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[Snapshot King]

Can someone tell me why mmo's, like this, don't follow the route of WoW an da few others that give buyers of the expansion a free boost to level 50? Just a simple level up so you can buy the expansion and experience its content without having to go through the entire base game to get there.

I'm not talking about giving them rare gear or anything super-amazing, just a basic level 50 or whatever character that they can use to play where the expansion starts at instead of having to go through the entire base game/storyline.

To me, form a business perspective, it seems like a great way to scare off potential customers an dpeople who never finished to level 50 with ARR but woul dlike to try the expansion.

People that quit before March or some such are being given high level gear if they come back, actually, and the main story has been reworked to give enough XP to get you clear to the expansion while doing only the main story.

As for jumping straight to 50, some players are bad enough without letting anyone who bought the expansion just jump straight to HW. It'd cause people to leave because you'd have a massive influx of terrible players at all the high end stuff. If I had to worry about duty finder players for level 55 dungeons not just being bad, but being bad and BRAND NEW it'd put a serious damper on playing that stuff.

 

[Frumix]

Can someone tell me why mmo's, like this, don't follow the route of WoW an da few others that give buyers of the expansion a free boost to level 50? Just a simple level up so you can buy the expansion and experience its content without having to go through the entire base game to get there.

I'm not talking about giving them rare gear or anything super-amazing, just a basic level 50 or whatever character that they can use to play where the expansion starts at instead of having to go through the entire base game/storyline.

To me, form a business perspective, it seems like a great way to scare off potential customers an dpeople who never finished to level 50 with ARR but woul dlike to try the expansion.

Old content isn't going away or becoming unusable. It's a new game for you, why do you want to skip a major part of it? It's not exactly like WoW where levelling is a series of unrelated experiences, this game has a decently strong storyline backbone that you can't, or at least shouldn't just ignore and throw away. It's like watching Lord of the Rings from the second movie. You can, but... why? Furthermore, boosts are awful for the skill level of players. Leveling inadvertently acts as training and people who come fresh and instantly become 50 and don't know what to do with all their skills are trouble and I've heard some WoW veterans complaining about instant boosts to cap.

With that said there's multiple catch-up plans including double exp gains below 50 and extra gear added to 50 cap quests to help you go through that storyline quicker than before.

 

[Trojita]

Did anyone get their actual expansion code from GMG? All I received was the early access code.

 

[Tomat]

Old content isn't going away or becoming unusable. It's a new game for you, why do you want to skip a major part of it? It's not exactly like WoW where levelling is a series of unrelated experiences, this game has a decently strong storyline backbone that you can't, or at least shouldn't just ignore and throw away. It's like watching Lord of the Rings from the second movie. You can, but... why? Furthermore, boosts are awful for the skill level of players. Leveling inadvertently acts as training and people who come fresh and instantly become 50 and don't know what to do with all their skills are trouble and I've heard some WoW veterans complaining about instant boosts to cap.

With that said there's multiple catch-up plans including double exp gains below 50 and extra gear added to 50 cap quests to help you go through that storyline quicker than before.

To be fair there seems to be plenty of level 50 players who have no idea what they're doing. The game doesn't force you to really think about how you use most of your abilities until late game post 50 content.

I see the story as being the reason they would never sell boosts.

 

[zoobzone]

little bit more than 3 hours to go!

So hyped.

 

[SkyOdin]

Can someone tell me why mmo's, like this, don't follow the route of WoW an da few others that give buyers of the expansion a free boost to level 50? Just a simple level up so you can buy the expansion and experience its content without having to go through the entire base game to get there.

I'm not talking about giving them rare gear or anything super-amazing, just a basic level 50 or whatever character that they can use to play where the expansion starts at instead of having to go through the entire base game/storyline.

To me, form a business perspective, it seems like a great way to scare off potential customers an dpeople who never finished to level 50 with ARR but woul dlike to try the expansion.

