Well, shit. I guess I'll just re-up right now to clean up the stuff I haven't done because NO ONE is going to do that shit once the expansion comes out and I need vinco's help for that.
They should have dropped the price more if they expect you to buy a sub too. This effectively makes the expansion more expensive than the full game at launch.
They figure if you are buying the expansion, which you can't do much of anything with unless you complete the main story line so far, then you already know if you like the game or not and are willing to pay the sub.
@seikenfreak: Can you do ANYTHING in Heavensward without finishing the main quest? Like, I'm pretty sure you have to finish it to even get Dark Knight.
@steadying: I'm not entirely sure of everything you can and can't do. But I know the quests for the new jobs are inside Ishgard, and you can't get into Ishgard without completing the story thus far. I'll guess that you can probably go into one or two of the new zones.
I'm happy they are doing it this way though. They make the game way too easy as it is. Then again, that'll probably get nerfed for whatever reason and allow everyone to skip around and do whatever story they want :/
/grumble back in my day, we had to play games to unlock stuff /endgrumble
They figure if you are buying the expansion, which you can't do much of anything with unless you complete the main story line so far, then you already know if you like the game or not and are willing to pay the sub.
About how long do you think it'd take someone to complete the main story line if they started from scratch?
@bocam: Ooof.. I don't know. I've heard people say week.. two weeks.. It'd take awhile IMO. There are a loooot of quests. And doing them back to back can be pretty mind numbing.
That's showing 346 main scenario quests, everything from 2.0 (launch) to 2.55 (most recent patch). You might be able to do it somewhat quickly if you have all day and are skipping cutscenes and dialog. But that's no fun.
They figure if you are buying the expansion, which you can't do much of anything with unless you complete the main story line so far, then you already know if you like the game or not and are willing to pay the sub.
About how long do you think it'd take someone to complete the main story line if they started from scratch?
@bocam: Ooof.. I don't know. I've heard people say week.. two weeks.. It'd take awhile IMO. There are a loooot of quests. And doing them back to back can be pretty mind numbing.
That's showing 346 main scenario quests, everything from 2.0 (launch) to 2.55 (most recent patch). You might be able to do it somewhat quickly if you have all day and are skipping cutscenes and dialog. But that's no fun.
Trust me, almost everything in this game is gated behind the story. We've all learned this this the hard way and I expect to see quite a bit of frustration because of it come launch (especially amongst new players), but it will help with a few things in the long run. Also, there's no confirmation of the new areas being absolutely locked off---at least not every single piece of it. With the way they've handled the game so far I can totally see it happening though, so don't get your hopes up. They're probably hoping it will curb people cracking entire areas in half because of server strain like the initial launch. The game is adding as much content (I think they've at least doubled the actual space) as the initial game presented with and that's a lot of shit. One of the most unique things about this game is how aggressive their content addition has been since 2013. They've already been adding damn-near mini expansions every three months since launch like clockwork. It's added up to quite a bit. This is the first actual expansion so I don't doubt them when they say how much they're adding this time.
My estimate is if you wish to kick back and enjoy the story and play about 4-5 hours every day from now until launch, you might make it just in time (like seriously if you're planning to do this, stop reading this and start downloading/playing now). However, If you skip everything (cutscenes, dialouge, etc.) you can probably do it in a week or so if you're absolutely determined.
@snakelinksonic: 1-2 weeks to clear all the story seems kinda absurd to me. It took me nearly a month to clear the main story at launch, averaging more than 4-5 hours a day. Sure, that was with plenty optional side stuff thrown in, but the story has practically doubled since then. Adding everything up to 2.55 you're in for a serious time commitment.
Also, I would not be surprised if the initial week, at least, is plagued with lag and maintenance. Maintenance is expected with any MMO release like this but in the past, I've had serious lag issues when the game is going full tilt popular. The "early access" pre-order thing is just a soft launch as usual. I expect the servers to be exploding for those few days. When Ninja released it was bad for me for like a month. The swarm of people for this is going to be nuts. We'll see. So nice seeing this game have such success though.
