteele]

It's rather telling that the only people who have brought up the challenge of the quest are those that are defending it. The detractors are focused upon the storytelling and plot-contrivance of the quest.

My personal issues with the gameplay of this quest come in two-fold. First is the stated quest objective is misleading when compared to the quest requirements. I am told that I should rush back to Camp to save my friends from Zenos, the requirements are that I repair a Magitek Armor. Because of the this difference, the quest designer should have made the Magitek significantly more prominent after the short tutorial fight. It should have been plainly visible upon beginning the quest and the number of irrelevant armors kept to a minimum. The second issue is the false player agency created by the instance zone, the misleading objective coupled with the large zone implies that I should stealth my way out of the city and make a dash for the camp.

My issue with the plot of the quest is that it's permanently cheapened all following actions. From now on everything the WoL accomplishes is removed since they only exist due to Fancy Dan and Zenos not wanting to kill the WoL at that time, the writers tried to coverup this with the whole monologue about the importance of the hunt but it felt cheap and empty. Now that we know that the villians could at will Bodyjack the WoL. While this won't happen due to narrative necessity it has, at least for the moment, turned FFXIV from an interesting story that I was participating in, to just a game.

Personal Aside; WoW didn't die one day, it was a series of decisions by the development team to cater to a group of players that encourage gate-keeping and bad narrative structure that helped it along the way.

[Deceptus]

It's rather telling that the only people who have brought up the challenge of the quest are those that are defending it. The detractors are focused upon the storytelling and plot-contrivance of the quest.

My personal issues with the gameplay of this quest come in two-fold. First is the stated quest objective is misleading when compared to the quest requirements. I am told that I should rush back to Camp to save my friends from Zenos, the requirements are that I repair a Magitek Armor. Because of the this difference, the quest designer should have made the Magitek significantly more prominent after the short tutorial fight. It should have been plainly visible upon beginning the quest and the number of irrelevant armors kept to a minimum. The second issue is the false player agency created by the instance zone, the misleading objective coupled with the large zone implies that I should stealth my way out of the city and make a dash for the camp.

My issue with the plot of the quest is that it's permanently cheapened all following actions. From now on everything the WoL accomplishes is removed since they only exist due to Fancy Dan and Zenos not wanting to kill the WoL at that time, the writers tried to coverup this with the whole monologue about the importance of the hunt but it felt cheap and empty. Now that we know that the villians could at will Bodyjack the WoL. While this won't happen due to narrative necessity it has, at least for the moment, turned FFXIV from an interesting story that I was participating in, to just a game.

Personal Aside; WoW didn't die one day, it was a series of decisions by the development team to cater to a group of players that encourage gate-keeping and bad narrative structure that helped it along the way.

Another issue is the terrible boundaries definition. Opening your map and you have the same map as you would outside the duty. You have zero idea of where the boundaries are.

Should have had a small red square around where you can go.

[Abelisk]

I was fine with the concept, I just thought it was too copy-pastey

[Catwho]

Got through it after the second try. Didn't see an echo or anything, but it felt a lot easier, so it might have automatically bumped it down from normal to easy because I failed the first go round.

I'm just glad I was able to get through it....

[PredatoryCatgirl]

I get a feeling of accomplishment when I beat a difficult boss or master a rotation. This I just felt relieved it was over. This wasn't a challenge, it was dropping you into an entirely different game and making you adapt to it. The worst part was the removal of regeneration, which is something that is, as far as I know, unprecedented in MSQ.

[Ryaz]

This. Garlemald arc felt like an actual mature game for once.

I really enjoyed the Garlemald arc and zone. The character work was on point.

[DontReadThis]

It wasn't that bad. I enjoyed the stealth gameplay.
However, I do have 1 criticism: The scenario should have barred off all the paths to the northern area until interacting with the magitek armor in need of refueling.

I spent my time exploring the entire area before interacting with the magitek, and despite my experience from other quests and typical game design convention hinting that the fuel canister would be important, I was unable to transport it until actually interacting with the magitek to update the quest objectives. This meant I had to backtrack all the way to the fuel which I already knew was important, and then go all the way back to the magitek.

Aside from that, it was a fun mission. I would highly suggest people interact with all the things to get all the medkits, and also look for the interactable thing which gives a 4 min HP regen buff.

[PharisHanasaki]

Oh, weird, I was expecting the opposite of this thread. I really enjoyed this trial. I finished it on my first go, with 10 mins still on the clock.

There are things that could've been improved, I agree. It took me a bit of exploring to understand what I had to do, because the instruction was misleading. Also, there was no indication that you've cleared out the enemies with the broken magitek, so I was still mounted for a min before realizing I was done.

[Riastrad]

Ok. So here is what you do to make this a bit more relaxing. Just before this cutscene into duty, dress up in the most terrible glam you can imagine and have Zenos attempt to be edgy and cool in your skin suit.

Sit back and enjoy!