*RANT* I am now simply clicking through the story...

Quicksand

*Disclaimer, I dont think there are, but there may be some very, very, minor MSQ spoilers*

So, I started playing FFXIV back when it released, and like many others, I felt there was definitely something potentially good there, but covered by a lot of problems, so I left shortly after. 

Then they relaunched as ARR, and I kept thinking I would go back and check out the changes, but, with so many free games I was actually enjoying, going back to paying a sub for something I wasn't certain would be any better didn't make any sense. Until that is, I happened across a video on youtube highlighting the Dark Knight (one of the Heavensward expansion classes)

I then started watching several other videos on The Dark Knight and before long, decided to re-up my sub, buy HW expansion, jump in and become a Dark Knight!

After logging in and not seeing my old character anywhere (I later found out they have multiple Datacenters holding many, many servers, of which, held my old toons). No biggie, I never got any job very high (max was 22) so I just kept rolling with my new guy. Dark Knight here I come....

 Not so fast, turns out, I must get my starting class (DK was an expansion class and not available at creation, makes sense) to lvl 10 before I can go get my new Job, the DK. So I power on with a class I didn't actually come back to play, but not a big deal, I am enjoying the game overall. So, onward! After reaching level 10, I discover that I can only chose classes in my city, atleast until I reach lvl 20 and do the flying ship quest and gain access to the other main cities. Ok, I have enjoyed the story, the combat is improved from the old version, I shall get to 20 to become my desired class!

So, on my way to lvl 20, I get invited to something called "Novice Network" a crazy helpful chat channel that I dont understand why I wasn't in by default. No matter, I push on... Finally! (Because unlike every modern mmo, FFXIV is actually tough to lvl, which is a good thing) I reach lvl 20, make it to Ul'dah, and start my hunt for the Dark Knight guild, no luck, so I ask in the awesome NN chat.......................
Yeah, turns out I actually need to finish the entire Main Story questline, reaching lvl 50 before gaining access to the Dark Knight trainer....  

'hold on, I need a minute'

Ok, the class I bought the game to play, I must first finish the game to play... umm, ok, I can deal, finish the MSQ, there will still be the expansion areas in HW to play as my Dark Knight, dungeons and so on. I can do this, and after all, the story so far has been enjoyable (cheezy at times, but enjoyable). So I power on!

Fast forward... Final boss <WAXED!> (by my group mates mostly, but I was there, I hit him too! I get credit)

Ending cinematic plays, then another, then another with credits popping up along the way, then final credits roll and in a way that would make marvel proud, theres an after credit scene! its done! Finally! Here I come (hopefully) wonderful Dark Knight!

..........
..............
................

No, Here I don't come.... as it turns out, there are now 100, yes 100, let me spell that out, One HUNDRED more quest I must now do to transition from ARR to Heavensward before I can play the class I bought the game to play.

I am now just clicking through as quick as I can so I can one day, maybe, become a Dark Knight, so I can then cancel this account and go back to a game that lets me play my desired class at the beginning...

/Done

PottedPlant22

Well... you're not wrong.  Basically those 100 quests are filler quests before Heavensward came out.  When that expansion released, it introduced DK (along with Astrologian and Machinist) as well.

Plenty of people found the 100 daunting.  There's a few quests in there that are actually entertaining, but most are not.  

You can if you want (I'm not suggesting you do,) purchase main scenario progression.  It's under optional items on the Mog Station in your account.  The FFXIV:ARR completion is $18.  Spending the $18 will skip ARR original storyline AND the 100 quests needed to get you directly into HW.  

The FFXIV: HW completion is $25.  It will skip through HW and get you to the starting point of Stormblood.

I personally think they should let you skip the 100 quests for free between ARR and HW.  Let's face it, most of those quests were filler quests to hold the players over until HW came out.

Here's a link of the item guide.
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/tales_of_adventure

Dragnelus

Also wanna rant! Trying to do Susano EX for 2 days now. Guess I need to find a fc. Doing DF atm. We had him at 2 % but rdm didnt want to ress  

Ohnooze

PottedPlant22 said:

Well... you're not wrong.  Basically those 100 quests are filler quests before Heavensward came out.  When that expansion released, it introduced DK (along with Astrologian and Machinist) as well.