Final Fantasy XIV is very story-focused. The Heavensward content isn't locked behind becoming level 50, it is locked behind completing the main story, which is only half done by the time you reach level 50 after all of the patch additions. The fact that FFXIV has such a big and elaborate story is one of its selling points, where Heavensward is a direct sequel that picks up on the cliffhanger they left off at the end of the 2.X content.

Now, the devs might give people free level-ups and let them skip straight to expansion content at some point down the road, since they do have an interest in letting people get caught up easily. But I wouldn't skip the story even if I had the option if it was my first time playing the game.

 

[thetrin]

I'd rather people didn't get a free boost. I dont want to party with people who dont yet know their class. I want trust that at that level, it's muscle memory to them.

 

[Kintaro]

Can someone tell me why mmo's, like this, don't follow the route of WoW an da few others that give buyers of the expansion a free boost to level 50? Just a simple level up so you can buy the expansion and experience its content without having to go through the entire base game to get there.

I'm not talking about giving them rare gear or anything super-amazing, just a basic level 50 or whatever character that they can use to play where the expansion starts at instead of having to go through the entire base game/storyline.

To me, form a business perspective, it seems like a great way to scare off potential customers an dpeople who never finished to level 50 with ARR but woul dlike to try the expansion.

I believe that, at this time, the dev time continues to hold the work they did on the 2.0 content close to their hearts and believes its still worth something. It's story builds from the start and what happens at the end of 2.5 continues and is very close to the story in Heavensward.

Unlike other MMOs, this expansion will continue to have us go back to that old world, settle up plot threads and more. The world being introduced now and the world then are still tied closely together and just giving you a lvl 50 character is meaningless. One would be completely lost.

WoW and others toss aside what came before it. XIV seeks to add to it.

 

[Frumix]

To be fair there seems to be plenty of level 50 players who have no idea what they're doing. The game doesn't force you to really think about how you use most of your abilities until late game post 50 content.

I see the story as being the reason they would never sell boosts.

Somewhat true, and it's gonna be even worse if there were boosts. Have you seen how media who don't normally play this game fumble around with commands? You don't want that.

 

[Teknoman]

Can someone tell me why mmo's, like this, don't follow the route of WoW an da few others that give buyers of the expansion a free boost to level 50? Just a simple level up so you can buy the expansion and experience its content without having to go through the entire base game to get there.

I'm not talking about giving them rare gear or anything super-amazing, just a basic level 50 or whatever character that they can use to play where the expansion starts at instead of having to go through the entire base game/storyline.

To me, form a business perspective, it seems like a great way to scare off potential customers an dpeople who never finished to level 50 with ARR but woul dlike to try the expansion.

Because the game is heavily story based i'd think? They want people to go through everything, start to finish, that has to do with the main story.

 

[chrono01]

So excited!

...Please remain stable, servers. Please remain stable.

 

[Tomat]

So excited!

...Please remain stable, servers. Please remain stable.

I swear to god if you jinx us all

 

[Chance Hale]

If I was thinking about getting into FFXIV should I buy the expansion now or after I finish the main story? Only got to the first dungeon in the base game back when it came out.

 

[Tomat]

If I was thinking about getting into FFXIV should I buy the expansion now or after I finish the main story? Only got to the first dungeon in the base game back when it came out.

If you're coming in mostly fresh there doesn't seem to be much reason to own the expansion unless you want to play the new race. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[InsaneZero]

I swear to god if you jinx us all

Why save yourself the suspense? The servers will die the moment the expansion goes online. It's inevitable.

Enjoy your 50k and 2002.

 

[zoobzone]

Damn I just finished watching the Producer Live Letter from E3.

Heavensward main story is going to be 50 hours!?!

 

[chrono01]

I swear to god if you jinx us all

Don't fear, Heavensward is a brand new me. Everything I predict will become 100% true. I'm certain of it.

You all have nothing to worry about! d(^_^)v

 

[Tomat]

I wanted to be naively hopeful.

