But I thought you guys said that open beta is not really for testing, its really just a demo of what is essentially the finished product and there will be no significant updates going into release. Isn't that right? Or are you haters changing your story again.
Appreciate the response Vikinggamer, but please stay on topic. Don't want this to be a fanboi/troll back and forth like the other topics on these forums
If you check the history of my posts on this game I don't think I can be strictly described as a fanboi. Further, pointing out the general inconsistency of this type of response with respect to the claims they have made in the past does support the argument that what we saw in beta was exactly on plan for SE. They showed us enough to test what they wanted tested and there is most certainly more on the way.
There is nothing wrong with pointing out inconsistent arguments in order to shut them down.
You original post is yours but my response to a response is mine.
Fair enough, but you know trolls are going to take the bait and completely derail the thread. I'd like to focus on what people think will be in those 13 GB's worth of stuff, rather than saying "You see, you see... all you trolls were wrong!!!!"
AGain, I appreciate your response, you're a really good and "Fair" advocate for FFXIV. I happen to fall into your camp as it pertains to liking FFXIV.
But I thought you guys said that open beta is not really for testing, its really just a demo of what is essentially the finished product and there will be no significant updates going into release. Isn't that right? Or are you haters changing your story again.
Who is "you guys"? Anyone with concern or reservations about game?
K.
---------- "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
Your probably looking at 13GB of voice acting for the unreleased areas, pre-rendered movies, zone/encounter music, etc. I can't see a significant amount of it being textures that aren't already in use.
They dont pre-render, check the file sizes for the enitre SE folder, the largest 3 in the whole game was 35mb when i last checked, then 20mb then 16-.
Games like Aion and Granada Espada had thousands of 1-5 minute music tracks in ogg/mp3 format, but I wouldn't be surprised if newer games were releasing 5.1 audio content to go along with the higher quality textures.
Core i5 13600KF, BeQuiet Pure Loop FX 360, 32gb DDR5-6000 XPG, WD SN850 NVMe ,PNY 3090 XLR8, Asus Prime Z790-A, Lian-Li O11 PCMR case (limited ed 1045/2000), 32" LG Ultragear 4k Monitor, Logitech G560 LightSync Sound, Razer Deathadder V2 and Razer Blackwidow V3 Keyboard
Maybe they'll finally include some of those giant lizards that they keep showing low level characters battle in the trailers as dungeon content instead of more rank 40 squirrels. t.t
"Yeah that would be cool to have a lot of voice in it. I'm just not expecting the taru to have British accents. *still laughing*"
The new content could be absolutely anything. Since they knew open beta would bring in a lot of people with lower speed internet connections they would want to limit the beta client to just those elements that needed load testing. As people have stated, voice & sound are prepackaged objects so wouldn't need to have all objects tested under load. Even graphics could fall into that category since depending on how they are rendered one graphic object would be the same as many others. The graphics rendering code/engine would need load testing but not all graphic sets. This could explain why people have reported seeing repetitive environment graphics.
We just won't know until launch. Only five days but I'm ready now.
Have been on the fence if too make the jump or not. The only thing that puts me off is that the game feels "right" with a controller, and im a PC enthusiast so its going against my morals lol.
The info that has been circulating the last few days has been very positive, the "demo" was great, but lets bring on the real thing.
But yep iv ordered (standard version) . Missed the £17 offer at tho
Core i5 13600KF, BeQuiet Pure Loop FX 360, 32gb DDR5-6000 XPG, WD SN850 NVMe ,PNY 3090 XLR8, Asus Prime Z790-A, Lian-Li O11 PCMR case (limited ed 1045/2000), 32" LG Ultragear 4k Monitor, Logitech G560 LightSync Sound, Razer Deathadder V2 and Razer Blackwidow V3 Keyboard
There may be a few new tunes there, but the majorirty of the music is already in beta, so I doubt that'll make up a significant portion of the difference between the beta and release client. Even if it was, sound files are relatively small, in order for it to fill a single gig we'd be talking hours upon hours of sounds.
Pre-rendered cutscenes would be the worse case scenario, because video data is a lot bulkier than sound file data. However, because their approach to the cutscenes has been to leave them unrendered, you only need the assets and corridinating instructions to build the cutscenes, and that's considerably less bulky than a frame-by-frame picture capture of the result. (Like how you can make a 500 MB video recording your playing a 250 KB game.)
