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My Thoughts after a couple days in the game, while i wait for a 6 minute patch that never ends...
Resia
Member Posts: 119
I have been following the development for FFXIV for quite some time. I never played FFXI and I have also never played WOW. I have played a lot of MMO's and most for quite awhile. So I really don’t jump around games; I like to find one that will last me for awhile. I started Lalafell Conjurer and I thought I would just share the things I really enjoy about the game and the things that are bugging me. I am currently undecided on whether I will purchase it yet and I am hoping the next couple days will assist me with the process.
Yes, I realize open beta is for testing and there are issue. There will still be issues when the game launches. I am willing to put up with that and wait for a fix for the right game.
Things I love about this game:
I really like the way the game looks and feels. Yes there is some lag but it is beautiful. My character is cute; she moves find and in general I wish more games could look like this.
So far I like the class distribution. I think there is plenty of variety and they seem pretty decent. While I am not very high level right now; I can see how each class will come into their own as you level (like most games).
I love that I can explore and feel like I am actually exploring. Generally it becomes quite obvious to me where I should go in a new game. I stick to the zones, areas (whatever you want to call them) and move on to the rest like everyone else. Due to necessity, too many people to count in the areas by the city, I headed out into the woods.
The first time I kept going out until I did not see anyone but saw the same critters I was killing before; so I stuck around this spot for a bit and then headed out. Killing along the way, then right next to a mob I killed I turned the corner was ran into a critter that hit me for 5k. Okay, too far out now it was KOS and clearly I didn’t understand the mob con system. So I licked my wounds and went down another path.
I love the sort of sandbox way you can approach any class you want. Last night I decided I had enough leveling on the conjurer so I went back to town and bough a fishing pole. I tried fishing for a bit but honestly I found it confusing. So I decided to try mining; this one I enjoyed and I picked up on the mini game fairly quickly. I went on to try botany and enjoyed this one as well.
After I gathered an obscene amount of materials I thought I would go craft. I first tried the weaver but quickly learned that it appeared I didn’t have what I needed to make anything. So I went and bought a skillet to cook. This one I made a few items and while I did not quite get exactly what they were for; I know with enough experimenting I can figure it out The fact that I could try so many classes I one day was awesome for me.
Crafting seems to matter in this game and I love that; this is something I like and have started to require this in my games.
The game is just unique; I am not really sure I can describe it properly but I like how different it is. It doesn’t play like other MMO games that I have played before and while I do not think it revolutionizes anything particular, it does some things very well.
Things that need work or that bug me:
Character customization seems a bit more limited than originally read they would have. I just think they need a few more elements to get this one up to par. My race, for example, had 4 hair styles and that just seems rather unacceptable to me.
In general I like the character creation, classes etc, but there is just not enough information on them for someone who did not follow the game. A tooltip pop-up or something would go a long ways here.
I think a ton of hand holding is unnecessary, but there is simply not enough guidance for new players. If I had not played any MMO games before it is highly unlikely I would be able to pick up most of this on my own at all. There is a difference between handholding someone through a game, and teaching a new player how to play your game. There are key elements that vary game to game and items like how do I con a mob should really be introduced to a new player early. A poor customer experience early on will cause several people to give up.
I know this part can be hard to judge at times because of lot of people on this site have not been new to them for years. However, as someone who plays with a couple people that only dabbled in such games over 10 years ago I can tell you there are many things we take for granted that a brand new MMO player would not know, and why would they.
Crafting is important, which I like, but if what I have read is true and it is the main way to acquire “gear” then I think it is a poor choice to not have some sort of way for players to easily buy and sell from one another.
Switching between the different classes/professions is difficult. I have to manually add my abilities and spells each time I switch between professions. It is tedious; if there is a better way to do this I would love to. I know you can figure out how to add macros to do this, but it really feels like this should have been something addressed in an easier manner.
