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[RPGCrazied]

Is this game worth playing now? I'm downloading the benchmark and see how its runs, I should be able to max or get close to with my PC.

Says I got 2582. Not great. But I was running it 1920x1080p with 4xAA and 8xansitrophic and vsync on. Sucks the benchmark didn't have more options like more resolutions and stuff, cause I probably won't run it at that, more like 1680x1050. Surely the game will run decently? My rig isn't exactly old. I can max Skyrim and Mass Effect 2.

I ordered it. I'll try the free month, and if its bad, I'll cancel. It was only $16 dollars.

 

[ROBOKITTYZILLA]

Is this game worth playing now? I'm downloading the benchmark and see how its runs, I should be able to max or get close to with my PC.

Says I got 2582. Not great. But I was running it 1920x1080p with 4xAA and 8xansitrophic and vsync on. Sucks the benchmark didn't have more options like more resolutions and stuff, cause I probably won't run it at that, more like 1680x1050. Surely the game will run decently? My rig isn't exactly old. I can max Skyrim and Mass Effect 2.

I ordered it. I'll try the free month, and if its bad, I'll cancel. It was only $16 dollars.

Wait for 2.0. Buying now is good idea though while it's still cheap.

 

[RPGCrazied]

Wait for 2.0. Buying now is good idea though while it's still cheap.

When does it come out? So if I start playing, it will suck until that patch? I thought it was already here, haha. Oh well. I should be able to run it yes? The benchmark looked smooth to me. Though it really didn't show off any dense areas or anything. Good time to play this, while I'm getting 4 free months of WoW.

Hows the options in the game, a lot to toy with?

 

[Allard]

When does it come out? So if I start playing, it will suck until that patch? I thought it was already here, haha. Oh well. I should be able to run it yes? The benchmark looked smooth to me. Though it really didn't show off any dense areas or anything. Good time to play this, while I'm getting 4 free months of WoW.

Hows the options in the game, a lot to toy with?

Not really, graphically the game isn't very well optimized, especially for core high end graphical features. You have the standard stuff like MSAA, FSAA and similar aliasing options going up to X16. It has low, standard, high for textures, texture filtering, and shadows. And then it has 3 extremely unoptimized (or confusing) settings. They have what is known as 'drawing' quality which is numbered with a low/standard/high setting but all these settings do is under or oversample the render. People try to play in 'high' draw quality at the highest resolution and they complain about the how game is choking with minimal enhancement and that is because all the game is doing is X4 sampling the highest resolution for minimal return meanwhile your card chokes on it. Better to just do highest resolution and highest AA and do standard or just above standard sampling/drawing quality.

Then we have depth of field and ambient occlusion, one gives an opinionated graphical enhancement where it blurs the horizon to hide the lower resolution textures in the background and gives a feeling of atmospheric haze and softness (some like it, some don't). Ambient Occlusion gives self-shadowing to all NPC and players and the effect is very, very subtle. But this effect also out right strangles even some of the highest end cards at times. One of the reasons people are looking forward to 2.0 is the new graphics system because right now while the character modeling and graphics are sound, there is no, I repeat no, dynamic shadowing of exterior items, everything has either baked shadows or none at all. the new graphics engine gives a proper dynamic lighting and shadow system so foliage and NPCs will shadow other people finally. Its also supposed to be a lot more optimized and give a lot more options to change the settings within the game (Another sore spot, almost all graphical configuration is in a file outside of startup).

If people have played before and want to try playing again, I recommend it mainly because the story before 2.0 has been picking up and the most recent patch gave us a pretty kick ass story battle, but outside of that for newer people I will always say "Wait for 2.0" not because I don't think the current game is fine to play now, but there is still a lot of common issues wrong with it, and I want to see this game flourish so I want to introduce them to the game when its at a place where it should be next to other MMOs.

2.0 beta is tentatively coming out in October with Alpha in September, it looks like the proper 2.0 release won't be till January/February of next year so we shall see. We will know more about the status of 2.0 when the new promotional site launches (hearing tentatively a week or two from now from some of the people interviewing yoshida at E3) and when they do another big reveal near/around Gamescon in August.

 

[RPGCrazied]

Not really, graphically the game isn't very well optimized, especially for core high end graphical features. You have the standard stuff like MSAA, FSAA and similar aliasing options going up to X16. It has low, standard, high for textures, texture filtering, and shadows. And then it has 3 extremely unoptimized (or confusing) settings. They have what is known as 'drawing' quality which is numbered with a low/standard/high setting but all these settings do is under or oversample the render. People try to play in 'high' draw quality at the highest resolution and they complain about the how game is choking with minimal enhancement and that is because all the game is doing is X4 sampling the highest resolution for minimal return meanwhile your card chokes on it. Better to just do highest resolution and highest AA and do standard or just above standard sampling/drawing quality.