 

[Massive Duck. C.M.]

I'd rather people didn't get a free boost. I dont want to party with people who dont yet know their class. I want trust that at that level, it's muscle memory to them.

Yep, there are people in full Bahamut gear who are still terrible, terrible players

 

[skLaFarebear]

Just preordered it and gonna get back into FFXIV after some DMC4:SE playthroughs. Gotta get my machinist ready to finish that story!

 

[Belfast]

ARR has a stronger, central storyline that should be completed compared to other MMOs. Just jumping to 50 would be ignoring all that. I wish there was a way to level successive jobs/characters to 50 once you've gotten through the current story content once (quests can only be completed once on the same character making FATE/dungeon grinding the only real option for leveling up other jobs). But if it is your first time playing, I'd say it's important to start from the beginning instead of jumping straight to expansion content.

 

[Sandfox]

i can't wait to see what happens next in the story in addition to the new content. I'm a bit wary about jumping into instances blind, but hopefully I can do them all with GAF.

 

[Kenai]

Somewhat true, and it's gonna be even worse if there were boosts. Have you seen how media who don't normally play this game fumble around with commands? You don't want that.

Indeed.

It was pretty easy to get to 50 in a week or two with a full list of cross-class stuff if you just focused on the story and content unlocks, and with the exp and gear added to the story missions it will be even easier than before. I really don't think SE is asking much here. A lot of people still don't know how to play optimally regardless, but character boosts would be a whole nother level of bad I'm just not ready to see. Story too, it would effectively be skipping the Hobbit and the first book in the LotR trilogy story-wise.

 

[nubbe]

Red Mage

 

[grimmiq]

Why save yourself the suspense? The servers will die the moment the expansion goes online. It's inevitable.

Enjoy your 50k and 2002.

 

[skLaFarebear]

ARR has a stronger, central storyline that should be completed compared to other MMOs. Just jumping to 50 would be ignoring all that. I wish there was a way to level successive jobs/characters to 50 once you've gotten through the current story content once (quests can only be completed once on the same character making FATE/dungeon grinding the only real option for leveling up other jobs). But if it is your first time playing, I'd say it's important to start from the beginning instead of jumping straight to expansion content.

That's how I feel since honestly, I'm only doing the dungeons and stuff because they're required to go through the story. I could care less about any raids/dungeons, but there's so much other stuff to do like Triple Triad that I can still have a lot of fun with it regardless.

 

[Tabris]

Lol damn my buildings internet is hard down right now. ISP is looking into it. Hopefully fixed in next 2hrs

 

[Teknoman]

i can't wait to see what happens next in the story in addition to the new content. I'm a bit wary about jumping into instances blind, but hopefully I can do them all with GAF.

Thats the fun. Learning Snowcloak and other late game dungeons from scratch were some of the best end game experiences i've had.

These battles arent that hard to learn.

 

[Massive Duck. C.M.]

Thats the fun. Learning Snowcloak and other late game dungeons from scratch were some of the best end game experiences i've had.

These battles arent that hard to learn.

Yeah, main story content is generally lenient.

 

[Teknoman]

That and remember, even the first few parties had to go into coil and ex primals blind.

 

[Sandfox]

Thats the fun. Learning Snowcloak and other late game dungeons from scratch were some of the best end game experiences i've had.

These battles arent that hard to learn.

My only issue is that I don't feel like dealing with the crazy people who expect people to already know that content. I'm not really expecting the content to be hard once the mechanics are figured out though.

 

[IvorB]

If I was thinking about getting into FFXIV should I buy the expansion now or after I finish the main story? Only got to the first dungeon in the base game back when it came out.

If you decide to sign up you can get awesome rewards through the refer-a-friend programme. If you get in touch when you sign up I'd be happy to help you out there.

Lol damn my buildings internet is hard down right now. ISP is looking into it. Hopefully fixed in next 2hrs

Oh man. That sucks. :-(

 

[Sorian]

Lol damn my buildings internet is hard down right now. ISP is looking into it. Hopefully fixed in next 2hrs

First Moara abandons me and now you.

