About story skipping to 7.0 in Dawntrail

[Vandso]

Does this mean that we will be able to get all the content right away as a new player? That you can get mounts, fly in previous zones, do trials, raids and exploratory zones once you have level? If yes, this is a big W by square. It always bothered me how every single content of this game is locked by story. If no, that would be truly disappointing.

[Bun_Vivant]

That's how the existing story-skips work, so odds are the DT story skip will work that way too.
Between story-skips and Tales of Adventure, even a new player could start the DT content at "H-Hour on D-Day."
All it takes is $$$.

[Vandso]

Ye, but part of me is scared that they would make pre 7.0 and post 7.0 two different things, like you either have arr to ew content or you have dt content.

[Bun_Vivant]

Ye, but part of me is scared that they would make pre 7.0 and post 7.0 two different things, like you either have arr to ew content or you have dt content.

They've never done that before; I don't think any major MMORPG has, as it would inconvenience and alienate quite a bit of the player base.
It would also destroy Duty Roulette, since DT players wouldn't be able to help new players in the Leveling and MSG roulettes. And people wouldn't be happy to be cut-of from their and their FC's housing, or the hub cities like Limsa.

So why do you fear this? From my experience doing programming for over 40 years, it's not something they have to do because of the graphics update.

[Vandso]

They've never done that before; I don't think any major MMORPG has, as it would inconvenience and alienate quite a bit of the player base.
It would also destroy Duty Roulette, since DT players wouldn't be able to help new players in the Leveling and MSG roulettes. And people wouldn't be happy to be cut-of from their and their FC's housing, or the hub cities like Limsa.

So why do you fear this? From my experience doing programming for over 40 years, it's not something they have to do because of the graphics update.

Maybe cuz I'm not experienced, but you're probably right.

[Rongway]

Ye, but part of me is scared that they would make pre 7.0 and post 7.0 two different things, like you either have arr to ew content or you have dt content.

I have no idea what you mean, but here's how skips work:

You can buy a story skip that completes the MSQ up through a particular expansion. You must have that expansion registered to your account. Using the story skip completes the MSQ but does not affect any of your class or job levels.

You can buy a job boost that raises the level of one job to the current cap level minus 10. Using a job boost raises your job level but does not affect your MSQ progress.

If you buy a Tales of Adventure: EXPANSIONNAME (story skip) it will complete all MSQ from 2.0 to X.58, leaving you ready to start the (X+1).0 story. This comes with two major caveats.

1. Your MSQ progress will be updated, but your job levels won't. If you don't have any jobs at that expansion's cap level, you will need to level a job without the benefit of MSQ xp. This will mean grinding dungeons, FATEs, or exploratory zones until you catch up, which after Lv50 will take at least a week per 10 levels unless you devote all your free time to it.
   
2. Besides that you won't know what's going on in the grand arc, which you may or may not be totally fine with, you won't know what's going on in the immediate arc because the way the MSQ works is an expansion story usually starts in the .4 or .5 story patches of the previous expansion. For example, even though Shadowbringers is the 5.X series, its story begins in 4.4 when some strange things begin happening to you and your friends. Since Tales of Adventure: Stormblood leaves you at the start of Shadowbringers with all of Stormblood patch quests complete, you wouldn't know why you're doing what you're doing at the start of Shadowbringers. If you don't care about the grand story line up to that point but you do want to know the immediate context, you'll have to review the story through /newgame+ or watch someone else's videos.

In order to play Dawntrail's MSQ, you will need to complete the Endwalker MSQ through patch 6.58 and also have a job at Lv90. If you're behind and you want to play DT on day 1 you will need both a story skip and a job boost.

[LittleSpriggan]

Good Luck buying the DT Story Boost und Character Boost on Day 1, the Login Que will be multiple hours again. And to use the Books you need to be logged in and relog.

[Communion]

If I don't have access to a story skip to 7.0, then I will never play Dawntrail. Why? Because I DESPISE Endwalker. So, if I never finish Endwalker, I'll never be able to move onto Dawntrail. Simple as that. Is that how YoshiP wants it? If so, then FFXIV has effectively become dead to me.

[Gokki]

If I don't have access to a story skip to 7.0, then I will never play Dawntrail. Why? Because I DESPISE Endwalker. So, if I never finish Endwalker, I'll never be able to move onto Dawntrail. Simple as that. Is that how YoshiP wants it? If so, then FFXIV has effectively become dead to me.

If you hate the story that much why not spend a couple hours running around and skip all the cutscenes, turn off music and voice and just go through the motions? You could enjoy the game after the final Trial and be done with it.

Does this mean that we will be able to get all the content right away as a new player? That you can get mounts, fly in previous zones, do trials, raids and exploratory zones once you have level? If yes, this is a big W by square. It always bothered me how every single content of this game is locked by story. If no, that would be truly disappointing.

I must disagree though, going through the story is a major part of the experience, it's a big story told over many characters and places. You would appreciate the game a lot more of you knew who Chora-Zoi is and her journey alongside yours (random example).
Every single time someone doesn't go through the MSQ and does it later regrets not doing it in the first place.

[Jojoya]

If I don't have access to a story skip to 7.0, then I will never play Dawntrail. Why? Because I DESPISE Endwalker. So, if I never finish Endwalker, I'll never be able to move onto Dawntrail. Simple as that. Is that how YoshiP wants it? If so, then FFXIV has effectively become dead to me.

If it's dead to you, then it's dead to you. Most people will lose interest in a game after several years and move on. There's nothing unusual or bad about it.

But there will be a story skip as usual. If you want to pay $30 or whatever amount it turns out to be just to skip the remaining MSQ for Endwalker, you'll be able to do it after Dawntrail is released.

I think all anyone above is trying to say is that you shouldn't expect to play Dawntrail right away. The skip won't be available until the official Dawntrail release date and then you'll have to deal with two log in queues before your character progress is updated.

I must disagree though, going through the story is a major part of the experience, it's a big story told over many characters and places. You would appreciate the game a lot more of you knew who Chora-Zoi is and her journey alongside yours (random example).
Every single time someone doesn't go through the MSQ and does it later regrets not doing it in the first place.

I think it's a stretch to say that everyone regrets it. There are some players with zero interest in story at all. It doesn't matter how good the story in FFXIV may be compared to most MMORPGs. They just aren't interested in story.

Now if it's someone who's generally ignore MMORPG story because it's been badly done in their previous experiences, then I'd say those are players that would regret not going though MSQ in the first place since the MSQ gives so much context to what is happening in the battle content.