Then we have depth of field and ambient occlusion, one gives an opinionated graphical enhancement where it blurs the horizon to hide the lower resolution textures in the background and gives a feeling of atmospheric haze and softness (some like it, some don't). Ambient Occlusion gives self-shadowing to all NPC and players and the effect is very, very subtle. But this effect also out right strangles even some of the highest end cards at times. One of the reasons people are looking forward to 2.0 is the new graphics system because right now while the character modeling and graphics are sound, there is no, I repeat no, dynamic shadowing of exterior items, everything has either baked shadows or none at all. the new graphics engine gives a proper dynamic lighting and shadow system so foliage and NPCs will shadow other people finally. Its also supposed to be a lot more optimized and give a lot more options to change the settings within the game (Another sore spot, almost all graphical configuration is in a file outside of startup).

If people have played before and want to try playing again, I recommend it mainly because the story before 2.0 has been picking up and the most recent patch gave us a pretty kick ass story battle, but outside of that for newer people I will always say "Wait for 2.0" not because I don't think the current game is fine to play now, but there is still a lot of common issues wrong with it, and I want to see this game flourish so I want to introduce them to the game when its at a place where it should be next to other MMOs.

2.0 beta is tentatively coming out in October with Alpha in September, it looks like the proper 2.0 release won't be till January/February of next year so we shall see. We will know more about the status of 2.0 when the new promotional site launches (hearing tentatively a week or two from now from some of the people interviewing yoshida at E3) and when they do another big reveal near/around Gamescon in August.

Thanks for the write up! I guess I'll try it and see how it goes, and know it will get a lot better with 2.0. The game has story cutscenes right? What I liked about 11. Most MMO's don't have those. I hope I can at least play on medium settings. My computer is:

Windows 2.6.1.7601 (Service Pack 1)
CPU Type:
AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1090T Processor
CPU Speed:
3.21 GHz
System Memory:
6 GB
Video Card Model:
ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series (its a 5770)
Video Card Driver:
aticfx32.dll
Desktop Resolution:
1920x1080
Hard Disk Size:
919.22 GB
Hard Disk Free Space:
571.89 GB (62%)

 

[Allard]

Thanks for the write up! I guess I'll try it and see how it goes, and know it will get a lot better with 2.0. The game has story cutscenes right? What I liked about 11. Most MMO's don't have those. I hope I can at least play on medium settings. My computer is:

Windows 2.6.1.7601 (Service Pack 1)
CPU Type:
AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1090T Processor
CPU Speed:
3.21 GHz
System Memory:
6 GB
Video Card Model:
ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series (its a 5770)
Video Card Driver:
aticfx32.dll
Desktop Resolution:
1920x1080
Hard Disk Size:
919.22 GB
Hard Disk Free Space:
571.89 GB (62%)

I can't speak for how well that setting plays but it looks like your card is at least better then mine.

I play in i5 first generation Quad-core at 3.2 GHz.
4 GB of Ram (I really need to up to 8 gig before 2.0 comes out just to 'have it')
GTX 260 first generation
and 7200 RPM HDD with 300 GB space (its old, I have an SSD in waiting but haven't felt like installing it properly yet)

I play at Screen Resolution which is 1300 something X 700 something (its first generation 120 Hz LCD monitor, didn't have higher resolution at the time ). I play at slightly above standard drawing on background with standard on character models. 4X MSAA, High on everything but shadows (The self-shadowing during cutscenes doesn't look that great on high shadow settings), no ambient occlusion or depth of field and I get about 45-60 FPS and I enabled hardware vertical sync as well. Your card looks like it should perform better then mine so your settings should at least be able to go higher then that.

 

[King_Moc]

Thanks for the write up! I guess I'll try it and see how it goes, and know it will get a lot better with 2.0. The game has story cutscenes right? What I liked about 11. Most MMO's don't have those. I hope I can at least play on medium settings. My computer is:

Windows 2.6.1.7601 (Service Pack 1)
CPU Type:
AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1090T Processor
CPU Speed:
3.21 GHz
System Memory:
6 GB
Video Card Model:
ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series (its a 5770)
Video Card Driver:
aticfx32.dll
Desktop Resolution:
1920x1080
Hard Disk Size:
919.22 GB
Hard Disk Free Space:
571.89 GB (62%)

I used to get 40-60fps at 1080p with 2 x 5770's. You'll be able to run it ok, just not maxed out or anything. By the sounds of it, you'll be fine once 2.0 hits.

