Final Fantasy XIV online!

[ZetaEpyon]

I got the beta invite, but didn't get a key. I checked my spam folder, my trash, everything. I never got it.

If they can't get THAT right, then fuck it.

Besides, I know three people who've played FF14 and the two of them I've talked to about it say it's basically FF11 with better graphics and is only slightly more geared to solo play.

I don't know; I've played FF11 for 7 years, and the games feel totally different to me. The only similarities are the race design (obviously) and some of the overall world design. The mechanics and whatnot are completely different, and MUCH more geared to solo play.

 

[pathos]

I did not play in the beta, but I did purchase the le edition. I've only played a little bit here and there, so right now my pugilist is only physical level 9, pug level 7, I think.

I think I'll play a little more tonight, but honestly, unless the game changes drastically over the next month (or, perhaps when you hit a certain level?), I doubt I'll play anymore after the free month is up.

Generally, I like playing mmo's, but I am a casual player by anyone's book. I mostly like solo questing in any game I play, with grouping only when I have to. I dont like tradeskilling, finding them tedious in most every game I've ever played. Although I've been known to just grind mindlessly on mobs to raise my level, I don't particularly care for it.

The first hurdle I ran into is the ui system. I expected it wasn't going to be that good, since it was designed with a console in mind. That premonition turned out quite accurate. But, the targetting is quite bad. The rest of the ui is bearable, but not that.

Next would be...what the heck am I actually supposed to be doing? It doesn't take long to get through the little opening quest series. Are there any more? I haven't found any. You do get to do 8 of the guildleves (or whatever they are called), but I've only found 4 for my level range. Perhaps there are more for the level 10 camp? Even if so, I can knock out all 4 of the early ones in about 35 minutes. Even if we doubled that to the 8 max...thats about an hour of gameplay every 2 days? What next? Are there some quests I'm missing here? And yeah, I kind of figure grouping would fix this at least a tiny bit, by being able to share the leves across everyone.

Which sort of leads into my final point. I can understand some game manufacturers don't want to give away game mechanics and lore on the first day. But, I think they could probably give out more than I've found, which has been next to none. What do those stat points I keep spending when I level up actually do? They sound sort of self explanatory, but are they really? Those favor points I use when I start up a leve, or those anima (?) points I've used one time when I was to lazy to walk back to camp, do those ever go back up again? They don't seem to. I could keep going.

Perhaps all the things that puzzle me about the game are explained somewhere, in some menu or tutorial I haven't found yet. I assume there are probably already websites and wikis already springing up with knowledge bases on exactly how to play this game. But, my time is limited now, and any game that actually makes me jump through hoops to actually understand some of the game basics, or, most especially, not give me enough to do to actually keep me busy...well, they don't really want me as a customer, I guess.

 

[tedrodai]

To be blunt, there is no hand-holding in this game, at all. You have to explore, search, experiment, or wait for others to do it all for you and write guides/wikis. I don't mean that condescendingly...I state it that way to emphasise the point. SE has given out some tidbits of information, but mostly just clues, and players have already recorded LOTS of good info, but you won't currently (possibly ever) find any of this information in-game. You have to search the internet and dig around forums to find it. Eventually the allakhazam site and several others will have most of it consolidated, but it's still spread out currently. Heck I play in windowed mode just so I can easily have my browser ready to open this or that website for references/research while I'm playing.

The game is a lot more casual-minded than FFXI, but I still feel they don't have a real concept of 'casual'. Their idea of casual was to make it so everyone could solo to an extent -- much better than FFXI -- and so you don't have to wait hours for the perfectly balanced group. They also made crafting and gathering both easier and more rewarding (since you get XP that will help improve any class you play), and earning gil much easier and quicker (lv10 leves really start giving nice gil rewards). We'll have to wait for crafters to level up some before we can GEAR ourselves propery, but there will be a lot more crafters.

The people who designed and implemented the user interface, control scheme (lumping targetting in with this), and configuration options needs to be shot. Or fired. Or at least demoted. I don't think anyone disagrees with that. It needs major work. They've publicly commited to trying to improve the speed of the UI, but hopefully they won't stop there--only time will tell. I mean, you can only have 2 chat tabs...

ZetaEpyon, that's good to hear they stopped deleting characters lol...at the time, it was basically a never-play-again commitment if you'd put any decent amount of time into it.

edit: anima and favor does regen slowly; supposedly at a speed that causal players should find acceptable...it's designed to punish hardcore players and give 'casual' players a leg up, just like the sp/exp fatigue system. You can get more leves of a certain level by travelling to another city's adventure guild, but that'll end up eating even more anima. Crafting leves make you travel to every freakin camp on the planet just to take up time and anima.