No, I suspect the great bulk of what we'll see will be:
All the class quests and story quests, a large part of that being the included data needed to build their non-prerendered cutscenes.
More voiceovers - perhaps every single story-related cutscene will have a voiceover.
Many of the mobs in FFXIV beta appear to be placeholders that will be replaced with their actual models in retail. (Possibly a wider variety of mobs to be found, Notorious Monsters are already confirmed.)
Tons more guildleves, including some of the multi-tier guildleves you can see on some of the data-harvesting sites.
Tons more equipment and the related crafting recipes to build them, seeing how a lot of them were removed from the open beta.
Content related to things that will be patched in later, such as Musketeers, boat building, and the airship travel network.
But they likely will have a surprise or two in store even for a fellow as unusually familiar with development as I am. These Square-Enix fellows are true craftsmen, they're being tight-lipped and keeping most of their testing in-house because they've this craftsman's pride.
Personally, I'd take this a little differently: Final Fantasy XI has been out awhile, it's had three expansions. Ergo, this massive slew of content we're about to see in the Final Fantasy XIV release client should be interpretted as just the beginning.
Indeed, I think it's a good beginning. If you ask me, FFXI overexpanded a bit, too many of those zones are ghost towns. Final Fantasy XIV has a nice format, only five big seamless zones, it won't leave itself vulnerable to overexpansion with such a base.
Ever been in the public Beta tests for any of the single player FF's? Ever even *hear* of any? No, of course you didn't. Because they didn't have them.
Ever heard of public beta tests for any of FFXI's 4 expansions or adventure packs? No, of course you didn't. Because they didn't have them.
Ever heard of pubilc beta tests for any of SE's other titles? No, of course you didn't. Because they didn't have them.
Yet, SE's released myriad games over the years - all large, sprawling titles with tons of content... and other than FFXIV, only one other one ever had a Beta test that invited people outside SE to participate... and it was also the only other MMO. Other than that, they've all launched complete and ready to play, all content tested.
Who do you think tested all the content for all those other SE titles, Bloodworth?
Here's a hint: The same people testing all the content they're holding off on for FFXIV's release.
Here's another hint: They didn't need outside help to test the game's content. They needed outside help to test the game's systems and server stability.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
pro tip, other SE titles weren't MMOs, except for DING DING DING! the one that got beta tested. MMOs that aren't tested extensively with a public beta end up with HUGE problems. There is little that isn't being tested in the public or closed beta right now.
Some of you just need to listen to veteran mmo players, not just people who've played 1 or 2 and have never seen the pre to post-release process.
I really don't know how much more content is going to be in the release version so i'm not going to guess. But, the fact that you have 13 GB's worth of "more" stuff seems to be very interesting.
That's why all these "gloom and doom" posters saying there was no content in FFXIV didn't know what they were talking about. From the start of closed beta and the start of open beta, the devs have repeatedly said, what we see is a small fraction of what we'll get at release. I'm very excited for the future of this game.
Except that many of those posters (myself included) were disappointed with the number of modes of play available, which doesn't seem like it's going to change at launch. You've got story, you've got guildleves, perhaps those NPCs that sometimes recruit people to kill mobs...and? Since guildleves pretty much boil down to grinding with extra xp attached, and the same with those hunting NPCS...and the storyline is 70% watching cutscenes, 20% running between NPCs that trigger them, and 10% actual gameplay...that doesn't leave a whole lot of variety.
I played both open and closed beta, and I fully understood that they intentionally left the majority of the content out...but if there aren't other styles of content to look forward to besides story/moviewatching or grinding, it's no wonder people are upset. SE has said nothing about releasing new pre-endgame content (besides releasing more zones for you to grind and do guildleves in, and continuation of the story), and this discrepancy in file sizes does nothing to say that will change without making some baseless assumptions (which I am not willing to make).
pro tip, other SE titles weren't MMOs, except for DING DING DING! the one that got beta tested. MMOs that aren't tested extensively with a public beta end up with HUGE problems. There is little that isn't being tested in the public or closed beta right now.
This would be a great argument except I'm pretty sure they pulled the same thing in Final Fantasy XI's open beta that they did Final Fantasy XIV and it worked out fine.
