[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[lawow74]

God damn i am salty right now. 4 41-50 deep dungeon runs on PLD with a party where everyone is a 'tank' but the other 3 are all green leaf players on a tank class with no job there "because power levels xD" that wont stop and listen to advice, chain ninja pull and do not understand you turn away when the glowing purple eye appears. 4 attempts and all wipes because new players who refuse to listen want to power level a class whos role they dont understand or want to learn to play wipe the party at Edda because they simply refuse to learn 1 turn mechanic.

And people say boost potions will flood high level stuff with bad players. Good lord, there are Canadium Salt mines less sodium rich than i am, i just want to get this damn job to 50 and be done with ques.

Just curious, do you not have 51+ unlocked? Cos TBH I'd just spam 51-70, you get the same XP and it's much, much easier.

[dope_danny]

Just curious, do you not have 51+ unlocked? Cos TBH I'd just spam 51-70, you get the same XP and it's much, much easier.

Yeah i just have this section in the wondrous tails to do.

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I do believe this is just the beginning of a business model transition

Not familiar with Square Enix or FFXI?

[dope_danny]

No to both besides FFXIV being the first ever SE game and really the only final fantasy game I can get into

I'm familiar with other mmos but I'm thinking beyond they could possibly do if they saying that every other mmo is doing so should we in terms business side of it... and if they want to go full on then I'll just grab the popcorn and go from there

Square Enix still charges a sub for FFXI and thats has less than 100k subscribers. FFXIV is so profitable that it saved the brand. F2P for them is a mark of shame, it would be admitting their brand is no longer "premium". The day Square Enix makes an mmo free to play is the day Activision stops pushing season passes to recoup marketing costs. Its just not how they do business compared to all the western and korean mmos the market is used to going f2p. Its already the 2nd biggest sub mmo after WoW as is, even FFXI's super low numbers more comparable to Eve Online are not enough to make them go F2P. ARR itself was an effort to save the brand as much as the game so dont expect them to follow the norms with this one.

[Berethos08]

I know of the problems FFXIV has suffered with 1.0 and how 2.0 saved it but this quote from that translation:

If an MMORPG is not able to recruit new players, all that is left is for the game to stabilize and eventually go on a decline. At that moment, the type of operation of the game would shift to one that works hard to slow down the pace of decline. To prevent the game from reaching that point, we would like to prepare as much as we can for the potential new players that may be interested in the game.

Boosts are just a beginning and again I'm on the side that I dont believe it will bring in new players or even enough to keep them long time subscribers not the side of anti-boosts besides that more than one type of boost bollocks... any guess from where it will go from there is just as good as mine

You can be on that side all you want - Yoshi-P and the devs, on the other hand, have actual data rather than ill informed opinion to consider when looking at how the potions are used in the countries that currently have them.

Also, just one page back you made the claim that the devs somehow think it's already in the state of decline when the quote you just posted says otherwise - namely that they plan to prepare in advance for the time when they believe the game would have plateaued and begun its decline.

Quite frankly, you continue to show that you don't know what you're talking about when it comes to this company and this group of developers.

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Their solution is the cheapest / possibly pathetic way... a MSQ boost... correct me if I'm wrong.. I'm sure one or more of you wished they shorten those quests in some way

What would be pathetic would be getting rid of story content for the whiny little bitches that don't want it to have to deal with it in the first place.

In what fucked up world does that rationale make sense?

I'd much rather they create a way to skip it and place it behind a paywall barrier so it doesn't get used too frequently than take time out of making new content to change old content (and to change it to a degree that those who feel it's too daunting right now would take quite a lot of work between rewriting and the technical side given how flagging of quest completion and its relation to what is and isn't available in the game world works - it would be far from a simple or short task) for those that don't care about that stuff in the first place.

[Berethos08]

[QUOTE=Vyndeleron;43814201]
I'm more concern about the MSQ boost than the level boost but considering they will have multiple boosts for each specific expansion n adding more n more... you start seeing the problem/QUOTE]

Actually they'll just have two types - the kind that flags all story quests (and other required features) as unlocked up until the start of whatever the current expansion happens to be and when the current expansion changes the story skip potion changes (as in right now it would auto-complete ARR story to 2.5.5 and let you watch the stuff in the Unending Journey, but in Stormblood it would auto-complete up through 3.5).

And then then job level potions, which would boost the combat job (no gathering or crafting potions planned) it was used on to the starting level of that expansion (so right now 50). Theoretically can be used more than once, but at like $20 or $25 a pop, and with 12 jobs to pay for (Summoner, due to how it works, would basically be a 2 for 1) that wouldn't exactly come cheap...and they'd still have to do the final 10 levels through normal means anyway.

No multiple boosts with adding "more and more." Just two types that boost/unlock to the start of the current expansion.

...

It's almost like you're not taking the time to actually read the post on the official forums.

[Berethos08]

Hey if they can fix the problem while making more money in the process then go for it... I just still find it a pity that it has resorted to that but I'll move on just like everyone else

It's not really a pity, given that it's actually the most elegant solution.

