Quote Originally Posted by viion View Post
I have to agree that this welcome back was a complete and utter sham, I invited 3 friends back, and all of them have the same opinion "Yep that confirms it, XIV is still as shit as it was when I last played".

Lets go through the struggles

Servers being Locked
Great, so they cant move to my server. They didnt have pre-50s, only 1 did, but he was merged to the Auto Server which I wasnt on, and he couldnt reroll on my server because its locked. So we was all forced to reroll as level 1 on another server.

Crappy low level content
There is just absolute nothing to do, they left doing leves, they come back "What can we do", "We can do leves!" /logout, but it is the only real way to level outside being PL'd, and because we rerolled on a new server, know no one, we cant be PL'd, so back to the old fashion crappy ways. We only have 10 days and we have to churn out this rubbish.

Yoshi relies on us (because he has mentioned it about 3 times) to tell our friends to come back, but when we do all we get is some dried up bread rather than a gorgeous cake, I know personally the game isnt where it is supposed to be, but I would have at least thought there might be something during the Umbral that ANYONE at ANY LEVEL could experience, but I was wrong. I also think these 10 days would have severed better later on, like during the 2.0 beta or something.
Hi All,

Seeing the positive and negative stories about people coming back during this "Welcome Back!" Campaign, I think that we can see that there *are* things for some players who left during the early Tanaka era (Month 1 - 3 (or even later)) to appreciate.

Certainly the Final Fantasy Job System; Class Revisions (dramatically changed); Self Combos for Combat; Better UI; Better Crafting System; More Side Quests, etc.

But viion, Reinheart and a few others do bring up some good points:

  • Server Lockout: It would've been nice to relax the restrictions on Server Lockout *for Returning Players Only* (those turning on their inactive accounts, etc.) to join their Friends to experience the current FF XIV together. The fact that they come back (usually, at the behest of their friends who *are* playing the game), and they find themselves on separate Servers isn't really conducive to making them feel "Welcomed Back" during this time.
  • Creating some Low-Level / Mid-Level 7th Umbral Era Content: While Yoshi P never promised anything "brand-new," I think there's something to be said about taking the time to create some Live Events (that are constantly running), or even Instanced, that Low-Level / Mid-Level Returning Players can experience for the limited 10 Day Free Period that this campaign is running under.

    I know the Dev Team is slammed as is with 2.0 (most important) and the PS3 Launch; and they're still making stuff for us (the dedicated) for current "End Game" Content (for 1.23, etc.). But I think if they took the time to create some small "Event" (like one of the Seasonal / Holiday Events even) that introduced returning Players to the dangers incoming to Eorzea that they could participate in, it'd go a long way to getting them excited about the game and wanting to see 2.0. Here are some ideas they could've tried:
  • Re-Activate the Early, Low Level Garlean Empire Invasion Event (@ Camp Horizon): For those that remembered, Yoshi P had a cool Garlean Empire Invasion for *Low Level Parties* that happened at the Rank 20 Camps (like Horizon). The Garlean Soldiers that flooded the Western Thanalan Desert were ~Rank 25 or so IIRC, and it was an OPEN WORLD, "Live Event" (that anyone could participate in). I remember having a blast with it (and I was already Rank 50 at the time).

    That work already *exists*. They could've turned it on and had it running Multiple Times Per Day during this 10 Day Welcome Back Campaign, and it would at least provide something fun / different / interesting for Returning Players and inform them of the impending Garlean Empire dangers / situation surrounding Eorzea and 2.0.

    If you remember, they even had Legatus in his "Final Fantasy JUDGE Armor" Appear at the R20 Camps as well from time-to-time. A newbie player would've probably loved to have seen that!
  • Create a New Low Level / Mid Level Garlean Event (or Instance / Quest) *Re-using* Existing Assets: For those that have seen it, how cool would it be to see the Garlean Imperial Magitek Weapons (those Mechs) storming across La Noscea, Thanalan and The Black Shroud? And Low-Level / Mid-Level Parties could participate in trying to beat one back?

    Maybe even mixing in some Garlean Empire Squadrons in the encounters (already existing assets).
  • And while all this is going on, have Alfgar (or some other NPC) shouting in all Towns, letting returning players know that *something* bad is going on, would also be nice.
  • New Low-Level / Mid-Level Side Quests to Beastmen Encampments: While I think having some way to encourage Returning Players to see Zaharak, Natalan, etc. (the Beastmen Fortresses) would be really cool, I understand that it might be too messy (since they're all populated for Level 50 encounters), but perhaps they could make an "Instanced" version of these Beastmen Fortresses where Low-Level / Mid-Level could visit as part of a Side Quest (or for Repeated Encounters) during this Welcome Back Campaign.

    Or at the very least, have Side Quests sending Low-Level / Mid-Level to the Beastmen Camps (smaller ones) around Eorzea.
Ultimately, I think there are many wonderful things that Yoshida-san and the current Team have done to change XIV for the better (from the early days) (like the Battle System, Class Revisions, Job System, etc.) and while Cutter's Cry / Aurum Vale and Garuda are fun fights (the Drop Rates are terrible though ), I can see the issues that viion and others are bringing up: Those fights are for Level 50 only, so those returning players that aren't 50 can't appreciate that stuff.

It *would've* been nice if the Dev Team did something like the above Events, just to show the Returning Players some of the "impending doom" of Eorzea and what's leading up to 2.0.

Ultimately, I hope those that did return do find some things that have improved, and I hope they stay for 2.0, but I think Yoshi P and Team could've done a few more things to really make the 10-day Campaign feel more "lively" outside of the normal things going on day-to-day currently.

Thanks~