Let me let you in on a little secret from a guy who's been in a couple dozen public beta tests: the developers have this big list of things they're going to fix, what gets reported by the public goes on the bottom of the list under the in-house testers who are actually trained and paid to do this.
Part of this is because everything from the players goes into a massive piile that CSR have to pick through. Maybe 1 out of 100 of the bug reports (this is an optimistic guess) are actually competantly worded enough to make sense to a professional developer because it's not like job public has any idea how to program, often they don't even know when something is meant to do that.
By release, there's usually so many things to fix that the developers never get to the bottom of the list. Consequently, everything that was fixed in beta before release was probably fixed because the in-house testers already found it.
So, as that's the way it works, it really doesn't matter that Square-Enix decided to test the majority of the content in-house. It's not like that's all that different from if the rest of us got our hands on it, as anything we would hav said would have been too far down on the priority list to be addressed by them. One exception: massive uproar on forums - sometimes that gets the developers' notice.
Personally, I'd take this a little differently: Final Fantasy XI has been out awhile, it's had three expansions. Ergo, this massive slew of content we're about to see in the Final Fantasy XIV release client should be interpretted as just the beginning.
Indeed, I think it's a good beginning. If you ask me, FFXI overexpanded a bit, too many of those zones are ghost towns. Final Fantasy XIV has a nice format, only five big seamless zones, it won't leave itself vulnerable to overexpansion with such a base.
official translation from SqEnix states that eorza is only 1 of 3 major continents in FFXIV. This game will be massive. Eorza seems huge as it is right now, adding 2 more full continents plus all the classes and content to go with it is just going to be breath taking. I can't wait. Im playing a bard for sure, or maybe an assassin. Darks arts sounds awesome.
I really don't know how much more content is going to be in the release version so i'm not going to guess. But, the fact that you have 13 GB's worth of "more" stuff seems to be very interesting.
That's why all these "gloom and doom" posters saying there was no content in FFXIV didn't know what they were talking about. From the start of closed beta and the start of open beta, the devs have repeatedly said, what we see is a small fraction of what we'll get at release. I'm very excited for the future of this game.
Except that many of those posters (myself included) were disappointed with the number of modes of play available, which doesn't seem like it's going to change at launch. You've got story, you've got guildleves, perhaps those NPCs that sometimes recruit people to kill mobs...and? Since guildleves pretty much boil down to grinding with extra xp attached, and the same with those hunting NPCS...and the storyline is 70% watching cutscenes, 20% running between NPCs that trigger them, and 10% actual gameplay...that doesn't leave a whole lot of variety.
I played both open and closed beta, and I fully understood that they intentionally left the majority of the content out...but if there aren't other styles of content to look forward to besides story/moviewatching or grinding, it's no wonder people are upset. SE has said nothing about releasing new pre-endgame content (besides releasing more zones for you to grind and do guildleves in, and continuation of the story), and this discrepancy in file sizes does nothing to say that will change without making some baseless assumptions (which I am not willing to make).
SE has release "pre-endgame" content, such as NM's. Hell there are even pics of them up on FFXIVcore.com now. Go there and read the 3 full posts of translations about content that was purposely left out of the open beta that is making its way into the launch, as well as all the fixes to the problems that plenty of people were complaining about saying "SE DOESN'T LISTEN TO US.....WAHHHHHH"
pro tip, other SE titles weren't MMOs, except for DING DING DING! the one that got beta tested. MMOs that aren't tested extensively with a public beta end up with HUGE problems. There is little that isn't being tested in the public or closed beta right now.
Some of you just need to listen to veteran mmo players, not just people who've played 1 or 2 and have never seen the pre to post-release process.
Ok, veteran couch potato. Tell us how a MMORPG is suppose to be tested so it may defeat the oh great World Of Warcraft?
maybe you are WoW lover and you can't think well becuase only thing the crap addon gear score
so you are fail and you cant doing nothing
when you have another mmorpg and have high lvl in puther game you can talk for while stop playing wow
I really don't know how much more content is going to be in the release version so i'm not going to guess. But, the fact that you have 13 GB's worth of "more" stuff seems to be very interesting.
