Well one thing is for sure; they aren't making their job easy with this system. I'm just glad I'm not the developer thinking about class balance.
agreed but its less class balance but skill balance instead, the class balance can be achieved by the player by choosing the optimum skill setup. The task SE have is to try and make as many abilities as possible appeal to each class.
I think I'll sum up my complaints with a barely related example. I've been playing MMOs since just after their infancy. They may have started eating solid foods about the time I started playing and hadn't yet started forming coherant acronyms. In all that time I have only ever once had an MMO company delete my characters and account, and inform me that I would have to buy a new copy of the game and start over because I had spent too much time before attempting to resubscribe. I can still log into Everquest and log in my original character that I made the day I bought the game. I can log into anarchy online and my characters are still there, and I never played that past the free month.
SquareEnix doesn't give a crap about any of you or what you want. Just make sure to pay for the subscription every month because apparently the price of data storage in Japan is only slightly less than an apartment rental. They can't afford to keep that up for free, you free loading non-subscribers.
Should pobably take that to the FFXI forum. That point is pretty outdated and pointless, or I would agree with you.
Although I am eagerly looking forward to this game, I have to agree with ishist's sentiment about SE not giving a crap about us or our wants. This isn't FFXI of course, but the same mentality and attitude is most assuredly being carried over into FFXIV. I hope they will be a little more caring this time around but I won't hold my breath.
You talk of there being no freedom but the skill system is without doubt the most fluid character system i've seen, There aren't 18 classes there are 100's, every player has the opportunity to create a unique class playing the style they choose. I think its amusing that you complain that there are too many classes when less classes would mean more pugilists; the class you want to play.
I see this argument a lot, however I really doubt that there will be that many options for class combinations that are actually viable. Most of us have been around "Skill Point" type games, we realize that ultimately some skills are better than others, and sooner or later everyone is a plate wearing halbred using mage. Everyone loves Max-Min, there will be a "right" way to build your character and a "wrong" one and people will be very strict about who they invite I'd wager as well.
Its not as much freedom as we wish it would be.
What you're talking about there, though, falls primarily on the players... not the developers.
A developer could put out a game that is 100% perfectly balanced, with no crappy or useless skills. Everything's equally effective in its own way. Players will *still* dismiss most of the skills in favor of whatever they decide are "the best builds".
Why? Because many players - especially min/max'ers - like predictability. They like it when their calculations work out, and they don't want to screw with the formula. Adding variables into the equation introduces more variables they have to deal with... and they don't want that. They don't want options. They want a predictable, fine-tuned, well-oiled machine that can get 20k+ XP per hour... Any less and it's not good enough.
This will happen in any MMO, no matter how diverse or vast or balanced its skill system.. Because players will invariably reduce it all down to cookie-cutter builds.
"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
Comments
agreed but its less class balance but skill balance instead, the class balance can be achieved by the player by choosing the optimum skill setup. The task SE have is to try and make as many abilities as possible appeal to each class.
Although I am eagerly looking forward to this game, I have to agree with ishist's sentiment about SE not giving a crap about us or our wants. This isn't FFXI of course, but the same mentality and attitude is most assuredly being carried over into FFXIV. I hope they will be a little more caring this time around but I won't hold my breath.
What you're talking about there, though, falls primarily on the players... not the developers.
A developer could put out a game that is 100% perfectly balanced, with no crappy or useless skills. Everything's equally effective in its own way. Players will *still* dismiss most of the skills in favor of whatever they decide are "the best builds".
Why? Because many players - especially min/max'ers - like predictability. They like it when their calculations work out, and they don't want to screw with the formula. Adding variables into the equation introduces more variables they have to deal with... and they don't want that. They don't want options. They want a predictable, fine-tuned, well-oiled machine that can get 20k+ XP per hour... Any less and it's not good enough.
This will happen in any MMO, no matter how diverse or vast or balanced its skill system.. Because players will invariably reduce it all down to cookie-cutter builds.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops