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Composition Help from Beta Testers: Chronological Player Experience Feedback
Fortenc
Member Posts: 427
Calling all testers to help me write this composition to SE of chronological feedback about the game thus far in beta. Please let me know if I'm missing anything and numerically where your point would fit in. Let's put together a professional, serious composition, shall we? Thanks in advance.
This message does not require a response. ( Though it does from you MMORPG.com ! )
As the Service Desk in the FFXIV client referred me to leave feedback via this method I have compiled a list of constructive feedback based on the order that the player might normally experience such events that might require attention. Experience is from Limsa Lominsa and with a mouse and keyboard.
1. The beta patcher is currently the first experience by a new player. There are many problems with this patcher. I was unable to download any part of the patches for the FFXIV client through the official patcher, likely due to my router (Canada, Telus Gigaset SE567 routed through a D-Link DIR-825 serving 4 computers). I was forced to use a torrenting program after being permanently stuck at 0.0b/s. If this issue is not worked around then many customers may give up before they even experience the game.
2. Character creation is decent though many might complain that some races have far fewer options (4 compared to 8) when it comes to settings such as hair style. Currently you appear to be unable to rotate your character to get a better view of certain changes (* this may be erroneous though there was no clear, logical way). This is not a major issue but a minor one.
3. Immediately upon entering the game world the player is not presented with any information about how to navigate through the world. Any customer not familiar with the WSAD system will likely be unable to navigate and even those familiar with massively multi-player online games (MMOGs) may not understand how to converse with NPC characters. Also many individuals have been beset by what they call mouse lag. I have had no problem with this although considering the huge part the mouse plays with interaction in the world and menu this would be a serious problem were it to persist. Many have been saying to play the game with a controller though to ask all or most players to play with a controller in order to navigate the world is unacceptable in my opinion, PS3 release pending or not.
4. Tab-targeting is a bit buggy and tends to favor selecting the player character rather than selecting the nearest NPC. This may be intended.
5. Upon exiting the cabin of the boat before reaching Limsa Lominsa the player is presented with a semi-tutorial that explains that there are aggressive and passive creatures and then tells the player to enter active mode. The player is unlikely to know how to enter active mode. Also when this tutorial is presented it might be a good time to tell the player how to discern between aggressive and passive creatures (I'm still not sure how to).
6. Cooldown between actions in combat are unintuitive. Even hitting the most basic attack repeatedly doesn't appear to show a cooldown yet seems to have a random cooldown between attacks ignorant of your stamina. Also some animations will reset and look very awkward if one attack is interrupted by another and enemies tend to lose health long before the actual animation and damage number is presented.
7. Aetheryte, elevator and other such interactions are tedious and unintuitive. Would it be possibly to make these double-clickable as per interacting with NPCs as well as having the option to use the menu?
8. The true storyline quest system is wonderful. Characters are flavorful and those interested in story will truly get a kick out of it (I am one such individual). Translation is overall excellent for NPC speech text. The only problem is that there is only one quest in Limsa Lominsa. If that is being held out due to beta status then that's understandable, but otherwise, especially for a Final Fantasy property, one quest ending in intrigue and then simply doing levequests, crafting and killing for a long period of time is tedious. The Limsa Lominsa 'emotes' quest was intuitive though apparently those in Gridania and Ul'dah are far less intuitive and at points completely erroneous.
8.5. This is more of a fun suggestion and may be skipped should you wish. In Limsa Lominsa the different factions are intriguing. It would be wonderful if players could choose to ally with an NPC faction and receive some kind of emblem stating their allegiance, just for immersion purposes. Addition quests could be gained this way. Also, if firearms aren't useable by players eventually then I shall cry.
9. There is some confusion around the guildleve tutorial. Players should be made aware that they must wait 48 hours before being able to return their guildleves and receive new ones. The same goes for the fatigue system. Players should be reminded when their fatigue begins to kick in. If the amount of actual quests may not be sufficient to hold hardcore players' attention then I would suggest lowering the cooldown to 24 hours for guildleves.
