Yoshi-P's "new starting point of 6.1" and an alternative idea?

[ChoDerecho]

So, we're looking at a potential story skip for new players that puts them at the beginning of Endwalker, effectively bypassing ARR and everything else along the way.

We are currently creating a system where you can view each character, lore, and world setting up to patch 6.0 in-game, and we are making preparations to skip up to patch 6.0 and start the adventure from 6.1. However, if I were to compare it to a TV drama, rather than saying, ``Watch from Season 6,'' I would say ``Start from Season 1, because (previous content has been revised) and it's easier to watch and catch up.'' I think it's more natural.

So, although we are making preparations, we are still unsure whether to actually implement it as a measure in 7.0.

My thought is this does a lot of negative things. People have no idea of what led up to Endwalker, very little practice, and you'd end up with sprouts regularly getting a faceful of content designed for much more experienced players. Rather than something that basically skips most of the game so far, why not have a new starting point for Dawntrail at the starting city for the new continent?

An Adventurer inspired by the stories of a hero(ine), who ends up following the path of the Warrior of Light across the countries and worlds they changed in their passing as a Wandering Minstrel tells them tales of an age before a humble adventurer who would find themselves in a chocobo carriage, heading for their dates with destiny, faraway worlds and the gods themselves...

The Adventurer would be seeing things as of a post-Endwalker world- the alliance of the three nations with Ishgard, an uneasy peace with the dragons, a free Doma with it's trade enclave, thriving Kugane and reviving Ala Mihgo. An experimenting Y'shtola that drops the Adventurer into the First and meetings with the old friends of the Warrior of Darkness, a window to the Ancient past from a fateful meeting with a lunar Watcher, and finally ending up a veteran Adventurer who gets called upon to deal with a small matter of who's going to rule back home...thereby coming full circle to Dawntrail.

It'd allow for some content to be turned into Minstrel's Ballads for our Adventurer- after all, the Adventurer isn't (probably) going to be kidnapped into battling tempering primals, sorcerers of eld or the lord of sin eaters. But he'll hear about them (and it'll slot them into those duties via this alternative method) as he goes through The Adventurer's Tale rather than the Warrior of Light's journey, while whatever dungeons and such along the 1-90 chain can be given either "so, this happened" entries that don't require doing or alternative reasons to visit them, while shortening the effective time of story/character building a bit since the quest chains for them are also un-needed.

And of course, people who would rather be the Warrior of Light (a somewhat ceremonial title after Endwalker) can do things the original, longer way instead.

[Yuella]

I still see 6.1 to 6.5 as "post Endwalker" instead of "Newfound Adventure" because it was the aftermath of level 83 trial that allowed Golbez to do what he did. I see 6.1 as a bad starting point. If they want to do it, they should start at 6.55.

[Cleretic]

I think that, if you're doing an alternate start, 6.1 is the best one you could have. It's not perfect, nothing is, but 6.1 covers every base I could reasonably think of for a good place to start, especially with story:

1. Introduces you to all the Scions in ways that get across their whole thing. (Especially helpful for Thancred and Urianger going into Dawntrail, where they're not taking a typical role.)
2. Is an enclosed 'bottle episode' that doesn't really need additional reading to function.
3. ...but at the same time, does show a glimpse of other stuff that's gone on in the meantime that you might be interested in going back to.
4. Has some pretty solid spectacle and FF references, without being entirely reliant on spectacle and FF references.

With something of a Runescape-style 'tutorial island' to get people up to pace on mechanics, you're looking pretty good. Yeah, as lore-heads we're by nature gonna want people to play the whole thing because we just can't abide by people skipping our precious story, but if you're going to? Yeah, 6.1 is the best choice.

The concerns for me are more in the difficulty. Alzadaal's Legacy and Troia are probably pretty solid 'first dungeons' after a tutorial, but... wow, their first trial is Barbariccia, that's gonna be a handful. Their first alliance raid being Aglaia will probably be fine even if I wish that raid was harder (but then, maybe being the new first alliance raid will mean Nald'thal gets to do their scales mechanic).

But the first normal raids being Pandaemonium? Hoooo boy. It's not even just mechanical difficulty making that one hard, imagine a newbie being faced with that story without context. It's already hard for some people to understand with context!