Plenty of people found the 100 daunting.  There's a few quests in there that are actually entertaining, but most are not.  

You can if you want (I'm not suggesting you do,) purchase main scenario progression.  It's under optional items on the Mog Station in your account.  The FFXIV:ARR completion is $18.  Spending the $18 will skip ARR original storyline AND the 100 quests needed to get you directly into HW.  

The FFXIV: HW completion is $25.  It will skip through HW and get you to the starting point of Stormblood.

I personally think they should let you skip the 100 quests for free between ARR and HW.  Let's face it, most of those quests were filler quests to hold the players over until HW came out.

Here's a link of the item guide.
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/tales_of_adventure

Is HW pretty much the same thing as ARR?  I mean is it worth skipping both or is HW a lot more entertaining?  I'm only lvl 36 atm and I kind of skim over the quest line to be honest.  I just get the basic idea of what's going on and move forward.  If you skip the story you're left to just finding quest in the world and the Duty Finder to lvl up right?  Unless you buy the boost to 60.

Moodsor

Well for me the story is one of the biggest reasons i play the game, I watch all cutscenes so i guess to each their own.

SEANMCAD

I have always deeply disliked stories in games and it didnt take me long to do whatsoever I could to avoid the story line, be it hitting every key on cutscenes to throwing my keyboard accross the room (a joke) to now just not buying them

Quicksand

Torval said:

Sorry, I clicked through your entire post. I just got lost in a sea of words.

If you don't like the story click through it and just enjoy your own adventure. Simple.

This is what you get when you comment on a post that you didn't read. You make an assertion that is completely irrelevant.

As stated in the post, that can be read in 64 seconds by anyone at a sixth grade reading level. I quite enjoyed the story and happily watched all the cinematic's.

But thank you for your comment. It was helpful to someone in another thread somewhere in a forum on the net, somewhere, I am sure.

Xiaoki

Geez, do people even read posts before responding to them or just throw out whatever knee jerk response comes to their brain first?

@Torval @Nyctelios @Moodsor @SEANMCAD None of you even bothered to look at the original post did you?

The post is about the very large number of boring, monotonous filler quests that still must be done to advance to Heavensward. The poster likes the story but not the awful you quests you have to do to get that story and progress to the expansion.

Which is why Square Enix made the Tales of Adventure items. They knew that another expansion would bring more people and that many of those people would have more money than patience(or, in this case, tolerance).

SEANMCAD

Xiaoki said:

Geez, do people even read posts before responding to them or just throw out whatever knee jerk response comes to their brain first?

@Torval @Nyctelios @Moodsor @SEANMCAD None of you even bothered to look at the original post did you?

The post is about the very large number of boring, monotonous filler quests that still must be done to advance to Heavensward. The poster likes the story but not the awful you quests you have to do to get that story and progress to the expansion.

Which is why Square Enix made the Tales of Adventure items. They knew that another expansion would bring more people and that many of those people would have more money than patience(or, in this case, tolerance).

Yes..fair point. Even more so given this is in the FF forums. my bad

Tiamat64

They should add a rule to these forums (and every forum) where one has to actually at least skim a post before they respond.

You'd think such a rule should not be necessary but clearly that's not the case.

Realizer

Quicksand said:

Torval said:

Sorry, I clicked through your entire post. I just got lost in a sea of words.

If you don't like the story click through it and just enjoy your own adventure. Simple.

This is what you get when you comment on a post that you didn't read. You make an assertion that is completely irrelevant.

As stated in the post, that can be read in 64 seconds by anyone at a sixth grade reading level. I quite enjoyed the story and happily watched all the cinematic's.

But thank you for your comment. It was helpful to someone in another thread somewhere in a forum on the net, somewhere, I am sure.

 I think the point he was making is simple, I'm surprised your 6th grade reading level didn't allow you to catch on to it. Why should anyone take the time to read your post, when you can't take the time to read what you pay for? We didn't pay to read your post and therefore are under no obligation to do so. I'd think you'd want to experience the story since you paid for it. Perhaps my reading level is skewing my assumption?

Kajidourden

It's really idiotic but yeah, it is what it is. 

The vast majority of even MSQ are pretty shitty. 

It's exactly like watching an anime, except you are required to sit through every single filler episode.