Point is: don't feel like there is some rigid deadline. Play the game, enjoy the content that is there and take your time. You don't want to burn through everything and then be starved to death on content and live patch to patch (like I do)
Also, I would not be surprised if the initial week, at least, is plagued with lag and maintenance. Maintenance is expected with any MMO release like this but in the past, I've had serious lag issues when the game is going full tilt popular. The "early access" pre-order thing is just a soft launch as usual. I expect the servers to be exploding for those few days. When Ninja released it was bad for me for like a month. The swarm of people for this is going to be nuts. We'll see. So nice seeing this game have such success though.
Point is: don't feel like there is some rigid deadline. Play the game, enjoy the content that is there and take your time. You don't want to burn through everything and then be starved to death on content and live patch to patch (like I do)
This is probably the best advice you'll get regarding the matter.
They figure if you are buying the expansion, which you can't do much of anything with unless you complete the main story line so far, then you already know if you like the game or not and are willing to pay the sub.
About how long do you think it'd take someone to complete the main story line if they started from scratch?
@bocam: Ooof.. I don't know. I've heard people say week.. two weeks.. It'd take awhile IMO. There are a loooot of quests. And doing them back to back can be pretty mind numbing.
That's showing 346 main scenario quests, everything from 2.0 (launch) to 2.55 (most recent patch). You might be able to do it somewhat quickly if you have all day and are skipping cutscenes and dialog. But that's no fun.
Trust me, almost everything in this game is gated behind the story. We've all learned this this the hard way and I expect to see quite a bit of frustration because of it come launch (especially amongst new players), but it will help with a few things in the long run. Also, there's no confirmation of the new areas being absolutely locked off---at least not every single piece of it. With the way they've handled the game so far I can totally see it happening though, so don't get your hopes up. They're probably hoping it will curb people cracking entire areas in half because of server strain like the initial launch. The game is adding as much content (I think they've at least doubled the actual space) as the initial game presented with and that's a lot of shit. One of the most unique things about this game is how aggressive their content addition has been since 2013. They've already been adding damn-near mini expansions every three months since launch like clockwork. It's added up to quite a bit. This is the first actual expansion so I don't doubt them when they say how much they're adding this time.
My estimate is if you wish to kick back and enjoy the story and play about 4-5 hours every day from now until launch, you might make it just in time (like seriously if you're planning to do this, stop reading this and start downloading/playing now). However, If you skip everything (cutscenes, dialouge, etc.) you can probably do it in a week or so if you're absolutely determined.
There is no way someone can get caught up if they were to play 4-5 hours a day until the expansion comes out. I started playing back in January and it took me a while to catch up to the main story. Hell, I played for 2 months and didn't finish everything.
To the people wondering how long it'll take to complete ALL the story stuff before the expansion hits, I did that not too long ago. I came back a month ago (give or take a few days) and I finished around a week or so ago. Granted, you not only have to factor in how much of the story you need to do (I was somewhere in between the beginning and the halfway point. I was at Toto Rak), what class you're playing (dungeon queues for DPS. Enough said.) and if you need to level up your class instead of having a maxed out class before hand, it might take you longer than it did me or shorter.
If you have to level a class on top of doing the story then it'll definitely take you a little longer since you'll be focusing on that too. But then again you can just run FATEs since those give you a good amount of XP.
A lot of time can be saved if you have a decent free company and some reliable linkshells with people willing to help you through the game, basically if you are dps (like me) and try to queue for dungeons or raids you will sometimes wait up to an hour to get a pop and even then, you are not gauranteed that the people you are paired with will be able to complete the content and then its back in the queue for another spell.
We had two new players join our FC and they played fairly solidly for 2 weeks and called for me and some of the other guys when needed and got through the majority of the content in that time. Its not impossible but i do worry about them burning out on the game since they havent really taken any breaks to play anything else in the time they joined us, hopefully that wont happen but just to show really, it can be done.
So, I'm thinking of trying this out. I don't know-- I got that itch to try this game, and maybe the expansion might be a fun launching point - who knows? I've looked into the game, and it looks interesting/different. Plus: I do enjoy me some FF universe stuff. So here's my question I'm posing to you folks (because I haven't been able to find anything yet): I'm thinking about getting the bundle. If I do get it, will I get the FFRB early? I imagine I would, since it's the digital version. This might be a stupid question, but like I said: I can't find anything. Or maybe I'm not looking in the right places?
