FFXIV:ARR absolutely was a brand-new game compared to 1.0. Everything except the setting, lore, characters, races, flora and fauna was re-designed and rebuilt. Hell, actually... even the characters, flora and fauna and props *were* touched because they were notoriously "heavy" with far too many polygons and huge shader scripts - all which contributed to the game's awful performance.
Also, FFXIV 1.0 was an absolute failure on launch, on many levels. It either had to be rebuilt as a new game, or be taken offline. TSW was a niche game with a very specific appeal to people who aren't afraid to use their brains, or don't feel "combat animations" are the absolute "make-or-break" element of a MMORPG. It earned a solid and loyal playerbase for being exacty what it was; it was not a failure, by any means.
SWL is just TSW-Lite with dumbed down skills and progression to appeal to the people who want more guidance and fewer options, with things spelled out for them, so they don't have to figure it out themselves. Apart from the theme/setting being the same, it's catering to a very different type of player than the original TSW was.
People saying "oh, getting rid of those other 300-odd skills was a good thing. It was just bloat and most of them were redundant" either didn't play TSW, didn't understand the skill system beyond the skills themselves - or is just being extremely intellectually dishonest. I've not seen another MMORPG with so many different builds posted and shared by other players, showing a huge variety of different possible setups with any given weapon set. Every skill had its uses, and could find a home in any number of decks. Some were great "bridge skills" at low, mid or high level as people progressed and developed their character. Saying otherwise is again, being disingenuous or ignorant. Just because someone might not use certain skills in their particular build does not make them "useless" to everyone.
It would not surprise me at all, down the road, to start seeing them dumbing down investigation missions to have easier puzzles, and making interactive items "sparkling", or indicated on the map, or some other thing, so people can complete them more easily, without having to think or work it out themselves. I can about imagine what would happen to missions like "Hell and Bach", or parts of "Digging Deeper", among others. I don't think it's too far fetched to imagine that, considering the kind of playerbase they're obviously hoping to draw in with SWL.
I'm going into SWL with an open mind, hoping FC can prove me wrong in the long-run. But from what I've seen so far, I'm not about to start deceiving myself into believing it's anything but what it clearly is.
If you played SWG during their revamp, or any other game during their revamp, you know exactly how this will turn out.
Bad.
No one plays TSW. No one ever played TSW, and no one will ever play the game. Because the game only caters to a small fraction of a small faction of a percentage of a player base. No amount of polish can make someone play a game when they do not really like the genre.
But, just like SWG and LOTRO and any other game that had their "new game experience" they only have a small core of people who play the game no matter what they actually do to the game. Those people will stay because they love the game, but no new people will come. You just end up kicking those loyal people in the nuts....over and over and over again.
But this time, you get to make those people create a NEW character....so all those years of playing on that one, single character...is gone! Joy. Doesn't that sound rewarding.
Thank you for being a loyal customer all these years, can you please open your legs a bit so we can continue kicking your balls.
Anarchy Online, Age of Conan, The Secret World, Conan Exiles....at some point, don't you just file Funcom in the same folder you filed Sony Online Entertainment. As a company who is just bad at doing their job.
The mmo part feels the same to me. It's not like Guild Wars, D3, or hub-based instanced games where you never meet anyone new in the adventure zones. You can meet random people in the world, but there are only a few people per map layer. Queuing for a dungeon groups you up with random people or you can form a premade and queue or enter the dungeon at the entrance. I can group with random people during a quest.
Imo its better for this game. It got something in this "horror' genre, instead of meeting lots of ppl in the adventure zones.
I've played it for a few hours so far after a 4 year hiatus. It feels like a a favorite old pair of jeans I pulled out of the back of the closet: very familiar but also a reminder that my body shape is not quite the same as it was.
Although it feels much easier, my first death was probably in the same spot I had my first when I first played it: on the beach trying to light some flares and accidentally taking on about 10 of those weird zombies that come out of those pods.
I'm using Elementalism and chaos (Magus) but I have no idea which things I should be unlocking in what order. Luckily spamming my first two abilities seems to work most of the time.
If anyone has run into a guide for skill unlocking priorities, I'd appreciate a link.