10. There should be some simple tutorial that teaches players where to buy weapons and that switching weapons is how you switch classes as well as that skills/abilities will need to be changed each time classes are switched.
11. The low durability sign for equipment wear is currently still in Japanese. Also many players are unable to repair their starting armor or seek repairs (myself included) and must simply use the NPC repair shop. Being told where this is at some time during the tutorial, even a general location, would help many.
12. Crafting is very unintuitive. Having a system that encourages experimenting with materials in interesting but the most simplistic of low-level recipes, such as making copper rings from a copper wire, should be available as information somewhere in the client so that players have a way to start out. A general tutorial about how to craft to start out, especially when it comes to Armorsmithing and other similar mechanics which seem completely up to chance, would be a major boon.
13. Communication through chat is unintuitive currently. How to whisper and ignore individuals should be more obvious.
(More to come / be updated?)
1 - Edited #9 to add suggestion about guildleve cooldown if additional content is not as deep as we hope at release.
2 - Added #13
Objectivity is delivered with a lack of personality made for the mainstream but never used for the mainstream.
Comments
On point 2= I use an xbox controller and you can rotate your character at creation and select. I'd assume the keyboard equivalent is the camera controls (ijkl, i think) you can actually move your character too (Wasd) at character select and create. just an fyi.
Also oddly, selecting a certain face on the dusk elf women..their chest size changes..odd that.
Drop the next-gen marketing and people will argue if the game itself has merit.
Thank you, I'll leave in the comment about rotation as most players likely won't know that at the time of creation. I can change it up a bit, though.. I'll think about how for a bit and maybe change it. I know that you used to be able to change chest size in the face options (sneaky!) though apparently SE completely removed that feature.
Objectivity is delivered with a lack of personality made for the mainstream but never used for the mainstream.
I believe you are limited to 4000 characters if you use the Support.
Agree on most point but 12 regarding Crafting being unintuitive. I thought it was actually very easy to use. Also, you learn recipes by completing Local Leve Quests, something you might want to know. You receive a brief explanation about crafting in the form of text by activating these Leve too. Not all recipes have been added in FFXIV yet, they are holding back most items out of the game for launch.
If you aren't already rank 5 for the local crafting leves then you're likely to fail, unfortunately. I know I couldn't for the life of me complete the Armorsmithing local leve at rank 1. I made 1/5 of the things that I needed and barely.
Objectivity is delivered with a lack of personality made for the mainstream but never used for the mainstream.
Oh dear... If I were you I would take a look at what they are restricting in the beta (logon to beta site for guide), you will probably need to rewrite alot of your post im afraid.
Here are a couple.
During the Beta Test phase, there will be a total of eighteen types of arms and tools available: five types for Disciples of War, two types for Disciples of Magic, three types for Disciples of the Land, and eight types for Disciples of the Hand.
* For the duration of the Beta Test, characters KO’d will receive a weakness penalty which will not only lower total HP, but also reduce the speed with which their stamina gauge fills, as well as increase the length of casting times. This penalty will last five minutes before wearing off.
* Beta version contains only a fraction of what is planned in the full version.
In the Beta version, a character's race, clan, gender, nameday, and guardian do not affect his/her attributes.A maximum of three characters can be created per account.
* Physical level and Class ranks caps will be set at 30 for the Beta Test Phase.
Q: Do Disciples of the Land and Disciples of the Hand have any battle options other than throwing stones?
A: Not during the Beta tests.
Also remember the game will come with a manual for the tutorial as do all the FF games, not ingame ones.
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
yea, most of the complaints people are having right now is from not reading the online manual.
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
Is there an actually recipe list somewhere, in game? I didn't realize I was getting recipes at first. So I didn't start writing them down till later.
Shouldn't you be trolling the Darkfall forums?
Players who put retainers in wards other than the top listed are at a disadvantage because the wards are not randomized each time you click the list. In Ul'Dah, it even lists which is the "first" district, putting a higher emphasis on obtaining a retainer in such a district.
