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first impressions of live...
spamwich
Member Posts: 51
I never played the beta, so this is just the experience of a fresh player... never playing FFXI, but playing the single player console games a kid.
living in australia, I got my copy fairly early... after fiddling around with downloading a couple of patches (about 500-600mb worth after the disc installation) and setting up my billing account (had to use a fake address because the system requires a realistic address, and i live on a barracks...) i finally logged in.
hardware cursor has been implemented, although i have a gamepad, and both work pretty well for the interface at hand... which is quite archaic, and its obvious it was made for a console. Mouse lag is gone for good, but the other issues with the interface are still there- not being able to effectively bind keyboard keys.
i went through the character creation process, just clicking buttons, reading the little stories attached to each of the choices without actually knowing how they affect my character. Very limited options when choosing your appearance, and pretty much by the end of character creation you end up with a mixed bag and dont really know how anything affects you physically apart from a little lore about your chosen past. I'd like to think the character creation process is a huge defining factor when playing, because youre limited to pretty much 1 character (unless you decide to pay for more character slots)
i logged into the game with my first character, a puligist, which i believed was the only duel weilding damage dealing class. I didnt exactly know what my role was, or what any of the statistics mean. the manual which came with the retail copy of the game just babbles on about installing the game and setting up a subscription.
the first cutscene and getting introduced to the very first characters of my story was quite enjoyable. Although, once i took control of my character, i realised the game was rather choppy and it was very clear it was in a low resolution and no AA was enabled.... which was kind of strange, because when i logged out and switched it to a higher resolution, and fiddled around with some graphics, i was able to make it run -rather- smooth... i say rather because the game is still very laggy and not nearly as smooth as alot of other mmorpgs out today.
i killed some wolf type creatures, and got chased by a big angry treant... a moogle and company came and rescued me and my new friends, and took me into there village.
The game loaded, and i was plumped at the front gate of the village, where i met a steroid induced guard of some sort, who wouldnt let me enter the village... i figured id talk to him, and he offered to show me around. I ended up in a tavern, where some more of the story unfolded... my newly found companions i met in the woods during the cutscene, left the tavern... and i was left there all by myself, with a new quest to go to some lake and atone for my sins or something...
i tried to leave the tavern, but it wouldnt let me... so i decided to talk to the female behind the counter. she offered my some leve's... i accepted all the leve's i could... tried teleporting, but didnt know where i was supposed to go. I ran around the map for a good hour or so, trying to find something i was supposed to do, or see if i could find a place that was noted in my quest journal. It didnt go very well because the names on the map are in a different language, and i couldnt tell exactly where i was.
So i teleported back to the village, and ran around talking to every NPC i could... either they couldnt offer me anything, didnt want to talk to outsiders, or i wasnt able to join there "guild".
So, after i did this for another hour, watching my toon skip across the screen at 20 frames per second, listening to that sweet, but annoying final fantasy music... i decided to logout, write this post, and reload age of conan.
I'd like to eventually figure out what I'm supposed to do, but the lagging and loading times are making it unbearable... which is killing me, because the graphics are sub-par at best... and i play AoC on max settings lol.
Comments
In before everyone tells you to get a better computer and that FFXIV is a game that's hard.
FFXIV DOESN"T HOLD YOUR HAND BRO!
Thanks for the info and hopefully things will get better.
MAGA
but it has nothing to do with my computer...
the game just isnt optimized, its clear it was made for the console...
Hand holding and giving new players a sense of direction are completely different things...
You got stuck in the beginning main quest? I didn't had any problem with that in all 3 starting cities. Did you read the quest log?
I am hoping so, the very first thing i noticed was that the hardware mouse had been implemented, and keyboard binds were infact present- although pretty restricted...
i guess i dont really want to spend my entire night figuring out how to play a game, and actually playing a game lol. Work sucks. I like my evenings to not suck haha
This alone makes me very happy.
I agree with you. Having played beta and FFXI, I knew what I was getting into. This game was released too soon imho. I'll still find entertainment in it, but I'm not sure that FFXIV is going to be my MMO for any extended length of time.
i was told to go to some river...
I'm a skim reader, i dont read specifics i just brush over everything.
I will give it another try after work tomorrow... hopefully character progression and gameplay are where its at!
If you read you quest, It tell you where to go, and all the names of places of intetest are in english (at least for me in the map). Same with the leves, all told you where to go, usually the outdoor camp next to the gate.(little green triangles in the map pointing out)im not sure where this outdoort gate is anymore... i find the village pretty hard to traverse. the minimap is more like a minimaze.
ill look for these little green triangles and try and finish the starting quests...
Well you should read the starting quests. They are more like a guide to places, professions and basically how the game works. You can choose not to but then you will just run clueless for hours and log out and start AoC. Plus the quest log have a show target in the map option. It makes things easier.
So no miracle patch? So where are the people now, who claimed the poor perfomance was due to "debugging software running in the background"? Probably busy now blaming people for being "poor" and not able to buy a decent cpmputer... .
You have to READ the quests to know where to go. It shows you on the map even. Also, you dont knwo what stats are? Didn't read the manual or any website to know what stats effect which classes? YOu distribute your own stats anyway, so starting race and all that does not change much other than at LVL 1 and very early. After you put your points in, you can overcome weak stats in any race.