Oh and thanks to @MrMelGibson for the tip on how to do the transfer. At least I have all the weapons unlocked now.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
Same game, fewer people running around. Better gear upgrading. Geared to use cash shop more. I don't see why they didn't modify the original game unless they just wanted everyone to start over and spend more money.
Maybe they wanted a reboot like FF14 1.0 to 2.0. They want to ditch their old subscription and point system. I think unravelling that in a revenue reboot would have been a nightmare.
I don't think they should have tied so much to the last game. No pets, sprints, or weapon unlocks should have transferred. Most of the cosmetics could have but they should have left special rewards (like class cosmetics) locked.
Other than weapon unlocks I'm not seeing much to spend Aurum on. I've already got those unlocked so I subbed for the premium perks.
What weapon combo are you using? I'm doing elem/chaos for now.
Good points I'm using sword/chaos had a lot of fun with it last time. Want to try some other combos later.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
Same game, fewer people running around. Better gear upgrading. Geared to use cash shop more. I don't see why they didn't modify the original game unless they just wanted everyone to start over and spend more money.
Maybe they wanted a reboot like FF14 1.0 to 2.0. They want to ditch their old subscription and point system. I think unravelling that in a revenue reboot would have been a nightmare.
I don't think they should have tied so much to the last game. No pets, sprints, or weapon unlocks should have transferred. Most of the cosmetics could have but they should have left special rewards (like class cosmetics) locked.
Other than weapon unlocks I'm not seeing much to spend Aurum on. I've already got those unlocked so I subbed for the premium perks.
What weapon combo are you using? I'm doing elem/chaos for now.
I'm using Hammer/chaos. It will be a really good combo for tanking from what I've gathered reading the abilities. Both do really good damage as well from what I've experience.
They really should have added a new class. Perhaps a shapeshifter class or your classic WW or Vamp. Just a thought. I'll stick with it for awhile as I like the new skill system so far.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
They really should have added a new class. Perhaps a shapeshifter class or your classic WW or Vamp. Just a thought. I'll stick with it for awhile as I like the new skill system so far.
I'm thinking with how they trimmed the abilities with each weapon. It will be easier for them to add new weapon and class combos in future updates/expansions. I'm hoping we see a Halberd, axe (duel wielded or 2 hander), Flamethrower, Greatsword, and a new type of magic like maybe Necromancy.
This is Funcom clearly doing what so many others have done... compromising the game and gambling their existing established players in an attempt to appeal to a different, bigger group of people.
I
have a feeling the results will, likely, be the same as in most of
other cases... it will fail to bring in the new players they hoped for,
while turning off/away those who were already loyally playing and
enjoying it for what it was, flaws and all.
This is what I'm repeating since the announcement, except my english is lame thanks for the nice and clear summary.
Actually
I don't even care whether it crashes and burns, or not (but if does, I
hope it won't do it before I can sell my GM ), but apparently they
are so eager to decimate and get rid of the old players that it's
almost comical. Take this one for example:
As a side note. The fact that funcom forced a game breaking update into the TSW client without alerting the players that they were installing a game they may not want really proves who they are as a company and as devs. Decietful, manipulative liars. Just because they want to appeal to the mass market audience doesnt mean we are all in that audience.
Nobody pulled a similar move since that f.cktard Satya tried to force-update every Win to his bloatware W10 (sure, the backlash was much louder, since it affected a lot more people).
And of course they reacted by the usual Funcom way which became the MO to them in the last few years, overlistening it, not answering to petitions, even finding the solution was left to the community. Every move of them literally oozes that they can't wait to finally get rid of TSW, most likely the announced August will be the designated date, after the steamy launch in the end of July.
I'm glad that they're staying away from AO and AoC, at least they can't fuck those games up even more than they did years ago. Maintenance mode has its perks after all...
If you played SWG during their revamp, or any other game during their revamp, you know exactly how this will turn out.
Bad.
No one plays TSW. No one ever played TSW, and no one will ever play the game. Because the game only caters to a small fraction of a small faction of a percentage of a player base. No amount of polish can make someone play a game when they do not really like the genre.
I tend to agree with your overall point - about how it turns out when a developer tries to change the direction of an existing game/playerbase, especially when the playerbase wasn't requesting such a thing.