Retainers can only sell 10 items, and this isn't enough to keep retainers constantly stocked with a happy customer base. Please increase this significantly (25+).
No browse feature in a district makes it very difficult to find crafting ingredients that you need. Please list this, but do not list prices to create that community feeling.
Limit the number of vendors that can be placed in each ward.
Selling items to NPC vendors is cumbersome and extremely slow, and should be improved.
The mouse scroll wheel responds poorly when browsing a vendor.
The game should remember skill bar settings for when you change back and forth between classes.
Equipping gear is somewhat cumbersome; a drag and drop feature, as well as an expanded window for inventory would be great.
Item comparison on vendors would be very nice.
Linkshell masters should be able to invite, promote, or demote anyone from any point in the world to reduce frustration.
Game "freezes" when crafting, trading, or selling to NPC's for a second or two are frustrating.
Having chat reset when crafting or engaging in a disciple of the land activity is frustrating.
Alt-tabbing should be added to the fullscreen version of the game without 3rd party support.
A hardware mouse should be enabled for game launch without a 3rd party work-around.
Players should not fail levequests for disconnecting by themselves, nor should they have to run back to the Aetheryte crystal.
Poison effects do too much damage to low level players in Gridania.
Your character should not have to stop to switch between active and passive mode.
The quest in Ul'dah regarding emotes is incredibly frustrating, unintuitive, and has very little context clues.
New players are confused by "instances" in the introduction, and don't understand why they get ported away from the zone (have had several friends tell me this).
Many players are confused by how to resurrect after dying for the first time.
Please increase the maximum character length for chat strings. Sentences are easily too lengthy to fit into one chat entry.
Log drops from grade 1 trees are incredibly low and should be increased.
Aggro/emnity system is not working properly. Casters generate intense amounts of aggro casting their basic attack.
Undergarmets cannot be unequipped for repair.
The area of and surround Limsa Lomensa seems to suffer from lower framerate than Gridania, and especially Ul'dah. Possible improvement?
The soundtrack of the Gridanian forest is short, repetitive, and mind numb - please fix.
My posts are not to critizise you and say you are wrong, as I am just pointing out my personal preferances against yours.#
But I see alot of this, people seem to want everything to be easier and quicker. Why? Nearly every ather MMOo out ther has gone that way, some of us want to use our own brains and have a challenge. Again just my personal pref. But trying to change a game to suit you, will always have a negative side for what somebody else wants.
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
I was Level 2 Goldsmith and I haven't failed a single craft for Local Leve. The NPCs provide you with all the materials and it appears to be much harder to fail a Local Level crafting.
I'd have to verify though I'm not able to log on at the moment. Will edit this post later. But given the current quest system (Storyline, and experience with FFXI), I'm likely to believe that you have to name the recipes down, just like you often have to write down some information about locations, etc from Quest since they aren't indicated by an Arrow on the mini-map (unlike Leves in FFXIV) .
After completing Local Leve quest, a message will appear in the chat box saying something along the lines of "You have learned the recipe to make Copper Nugget: 4x Copper Ore".
Just for your information in case you didn't know.
If you use lets say a fire crystal on water day, you're more than likely to fail if you are +/- 5 level lower than recommended. Use that same crystal on a fire day & you'll have MUCH better chance of success. Thats if it works like FFXI...
I haven't found an actual in game recipe list yet no. But I can confirm you do get recipes for completing the leve quests. And I believe this is to be how they intended people to learn new things to build - not through guessing/trial and error. This way you work with the world, join the guilds, and learn your craft by doing.
And I'd recommend writing down what you learn as you learn it, or wait for someone to do that for you and publish it on a fansite.
(DISCLAIMER - The use of the word YOU in the above post is not directed at any one person in particular, but towards those who fall into the category itself - there is no personal attack here, neither intentional nor implied.)
More issues:
Making a buy order on the retainer requires you already own the item you want to buy. This needs to be changed.
