Final Fantasy XIV Official Release Thread

I've played all the games you listed. In all all cases its up to the player to make the game.

FFXIV just being out...there is only really 2 things TO do. You can go combat/explore, or you can craft. Now that I'm higher level as a combat class, we've been exploring new dungeons and zones for things to kill. I dont see how that's different that the rest.

EVE - kill small ships, make money, skill, fly bigger ships, kill bigger ships, make more money. Combat/Explore or trade. PVP was a bonus. End game was really...what...huge PVP warfare? Sleepers?

LORTO - kill small enemies, make money, skill, kill bigger enemies, make more money. End game...raids, big mobs?

WoW - start small...move from zone to zone...skill up...gear...Raids...

I find it hard that a game 1 month out is expected to give a 5 year experience.
 
cageymaru said:
Do any mobs drop "gear" or is it all based on crafting the stuff that drops into gear? Have you found any rare mobs HammerAZ? Are there any bosses in the dungeons? Have you found any of the fights to be "awesome", or are they just a continuation of the grinding I was doing until I quit logging in.

I don't mind grinding in games; I found the original Aion grind to be fun. What I don't like is grinding without a purpose. Tell me why 300 squirrels have to die and I'll bring you 600 pelts. And grinding to craft something isn't worthwhile to me. Unless that's my only way to get gear.

If that's basically the only way to get gear then Square Enix should have had a FAQ stating that was a goal for players. If they did, I missed it amongst all the bellyaching on the fan websites. I don't like reading 50 posts to glean 1 piece of pertinent information.

Likewise I don't like the way Square did the quest givers. I mean if someone wants me to do something for them you'd think they would advertise it. I read job wanted ads in newspapers all the time. If they thought an arrow over a quest givers head was tacky, then at least have the guy beckon you over or have a bulletin board for quests. Which leads to another question.

Are there quests besides Leves at your level? The 1 "real quest" every 5 or 10 levels kinda killed any forms of immersion in the game for me. I guess this goes back to me having to have a reason for grinding. Getting the same Leve quests everyday made me very sad indeed. I think Square should have allowed us to at least repeat the Leve quests for each class. Since it seems that you could hit the level cap crafting without fighting, repeating Leve quests with each different class would be a godsend. And before someone says my idea sounds boring and drab; it sure as hell beats killing crabs for 9 hours straight in my mind!


Just want to say that I'm not trying to dismiss the enjoyment you're getting from FFXIV. I was just trying to figure out what I was missing. Or even better; what is there that made my spending $80 worthwhile. At this point I'm just hoping the menu system gets fixed before the extra 30 days expire. Otherwise I'll never find out what the game's purpose was as I never got to experience any fun things the little time I spent playing.
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I guess this is the difference in expectations. I've been reading every forum, post, idea, thought, and speculation on this game that I could find online. I came into this game knowing that gear is going to be player centric. That players would make the items - at least from the early on. I mean, what is the point of grinding crafting if no one wants your gear, cause they're farming the HNM to get a better piece? DAOC suffered from this. First it was drops are better (no one wanted crafted gear), then they said player stuff is better (everyone stopped raiding), then back to a new dungeon and drops are better. So, it appears you have to choose your pain.

I think another expectation difference here, is that the vision with crafting is that Blacksmith, is a job. Meaning that you can be IN the end game with the Blacksmith. An example posted from a dev blog (I dont have the exact link), stated that say you have a boss you need to fight, but its armor is super strong. Your tactic would be to bring a Leveled Goldsmith to the fight. All that was stated is that the Goldsmith would be used to weaken the boss somehow, allowing the combat classes to defeat it. Like everything SE, they live in the vague of answers.

So, while you admit to not digging for information, I have to use your admission as a point of reference to show that you bark about a game experience that was made available to you and you chose not to get it. As stated earlier, I was able to test out a lot of the features and concerns I had with the game in Closed and Open beta. You may have, or may not have, read my posts on some of the challenges I have with the game as well. Fortunately, my key concerns are a focal point of the November patch. So, I'm gonna keep on keepin on until the patch comes and look forward to an improved game.