That's why all these "gloom and doom" posters saying there was no content in FFXIV didn't know what they were talking about. From the start of closed beta and the start of open beta, the devs have repeatedly said, what we see is a small fraction of what we'll get at release. I'm very excited for the future of this game.
Except that many of those posters (myself included) were disappointed with the number of modes of play available, which doesn't seem like it's going to change at launch. You've got story, you've got guildleves, perhaps those NPCs that sometimes recruit people to kill mobs...and? Since guildleves pretty much boil down to grinding with extra xp attached, and the same with those hunting NPCS...and the storyline is 70% watching cutscenes, 20% running between NPCs that trigger them, and 10% actual gameplay...that doesn't leave a whole lot of variety.
I played both open and closed beta, and I fully understood that they intentionally left the majority of the content out...but if there aren't other styles of content to look forward to besides story/moviewatching or grinding, it's no wonder people are upset. SE has said nothing about releasing new pre-endgame content (besides releasing more zones for you to grind and do guildleves in, and continuation of the story), and this discrepancy in file sizes does nothing to say that will change without making some baseless assumptions (which I am not willing to make).
SE has release "pre-endgame" content, such as NM's. Hell there are even pics of them up on FFXIVcore.com now. Go there and read the 3 full posts of translations about content that was purposely left out of the open beta that is making its way into the launch, as well as all the fixes to the problems that plenty of people were complaining about saying "SE DOESN'T LISTEN TO US.....WAHHHHHH"
I've seen the announcements for NMs. That hardly counts as an alternative style of content in my eyes, nor does it do much to address my concerns. According that same information you pointed me to, many of them will be attached to guildleves as well. I couldn't find anything that could be construed as a separate content type in that information you pointed me to, besides perhaps faction leves, which I already knew about and require you to complete a certain number of guildleves to even unlock, which means maybe you'll get to do some a couple times a week? If there's something I've missed, let me know.
I was talking more along the lines of something such as normal quests, like the ones they had in FFXI, or maybe one or two alternate game modes, like FFXI had conquest battles, the beseiged system, special dungeon content you could do at mid levels, etc.
I really don't know how much more content is going to be in the release version so i'm not going to guess. But, the fact that you have 13 GB's worth of "more" stuff seems to be very interesting.
That's why all these "gloom and doom" posters saying there was no content in FFXIV didn't know what they were talking about. From the start of closed beta and the start of open beta, the devs have repeatedly said, what we see is a small fraction of what we'll get at release. I'm very excited for the future of this game.
Except that many of those posters (myself included) were disappointed with the number of modes of play available, which doesn't seem like it's going to change at launch. You've got story, you've got guildleves, perhaps those NPCs that sometimes recruit people to kill mobs...and? Since guildleves pretty much boil down to grinding with extra xp attached, and the same with those hunting NPCS...and the storyline is 70% watching cutscenes, 20% running between NPCs that trigger them, and 10% actual gameplay...that doesn't leave a whole lot of variety.
I played both open and closed beta, and I fully understood that they intentionally left the majority of the content out...but if there aren't other styles of content to look forward to besides story/moviewatching or grinding, it's no wonder people are upset. SE has said nothing about releasing new pre-endgame content (besides releasing more zones for you to grind and do guildleves in, and continuation of the story), and this discrepancy in file sizes does nothing to say that will change without making some baseless assumptions (which I am not willing to make).
SE has release "pre-endgame" content, such as NM's. Hell there are even pics of them up on FFXIVcore.com now. Go there and read the 3 full posts of translations about content that was purposely left out of the open beta that is making its way into the launch, as well as all the fixes to the problems that plenty of people were complaining about saying "SE DOESN'T LISTEN TO US.....WAHHHHHH"
I've seen the announcements for NMs. That hardly counts as an alternative style of content in my eyes, nor does it do much to address my concerns. According that same information you pointed me to, many of them will be attached to guildleves as well. I couldn't find anything that could be construed as a separate content type in that information you pointed me to, besides perhaps faction leves, which I already knew about and require you to complete a certain number of guildleves to even unlock, which means maybe you'll get to do some a couple times a week? If there's something I've missed, let me know.
I was talking more along the lines of something such as normal quests, like the ones they had in FFXI, or maybe one or two alternate game modes, like FFXI had conquest battles, the beseiged system, special dungeon content you could do at mid levels, etc.
