30 hours or less?

[Kafeen]

30 hours for level for level 15 seems reasonable but I'd hope it would slow down after that.

If its too fast to hit 50 as it is now, then being such a short term goal it become's people's only purpose. The majority of content below 50 is ignored until reach the level cap. All of this content is then considered to be too easy and gives poor rewards when if it was done at the level intended, both would have been a lot more reasonable.

As most people then have level 50 jobs, any repeatable content is generally skipped in favour of focusing on more rewarding, higher level content; why would you repeat a dungeon for level 20 gear when you're going to be past it a few hours?

As such little content is added for lower levels, this can be discouraging to new players who see only a grind to the level cap awaiting them. On top of this, the level cap become swamped; with all content targeting the same people there are only a limited number of equipment slots people want to gather gear for and favoured pieces to go in them. Again, this results in a select few items and events being done giving the impression of limited content when its actually the players that aren't doing it. Those who do want to do it find it harder to find groups, making the issue worse.

I'd much rather see hitting the level cap as a more long term goal but ensure plenty of content with worthwhile rewards scattered among all levels. If you're going to be spending a longer period of time in a certain level range, you're more likely to want to be geared up for it. There's no reason why the sort of content usually designed for level 50 players can't be done for lower levels too.

During the GW2 beta, I joined a dungeon event; large number of players fighting their way through a dungeon, facing a worthy boss at the end. The dungeon was at level 5, the boss was level 8, yet if the numbers had been higher it could have seemed like an end game event in many MMOs.

[Vydos]

I am honestly (but pleasantly) surprised to see a good and interesting thread coming from you Rokien. I'm glad to see that people are not freaking out about it taking 30 hours to go from 1-15. I for one welcome it with open arms IF it is done properly. I enjoyed the first 20 levels of FFXI because there was so much to do and I had things to look forward to as I progressed (milestones).

It's also nice to see that Yoshida knows how important it is for a gamer to get completely used to the game/fighting mechanics before tossing them into more difficult situations. I used to have problems with the current version that I kept forgetting what my skills were and what they did or how to chain them. Especially when taking a small break from the game. Adressing this problem early on in the game will help a lot.

Something else I've been wondering and perhaps something that I might expect to see happen. How will the "on rails" experience work with FFXIV when you can change classes on the go. Perhaps the game will force you to level that first class to 15 before allowing to change?

[SniperRifle]

This is actually interesting news. I believe they said leveling would be primarily based off quests in 2.0? Not grinding? They must have a ton of quests in store to make Lvl1-15 last 30 hours.

[Gokulo]

Not if ther're just hella long quests that give a ton of exp, instead of... ton of quests :P

[Rokien]

Not if ther're just hella long quests that give a ton of exp, instead of... ton of quests :P

I love super long quests, they are more interesting and thought out~

But it probably wont take 30 hours my guess 15 or so for us or people who just go LDFKJSD:FLKDSJF LEVEL UP LSDJFSD:LFJK! Something like that. The biggest mistury is AFTER level 15, when the party starts, are we going to see what happened when you reached 40 and it takes no time to reach 50? Or are we going to see a nice balance? Also what party stuff will there be? Will most quests be able to do with a party, or are these quests going to be solo orientated...

[Rona]

Putting work into level will make it more fun to me. That was the problem with TERA I had. I got to max in about 15 hours worth of gameplay and then had nothing to do but end game dungeons. I'm hoping getting to max in 2.0 takes a lot LOT longer, but even if it does, the grinders will still hit max in a few days (if they aren't already).

[Felis]

Most quest on low level would be tutorial quests. "Do this, do that. See, you can do this, too. Gratulation, you learned teleportation. And now I teach you how to change the class." And so on. And then there are the 3 (not only 1) storylines.
Many things that can sidetrack a person who play the game the first time.

This is actually interesting news. I believe they said leveling would be primarily based off quests in 2.0? Not grinding? They must have a ton of quests in store to make Lvl1-15 last 30 hours.

They said leveling would be doing content. Not grinding only, not questing only.

[Kiote]

If it takes thirty hours to hit level 15 I will be soooo excited..

Currently it takes 2.. =/

I'd have to say Ideal amount of time to level up to 50 would depend on how good the quests are.. I'm hoping for like 120 hours. That's about how much time you can put in to one of the good Final Fantasy Games, casually, before you've just done everything.

[Onisake]

the 'side tracked' bit is probably due to story quests etc. where xp is less efficient. Either due to CSs and running around or just lower rewards. and of course, i'll be side tracked by exploring.

30 hours sounds about right to me. that's a good power weekend for the hardcore guys. and casuals can enjoy themselves at a leisurely pace.

after that, i suspect that's when you'll really start to get into GC content and story quests and really learning party dynamics.

I'm curious if this will be forced (IE, sharp jump in quest difficulty so you have to party) or if it will be more like leves and you can solo almost as efficiently as group. I personally am hoping for the former.

my big concern right now is what kind of endgame content will be available at launch. we have a lot of players who are already 50. and i Cannot imagine a lot of them are going to want to start over from scratch just for the kicks.

[Ksenia]

I don't get the fascination with 1 to 15. That was never difficult to get. The trouble for me was always the scaling.
Level 1 I kill a level 1 get 200 exper.
Level 10 I kill a level 10 I get 200 exper.
Level 30 I kill a level 30 I get 200 exper.

Levels at the bottom are easy. It's when you are up there looking at 50-60K exper per level and you are still getting 200 exper. In most games you drop back a level or 2, you lose 10%? Here you lose half.

Even Levequests, you only get 2-3K at 30 and you are looking at half a million for that tier. I'm sure there is some magic railroad to 50 that I didn't try but I'm pretty sure there is a reason I didn't try that magic railroad. I either A: didn't want to or B: it wasn't very intuitive.

1-15? It's 20-45 that I find to be a wasteland.