@babychoochoo: Oh, haha thought that might have been a obvious acronym: Final Fantasy Realm Reborn. (Although I suppose I could been smart and used FFXIV!?!?!)
@kawiji: Ah, well based on what I heard, that's actually not a stupid question at all. Tons of people seem confused and rightfully so haha. Well, as it turns out no you don't get the base game early nor do you get early access to Heavenwards on the 19th. Both of those things seem like super weird oversights on Square's part if you ask me, but it is what it is.
If you want to play the game right now, you can either download the trial (14 days, lvl 20 cap + some other restrictions) or buy the game now and the expansion separately. Amazon has the base game available for $20 and since the expansion is $40 and the bundle is $60, you'll be paying the same price anyway.
@kawiji: If you get the bundle then no you wont' get any sort of early access but also you might as well just jump in now if you are planning on playing as the expansion is primarily lvl50+ content meaning you won' be seeing it for quite a while anyways. Might as well get started and figure out the game and start working your way through the 2.0 story.
@babychoochoo: @kawiji: Not including early access makes sense to me, since it's really meant for Heavensward players, and a new player has countless hours of content before you can even access that stuff.
Not being to access the base game would kind of suck, but I would definitely go for the trial first. If you did it now that pretty much leads you right up to the official launch of Heavensward, and it's basically an extra two free weeks added on to the 30 days you get when you buy ARR.
@zeik: @babychoochoo: That really is weird. I mean, what's the point of getting the bundle at all if you don't get access to the keycode for the base game right away? And I'm fine with not having early access, that incentive never really hooked me because I crawl through content so slowly. But I do appreciate the advice from everyone! I didn't realize there was a 14 day trial, so I signed up for that. If the game gets its hooks in me, well I might pick it up! Loving the look of it... even though I haven't gotten to play yet. (Long download time + having to get up early for work)
Getting back to topic: I'm not surprised that buying the expansion doesn't give 30 days free. That's always been the way it is (WoW expansions come to mind). Still, just because that's the way it's always been doesn't mean they can't break the mold - having a free month included (with the expansion) would be a nice little incentive to get players to try out the new content.
@corvak: Everything in this game is locked behind the story, so it's hardly a surprise that the expansion is, too. Hell, the expansion is a direct continuation of the storyline from the base game.
@warlordpayne: I know...i'm just level 34, and fear the potentially abandoned dungeon runs i'll need to get to 2.55 content.
We'll see how things go when the expansion hits, but I think they've done a pretty good job incentivizing players to do old content again and again. A lot of the focus will be on the new content, but part of that is the new jobs, and people will have to go back to older dungeons to level those up.
Although that doesn't say much for all those post game dungeons and bosses from 2.1-2.55. With all the good loot and stronger enemies being in the expansion that could be problematic if they didn't add any new incentives with the expansion.
Plus when the expansion launches, they have already put in plans to help people get to new content.
ALL story quests will be worth alot more exp. Dungeon armour will be rewards in story content near to 50 and the 2.x series of quests. Incentive for older players to run old story content Plus more I cannot remember of the top of my head.
@davids: Leveling a character was really never much of an issue for your primary class, and all the post-game story stuff never required extra levels anyway. Hopefully the new tome equivalent will be added to those 2.x dungeons, because otherwise there's not going to be much reason for veteran players to go back and do them. Nobody is going to do it for soldiery tomes and level 50 loot.
@sirfork: I'm sure I'm not the only one here who has never cared enough about an MMO before to bother buying an expansion to find this out.
Yeah it's a pretty standard practice to not give another free month, not saying I like it. I would actually love it if they gave an extra month as expansions can be pretty steep in cost. But for the most part I'm comfortable paying 40 dollars for Heavensward as I actually know they will deliver a ton of content. After Warlords for 50 dollars and the state of that game 40 dollars seems like a bargain, and that's pretty sad on blizzards part.
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