FFXI didn't have any of those things at launch or even a year after launch when it launched officially for NA. There is the behest system. They are implementing a pvp system, and to me the wording reads there will be something like the conquest system with the order of the dragons or something along those lines.
You can't really compare FFXI to FFXIV. For one, you didn't play FFXI until it was a year old and had an expansion already, and thats if you played RIGHT at the NA launch. I guess you can give FFXIV a year to mature and get an expansion under its belt, then compare it apples to apples.
As for anything more than Guildleves. Who knows. Nothing has really been stated. But is your issue with the guildleve system itself or is it the cooldown that irks you? If its the cooldown;
Guildleve availability/cooldown
Right now, there is a 2 day cooldown for guildleves. This is not enough for a single person, but the aim was that people would share guildleves to extend this time. This is why we have the leve-link and the bonus rewards for higher difficulty selection, to make it more rewarding and better exp/skill gains to play in a party. However, the time was just too long, and we heard many complaints of this nature, so we will shorten it. With that, we can see the problem with having to travel via teleport more frequently, so we are currently tweaking an anima regen increase.
things are being adjusted to make their core system more fluid. Who knows the the cooldown will be reduced to, but atleast they realize that people feel jipped by a 2 day cooldown and are addressing it.
Comments
Fair enough, but you know trolls are going to take the bait and completely derail the thread. I'd like to focus on what people think will be in those 13 GB's worth of stuff, rather than saying "You see, you see... all you trolls were wrong!!!!"
AGain, I appreciate your response, you're a really good and "Fair" advocate for FFXIV. I happen to fall into your camp as it pertains to liking FFXIV.
One of the disappointments I had with the beta was that there wasn't enough cinematic content. I honestly can't wait.
Who is "you guys"? Anyone with concern or reservations about game?
K.
----------
"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
Core i5 13600KF, BeQuiet Pure Loop FX 360, 32gb DDR5-6000 XPG, WD SN850 NVMe ,PNY 3090 XLR8, Asus Prime Z790-A, Lian-Li O11 PCMR case (limited ed 1045/2000), 32" LG Ultragear 4k Monitor, Logitech G560 LightSync Sound, Razer Deathadder V2 and Razer Blackwidow V3 Keyboard
Agreed. I was also hoping there would be more voice overs. i wouldn't mind if most was voice and music.
All die, so die well.
Yeah that would be cool to have a lot of voice in it. I'm just not expecting the taru to have British accents. *still laughing*
Taru-Gallante-Blood elf-Elysean-Kelari-Crime Fighting-Imperial Agent
Maybe they'll finally include some of those giant lizards that they keep showing low level characters battle in the trailers as dungeon content instead of more rank 40 squirrels. t.t
*cough LALAFELL cough*
Actually the elvaan/elzen does on the opening movie.XD
The new content could be absolutely anything. Since they knew open beta would bring in a lot of people with lower speed internet connections they would want to limit the beta client to just those elements that needed load testing. As people have stated, voice & sound are prepackaged objects so wouldn't need to have all objects tested under load. Even graphics could fall into that category since depending on how they are rendered one graphic object would be the same as many others. The graphics rendering code/engine would need load testing but not all graphic sets. This could explain why people have reported seeing repetitive environment graphics.
We just won't know until launch. Only five days but I'm ready now.
Have been on the fence if too make the jump or not. The only thing that puts me off is that the game feels "right" with a controller, and im a PC enthusiast so its going against my morals lol.
The info that has been circulating the last few days has been very positive, the "demo" was great, but lets bring on the real thing.
But yep iv ordered (standard version) . Missed the £17 offer at tho
Core i5 13600KF, BeQuiet Pure Loop FX 360, 32gb DDR5-6000 XPG, WD SN850 NVMe ,PNY 3090 XLR8, Asus Prime Z790-A, Lian-Li O11 PCMR case (limited ed 1045/2000), 32" LG Ultragear 4k Monitor, Logitech G560 LightSync Sound, Razer Deathadder V2 and Razer Blackwidow V3 Keyboard
Quoted for truth!
4 gigs worth of game, 18 gigs worth of .wav soundtrack files
Probably... but hey, I love the music, so bring it on.
