Originally posted by LeGrosGamerV2 Played 9 months, stopped due to the depressing RNG. Played 10-12 hours a day on my off days and it felt like I accomplished nothing thanks to the crappy RNG. Yes the game looks amazing, but the RNG really destroys the beauty, a real shame because FF14 could be the perfect MMO, but again the RNG will make you rage quit sooner or later.
First, I sense a hint of melodrama and hyperbole going on here. "Depressing" RNG? You actually get depressed when you don't get the results you want?
Also, how does RNG "ruin the beauty" of a game? So, you're admiring the art design and everything, until a random dice roll doesn't go your way, then everything just goes ugly?
I'm sensing some heavy-handed melodrama here.
Anyway, overall, it sounds like a case of misplaced expectations. You play 'x' amount of time, and expect 'y' results. Clearly, SE didn't design the game, or its randomness, with your, nor anyone else's personal "ideal" in mind (well, except the person who made the final call on it, but I suspect the logic goes beyond what they personally would prefer).
Did you never think to alter your approach, or adjust your expectations, especially after realizing it wasn't panning out as you'd initially wanted/expected?
Originally posted by LeGrosGamerV2 Another major issue, story dungeons, now I don't know if they fixed this, which I doubt, but having to force people to wait in queue's in order to complete a dungeon so they can advance through the main story is pretty stupid.
First, dungeons and other content are group-centric. So they require a group to complete. This is by design, because tons of the rest of the game is already soloable as it is.
As for "fixing it"... there's nothing to "fix", except maybe your perception of what queues are for. This is something a lot of people don't seem to understand.
Queues are intended to do one thing only: Assist players in assembling a group by removing the need to use /shout, or party-finder, or otherwise gather the people themselves. It's a convenience tool, nothing more.
A Duty Finder can not magically make more people interested in doing the content you're looking to do at any given moment. It can only help track down and bring together those who are, faster and more easily than you could manually. Implementing a Duty Finder doesn't turn 10 people looking for a group into 100.
If you're looking for 8 people to do a dungeon, and only 6 people fit the criteria, your group is going to take longer to fill up, waiting for those 2 additional people to become available. If there's 80 people searching, then you're going to fill up much faster.
Longer queue times are a matter of how many people are looking for groups, and whose search criteria (which job are they on, which content, etc) matches the requirements of yours.
SE can not force people to queue up for dungeons. All they can do is incentivize it, which they already do - with "first-timer" bonuses, with tomestones, with daily roulette bonuses, etc. That's all they can do. They can't grab people out of the world and say "you're doing this now, because this person needs a healer in their dungeon group".
So, while it sucks to have to wait at times... well... sometimes you're just gonna have to wait. Be self-sufficient. Find something else to do in the meantime.
Originally posted by LeGrosGamerV2 And stop with the "join a guild" crap, it helps a bit but if you get too annoying with your dungeon requests you'll get kicked out
If you're being kicked out of a FC/Guild for asking for help, I can see only 1 of 2 possible scenarios:
You're in a FC/Guild of douchebags, and you should probably leave and find another.
You're obnoxious and overly needy and demanding, to the point where they just want to get rid of you.
Sadly, I've personally seen both scenarios play out in FCs/Guilds I've been in, so I wouldn't discount either as being a possibility.
Originally posted by LeGrosGamerV2 Shard gathering... ugh, just the thought makes me sick...
Really? The thought of mining virtual gems in a virtual world makes you sick? Sure you're not just being dramatic again?
Originally posted by LeGrosGamerV2 can clusters be broken down in to shards yet? Can the retainers actually go pick up 500-600 shards a hour instead of 60? God that was so annoying having to mine all day
Then why did you do it? You clearly didn't enjoy it. Again, SE not creating the game the way you want it doesn't make it "wrong", or "broken".
I'm beginning to notice a pattern with you.
Except for a few short stints when I was selling stacks, I've never gone out to mine shards/crystals. I have more than enough on hand... and I craft.
Originally posted by LeGrosGamerV2 I've been playing ESO for almost 4 weeks now, and if there's one thing ESO dominates over FF14, it's the crafting, no rage quitting involved, don't need any insane high number of materials to actually feel your accomplishing something. Don't need to time your alarm clock to go mine that 1 material that pops once every 2-3 hours, no raging over the fact you didn't get any High Quality materials.
I do like ESO's crafting system. It's one of the things I think was better done in that game. I also like ARR's. They're different, but both enjoyable, to me.
That said... here we go again with the hyperbolic sounding comments... "raging" over an optional in-game activity. Are you actually as emotional in real life as you sound in your post?