It is your machine, because I get way over 60FPS wioth my computer. The games optimization is not the best, but since it runs fine for some of us and poorly for others, it is the individual computer than makes it run choppy. For me its very smooth and my GF as well. We have a GTX260(soon to be GTX 460 in a couple days since i sold the 260 on amazon last night) and a ATI 4890 graphics card.
BTW Age of Conan didn't run on 75% of the machines out there at launch and was a total mess, I guarantee more people will stick with FFXIV since many of us knew what we were getting into ahead of time. AOC lost 3/4 of the people within the free month.
GAME TIL YOU DIE!!!!
As he said, he plays AoC on MAX settings. That game is pretty demanding in itself. He never said the gameplay was HARD...... He said he had keybinding problems and fps problems. How does that translate into the game is so hard he needs his hand held? Reread his post and try a constructive reply
From watching a japanese stream last night the UI looks much more responsive.
To the OP, when you get a storyline quest, on the bottom left of the quest description there should be a map button. I hope you enjoy Gridania
As far as computer performance, that will improve over time, I suspect.
Drop the next-gen marketing and people will argue if the game itself has merit.
lol man this is the truth, so many people said this line for line to me. My computer can run anything very good and people were trying to tell me I need to upgrade. But I know my hardware and I have played the best of the best at vsynced cap fps. If you open the performance monitor in windows while playing and have a decent machine you will see that the game doesn't utilize close to all of your cpu and around 60-70% of your gpu. IT IS launch so that is to be expected for most games but a little more so with this one.
And the whole not holding your hand catch phrase of ff xiv is bs. There is a difference between not holding your hand and holding my hand but I just don't trust where they are taking me haha.
Well you need to take the time to read. If you really dont like it well stick with AOC, but for me reading is a big parts in RPG, this is the way i can feel the immersion in the world.
That the problem these days, most mmo are in fact action game with little arrow to guide you from quest to quest. a shame if you ask me but well this is what most people want..
mmm maibe you are the one who should reread, because for what i know the OP decided to logout because he was bore to search what he have to do, plus with his 20 fps.
For the constructive reply thing, i dont see nothing constructive in your post either...
Seriously, maybe you should go play some platform game like Prince of Persia or learn to read dialogues. I know i know, WoW/Aion/etc. didn't force you to read NPC dialogues but this is a different game.
Guys, this wasnt supposed to be an argument thread lol.
Im just giving the first perspective of a new player, never having played an online final fantasy game before... If anything, its just a heads up to new players like me- onwhat to expect.
I logged back in, and exited the village to the south, loaded up the map, and there was infact places marked on the map inwhich i needed to go.
the quest log didn't exactly help me in that regard... it said "if i had a decent map, i could find this camp"... the map i was given within the journal was blank and filled the "???"
I'm now doing a leve quest which has me killing X of mob Y with some cool battle music.
although, upon alt+tabbing the game failed to find my directX and shut itself down... lol
i played the original eq and EQOA, I dont mind having to read, however-- a nice little cutscene or some good dialogue would be much better lol.
However, getting into MMORPG stories doesnt really appeal to me anymore, because theyre ALWAYS bland, and nowhere near as good as a single player rpg. So, instead i like to find where point A is, how to get to point B, and what exactly im doing at point B, and then how to return to point C... and be able to attain that information from my journal.
So the preformance is worse then in beta? That is strange, I got a low to middle pc and I had not much trouble with this in beta.
As long as I had no other programs running on the background. (with fraps on I got a very low framerate, when tunred of everything went fine, but I have this with many games)
Anyway the hardware mouse will make some people happy, I don't like the mouse and with controllers I am also not so great, so I will use keyboard only, like in FFXI, which I love.
I played all begin cities a few times, and 1 thing is the same, after the first talks, when you are out of the instances, you have to go to the first camp with the crystal and acces it.
I also skim very much of the dialogs but I still got these quests easy.
Journal alone tells enough, and the map button in the journal screen makes it even easier.
Actually there was only 1 thing I had trouble with in the first Questline of Ul'Dah, and I won't spoil it.
I do love the bard in that quest, I love Thancred voice! I want to start at Gridania, but I want Thancred also!
Another choice to make...
Well OP, FF does not hold your hand, the continuing lag is there to make it more harder for you to play and you should be happy that the mouse lag is gone, the names on the map are in a different languages to make it harder than the other hand-holding MMORPGs. The reason that no npc would talk to you is to make the game less hand-holding to new comers so they will know that the game is not hand-holding. Most importantly, the gamer new to FF is not suppose to know anything about their character at creatuib because they want to assure that the new people understand that FF is not holding your hand, which is why you can purchuse another toon slot when you figure out that FF is not like other games that hold your hand. Did you not enjoy your three-four beggining hours of neat cut scenes?
Yes don't alt tab it will crash it.
This game is more rpgish then most mmos so that's why you have to read to know the story and what's happening around you.
I suggest you find a linkshell to join because it's so much easier and fun to play with others then alone not to say doing leves in a group is 10x more efficient in the long run since you can share them with who's in group.
You'll find all types of linkshells even if your a casual players they will invite you.