 

[ZetaEpyon]

Anima regenerates at a rate of 1 point every 4 hours. In beta, it was 1 point per 6 hours.

As it stands, it seems pretty insufficient if you want to do anything other than run around the zones right outside of town. God forbid you want to port around to other cities to do leves there.

That said, I think that rate would be acceptable, IF there were alternative forms of transportation that were faster than walking but slower than teleporting (*cough*chocobos*cough*). Teleporting into a city and then taking a bird to wherever would be a lot more palatable.

Another change that would help a ton would be if they allowed the option of setting your home point at an aetheryte when you touch it, rather than doing it automatically. At least that way you could have a quick, free death trip home, instead of the last aetheryte you touched, if you wanted to do it that way.

 

[chocobaR]

Anyone got a Buddy Pass they won't be using? I'd like to give it a try and see how my rig runs it. Thanks in advance.

 

[darkewaffle]

Good friend of mine and I finally installed and started playing this weekend, we've been quite enjoying ourselves.

I'm still not sure what to make of the guildleve system exactly, I think I like it though. I think people are making the mistake of assuming that the leves are the best/only way to progress your character though, which is very incorrect. They're more like WoW dailies than anything else; just some uncomplicated quests to make you some cash each day, with the added advantage of increased skillups and experience for the duration with the Guardian's Favor.

Crafting and harvesting are a bit monotonous. I don't mind the minigame control scheme but its still pretty time consuming because of the UI's delay from window to window. They're very rewarding though, and you can get started/progress really easily with the local levequests.

One major gripe is the removal of the Auction House and Bank. I guess logistically it seems like killing two birds with one stone and replacing them with the retainers sounds nice, plus no AH is going to really cripple gilsellers I'd think, but I don't know that it's worth the loss of functionality for players. Currently trying to find items you'd want in the market wards (huge mass of bazaar NPCs) is frustrating and inefficient and prices are very volatile.

I'm enjoying the combat mechanics and I think the UI is superior to FFXI's at the very least, it's much less cumbersome and more flexible. I kind of miss the job/subjob system though, but I understand that abilities learned by each class you level can be shared (to some extent?). I haven't leveled any other combat classes to find out yet.

On the plus side, if you register(ed) your game prior to 10/25 they're granting you an extra free month's play for all the negative feedback they've gotten. I think SE released it early but they'll get it right. If nothing else, we're having fun and I'm looking forward to going home tonight to do my leves and some more crafting

 

[Rhezuss]

Good friend of mine and I finally installed and started playing this weekend, we've been quite enjoying ourselves.

I'm still not sure what to make of the guildleve system exactly, I think I like it though. I think people are making the mistake of assuming that the leves are the best/only way to progress your character though, which is very incorrect. They're more like WoW dailies than anything else; just some uncomplicated quests to make you some cash each day, with the added advantage of increased skillups and experience for the duration with the Guardian's Favor.

Crafting and harvesting are a bit monotonous. I don't mind the minigame control scheme but its still pretty time consuming because of the UI's delay from window to window. They're very rewarding though, and you can get started/progress really easily with the local levequests.

One major gripe is the removal of the Auction House and Bank. I guess logistically it seems like killing two birds with one stone and replacing them with the retainers sounds nice, plus no AH is going to really cripple gilsellers I'd think, but I don't know that it's worth the loss of functionality for players. Currently trying to find items you'd want in the market wards (huge mass of bazaar NPCs) is frustrating and inefficient and prices are very volatile.

I'm enjoying the combat mechanics and I think the UI is superior to FFXI's at the very least, it's much less cumbersome and more flexible. I kind of miss the job/subjob system though, but I understand that abilities learned by each class you level can be shared (to some extent?). I haven't leveled any other combat classes to find out yet.

On the plus side, if you register(ed) your game prior to 10/25 they're granting you an extra free month's play for all the negative feedback they've gotten. I think SE released it early but they'll get it right. If nothing else, we're having fun and I'm looking forward to going home tonight to do my leves and some more crafting

Most reviews, from players and pro sites, convinced me to let it pass...but reading things like this tends to change my mind. Looks like you're enjoying your days in there and it's making me consider buying it for the 2 free months...

Being mostly a solo gamer (have very scarse and chaotic play time) and loving MMOs (still on a month of Age of Conan), looks like FFXIV have it's share of stuff for solo players without crippling the hardcore experience.

Maybe i'll just pass in the videogame row in my local store and try to resist the urge...if it's not working, too bad i'm gonna play tonight hahah!

 

[darkewaffle]

Yea, so far I've pretty much soloed except for the quests which we party up for, allowing us to turn up the difficulty which also increases your rewards. There doesn't seem to be a lot of non-leve quests yet, aside from story/class specific, but I haven't gone looking either. I know some of the outpost camps have event battles you can participate in (solo or not) for Gil and increased XP, and seriously you can get a lot of XP out of crafting. I find myself wondering what more there is/will be to do, but I'd rather and I'm happy to keep building my character first.