The 2-3 hours for some materials is to make them: A) a challenge to obtain and to keep them rare, because they're rather potent/useful. I'm thinking of topsoil, in particular.
Originally posted by LeGrosGamerV2 Seriously if FF14 gets a 8.5, ESO should receive a 11.5.
Opinions, opinions.
Originally posted by LeGrosGamerV2 Flying mounts ... who cares?
People who enjoy having flying mounts, maybe?
Originally posted by LeGrosGamerV2 Might be great for the players that are actually still playing since launch, but for new players? They won't even last that long since 9 out of 10 will rage quit over the fact they can't advance through their story line because no one runs dungeons.
And then the train went screaming off the tracks and into the dense, tall weeds of hyperbole and conjecture...
Originally posted by LeGrosGamerV2 Now, yes I did flame ESO a whole lot in the past, but Tamriel Unlimited is a major change up and is pretty enjoyable, combat feels a bit slow, but all in all it's a solid MMO. I actually feel like I'm accomplishing something for every hour I'm on, unlike FF14 and it's stupid RNG.
... and began writing love letters to another game...
Originally posted by LeGrosGamerV2 If there's one thing that I always said since the mid 90's and is still true today, sometimes having too much can be a bad thing. FF14 reminds me a lot of EVE-Online, they pump the game up with so many features that they can't even grab new players to join in because they don't know WTF is going on and what to do next.
.... as it disappeared into the fog, with no clear point or destination in sight.
Originally posted by LeGrosGamerV2They need to chillax, unless SE are happy with the numbers they got and don't need anymore new players to join in, which is stupid because eventually the current player base will start quitting and move on to something else, like ESO, a whole lot of ex FF14 players now on ESO and GW2 for that matter.
Okay... sillyness aside, you should have ended your post after the rant about crafting and gathering crystals. Everything after that is just meandering nonsense.
Obviously ARR wasn't the game for you. You've made that abundantly clear.
HI! Do not swear. ESO can not be compared with GW2 and FF14. Different areas of the game. ESO compare with SWTOR and GW2 with Korean crafts. But the number of subscribers will soon overtake FF14 even WoW, so play the shit, and normal people in FF14!
I really don't see any reason to resub at this juncture. It's not that FFXIV is a bad game; but its pure, unapologetic theme park design just feels like an exhausted horse tethered to a lonely telephone pole -- I don't really trust that steed to get me across a desert. Also, I gotta say, I detest the world design in that game. The single, most applicable word that comes to mind is claustrophobic -- the game feels more constricted than a South American snake.
*Edit* Also, as others have pointed out, this is a horrendous review.
The review really was terrible, since it should have made clear that claustrophobic is the last word anyone would say of the Heavensward world design.
Using LOL is like saying "my argument sucks but I still want to disagree".
The review really was terrible, since it should have made clear that claustrophobic is the last word anyone would say of the Heavensward world design.
Yeah. Though I think they were referring more to the old areas, I still wouldn't call them "claustrophobic" overall. Are there narrow areas? Sure. There's also plenty of wide-open areas. It's a mixed bag, and I can think of many of them off the top of my head. The zones in ARR are certainly smaller, overall, than those of other MMOs, but I have a feeling that was very much out of necessity, given the circumstances the game was being re-built under (limited time and budget). However, smaller than typical is still not "claustrophobic". "Vast" and "Sprawling" seem more appropriate. IMO, of course.
As for Heavensward, yeah... unless you're talking about the interior of a dungeon or a building... claustrophobic is the last word one could use to describe the areas.
Personally I think you marginalized every point he made. His points were quite true, while your marginalization was quite lacking.
FFXIV is just a huge grinder when you get down to it. Too many features that don't mesh well with others. He was completely correct when he said that the expansion should have been postponed until major issues were addressed.
As to the dungeons, the wait is ridiculous and yep if you complain that noone will do them with you in guild chat you will get booted.
Your responses appear to be from someone with significant play time in the game, it seems you have no empathy for someone trying to level up their character.
I have tried this game 4 times and found it wanting every time. You really have to be a masochist to play it.
The game is solid until end game, where a handful of the game's quickly slapped together systems begin to fray under the demands put on them by players. Inventory issues are pretty typical for long term players as they gather multiple item sets for other jobs or as vanity sets for their chosen job. The party building tools, both party finder and duty finder, are good for most of the game's content up until the extreme primal fights. At which point the coordination required to succeed outweighs what can be reasonably expected from a random group of players, regardless of skill.
