is FFXIV for you?

[ae|Red Horse]

cool i found another forum for dell mini's and someone was able to play it decently with lower settings....so i'll probably be playing it sometime tonight or whenever time permits (wife) haha.

[joe]

omg red horse!!!!!!

[ae|Red Horse]

haha see i told you i'll be around!!

[ae|Red Horse]

damn in-laws moved in for a few months taking up my space......glad their all out now!!!

[joe]

glad to see you man, catch us all up on what your life has been for the past whatever years

[Yokai]

I think you guys remember me from the FFXIII thread a long time ago when discussing the japanese version pre-release time?

Well, this game in comparison is stale. Even in comparison to XI, the only thing it has going for it is graphics. Having said that, there's a lot of potential in this game. I think it's different enough than most MMOs that, unlike age of conan or aion, it can co-exist with world of warcraft without it having to kill or replace WoW. There's one big problem though, and that's Square Enix. At this point in the game, I am unsure what square enix is thinking. I'm unsure about their team skills or organization, and I am unsure on whether or not what we want to see change will even change within the next few months.

Before I start my rant, I've always been a huge Final Fantasy fan, and final fantasy IX is one of the best games I have ever played and is basically what motivated me to become apart of the games industry (I don't have a job yet, but I'm working on finishing college first). However, since Final Fantasy XI, square enix has seemed to lost touch with what made their games so brilliant in the first place. It seems like all of their games have lost the charm that their old ones have.

I was a fan of FFXIII, but that isn't to say it couldn't be better. There was a ton of things missing, and it's bad when you can play a game and say "wow, they didn't add this or this." I think the biggest problems with the development of FFXIII was related to their workflow situations, I don't think Square Enix focused on things one thing at a time, and because of this there were many scrapped zones and textures according to one of the lead developers.

FFXIV seems to have the same issue. The game doesn't feel at all complete. Some people say FFXI was the same, but honestly FFXI was much farther along that XIV was at this point. To me, that's heart breaking. The whole EXP cap and guildleve cooldowns is just a cheap way for SE to make sure that players don't progress through their content too fast because they just don't have enough of it. There's much less communication in the game thus far, and there's still those annoying "FF-isms" where there's a crafting or various system which isn't explained anywhere in game. It's STILL one of those games where you have to spend most of your time reading web pages to figure out what you are doing.

Let's tackle this one thing at a time:
- The game has awful mitmapping (in other words, textures change from looking excelent to looking like complete shit in 1 transition)
- The textures are subpar (Specular map is either not present or way too strong on some things.)
- The level design is weak (there's no landmarks to determine where you are in a given zone, city paths are extremely complicated when they could easily be way more simple.)
- Guildleve cooldown is far too long (2 days, really?)
- Zones are too big (What's the point of having 3 really big zones when you could have had 9 zones which are vastly different from eachother but are a bit smaller? Right now, you go through a zone that is giant that all looks the same, and you don't make any visual progress through the game as you level up. You're ALWAYS in the same place.)
- EXP cap should be designed for every day, not every week. I don't mind if they say "you can only get X ammount of exp each day for each class", to be honest I don't mind the idea of an EXP cap at all because it allows me to do whatever needs to be done without falling that much behind. However, weekly caps are just a formula for disaster.
- There's absolutely no visual way to determine how close you are to EXP cap, which highlights that it was an idea that was sloppily implanted into the game toward release time.
- The market system is clunky, doesn't function at all as well as an Auction House system.
- There's absolutely no Tooltips in the game, making it hard for new players to even know what needs to be done.
- There's no visual markers to highlight who gives quests or where to return quests.
- Everything that can recharge / regenerate does that in a rate that's too slow (besides health)
- Maps primarily use a fake language, which is just fucking retarded and makes it even harder to distinguish where you are in a given zone. ("Guys, I'm at... some place with russian shit written all over my map!")


Seriously, there's even more if you consider the UI lag and other aspects. However, these are the issues I know that WONT be resolved for quite some time, and given that, I will definitely pass up on FFXIV.

[Bloodkraze]

- Guildleve cooldown is far too long (2 days, really?)

In a press release they've already stated they'll be lowering that time considerably (and getting rid of the not being able to retry leve's if you DC)

- Zones are too big (What's the point of having 3 really big zones when you could have had 9 zones which are vastly different from eachother but are a bit smaller? Right now, you go through a zone that is giant that all looks the same, and you don't make any visual progress through the game as you level up. You're ALWAYS in the same place.)

This might be true in the Gridania area but if you are in Ul'dah the further you travel north north the more bleak the landscape becomes and eventually the whole sky turns purple and has a whole different feel from the area near the city. I haven't spent time exploring near LL though.

- The market system is clunky, doesn't function at all as well as an Auction House system.

Areas have all been set aside in the cities for an AH, it just won't be out at release.

- There's absolutely no Tooltips in the game, making it hard for new players to even know what needs to be done.

