FFXIV: A Realm Reborn

[Denmo]

Re: The Official Final Fantasy XIV Topic

[d2king10]

Re: The Official Final Fantasy XIV Topic

http://leakerz.net/wp/2010/08/27/ffxiv-open-beta/

Open beta is on Aug. 31st

[Jeroak Nelave]

Re: The Official Final Fantasy XIV Topic

So, is it possible to download the beta ahead of time to see if i can get in once it goes live? I dont even know if i have a created account yet.

[Magus]

Re: The Official Final Fantasy XIV Topic

Dat trailer.

If the game played like Monster Hunter I'd be all over that.

[Jeroak Nelave]

Re: The Official Final Fantasy XIV Topic

Not sure if i want to preorder regular or CE. besides the authenticator thing, and the behind the scenes stuff, is there a reason to get the CE over the regular edition?

I guess maybe the ability to play a week early...

[Goufunaki]

Re: The Official Final Fantasy XIV Topic

A week early, and an in game item that comes with the CE.

[Jeroak Nelave]

Re: The Official Final Fantasy XIV Topic

I went and ordered the CE at Gamestop, and thanks to the girl at the store, i'll be picking up a Professor Layton game for the first time tomorrow, and thanks to the manager there, i'll be able to try out Move tomorrow too.

Thank goodness i actually have a GOOD gamestop near me, and probably the best manager at a Gamestop store ever.

[Goufunaki]

Re: The Official Final Fantasy XIV Topic

http://www.ffxivcore.com/topic/12068...wth-in-beta-3/

It is worth noting, however, that the reduced rate will also gradually recover while players are engaged in activities that do not yield skill/experience points. In this manner, it is possible for the threshold value to reset completely, even before the completion of the one-week timer.

Not very clear, but it does give some hope to not be held back so much. The part when he mentions doing things that don't give skill/exp points, I have to wonder if that means not doing anything for the one class that needs rest, or if it means not earning any exp at all with any class in order to level up again before the week is up?

But with this in mind, it's not like we're going to be fighting 24/7. We'll run around, talk to people, explore places, have our own LS event where we use vials of poison on our level 1's to die in front of the auction house in one silly pile of bodies, ect...

[Denmo]

Re: The Official Final Fantasy XIV Topic

I'd imagine you could just AFK overnight and reset each day.

I just ordered my PSU and new vid card. Hope this **** works.

[Mcardy]

Re: The Official Final Fantasy XIV Topic

The way I kind of look at it, and if it turns out to be so I am completely down for it is:

Say, in one class you can only level 5 levels a week,

but because you have a multitude of hardcore people who want to level more than that, you make the penalty for that class only, and allow someone to level not one class, but multiple over the week.

I kind of like this because my RL friends essentially quit WoW and then tried to play Aion with me, but at both times quit because with full time jobs and being married + not always feeling like gaming they could never reach a point where they weren't playing "catch-up"

OK, so sure, it kind of sucks you can't power-level one class to max really quick, but at the same time say;

week 1: Theoretical cap is level 10 w/class restrictions
week 2: Theoretical cap w/ fatigue is 20
week 3: 25, etc.

While hardcore gamers still gain an edge because they have their characters at week 3 being 25/25/25/10/10/0/0, someone who doesn't have much time can have a 25/10/0/0/0 character and still participate in higher-level content.

This of course is because I'm getting older, I'll be taking a 40-hour 9-5 job when this student position runs out, and all my friends are at the point in their lives where they don't have a large amount of time to game. The reason they and I quit such games is because it reaches a point where if you don't have X hours to play in a week, you are at an extreme disadvantage.

Hopefully, a delicate balance will be maintained with these limits, as you don't want to block the player from feeling he hasn't progressed in a specific amount of time, but then give him 0% XP for "overlevelling."

To me, it's a "good" idea, but we'll see how with corporate influence and such, how it translates into the gameplay.

[Ryner]

Re: The Official Final Fantasy XIV Topic

I haven't been following this game at all, so forgive me for any ignorance. But as an MMO vet going back to the days of Everquest, I wanted to give some thoughts on the linked post that detailed some problems with the beta.

With this limited play thing... let's say you hit level 10 on a class and get a exp penalty. You can switch to your level 6 class to avoid this penalty, but then what? Unless there's a ton of different content, you're going to level up that level 6 class by doing the exact same things you just did to level up your penalized class.

The excuse about not wanting hardcore players to get too far ahead and giving casuals a chance is BS. I kind of doubt this game is a race. Unless there's a finite number of endgame resources and that level super-duper boss mob can only be killed 5 times before disappearing forever, having Hardcore Billy reach level 80 before Casual Kevin doesn't matter at all. What the hell does it matter if a total stranger is further along in the game than you are?