 

[RPGCrazied]

I can't speak for how well that setting plays but it looks like your card is at least better then mine.

I play in i5 first generation Quad-core at 3.2 GHz.
4 GB of Ram (I really need to up to 8 gig before 2.0 comes out just to 'have it')
GTX 260 first generation
and 7200 RPM HDD with 300 GB space (its old, I have an SSD in waiting but haven't felt like installing it properly yet)

I play at Screen Resolution which is 1300 something X 700 something (its first generation 120 Hz LCD monitor, didn't have higher resolution at the time ). I play at slightly above standard drawing on background with standard on character models. 4X MSAA, High on everything but shadows (The self-shadowing during cutscenes doesn't look that great on high shadow settings), no ambient occlusion or depth of field and I get about 45-60 FPS and I enabled hardware vertical sync as well. Your card looks like it should perform better then mine so your settings should at least be able to go higher then that.

Yeah. I probably will turn off ambient occlusion. I get major FPS drops in games with that on, specially with a lot of tessaliation. I don't plan on running it at 1920x1080, probably like I said 1680x1058.

I used to get 40-60fps at 1080p with 2 x 5770's. You'll be able to run it ok, just not maxed out or anything. By the sounds of it, you'll be fine once 2.0 hits.

I'm hearing a lot of good things about 2.0. I should've waited. Oh well. I read that when 2.0 hits the game will be free until its out of beta? Something like that. I guess on the plus side of getting it early, it was cheap. Maybe it'll go back to $60 after the 2.0 lands and is out of beta.

Also, what is the best job to play for a newbie?

 

[King_Moc]

Yeah. I probably will turn off ambient occlusion. I get major FPS drops in games with that on, specially with a lot of tessaliation. I don't plan on running it at 1920x1080, probably like I said 1680x1058.




I'm hearing a lot of good things about 2.0. I should've waited. Oh well. I read that when 2.0 hits the game will be free until its out of beta? Something like that. I guess on the plus side of getting it early, it was cheap. Maybe it'll go back to $60 after the 2.0 lands and is out of beta.

Also, what is the best job to play for a newbie?

I'm not sure the game takes advantage of crossfire, so you'll probably be absolutely fine. You can change class just by switching weapon, so try a few of them out. There will be NPC's in town that sell the level 1 weapons. Lancer, Gladiator, Pugilist and Marauder are probably the easier ones to get used to though.

 

[RPGCrazied]

I'm not sure the game takes advantage of crossfire, so you'll probably be absolutely fine. You can change class just by switching weapon, so try a few of them out. There will be NPC's in town that sell the level 1 weapons. Lancer, Gladiator, Pugilist and Marauder are probably the easier ones to get used to though.

Thanks. I'm hoping the manual has a lot of info in it, if not I might be asking tons of questions. Though I'm not really a newb when it comes to MMO's... so I should be able to figure it out.

 

[King_Moc]

Thanks. I'm hoping the manual has a lot of info in it, if not I might be asking tons of questions. Though I'm not really a newb when it comes to MMO's... so I should be able to figure it out.

Nope, it doesn't. Was a hard game to get used to. They've added tutorial options now though, and anyone here should be able to help you. Make sure to join the Linkshell.

 

[Allard]

Thanks. I'm hoping the manual has a lot of info in it, if not I might be asking tons of questions. Though I'm not really a newb when it comes to MMO's... so I should be able to figure it out.

Check out the Lodestone for FFXIV. The tabs on the left side give you the most comprehensive and up to date info on how to play the game.

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/index.html

Also do you have a USB gamepad? The game works ok with mouse and keyboard right now but unless you are a healer it tends to play more fluidly with a gamepad like a USB Xbox360 pad or a logitech pad (or if you can get the drivers running for it, PS3 controller can also work). One of the biggest changes coming in 2.0 is the overhauled UI for keyboard and mouse, the current one is fairly lackluster, it works but it takes some getting used to.