I'm going through HW now, and it's only slightly less boring than ARR.  Voiceovers help a lot, and the writing/scale in general picks up a notch.  Still mostly snoozetown fetch quests and chain "talk to x" quests though

Realizer

Torval said:

Xiaoki said:

Geez, do people even read posts before responding to them or just throw out whatever knee jerk response comes to their brain first?

@Torval @Nyctelios @Moodsor @SEANMCAD None of you even bothered to look at the original post did you?

The post is about the very large number of boring, monotonous filler quests that still must be done to advance to Heavensward. The poster likes the story but not the awful you quests you have to do to get that story and progress to the expansion.

Which is why Square Enix made the Tales of Adventure items. They knew that another expansion would bring more people and that many of those people would have more money than patience(or, in this case, tolerance).

Point missed. He couldn't be bothered to read the quest text anymore. I couldn't be bothered to read the post. Seems sort of fair to me. I'm not saying everyone should read all the quest text or listen to boring dialog cutscenes either. I don't.

Agreed, I clicked through the boring parts of the thread to get to the endgame. 

Rommie10-284

Honestly, at this point the ARR storyline is a roadblock, and I don't blame anyone who treats it as such.  HW less so, since it's playable content for any of the jobs, but still a block for someone who wants to start where the existing playerbase is.

Too much content is a nice problem to have, but it's still a problem.  The jump potions had to happen, or the game was locking itself out of new players.  I only wish they were cheaper, and hopefully they will be over time.  The snowflakes prepared to riot over 'cheapening' their game, and simple greed, set the prices at what they are.

In the end, if someone balks at being Minfilia's Lackey for 100+ quests - I can't disagree with them.

Kajidourden

Rommie10-284 said:

Honestly, at this point the ARR storyline is a roadblock, and I don't blame anyone who treats it as such.  HW less so, since it's playable content for any of the jobs, but still a block for someone who wants to start where the existing playerbase is.

Too much content is a nice problem to have, but it's still a problem.  The jump potions had to happen, or the game was locking itself out of new players.  I only wish they were cheaper, and hopefully they will be over time.  The snowflakes prepared to riot over 'cheapening' their game, and simple greed, set the prices at what they are.

In the end, if someone balks at being Minfilia's Lackey for 100+ quests - I can't disagree with them.

Have to either trim the fat from previous expansions or just start further along.  Tbh I think a good "meet me" would be to kill all sidequests that don't unlock things in ARR and HW but keep all them in for SB and juice up the MSQ so that you don't need anything else to level.

This way you keep the emphasis on the story and get to experience all of that but you're not subjected to death by crappy quest.

Wizardry

I disagree on there being a lot of problems.I am no longer playing for mainly 2 reasons only,the combat/class structure is too inferior to what i was spoiled within FFXI and the Ilevel idea is the worst idea ever in any Square game.
Most of the game is better than anything else on the market,except in areas i loved about FFXI which is many and to this day EQ2 housing is likely better than most albeit i have not tried the newish TESO housing system.So other than that,FFXIV is a solid game,that doesn't mean i can't find places to tweak and improve,EVERY game on the market i could improve almost every system,so we can't use that as a blemish.

I feel that if i was not spoiled by FFXI,i would likely be playing FFXIV...maybe,hard to say,we can't change the past or future to really know.For now i dabble in several other unique/interesting games to be worried weather FFXIV should be my go to game or not.

Soki123

It s not that big of a deal, people and their got to get to end game now stuff makes me laugh.

Soki123

Oh and Lol at Wizardy and his constant blah blah blah.

Ridelynn

Well, the story is arguably the most interesting part of this game. If you aren't trying to rush through it.

It's one of those things you can only do once. Yes, it's extremely frustrating not to be able to get right up with your friends, and that's one of the bigger drawbacks of this game. But don't let that make you just click through and miss what is one of the best parts of the game to get there.

Alternatively, there is the purchased skip option as mentioned before. You can go back and view all the cutscenes in game and get caught up on the story (although I think most of it is probably on Youtube as well), but it isn't nearly the same as experiencing it first hand.

Quicksand

Thanks to all of you that pointed me to the Tales of Advent thing, I will be doing that today. Sucks to spend $18, but with 93 quest remaining, My brain and patience are now demanding it.