But, just like SWG and LOTRO and any other game that had their "new game experience" they only have a small core of people who play the game no matter what they actually do to the game. Those people will stay because they love the game, but no new people will come. You just end up kicking those loyal people in the nuts....over and over and over again.
But this time, you get to make those people create a NEW character....so all those years of playing on that one, single character...is gone! Joy. Doesn't that sound rewarding.
Thank you for being a loyal customer all these years, can you please open your legs a bit so we can continue kicking your balls.
Anarchy Online, Age of Conan, The Secret World, Conan Exiles....at some point, don't you just file Funcom in the same folder you filed Sony Online Entertainment. As a company who is just bad at doing their job.
FC is their own worst enemy. They come up with interesting, even good ideas that break the mold of "the usual fare", and often possess an untypical amount of depth and detail. They then proceed to undermine those ideas with poor design and/or business decisions.
As a fan of several of their games, it's been frustrating as hell seeing them shoot themselves in the foot over.. and over.. and over... and over again over the past decade+.
I just saw on reddit that anyone who links (or already linked) their TSW account to legends will now get 3 character slots instead of 1.
EDIT: already done BTW... I have 3 slots now.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
I have always had a soft spot for TSW and I loved that game's eerie atmosphere. If the combat has improved and PvP is enjoyable, it should be successful. I will have to give it another go.
Check out my stream at www.twitch.tv/purplepoloplayer!
I don't see why they didn't modify the original game unless they just wanted everyone to start over and spend more money.
Some people have low-functioning brain stems, suppressing their ability to sense danger and thus are easier to fool.
Some people don't sweat the small shit.
My grandmother used to say that. She had unlimited amounts of free time and Alzheimer's. She also wound up getting cleaned out by a phone scammer. She would have been a wet dream to the marketing team at Funcom.
I'll keep an eye out for phone scammers although I may not care at that point. Wait, I forgot, we don't have a landline anymore, just mobiles. Also, I never answer my mobile unless it's on my contact list. Oh crap, I'm probably already screwed.
I get calls from Bank of America, my bank, all the time that aren't from them. Apparently you have no idea how easy it is to spoof a number on a mobile phone. If you think a mobile phone protects you, you ARE already screwed.
I had some solid hope for this reboot (if thats what its being called?) But after jumping in and finding out that they have preset "classes" you have to pick from, that pairs weapons that i dont want to use together, then finding out that I CANT just go get the weapon combo i want with out leveling up weapon sets i dont want to use (taking a LONG time to do) first. I just gave up (again) on this title.
Overall I like the changes, but I don't like the idea of preset classes myself. I ended up having to reroll my first character after not enjoying the skills it forced me into. The tempo of combat is faster and more fun than the old system. I have no idea if the game will hold my attention past a few weeks or not yet.
I just saw on reddit that anyone who links (or already linked) their TSW account to legends will now get 3 character slots instead of 1.
EDIT: already done BTW... I have 3 slots now.
You don't know how happy I am to hear that. Three factions with one character slot, what were they thinking?
*Logs in to start a new character*
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
I had some solid hope for this reboot (if thats what its being called?) But after jumping in and finding out that they have preset "classes" you have to pick from, that pairs weapons that i dont want to use together, then finding out that I CANT just go get the weapon combo i want with out leveling up weapon sets i dont want to use (taking a LONG time to do) first. I just gave up (again) on this title.
If you played before reboot and link account you get all weapon unlocked when you go to Agartha for the first time. So yes, you CAN go for any weapon you want.
Unless you have never played but then i call bullshit on your comment.
Comments
FFXIV:ARR absolutely was a brand-new game compared to 1.0. Everything except the setting, lore, characters, races, flora and fauna was re-designed and rebuilt. Hell, actually... even the characters, flora and fauna and props *were* touched because they were notoriously "heavy" with far too many polygons and huge shader scripts - all which contributed to the game's awful performance.
Also, FFXIV 1.0 was an absolute failure on launch, on many levels. It either had to be rebuilt as a new game, or be taken offline. TSW was a niche game with a very specific appeal to people who aren't afraid to use their brains, or don't feel "combat animations" are the absolute "make-or-break" element of a MMORPG. It earned a solid and loyal playerbase for being exacty what it was; it was not a failure, by any means.