As for leveling, I'd recommend THM for leveling if you are a newer player. The first 10 levels aren't as fast as some of the other classes but once you get your first combo spell, you tear through mobs, especially in leves, like its no ones business. But try out a variety of classes and get them to lvl 10 or so and see what one feels like a good path. Make sure you get Pugilist (Hand to Hand) up high enough to get second wind, that ability will save your ass on just about any early level class. Its a low level Pugilist ability, like lvl 4 or 6. basically a free instant heal every 40 some seconds. Try to do the main missions when you can, they give decent gil at their completion plus they are the earliest parts you will see cutscene story's. The main missions are the stuff you initially start from the leader of the adventurer's guild at the city you start at (Last person you talk to after you sent out into the world, they will teach you about the leve system and lead you toward the main line story). The main story milestones trigger every 5-8 levels with about 4-5 of them before lvl 20 and then it starts to stagnate a bit. Once you get lvl 20 on a class you can do class quests for gil and EXP, at lvl 23 is the first Grand Company quest, and you can join a grand company officially at lvl 25, lvl 25 is also the earliest you can get a personal mount but it takes some time to get it. If you don't want to go through the long process to get a chocobo, you can get a goobbue mount at lvl 30 by just talking a single NPC (this is one of the "only in umbral era items which won't be available in 2.0").

You can also do crafting and gathering by equiping the weathered tools, gathering is probably the only class you can level and gain gil at the same time with little issue, not to mention you can often times get all the gear you will need for it from leves and sidequests if you are vigilant but most of the games current content comes from the combat classes so you should level up one of those initially, but the world is yours to do whatever you want or whatever you feel like leveling .

 

[Lumpy Onion]

Check out the Lodestone for FFXIV. The tabs on the left side give you the most comprehensive and up to date info on how to play the game.

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/index.html

Thanks for posting this, I didn't realize the Lodestone had all that useful info. I am starting over and haven't had the faintest idea of what I am supposed to be doing. This should give me some cohesion.

And all that info in your post I snipped was super helpful as well!

 

[RPGCrazied]

Check out the Lodestone for FFXIV. The tabs on the left side give you the most comprehensive and up to date info on how to play the game.

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/index.html

Also do you have a USB gamepad? The game works ok with mouse and keyboard right now but unless you are a healer it tends to play more fluidly with a gamepad like a USB Xbox360 pad or a logitech pad (or if you can get the drivers running for it, PS3 controller can also work). One of the biggest changes coming in 2.0 is the overhauled UI for keyboard and mouse, the current one is fairly lackluster, it works but it takes some getting used to.

As for leveling, I'd recommend THM for leveling if you are a newer player. The first 10 levels aren't as fast as some of the other classes but once you get your first combo spell, you tear through mobs, especially in leves, like its no ones business. But try out a variety of classes and get them to lvl 10 or so and see what one feels like a good path. Make sure you get Pugilist (Hand to Hand) up high enough to get second wind, that ability will save your ass on just about any early level class. Its a low level Pugilist ability, like lvl 4 or 6. basically a free instant heal every 40 some seconds. Try to do the main missions when you can, they give decent gil at their completion plus they are the earliest parts you will see cutscene story's. The main missions are the stuff you initially start from the leader of the adventurer's guild at the city you start at (Last person you talk to after you sent out into the world, they will teach you about the leve system and lead you toward the main line story). The main story milestones trigger every 5-8 levels with about 4-5 of them before lvl 20 and then it starts to stagnate a bit. Once you get lvl 20 on a class you can do class quests for gil and EXP, at lvl 23 is the first Grand Company quest, and you can join a grand company officially at lvl 25, lvl 25 is also the earliest you can get a personal mount but it takes some time to get it. If you don't want to go through the long process to get a chocobo, you can get a goobbue mount at lvl 30 by just talking a single NPC (this is one of the "only in umbral era items which won't be available in 2.0").

You can also do crafting and gathering by equiping the weathered tools, gathering is probably the only class you can level and gain gil at the same time with little issue, not to mention you can often times get all the gear you will need for it from leves and sidequests if you are vigilant but most of the games current content comes from the combat classes so you should level up one of those initially, but the world is yours to do whatever you want or whatever you feel like leveling .

Wow. Thanks I do have a USB gamepad, an actual PS2 controller with the usb attachment. I didn't think an MMO would be playable with that, nice to know its actually easier with?

I hope to get it by the end of next week, I'm getting super slow shipping with my order.

It comes with a free month right? Cause I might not even like it, despite being a huge FF fan.

 

[Allard]

Wow. Thanks I do have a USB gamepad, an actual PS2 controller with the usb attachment. I didn't think an MMO would be playable with that, nice to know its actually easier with?

I hope to get it by the end of next week, I'm getting super slow shipping with my order.

It comes with a free month right? Cause I might not even like it, despite being a huge FF fan.

