Just Pre-ordered CE!

Tyilin

At the title says; I’ve just ordered the CE of FFXIV. I’m really REALLY loving the Beta, in fact it’s probably one of the better beta’s ive been in recent times. I don’t know if that’s because the game is geared up more towards my playing style... I dunno, but I thought I’d share a few of my experiences and thoughts on what other people are saying on these forums. I’ve never played FFXI and the MMO I like the most is Ryzom.

 

In the 3 days that ive been able to play I’ve gotten Conjurer and Hand to Hand to level 8, as well a miner and a few other skills to level 4. I just hit physical rank 14 before loggin out yesterday.  I’ve not experienced the fatigue system, so I cant comment on that.

 

While the game was downloading (Using uTorrent) I read the beta test site. In the hour that it took to download I read up on how to use the keyboard and that’s pretty much it. Knowing that I don’t have a decent gamepad (as PS3 doesnt work on 64-bit windows 7) I figured with everyone complaining so much about not being able to use KB&M to play. I honestly cannot see how people cant use the keyboard. I never use the mouse, ever. WASD and IJKL act like analogue sticks with HOME bringing up the menu. I found the UI intuitive and very easy to use, I loved that I was able to run and use the arrow keys while navigating the menu. For me, at least, all of the keys make sense. My only gripe (which lasted only a couple of minutes) is that TAB will select the closest to your right first, which isn’t an issue when you move a camera, but in a crowded room, to start off with I was mashing TAB to get to the NPC.

 

I started off with Hand to Hand, in Ul’dah and after about 40 minutes I had completed the “Some like it hot” quest and had 30,000 gil. When i finished that quest I was at the right person to talk to, she explained about guildleves and who to get them from. I’d already visited the place where I needed to next go. So i stopped by EVERY merchant (who were easily obvious enough to find. I mean, they were standing behind a merchant stall with their merchant area located on my map!) and bought all of the starting weapons/gear for all of the ranks. Visited the quest/leves guys and teleported to the camp to complete them, which I did – quickly, they were simple enough, seeing as the EXACT instructions where posted in the chat box, didn’t even have to open up a menu! I was starting to get concerned that the game was holding my hand too much!

Anyways after getting rank 2/3 in most skills I was left to find out what things did myself, which I loved. I went exploring, and yeah, I got killed, but i liked that. It was the first time in a long time where in an MMO where I said to myself “I wonder what happens when...” and found out.  I liked not having Mob level numbers, just the colour system.

I like that the game almost pushes you to work more than one thing, I love classless games in general, but FFXIV will reward you, as a level 8 Conjurer I’ve been using the level 3 Gladiator skill “Red Lotus” because I’ve piled loads of points into fire.

There are a few quirks with the game, like not being able to log out when you’re in active mode (or not automatically going into passive mode when you’ve not killed anything for 10 minutes!). Seeing as there are a few things you cant do while in active mode, it can be a bit annoying. But it’s literally a one button fix (F).

I recently upgraded my system and I can play @ 1900 x 1200 (windowed) no probs on one screen with any info/websites/movies etc on the other, I could alt-tab/mouse over fine (so im guessing its just a fullscreen issue). But even on my GF’s 2GB RAM and 2 year old 4870 I had no probs running at 2AA rest full settings 720p. I really cant see how the game eats up systems... If you’re mouse is laggy, turn your settings down. Even on min settings and resolution, the game is still really good looking.

 

I don’t like that the cities feel dead, sure there are plenty of players running about, but nothing is happening, every NPC is standing completely still. There are no guards on patrol, for example.

I REALLY don’t like that there were 2 (non leve) mobs that I could kill for the first 5 hours, and I don’t like that they are boring to kill!

 

I found fishing and goldsmithing to be a game of luck, not skill.

 

It would be nice if the game would automatically remember the setups you had for each main hand weapon/item.  I’d like to see how they do it on PS3...

 

Trading with NPC’s is laggy beyond what ANY online game should have.

 

Overall I’m surprised with how much I’ve enjoyed the game (hence getting the CE) I’m eager to see what the game is like further down, and I know that SE are the type of developers that will improve and actually develop/expand the game.

 

I’ve only not been able to log in when the servers are down and I’ve only crashed when my GPU driver died.

 

I can see why this game is not for some people, but I do think that people are making more of a fuss over some things than there actually needs to be. Or maybe my expectations of a game is too low/others expectations to be too high?

 

I cant wait for Release! 

segyn

great to hear i'm right there with you though i only pre orderd the standard edition i can never bring myself to buy a CE for any game the little extra figures or books just don't seem worth the price to me. I do understand you get 8 days early access but I can wait the 8 days.

I'm also having the blast and love using just the keyboard ffxi has made me wish i could use just the keyboard in every mmo out there, but sadly you can't in any others. For lack of keybinding camera freely to your keyboard. But that another discussion.

I do however disagree on the goldsmithing and fishing luck as i am pretty good at fishing now I can generally tell by the messages you get fishing where to jig next.

And yes the crafting and vendor trading is way way way to slow but not game breaking to me at all as i'm one of the few who probably take off run and walk around. so i don't mind a slow pace though i do want crafting and vendor traiding to be more responsive.

I love my Conj. I'm having a blast with him changing my elemental attack based on which mobs i'm fighting is a fun mini game in itself. Finding which element does the most dmg to what enimies is just fun to me.

overall i haven't been able to pull myself away from the beta and need to because i know i can't keep my char. LOL but i just keep wanting to log back in and play some more.

I've done a few 8 man guildleves and 1 15 man one and those were a blast to do. I can see if you got a large group of people doing guildleves together you can grind guildleves for hours and not run out as you each have 8 to do. in a group of 8 that is 64 guildleves total your group can do.

any way posted a lot more than i wanted to but see ya come launch. Keep enjoying.