I've played the game a little over a month, but have completely consumed all the expansion's material save for defeating extreme mode Ravana. It's really not the consuming part that's negative, but it lacks replay value. It really is a case of giving players more of the familiar in a shiny new package, but with a few tricks for ease of access. This is more like an eight out of ten at best. A pleasant experience that turns into a not unpleasant one, but certainly inconvenient and tiresome.
I'm only going to address the crafted gear vs raid gear debate. Crafted gear has its place, (I know, I sell a bunch of it) but if it were on par with raid gear there wouldn't be any reason for people to repeat raids outside of initial completion, thus the fear by SE of losing subscribers because repeating content for the best drops is how they keep people hooked and subscribed.
Also, the crafted i160 gear is good enough for any non-raider to do anything in the game. Non-raiders don't need the best gear if they're not raiding. There's always a catch-up patch every other patch cycle for more casual content, but it's still going to be limited in how much gear you can get at a time because they want to keep you subscribed.
This is the only eastern made game i can stomach and the fact that it's P2P is a plus for me. I have been playing off and on (gaming time for me is very limited) and I really enjoy it. I don't raid and most likely never will, but I find everything else fun to do.
I think they have done an excellent job.
I'm not an IT Specialist, Game Developer, or Clairvoyant in real life, but like others on here, I play one on the internet.
Originally posted by elocke Solid game, BUT, for me, Longevity means it needs to keep making me want to play long after I've gotten one character to cap. It doesn't and hasn't ever so for me, it gets a lower number in Longevity(I'd give it a 1 but I do come back to try it for expansions and content patches, as it IS an MMO after all). I guess I'm looking for more than a level grinder, raid heavy, MMORPG these days and sadly, that seems to be only, mostly what themeparks offer.
Agree. There are no longer just a few games out there so many more reasons to move on.
Well, shortly after you completed this review, they released the new esoteric currency and the community has gone to hell in a hand basket. The weekly cap on esoteric is 450, although you can accumulate up to 2000 just like Law tomes. These are used to buy the new ilvl 200 class specific gear sets. They also released the new Savage mode for Alexander, which drops items that can be redeemed for ilvl 210 equipment.
The timing of the full release makes is suspect for several reasons, the first being that most reviewers had complete their reviews by the time this content was released. Secondly, the rate at which you can earn esoteric tomes is especially low. Combined with a cap, this is a shady maneuver to get players to play content they are already tired of instead of creating something with legitimate replay value. The social fabric of FFXIV:Heavensward has taken a mighty blow from the patch, since the pent up frustration of having to run content no longer fun leads to player's snapping at one another over what should be trivial issues.
The timing of the update had nothing to do with reviews. The first raid came out two weeks after the expansion launched because they wanted people to not feel rushed in completing the main story and to be raid ready. Two weeks was a sufficient amount of time to complete the main story and be adequately geared enough to do the story version of the first raid.
The update this morning was timed so that people could get some gear upgrades from the Normal Mode raid to be as prepared as they could be for the Savage mode raid, for those who are into the high difficulty level. There's already reports of strict DPS requirements for the first mini-boss of the first raid.
Had they just released this all at once you'd be running into situations where people would be yelling at others trying to do the story to skip cutscenes so they can get through fights faster and ignoring some content altogether just to get to the Savage mode of Alexander. I feel that the harmony between the playerbase is more important for the longevity of the game than having all the content thrown at you at once, plus it can be overwhelming making decisions on what you want to focus on. I already feel that way being that I dabble in all aspects of the game.
Now with all of that said, I am a bit disheartened by the new red scrips. Esoterics don't bother me because I've come to expect what is involved with them. They don't want you to gear up all your battle classes too quickly and unsubscribe, I get it. But now they're essentially limiting you to choosing one gatherer and one crafter as well due to how the red scrips are setup and the limited availability of the new craft materials. Couple this with the fact that SE has a track record of obsolescing gear after 6 months and we get to do this all over again, screw that. I'm probably just going to focus on my Fisher and maybe a crafting class and not worry about the rest.
The timing of the update had nothing to do with reviews. The first raid came out two weeks after the expansion launched because they wanted people to not feel rushed in completing the main story and to be raid ready. Two weeks was a sufficient amount of time to complete the main story and be adequately geared enough to do the story version of the first raid.
The update this morning was timed so that people could get some gear upgrades from the Normal Mode raid to be as prepared as they could be for the Savage mode raid, for those who are into the high difficulty level. There's already reports of strict DPS requirements for the first mini-boss of the first raid.