I'd do another 9 hour crab grind anytime with my LS. Matter of fact, I gave my buddy pass to an FFXI gamer friend of mine, and he's levelling his GLD. Once he hits 14/15, its off to Giant Crabs for another Sunday run. I have a great group of people that are a ton of fun to play with, and its not the grind that I focus on, its all the laughs and jokes we have WHILE grinding that makes the game fun.

Maybe I missed the boat on Leve quests. To me, they are a quick cash tactic. Nothing more. I dont expect drops, EXP, or any other form of reward short of $$$. Now, I'm being told that lvl 30 leve's offer Job specific Guild points? Sweet! Maybe I'll get out and do a few more.
 
HammerAZ said:
I've played all the games you listed. In all all cases its up to the player to make the game.

FFXIV just being out...there is only really 2 things TO do. You can go combat/explore, or you can craft. Now that I'm higher level as a combat class, we've been exploring new dungeons and zones for things to kill. I dont see how that's different that the rest.

EVE - kill small ships, make money, skill, fly bigger ships, kill bigger ships, make more money. Combat/Explore or trade. PVP was a bonus. End game was really...what...huge PVP warfare? Sleepers?

LORTO - kill small enemies, make money, skill, kill bigger enemies, make more money. End game...raids, big mobs?

WoW - start small...move from zone to zone...skill up...gear...Raids...

I find it hard that a game 1 month out is expected to give a 5 year experience.
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eve is designed to be a sandbox game, ff xiv isn't. also eve has many built in tutorials and a very comprehensive help system. eve is much deeper and yet still mananges to be easier for people to figure out then ff xiv. oh and eve has an incredible market system built into it.

lotro is all about exploration and plot. at no point in lotro do you ever go 'well shit, I ran out of quests' for many months. the game systmes are very easy to learn and comprehend. also lotro has a beautiful environment and not a series of tiles illogically put together.

wow is similar to lotro in that the game is easy to figure out, there are plenty of quests, the game has a decent plot and you have a reason for traversing through areas.

ff xiv being new is not an excuse. if anything ff xiv should have an advantage and use the mmo market to see what people like and hate. they could have delivered a stremlined mmo with the ff flare. instead they designed a bunch of oddball systems and game mechanics that no one really likes, and they didn't even use ff xi as an example in many cases. its like the game was desgn by people that didn't actually play mmos or pay aattention to any feedback.
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Snowknight26 said:
No mobs drop gear, and there are currently no rare mobs that walk around.. those are to be added later apparently. No 'dungeons' either.
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ocellaris said:
Wow :mad:
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Odd...I've been in 3 dungeons so far. Granted I havent seen the END of the dungeon, but so far each starting area has one. Nanawai (sp?) Mines in the Uldah starting area is the one we spent the most time in...until we found the fire elementals. Bombs and Skeletons were pretty cool to watch from the dirt too... :p
 
ocellaris said:
eve is designed to be a sandbox game, ff xiv isn't. also eve has many built in tutorials and a very comprehensive help system. eve is much deeper and yet still mananges to be easier for people to figure out then ff xiv. oh and eve has an incredible market system built into it.

lotro is all about exploration and plot. at no point in lotro do you ever go 'well shit, I ran out of quests' for many months. the game systmes are very easy to learn and comprehend. also lotro has a beautiful environment and not a series of tiles illogically put together.

wow is similar to lotro in that the game is easy to figure out, there are plenty of quests, the game has a decent plot and you have a reason for traversing through areas.

ff xiv being new is not an excuse. if anything ff xiv should have an advantage and use the mmo market to see what people like and hate. they could have delivered a stremlined mmo with the ff flare. instead they designed a bunch of oddball systems and game mechanics that no one really likes, and they didn't even use ff xi as an example in many cases. its like the game was desgn by people that didn't actually play mmos or pay aattention to any feedback.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
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Adapt and overcome is all I can offer. I like the new mini games in harvesting. It makes it so you have to pay the F attention if you want a +1, or even a success in some cases. Not just a button smashing macro to guarantee epics every time. I'd like to see Battle Regiment go away, OR have SE give me a full video of this being used in a raid/boss encounter. Otherwise, gimme back skill chains!