Using "refill" as an archer makes your visual arrow disappear from your bow.
The recipes not showing up in your crafting is annoying. I found this decent fansite that lists the recipes:
http://www.ffxivrecipes.info/
If you'll look at the equipable items that you can make say with armorer/blacksmithing, you will notice they require parts from many other craft skills to make. For a blacksmith to make a copper waraxe, you need a wooden shaft (carpenter), leather strap (leatherworker), glue (alchemist), etc. You will really need to level all crafts or go broke buying the mats.
In some cases you have to level it anyways. I tried to make a Bronze Waraxe and the game told me my leatherworking was to low.
The only crafting job that seems somewhat seperate or independent is culinarian.
One frustration I have is that if you are trying to play the healer role, your heals/buffs do not give you xp towards rank. You must throw spells at the mob to get points. This hurts the party dynamic a bit and coupled with non-regenerating mp, magic users will run out of mp from offensive spells and have nothing left for dedicated healing. I realize that this encourages everyone to pick up some sort of heal ability (since we can play all classes) but that uses up quick bar points as well.
Just something that bugs me.
Now....back to the game.
Cheers!
I'm becoming increasingly annoyed with players who suggest "using a gamepad" to fix problems with the sluggish UI and make menu selection easier. Guess what people, Square Enix is releasing this game on the PC first. If they are releasing it on the PC they should be taking the time to make the use of a keyboard and mouse just as easy and fluid as the use of a controller. Not all of us want to play with a controller, it is after all an MMO and this and FFXI are the only games that I know of that people use a gamepad.
To the posters standing up for SE by saying read the online manual. How many of you out there actually read manuals in general? Probably not many. It's a new game, with a new UI that people are not used to. Even the most basic of games give you tutorial options in the beginning to show you how to navigate the UI and world, many before you even enter the real game. In FFXIV you go through the entire intro quest before you get much tutorial advice at all. Nothing is presented in front of you as an optional tutorial. There should be an option RIGHT after the beginning cutscene to where you can choose whether or not you want to go through a tutorial. Square Enix is a big-boy company, but for some odd reason it seems like their developers need to go back to school for MMO Basics 101.
I agree with the above poster about the roles of healers in this game, I posted something about it myself earlier on my own review thread. Not sure on where dedicated healers stand in this game, but I myself would never choose to be one if I wasn't rewarded at all by my contribution to the group. You only gain EXP if you are attacking monsters, so if you were fighting mobs that was hard enough that someone needed to be chain healing, at this point in time someone would have to bite the bullet and accept no reward for their sacrifice. No thanks. This is 2010, we've seen what it takes for MMO's to thrive, and we've seen how many fail. Square Enix has not taken much advice from past MMO successes and failures, they've decided to go with their own purist idea of 'do whatever we want and hope it works'. Doesn't seem that smart to me if they want their game to stay afloat. I really want to like this game, but they are making it very hard so far. If they don't change a lot of things by the release date, and have a polished game ready to present to us who are planning on pre-ordering, they are going to have a whole lot of cancelled subscriptions come month #2.
P.S. I pray to god they get rid of the stupid ass bazaar system and create a real auction house. There is no point whatsoever to having to click on and go through your menu to browse through EVERY SINGLE person who is selling something to find what you are looking for. Makes little sense to me. ( I also agree in general with a previous poster who said double clicking vs. having to go through your menu. It's an MMO, and it has no PVP, I could care less about anything having to do with fairness to people playing on a PS3. Fluidity and ease make a less frustrating game. If they want to make anything hard, make combat and progression tough, make it competitive. A sluggish, senseless UI doesn't add anything positive to a video game.)
More bugs:
With the increase in combat speed during closed beta, the animations for the default attack are longer than the attacking cooldowns, causing choppy animations. All animations need to be sped up to fix this.
Many mobs are evading and restoring health.
The game delay when retreiving "requested items" from crafting leves is significant. This should be addressed.