Tooltips? you mean like popups? not everyone likes having a tooltip pop up on screen, if they really wanted to know about the game they could choose to read the guide at an aetheryte crystal (Book of adventure or whatever)

- There's no visual markers to highlight who gives quests or where to return quests.

It might just be me but i've never had trouble finding who to return quests to. A lot of the time you return it to the issuer, or it'll say return it to so-and-so at the leatherworkers guild. It takes just a minute to look around that area.

- Everything that can recharge / regenerate does that in a rate that's too slow (besides health)

I'm not too sure what items you are talking about here besides anima since MP doesnt ever regen. But again, they've stated in the press release that they will make anima regen faster at release.

- Maps primarily use a fake language, which is just fucking retarded and makes it even harder to distinguish where you are in a given zone. ("Guys, I'm at... some place with russian shit written all over my map!")

I thought about this too, but once I looked closer on the map it was actually in english except in just extremely super hard to read font. It takes a long time to learn what each letter is, but eventually you'll get it.

Seriously, there's even more if you consider the UI lag and other aspects. However, these are the issues I know that WONT be resolved for quite some time, and given that, I will definitely pass up on FFXIV.

Already been stated in the press release that they have improved extremely the UI lag and have implemented a hardware mouse for release. also, what other aspects?

[Yokai]

This might be true in the Gridania area but if you are in Ul'dah the further you travel north north the more bleak the landscape becomes and eventually the whole sky turns purple and has a whole different feel from the area near the city. I haven't spent time exploring near LL though.

Are you sure that isn't because of the game changing to night time? All the areas of a zone have looked nearly identical thus far. I would be a bitch and mention the copy paste they did around the map, but as a Level designer I know why they did that. (It's more or less likely the terrain uses a modular mapping system, meaning small fragments of the terrain only need to be rendered once and the rest of the duplicates can be instanced versions of that 1 fragment.)

Areas have all been set aside in the cities for an AH, it just won't be out at release.

They have stated a few times they have no interest in an Action House system. They'll probably cave in and add an AH, but again, I won't buy a game until I know it's actually worth buying.

Tooltips? you mean like popups? not everyone likes having a tooltip pop up on screen, if they really wanted to know about the game they could choose to read the guide at an aetheryte crystal (Book of adventure or whatever)

It might just be me but i've never had trouble finding who to return quests to. A lot of the time you return it to the issuer, or it'll say return it to so-and-so at the leatherworkers guild. It takes just a minute to look around that area.

I thought about this too, but once I looked closer on the map it was actually in english except in just extremely super hard to read font. It takes a long time to learn what each letter is, but eventually you'll get it.

This is just an example of counter-intuitive gameplay design. It highlights they put absolutely no thought into gameplay. First off, if you don't like "pop-ups" that's why every game in the world has a skip function or a "hide tooltips option." Even Final Fantasy XIII had tutorials as they introduced new concepts as the game went along. FFXIV has none of this. They never tell you, anywhere, that pressing U will open a "usable item menu", the only way you can figure that out is by looking through the manual.

There's nothing wrong with reading through a menu, but honestly, it just isn't a fluid game design choice. Ever wonder why WoW is such a popular MMO? It's because the game makes it clear when it introduces new aspects, it makes it clear when you learn a new spell, it makes it clear when you get a new item or what you get from a monster drop wise. Everything in WoW is designed in a way that you could play the game without reading a single piece of dialogue if you really wanted. Honestly, it'd be a boring way to play, but the option is there.

FFXIV is just riddled with control issues as well. The fact that every action you have to go through 10 menus to get something done just shows how counter-intuitive the game is. If I want to add a skill on my skill book, why can't I just drag and drop like every MMO for, idk, FOREVER at this point. Honestly, the little amount of research that SE did is really quite shocking. The only thing they got right from their research is basic movement controls, and even those have moments of feeling clunky.

Seriously, there's even more if you consider the UI lag and other aspects. However, these are the issues I know that WONT be resolved for quite some time, and given that, I will definitely pass up on FFXIV.

Already been stated in the press release that they have improved extremely the UI lag and have implemented a hardware mouse for release. also, what other aspects?

Other aspects being Mouse lag and things like the crafting menus and the god awful amount of searching through menus to get a simple task done. And I stated that (or tried to state that) the UI lag and various other lag related issues were not really a worry because they would be fixed on release, and I only was focusing on the real problems the game has. Unfortunately, there's enough problems that it's totally not worth buying the game just to "hope" square enix fixes issues, which they probably won't in a timely manner if you look at how few and far apart FFXI changes are. (I was an OG FFXI player, I left it in a heart beat after my friend introduced me to WoW.)

Honestly, I don't understand why people are defending this game so much. If this were any smaller company, the game would have been ridiculed off existence by this point. Even the Japanese gamer audiences don't like many of the concepts of this game, and they have a LOT of faith put into the Square Enix development team. As for "everything will change in beta" attitude, I would take that with a grain of salt. Open beta is no different for SE than a retail release, it's basically a "soft launch" which is basic teams means it's a launch to basically test things like servers and small gameplay element. There's also no mention if they'll increase the monster count in a given area, which is a huge problem right now in FFXIV.