The UI…I was happy to learn that it was not as game breaking as I had heard about. I really dreaded the first time I logged in to see if I could even play with a keyboard and mouse. I find it okay, it is not great but it works. I heard the gamepad is easier so I may plug mine in before the open beta ends to give it a whirl. That being said though, I do think the UI needs work. Things like looting are extremely slow and it doesn’t really have to be.
The patcher/uploader is horrible. It hangs without any feedback. I often get to 9X% and then it just stops. I know this is part of what they would be testing in open beta and I hope they find a way to address it. Right now someone I was going to play with just gave up because the 6 minute patch is taking well over an hour, with no indication of why.
Multiple server locations would be nice. Now the game play, combat, is fairly slow so it helps make it not as noticeable as other games but it is clearly there. I am just not sure why they would have them all in one place when they have other key places they could put a few.
I think the game has great potential but I think the introduction to this game will cause a lot of frustration. It wasn’t until my 2nd day that I started to pick up on a few things and I believe with so many games out there, not everyone will struggle through elements that should really be taught to them up front. I know games take a lot longer than a couple days to get the hang of, and in fact I enjoy that part of it, but i just wanted to share what i thought.
"Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better." parrotpholk
Comments
i am disappointed Highlander only has 4 hair style and all of it are weird as hell
This is the type of game it grows on you little by little or you just hate it, that’s fine take your pick. (this is not at the OP in anyway) the only huge problem i have been having with this game is the patcher when i hear patch day it usually means let me start the patcher before i go to work to come back 12 hours later and it is still going or stuck. Just WISH SE would give more info and address the patcher issues. I also know the quest limit and while xp limit system is annoying to some people maybe that will change or it won't it doesn't bug me all that much. Anyways that’s all i have to say for now.
IN THE FACE!
But there can be only one!
Frank 'Spankybus' Mignone
www.spankybus.com
-3d Artist & Compositor
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LOL! cookies for you!
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Don't feel so bad, I patched and now the login screen doesn't appear. Just white.
Objectivity is delivered with a lack of personality made for the mainstream but never used for the mainstream.
what was your trick! i wanna know please!
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uTorrent and playing with its preferences so I can connect to 100k seeds instead of 20. Gets the patch in a few minutes.
Objectivity is delivered with a lack of personality made for the mainstream but never used for the mainstream.
oh ok i have used that before anything special i need to do for it to work with ff14?
IN THE FACE!
Patch has been stuck at 94.8%. It was there about 4 hours ago so I went out and came back. Still sitting there. Cancelled, started it back up and it is stuck at the same spo againt, good grief.
You'll need to find the patches in My Documents / My Games / Final Fantasy XIV Beta Version / downloads / ffxiv-beta / d96437e6 / metainfo then find the patch you're stuck on. Open it in uTorrent. Now, this is important.. SAVE the file in My Documents / My Games / Final Fantasy XIV Beta Version / downloads / ffxiv-beta / in this folder, not in d96blahblah or anything else but in that main folder there. It'll sync with your SE updater then. When it's 100% done just launch the SE updater.. bingo, done.
Objectivity is delivered with a lack of personality made for the mainstream but never used for the mainstream.
use utorrent, that what i just did thank to our pal
IN THE FACE!
thank you, still nice people on mmorpg.com thats is good to know. thanks again Fortenc
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I haven't played in beta, but if it's as close to FFXI as I have heard then the learning curve is rather steep indeed. Certainly, I think the game will lose potential players over the complex, non-intuitive and frustrating bits I've been hearing about. I'm fairly certain that with the game elements I've heard about that FFXIV will not have nearly as wide an appeal as WoW. Though I don't think that it was Square's aim to be the next WoW killer. I think the frustration level will be aleviated somewhat as the game goes public and websites start posting How To articles.
I wish I knew how to get experience when out of guildleves and unable to find any quests. Killing enemies gives me between 100-250 experience and they're farmed so it's not even like I can go and 'grind'.
Objectivity is delivered with a lack of personality made for the mainstream but never used for the mainstream.
Is this a joke or is this actually close to the game they plan on selling?
