Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn - Beta Phase 3 Impression: Phase 4 August

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I'm not quite sure why:
Stone / Aero / Fluid Aura / Stone 2 / Aero 2

is any different from:
Smite / SW Pain / Psychic Scream / Holy Fire / Mind Flay

Having mained a priest in WoW from launch to TBC and then back for Cata, this was the first thing that came to mind for me, too, lol...

But whatevs!
 
Is there a quick way to mark mobs on a controller? I tried putting them on the hot bar and it's kind of slow, I heard I could just mark them by clicking, I might just plug in a mouse..

No plans for that at the moment, but they're open to the players feedback for future updates.

Maybe I should logon to their forum and post about it :(
 
Is there a quick way to mark mobs on a controller? I tried putting them on the hot bar and it's kind of slow, I heard I could just mark them by clicking, I might just plug in a mouse..



Maybe I should logon to their forum and post about it :(

Never mind, that sounds crappy. Would clicking really be faster than a hotbar'd ability? I have no idea how the PS3 UI works.
 
Whelp guess we found the problem then. If Stone 2 was called "Rockslide" and Aero 2 was called "Tornado" and they still had the same properties they do now, this would be the best game ever.

Hey, anything we can do to turn this game into WoW then abandon it while saying "Its just another WoW clone" as quickly as possible is okay by me!
 
I'm sure this question has been asked a million and one times - but do PC players need to uninstall this beta or will it patch the current one for beta phase 4?
 
so for all of you Beta players, I have a question:


How easy/difficult is it just to run around and explore in this game?


I found just carefree exploration in FFXI almost impossible during the early levels. Hell, I couldn't get too far out of San d'Oria without getting pulverized by a mob of goblins. Just not very fun.

FFXIV's world looks so beautiful, I hope taking it in and exploring the lands isn't an exercise in pain and frustration like it was in XI.
 
I'm not quite sure why:
Stone / Aero / Fluid Aura / Stone 2 / Aero 2

is any different from:
Smite / SW Pain / Psychic Scream / Holy Fire / Mind Flay

I agree with what you are saying overall. But I thought Mind Flay was a cool spell and a lot more interesting than Aero 2 if for no other reason than it was channeled. :P

You actually missed the best time of v1.0, although I completely understand not wanting to pay the monthly fee for that game, but since 1.2 in December 2011, the game changed and improved greatly. And the Materia and Spiritbond part was fundamental, and if you don't enjoy the system then you can take the easy way and just buy the Materia or even betetrm the items with Materia on them.

I think I quit the game when it as still 1.23 (maybe that was the right version? Not sure). Materia had been introduced and a lot of other neat things, but yeah, I just didn't think it was worth the money I was going to be spending on it. It's a shame because I really wanted to fight Garuda and that Nael fight looked really awesome. I hope they find a reason to bring back that boss area because it was really cool looking. xD

It justs takes about a dungeon run to spiritbond an item, is nothing anti-casual at all.

I'm not sure if you are talking about 1.0 or ARR here, but felt like it took a lot longer than that in the beta. Of course, with how often you switch gear around in the early levels (I was testing low level CNJ leveling on a new server), it's possible I just kept swapping gear and never had a chance to get it spiritbond, lol. I'd like to do more testing.

Also your point about materia being more expensive if only crafters could make them is valid, and I would agree that would likely happen. :/
 
Loved

That there's a real story. I wouldn't put the story quite on par with some of the single player Final Fantasies out there, but as far as JRPG storylines go, FFXIV probably have the strongest story of any JRPG to come out of Japan in the past few years.

Really? How do you experience it? How is it different than other MMOs that attempt to tell story?

I'm genuinely curious, and excited by this.
 
Hey, anything we can do to turn this game into WoW then abandon it while saying "Its just another WoW clone" as quickly as possible is okay by me!

This has a global cooldown. WoW has a global cooldown. It's the same game, really. I can't believe you can't see it. I bet Everquest Next won't have a global cooldown. You just spam all your shit whenever you want.
 
You can make a macro that marks your current target and assign it to a hotbar like any ability. I'm not quite sure how the PS3 UI works, but would that help?

hmmm, well currently I can target a mob and mark it, like the one I'm targeting will be "1", then I need to do that again for 2, 3 and 4, which takes like 3 macros space :<, it's kind of slow to mark 3 to 4 mobs.

Edit: missed your edit!
Never mind, that sounds crappy. Would clicking really be faster than a hotbar'd ability? I have no idea how the PS3 UI works.

I could be doing it wrong but ps3 hotbar will require you to target a mob and assign it a number (1, 2 or 3), from what I can tell
 
Holy shit dude, it's your opinion, but whatever.