Yeah comes with a free 30 day trial (Lol since you have to buy the game to get the trial!), the game was made from the start to work as both a PC game and PS3 game and due to that the gamepad actually tends to be more comfortable. You still need to use keyboard for chatting but all game functions like moving, targetting, using actions etc. can be done through the controller, its how I prefer to play the game right now as I find the keyboard too clumsy or less responsive then a normal MMO setup. Even in 2.0 I plan to go the gamepad route as I just find it more relaxing but they plan to make 2 different UI's in 2.0, one for keyboard/mouse and completely separate one for gamepad instead of the current UI which tries to satisfy both at once, but doesn't utilize any of the best traits on either very well.

If you are using a gamepad make sure you select targeting mode C (I think its that one) from the configuration menu after you start the game (think its in the targeting or system tab in the config menu). While on the gamepad you can dynamically filter selectable targets so that you only target enemies, or party members, or friendlies or you can take off the filter and make it so you can target all. For attacking classes I always keep 'enemies only' filter on so I don't keep accidentally targeting party members or even myself while trying to select the next mob to target, meanwhile if you have a cure spell or buffing ability you can target on your players or yourself without changing the filter, the filter acts dynamically to only target friendlies anyways. The filter is the auto-run button + the two menu buttons and confirm/deny buttons. You basically combine auto-run with either of those buttons and you can change the filter on the fly and each button is for a specific filter. Also changing the targeting reticule in the config settings is also a good idea to make it more obvious what you are targeting on screen.

 

[RPGCrazied]

Yeah comes with a free 30 day trial (Lol since you have to buy the game to get the trial!), the game was made from the start to work as both a PC game and PS3 game and due to that the gamepad actually tends to be more comfortable. You still need to use keyboard for chatting but all game functions like moving, targetting, using actions etc. can be done through the controller, its how I prefer to play the game right now as I find the keyboard too clumsy or less responsive then a normal MMO setup. Even in 2.0 I plan to go the gamepad route as I just find it more relaxing but they plan to make 2 different UI's in 2.0, one for keyboard/mouse and completely separate one for gamepad instead of the current UI which tries to satisfy both at once, but doesn't utilize any of the best traits on either very well.

If you are using a gamepad make sure you select targeting mode C (I think its that one) from the configuration menu after you start the game (think its in the targeting or system tab in the config menu). While on the gamepad you can dynamically filter selectable targets so that you only target enemies, or party members, or friendlies or you can take off the filter and make it so you can target all. For attacking classes I always keep 'enemies only' filter on so I don't keep accidentally targeting party members or even myself while trying to select the next mob to target, meanwhile if you have a cure spell or buffing ability you can target on your players or yourself without changing the filter, the filter acts dynamically to only target friendlies anyways. The filter is the auto-run button + the two menu buttons and confirm/deny buttons. You basically combine auto-run with either of those buttons and you can change the filter on the fly and each button is for a specific filter. Also changing the targeting reticule in the config settings is also a good idea to make it more obvious what you are targeting on screen.

I got the game for $16. Thanks for all the write ups. Is it easy to find quests? Like in WoW you'll see a big yellow !, or do you have to hunt for them?

 

[Allard]

I got the game for $16. Thanks for all the write ups. Is it easy to find quests? Like in WoW you'll see a big yellow !, or do you have to hunt for them?

Yes, but I will give you a warning there is no central place to find quests for a given level. When an NPC has a quest there will be a little { ! } over the top of the NPC. Most of the quests start in the cities but some are also at the various hamlets. Unlike WoW you can't level exclusively working on quests, they give supplemental EXP for finishing them and some have combat oriented parts which of course give EXP for killing mobs, but you should largely do the quests for the rewards and ask yourself if the reward is worth it. Some give gil, some give gear, some give consumables, they all give EXP and the amount is tied to the level you can first get them.

The main 'quest' type for leveling is "Leves" which you procure from the adventurers guild. They act sort of like daily quests where you activate a card at various camps to do a combat quest or for crafting they give you free items to level and you hand the results into an NPC. At a leves completion you get bonus EXP, as you level the bonus gets bigger in proportion to the EXP you need to get to the next level. You get 4 new leve allocations every 12 hours and its on a global timer. You can 'store' up to 99 of them at a time in case you stop playing the game for a bit and come back to 50+ leves to use (I have to actually work to lose my leves these days, yesterday I had 99 because I spent the last 3 days working on lvl 50+ stuff so I didn't use any leves). On top of leves you also have Behest which act like a public leve that occurs every 30 minutes starting on the hour. Use these spread out your leve usage since you won't have many early on.