Had they just released this all at once you'd be running into situations where people would be yelling at others trying to do the story to skip cutscenes so they can get through fights faster and ignoring some content altogether just to get to the Savage mode of Alexander. I feel that the harmony between the playerbase is more important for the longevity of the game than having all the content thrown at you at once, plus it can be overwhelming making decisions on what you want to focus on. I already feel that way being that I dabble in all aspects of the game.
Now with all of that said, I am a bit disheartened by the new red scrips. Esoterics don't bother me because I've come to expect what is involved with them. They don't want you to gear up all your battle classes too quickly and unsubscribe, I get it. But now they're essentially limiting you to choosing one gatherer and one crafter as well due to how the red scrips are setup and the limited availability of the new craft materials. Couple this with the fact that SE has a track record of obsolescing gear after 6 months and we get to do this all over again, screw that. I'm probably just going to focus on my Fisher and maybe a crafting class and not worry about the rest.
Regardless, the community was genuinely more pleasant before the cap. It has become difficult to find a group that isn't plagued by a player who harasses some other player for being new. No one wants to play with immature players, but the game is now full of them. To top things off, its a crowd they can't even hold for very long. They eat through the content like locusts and then cancel sub.
Gameplay,Longevity and value are three topics that can vary a lot depending on what you want from a game.
I agree with the other ratings but not these three.I gave the game a try both on launch and later on re-release.The gameplay is the reason i quit.It is designed to solo,why play a mmo to play a single player game?The only time you group is in the dungeons or Avatar fights.Those again imo are done badly with specific chores to do you never feel like it is your game.Obviously every game is going to have you kill some boss but it just gets tiring as the ONLY reason you go into the dungeon.
Longevity"Well if you like repeating content "i don't" i guess you might find some longevity in it.Item levels is the worst idea i have ever seen in gaming,go figure we get to thank Blizzard a terrible game designer for that.I have NEVER seen a good idea come out of Blizzard.
Value:Well this again depends on what you actually get out of the game,solo linear questing and repeatable dailies,there is no value in that as far as i am concerned.That leaves only two area left,the story and grinding ilevel gear.Sure the story can be nice but even then they went cheap on voice acting so they didn't even put forth a good effort there.
My gut feeling is all Square did was create a new game to cash in on the FF fans that was rushed in all of it's design.This was only a graphical successor to FFXI but in no way a better game,imo FFXIV was not needed and for me personally has not created a new game i want to play.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Gameplay,Longevity and value are three topics that can vary a lot depending on what you want from a game.
I agree with the other ratings but not these three.I gave the game a try both on launch and later on re-release.The gameplay is the reason i quit.It is designed to solo,why play a mmo to play a single player game?The only time you group is in the dungeons or Avatar fights.Those again imo are done badly with specific chores to do you never feel like it is your game.Obviously every game is going to have you kill some boss but it just gets tiring as the ONLY reason you go into the dungeon.
Longevity"Well if you like repeating content "i don't" i guess you might find some longevity in it.Item levels is the worst idea i have ever seen in gaming,go figure we get to thank Blizzard a terrible game designer for that.I have NEVER seen a good idea come out of Blizzard.
Value:Well this again depends on what you actually get out of the game,solo linear questing and repeatable dailies,there is no value in that as far as i am concerned.That leaves only two area left,the story and grinding ilevel gear.Sure the story can be nice but even then they went cheap on voice acting so they didn't even put forth a good effort there.
My gut feeling is all Square did was create a new game to cash in on the FF fans that was rushed in all of it's design.This was only a graphical successor to FFXI but in no way a better game,imo FFXIV was not needed and for me personally has not created a new game i want to play.
There isn't a MMORPG that isn't subject to not repeating content. Your beloved FFXI only had the same sky gods to farm for over three years until they finally introduced some other form of end-game content.
I don't know why you continue to comment on a game you haven't played in nearly two years. We get it, you want another vanilla FFXI. Go play on a private server or something. There isn't going to be another game to give you back that experience and dragging this game through the mud isn't going to accomplish anything.
Gameplay,Longevity and value are three topics that can vary a lot depending on what you want from a game.
I agree with the other ratings but not these three.I gave the game a try both on launch and later on re-release.The gameplay is the reason i quit.It is designed to solo,why play a mmo to play a single player game?The only time you group is in the dungeons or Avatar fights.Those again imo are done badly with specific chores to do you never feel like it is your game.Obviously every game is going to have you kill some boss but it just gets tiring as the ONLY reason you go into the dungeon.