There's some initial confusion of what to do and just like FFXI the controls definitely take some getting used to, but I think as SE continues to fine tune it and the community makes it more accessible it will become easier to get into. I think people that played FFXI and come to XIV won't really have a problem because, well, XI was a very unique experience. But people that come to XIV from the likes of WoW will be in for some culture shock.

 

[ZetaEpyon]

Nice to see a few new people giving it a try. I really think it still has promise, just needed to launch later. It's already improved somewhat since launch, and there are some much needed changes scheduled for the updates in November and December.

In case you hadn't seen them yet:
http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/topics/detail?id=c07a85c2f170a53057f5a39f56e6fc02b03b1184

 

[tedrodai]

Thanks for the link ZetaEpyon, because I missed that article. I've been enjoying the game overall, progressing with some LS buddies, but most of those changes are sorely needed. If they implement those late-November changes well, the game will take a VERY LARGE STEP towards being a good game. There will still be some missing pieces, but it looks like they're addressing many of the really nagging issues. By the December update I'd probably be willing to recommend the game to people. As it is, I don't try to deter people from trying it, because it can be fun, but I try to make sure people are aware of the state of the game if they're considering it.

I kind of miss the job/subjob system though, but I understand that abilities learned by each class you level can be shared (to some extent?). I haven't leveled any other combat classes to find out yet.

Yeah, most abilities that each class learns are equipable on any other class, though there is some sort of affinity associated with cross-class abilities that I haven't read about anyone studying yet. There are a few abilities that can't be equiped on other classes. If you were to level thaumaturge and conjurer each to level 20, for instance, the entire range of spells for each class could be equipped and used on the other class, save their respective 10-min cooldown MP restores. I think I like this system better than the sub-jobs.

I've found battleleves to be great for the rewards (gil/guild points/etc), but not so much for EXP/SP (unless solo or in very small groups). Party grinding mobs with higher HP is by far the best way to progress with the battle classes. Feel free to laugh at SE's claims to get rid of traditional tank/healer/dps roles, though -- it's definitely improved over FFXI, with more classes able to share duties or switch abilities on the fly, but you still need these roles for any challenging fights.

edit: I think I'll be sticking with the game. If anyone happens to be on the Bodhum server, let me know if you want a LS (or another one, since you use many at the same time). Character's name is Maleko Kekoa.

 

[darkewaffle]

Impressions from a few more days.

Battlecraft leves are good; nice rewards even though the XP/SP from them taper off it seems (I might just be overlevelled for the ones I'm doing though, still haven't ventured too far out) and they're not so easy they're mindless but not overwhelming either.

Harvesting or Crafting leves not quite as good. Very good XP/SP, but if you take on more than a couple of these they feel pretty time consuming with the little minigames involved for each harvest/craft, I've noticed harvesting leves can require a pretty long run too. Might just be in my head though, and I should probably stop wasting my time on crafting leves above my level, all failures and not worth the SP.

I miss the auction house, but the retainer system should work ok if they automate/enforce some more organization.

Inventory management needs a sort function, and the 'damaged gear' system could use some work. It's a pain in the ass to figure out what's damaged and I think it's silly for gear to reach that point at as much as 75% durability, give us at least until 50%. Though I don't know how significantly it effects performance, if it turns out it's really small then I don't care.

All in all I'm still enjoying myself, and a lot of my gripes have been echoed by others and afaik are undergoing revisions. Interested to see more of the world, it feels smaller than FFXI thus far but I'm pretty sure that's merely because I haven't gone anywhere and I'm really interested to see how party play feels.

 

[Rhezuss]

Hows the game fairs now since last month?
Any worthy updates?

 

[ZetaEpyon]

The first major update is scheduled for late November, and should essentially fix a lot of the usability/playability issues that the game shouldn't have launched with in the first place.

Personally, I wouldn't expect anything groundbreaking prior to that.

 

[Rhezuss]

Any new things about the game? Welcomed changes and updates?
Good buy now?

 

[nanobreath]

Any new things about the game? Welcomed changes and updates?
Good buy now?

The game is currently in subscription free mode while they fix a lot of the problems. No announcement as of yet on when they will start charging subscriptions. The basic game is still the same as on release. They have made some definite improvements, but the underlying game hasn't changed really.

I stopped playing mid December just before the major update that added searching to the market wards. I realized the only reason I was playing was so that my character would be "prepared" when the game was worth playing. Mainly leveling crafting skills to be able to repair my gear... Started playing FO:NV and was having so much more fun I didn't even contemplate trying to play FF again.

