Support NeoGAF

[Ravidrath]

No way...no more free mats? That made it a bit easier to level you craft skills in 1.x. I wonder why they took it out.

An unlimited fountain of certain mats was probably distorting the marketplace, especially since it was pretty easy to manipulate and get what you wanted.

Can't imagine how expensive some of that stuff will be without that base level of supply, though...

Then again, it might help the churn rate: having some mats from leves be super abundant and cheap probably only drove up the prices of other things.

 

[Fvash]

Not getting free mats as rewards is a bit of a bummer, but getting the free synths is still quite valuable, especially if you use Crafting Manuals to boost your exp.

And I got the Goldsmithing Luminary tool, which would've been really expensive if I wasn't using free levequest mats to get that.

Makes me glad I've got a ton of mats left over from my GSM Luminary still, though.

Hmm I am not experienced enough to understand what you mean—apologies!

What 'free synths' are available thru Leves, and what is 'Crafting Manual' to boost EXP?

Perhaps to encourage more people to be gatherers.

Can a humble gatherer access most gathering points up front in ARR? Are there specific ones with like rare mats that are dangerous to get to without battle class protection?

 

[daveo42]

An unlimited fountain of certain mats was probably distorting the marketplace, especially since it was pretty easy to manipulate.

Can't imagine how expensive some of that stuff will be without that base level of supply, though...

Well, when I thought no more free mats, I was thinking about mats specific to the leve quest. Not specifically as rewards, but as mats for the mission itself that you didn't get to keep once you completed the leve.

Can a humble gatherer access most gathering points up front in ARR? Are there specific ones with like rare mats that are dangerous to get to without battle class protection?

Base materials either are dropped from enemies or are gathered at certain points with the right tools/class.

More advanced materials either drop from very specific mobs or are created by other craft classes. Either you level up multiple classes or buy the mats you can't make yourself to level up.

 

[Allard]

Did they lower the levequest cap? Because it was 99 by the end of 1.x and people seemed pretty happy with that, and I was still running out of them when I got really into Luminary crafting.

They lowered the amount of leve-quests you get every 12 hours from 4 to 3. Think you can still save up to 99.

Well, when I thought no more free mats, I was thinking about mats specific to the leve quest. Not specifically as rewards, but as mats for the mission itself that you didn't get to keep once you completed the leve.

Yoshida mentioned not liking the hands off approach the tradescaft leve and that it completed ignored the second tenant of crafting, understanding the market and finding the raw components. Think that was a nice way of saying "Go lvl a gather or learn the marketward if you want to be a crafter". I might be remembering wrong but I thought crafting leve's still had the possible reward option of crafting components, you just didn't get to actually use them during the leve itself.

 

[LaneDS]

I don't know if it was bugged, or just allowed for this weekend's testing, but I noticed in Camp Drybone you could take four levequests (one more than I expected), complete them, then come right back and take four more with no delay.

Couldn't figure out if that was done on purpose or not, but I knew someone else playing at a lower level that was limited to taking three every eight hours or so.

 

[Vespene]

Everything I've seen so far points to this feeling like a mix between FFXI and the WoW that existed in 2005. I think the bar fell so low with the original XIV that even a functional game would be impressive at this point.

*I've played FFXI for almost 3 years (WHM/SMN) and WoW for about 4 years (most classes to max lvl).

For any MMO to impress me it would have to go beyond the hotbars and tank-DPS-healer trifecta.

 

[Ravidrath]

Hmm I am not experienced enough to understand what you mean—apologies!

What 'free synths' are available thru Leves, and what is 'Crafting Manual' to boost EXP?

Can a humble gatherer access most gathering points up front in ARR? Are there specific ones with like rare mats that are dangerous to get to without battle class protection?

So when you do a crafting levequest, they give you materials... but they're key item materials, not actual materials you could go and sell.

You complete your synths with those materials and turn the finished (key item) results in and get a reward based on the quality and number of completed synths.


Luminary Tools are the best tools in the game.

http://xivdb.com/?search/luminary/​

You get them for completing all of the achievements for a specific craft, and each takes over 5000 total synths to get them.

Considering how many synths that is, I stored up levequests and used them all for free synths to get my Goldsmithing Luminary tool.