Another thing I recommend is once you finish the first real main mission for your nation you finish the quest at the Inn to access your private room (this takes like 2-3 minutes, you don't even need to walk far to finish this). When you log out in your room you accumulate 'rested' EXP which gives you a straight 50% bonus on all EXP you receive. It caps out after a week of straight resting but with that week of rest you could easily get to lvl 22 on a class before it wore off. or 1.5 levels at lvl 48.

 

[gatti-man]

Have they redone the story cut scenes and pacing? I remember the main missions being horribly boring and anticlimactic. Like fighting a boss mouse our guarding a lala to a fishing spot etc.

 

[Ravidrath]

http://www.1up.com/features/ffxiv-interview-phoenix-fallen-mmo

 

[Teknoman]

With this schedule, if you tell them a date and you're late, they call you a liar. If you say nothing, they say you're not telling them enough. If you say, okay, how about I give you a general date, and you give them a general date, you're late, they say, oh, you gave us this date, why are you late? It's just that battle with the schedule, there's no way to win.


I hope the guy gets a decent vacation after 2.0 hits.

 

[RPGCrazied]

Yes, but I will give you a warning there is no central place to find quests for a given level. When an NPC has a quest there will be a little { ! } over the top of the NPC. Most of the quests start in the cities but some are also at the various hamlets. Unlike WoW you can't level exclusively working on quests, they give supplemental EXP for finishing them and some have combat oriented parts which of course give EXP for killing mobs, but you should largely do the quests for the rewards and ask yourself if the reward is worth it. Some give gil, some give gear, some give consumables, they all give EXP and the amount is tied to the level you can first get them.

The main 'quest' type for leveling is "Leves" which you procure from the adventurers guild. They act sort of like daily quests where you activate a card at various camps to do a combat quest or for crafting they give you free items to level and you hand the results into an NPC. At a leves completion you get bonus EXP, as you level the bonus gets bigger in proportion to the EXP you need to get to the next level. You get 4 new leve allocations every 12 hours and its on a global timer. You can 'store' up to 99 of them at a time in case you stop playing the game for a bit and come back to 50+ leves to use (I have to actually work to lose my leves these days, yesterday I had 99 because I spent the last 3 days working on lvl 50+ stuff so I didn't use any leves). On top of leves you also have Behest which act like a public leve that occurs every 30 minutes starting on the hour. Use these spread out your leve usage since you won't have many early on.

Another thing I recommend is once you finish the first real main mission for your nation you finish the quest at the Inn to access your private room (this takes like 2-3 minutes, you don't even need to walk far to finish this). When you log out in your room you accumulate 'rested' EXP which gives you a straight 50% bonus on all EXP you receive. It caps out after a week of straight resting but with that week of rest you could easily get to lvl 22 on a class before it wore off. or 1.5 levels at lvl 48.

Thanks again!

2.0 sounds like a different game entirely! Whoa. That's something to get excited for. Such a shame it couldn't have started out that way.

 

[Allard]

Have they redone the story cut scenes and pacing? I remember the main missions being horribly boring and anticlimactic. Like fighting a boss mouse our guarding a lala to a fishing spot etc.

The main quests are still all soloable even on crafting classes and yes the actual 'content' of the missions are boring, you are mainly doing it for Cutscenes, story and EXP/GIL. The highest level version of the missions at lvl 46 gives you like 46k EXP these days. The new 'main' missions come from the Grand Companies and those are lot more enthralling from a combat perspective, especially the ones that have come in the past 2 updates. The most recent actually requires you to have a group of 6 or more people just to finish it as the fight is pretty hard and requires pretty good coordination.

The latest fight is basically in a BCNM style battle where your goal is to destroy a 'transmitter' but its protected by 3 generators and while all 3 are up, the transmitter is immune to damage. There is also a 'Big mob' (I won't spoil what for others ) in the room that causes a lot of damage and its hate is shared with whoever destroys a generator last so you need to know if you got hate and then kite it around the room as it walks slower. The generators respawn quickly so you can't damage the transmitter for a long time before you need to kill the generators off again, on top of all this you have constant smaller adds spawning in 3-4 packs and all the mobs are like lvl 54-55. If you don't also take some of these adds out in a timely fashion they will out right overwhelm your group. Its a pretty fun fight and requires strategy and patience to win.

The old main missions are a relic of the former focus where all 'classes' had equal representation of the story arc, the new focus is on combat for the main story and then give crafters and gatherer's there own very specific story content and game play.

