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

[Mezzoforte]

I really liked this duty. Finished it on my first shot. It made sense. It had impact. I think it was overall really good. I dont know how anyone can fail it. Everything is bright and glowing telling you to click it...

[displayed]

I dont know how anyone can fail it. Everything is bright and glowing telling you to click it...

I had two main difficulties:

* After years being used to XIV's health regeneration being quick and automatic, I really wasn't expecting it to ever be turned off. I died twice before realizing that regen was turned off.

* The UI is deceptive. It greatly emphasizes the clock (which really isn't that important). There's a lot of bright and glowing things that don't do much, if anything.

Once I had multiple health packs, I thought I needed to prioritize speed by sneaking over "wasting time" on clickable objects. That strategy worked well...until I got too close to the end of the first area and a horde of bots stomped me flat.

After that death, I snuck over to the gate a second time, saw the robot, and clicked on The One True Glowing Object. After that, I sailed through the rest because the UI finally revealed what the actual goal of the scenario was.

[Packetdancer]

After years being used to XIV's health regeneration being quick and automatic, I really wasn't expecting it to ever be turned off. I died twice before realizing that regen was turned off.

Far too many hours logged in deep dungeons -- where there's a 'no health regen' debuff on some floors -- will drive into your head that health regen is not universal in this game. (I admit, though, despite faaaaar too much time in Palace of the Dead -- I will get my Necromancer title, dang it -- I didn't notice the regen wasn't kicking in until after I'd fought the one soldier you can't avoid fighting.)

Honestly, though, I can see why this would annoy players. I didn't mind it (though I didn't particularly find it super enjoyable), but if I'd failed it and had to do it again from the beginning -- much less if I'd had to do so more than once -- I can imagine it would have felt really annoying really fast.

Still, I'm happy when Square-Enix is willing to try new things. Not all of those things work the way they first try them -- or in some cases (hello, Praetorium cutscenes) at all -- but better to sometimes try new things and see what works than never try anything new at all.

(Admittedly, I sometimes wish they'd try them a little less enthusiastically; there were a lot of escort quests this expansion. The first time I saw one, it was like "oh, this is interesting", but by the 20th or so it was getting a little old. By the end, any time an NPC went "If you'd care to accompany me" when picking up a quest I screamed internally -- even when some of those proved to be the normal old 'NPC walks off and fades away, and then you go find them at the destination' type. I get that it's Endwalker, but still...)

I'm not sure I'd have put this particular one smack in the way of the MSQ, admittedly, given how obnoxious I expect it would be if you ended up doing it repeatedly.

[Arazehl]

I had two main difficulties:

* After years being used to XIV's health regeneration being quick and automatic, I really wasn't expecting it to ever be turned off. I died twice before realizing that regen was turned off.

* The UI is deceptive. It greatly emphasizes the clock (which really isn't that important). There's a lot of bright and glowing things that don't do much, if anything.

Once I had multiple health packs, I thought I needed to prioritize speed by sneaking over "wasting time" on clickable objects. That strategy worked well...until I got too close to the end of the first area and a horde of bots stomped me flat.

After that death, I snuck over to the gate a second time, saw the robot, and clicked on The One True Glowing Object. After that, I sailed through the rest because the UI finally revealed what the actual goal of the scenario was.

Yeah I didn't realize at first there was a health meter that rose each time you encounter an enemy and would fail you when it reach full. I then realized there was no regen what so ever. Your mission was to avoid encounters and sneak through. Picking up health kits so that if you did have an encounter you could heal somewhat. It was more an avoidance mission. The problem I found was the darkness of the place made me overlook some of the paths around the enemies.