And Gatherers do have stealth abilities to help them navigate around high-level monsters, but having a battle class handy is always a good idea. I don't know about in 2.0, but most areas were fairly safe to gather in 1.x.

 

[ebil]

Can a humble gatherer access most gathering points up front in ARR? Are there specific ones with like rare mats that are dangerous to get to without battle class protection?

I've explored a bit with my level 50 miner last week-end. Missing Coerthas and Mor Dhona, we obviously don't have the full picture yet but the places with the highest level materials available were almost completely safe. You'll probably have to use your Stealth skill here and there but you'll be able to gather on your own.

 

[daveo42]

Yoshida mentioned not liking the hands off approach the tradescaft leve and that it completed ignored the second tenant of crafting, understanding the market and finding the raw components. Think that was a nice way of saying "Go lvl a gather or learn the marketward if you want to be a crafter". I might be remembering wrong but I thought crafting leve's still had the possible reward option of crafting components, you just didn't get to actually use them during the leve itself.

Ah ok. I didn't see the quote you meantioned, but it would force people out of the realm of just repeating leves to level up their crafts. In that way, I will miss the free mats, but at least it still gives you a base direction to go in terms of what recipies to try next.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Kintaro]

I think I'll be fishing/cooking for fun again. Hopefully, its useful. If not, fuck it. Its relaxing.

 

[theta11]

Can a humble gatherer access most gathering points up front in ARR? Are there specific ones with like rare mats that are dangerous to get to without battle class protection?

It's kinda better to at least join a Grand Company first. The bonuses to crating and gathering experience you can purchase with seals are quite significant.

 

[omlet]

Not getting free mats as rewards is a bit of a bummer, but getting the free synths is still quite valuable, especially if you use Crafting Manuals to boost your exp.

No, I mean, the mats to make what the levequest requires aren't just handed to you as invisible key-item material. No more free synths. You still get rewards, though. It's to encourage people to gather/buy materials.

 

[Fvash]

Thanks everyone for your input ^_^ it has been very helpful

 

[Mature]

No, I mean, the mats to make what the levequest requires aren't just handed to you as invisible key-item material. No more free synths. You still get rewards, though. It's to encourage people to gather/buy materials.

Sounds like a bit of a headache.

 

[omlet]

Sounds like a bit of a headache.

I might have it backwards. I'll be testing it out on Friday assuming servers are up.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

No, I mean, the mats to make what the levequest requires aren't just handed to you as invisible key-item material. No more free synths. You still get rewards, though. It's to encourage people to gather/buy materials.

From what I heard, crafting and gathering are both a lot faster and easier now. I haven't tried any of that in the beta to check that yet. But they might be compensating for how much faster crafting is now by making you get your own mats.

 

[omlet]

Found it. Item #1 in that post.

Personally I think it's a fair change for gatherers. I mean, I could generate electrum ingots much faster by expending some of my leve stock than I could by actually going and mining electrum ore (downside was no HQ but when I needed HQ I would go mine it).

Not sure how it works as of phase 3, though. I will be testing it out when I can.

 

[Riposte]

There needs to be an easier way to buy materials. Either have the game auto buy them for me or give me a list on my duty screen so know what I need to buy. Right now it is a bit of headache, constantly switching between windows.

You can add specific synths to your hotbar right?

EDIT: And yeah, being able to buy items and trade them in for leves is stupid. It doesn't even require "proof" of doing the synth once. I tested it out myself lol. Was it that way for 1.0? I don't think so...

EDIT: I wonder if there is a way to mark items in the system that you synthed yourself.

 

[omlet]

You can add specific synths to your hotbar right?

Can you? I didn't even think to try that lol. I did discover you can drag gear sets out onto hotbars for quick-click job/gear changes, though, that was cool. I will have to try this with recipes on Friday...

EDIT: And yeah, being able to buy items and trade them in for leves is stupid. It doesn't even require "proof" of doing the synth once. I tested it out myself lol. Was it that way for 1.0? I don't think so...

Exp is time. Time is money. Sure, it sounds kinda janky but consider that you lose out on the synth exp by doing this.

EDIT: I wonder if there is a way to mark items in the system that you synthed yourself.

They're automatically signed. Your name will appear at the bottom of an item's popup info.