Edit: Interview was definitely informative, good to 'hopefully', finally put to the rest how people assume the drop rate and luck based game play will be the focus in 2.0 and that instead its current form is a relic of the current server architecture limitations (and probably little content 'stretching' due to lower amount of content to work with). The one I am little worried about is his hesitance to increase the level cap, this game drastically needs a level cap upping with all the people who have very few classes left to level. I know people who are taking Hiatuses and/or quitting because they got all battle classes leveled to max and have almost all the current gear, they almost 'need' the grind of a new level cap just to keep their attention.

 

[Conceited]

http://www.1up.com/features/ffxiv-interview-phoenix-fallen-mmo

Excellent work, Ravi.

 

[Munba]

http://www.1up.com/features/ffxiv-interview-phoenix-fallen-mmo

Nice read! Some interesting new info there.

Have you seen the 2.0 in action? :0

 

[Coldsnap]

That 1up interview was really good! Ravi that was you? Hats off to you!!!

 

[Kokonoe]

How decent is this Onion Helmet I have? Is it a item for low levels?

 

[Nakazato]

How decent is this Onion Helmet I have? Is it a item for low levels?

yea it like lvl 1-10

if you die a lot (like me) it helps from 1-10 it will reduce your weakness time by 1/2

 

[NinjaJesus]

I'm about to buy a copy of FFXIV [Digital download], but before I do I was wondering if anyone knew how many times I could use the code? Like is it a 1 time use or can I install it on 2-3 PCs?

 

[Jijidasu]

I'm about to buy a copy of FFXIV [Digital download], but before I do I was wondering if anyone knew how many times I could use the code? Like is it a 1 time use or can I install it on 2-3 PCs?

If you're referring to the account creation code that's a one time deal. You'll only need one account providing it's just you playing. With that you can install the game on as many PC's as you like, that's only the client though.

 

[Jijidasu]

Had a read of game watch's FFXIV 2.0 article and QA. So far it's the best article out there and puts to rest a lot of the concerns (through poor translation no doubt) regarding the graphic level and optimisation. I was going to to a write up on it but that other guy on the official forums seems to be translating it. One portion though; The graphics are 85% complete with optimisation at only 15% so far. I'm not sure what this means entirely but I'm assuming that optimisation will increase the visual state and how it performs.

Another couple of interesting tid bits from the article:

1.23 is set to be the end (or so YoshiP thinks). They've been working hard on the visuals for the finale and there's said to be a final boss battle that really represents that "FF quality" boss battle in terms of epic nature. Take that as you will.

Regarding jumping there's no real practical (tied to raids and content-wise) use as of yet. It's simply there as another means of mobility. Be it traversing the wilderness or climbing up/jumping across gaps and so on.

Game Watch staff asked about whether or not Chocobos will be jumping as well, Yoship followed up with it's complicated to put that in with such a detailed animation system in place however all current MMO's have mounts that jump, so it's likely it'll be there.

Following this they talked about flying (Chocobos); YoshiP said he's a little lost in whether or not to go with swimming (water content) or the skies (flying content) and that this is to be considered "expansion" content.

For each region in the game there's 5~6 villages/quest hubs, on average. They contain many NPC's for quests, and also an Inn.

The housing system is said to be something yet seen in MMO's. It is not "apartment" style a la FFXI but physically representational houses. They will be contained in a neighbourhood like instance zone and you'll have neighbours, I assume.

The maps are all created by hand - the Game Watch guy said he didn't notice any copy-paste environments like what we have in current FFXIV.

 

[Reveirg]

Well, I couldn't resist and bought the game to try it out pre-2.0.
I just created my character on NeoGAF's server, how do I go about acquiring a Link pearl/thingy? And do you guys have any tips for a beginner?

Thanks!!

 

[Jijidasu]

Well, I couldn't resist and bought the game to try it out pre-2.0.
I just created my character on NeoGAF's server, how do I go about acquiring a Link pearl/thingy? And do you guys have any tips for a beginner?

Thanks!!

Think there's a couple posts with some tips for beginners on the previous pages. You'll have to wait for someone with invitation permission to log in to get a pearl (I'm not on GAF's server, sorry).

Ideally you'll want to start as a Thaumaturge as post Lv.10 you'll be quite strong and have little problems doing leves and getting PT invites. Race doesn't matter so play whatever you find most appealing.

 

[Reveirg]

Think there's a couple posts with some tips for beginners on the previous pages. You'll have to wait for someone with invitation permission to log in to get a pearl (I'm not on GAF's server, sorry).

Ideally you'll want to start as a Thaumaturge as post Lv.10 you'll be quite strong and have little problems doing leves and getting PT invites. Race doesn't matter so play whatever you find most appealing.

Hmmm, I already chose Lancer, can I easily change without penalty?