[Enkidoh]

The whole arguement for wanting to 'skip' everything up to this point is for one reason: end game. Many new players just want to be where "the cool kids are" and are not interested in running errands for the three cities at the start, or throwing in their lot with the Scions, and so couldn't care less for the story anyway (an attitude unfortunately fostered by too many MMORPGs whose stories are usually little more than window dressing at best and excuse plots at worst, and so these players cannot understand why and how FFXIV is so story centric and focused.).

And this leads to my belief Yoshi probably will not end up going through with such an idea: they already sell story skips on the Lodestone, and so allowing players to skip to DT would completely invalidate a lucrative income stream to SE (no doubt the actual revenue gained from the story skips probably will play a part in Yoshi's decision).

And one last thing to remember, we already have players complaining they missed out on 1.0's story and requesting 1.0's story be brought back somehow "to get the full story", and yes, there has been incidences here on this very forum from players who bought a story skip, then eventually regretted it due to missing out on context, just like how Cleretic mentioned above. If Yoshi did implement this, I can only imagine the complaints from players who wanted to skip ahead to endgame, then found it fleeting and realized everything they'd missed out skipping ahead in the first place, and wanting it to be reverted, and being unable to. It's just easier to keep it as is, personally.

[Iscah]

The "6.1 as a skip point" was raised ages ago and has only just floated up from the depths of the internet this week. I am not aware of it having been newly stated by the devs.

I suspect the whole idea came about before they actually wrote 6.X and/or was not communicated well to the writers, because the story is not suited to the idea.

6.55 would be a better starting point (even for the official paid skip) to properly introduce the important characters for Dawntrail before it kicks off.

[Lyth]

I think 6.1 is a relatively strange entrance point to the story for a new adventurer. The 6.x patch series storyline seems to be relatively self-contained, ramps up to a world-ending threat rather quickly, and seems much more connected with Meracydia than it is with Tural. It's good that they're putting some thought into it.

The alternative could be to wait until 8.0 to roll out the system and give players the option of setting their starting city to Tuliyollal after arriving by ship, while giving them aetheryte access to all the major cities for jobs. Add in a historian NPC who lets you experience each previous expansion in a sequential, modular fashion, so that you can work your way through them during downtime periods (like now). 8.0 will also be the point when they will need to look into potentially revising the levelling system (i.e. after level 100) as well, so it makes sense to roll out both together.

[SannaR]

Then you need to look at the unending codex. Many entries are ok and then there's Emet-Selch's that practically says oh he was just some dude that existed. I feel skippers would need to have a slightly alternative start for their 6.1 unless they did get an introductory zone that by the end of it Tataru shows up and asks them to come to the Rising Stones. It's not as if we lore nerds don't get or see that just like leveling there will need a way for newer players to hop into the game at a closer spot than what a story skip would give them. I don't want to be in Yoshida's shoes. As we all know no matter what he decides there will be people who will be unhappy about it.

[Kuroka]

Lol im already against the skips we have...

[Aravell]

I would think that 6.55 would've been a better new start. They could make it work quite easily too.

You're a veteran adventurer sailing back to Sharlayan after completing a guildship commission, you come across your old friend Erenville, who introduces you to Wuk Lamat. Then you come across the Scions while walking with them, then the story plays out much the same as normal (without the more intimate scenes with the Scions because you barely know them).

Maybe in this timeline, the WoL died on Ultima Thule with Zenos, which means Wuk Lamat would just be searching for strong people to support her claim to the throne instead of searching for a specific person (WoL).

I think this would work pretty well aside from minor changes being required for the DT story as you're not exactly friends with the Scions yet.

[Iscah]

You're a veteran adventurer sailing back to Sharlayan after completing a guildship commission, you come across your old friend Erenville, who introduces you to Wuk Lamat...

No. No, definitely no.

I don't want them to go anywhere near a full-on alternate entry point with a changed narrative about who the WoL is, who they know and what they've previously been through. It can only lead to the old players' experience being hamstrung to make it better for some people who are sufficiently disinterested in getting the full story that they were willing to start playing the game from its sixth/seventh instalment.

Any skip offered should be explicitly that – a skip – and should come with the warning that the writers will not hesitate to continue writing scenes between your character and people that they know, even if the player has opted to skip over the part of the story that introduced them.