EVE wasnt polished in 1 month, LORTO was a pain in the first month, WoW was laughable in the first month.

When FFXIV hits 2 years I can agree to the comparison. Until then, I'm OK with agreeing to disagree. I just dont see how a game is bad because it doesnt meet your expectations. In the end, the players will determine the success. If a system is flawed, players will walk away. SE will either fix it, or the game will fade away.

As far as the "I spent money so the game should be awesome or I'm gonna rant" just needs to go away. No one held a gun to your head to buy it. Purchase without research is called the "Stupid Tax" where I come from. Not sure if that plays anywhere else. I spent $180 in software, and over $2000 in hardware to play this game. So, there is my epeen post of the day, and despite the flaws, its a good time.
 
stryder2720 said:
Damn, I was really looking forward to checking this game out. :(
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I would find a way to play on someone elses account first.

I had always wondered if the people at SE had gotten lucky with FFXI or if it was pure genius that put that game together. I can now easily say it was luck.
 
HammerAZ said:
Odd...I've been in 3 dungeons so far. Granted I havent seen the END of the dungeon, but so far each starting area has one.
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I'm sure he meant the WoW definition of dungeon (raid instance), not the literal definition of a dungeon, hence the 's. ;)
 
I think you'll get a number of answers for that. The common reasons seem to be:

1. It was a huge success in Asia 2 years before it was available in NA
2. Playstation supported it
3. Existed before WoW

I thought it was a good time. It was a nice change of pace from DAOC. But, I admit to being charmed by the easy-mode that WoW was. After grinding out millions of gil into Goldsmithing only to hit level 10? And hours of fishing to get maybe 12? I was just amazed at the ease of success that was WoW Crafting - I had a whole set of copper armor in an hour...that would take days of failed synths to complete in FFXI.
 
WoW was laughable in the first month.
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I was in beta, and played on live servers at release. The game was fine, the servers just couldn't handle the load. Theres a big difference between "Too many people playing = lag" and "Game is broke."
 
Direwolf20 said:
I was in beta, and played on live servers at release. The game was fine, the servers just couldn't handle the load. Theres a big difference between "Too many people playing = lag" and "Game is broke."
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Yeah aside from lag I didn't have a lot of problems actually playing WoW on launch. Most of the bugs were small and isolated, not "almost everything = fail". My friends and I picked up on the game and helped each other a bit and that was it. Within a few days we were plotting out how to run Deadmines without wiping :D
 
Personally, I feel the game has huge potential, but I agree with many of the faults that people are finding. The game just isnt that intuitive. Many of the "standard" type of things you would find in another game such as quest givers being clearly marked in some fashion, are inexcusably not existent in this game. The content is really lacking as far as combat is concerned. The interface is a dog. The game is very pretty however, and I can't help but feel that if SE gets their heads out of their asses that this game could become very fun. The craft system is very detailed and intricate...almost too intricate, but it has become very appealing to me. It is more than just a side thing to do in this game. In fact if you love crafting, you could make your entire existence in this game crafting centric and have a whole lot of things to do. I am not a fan boy by any stretch of the imagination and I do have a deadline in mind for certain things to be worked out before I say to hell with it, but I think they have something that could turn into something special. But it was released way too early, and that is very bad news, because you know what they say about first impressions. The sad thing is only time will tell. In anycase, if you are even remotely interested in the game, I would reccommend it knowing the caveats presented here and all over the web. It will honestly give you a good feel for what playing an MMO 10 years ago was like =) and you will position yourself well for when they do get the kinks worked out and content added. Just my opinion.
 