Longevity"Well if you like repeating content "i don't" i guess you might find some longevity in it.Item levels is the worst idea i have ever seen in gaming,go figure we get to thank Blizzard a terrible game designer for that.I have NEVER seen a good idea come out of Blizzard.
Value:Well this again depends on what you actually get out of the game,solo linear questing and repeatable dailies,there is no value in that as far as i am concerned.That leaves only two area left,the story and grinding ilevel gear.Sure the story can be nice but even then they went cheap on voice acting so they didn't even put forth a good effort there.
My gut feeling is all Square did was create a new game to cash in on the FF fans that was rushed in all of it's design.This was only a graphical successor to FFXI but in no way a better game,imo FFXIV was not needed and for me personally has not created a new game i want to play.
There isn't a MMORPG that isn't subject to not repeating content. Your beloved FFXI only had the same sky gods to farm for over three years until they finally introduced some other form of end-game content.
I don't know why you continue to comment on a game you haven't played in nearly two years. We get it, you want another vanilla FFXI. Go play on a private server or something. There isn't going to be another game to give you back that experience and dragging this game through the mud isn't going to accomplish anything.
Some times I think we should change Wizardry's forum handle to Eeyore
Gameplay,Longevity and value are three topics that can vary a lot depending on what you want from a game.
I agree with the other ratings but not these three.I gave the game a try both on launch and later on re-release.The gameplay is the reason i quit.It is designed to solo,why play a mmo to play a single player game?The only time you group is in the dungeons or Avatar fights.Those again imo are done badly with specific chores to do you never feel like it is your game.Obviously every game is going to have you kill some boss but it just gets tiring as the ONLY reason you go into the dungeon.
Longevity"Well if you like repeating content "i don't" i guess you might find some longevity in it.Item levels is the worst idea i have ever seen in gaming,go figure we get to thank Blizzard a terrible game designer for that.I have NEVER seen a good idea come out of Blizzard.
Value:Well this again depends on what you actually get out of the game,solo linear questing and repeatable dailies,there is no value in that as far as i am concerned.That leaves only two area left,the story and grinding ilevel gear.Sure the story can be nice but even then they went cheap on voice acting so they didn't even put forth a good effort there.
My gut feeling is all Square did was create a new game to cash in on the FF fans that was rushed in all of it's design.This was only a graphical successor to FFXI but in no way a better game,imo FFXIV was not needed and for me personally has not created a new game i want to play.
Unfortunately, Blizzard's A team left the building shortly after the release of World of Warcraft's first expansion. Their company has never been quite the same since. As for replay value, the key ingredient is change. FFXIV:ARR's stuff is all static and unchanging. They need to feed some amount of change into their encounter design recipes in order to give things replay value. If they did that they'd solve the one gaping hole the game really has. It would still be beholden to an old and overused role trinity, but at least things could potentially stay fresh longer.
If you liked WoW and want more of it, you'll enjoy FFXIV.
If you're sick of WoW and games like it, look elsewhere.
After 300 hours into the game and beating the main storyline, I don't feel like playing it anymore. I've put up with the archaic combat long enough.
You are using archaic wrong here. Archaic implies something has grown out of fashion. The FFXIV combat, as implied by the subscriber numbers, certainly hasn't grown out of fashion. Its like calling wearing shorts in the summer archaic. Every summer, people will still wear shorts because its a perfect fit for summer.
I think this is more of a unique situation of the marketplace in general. There isn't exactly a wide variety of MMORPGs that are good and have a wide swath of different playstyles around. Most were conceptually variations of World of Warcraft. FFXIV:ARR survives because it is a frankenstein's monster. The foundation upon which the game is built is based on older final fantasy titles, and the top of it is a variation of World of Warcraft. That changes up things enough for buyers in this stale market to stick with the game begrudgingly.
In a better time and place, the person reviewing this game would have probably given the game a 7.5 for all the incomplete or contradictory systems in the game. You can't even try on more than one piece of equipment when sampling other item sets. The system for dying armor is entirely monochrome, unlike GW2 from which it was inspired. Level sync for dynamic events is not done zone wide, so transitioning into a fate is less than smooth. Inventory system can't handle the multiple jobs a player can potentially play. So arguably, it is an archaic system. We're inside a market that has grown stale innovation-wise.
In a better time and place, the person reviewing this game would have probably given the game a 7.5 for all the incomplete or contradictory systems in the game. You can't even try on more than one piece of equipment when sampling other item sets. The system for dying armor is entirely monochrome, unlike GW2 from which it was inspired. Level sync for dynamic events is not done zone wide, so transitioning into a fate is less than smooth. Inventory system can't handle the multiple jobs a player can potentially play. So arguably, it is an archaic system. We're inside a market that has grown stale innovation-wise.