Changing the MSQ would require significant work, either on our side with the writing (they've committed themselves to telling a cohesive story, so just yanking things out with patching it up as much as possible wouldn't be their style, and as I've mentioned before to make any sort of meaningful dent for those that find the MSQ daunting would require more than removing the filler, of which there is surprisingly little, at least by a definition of filler that isn't stretched to include plot elements some simply find boring) or on the technical side to make MSQ quest completion optional but figure out how to handle unlocking it via levels - which comes with the unique issue of how would you then have someone do the MSQ...would they have to start from the beginning if they wanted to do any of it, or make the significant changes required to be able to pick it up at any point of their choosing.

Skip option, which has the paywall barrier (for both revenue but because paywalls are a proven barrier to prevent overuse), lets someone either boost their level to tackle the story without worrying about levels or gear if they so choose, remove all the story gates and just level via dungeon and other options as they see fit, or skip both and get right to the expansion their friends are playing...while leaving the story good and goddamn well alone for those of us who relish as much story as we can get our hands on.

[Berethos08]

Yes its not the region I'm in and things can change and I hope it does so I dont want to see two boost for ARR (level 50 and the MSQ) and two for HW (level 60 and the MSQ) and so on

Did you carefully read the section you just quoted?

They describe how the current ARR potion will change and become one that gets players through HW.

Not sure why you still think there will be more than one set of boosts, when what you just quoted tells you that it won't be designed that way.

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Perhaps next expansion after stormblood they will stop going this route?

Stop requiring the MSQ? Not likely.

For those that have kept up, it's a chance at 10 levels of new story and new areas, and they will likely play enough that they are caught up when the next expansion hits anyway.

For new players, they will have the option of experiencing the entire breadth of the MSQ, or skipping ahead to the current "season" and going from there.

[Kaelwryn]

It is already available in Korea/China at the moment. We do think its coming to us because they said they are considering it for us.

[dope_danny]

It is already available in Korea/China at the moment. We do think its coming to us because they said they are considering it for us.

The TLR is they are considering it as a possibility should the game ever reach a point where the retention rate becomes lower than the attraction of new players.

[Granyala]

Honestly, it makes sense. New players often are invited by their friends (who are high level already) and want to play together.
Forcing them into weeks worth of solo content only annoys and discourages said players.

[dope_danny]

I finally did it. I got Paladin to lvl.50 and into HW content. I am so close to having all 60's now and my dark work is complete. Man it took so long to get this one to 50, what a boring class.

[lawow74]

For me, PLD got a lot more interesting to play at 50 with its extra oGCD attacks.

[Deleted]

I'm probably being a bit stupid here, but I don't understand the level boost stuff.

So.. new and existing characters don't get a free boost.
and If I want to skip 3.2-3.5 (or wherever I left) I'd have to buy a potion which costs 40 bucks or something?

Meeeeh.... I dislike that. Means I have to start early again so I can catch up.
Imho, they should've at least given a MSQ-"potion" for free to every lvl 50/60 character (once per account).

Lvl 50s get the one that gets them to HW and once they hit 60 they get the other one, Lvl 60 get the one that gets them to Stormblood.

[Granyala]

Huh? I thought they wanted to change the design in general, so you don't have to do the MSQ all the way.

[Graeham]

Well, I took the leap and switched to an Au Ra again. Probably just as temporary as the last time it happened but if nothing else it's fun to play around as something different for a while. Balmung has been a little frustrating for me lately for...various reasons so the change of pace is extra welcome.

[Deleted]

Huh? I thought they wanted to change the design in general, so you don't have to do the MSQ all the way.

As I said, I don't get it. Please explain the procedure we face.
Isn't the bold part above about boosting/skipping content?

[Faroth]

I'm a little disappointed in the solution. I thought the simplest solution would be to offer a level boost item and have the starting intro quest to Stormsblood not require a previous quest related flag.

That way level 60 is the only flag needed to activate the quest to head into the expansion and all previous MSQ quests are there if you want to go back and do them.

Having a separate item to skip the MSQ seems unnecessary.

I do, however, like that it seems using the MSQ skip requires you to go through the memoirs (well, I'm sure people can just hit escape to skip it), but it's nice that people still interested in the story will get the highlights at least.

[Granyala]

Leave it to them Japenese to overcomplicate everything again.

Simple solution:
No "need to complete [expansion <= -1]" flag for the Stormblood MSQ. People that ding 60 can immediately accept it and begin playing Stormblood content.
In addition, add a potion in your cash shop that boosts chars to [max level = expansion -1].

[Usagi Senshi]

Unless we get a freebie level 60 class with SB, I might buy one to top my ninja off (big if though). I pretty much resigned myself to new melee dps classes, my main (mnk) and two current alts (drg and mch).

[threads]

i'd like some kind of cosmetic thing to reward people like me who did all 60s without buying any boosts.