He's not wrong, though. If you look at the map after it has been uncovered there isn't that much explorable/accessible area and in practice there are a lot of invisible walls.

For myself, I certainly enjoyed exploring the world and taking in the scenery, but the map doesn't do anything to sustain the illusion that the world is bigger and more open.

I love the new Eorzea that they've created and the fact that there is something interesting to see in every area, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to climb those unreachable mountains in the distance that are currently only a backdrop.

Other games have done exploration better and give you far more freedom to access parts of the map. FF XIV reminds me that I'm closed in whenever I try to climb something and run into an invisible wall.
 
Holy shit dude, it's your opinion, but whatever.

Actually it is my experience derived from years of playing numerous mmorpgs. The game world in this is nothing to write home about, with most of the best looking things being places you cannot go to or explore. Look at the screenshots posted. Stuff like the floating city is something you can go up and press your face against the invisible wall to get a good picture of, but that's it.
 
So, what you're saying is that crafting also depends on other aspects of the game to advance? And this is a bad thing?

I'm sorry but this seems silly to me. You're just asking them to make it easier and take away aspects of the system that make players actually interact with other people.

Well, to be fair to the game design, its quite possible that the people selling items on my server were gauging players a lot worse than on other servers.

Going back to the Elm Lumber example, most the market board entries were anywhere from 4000 to 6000 gil, for packages that were only in the single digits. Considering how much of that item you need once your Blacksmith is near level 20, that is an absurd amount of money.

Now, I did spend some time getting through other similar bottle necks by leveling other jobs to get the right items, and for awhile I enjoyed it. By the time I had to level what felt like my fifth job however, it got a little old.

Streamlining probably wasn't the right word however. Maybe I should have said that these jobs needed a little balancing, to ease getting over these little roadblocks.

Though, I suppose just having a healthier market board with more people participating in it, would work just about as well.
 
I have this huge urge to jump off the cliff as you are leaving Gridania (to go into Central Shroud) and swim in that lake, but it won't let me. :( A dev post did comment recently about adding the ability to swim down the road, though.
 
hmmm, well currently I can target a mob and mark it, like the one I'm targeting will be "1", then I need to do that again for 2, 3 and 4, which takes like 3 macros space :<, it's kind of slow to mark 3 to 4 mobs.

Ah yeah, I could see that being a real problem. Thanks for explaining it to me after I clearly failed to read your first post heh. That's going to be a real pain in the ass for tanks on PS3 I'm afraid.
 
Couldn't materia just being made only by the crafting classes keep them relevant without placing a restriction on who can put the materia into your gear?
The point of materia is that it is a system that benefits everyone and everyone can participate. (speaking from 1.x perspective from here--) Battle classes were the quickest way to generate materia. They were the third piece of the triangle. By allowing crafters to simply create materia directly the battle classes are excluded from the process completely and are at the mercy of crafters which, in a game like this with the amount of identity placed on crafting, is a bad thing for the economy (and I say this as someone with all but 1 crafting class at 50). The ability for battle classes to be the best materia generators gave players with no interest in crafting their own leverage in the system.

Very boring. I see no reason why they want you to go grind on enemies to max out a spiritbond to make materia. *shrug* It's weird because they want the game to be more player friendly and less time consuming for small tasks (as evident by some of their other changes), and yet they still bring over that spiritbonding system.
Um... Spiritbonding materia is something player friendly. Player friendly does not mean "give the player their cake and let them eat it too then bitch about having nothing to do." Spiritbinding happens gradually any time you kill something, just like leveling up. Just like leveling, it's only as time consuming as you want it to be. Got an hour to burn? Go SB. It's meant to be a system designed to take time (or money) to get the most out of... which makes perfect sense because this is an MMO.
 
I agree with what you are saying overall. But I thought Mind Flay was a cool spell and a lot more interesting than Aero 2 if for no other reason than it was channeled. :P

Pretty much. The different spells, different animations, and different use cases definitely broke up the monotone of spamming the same spells over and over. Not to mention if you spec'd some into shadow you get more offensive abilities.
 
Is there a quick way to mark mobs on a controller? I tried putting them on the hot bar and it's kind of slow, I heard I could just mark them by clicking, I might just plug in a mouse..

I play on PC, I don't use the mouse unless I'm clicking a menu.

To mark enemies you can place the marks on the hotbar, or make pulling/sleep macros that include the marks with the abilities.

so for all of you Beta players, I have a question:
How easy/difficult is it just to run around and explore in this game?

Easy, stick to the roads and you just have to dodge a few enemies that might stray towards the road in higher level areas. If you are in a Chocobo then even better.