Monochrome implies black and white. There's several shades of the major RGB spectrum you can dye your clothing besides black and white.
As for the other stuff, I don't think it's a lack of innovation that's holding their dev team back. It's the break-neck pace of content development they go through to ensure that players of their game have some major new form of content to do every three months. There's no other MMO out there that can match the breadth and quality of content that FFXIV releases in the same amount of time. Because of their high-level focus on content development, I think some of the various game systems that could use tweaks or improvements fall to the way-side, like still not being able to queue for a dungeon with your chocobo companion summoned.
Comments
First, I sense a hint of melodrama and hyperbole going on here. "Depressing" RNG? You actually get depressed when you don't get the results you want?
Also, how does RNG "ruin the beauty" of a game? So, you're admiring the art design and everything, until a random dice roll doesn't go your way, then everything just goes ugly?
I'm sensing some heavy-handed melodrama here.
Anyway, overall, it sounds like a case of misplaced expectations. You play 'x' amount of time, and expect 'y' results. Clearly, SE didn't design the game, or its randomness, with your, nor anyone else's personal "ideal" in mind (well, except the person who made the final call on it, but I suspect the logic goes beyond what they personally would prefer).
Did you never think to alter your approach, or adjust your expectations, especially after realizing it wasn't panning out as you'd initially wanted/expected?
First, dungeons and other content are group-centric. So they require a group to complete. This is by design, because tons of the rest of the game is already soloable as it is.
As for "fixing it"... there's nothing to "fix", except maybe your perception of what queues are for. This is something a lot of people don't seem to understand.
Queues are intended to do one thing only: Assist players in assembling a group by removing the need to use /shout, or party-finder, or otherwise gather the people themselves. It's a convenience tool, nothing more.
A Duty Finder can not magically make more people interested in doing the content you're looking to do at any given moment. It can only help track down and bring together those who are, faster and more easily than you could manually. Implementing a Duty Finder doesn't turn 10 people looking for a group into 100.
If you're looking for 8 people to do a dungeon, and only 6 people fit the criteria, your group is going to take longer to fill up, waiting for those 2 additional people to become available. If there's 80 people searching, then you're going to fill up much faster.
Longer queue times are a matter of how many people are looking for groups, and whose search criteria (which job are they on, which content, etc) matches the requirements of yours.
SE can not force people to queue up for dungeons. All they can do is incentivize it, which they already do - with "first-timer" bonuses, with tomestones, with daily roulette bonuses, etc. That's all they can do. They can't grab people out of the world and say "you're doing this now, because this person needs a healer in their dungeon group".
So, while it sucks to have to wait at times... well... sometimes you're just gonna have to wait. Be self-sufficient. Find something else to do in the meantime.
If you're being kicked out of a FC/Guild for asking for help, I can see only 1 of 2 possible scenarios:
Sadly, I've personally seen both scenarios play out in FCs/Guilds I've been in, so I wouldn't discount either as being a possibility.
Really? The thought of mining virtual gems in a virtual world makes you sick? Sure you're not just being dramatic again?
Then why did you do it? You clearly didn't enjoy it. Again, SE not creating the game the way you want it doesn't make it "wrong", or "broken".
I'm beginning to notice a pattern with you.
Except for a few short stints when I was selling stacks, I've never gone out to mine shards/crystals. I have more than enough on hand... and I craft.
I do like ESO's crafting system. It's one of the things I think was better done in that game. I also like ARR's. They're different, but both enjoyable, to me.
That said... here we go again with the hyperbolic sounding comments... "raging" over an optional in-game activity. Are you actually as emotional in real life as you sound in your post?
The 2-3 hours for some materials is to make them:
to keep them rare, because they're rather potent/useful. I'm thinking of topsoil, in particular.
A) a challenge to obtain and
Opinions, opinions.
People who enjoy having flying mounts, maybe?
And then the train went screaming off the tracks and into the dense, tall weeds of hyperbole and conjecture...
... and began writing love letters to another game...
.... as it disappeared into the fog, with no clear point or destination in sight.
Okay... sillyness aside, you should have ended your post after the rant about crafting and gathering crystals. Everything after that is just meandering nonsense.
Obviously ARR wasn't the game for you. You've made that abundantly clear.
Enjoy ESO.
The review really was terrible, since it should have made clear that claustrophobic is the last word anyone would say of the Heavensward world design.
