Closed beta report

Lord.Bachus

http://news.mmosite.com/content/2010-07-02/ffxiv_1st_cb_report_adjusted_battle_system_and_added_new_retainer_system,1.shtml

MMO-sites has their Closed Beta report up

 

Pallytime

Ugh!

Those screen shots just made me cream a little in my pants. ;O

Krypty

This game looks beautiful. Those trump anything I have seen so far that was 'officially' released. I am kind of excited about how quiet they are about this. I think they are trying to keep expectations reasonable and hoping to OVERDELIVER rather than underdeliver like everything else out there.

Loke666

The trading system sounds really nice. Thanks for the link, interesting reading .

Pallytime

Originally posted by gameguy369

This game looks beautiful. Those trump anything I have seen so far that was 'officially' released. I am kind of excited about how quiet they are about this. I think they are trying to keep expectations reasonable and hoping to OVERDELIVER rather than underdeliver like everything else out there.

That would be a really nice change for this industry. I usually try to keep my expectations kind of low for MMOs prior to their release, but I just can't seem to help myself with XiV. Almost everything I've learned about it so far sounds awesome.

Edli

That's the kind of graphics I want

Pallytime

Originally posted by Edli

That's the kind of graphics I want

That's the kind of graphics most people will upgrade their systems to see. ^^

Alberel

Originally posted by Pallytime

Originally posted by gameguy369

This game looks beautiful. Those trump anything I have seen so far that was 'officially' released. I am kind of excited about how quiet they are about this. I think they are trying to keep expectations reasonable and hoping to OVERDELIVER rather than underdeliver like everything else out there.

That would be a really nice change for this industry. I usually try to keep my expectations kind of low for MMOs prior to their release, but I just can't seem to help myself with XiV. Almost everything I've learned about it so far sounds awesome.

Hehe whilst the end result may be that they underhype and overdeliver, trust me, they aren't doing it deliberately. SquareEnix are just very very quiet and secretive about everything they do.

In my opinion it's a good thing since it actually keeps a huge air of mystery about the game (update notes rarely detail everything, for example, but hint at things). Most of XI's systems still haven't ever been 100% explained and many players have superstitious beliefs of things that affect other things. It's intriguing to see how different an atmosphere the game has when the developers don't reveal everything to the players and leave them to discover it themselves.

heartless

The graphics are absolutely stunning! Although I'm not a huge fan of the character models, they are done very well and the world graphics look amazing.

One thing I do have some beef with is this:

"The new Retainer system enables players to hire an NPC named Retainer to help them sell items in a designated market, but players should choose their goods and set prices in advance. Even though players are offline, that NPC will still work for them.

There are business zones in each town, like Limsa Lominsa and players can place that NPC there to sell items. The business zones must be very busy as soon as the beta test is officially launched. To prevent the business zones from being too crowded, developers are currently considering expanding the business zone in the form of instance."

What is it with Asian developers and these dreadful personal shops? Why not just have an auction house and forget about these business districts and instancing them? I really hated these private shops in Aion, Lineage II and every single Asian F2P MMO currently on the market. I just know that every single business zone will be filled with thousands of personal shops, most of which would be selling useless items and by the time you find one which actually sold something remotely useful, someone had already purchased it.

The auction house would streamline buying and selling so that people can concentrate on more important things, like playing the actual game.

/rant

Otherwise, the game looks and sounds great and I can't wait to play it!

socialstatus

Originally posted by Pallytime

Originally posted by gameguy369

This game looks beautiful. Those trump anything I have seen so far that was 'officially' released. I am kind of excited about how quiet they are about this. I think they are trying to keep expectations reasonable and hoping to OVERDELIVER rather than underdeliver like everything else out there.

That would be a really nice change for this industry. I usually try to keep my expectations kind of low for MMOs prior to their release, but I just can't seem to help myself with XiV. Almost everything I've learned about it so far sounds awesome.

Lol sounds like every person waiting for a new MMO

socialstatus

Originally posted by heartless

The graphics are absolutely stunning! Although I'm not a huge fan of the character models, they are done very well and the world graphics look amazing.

One thing I do have some beef with is this:

"The new Retainer system enables players to hire an NPC named Retainer to help them sell items in a designated market, but players should choose their goods and set prices in advance. Even though players are offline, that NPC will still work for them.

There are business zones in each town, like Limsa Lominsa and players can place that NPC there to sell items. The business zones must be very busy as soon as the beta test is officially launched. To prevent the business zones from being too crowded, developers are currently considering expanding the business zone in the form of instance."

What is it with Asian developers and these dreadful personal shops? Why not just have an auction house and forget about these business districts and instancing them? I really hated these private shops in Aion, Lineage II and every single Asian F2P MMO currently on the market. I just know that every single business zone will be filled with thousands of personal shops, most of which would be selling useless items and by the time you find one which actually sold something remotely useful, someone had already purchased it.

