Doubling down on "Playing solo" is a stupid direction

[UkcsAlias]

I think it would be too easy to exploit, people would just find a particular portion of the MSQ that gives a fat chunk of EXP for watching a few cutscenes, skip all the cutscenes, and do it over again and again.

First of all, i would reduce the XP for any quest anyway. Idealy in such state its going to behave similar as any of the quests between the main expansion quests (which are only like 10% in value). And i would make those quests not grant xp when you are too high in level (in order to prevent repeatedly doing those quests). Over time the XP will add up as they are generaly still better than the random quests. But most important: it gives decent xp while waiting for the matchmaker to put you into a dungeon. Which especialy as a DPS can take a long time.

If you want to go even more extreme, you could balance the xp values per portion of NG+, and store which portions the player already did recently (to avoid repeating), which makes it harder to abuse.

And if going excessive, you could only grant the XP when they start NG+ from the start (which if you want to boost a lvl 40 char is obviously not going to work well). Which if you have a lvl 1 char is actualy going to work very quickly. Sure, it might be tedious if you want to level several characters, but you should not see this as main xp anyway, its more like a boost.

[Katori96]

I guess good for you, but that is certainly not what the devs have intended for it. Sounds like an awful time to me.

Fair enough, ill admit it's not for everyone but with the tools available in bozja and the fact they have taken the new player friendly approach im not to surprised.

[Katori96]

First of all, i would reduce the XP for any quest anyway. Idealy in such state its going to behave similar as any of the quests between the main expansion quests (which are only like 10% in value). And i would make those quests not grant xp when you are too high in level (in order to prevent repeatedly doing those quests). Over time the XP will add up as they are generaly still better than the random quests. But most important: it gives decent xp while waiting for the matchmaker to put you into a dungeon. Which especialy as a DPS can take a long time.

If you want to go even more extreme, you could balance the xp values per portion of NG+, and store which portions the player already did recently (to avoid repeating), which makes it harder to abuse.

And if going excessive, you could only grant the XP when they start NG+ from the start (which if you want to boost a lvl 40 char is obviously not going to work well). Which if you have a lvl 1 char is actualy going to work very quickly. Sure, it might be tedious if you want to level several characters, but you should not see this as main xp anyway, its more like a boost.

I like this idea tbh, sounds like the way dungeon XP works now compared to the start of SHB

[Darthgummibear]

it's not really a way to push people to buy skips there is multiple ways to level easily without msq or need of skip

releveling with NG+ would just be speed run of msq
mashing through text and skipping cutscenes i wouldn't really call that fun

This might come as a shock to you, but a lot of people actually enjoy the MSQ.

[Listrella]

Don't get me wrong. Trust system for low level dungeon is great.

However, the general idea/direction behind it is just misguided. Am I the only one who's annoyed that me and a few other friends who decided to play FFXIV essentially have to play solo 80% of the time through MSQ? And we eventually just decide to not bother and play something like Civ6 for our game nights.

Have better support for multiplayer through MSQ. Like letting 2 or 3 people party for dungeon and fill the last spot with trust. Let us choose to start from the same starting point etc. New Game+ doesn't even give exp so I can't play an alt job with another friend on a new play through.

FFXIV is bad for multiplayer through MSQ, and the way to fix it is not "to make solo experience better". Please make MSQ more multiplayer friendly.

You do not have to play solo, it is an OPTION, you are well within your rights to play with a party if you want to. there is nothing that forces you to play through any of the dungeons with trusts. it is merely an option that is there to do if you want to.

[Dzian]

You do not have to play solo, it is an OPTION, you are well within your rights to play with a party if you want to. there is nothing that forces you to play through any of the dungeons with trusts. it is merely an option that is there to do if you want to.

Yes you do.

Because the game will FREQUENTLY tell you. You cannot proceed while you are in a party



Thus you DO have to play SOLO even when your friends are on the exact same quest..

[WindyGamer]

Have better support for multiplayer through MSQ. Like letting 2 or 3 people party for dungeon and fill the last spot with trust. Let us choose to start from the same starting point etc. New Game+ doesn't even give exp so I can't play an alt job with another friend on a new play through.

Hurray. Yes I vote for this.

And also, SOLO DUTIES. Other games allow groups of players to participate in the "Story Quests". But in FFXIV every time it's a non-trivial quest, it's a SOLO DUTY. No sharing the content with others. Even if I've already done it, how about I can join others in their "Duties". If the mechanics are so strange that it does not make sense then maybe I can go in as an observer or have a heal buff only or something simple that does not completely redesign the experience.

All these walls preventing sharing the content are an issue that other games don't have.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Hurray. Yes I vote for this.

And also, SOLO DUTIES. Other games allow groups of players to participate in the "Story Quests". But in FFXIV every time it's a non-trivial quest, it's a SOLO DUTY. No sharing the content with others. Even if I've already done it, how about I can join others in their "Duties". If the mechanics are so strange that it does not make sense then maybe I can go in as an observer or have a heal buff only or something simple that does not completely redesign the experience.

All these walls preventing sharing the content are an issue that other games don't have.

I remember seeing footage of 1.0 where this was the case actually. Or at least with job quests where you can have multiple people do the instance fight at the same time. I really wish they would introduce this as a feature. They'd have to redesign solo fights to accommodate party play though.

[Cach]

However, the general idea/direction behind it is just misguided. Am I the only one who's annoyed that me and a few other friends who decided to play FFXIV essentially have to play solo 80% of the time through MSQ? And we eventually just decide to not bother and play something like Civ6 for our game nights.

This is the real problem IMHO, the game can be "multiplayer-unfriendly". A couple of friends quit due to arbitrary MSQ limits, making catching up to your friends kind of a chore.
In SWTOR you can pretty much tag along with your friend's story (excepting some specific personal quests) and even show up on their cutscenes, it would be neat for ff14 to have this, even if it's probably impossible with their current implementation.

I would have loved Trust at early levels when I was starting out. For practice purposes more than anything. If it was up to me, I would reduce the rewards of playing solo, tho.

[Warpstone]

I prefer to play solo or with my wife. I just wish we could fill the last 2 spots with npc. There is nothing wrong with giving multiple options. People can play both solo and multiplayer. Ask Blizzard, they made the solo experience a pita, and look where my sub money is going now.