HammerAZ said:
I guess this is the difference in expectations. I've been reading every forum, post, idea, thought, and speculation on this game that I could find online. I came into this game knowing that gear is going to be player centric. That players would make the items - at least from the early on. I mean, what is the point of grinding crafting if no one wants your gear, cause they're farming the HNM to get a better piece? DAOC suffered from this. First it was drops are better (no one wanted crafted gear), then they said player stuff is better (everyone stopped raiding), then back to a new dungeon and drops are better. So, it appears you have to choose your pain.

I think another expectation difference here, is that the vision with crafting is that Blacksmith, is a job. Meaning that you can be IN the end game with the Blacksmith. An example posted from a dev blog (I dont have the exact link), stated that say you have a boss you need to fight, but its armor is super strong. Your tactic would be to bring a Leveled Goldsmith to the fight. All that was stated is that the Goldsmith would be used to weaken the boss somehow, allowing the combat classes to defeat it. Like everything SE, they live in the vague of answers.

So, while you admit to not digging for information, I have to use your admission as a point of reference to show that you bark about a game experience that was made available to you and you chose not to get it. As stated earlier, I was able to test out a lot of the features and concerns I had with the game in Closed and Open beta. You may have, or may not have, read my posts on some of the challenges I have with the game as well. Fortunately, my key concerns are a focal point of the November patch. So, I'm gonna keep on keepin on until the patch comes and look forward to an improved game.

I'd do another 9 hour crab grind anytime with my LS. Matter of fact, I gave my buddy pass to an FFXI gamer friend of mine, and he's levelling his GLD. Once he hits 14/15, its off to Giant Crabs for another Sunday run. I have a great group of people that are a ton of fun to play with, and its not the grind that I focus on, its all the laughs and jokes we have WHILE grinding that makes the game fun.

Maybe I missed the boat on Leve quests. To me, they are a quick cash tactic. Nothing more. I dont expect drops, EXP, or any other form of reward short of $$$. Now, I'm being told that lvl 30 leve's offer Job specific Guild points? Sweet! Maybe I'll get out and do a few more.
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My experience in MMO's is that the developers give you hints where things are in the game world by leading you there via quests, storyline, etc. FFXIV did away with all of that. Recipes only on external websites, no information in game on how to even go about procuring a recipe, nonexistent Dev support at the start; just fansites, the list goes on. If you only have 1 monitor and want to craft in fullscreen mode you're penalized because the game will crash when you go to a website to see what the materials are. And I'm told this is a "feature" to keep people from hacking the game.

That's just fail design to me.

At the start of the game all I read on blogs were that the developers were Japanese and that's why there isn't a FFXIV official forums. That sounded like the biggest crock of crap as I ran a top tier legion in Aion with 3 Americans and everyone else was Korean, Chinese, Brazilian, or Japanese. I think they just knew that most people weren't going to comprehend their esoteric design choices and didn't want bad press from it being all over their forums.

I shouldn't have to scour the internet to find out if there are dungeons or rare mobs in the game. There should be an official resource for finding out that information. And trickling information to fansites isn't the way to do it. I shouldn't have had to play the closed beta to find out that information either. I shouldn't have to call Square Enix offices to find out. What kind of game design is this supposed to be?

I'm glad that you took the time to stumble upon the crafting aspect of the game before spending your money on it. I was told it was going to be an "Asian grind" with FFXIV style bosses, awesome new crafting minigame, and the ability to switch jobs on the fly. If Square had put out a press release stating there would be no discernible reason for grinding, gear is only gotten by crafting until they add more content later, then I would have known to leave this title on the shelf.

The only thing I ignored from others was the hardware mouse issue. I was under the impression that the menus were so bad to navigate because of the lack of a hardware mouse. At least that's what my friend told me. If they were any worse in closed beta then I couldn't imagine anyone picking up this title. And the friend that had me play this with him I haven't spoken to in a month. It's like he realized how bad this was and stopped recommending it to people that he socialized with.