[Bloodkraze]

Are you sure that isn't because of the game changing to night time? All the areas of a zone have looked nearly identical thus far. I would be a bitch and mention the copy paste they did around the map, but as a Level designer I know why they did that. (It's more or less likely the terrain uses a modular mapping system, meaning small fragments of the terrain only need to be rendered once and the rest of the duplicates can be instanced versions of that 1 fragment.)

Here's a screenshot of it during the daytime.
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/4839/mordhona04.jpg
Here's nighttime
http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/8642/mordhona05.jpg

They have stated a few times they have no interest in an Action House system. They'll probably cave in and add an AH, but again, I won't buy a game until I know it's actually worth buying.

Visit LL and head south of the arcanists guild and you will see an AH building with the AH sign on it. Just not opened yet.

This is just an example of counter-intuitive gameplay design. It highlights they put absolutely no thought into gameplay. First off, if you don't like "pop-ups" that's why every game in the world has a skip function or a "hide tooltips option." Even Final Fantasy XIII had tutorials as they introduced new concepts as the game went along. FFXIV has none of this. They never tell you, anywhere, that pressing U will open a "usable item menu", the only way you can figure that out is by looking through the manual.

There's nothing wrong with reading through a menu, but honestly, it just isn't a fluid game design choice. Ever wonder why WoW is such a popular MMO? It's because the game makes it clear when it introduces new aspects, it makes it clear when you learn a new spell, it makes it clear when you get a new item or what you get from a monster drop wise. Everything in WoW is designed in a way that you could play the game without reading a single piece of dialogue if you really wanted. Honestly, it'd be a boring way to play, but the option is there.

FFXIV is just riddled with control issues as well. The fact that every action you have to go through 10 menus to get something done just shows how counter-intuitive the game is. If I want to add a skill on my skill book, why can't I just drag and drop like every MMO for, idk, FOREVER at this point. Honestly, the little amount of research that SE did is really quite shocking. The only thing they got right from their research is basic movement controls, and even those have moments of feeling clunky.

FFXIV will include a little hotsheet just like FFXI did that explains what every button on the keyboard does in relation to UI. I don't see how FFXIV saying "You get a Fire Crystal" is really too hard to understand that you got a fire crystal from killing a monster. Or that when you level a class it says in the main box that you learned a new skill. I picked up FFXIV extremely quickly when I first started playing, the ONLY thing I had to go online for was learning that you had to click return after you died. But besides that I never once had a problem with FFXIV not explaining what needed to be done or how to do it.

The reason you can't drag and drop is because you need to be able to select if the skill goes in your main hand or off hand and because not every class can use the skills they have acquired. It's more in-depth than WoWs skill system and so it can't be as simple as WoWs.

Other aspects being Mouse lag and things like the crafting menus and the god awful amount of searching through menus to get a simple task done. And I stated that (or tried to state that) the UI lag and various other lag related issues were not really a worry because they would be fixed on release, and I only was focusing on the real problems the game has. Unfortunately, there's enough problems that it's totally not worth buying the game just to "hope" square enix fixes issues, which they probably won't in a timely manner if you look at how few and far apart FFXI changes are. (I was an OG FFXI player, I left it in a heart beat after my friend introduced me to WoW.)

Honestly, I don't understand why people are defending this game so much. If this were any smaller company, the game would have been ridiculed off existence by this point. Even the Japanese gamer audiences don't like many of the concepts of this game, and they have a LOT of faith put into the Square Enix development team. As for "everything will change in beta" attitude, I would take that with a grain of salt. Open beta is no different for SE than a retail release, it's basically a "soft launch" which is basic teams means it's a launch to basically test things like servers and small gameplay element. There's also no mention if they'll increase the monster count in a given area, which is a huge problem right now in FFXIV.

Mouse lag is gone at release. The reason the mouse was laggy was because they had implemented a software mouse. On release they will have updated it to a hardware mouse. Crafting was simple. Equip the crafting main hand. Synthesize. Select ingredients. Choose what item out of the list that you wanted to create then start crafting away. It's not nearly as hard as you make it sound. The only obnoxious thing I've found that requires a lot of menu working is repairing your own equipment.

People are defending this game because of all the things that bug you, they don't bug others. I can easily figure out how the game works, should I not defend the game because other players can't figure it out? That's their own fault. Their press release pointed out that their release version is a different version from the open beta. No there's no mention of a monster increase but the areas are so large (a point you don't like) that I can travel to an area where there are no other players and be able to kill there if I want. I played the open beta and never got frustrated at not being able to find monsters to kill because I could always find some to kill in all 3 areas.

I really enjoyed the open beta and I'm sure I'll like the main game, that's why I defend it.

[joe]

just fyi the map says where you are in english in the upper left. map is still mostly useless though

i'm more and more convinced the game is going to totally fail, in the US at least. it might be ok in japan but i was all set to love this game and if i'm not even interested any more, how can it win over a neutral audience?