 

[Jijidasu]

Hmmm, I already chose Lancer, can I easily change without penalty?

Yeah you can change easily. Depending on your starting city there should be NPC's at a bar-like area in the adventurer's guild (leve pick up location, looks like a tavern). Some of them sell starting weapons and equipment specifically. You can pick up a weapon for Thaumaturge there (and/or any other class you wish to play).

 

[Reveirg]

Any idea who to contact who has invitation permission?

Enjoying the game so far, made it to Thaumaturge level 7 with a few leves, and now continuing some quests.

Am I not allowed to accept any more leves after completing 8 of them?

 

[kiryogi]

{----- Eithne Rain.


Typically on late midnight PST until 5AM or so. I also try to log in around 1pm before work to chat/pearl folks.

 

[NinjaJesus]

If you're referring to the account creation code that's a one time deal. You'll only need one account providing it's just you playing. With that you can install the game on as many PC's as you like, that's only the client though.

Thanks, bro.

 

[Munba]

>GameWatch Info<

Thanks for the info!
Love there'll be more villages around with INN inside. And housing i think it will be ala Lord of the Rings Online.

 

[Allard]

There is another interview summary on joystiq (Massively) for Yoshida. Not a real interview article (he paraphrases the discussion) but it talks about what they discussed and saw during the interview.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/06/09/e3-2012-a-chat-with-final-fantasy-xivs-naoki-yoshida/

Nice to see confirmation of true quest hubs coming and more tightly woven story content where you aren't left waiting to start the next 'chapter' in the content 10 levels later. Interesting to see where the guild leves are going since it was implied they might be also getting an overhaul. Also glad to see that housing/estates will be showing up potentially at launch if not right after. I really hope he can pull off getting them ready to go for launch as its the easily my most hyped new feature coming (I am a crafting guy what can I say XD).

 

[N.A]

There is also another article on Joystiq: http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/06/09/the-mog-log-what-we-saw-of-ffxiv-at-e3/

 

[DrForester]

Got my legacy icon today, guess I did just have to wait for the 90 day billing cycle to go, instead in the 30 day when I reactivated.

 

[Hasemo]

Any Gaf linkshell sackholder online?
/t Vern Dae, pretty please~

 

[RPGCrazied]

What server is GAF on? Also, I haven't played much of 11, but what is linkshells and pearls? Does the game not have guilds?

 

[King_Moc]

What server is GAF on? Also, I haven't played much of 11, but what is linkshells and pearls? Does the game not have guilds?

GAF is on Saragatanas. Linkshells are kind of like in game chatrooms. You need to get a pearl from someone to get access to it, then you can see whatever anyone says to each other within that group. Guilds should come in 2.0 in the form of Companies. Unless it's going to be in update 1.23, i've not been following the progress of that too much.

 

[kiryogi]

Any Gaf linkshell sackholder online?
/t Vern Dae, pretty please~

{----- Eithne Rain.


Typically on late midnight PST until 5AM or so. I also try to log in around 1pm before work to chat/pearl folks.

^

 

[Salaadin]

Does it matter which grand company I join? Will certain ones lock me out of certain items? Are any of the grand company bought items any good?

 

[RPGCrazied]

GAF is on Saragatanas. Linkshells are kind of like in game chatrooms. You need to get a pearl from someone to get access to it, then you can see whatever anyone says to each other within that group. Guilds should come in 2.0 in the form of Companies. Unless it's going to be in update 1.23, i've not been following the progress of that too much.

Thanks. I hope to start playing this weekend when I get the box in the mail. I'm sure the game has what... 10gigs in patches? lol.

 

[Reveirg]

Do you guys have any tips about selling items? (i.e.: what to sell to NPCs, what to put up on bazaar/what price, retainers/AH, etc.)

Thanks!

 

[Jijidasu]

Do you guys have any tips about selling items? (i.e.: what to sell to NPCs, what to put up on bazaar/what price, retainers/AH, etc.)

Thanks!

It'll be different coming from me but on my server Sheep Skins from the Lost Lambs right outside the Zephyr Gate at Limsa Lominsa sell for a mint. Normal skins sell for 2k and the +1's are 27k each, on the auction house.

Most skins and leathers will generally sell quite well.

 

[Reveirg]

It'll be different coming from me but on my server Sheep Skins from the Lost Lambs right outside the Zephyr Gate at Limsa Lominsa sell for a mint. Normal skins sell for 2k and the +1's are 27k each, on the auction house.

Most skins and leathers will generally sell quite well.

So there's an AH? Does it work like FFXI? (and where is it in Ul'Dah?)