I guess people like this title for the skill in chopping wood, fishing, mining, crafting, grinding mobs in a group for no apparent reason other than to have someone to talk to in game. I personally like Final Fantasy/ Mario/ Zelda/ WoW quality boss fights, Zelda / WoW quality story lines, and a UI designed for a PC. I find that this game has none of those qualities.


If only Square had mentioned that they were going to add in basic fun via a patch at a later time I would have been more understanding. Right now I'm bored senseless by the gameplay and angry at the UI. But I learned an important lesson from this. Never, ever, ever buy another Square Enix title again.
 
Skizzy said:
How come you didn't try it out open beta?
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I'm on a 512 KB connection. The account creation and download servers were being hammered so badly it would have taken me forever to finish downloading it during open beta. So I went by my friend's recommendation. He told me about the grind, fun crafting, and only mentioned the lack of a hardware mouse as a negative. He didn't mention the complete lack of a story or UI. I was under the impression from him that the hardware mouse would fix the issues he was having with the UI. Now I know he has a vivid imagination. :)

Plus the downloader is P2P and even after the game came out the first patch took me 3 days to get because nobody in my area was playing it. The first patch only connected to 2 other people the entire time at 1.6KB with 25KB bursts. The last patch on the 22nd of October connected to 35 people and ran at full speed the entire time.

I learned to stick with only established franchises from now on though. No more giving anyone a chance again! :)
 
i just started this weekend it is almost the developers have never heard of an mmo before. i had a wall of text about all the rants but chances are 99.9% of them have been said before. the biggest issue i see with the game is the developers dont see the issues as problems.

no AH system, just 100's of vendors with no search function. wasted 2 hours for 4 items at level 10.

menu system designed for consoles not PC games, F U SQUARE! not hot keys for inventory, have to go though menu.

buying and selling to vendors is chore.

i just dont see thing fixing this, it is not actually broken, it is just a piss poor excuse for a system. please please please for the love that all good in this world, please stop making excuses for games on their first month of release. there is excuse for companies to see this unfinished shit.
 
gesicht said:
i just started this weekend it is almost the developers have never heard of an mmo before. i had a wall of text about all the rants but chances are 99.9% of them have been said before. the biggest issue i see with the game is the developers dont see the issues as problems.

no AH system, just 100's of vendors with no search function. wasted 2 hours for 4 items at level 10.

menu system designed for consoles not PC games, F U SQUARE! not hot keys for inventory, have to go though menu.

buying and selling to vendors is chore.

i just dont see thing fixing this, it is not actually broken, it is just a piss poor excuse for a system. please please please for the love that all good in this world, please stop making excuses for games on their first month of release. there is excuse for companies to see this unfinished shit.
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Have you seen the devs plans for the November-December updates?
 
Does anyone know if it is possible to mine fire crystals at any point? Shards yes, but what about crystals?
 
Sky15 said:
Anyone else getting horrible lag? Or is it my system?
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I had more lag then normal last night for about 15min after logging in. But after that it was smooth sailing.

I also updated my Video Card drivers last night (Card in Sig). It seemed to make a difference. I was able to see players a lot farther off, and it didn't take as long to load characters. I did forget to run fraps to check my FPS though :(

I'll try and remember to do that tonight and see if the new drivers actually helped or if I'm just imagining things.
 
You can run the game in Full Screen mode now it seems without crashing. That's a plus.
 
Spanks said:
I've only had the game crash once in full screen mode. Maybe I'm just lucky :)
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Before if you tried to do things that had the possibility of minimizing the game such as receiving a GoogleTalk Voice conversation the game would minimize and crash. It didn't seem to do that just then; but I have Googletalk on my second monitor so that may have made a difference.

As far as lag goes, I logged in and it took 5 minutes or more for the game to load and then everything was fine. The new Nvidia drivers really helped the fps in the game. I don't run FRAPS to see the exact number, but I can tell a remarkable difference.
 
cageymaru said:
Before if you tried to do things that had the possibility of minimizing the game such as receiving a GoogleTalk Voice conversation the game would minimize and crash. It didn't seem to do that just then; but I have Googletalk on my second monitor so that may have made a difference.