The auction house would streamline buying and selling so that people can concentrate on more important things, like playing the actual game.

/rant

Otherwise, the game looks and sounds great and I can't wait to play it!

God, soooo true... Stupid personal shops... IN EVERY SINGLE ASAIN MMO! I mean it sounds like a good idea until you truly understand the inefficiency of the system.

Raxeon

Originally posted by heartless

The graphics are absolutely stunning! Although I'm not a huge fan of the character models, they are done very well and the world graphics look amazing.

One thing I do have some beef with is this:

"The new Retainer system enables players to hire an NPC named Retainer to help them sell items in a designated market, but players should choose their goods and set prices in advance. Even though players are offline, that NPC will still work for them.

There are business zones in each town, like Limsa Lominsa and players can place that NPC there to sell items. The business zones must be very busy as soon as the beta test is officially launched. To prevent the business zones from being too crowded, developers are currently considering expanding the business zone in the form of instance."

What is it with Asian developers and these dreadful personal shops? Why not just have an auction house and forget about these business districts and instancing them? I really hated these private shops in Aion, Lineage II and every single Asian F2P MMO currently on the market. I just know that every single business zone will be filled with thousands of personal shops, most of which would be selling useless items and by the time you find one which actually sold something remotely useful, someone had already purchased it.

The auction house would streamline buying and selling so that people can concentrate on more important things, like playing the actual game.

/rant

Otherwise, the game looks and sounds great and I can't wait to play it!

 they do have an Ah too. and they said they will have a search feature for the personal shops

Alberel

Originally posted by heartless

The graphics are absolutely stunning! Although I'm not a huge fan of the character models, they are done very well and the world graphics look amazing.

One thing I do have some beef with is this:

"The new Retainer system enables players to hire an NPC named Retainer to help them sell items in a designated market, but players should choose their goods and set prices in advance. Even though players are offline, that NPC will still work for them.

There are business zones in each town, like Limsa Lominsa and players can place that NPC there to sell items. The business zones must be very busy as soon as the beta test is officially launched. To prevent the business zones from being too crowded, developers are currently considering expanding the business zone in the form of instance."

What is it with Asian developers and these dreadful personal shops? Why not just have an auction house and forget about these business districts and instancing them? I really hated these private shops in Aion, Lineage II and every single Asian F2P MMO currently on the market. I just know that every single business zone will be filled with thousands of personal shops, most of which would be selling useless items and by the time you find one which actually sold something remotely useful, someone had already purchased it.

The auction house would streamline buying and selling so that people can concentrate on more important things, like playing the actual game.

/rant

Otherwise, the game looks and sounds great and I can't wait to play it!

I believe that the personal retainer is a little different to personal shops. For one thing they are restricted to a designated area so you won't see them all over the place. I also believe SE are implementeing a feature to search and locate specific items in the district.

The real reason for this is that they're trying to encourage players to make direct trades rather than rely on a faceless, automated and anti-social auction house system. You have to remember SE are very very focussed on the social side of MMOs. It's likely that the spur behind this decision was FFXI's auction house manipulation by goldsellers. The auction house makes it extremely easy for goldsellers to manipulate the market and this retainer system will limit those abilities a great deal.

I don't think this is going to be quite as chaotic as you expect.

heartless

Originally posted by Alberel

I believe that the personal retainer is a little different to personal shops. For one thing they are restricted to a designated area so you won't see them all over the place. I also believe SE are implementeing a feature to search and locate specific items in the district.

The real reason for this is that they're trying to encourage players to make direct trades rather than rely on a faceless, automated and anti-social auction house system. You have to remember SE are very very focussed on the social side of MMOs. It's likely that the spur behind this decision was FFXI's auction house manipulation by goldsellers. The auction house makes it extremely easy for goldsellers to manipulate the market and this retainer system will limit those abilities a great deal.

I don't think this is going to be quite as chaotic as you expect.

I can definitely appreciate a search feature for these things but it's sounds so inefficient and pretty much pointless, especially if they'll have an auction house as well.

I'm not sure how buying for an NPC retainer can be considered direct trade with another player. You're not trading with a human being but rather an NPC. If they are going to have NPC salesmen, I'd rather they just stick with the AH, forget about those business districts and concentrate their manpower on something else.

Alberel

Originally posted by heartless

I can definitely appreciate a search feature for these things but it's sounds so inefficient and pretty much pointless, especially if they'll have an auction house as well.

I'm not sure how buying for an NPC retainer can be considered direct trade with another player. You're not trading with a human being but rather an NPC. If they are going to have NPC salesmen, I'd rather they just stick with the AH, forget about those business districts and concentrate their manpower on something else.

I was suggesting that the inefficiency of the system may encourage people to trade directly instead. I guess we'll have to wait and see though. I can understand your wanting a more streamlined system though.

Miffy

Don't trust previews, I noticed how they don't mention any of the bad points about it like not being able to control the camera in the character creator.