In this game enemies won't 1-shot you from 30m away with a ranged skill like they did at the beginning of 1.0

I'm not sure if you are talking about 1.0 or ARR here, but felt like it took a lot longer than that in the beta. Of course, with how often you switch gear around in the early levels (I was testing low level CNJ leveling on a new server), it's possible I just kept swapping gear and never had a chance to get it spiritbond, lol. I'd like to do more testing.

Yes, I was talking about ARR there, although in 1.0 it probably took the same if you were going to spiritbond something in CC thanks to Princess. But here in ARR there were many new items that would complete spiritbonding in the next dungeon run after I had just obtained them.

In paper it might seem like a hassle, but the system is a very good way for people to make money of it, either by just spiritbonding, or as crafter taking advantage of the high influx of materias.
 
Pretty much. The different spells, different animations, and different use cases definitely broke up the monotone of spamming the same spells over and over. Not to mention if you spec'd some into shadow you get more offensive abilities.

What if I told you that instead of spec'ing shadow, you could spec 7 other jobs and pull new offensive abilities from them. I was just addressing the original argument of "this healing class only has 2 base offensive abilities" and saying:

- This really isn't even true at this level of conversation and
- This isn't any different from WoW, when you look at it.
 
Actually it is my experience derived from years of playing numerous mmorpgs. The game world in this is nothing to write home about, with most of the best looking things being places you cannot go to or explore. Look at the screenshots posted. Stuff like the floating city is something you can go up and press your face against the invisible wall to get a good picture of, but that's it.

And people complained that the world in 1.0 was huge and very hard to travel and that it was just copy paste, and etc, etc, etc.

As I said above, opinions=whatever.
 
Well, to be fair to the game design, its quite possible that the people selling items on my server were gauging players a lot worse than on other servers.

Going back to the Elm Lumber example, most the market board entries were anywhere from 4000 to 6000 gil, for packages that were only in the single digits. Considering how much of that item you need once your Blacksmith is near level 20, that is an absurd amount of money.

Please don't use player market prices of materials in a beta test as a basis to fault the crafting/gathering system. Prices are wonky in beta because people know they can charge absurd prices because they know people will pay them because data is getting wiped. Additionally, supply of items was low because there was not much incentive to sell things when the money you made wouldn't mean anything at the end of the beta phase. Supply and prices will be more reasonable at OB/launch...at least they should be, especially on new servers where the lack of high level people supplying the market is offset by the fact that everyone will be starting off just as poor as the next guy.
 
Whelp guess we found the problem then. If Stone 2 was called "Rockslide" and Aero 2 was called "Tornado" and they still had the same properties they do now, this would be the best game ever.

I apologize if this has been answered elsewhere but why did they not just go with the X/ra/ga/ja naming convention for spells? It has been in plenty of Final Fantasy games (as has the numbering method, admittedly) but it also simply seems cooler/better.
 
In retrospect, I think a couple of my, "complaints," which really weren't meant to be strong criticisms, may have possibly been the result of some of the limitations of the beta.

I mean, most people weren't using Market Boards, because they were quickly dashing through the story content before the beta ended. Few people seemed interested in friending each other, or creating support systems, because it was all going to be reset in a couple weeks anyway.

And the crippling shortage of Gil I experienced near the end of the beta was DEFINITELY a result of the beta and running out of story quests. I had ample gil for my purposes, right up until that point.

So just getting into the the next phase should take care of most of these issues.
 
Please don't use player market prices of materials in a beta test as a basis to fault the crafting/gathering system.

Was about to say this.

Can't judge the market when the focus of the beta has nothing to do with having a real market and economy due to about 98% of the players not caring about selling/buying stuff.
 
I apologize if this has been answered elsewhere but why did they not just go with the X/ra/ga/ja naming convention for spells? It has been in plenty of Final Fantasy games (as has the numbering method, admittedly) but it also simply seems cooler/better.

To that I have no idea, but I agree that would be a really neat callback to other FF games. It would also make it clearer too that things like Fire 1, Fire 2, and Fire 3 are very different spells with different casting costs (and sometimes AoE instead of single target), instead of just ranks of the same spell.
 
And people complained that the world in 1.0 was huge and very hard to travel and that it was just copy paste, and etc, etc, etc.

As I said above, opinions=whatever.

And it was a rightful complaint, because the world in 1.0 was just copy pasted over and over. So much so that an odd looking tree was a sought after landmark. Not to mention that 1.0 also had a tendency to invisible wall off the world. Both that and the small unexplorable world we currently have are just two sides of the same limitations from needing this game to run on PS3. So while I understand why it is the way it is that doesn't stop me for not liking it.
 