As far as lag goes, I logged in and it took 5 minutes or more for the game to load and then everything was fine. The new Nvidia drivers really helped the fps in the game. I don't run FRAPS to see the exact number, but I can tell a remarkable difference.
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Ah - I never ran anything except vent when I play. My computer is a touch older so I need all the power I can get :D

Have you tried windowed mode with the new drivers?
 
cageymaru said:
My experience in MMO's is that the developers give you hints where things are in the game world by leading you there via quests, storyline, etc. FFXIV did away with all of that. Recipes only on external websites, no information in game on how to even go about procuring a recipe, nonexistent Dev support at the start; just fansites, the list goes on. If you only have 1 monitor and want to craft in fullscreen mode you're penalized because the game will crash when you go to a website to see what the materials are. And I'm told this is a "feature" to keep people from hacking the game.

That's just fail design to me.

At the start of the game all I read on blogs were that the developers were Japanese and that's why there isn't a FFXIV official forums. That sounded like the biggest crock of crap as I ran a top tier legion in Aion with 3 Americans and everyone else was Korean, Chinese, Brazilian, or Japanese. I think they just knew that most people weren't going to comprehend their esoteric design choices and didn't want bad press from it being all over their forums.

I shouldn't have to scour the internet to find out if there are dungeons or rare mobs in the game. There should be an official resource for finding out that information. And trickling information to fansites isn't the way to do it. I shouldn't have had to play the closed beta to find out that information either. I shouldn't have to call Square Enix offices to find out. What kind of game design is this supposed to be?

I'm glad that you took the time to stumble upon the crafting aspect of the game before spending your money on it. I was told it was going to be an "Asian grind" with FFXIV style bosses, awesome new crafting minigame, and the ability to switch jobs on the fly. If Square had put out a press release stating there would be no discernible reason for grinding, gear is only gotten by crafting until they add more content later, then I would have known to leave this title on the shelf.

The only thing I ignored from others was the hardware mouse issue. I was under the impression that the menus were so bad to navigate because of the lack of a hardware mouse. At least that's what my friend told me. If they were any worse in closed beta then I couldn't imagine anyone picking up this title. And the friend that had me play this with him I haven't spoken to in a month. It's like he realized how bad this was and stopped recommending it to people that he socialized with.

I guess people like this title for the skill in chopping wood, fishing, mining, crafting, grinding mobs in a group for no apparent reason other than to have someone to talk to in game. I personally like Final Fantasy/ Mario/ Zelda/ WoW quality boss fights, Zelda / WoW quality story lines, and a UI designed for a PC. I find that this game has none of those qualities.


If only Square had mentioned that they were going to add in basic fun via a patch at a later time I would have been more understanding. Right now I'm bored senseless by the gameplay and angry at the UI. But I learned an important lesson from this. Never, ever, ever buy another Square Enix title again.
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I think having no hints at all, and requiring players to interact and explore is the point. No recipe lists is the point (however this is being addressed in November. A recipe book that fills in as you discover/learn recipes is going to be available, along with the ability to auto-add components). My GF and I spent lots of time with notebooks writing down recipes, making charts and getting plenty excited when we discovered a new one, or found a new one online to add to ours. Sharing recipes with other players. Learning where to get materials from. That's part of the fun in discovering the world your in. Having the game tell me where everything is and where to go kinda kills the point of discovery/adventure.

No minimize in FF - nothing new here. I have the current issue of my Windows Activation killing my game once a night as I had to reinstall to a new HDD on a backup gaming rig while my main rig's RMA's are in flight. Knowing that this is how the game works, no issues. To each their own I suppose.

I dont think its SE's job to tell you how to play thier game. They offer content for you to interact with, and its up to you, the player to determine if it satisfies your needs. A press release to tell you what you should/shouldnt do in a game in order to determine purchase - seriously?