 

[SuperLurker]

I don't know if it was bugged, or just allowed for this weekend's testing, but I noticed in Camp Drybone you could take four levequests (one more than I expected), complete them, then come right back and take four more with no delay.

Couldn't figure out if that was done on purpose or not, but I knew someone else playing at a lower level that was limited to taking three every eight hours or so.

You accumulate a set number of leve allowances every time the time period resets. In the old game you could save up to 99 leves then do them all at once if you wanted.

 

[Mature]

Does anyone remember Tandem Chocobo riding from the first roadmap? They better not have forgotten about it...

 

[jiggle]

EDIT: And yeah, being able to buy items and trade them in for leves is stupid. It doesn't even require "proof" of doing the synth once. I tested it out myself lol. Was it that way for 1.0? I don't think so...

remember the synths have to come from somewhere
this benefits other crafters saddled with skill up items
and also takes gils out of the economy when you buy from NPC

 

[omlet]

Does anyone remember Tandem Chocobo riding from the first roadmap? They better not have forgotten about it...

I want a Yoda backpack for my goobbue that I can sling someone in and thunder across the landscape.

 

[LaneDS]

You accumulate a set number of leve allowances every time the time period resets. In the old game you could save up to 99 leves then do them all at once if you wanted.

Oh, that's awesome! Thank you.

 

[Ravidrath]

Oh wow - I didn't realize that monsters didn't drop shard/crystals any more...

So all of those come from Gatherers now, too, I guess?

Again, glad I have literally thousands of them on my character, completely unused. Non-legacy economies are going to get off to a slow start because of this, I think.

 

[Mature]

Oh wow - I didn't realize that monsters didn't drop shard/crystals any more...

So all of those come from Gatherers now, too, I guess?

Hey, that's kinda neat I guess. I'd like to see having a single gathering class be a viable method to supplement a DoM or DoW with the gil earned from it (to buy gear from crafters).

 

[dakkumauji]

Can you? I didn't even think to try that lol. I did discover you can drag gear sets out onto hotbars for quick-click job/gear changes, though, that was cool. I will have to try this with recipes on Friday...

I must have mislooked something while playing with gear sets then.

Cause at least I have simplified one step of throwing the character tab onto my hotbar instead of having to press start all the time and I was mighty impressed with myself then.

 

[Teknoman]

Oh wow - I didn't realize that monsters didn't drop shard/crystals any more...

So all of those come from Gatherers now, too, I guess?

Again, glad I have literally thousands of them on my character, completely unused. Non-legacy economies are going to get off to a slow start because of this, I think.

*cracks knuckles* looks like i'm taking up mining again.

 

[jiggle]

any talks of them bringing back chocobo digging?

edit: finally in the top 10 wall of shame

 

[omlet]

I must have mislooked something while playing with gear sets then.

Cause at least I have simplified one step of throwing the character tab onto my hotbar instead of having to press start all the time and I was mighty impressed with myself then.

Well, on the PC it's 1 keypress (C) and then 3 clicks to change that way, but when you pull up the gearset list from the character screen, you can actually drag those set definitions out onto a hotbar to make it just take 1 click.

 

[Allard]

Oh wow - I didn't realize that monsters didn't drop shard/crystals any more...

So all of those come from Gatherers now, too, I guess?

Again, glad I have literally thousands of them on my character, completely unused. Non-legacy economies are going to get off to a slow start because of this, I think.

You also get shards/crystals from quests. Shards are also lvl 1 gathering and are really easy to get with minimum effort. The only thing I can't say for sure is how/when you get crystals. Anyways you can tell in phase 3 right now that they indeed have removed fishing from the gathering trifecta. Botanist and Miner each have 3 abilities at lvl 20 that you can share among both classes that give more access to a certain type of crystal, that means water and wind, predominantly fishing based crystals, are no longer attributed to them, its split between Botanist and Miner now.

 

[QisTopTier]

*cracks knuckles* looks like i'm taking up mining again.

I think this is a good thing imo, it will give you more things to do while gathering outside of getting your standard mats giving you the illusion that you are doing more than one thing and acomplishing a lot more and makes the gathering jobs more important.