Lord.Bachus

Originally posted by Miffy

Don't trust previews, I noticed how they don't mention any of the bad points about it like not being able to control the camera in the character creator.

Its Alfa

Hyanmen

Originally posted by Miffy

Don't trust previews, I noticed how they don't mention any of the bad points about it like not being able to control the camera in the character creator.

BREAKING NEWS: "The Beta has some issues that need fixing!"

 

>>More at eleven

Miffy

The game launches in two months, it'll go gold in August lol. I really doubt hardly any of what is wrong with the game is going to be fixed now, it's too far in development and everything is pretty much set in stone at this point. 

 

Plus remember how backwards and bad Japanese games are. Frigging this game will be no different and it'll fail in the west, might have sales like AoC but I can't see people sticking to it. The developers also said it'll be heavily instanced and zoned so expect to see tons of annoying loading screens and boring cinematics. Oh and if it's like FF11 then expect to have to use a controller because they haven't worked out what a mouse is.

Illyssia

Originally posted by Miffy

Don't trust previews, I noticed how they don't mention any of the bad points about it like not being able to control the camera in the character creator.

 

I think the article preview in this thread actually pre-dates the start of closed beta, so I would not worry to much about it at this stage. About August the game will be very near GM, and that's a better time to get info about the release state of the game, as a lot of significant changes may occur still.

kickpuncher

Originally posted by Miffy

The game launches in two months, it'll go gold in August lol. I really doubt hardly any of what is wrong with the game is going to be fixed now, it's too far in development and everything is pretty much set in stone at this point. 

 

Plus remember how backwards and bad Japanese games are. Frigging this game will be no different and it'll fail in the west, might have sales like AoC but I can't see people sticking to it. The developers also said it'll be heavily instanced and zoned so expect to see tons of annoying loading screens and boring cinematics. Oh and if it's like FF11 then expect to have to use a controller because they haven't worked out what a mouse is.

 

so beta is just for show?

seems all players feedback goes to junk  folder while the development team play card games

ps: thnx for adding "heavily" to the developer quate

/sarcasm off

Hedeon

Originally posted by kickpuncher

Originally posted by Miffy

The game launches in two months, it'll go gold in August lol. I really doubt hardly any of what is wrong with the game is going to be fixed now, it's too far in development and everything is pretty much set in stone at this point. 

 

Plus remember how backwards and bad Japanese games are. Frigging this game will be no different and it'll fail in the west, might have sales like AoC but I can't see people sticking to it. The developers also said it'll be heavily instanced and zoned so expect to see tons of annoying loading screens and boring cinematics. Oh and if it's like FF11 then expect to have to use a controller because they haven't worked out what a mouse is.

 

so beta is just for show?

seems all players feedback goes to junk  folder while the development team play card games

ps: thnx for adding "heavily" to the developer quate

they do listen, but do not care to communicate their reasons, for their choices. and am certain you are right that alot will quite this game fast, not knowing what kind of game they signed up for....seeming quite bland on the surface.

been quite a huge change from alpha to beta with alot of changes that testers requested.

Hyanmen

Originally posted by kickpuncher

so beta is just for show?

seems all players feedback goes to junk  folder while the development team play card games

ps: thnx for adding "heavily" to the developer quate

Yeah, the Beta is just for show. In fact, I heard from my friend who is in the development team that he could hear the director laugh at all the feedback with the rest of the design team while they spend all of the funds drinking booze in their office.

Lord.Bachus

Originally posted by Miffy

The game launches in two months, it'll go gold in August lol. I really doubt hardly any of what is wrong with the game is going to be fixed now, it's too far in development and everything is pretty much set in stone at this point. 

 

Plus remember how backwards and bad Japanese games are. Frigging this game will be no different and it'll fail in the west, might have sales like AoC but I can't see people sticking to it. The developers also said it'll be heavily instanced and zoned so expect to see tons of annoying loading screens and boring cinematics. Oh and if it's like FF11 then expect to have to use a controller because they haven't worked out what a mouse is.

I just tracked your post history and know how to vallue your posts...

 

Thank you MMORPG.com for that feature, its really helpfull when i need to judge the vallue of someone's opinion.

kickpuncher

edited last post cuz ppl seems to miss the sarcastic tone

as a beta player all im going to say is this

each phase of alph/bate is siginfigent improvment over the last

and  feedback from players is really shaping the game nicely

Pallytime

Originally posted by Hyanmen

Originally posted by kickpuncher

so beta is just for show?

seems all players feedback goes to junk  folder while the development team play card games

ps: thnx for adding "heavily" to the developer quate

Yeah, the Beta is just for show. In fact, I heard from my friend who is in the development team that he could hear the director laugh at all the feedback with the rest of the design team while they spend all of the funds drinking booze in their office.

Sweet man.

Do you think they are hiring? That's definitely my kind of job.