I should be sleeping O_O

 

[Kenai]

My only issue is that I don't feel like dealing with the crazy people who expect people to already know that content. I'm not really expecting the content to be hard once the mechanics are figured out though.

90% of the time if you say you are new they will be accommodating. Especially now since the "new person" bonuses are going to be quite valuable with everyone uncapped.

 

[Matrix XII]

Awesome OT! I really hope Heavensward is received well. May have to resub soon

 

[Tabris]

First Moara abandons me and now you.

I should be sleeping O_O

I should be fine. They are usually good about this but I'll let you know

 

[Nohar]

Did anyone get their actual expansion code from GMG? All I received was the early access code.

... Waiiiiit a minute... We will need two codes? One for the early access, and one for the game proper? That's... not very convenient.
The website I bought Heavensward on (instant-gaming.com) only sent me the EA key so far.

 

[Sandfox]

So in my first session I'm planning on:
1. Wait in the queue
2. Do the lvl 50 dragoon quest
3. Start the 3.0 story
4. Clean out my inventory which I forgot to do yesterday
5. Get my machinist

By then the servers will probably be pulled down for maintenance or something because of Duty Finder breaking or something.

 

[skLaFarebear]

90% of the time if you say you are new they will be accommodating. Especially now since the "new person" bonuses are going to be quite valuable with everyone uncapped.

Yup, in my dungeon experience, people have been super nice and helping you out if you tell them you're new.

Part of me wishes they still had SP options for story dungeons, but I get its an MMO.

 

[Xiaoki]

Going straight for Dark Knight. Im a tank at heart and DK seems like the most interesting.

Cant wait to do Qarn or Stone Vigil with an Astro healer and 2 Machinist DPS.

 

[Primus]

 

[Hasemo]

... Waiiiiit a minute... We will need two codes? One for the early access, and one for the game proper? That's... not very convenient.
The website I bought Heavensward on (instant-gaming.com) only sent me the EA key so far.

I contacted the website where I bought my key and they said they'll be sending regular codes on the 23rd. Since EA codes let us play until the 27th, everything should be fine.

 

[Nohar]

I contacted the website where I bought my key and they said they'll be sending regular codes on the 23rd. Since EA codes let us play until the 27th, everything should be fine.

OK, thank you for the clarification, I admit I was a little worried there for a minute.

 

[Altima]

Leveling from 1-50 is super boring even in the first playthrough.

Boring story. Boring and repetitive gameplay.

 

[Nohar]

Leveling from 1-50 is super boring even in the first playthrough.

Boring story. Boring and repetitive gameplay.

Sadly true, especially when your class doesn't have any abilities, making the gameplay especially redundant and repetitive. It gets better though.
Thanksfully, the new jobs will begin at level 30.

 

[Sorian]

Leveling from 1-50 is super boring even in the first playthrough.

Boring story. Boring and repetitive gameplay.

Hyperbole \o/

 

[Augemitbutter]

i hope they keep the story engaging. i actually enjoyed the last few story cutscenes.

that......is a miracle.

 

[plake]

... Waiiiiit a minute... We will need two codes? One for the early access, and one for the game proper? That's... not very convenient.
The website I bought Heavensward on (instant-gaming.com) only sent me the EA key so far.

The game isn't out til the 23rd so naturally you will get the code at that date.

Edit: wow this thread moves fast

 

[Erekiddo]

I didn't know the patches were adding main story scenarios. My last one was the ultima weapon one.

I completed a realm reborn, but, there's like 100 more.

Fuck.

 

[the_sun_king]

I didn't know the patches were adding main story scenarios. My last one was the ultima weapon one.

Fuck.

Yeah, every main patch (2.1-2.5) continued the story past the end of vanilla 2.0. I'm hyped for where it's gonna go in Heavensward. \o/