 

[Ravidrath]

I think this is a good thing imo, it will give you more things to do while gathering outside of getting your standard mats giving you the illusion that you are doing more than one thing and acomplishing a lot more and makes the gathering jobs more important.

From that post that Omlet linked, though, it sounds like you have to specifically target them. In 1.x they were a byproduct of regular gathering, which I think would be a better way to go.

 

[erawsd]

So do we know if the final game will have zones outside of the three cities and a few various La Noscea/Black Shroud/Thanalan zones? Seems like those make up the entirety of the world so far, and even if they're rather varied I find that somewhat disappointing since that feeling of three (supremely vast and repetitive) zones compromised the game world at XIV's original launch... I hope ARR has something beyond that.

I was thinking about this too. My guess is that we'll see Coerthas and Mor Dhona when they start putting in more high level content. Assuming we get to see that stuff at all, I do recall Yoshi saying that beta testers would get to see ~ half of the new content before launch.

 

[erawsd]

You accumulate a set number of leve allowances every time the time period resets. In the old game you could save up to 99 leves then do them all at once if you wanted.

Its such an odd system to preserve in the new environment. Makes less sense than ever imo, I wonder if they'll change it.

 

[QisTopTier]

From that post that Omlet linked, though, it sounds like you have to specifically target them. In 1.x they were a byproduct of regular gathering, which I think would be a better way to go.

Yeah you have to target them now, I did a bunch of gathering already.

That's why I was saying it will build the illusion overtime that you are doing more things than you really are. If they were a byproduct they probably would have ended up making mats needed for crafting needing more materials than they currently do. With the way the gathering levels now you need the padding there and getting the same 2 or 3 items over and over and over drills into a persons brain more than getting 4 or 5 different things

It's pretty much there for a psychological reason and to make the gatherings exp flow match other classes better, while giving them power on the economy on par with crafters *just in smaller amounts more wide spread*


Or maybe Im insane this was not their goals and I'm looking into it too much

 

[LowParry]

From that post that Omlet linked, though, it sounds like you have to specifically target them. In 1.x they were a byproduct of regular gathering, which I think would be a better way to go.

That is correct. Once you target your mining node, you'll get a pop up window and it gives you a list of items you want to mine. Early levels from what I remember were like copper ore, fire shard, water shard, and a couple others.

Though I've read when it comes to mining, you'll rarely find nodes outside of other city area's. You're better sticking around Uldah.

 

[Feep]

It took ninety minutes of pain, but I finally got through to a SE representative who was able to unlink my old lost authenticator. Regained access to my old account, hooked up the smartphone authenticator app, and I'm good to go for Phase 4! Yay!

 

[Allard]

I was thinking about this too. My guess is that we'll see Coerthas and Mor Dhona when they start putting in more high level content. Assuming we get to see that stuff at all, I do recall Yoshi saying that beta testers would get to see ~ half of the new content before launch.

We should have Mor Dhona and Coerthas coming in the launch version of the game as well as West Black Shroud (Anceint Eorzea Stratum), the special battlefield zones for all the primals. They also mentioned in the E3 live letter that although only 40+ zones will be in at launch, they have plans/capacity to implement a LOT more via downloaded updates. Ishgard and its content is supposedly coming sometime between launch and the first expansion and since yoshida mention loosely they hope to have an expansion 1.5 years after launch (They expect that to be delayed) that alone will be a sizable addition.

We might need to wait till sometime after launch to get truly new looking themes/areas and I look forward to what they come up with it as the game expands. One of my favorite part of the MMO is how worlds just keep getting bigger and bigger as the game goes on, usually/hopefully integrating seamless with the original world (I don't expect a Dalamud/cataclysm like event to happen again for this game )

 

[SpaceDrake]

Everything I've seen so far points to this feeling like a mix between FFXI and the WoW that existed in 2005. I think the bar fell so low with the original XIV that even a functional game would be impressive at this point.

*I've played FFXI for almost 3 years (WHM/SMN) and WoW for about 4 years (most classes to max lvl).

For any MMO to impress me it would have to go beyond the hotbars and tank-DPS-healer trifecta.

This is giving circa-2005 Warcraft waaaaay too much credit. The monster and UI design is light-years ahead of the Warcraft of that era.