I apologize if this has been answered elsewhere but why did they not just go with the X/ra/ga/ja naming convention for spells? It has been in plenty of Final Fantasy games (as has the numbering method, admittedly) but it also simply seems cooler/better.

Some people might get confused with the naming convention for the naming convention, even tho they were used on 1.0, but Yoshida wanted to change the way spells work and also changed their names to numbered spells.
 
What if I told you that instead of spec'ing shadow, you could spec 7 other jobs and pull new offensive abilities from them. I was just addressing the original argument of "this healing class only has 2 base offensive abilities" and saying:

- This really isn't even true at this level of conversation and
- This isn't any different from WoW, when you look at it.
You only have to level once to get access to the skills in the shadow tree where as you have to level up at least some in all 7 of those classes. Seems like a lot of work to get access to abilities you likely wouldn't use 90% of the time. Probably would make more sense to just plow through leveling and run max level instances or raids.

I agree with you that the two base offensive abilities argument is kind of disingenuous but I think the perception is there because those two abilities can occupy the high majority of your offensive rotation as a healer. Yes you can go out and level other classes and pull in their offensive skills but that can turn out to be some extra legwork. Certainly so not in phase 3 since we had NPCs to auto level us but when the retail games out I'd guess those NPC won't be around.

I disagree that this isn't any different from WoW. I think healing classes in WoW do get a little bit more variation in the offensive skills they have access too.
 
To that I have no idea, but I agree that would be a really neat callback to other FF games. It would also make it clearer too that things like Fire 1, Fire 2, and Fire 3 are very different spells with different casting costs (and sometimes AoE instead of single target), instead of just ranks of the same spell.

Actually in version 1.0 the different tier spells WERE Thunder/Thundara/Thundaga when they had the big combat overhaul in 1.19. They decided to revert back to the Fire 1, Fire II etc. on purpose. Why is anyone's guess though.
 
And it was a rightful complaint, because the world in 1.0 was just copy pasted over and over. So much so that an odd looking tree was a sought after landmark. Not to mention that 1.0 also had a tendency to invisible wall off the world. Both that and the small unexplorable world we currently have are just two sides of the same limitations from needing this game to run on PS3. So while I understand why it is the way it is that doesn't stop me for not liking it.

Most invisible walls in 1.0 got rid off after Yoshida took over. The world still looked the same, but unless it was a very big fall, you wouldn't be able to drop from it, and fair enough since there was no jumping in that version. Still the maps kept looking the same, just addressing the invisible walls bit.

In ARR the only invisible walls are the limit of the areas themselves, either because there's a cliff or a deep lake/river/sea. Maybe I didn't find the ones that you are talking about that prevented you from going to the next part of the area even that it was just in front of you.
 
You only have to level once to get access to the skills in the shadow tree where as you have to level up at least some in all 7 of those classes. Seems like a lot of work to get access to abilities you likely wouldn't use 90% of the time. Probably would make more sense to just plow through leveling and run max level instances or raids.

I agree with you that the two base offensive abilities argument is kind of disingenuous but I think the perception is there because those two abilities can occupy the high majority of your offensive rotation as a healer. Yes you can go out and level other classes and pull in their offensive skills but that can turn out to be some extra legwork. Certainly so not in phase 3 since we had NPCs to auto level us but when the retail games out I'd guess those NPC won't be around.

I disagree that this isn't any different from WoW. I think healing classes in WoW do get a little bit more variation in the offensive skills they have access too.

I totally hear and respect what you are saying. The talent tree specialization in WoW is a really nice feature, and some people just aren't going to want to level other jobs. For me, the big allure to FFXI and FFXIV is the job system, and being able to mix and match and ultimately level everything on the same character. It's not fair to assume others will want to do that. I think though that the original poster that came in here making a fuss about it had a very closed and inaccurate look at the situation -- and that's where this whole conversation spawned from.
 
Actually in version 1.0 the different tier spells WERE Thunder/Thundara/Thundaga when they had the big combat overhaul in 1.19. They decided to revert back to the Fire 1, Fire II etc. on purpose. Why is anyone's guess though.
Japanese version is still using ~ra and ~ga though (and French version is still using the same weird, confusing and terrible translation as before), which feels like they did it not to confuse the new English-speaking players or something.
 
Japanese version is still using ~ra and ~ga though (and French version is still using the same weird and confusing translation as before), which makes me feel like they did it not to confuse the new English-speaking players or something.

So basically we should be blaming 13-year-olds-english-speakers-WoW-players?
 