 

[Rhezuss]

The game is currently in subscription free mode while they fix a lot of the problems. No announcement as of yet on when they will start charging subscriptions. The basic game is still the same as on release. They have made some definite improvements, but the underlying game hasn't changed really.

I stopped playing mid December just before the major update that added searching to the market wards. I realized the only reason I was playing was so that my character would be "prepared" when the game was worth playing. Mainly leveling crafting skills to be able to repair my gear... Started playing FO:NV and was having so much more fun I didn't even contemplate trying to play FF again.

Temporary F2P can be considered but it's still $50...
I'll think about it then...

 

[tedrodai]

I'm surprised to see this thread pop up again =), but I am still playing this game. Though, while I'm having fun playing with some of the people I've met, I do kindof feel like nanobreath did: like I'm continuing to play now mainly to get my character ready for the REAL game if it ever reaches that point. There's the social aspect of the game of course, but almost everyone is hanging around dissatisfied overall and hoping/waiting for better things.

They've made a LOT of improvements to the game and continue to, but if it had been released today, it would still do poorly. They restructured the FFXIV team cause the 1st one failed so miserably, and they seem to be taking an open approach to giving players the types of changes they want, as evidenced by the recent player's poll they conducted and the proposed updates based on it. They're not opposed to changing core game elements (and players won't mind it either), but they have to be careful about it and it'll take months yet.

The biggest improvement over release is the simple NEEDED GUI issues they've addressed, but these are probably the major issues that still need to be addressed:

1) Barely any content. SE has released some NM's -- 5 free roaming (1 for each region) and 3 leve related NMs -- but they're all for very high level parties, have pretty low drop rates to keep you grinding, and the fights are pretty dull considering they are THE only end-game content. Other than that, you just grind to level up and do some/all of your alloted 8 battle and 8 crafting leves every 36hrs. The few story and class quests are dull and confusing, save maybe a couple of the later ones. SE hasn't had time to put new content in other than the high level NMs cause they're having to spend all these months fixing basic core shit about the game.

2) Skill point gain is...messed up, as it has been from the start. At least now we have a set # of skill points per kill and everyone of the same rank gets the same amount, but the SP gained per kill is rather low for the mid to late levels and isn't balanced for how difficult mobs are (i.e. this mob with 500hp gives you the same SP as this one with 5k hp and twice the defense). Whereas soloed mobs around your level in the teens might net you 200+ SP per kill with about 7k needed to rank up, soloed mobs around your level in the 40's are doing good to net you 100 per kill with 80k needed to rank up (that's not the best way to level later, but just shows you how imbalanced it is). It sure beats their initial SP system, but it's still all wrong.

3) Marketplace system doesn't work. SE is investigating options (possible auction house, or some other improvement to their retainer system), but while they know it needs fixing, they don't know yet how they're gonna fix it. The search function they implemented was a start, but it is incomplete. The search will highlight retainers selling the item you are looking for, but it won't tell you which zone in the markets they are in, so you have to hope that people are selling things the the correct zone for that type of item or you have to skip around all 15ish market zones to check. You might have to guess which zone the item is supposed to be sold in to begin with, because with all of the crafting mats in the game....it is not always obvious. And if you spend the time to set up your 2 retainers to sell things in the markets, don't plan on them being up the next day doing their job, because the markets crash at least once a day. They'd crash more often if people could find out when the crashes happen so they could go set up retainers again. XD

 

[AlgaeEater]

This is good news at least. I've always been a "glass half empty" type of guy toward FF XIV but hopefully things turn out for the better down the road.

Without subscriptions though they're going to run into money problems fast. (Well at least those in charge will start to get irritated a bit about it) Let's hope a 2012 re-release will be in the cards with a good game.

 

[skuzzie]

Sooo, should I get back into ffxi?...or ffxiv??

 

[wormer311]

they doin a lot of updates ima give it a try

 

[morpheus305]

They are doing lots of updates but if you only wanna play the game once its fixed I would say wait for now. It is better than it was at launch but they still have some issues that need to be fixed. On march 8th we will see some new content finally in the form of side quest and world quest. I'm pretty sure sometime this spring we will see some very important updates that will finally push the game to the point where most will be able to enjoy it.

 

[PowerYoga]

There is still no content. The March update promises actual quests (not the chore leves) but how many and whether or not they are worth doing remains to be seen.

Also market wards still crash 2-3 times a day and its damn near impossible to sell stuff if you don't check it twice a day.

go back to FFXI until this game gets fixed.

 

[manimal]

I refuse to go back until they add an auction house...

 

[ViviTheMage]

Anyone have some in game screenies? They ever fix that horrendous mouse delay?

 

[ZetaEpyon]

Hardware mouse was added a long time ago, iirc.