Will the expansion be geared towards end-game players?Follow

I'd guess that it would be a mix considering at least one new Job

There hasn't been any info yet so no one knows anything at all really. Just guesses.

If I had to guess though I'd guess that most of the expansion content will be for level 50+. The path to 50 is pretty much fixed at this point and I can't see SE adding entirely new 1-50 zones and stories just for any new classes they might add. There will probably be new features and classes and minigames and stuff that pre-50 players can take part in, but most, if not all the new zones and dungeons will probably be level 50 and above.

Edited, Aug 13th 2014 7:14pm by Karlina

Considering Yoshida's design philosphy is designing this game around players who don't and/or have yet to play the game, expect it to be more towards people just joining the game since you can hit 50/55 or w/e new cap will be pretty quickly.

There will probably be some quests that lower levels can do - quests to explore, to meet the new NPCs, etc. And of course your map achievement.

Following the patterns they used in FFXI, the bulk of the new content will be geared toward those at maximum level, or approaching it. Now, if they raise the level cap to 60, then the bulk of that content will be between the 50-60 range.

I wouldn't be too sure about that. With XI, even when they added new jobs AND new areas in each expansion, the new areas were not suitable for Level 1s. You still had to go to your city's previous noobie area for each new job you started.

We already have a wide variety of options for leveling. They might include some new level capped dungeons in new areas, but for the upcoming Rogue/Ninja set, you'll still be starting out in Limsa.

FFXI is a VERY different game though. It didn't have the same endgame exclusive focus that FFXIV does. In FFXI it could take years to get to max level and people actually spent a lot of time at the lower-middle levels.

You'd be better off looking at other modern MMOs. Look at WoW for example. Aside from the notable exception of Cataclysm, the only low level zones added in expansions were 1-20 starter zones for the new classes. Everything else is based around the new level cap. It's a waste of time adding a lot of low level content to a game that's designed around getting to the level cap ASAP.

Edit: Spelling

Edited, Aug 15th 2014 6:26pm by Karlina

XI also had a lot of other things you could do to keep busy in the lower and mid-range(not that leveling alone wouldn't keep you busy, but yeah...). XIV has a distinct lack of that. If they don't continually add depth to the early and mid game, the game will suffer.

XIV's bright spot is that the job system could allow for what would amount to a massive amount of content for some. The problem is that they need to motivate players to participate. It doesn't have to be all about endgame. XI managed to continually grow it's playerbase over it's first 4-5 years. This despite many of those players taking as much as half that time(or more in some cases) just reaching the level cap and experiencing very little endgame.

It's not uncommon to hear someone talk about how they played FFXI for a few years and learn that they only had 1 or 2 jobs and subjobs capped. I personally know several people who played for the better part of a decade but never broke a timeless hourglass, never set foot in sky or even so much as tossed a pebble at a Behemoth.

XIV doesn't have enough content that you could come back in 2016 and find someone who played since launch that doesn't have several capped jobs, several capped professions and wasn't clearing up through at least the previous content patch progression.

BCNMs, KSNMs, country missions, CoP/Zilart/etc missions, Fields/Grounds of Valor, Abyssea once you hit 30, Records of Eminence, Meeble Burrows, Beseiged...

I'd say that's a fair amount of content they've added over the years that isn't solely devoted to endgame. Hopefully XIV will increase the lower level options as well, because I agree that once you've levelled one job through a city the quests for 1-30 are gone and leveling another job there is much more tedious. I'm sure they'll add stuff at some point, but I'm guessing we won't see much until the expansion... maybe a bit when rogue/ninja come out.

Edited, Aug 16th 2014 2:57pm by BartelX

Stretch that content in 10 years and realize what a drought it has been in reality.

Give ARR 10 years and I bet you it'll have triple the amount of low-midlevel stuff to do outside grinding for money and exp than XI ever had.

Sorry for the reality check, everyone. XI was never better than ARR in this regard. Denial away!