Yeah. Though I think they were referring more to the old areas, I still wouldn't call them "claustrophobic" overall. Are there narrow areas? Sure. There's also plenty of wide-open areas. It's a mixed bag, and I can think of many of them off the top of my head. The zones in ARR are certainly smaller, overall, than those of other MMOs, but I have a feeling that was very much out of necessity, given the circumstances the game was being re-built under (limited time and budget). However, smaller than typical is still not "claustrophobic". "Vast" and "Sprawling" seem more appropriate. IMO, of course.
As for Heavensward, yeah... unless you're talking about the interior of a dungeon or a building... claustrophobic is the last word one could use to describe the areas.
Personally I think you marginalized every point he made. His points were quite true, while your marginalization was quite lacking.
FFXIV is just a huge grinder when you get down to it. Too many features that don't mesh well with others. He was completely correct when he said that the expansion should have been postponed until major issues were addressed.
As to the dungeons, the wait is ridiculous and yep if you complain that noone will do them with you in guild chat you will get booted.
Your responses appear to be from someone with significant play time in the game, it seems you have no empathy for someone trying to level up their character.
I have tried this game 4 times and found it wanting every time. You really have to be a masochist to play it.
The game is solid until end game, where a handful of the game's quickly slapped together systems begin to fray under the demands put on them by players. Inventory issues are pretty typical for long term players as they gather multiple item sets for other jobs or as vanity sets for their chosen job. The party building tools, both party finder and duty finder, are good for most of the game's content up until the extreme primal fights. At which point the coordination required to succeed outweighs what can be reasonably expected from a random group of players, regardless of skill.
I've played the game a little over a month, but have completely consumed all the expansion's material save for defeating extreme mode Ravana. It's really not the consuming part that's negative, but it lacks replay value. It really is a case of giving players more of the familiar in a shiny new package, but with a few tricks for ease of access. This is more like an eight out of ten at best. A pleasant experience that turns into a not unpleasant one, but certainly inconvenient and tiresome.
I'm only going to address the crafted gear vs raid gear debate. Crafted gear has its place, (I know, I sell a bunch of it) but if it were on par with raid gear there wouldn't be any reason for people to repeat raids outside of initial completion, thus the fear by SE of losing subscribers because repeating content for the best drops is how they keep people hooked and subscribed.
Also, the crafted i160 gear is good enough for any non-raider to do anything in the game. Non-raiders don't need the best gear if they're not raiding. There's always a catch-up patch every other patch cycle for more casual content, but it's still going to be limited in how much gear you can get at a time because they want to keep you subscribed.
This is the only eastern made game i can stomach and the fact that it's P2P is a plus for me. I have been playing off and on (gaming time for me is very limited) and I really enjoy it. I don't raid and most likely never will, but I find everything else fun to do.
I think they have done an excellent job.
I'm not an IT Specialist, Game Developer, or Clairvoyant in real life, but like others on here, I play one on the internet.
Agree. There are no longer just a few games out there so many more reasons to move on.
Well, shortly after you completed this review, they released the new esoteric currency and the community has gone to hell in a hand basket. The weekly cap on esoteric is 450, although you can accumulate up to 2000 just like Law tomes. These are used to buy the new ilvl 200 class specific gear sets. They also released the new Savage mode for Alexander, which drops items that can be redeemed for ilvl 210 equipment.
The timing of the full release makes is suspect for several reasons, the first being that most reviewers had complete their reviews by the time this content was released. Secondly, the rate at which you can earn esoteric tomes is especially low. Combined with a cap, this is a shady maneuver to get players to play content they are already tired of instead of creating something with legitimate replay value. The social fabric of FFXIV:Heavensward has taken a mighty blow from the patch, since the pent up frustration of having to run content no longer fun leads to player's snapping at one another over what should be trivial issues.
The timing of the update had nothing to do with reviews. The first raid came out two weeks after the expansion launched because they wanted people to not feel rushed in completing the main story and to be raid ready. Two weeks was a sufficient amount of time to complete the main story and be adequately geared enough to do the story version of the first raid.
The update this morning was timed so that people could get some gear upgrades from the Normal Mode raid to be as prepared as they could be for the Savage mode raid, for those who are into the high difficulty level. There's already reports of strict DPS requirements for the first mini-boss of the first raid.
Had they just released this all at once you'd be running into situations where people would be yelling at others trying to do the story to skip cutscenes so they can get through fights faster and ignoring some content altogether just to get to the Savage mode of Alexander. I feel that the harmony between the playerbase is more important for the longevity of the game than having all the content thrown at you at once, plus it can be overwhelming making decisions on what you want to focus on. I already feel that way being that I dabble in all aspects of the game.