Some people might get confused with the naming convention for the naming convention, even tho they were used on 1.0, but Yoshida wanted to change the way spells work and also changed their names to numbered spells.

That makes sense. Unfortunately, I think they will lose a couple customers (like the one that spawned this discussion) because the numbering convention makes them feel like it is the exact same ability that simply has more damage/longer cc/etc. Because of this they don't realize the spells are actually rather different in some cases and often function alongside each other and then they feel like their ability selection is very limited.

You could argue the other system would have a similar effect but I think Fire/Fira/Firaga would at least do a slightly better job of implying differences than Fire 1,2,3
 
You could argue the other system would have a similar effect but I think Fire/Fira/Firaga would at least do a slightly better job of implying differences than Fire 1,2,3

It seems like this is an English-only thing, as ebil posted above. So basically the English translators have some warped misconception about english-speakers, or something.
 
That makes sense. Unfortunately, I think they will lose a couple customers (like the one that spawned this discussion) because the numbering convention makes them feel like it is the exact same ability that simply has more damage/longer cc/etc. Because of this they don't realize the spells are actually rather different in some cases and often function alongside each other and then they feel like their ability selection is very limited.

Oh no, losing customers who won't read skill information tooltips and actually play the game and see what the skills do when used together.... ARR confirmed for flop at launch.
 
Oh no, losing customers who won't read skill information tooltips and actually play the game and see what the skills do when used together.... ARR confirmed for flop at launch.

I figured this would be a response. I do not work for Square Enix so I can only assume, but I feel pretty confident in saying that money is money as far as they are concerned. Sure those type of players won't be in it for the long haul but I am fairly certain Square Enix would be glad to take their initial $30-$60 investment.
 
That makes sense. Unfortunately, I think they will lose a couple customers (like the one that spawned this discussion) because the numbering convention makes them feel like it is the exact same ability that simply has more damage/longer cc/etc. Because of this they don't realize the spells are actually rather different in some cases and often function alongside each other and then they feel like their ability selection is very limited.

You could argue the other system would have a similar effect but I think Fire/Fira/Firaga would at least do a slightly better job of implying differences than Fire 1,2,3

Until they cast it for the first time.

Then it should be glaringly obvious that the spell effect is NOT just the same thing, only more powerful. If, at that point, it's still not clear, then that player needs way more help than just changing the name of the spell.
 
Really? How do you experience it? How is it different than other MMOs that attempt to tell story?

I'm genuinely curious, and excited by this.

Well, I'm not "absolutely," certain about other MMoRPG's, since this is my first. Other people I know whom have played other MMO's regularly, often describe their stories are relatively bare bones, but without first hand experience I couldn't comment directly.

What I did like about XIV however, was that there's a cast, they frequently seem to have their own little story arcs, and sometimes you end up fighting alongside them. I also liked that there's not one but two very real external threats driving events and keeping things moving.

That to me, is a whole lot more compelling than say, "You're an adventurer of X race, go forth and establish your legend!" Which, is how some MMO plot-lines have been described to me. Which may or may not be a fair description, again I can only directly comment on what I liked about this games story.
 
But there's so many people that don't read the tooltips, and have no idea that comboing skills produces additional effects with more damage and the like, and they just use whatever they have available, or 1111111111111.
 
They should really let you sell materia on the market. Or can you already?

But there's so many people that don't read the tooltips, and have no idea that comboing skills produces additional effects with more damage and the like, and they just use whatever they have available, or 1111111111111.
Do people really do this? I mean it highlights the next move in the chain and everything. Unfortunately 123123123 is sort of boring too. I hope the TP meter matters at higher levels.
 
It seems like this is an English-only thing, as ebil posted above. So basically the English translators have some warped misconception about english-speakers, or something.

That is unfortunate. Oh well, maybe one day they will change it back or at least add the option to do so.
 
Add me to the list of people who dislikes the current materia system. In theory, it sounds interesting, but it's just far more annoying and time consuming than it should be. I preferred the simple drop a gem into your gear that WoW did personally.

Thing is, if you keep (as MMOs are doing) removing reliance on others, it's no longer an mmo.
Having to rely on crafters instead of doing everything yourself is one of the things that keeps a game reliant on it's community, which is something that's sorely missing in MMOs nowdays: Just like in big cities, mmos are becoming games where you are "Alone in a sea of people", in the name of convenience.
 
Of course you can.
That makes things feel a bit more open then. Takes a while to spirit bond and none of the gear you get seems like it's going to last very long (not even endgame stuff with the way it sounds). So if you can't buy/sell it seems like a waste.

Can you unsocket materia too? Or once it's in that's it?

I hope they get really creative with materia. Need more gear effects to work with.
 
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