If you have to make a WoW comparison, it feels more like Wrath-era Warcraft to me, in terms of diversity of mob and area design (not to mention plot integration and verisimilitude of the game world). And given that I loved the hell out of Wrath, welp.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

It took ninety minutes of pain, but I finally got through to a SE representative who was able to unlink my old lost authenticator. Regained access to my old account, hooked up the smartphone authenticator app, and I'm good to go for Phase 4! Yay!

Wow. I had no idea Squenix finally released a smartphone authenticator app. I can finally get rid of this damn keychain dongle that I got with my 1.0 CE. Yay!

 

[QisTopTier]

Wow. I had no idea Squenix finally released a smartphone authenticator app. I can finally get rid of this damn keychain dongle that I got with my 1.0 CE. Yay!

I never used mine because I would be worried about the battery dying D:

 

[devious.one]

Wow. I had no idea Squenix finally released a smartphone authenticator app. I can finally get rid of this damn keychain dongle that I got with my 1.0 CE. Yay!

Damn, that's news to me also. I thought they only allowed you to use the authenticator they provide with the CE.

 

[Xavien]

We should have Mor Dhona and Coerthas coming in the launch version of the game as well as West Black Shroud (Anceint Eorzea Stratum), the special battlefield zones for all the primals. They also mentioned in the E3 live letter that although only 40+ zones will be in at launch, they have plans/capacity to implement a LOT more via downloaded updates. Ishgard and its content is supposedly coming sometime between launch and the first expansion and since yoshida mention loosely they hope to have an expansion 1.5 years after launch (They expect that to be delayed) that alone will be a sizable addition.

We might need to wait till sometime after launch to get truly new looking themes/areas and I look forward to what they come up with it as the game expands. One of my favorite part of the MMO is how worlds just keep getting bigger and bigger as the game goes on, usually/hopefully integrating seamless with the original world (I don't expect a Dalamud/cataclysm like event to happen again for this game )

Wow, really looking forward to launch and the updates coming. If 23-50 quests and content are anything like 1-22, then this is gonna be my most favourite mmo since WoW at launch. That feeling is back man (and i thought it was gone forever).

 

[erawsd]

Everything I've seen so far points to this feeling like a mix between FFXI and the WoW that existed in 2005. I think the bar fell so low with the original XIV that even a functional game would be impressive at this point.

*I've played FFXI for almost 3 years (WHM/SMN) and WoW for about 4 years (most classes to max lvl).

For any MMO to impress me it would have to go beyond the hotbars and tank-DPS-healer trifecta.

This is def a step above 2005 WoW, and def above any similar games I've played like SWTOR, Rift, or War Hammer. I think Yoshi and co have put together a great base to work fromand I've had a ton of fun with it so far. The truth is that Blizzard has had many many years to refine, master, and develop the tech in that game; so its hard to expect any new MMO to immediately have the featureset or be anywhere near as polished as Warcraft; its just never going to happen.

I do agree that the next big thing in this genre won't be anything like WoW. I actually think, if Bungie can hit the right notes, Destiny could be "it", its certainly got enough hype.

 

[Augemitbutter]

can you just sell your old equipment or is it better to keep it for reasons?

 

[Ravidrath]

can you just sell your old equipment or is it better to keep it for reasons?

No, everything becomes spiritbonded now and can't be sold once it is.

You can still sell it to NPCs, but the better option is to finish spiritbonding it and turn into materia.

 

[Varna]

Didn't get to do any party battles but I wonder how does group play work out? Is it just DPS, Tank and healer combo?

Any roles like Red Mage to provide enfeebling magic, auxiliary healing and damage. Or Bard that provides lots of boons to the party? I know at it's heart FFXI was still a trinity game but all the other classes that provided unique benefits really set it apart.

 

[Boss Man]

No, everything becomes spiritbonded now and can't be sold once it is.

You can still sell it to NPCs, but the better option is to finish spiritbonding it and turn into materia.

This makes it seem like crafting and gathering will be a big part of the economy. Which is a good thing I think.

 

[Augemitbutter]

No, everything becomes spiritbonded now and can't be sold once it is.

You can still sell it to NPCs, but the better option is to finish spiritbonding it and turn into materia.

turn into materia is a specific skill in a crafting job?