Now with all of that said, I am a bit disheartened by the new red scrips. Esoterics don't bother me because I've come to expect what is involved with them. They don't want you to gear up all your battle classes too quickly and unsubscribe, I get it. But now they're essentially limiting you to choosing one gatherer and one crafter as well due to how the red scrips are setup and the limited availability of the new craft materials. Couple this with the fact that SE has a track record of obsolescing gear after 6 months and we get to do this all over again, screw that. I'm probably just going to focus on my Fisher and maybe a crafting class and not worry about the rest.
Regardless, the community was genuinely more pleasant before the cap. It has become difficult to find a group that isn't plagued by a player who harasses some other player for being new. No one wants to play with immature players, but the game is now full of them. To top things off, its a crowd they can't even hold for very long. They eat through the content like locusts and then cancel sub.
Gameplay,Longevity and value are three topics that can vary a lot depending on what you want from a game.
I agree with the other ratings but not these three.I gave the game a try both on launch and later on re-release.The gameplay is the reason i quit.It is designed to solo,why play a mmo to play a single player game?The only time you group is in the dungeons or Avatar fights.Those again imo are done badly with specific chores to do you never feel like it is your game.Obviously every game is going to have you kill some boss but it just gets tiring as the ONLY reason you go into the dungeon.
Longevity"Well if you like repeating content "i don't" i guess you might find some longevity in it.Item levels is the worst idea i have ever seen in gaming,go figure we get to thank Blizzard a terrible game designer for that.I have NEVER seen a good idea come out of Blizzard.
Value:Well this again depends on what you actually get out of the game,solo linear questing and repeatable dailies,there is no value in that as far as i am concerned.That leaves only two area left,the story and grinding ilevel gear.Sure the story can be nice but even then they went cheap on voice acting so they didn't even put forth a good effort there.
My gut feeling is all Square did was create a new game to cash in on the FF fans that was rushed in all of it's design.This was only a graphical successor to FFXI but in no way a better game,imo FFXIV was not needed and for me personally has not created a new game i want to play.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
There isn't a MMORPG that isn't subject to not repeating content. Your beloved FFXI only had the same sky gods to farm for over three years until they finally introduced some other form of end-game content.
I don't know why you continue to comment on a game you haven't played in nearly two years. We get it, you want another vanilla FFXI. Go play on a private server or something. There isn't going to be another game to give you back that experience and dragging this game through the mud isn't going to accomplish anything.
Some times I think we should change Wizardry's forum handle to Eeyore
No offense intended Wizardry
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Unfortunately, Blizzard's A team left the building shortly after the release of World of Warcraft's first expansion. Their company has never been quite the same since. As for replay value, the key ingredient is change. FFXIV:ARR's stuff is all static and unchanging. They need to feed some amount of change into their encounter design recipes in order to give things replay value. If they did that they'd solve the one gaping hole the game really has. It would still be beholden to an old and overused role trinity, but at least things could potentially stay fresh longer.
I think this is more of a unique situation of the marketplace in general. There isn't exactly a wide variety of MMORPGs that are good and have a wide swath of different playstyles around. Most were conceptually variations of World of Warcraft. FFXIV:ARR survives because it is a frankenstein's monster. The foundation upon which the game is built is based on older final fantasy titles, and the top of it is a variation of World of Warcraft. That changes up things enough for buyers in this stale market to stick with the game begrudgingly.
In a better time and place, the person reviewing this game would have probably given the game a 7.5 for all the incomplete or contradictory systems in the game. You can't even try on more than one piece of equipment when sampling other item sets. The system for dying armor is entirely monochrome, unlike GW2 from which it was inspired. Level sync for dynamic events is not done zone wide, so transitioning into a fate is less than smooth. Inventory system can't handle the multiple jobs a player can potentially play. So arguably, it is an archaic system. We're inside a market that has grown stale innovation-wise.
Monochrome implies black and white. There's several shades of the major RGB spectrum you can dye your clothing besides black and white.
As for the other stuff, I don't think it's a lack of innovation that's holding their dev team back. It's the break-neck pace of content development they go through to ensure that players of their game have some major new form of content to do every three months. There's no other MMO out there that can match the breadth and quality of content that FFXIV releases in the same amount of time. Because of their high-level focus on content development, I think some of the various game systems that could use tweaks or improvements fall to the way-side, like still not being able to queue for a dungeon with your chocobo companion summoned.