As far as the keyboard mouse - and people with issues regarding no "inventory key", you have to realize this is a PS3 game, that just happened to come out on PC first. While I assume you can hook a keyboard to a PS3 (I dont own one) - I am under the impression they dont want to add "Keyboard required" to thier minimum spec lists. So, without a keyboard, how else do you open your Inventory? Menus...right? Seems logical to me. I guess if you want to demand PC servers different than PS3 servers, that's OK - otherwise you'll get "Unfair advantage" posted all up and down the forums when it comes to pulling HNMs. But that's another discussion.

I'm sorry that you wont be sticking around to see the new stuff FFXIV is bringing to the table. I think part of the adventure is to see what comes next and contributing.
 
HammerAZ said:
I think having no hints at all, and requiring players to interact and explore is the point.
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Some informal information checking over at the FFXIV core forums shows that peak "users logged in" values are down almost 66% in the last two weeks. If the point is to give the players zero information so they explore and interact, looks like most people disagree.
 
ocellaris said:
Some informal information checking over at the FFXIV core forums shows that peak "users logged in" values are down almost 66% in the last two weeks. If the point is to give the players zero information so they explore and interact, looks like most people disagree.
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I wonder what the actual number is. To bad SE won't release information like that.

What were the numbers for other MMO's like WAR and Aion? I bet there's a similarity, maybe not quite as big but I'm sure its closer then people would think.
 
Spanks said:
I wonder what the actual number is. To bad SE won't release information like that.

What were the numbers for other MMO's like WAR and Aion? I bet there's a similarity, maybe not quite as big but I'm sure its closer then people would think.
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WAR lasted about 2 months before the massive fall off. Based on financial reports WAR lost almost 80% of its initial subscribers in one quarter, so that is not a game FFXIV wants to be compared too. Almost everyone left WAR due to some horrible game mechanics and poor performance (especially in sieges). A bunch of the team got fired and WAR is still struggling to nail down game mechanics.

AION dropped like a rock too. Almost my entire Legion quit immediately when we raced to level and get to the PVP zones, then game clients were crashing left and right. It was a bug that causes systems to crash in large PVP battles if they had over 2GB of RAM, which almost everyone did. Took NCSoft like 3 weeks to fix it, that was way too late.

Both of those games are struggling for relevance now. It is really hard to pull out of the MMO-death-spiral.
 
WAR was a disappointment - set way to high by the expectations we had. My GF and I pre-ordered the Collector's Edition thinking DAOC 2. We tried to make it work, but when you have animations of attacks going off that rubber band, and sound effects that dont match the action, you cant really tell if your attack landed, missed or what. Casting was just as bad as you had the same issue. Depth perception seemed be off...what seemed like yards must have been feet, as mobs seemed to aggro you from across the zone. Sieges just didnt seem fair given that it took dozens of people to pull off, only to reward the top...3? Same with Public Quests - hours of doing the SAME thing because you got a crappy roll. I realize there were a few patches to fix things, but in the end, the most fun we had was T1 Battlegrounds. The end game siege and T4 Battlegrounds were just terrible.

AION...seemed cool at first...but the grind got to be too much. Competition for spawn points was terrible. I dont suppose I mind getting rolled, but when I'm dead before my enemy draws leaves me a bit frustrated. Lvl 20 rangers chain stunning lvl 40's to death. PVP in the PVP zones only benefitted ranged attackers. (My bad for choosing Templar apparently)

I've seen the lack of login in even my LS. The LS leader has been MIA for a week. Most are on for an hour to see if anyone is grinding then log off. These are also the combat only players who are having trouble finding others of thier level to grind with. I'm told that alot are holding off till November to see what's to come...
 
Yeah, ranger was super crazy powerful in Aion. And the grind.... it was pretty damn bad. It's one thing to grind a dungeon for gear, it's another to sit and say "yay it's going to take me 20 hours to make 1 level".
 
But it's also been a month and I'm still having a really good time. Which is more then I can say I had at this point in the above games.

For those of us still playing what class are you enjoying most?
 