There may be a few new tunes there, but the majorirty of the music is already in beta, so I doubt that'll make up a significant portion of the difference between the beta and release client. Even if it was, sound files are relatively small, in order for it to fill a single gig we'd be talking hours upon hours of sounds.
Pre-rendered cutscenes would be the worse case scenario, because video data is a lot bulkier than sound file data. However, because their approach to the cutscenes has been to leave them unrendered, you only need the assets and corridinating instructions to build the cutscenes, and that's considerably less bulky than a frame-by-frame picture capture of the result. (Like how you can make a 500 MB video recording your playing a 250 KB game.)
No, I suspect the great bulk of what we'll see will be:
All the class quests and story quests, a large part of that being the included data needed to build their non-prerendered cutscenes.
More voiceovers - perhaps every single story-related cutscene will have a voiceover.
Many of the mobs in FFXIV beta appear to be placeholders that will be replaced with their actual models in retail. (Possibly a wider variety of mobs to be found, Notorious Monsters are already confirmed.)
Tons more guildleves, including some of the multi-tier guildleves you can see on some of the data-harvesting sites.
Tons more equipment and the related crafting recipes to build them, seeing how a lot of them were removed from the open beta.
Content related to things that will be patched in later, such as Musketeers, boat building, and the airship travel network.
But they likely will have a surprise or two in store even for a fellow as unusually familiar with development as I am. These Square-Enix fellows are true craftsmen, they're being tight-lipped and keeping most of their testing in-house because they've this craftsman's pride.
Just use FFXI as an example
I have 9 75 (well working on to 85 right now with little to almost no play time)
I have only touch roughly 50% of the contents in FFXI
I did all TOAU, COP
I have not touch WOTG
Hardly did those orb battle beside the same old 2.
Hardly touch endgame VNM or the TOAU VNM
Didn't beat dynamis
Nzle isle @ floor 20
i am on like the 5th rank on the TOAU
Rank 10 in sandoria and windurst (not bastok).
0 rank in WoTG
Didn't kill all the Kings yet.
The shear amount of content is amazing.
none
Personally, I'd take this a little differently: Final Fantasy XI has been out awhile, it's had three expansions. Ergo, this massive slew of content we're about to see in the Final Fantasy XIV release client should be interpretted as just the beginning.
Indeed, I think it's a good beginning. If you ask me, FFXI overexpanded a bit, too many of those zones are ghost towns. Final Fantasy XIV has a nice format, only five big seamless zones, it won't leave itself vulnerable to overexpansion with such a base.
Ever been in the public Beta tests for any of the single player FF's? Ever even *hear* of any? No, of course you didn't. Because they didn't have them.
Ever heard of public beta tests for any of FFXI's 4 expansions or adventure packs? No, of course you didn't. Because they didn't have them.
Ever heard of pubilc beta tests for any of SE's other titles? No, of course you didn't. Because they didn't have them.
Yet, SE's released myriad games over the years - all large, sprawling titles with tons of content... and other than FFXIV, only one other one ever had a Beta test that invited people outside SE to participate... and it was also the only other MMO. Other than that, they've all launched complete and ready to play, all content tested.
Who do you think tested all the content for all those other SE titles, Bloodworth?
Here's a hint: The same people testing all the content they're holding off on for FFXIV's release.
Here's another hint: They didn't need outside help to test the game's content. They needed outside help to test the game's systems and server stability.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
pro tip, other SE titles weren't MMOs, except for DING DING DING! the one that got beta tested. MMOs that aren't tested extensively with a public beta end up with HUGE problems. There is little that isn't being tested in the public or closed beta right now.
Some of you just need to listen to veteran mmo players, not just people who've played 1 or 2 and have never seen the pre to post-release process.
Except that many of those posters (myself included) were disappointed with the number of modes of play available, which doesn't seem like it's going to change at launch. You've got story, you've got guildleves, perhaps those NPCs that sometimes recruit people to kill mobs...and? Since guildleves pretty much boil down to grinding with extra xp attached, and the same with those hunting NPCS...and the storyline is 70% watching cutscenes, 20% running between NPCs that trigger them, and 10% actual gameplay...that doesn't leave a whole lot of variety.