To those that chose to comment without reading the rant, allow me to summarize:

I liked the story, watched every cinematic, enjoy the game and how its presented. I do not like the pointless, required, non story related, obvious filler quest they now force you to do before you can move from the end of the ARR story and go on to continue enjoying the story and cinematics of Heavansward.

Thanks slim! 

Soki123

Quicksand said:

Thanks to all of you that pointed me to the Tales of Advent thing, I will be doing that today. Sucks to spend $18, but with 93 quest remaining, My brain and patience are now demanding it.

To those that chose to comment without reading the rant, allow me to summarize:

I liked the story, watched every cinematic, enjoy the game and how its presented. I do not like the pointless, required, non story related, obvious filler quest they now force you to do before you can move from the end of the ARR story and go on to continue enjoying the story and cinematics of Heavansward.

Thanks slim! 

Just what I thought.

Kyleran

Deleted

lahnmir

Quicksand said:

Thanks to all of you that pointed me to the Tales of Advent thing, I will be doing that today. Sucks to spend $18, but with 93 quest remaining, My brain and patience are now demanding it.

To those that chose to comment without reading the rant, allow me to summarize:

I liked the story, watched every cinematic, enjoy the game and how its presented. I do not like the pointless, required, non story related, obvious filler quest they now force you to do before you can move from the end of the ARR story and go on to continue enjoying the story and cinematics of Heavansward.

Thanks slim! 

Started a new char a month or so ago, played through the original story and bought a potion just for those 100 quests. Once was enough, more then. Having that option is great and does is no way cheapen your experience or devalue what you have been doing so far.

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

PottedPlant22

Ohnooze said:

PottedPlant22 said:

Well... you're not wrong.  Basically those 100 quests are filler quests before Heavensward came out.  When that expansion released, it introduced DK (along with Astrologian and Machinist) as well.

Plenty of people found the 100 daunting.  There's a few quests in there that are actually entertaining, but most are not.  

You can if you want (I'm not suggesting you do,) purchase main scenario progression.  It's under optional items on the Mog Station in your account.  The FFXIV:ARR completion is $18.  Spending the $18 will skip ARR original storyline AND the 100 quests needed to get you directly into HW.  

The FFXIV: HW completion is $25.  It will skip through HW and get you to the starting point of Stormblood.

I personally think they should let you skip the 100 quests for free between ARR and HW.  Let's face it, most of those quests were filler quests to hold the players over until HW came out.

Here's a link of the item guide.
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/tales_of_adventure

Is HW pretty much the same thing as ARR?  I mean is it worth skipping both or is HW a lot more entertaining?  I'm only lvl 36 atm and I kind of skim over the quest line to be honest.  I just get the basic idea of what's going on and move forward.  If you skip the story you're left to just finding quest in the world and the Duty Finder to lvl up right?  Unless you buy the boost to 60.

I enjoyed enough of the story from HW to say that if you have the time and not in a rush, I would play through that content.  There are definitely quite a few quest in there that aren't great, but there is some stuff in there that I think is fantastic.

PottedPlant22

Rommie10-284 said:

In the end, if someone balks at being Minfilia's Lackey for 100+ quests - I can't disagree with them.

THIS! ^

Everyone:
People were slaughtered.  You were kidnapped.  Ascians show up practically on a daily basis. We should leave.

Minfilia:
Nah, gonna chill.  Mom might come back.  

Literally everyone else:
Hey Girl, you're putting the rest of us in danger.  

Minfilia:
Don't care.  Mom might show up.  

You (head/desk):
Okay let's go find mom.  

Senden

Well to be fair, they have introduced buyable items in the cash shop for those who want to skip the story. Kind of sucks how they gated the new jobs though I admit but ultimately the post ARR patch content isn't half as bad as people make out. I went in expecting it to be far worse and ended up doing it fairly fast. Having said that though, by not paying attention to the story, you're doing yourself a huge disservice, it's what kept me interested through a lot of the boring filler quests they have. The story is a bit all over the place in terms of narrative with multiple story threads going on simultaneously but they all sort of come together into a fairly epic event which does a great job setting up Heavensward. 

Anyway, if it's any consolation, Heavensward is a lot better for stuff like this. Still gotta do the story but they trimmed a lot of the fat off the quests which makes it a far more enjoyable playing experience.