When discussing this feature, a lot of people in this topic have talked about grinding and seem to have the wrong idea. Grinding is not something that has ever been forced onto a player in the history of MMOs. Even in Everquest, when the only possible way to level was essentially to sit in the same spot and kill the same monster over and over, it was an option and that's all. If you want to kill monsters for 8 hours straight, you can. If you want to kill monsters for 20 minutes and then go exploring, you can. But it's always been your choice. It really sounds to me like Square Enix knows they don't have enough content to their game and they want to avoid people leveling too quickly and exposing this fact.

The guildleve system: 2001 called, they want Anarchy Online's crappy mission system back. That's probably an unfair comparison since I don't know enough about guildleves, but this was the first thought I had. If this is something extra to the main game then it's okay, but if it's the primary method to questing then it's a huge huge step back.

The bazaar: 2001 called again, they want Everquest's crappy bazaar back. No search function? Seriously? So if I want to buy some ore I have to search every single merchant and then look through their items for ore? In 2010? That's absurd.

[d2king10]

Re: The Official Final Fantasy XIV Topic

While hardcore gamers still gain an edge because they have their characters at week 3 being 25/25/25/10/10/0/0, someone who doesn't have much time can have a 25/10/0/0/0 character and still participate in higher-level content.

This isn't true. If anything, it will make it even harder for your friends to catch up, if at all. Think about it this way, say you go out of town for a few days and come back to find your friends have hit their level cap and are already starting on the next level cap barrier. There is essentially no way you could catch up to them as long as they are playing at the same time as you because you will eventually hit their last cap and have to wait a few days to get xp again.

This won't make it so players can find groups for higher level content easier, because what will happen is the players that don't start playing on week 1 will ALWAYS be behind another player because they already passed the penalties that you are having to hit at lower levels, thus ever preventing you from catching up to their levels as long as they are continuing to play.

It is also kind of a cheap tactic to keep players playing for X amount of weeks/months before they hit cap. Square already knows how long it will take to hit the max level because they have it regulated on a timer, thus they know how much money they are able to get out of a player before they hit max content and run out of stuff to do. And say you make a new character after you hit level cap, well, they know you are about to invest the same amount of money as your last character to get to max level again. No more sharing gear to your lower levels or getting help from people to level faster, because even if you use "twink" gear on your lower level guy, you will just end up hitting level cap faster that day than someone who doesn't have those items.

[Goufunaki]

Re: The Official Final Fantasy XIV Topic

So, is it possible to download the beta ahead of time to see if i can get in once it goes live? I dont even know if i have a created account yet.

http://www.fileplanet.com/215249/210...-Beta-Launcher

I haven't downloaded it, but the site says you need a key to get started, though. And the open beta is still somewhat limited early on, but eventually more people will be given keys to play.

As for how to get the keys? I have no clue.

[Mcardy]

Re: The Official Final Fantasy XIV Topic

You're assuming a higher level player would be penalized equally to a lower level one, which makes no sense given Square's reasoning behind this is to keep players somewhat even in levels. Even if your friend is 25 and you go out of town at 21, if he reaches his limit while you are gone, more than likely his penalty is higher since he needs more XP to hit 26 regardless of the %.

As I said, it is something that has to be handled very delicately. The worst thing that can happen to an MMO is to alienate its lower-level players and make it feel impossible for them to progress--And after leaving Aion for that same reason, I'm all for trying the system before I poo-poo it off.

In Aion, after 2 months the player base across all servers looked like this:

LVL 01-10 - 65%
LVL 11-20 - 14%
LVL 21-30 - 5%
LVL 31-40 - 5%
LVL 41-45 - 1%
LVL 46-50 - 10%

All the 'hardcore' PvP types blitzed straight to 50, got all of their epic PvP gear and since that time it is impossible for even a new level 50 to compete in ANY of the PvP content or instances because of the people who raced to the top all have such crazy gear that they are unbeatable, due to the game's emphasis on gear.

It was IMPOSSIBLE to find a party unless you were either level 50 or under 20. The % of player levels was skewed so much that sometimes you'd be on LFG for 3 hours and solo-grinding before you even got an invite. It was, and still is, terrible.

I hit 50, attempted to try these things and was getting literally one-shotted in fights to people who I knew had been level 50 for the past 6 months, and since you can view their gear online, you can confirm it.

THEN, when those 50s geared up their main character, they used all the money they had sitting around to buy the best possible equipment for their level 30 twink, and used them solely for "rifting" (Going into other faction's territory) PvP--It would usually take a GROUP of non-geared level 50s to even take down a level 35, and anyone who tried levelling in these areas was essentially screwed.

Obviously, Aion is a whole different beast since it's focus is solely on Gear and PvP, however the penalty for not being "hardcore" in the game means it is impossible as a casual person to enjoy. That's why I'm not fretting too much about this system--because when FF14 turns 6 months old, they'll have probably already abandoned their restrictions to let new people catch up in a fair way.

[Perversion]

Re: The Official Final Fantasy XIV Topic

You guys keep talking about paying money (monthly charge) to play the game. The last time I remember reading about it, I thought they had said they were going with a microtransaction-based framework, not a monthly charge. Did this change, and I was just unaware of it?