Spanks said:
But it's also been a month and I'm still having a really good time. Which is more then I can say I had at this point in the above games.

For those of us still playing what class are you enjoying most?
Click to expand...

I'm really loving pugilist...but I'm still trying to find a good subset of skills to compliment it.
Recently spent some time skilling up Conjurer, and I'm really enjoying that as well. Despite taking hits like a marshmallow, spikes and stone skin, along with adding Second Wind with Cure gives me a ton more survivability than I thought I'd have. Made it through my first Dodo leve on Con yesterday and I couldn't be happier.
Managed to make it through the "Kobold As Ice" faction leve on Pug after adding Shock Spikes to my repertoire. Took almost the whole of the 40 minutes, but man, 35k Gil, 1500 Pug marks, a Canvas coif, and a R10 Shield made it WELL worth the effort :3
 
I've found that there are a number of combinations that work very well. Pugilists seem to benefit from Marauder skills as well. Beefing up your TP move wtih Bloodlust helps give you HP back. Defender is a good tanking buff. Add to that Ferocity from Lancer and Raging Strike from Archer, and you can REALLY beef up a single attack that also returns HPs.

I'm having fun playing "Paladin" with my Gladiator. Since I'm lvl 20 Thaumaturge, I get a list of Absorb Spells (ACC, DEF, ATK, EVA), plus Siphon MP!! Add to that Sacrifice 2 and Cure for heals, and self Protect and Shell spells. I'm pretty self sufficient.

I'm looking forward to trying a "Dark Knight" Build when I try and level Marauder. Swing a 2H axe, with Absorb Accuracy, and Siphon MP to keep my MP bar up. Maybe use Dia/Bio for Debuffs too. Anything is possible :)

Now...I have ALL my points in Piety and Mind (and a few in VIT) since I plan on taking Thau/Conj all the way to the top, but having melee with spells has been pretty entertaining. :)
 
good point. I was thinking, as much as people rave about Ferocity and Speed Surge, I might spend some time leveling Lancer this weekend too.
Argh, so many things to do. Also need to keep hammering away at Goldsmithing...
 
HammerAZ said:
I'm looking forward to trying a "Dark Knight" Build when I try and level Marauder. Swing a 2H axe, with Absorb Accuracy, and Siphon MP to keep my MP bar up. Maybe use Dia/Bio for Debuffs too. Anything is possible :)
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was thinking of doing with my Lancer. It seems like it would be a fun build.

Also for soloing Cure/Shock Spikes are almost must haves. I leveled up to 14 without them and man what a difference they make.
 
I find myself leveling all crafts (except cooking) as I go, since I the want the capability to repair (not necessarily make) all of my gear myself. At higher ranks, this may prove to be VERY time-consuming, but with my highest combat rank being only 18 Lancer, it's proved to be very useful so far.

Conversely, I also do not wear any gear that I can't repair. I found out recently that in order to repair an item, you have to be no more than 10 levels below the optimum rank of the piece of equipment. That means in order to repair, say a Bronze Haubergeon (which is optimal rank 26), you would need Armorer rank 16. So until I hit Armorer 16, I won't wear a Bronze Haubergeon.

This style has kept me gonig with PLENTY to do. Level crafts to make/repair gear, level DoW and DoM jobs to make money on leves/farm shards for crafting. I find it to be a pretty good mix of combat and crafting, and will eventually lead to having a well-rounded character when SE starts really adding in the content.

I guess I kinda see everything that I'm currently doing as prep work for when the real game begins, and I'm ok with waiting for that to happen.
 
Like the above poster, I have been leveling crafting skills so that I can repair my gear later on. So far I have goldsmithing at 10, carpentry at 11, leatherworker 11, and weaving at 11. I enjoy mining the most (currently at 18), and I like to make nuggets and ingots from the ore I mine (blacksmith 13, armourer 14). I have a level 11 conjurer, but eventually I will pick either Lancer or Madauder to level to the top.
 
Still enjoying fishing. Rank 39 now, #1 on my server and #3 overall.
 
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