I played both open and closed beta, and I fully understood that they intentionally left the majority of the content out...but if there aren't other styles of content to look forward to besides story/moviewatching or grinding, it's no wonder people are upset. SE has said nothing about releasing new pre-endgame content (besides releasing more zones for you to grind and do guildleves in, and continuation of the story), and this discrepancy in file sizes does nothing to say that will change without making some baseless assumptions (which I am not willing to make).
This would be a great argument except I'm pretty sure they pulled the same thing in Final Fantasy XI's open beta that they did Final Fantasy XIV and it worked out fine.
Let me let you in on a little secret from a guy who's been in a couple dozen public beta tests: the developers have this big list of things they're going to fix, what gets reported by the public goes on the bottom of the list under the in-house testers who are actually trained and paid to do this.
Part of this is because everything from the players goes into a massive piile that CSR have to pick through. Maybe 1 out of 100 of the bug reports (this is an optimistic guess) are actually competantly worded enough to make sense to a professional developer because it's not like job public has any idea how to program, often they don't even know when something is meant to do that.
By release, there's usually so many things to fix that the developers never get to the bottom of the list. Consequently, everything that was fixed in beta before release was probably fixed because the in-house testers already found it.
If you don't believe me, perhaps you'll believe this MMORPG.com article from an industry insider.
So, as that's the way it works, it really doesn't matter that Square-Enix decided to test the majority of the content in-house. It's not like that's all that different from if the rest of us got our hands on it, as anything we would hav said would have been too far down on the priority list to be addressed by them. One exception: massive uproar on forums - sometimes that gets the developers' notice.
official translation from SqEnix states that eorza is only 1 of 3 major continents in FFXIV. This game will be massive. Eorza seems huge as it is right now, adding 2 more full continents plus all the classes and content to go with it is just going to be breath taking. I can't wait. Im playing a bard for sure, or maybe an assassin. Darks arts sounds awesome.
SE has release "pre-endgame" content, such as NM's. Hell there are even pics of them up on FFXIVcore.com now. Go there and read the 3 full posts of translations about content that was purposely left out of the open beta that is making its way into the launch, as well as all the fixes to the problems that plenty of people were complaining about saying "SE DOESN'T LISTEN TO US.....WAHHHHHH"
maybe you are WoW lover and you can't think well becuase only thing the crap addon gear score
so you are fail and you cant doing nothing
when you have another mmorpg and have high lvl in puther game you can talk for while stop playing wow
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
I've seen the announcements for NMs. That hardly counts as an alternative style of content in my eyes, nor does it do much to address my concerns. According that same information you pointed me to, many of them will be attached to guildleves as well. I couldn't find anything that could be construed as a separate content type in that information you pointed me to, besides perhaps faction leves, which I already knew about and require you to complete a certain number of guildleves to even unlock, which means maybe you'll get to do some a couple times a week? If there's something I've missed, let me know.
I was talking more along the lines of something such as normal quests, like the ones they had in FFXI, or maybe one or two alternate game modes, like FFXI had conquest battles, the beseiged system, special dungeon content you could do at mid levels, etc.
FFXI didn't have any of those things at launch or even a year after launch when it launched officially for NA. There is the behest system. They are implementing a pvp system, and to me the wording reads there will be something like the conquest system with the order of the dragons or something along those lines.
You can't really compare FFXI to FFXIV. For one, you didn't play FFXI until it was a year old and had an expansion already, and thats if you played RIGHT at the NA launch. I guess you can give FFXIV a year to mature and get an expansion under its belt, then compare it apples to apples.
As for anything more than Guildleves. Who knows. Nothing has really been stated. But is your issue with the guildleve system itself or is it the cooldown that irks you? If its the cooldown;
Guildleve availability/cooldown
Right now, there is a 2 day cooldown for guildleves. This is not enough for a single person, but the aim was that people would share guildleves to extend this time. This is why we have the leve-link and the bonus rewards for higher difficulty selection, to make it more rewarding and better exp/skill gains to play in a party. However, the time was just too long, and we heard many complaints of this nature, so we will shorten it. With that, we can see the problem with having to travel via teleport more frequently, so we are currently tweaking an anima regen increase.
things are being adjusted to make their core system more fluid. Who knows the the cooldown will be reduced to, but atleast they realize that people feel jipped by a 2 day cooldown and are addressing it.