Questions about the game

Halibrand

I just saw a write-up about the crafting system in the game, and that intrigued me, because I enjoy crafting.  I tried FFXIV during the beta of the relaunch, but gave up on it when 100 minutes into it (including chargen, intro, intital running around quests) I still hadn't seen combat.  Not being able to fast-forward or skip the intro stuff was very frustrating.  But seeing the crafting write-up has me wondering if there's wonderful stuff hidden behind a beginning that I hated.  So here are my questions:

 

Would I enjoy the PvP?  I like warzones and battlegrounds.  I like fairly balanced smaller games that don't last for weeks at a time, that you can drop into or introduce a friend to whenever you like.  Arena is too scheduled and commitment-ridden for me, and I don't enjoy persistent PvE-PvP zone warfare (like ESO and LotRO).

 

Is there non-quest stuff to do besides PvP and crafting?  Often this is called fluff content and I prefer games that have it in some shape or form.

 

How much time would I have to spend in quest-hub questing?  I have no interest in the story or their writing, and traditional quest-hub questing is something I endure, not enjoy.

 

And lastly: is this a game where they went insane with player-character bloom effects, glows, swirls, pulses, etc?  If so, is it one of the games that includes options to reduce or turn off those effects?  I don't care so much about the ones generated by NPC enemies or the game environment.

 

Thanks to anyone that took the time to read all that!

 

nbtscan

There's two forms of PvP currently:  4v4 Arena type battles and 24v24v24 Battlegrounds.  (can be scaled to a smaller party size if there's less people participating, but it seems to stay fairly active)  The Arena style is more for the hardcore PvP players while Battlegrounds are for everyone to enjoy.  Battlegrounds don't require PvP gear and award PvP xp and currency, as well as PvE currency for participating.  (you get more PvP xp/currency for placing higher, the PvE rewards remain constant regardless of placing)

There's a lot of content in game.  There's three different gatherers, a Desynthesis system that breaks gear down, (you can only max out 3 of the available 8 skills though) Gardening and Chocobo Training, (both require being in a Free Company (guild) with a house, they haven't said if this will be available for individual housing yet or not though) Dungeons and Raids, Spiritbonding and Materia Conversion, Treasure Maps, Glamour System (changing the appearance of your gear), and probably several other things I can't think of off the top of my head.

Being that it's a Final Fantasy game, the story is something you should look forward to, but apart from the introductory cutscene you can skip all the other cutscenes and dialog.  Sidequests may be required during some points in the game to make up the XP gap that the other leveling systems may not make up for during leveling your first class, simply because it's the fastest way.  Side quests are not repeatable, so once you've done them they're done.  You'll have to primarily rely on other methods (Hunting Logs, Challenge Logs, Levequests, Dungeon Grinding, Daily Dungeon Roulette) to level up other classes once the main story and side quests have been exhausted.

There's quite a bit of effects in game, and it's usually something that's praised opposed to being over the top.  It's just one of those things you'll have to see how it feels to you.  There are settings to limit how much it displays though.  It can get kinda spammy in FATEs and the Elite Hunt mobs, but for 4 and 8 man content I feel it's a pretty good balance.

Deancorso

Yes, if you enjoy crafting FF14 ARR is a really good game. Crafting, gathering, selling on the markets feel as deep as fighting. Personnally i spend as much time fighting than crafing in this game and usually i get bored quickly of crafting in other games.

 

• PVP is fun, there is an arena and a tri-faction battleground (24v24v24). FF14 ARR is mainly a PVE game so the PVP is casual.
• Fluff stuff is coming in a few months (golden saucer with lots of minigames), but there is housing which comes with cool stuff like gardening and mount raising.
• You only do quest hubs at the beginning. Overall a minor part of the game. At level 15 you unlock dungeons which level you up quickly. Also don't judge the game based on the boring 1-30 levels. The game really starts to show his true colors after that and you have a large variety of content to play as you want, if anything the game is a sandpark.

Nyghthowler

1. Don't know if you'll like the PvP or not. Every one's taste is different.

2. Can't skip the cut scenes .

3. In options their is a setting to minimize or turn off effects, but the OFF setting is greyed out... I wish they would enable it because all the flashing, strobing particle effects gets to be too much.

MightyUnclean

There's so much to do in  FFXIV, it sometime feels like overload, at least to me as a new player.  I feel pulled in a dozen directions!  This isn't a bad thing, though.

Unknown

Jump into a free trial and have a look. FFXIV is a great game IMO. ^^ Not done any crafting though since it's not my cup of tea.

aethus

Originally posted by Nyghthowler

1. Don't know if you'll like the PvP or not. Every one's taste is different.

2. Can't skip the cut scenes .

3. In options their is a setting to minimize or turn off effects, but the OFF setting is greyed out... I wish they would enable it because all the flashing, strobing particle effects gets to be too much.

2. You can skip cut scenes.

3.You can completely turn off spell effects

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now for OP leveling is standard quest hub fair with a fairly interesting story line. You'll be doing fates and quest hubs for your combat classes.

Gathering and crafting use leves for leveling or just straight up harvesting to max level, although leves can be used for combat classes they aren't optimal.

End game consists of casual 24 man raids, or more difficult 8 man raids.

PVP which was been explained above.

Gathering classes get treasure hunting

Standard daily rep grind is in as well as Hunting named monsters for currency.

Gardening is tied to a free company as well as your own personal room.

If crafting is your goal then you'll mostly be gathering or playing the market, i suppose end game crafting is just raising your skill and building fancier gear/housing related items.