Edited, Aug 17th 2014 8:01am by Hyanmen

/facepalm

Beseiged you can *MAYBE* make a claim due to the same fact of Campaign -- you could participate, but you rare got anything worth the time invested.

Records of Eminence *IS* kinda devoted to endgame; you're able to purchase weapons, yes, while leveling but 90% of what you buy relates to max level gear.

Abyssea? Being able to leech at level 30 doesn't mean you're actually, in any way, productive outside of being able to open boxes. It was designed to give people new areas to level at (*GASP*) endgame and a new (*GASP*) endgame stomping ground.

Meeble Burrows? What part of an event that was designed for level 99 players pre-Adoulin wasn't endgame only?

FoV/GoV/Missions/BCNM aren't really pertinent to either side.... except that they stopped adding in low ones and only added in high level ones now. Hmm..... I wonder why?

~~~

I find it hilariously hypocritical that people complain about needing to level so many jobs on the same content in FFXIV... yet had no qualms about the fact that until ToAU (50/55+) and WotG (40-45) you... didn't change your level areas. Yeah, I agree I'd like other options but it's hardly like it's any real different than any other MMO (Rift/WoW/SWTOR/etc. may have a few other areas to try but you still follow the exact same path) and to try to herald FFXI as something that gave you something new to do in low levels with each expansion is a fallacy.



CoP added nothing but gated zones no one bothered with due to terrible monster density and choice. A few people tried to push Rams and Rocs as merit fodder when Lufaise Meadows/Miseraux Coast were opened but it wasn't worth it. Carpenter's Landing? Attohwa Chasm? If it wasn't Sea, or a level capped area with terrible monsters for EXP (Fomor/Undead/Minotaurs), or a gated area that no one bothered to EXP in.

Funny thing about a lot of those events you're talking about. My old XI group recently had a returnee who lost his character and had to start over from scratch. He's been burning through content for MONTHS. He hit 99 in the first month easy enough, but it's been a game of constant catch up. Even gearing him up suitably, he's still having a lot of problems with the Adoulin endgame because the mobs are turned with such insanely high evasion and he leveled DRK.

XI's limiting factor is still the fact that you have to skill up your weapon. For those of us who were 75 and had capped our weapons or gotten close it wasn't too huge a deal.

All the other aforementioned content, though, is no problem, since he's already hit the 75 cap on accuracy and his gear is making the difference there. Assaults? Zilart and CoP missions? No problems.

The biggest design flaw in Campaign was that it didn't give skill ups. We [s]*********** complained about that for years. You do get skillups in Besieged, but only to a little over 75 cap. What saved those of us who went to 99 in Abyssea was the big leveling parties, which would take mobs to level 90 in the three Heroes expansions (notably doll parties out by flux 8 in Abysssea - Altepa.)

Skilling up from level 0 still takes a lot of time in FFXI. XIV really has no equivalent timesink.

Edit:Dumb filter!

Edited, Aug 17th 2014 10:04am by Catwho

Your math fails.

Fact: There are 248 weapons available for purchase with sparks prior to hitting level 99. The reason it's limited to weapons is that you can purchase armor from vendors. There are a total of 57 items you can purchase at level 99 and this includes armor. The truth is that almost 80% of the things you can use sparks to buy are intended for players BELOW level 99.

Myth busted.



EF kinda went hand in hand with outposts, another thing that was mentioned, so I figured why mention it twice. Also because you never participated so there's no point in arguing with you since you wouldn't know what you're talking about anyway


Soloing to cap you can get pretty damn close, but since you're helping I'll just assume that he or she is book/aby burned. The key to skilling up fast is sparks. Capped sparks gets you 250 skill up tomes that grant up to 0.5 skillups. Even the filthiest of casuals should be able to cap ALL of their job's relevant combat skills in a few weeks if assisted

Some of the Meeble Burrows things involved 0 combat as well - they were puzzles or races.

Legion, on the other hand, was added around the same time as Meeble Burrows, and even a well geared party of 99s still has trouble with the very end bosses there today (since it was made for an alliance.) Heck, I think some of the Delve bosses are easier.