SWL is just TSW-Lite with dumbed down skills and progression to appeal to the people who want more guidance and fewer options, with things spelled out for them, so they don't have to figure it out themselves. Apart from the theme/setting being the same, it's catering to a very different type of player than the original TSW was.
People saying "oh, getting rid of those other 300-odd skills was a good thing. It was just bloat and most of them were redundant" either didn't play TSW, didn't understand the skill system beyond the skills themselves - or is just being extremely intellectually dishonest. I've not seen another MMORPG with so many different builds posted and shared by other players, showing a huge variety of different possible setups with any given weapon set. Every skill had its uses, and could find a home in any number of decks. Some were great "bridge skills" at low, mid or high level as people progressed and developed their character. Saying otherwise is again, being disingenuous or ignorant. Just because someone might not use certain skills in their particular build does not make them "useless" to everyone.
It would not surprise me at all, down the road, to start seeing them dumbing down investigation missions to have easier puzzles, and making interactive items "sparkling", or indicated on the map, or some other thing, so people can complete them more easily, without having to think or work it out themselves. I can about imagine what would happen to missions like "Hell and Bach", or parts of "Digging Deeper", among others. I don't think it's too far fetched to imagine that, considering the kind of playerbase they're obviously hoping to draw in with SWL.
I'm going into SWL with an open mind, hoping FC can prove me wrong in the long-run. But from what I've seen so far, I'm not about to start deceiving myself into believing it's anything but what it clearly is.
Just another themepark.
We need real mmos.
Bad.
No one plays TSW. No one ever played TSW, and no one will ever play the game. Because the game only caters to a small fraction of a small faction of a percentage of a player base. No amount of polish can make someone play a game when they do not really like the genre.
But, just like SWG and LOTRO and any other game that had their "new game experience" they only have a small core of people who play the game no matter what they actually do to the game. Those people will stay because they love the game, but no new people will come. You just end up kicking those loyal people in the nuts....over and over and over again.
But this time, you get to make those people create a NEW character....so all those years of playing on that one, single character...is gone! Joy. Doesn't that sound rewarding.
Thank you for being a loyal customer all these years, can you please open your legs a bit so we can continue kicking your balls.
Anarchy Online, Age of Conan, The Secret World, Conan Exiles....at some point, don't you just file Funcom in the same folder you filed Sony Online Entertainment. As a company who is just bad at doing their job.
Although it feels much easier, my first death was probably in the same spot I had my first when I first played it: on the beach trying to light some flares and accidentally taking on about 10 of those weird zombies that come out of those pods.
I'm using Elementalism and chaos (Magus) but I have no idea which things I should be unlocking in what order. Luckily spamming my first two abilities seems to work most of the time.
If anyone has run into a guide for skill unlocking priorities, I'd appreciate a link.
Oh and thanks to @MrMelGibson for the tip on how to do the transfer. At least I have all the weapons unlocked now.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
This is what I'm repeating since the announcement, except my english is lame
Actually I don't even care whether it crashes and burns, or not (but if does, I hope it won't do it before I can sell my GM
Nobody pulled a similar move since that f.cktard Satya tried to force-update every Win to his bloatware W10 (sure, the backlash was much louder, since it affected a lot more people).
And of course they reacted by the usual Funcom way which became the MO to them in the last few years, overlistening it, not answering to petitions, even finding the solution was left to the community.
Every move of them literally oozes that they can't wait to finally get rid of TSW, most likely the announced August will be the designated date, after the steamy launch in the end of July.
I'm glad that they're staying away from AO and AoC, at least they can't fuck those games up even more than they did years ago. Maintenance mode has its perks after all...
There not. This is just slapping lip-stick on a batshit boring pig of a game.
My main gripe... why are the characters so fugly?
Dear god... no matter what I tried to make a female character, I ended up with a part Asian, part causation transvestite freak! URGH!
As a fan of several of their games, it's been frustrating as hell seeing them shoot themselves in the foot over.. and over.. and over... and over again over the past decade+.
EDIT: already done BTW... I have 3 slots now.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
~~ postlarval ~~
www.90and9.net
www.prophecymma.com
*Logs in to start a new character*
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
Unless you have never played but then i call bullshit on your comment.
Like the combat did improve.
But the game itself feels like to dark.
And I found items in the cash shop that aren't for sale without an Ultimate Edition?