What was the budget? 12 dollars for a UI designer and 1.2 trillion on graphics guys?
Software mouse - Gotta go, it's not 1985 and I dont have to make dos config changes either.
Fatigue - Die in a godddamn fire. Hardcores cant play the way they want
Menus - Really. That's not even funny. Where are the actual menus.
Controls - The most unintuitive game i've played. Ever. Casuals will never play.
Tutorial - Get one
Downloader - Ugh, that was awful. More than 24 hours to download anything should shame you into re-working your delivery system. You've made games before right? It's hard to believe that.
I'm not really sure who this game is for.
Not paying for this. CE Pre-order cancelled. Gamestop can have my 5 dollars. Wont be the last time.
Nnnoooooo.
Everytime someone cancels a preorder, Hideaki Nakata throws a puppy the a river.
One of the best OP reviews I've read. Seems like you're providing good information based on your experience - most folks go straight to the rant
I agree with almost everything in the OP. Many good points.
For me, the game is growing on me. I enjoy playing, it feels different than other MMOs. I feel more immersed in the game world, with less obssession on super efficient mob grinding.
However, I have some concerns, many of which I pray will be resolved in time for release.
Concerns:
Is the world big enough?
We don't have access to everything, but looking at the world map and guessing how much of the map the current zones take up, I'm worried about the world being too tiny. I could be wrong though, what we have access to might be a much smaller percentage of the world than it appears.
Is the world interesting enough?
The cities are great. The main quest line is interesting. (The stories are far from resolved, so I am hoping an expecting there are more quest lines not available in OB). However, the zones lack anything of real interest. They look pretty good, but there are no points of interest. If you've seen one Aether Crystal camp, you've seen them all. No villiages, no temples, no camps of creatures. No ruins or pretty natural landmarks. How can a game have such detailed cities, then completely lack any interesting details outside the cities?
Is the game 95% Time Sink?
That's what it's starting to look like to me. You have to do a lot of running around in this game. Sometimes you have to run for minutes to find the next level appropriate mob (and no, not just because the servers are currently crowded). The main quest is 90% travel time. Crafting takes forever. Harvesting takes forever. Combat takes forever. Recovering health after combat takes forever. Selling items takes forever. Browsing the individual PC retainer vendors takes for ever. I've never seen a game so dominated by timesinks!
Note, however, this is a double edged sword. The slower pace and the extensive traveling seem to have made the entire game much more immersive. Each action seems more significant. I just worry that boredom will eventually overcome even the most patient and stoic of MMO players.
I have other concerns, but these have been topping my list the last few days. Still buying the CE, but I'm worried about how much play I'll get out of the game long term.
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My question is this; Do you spend the first 20+ levels fighting rabbits?
This was exactly why I quit ff11
The sleeper awakes...and rides his dirtbike to the mall.
Well you have to start with rats for the first 10 levels, then you can do rabbits... but don't touch the goats or moles, they'll own you.
But don't worry because once you're done with guildleves for the next 48 hours there won't be any to kill because everyone else is camping them, too.
Glad it's not just me. I'm at 94.8% as well. Last time, a reboot made it finish but no luck this time.
The patcher is buggy, i suggest you read one of htose threads explaining how to use bittorrent to download patches and start doing it every patch, it takes a seocnd rather thein 2 hours and it works just fine.
I download every patch through bit torrent.
Quotations Those Who make peaceful resolutions impossible, make violent resolutions inevitable. John F. Kennedy
Life... is the shit that happens while you wait for moments that never come - Lester Freeman
Lie to no one. If there 's somebody close to you, you'll ruin it with a lie. If they're a stranger, who the fuck are they you gotta lie to them? - Willy Nelson
I had to actually force myself to play for a full 4 hours, thinking I really should give it a solid try. I am sure there are plenty of people out there who will love this game and I wish them the very best.
This worked for me, except I had to place the downloaded file in the "patch" folder for it to recognize it.
Thank you.
you can download the patch files from FFXIVcore.com or what ever its called