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Final Fantasy XIV |OT| ARR: Alpha Closed. Beta mid-Feb

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Allard

Member

I'd be careful of assuming anything with stats is going to stick around from Alpha into Launch. We have already been told by Yoshida before Alpha started that the stat allocation is getting revamped in beta and what we got right now in Alpha is temporary. In fact in a recent interview (might even have been the most recent producer letter) he admitted that primary stats for all classes might/will change for 2.0 launch and right now each combat class still has the same primary/secondary stats for damage. Not to so say the weapon comment won't stick around, but this type of testing is exactly the type of stuff that likely will change from version to version.
 

Jinko

Member
Oh, maybe it's a blessing that I didn't get into the Alpha then, haha.

Mouse and Keyboard controls are pretty standard and intuitive if you ask me.

I think a lot of people who are having issues are used to games that don't use that kind of set up though, namely FF11 players :D
 

Riposte

Member
I quite dislike the camera in this new version, at least with these current controls. I rather it not be tied so strictly to the character.
 

Jinko

Member
I quite dislike the camera in this new version, at least with these current controls. I rather it not be tied so strictly to the character.

If you left click the mouse its like in 1.0, if you right click its like in other MMO's.

Think they are adding more camera options in beta though.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
Hey people, how would my laptop hold up with RR?

Base Inspiron 7520 Base
Processor 3rd generation Intel® Core™ i5-3210M processor (2.50 GHz, 3M cache)
Memory 6144MB (1x2048 + 1x4096) 1600MHz DDR3
Video Card 2GB AMD Radeon HD 7730M
Operating System Windows 8 64bit, English
CD ROM/DVD ROM Blu-ray Disc BD-Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD
 

Jinko

Member
Hey people, how would my laptop hold up with RR?

Base Inspiron 7520 Base
Processor 3rd generation Intel® Core™ i5-3210M processor (2.50 GHz, 3M cache)
Memory 6144MB (1x2048 + 1x4096) 1600MHz DDR3
Video Card 2GB AMD Radeon HD 7730M
Operating System Windows 8 64bit, English
CD ROM/DVD ROM Blu-ray Disc BD-Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD

It should run pretty decent on that, there will be a benchmark coming out in a few weeks.
 

Styles

Member
Hey people, how would my laptop hold up with RR?

Base Inspiron 7520 Base
Processor 3rd generation Intel® Core™ i5-3210M processor (2.50 GHz, 3M cache)
Memory 6144MB (1x2048 + 1x4096) 1600MHz DDR3
Video Card 2GB AMD Radeon HD 7730M
Operating System Windows 8 64bit, English
CD ROM/DVD ROM Blu-ray Disc BD-Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD

You have the exact same model as mine. It runs pretty well with almost everything maxed out(1368x768).
 

Kokonoe

Banned
Mouse and Keyboard controls are pretty standard and intuitive if you ask me.

I think a lot of people who are having issues are used to games that don't use that kind of set up though, namely FF11 players :D

I don't mind which is the most intuitive, if there is controller support, I use it!
 

Jijidasu

Member
Isn't it odd that SE aren't promoting FFXIV ARR at Jump Festa this year? I haven't been to the show in a couple of years so I don't know if they've changed what kind of stuff they show any more, but with release creeping up you'd expect them to be pouring info out of all facets.
 

Munba

Member
New dev blog post,

Hello again!

Fernehalwes here. For this installment of the Developers’ Blog, we decided to bring you an in-game screenshot of some chocobo barding that Yoshi-P hinted at back during a previous Producer Letter Live. You may recall this preliminary artwork:

JP20121218_2.jpg


Well, the character design team has been busy all month transforming those 2D drawings into actual 3D models. While my trusty partner ‘M’ lured a lonely designer from his workstation with a wink and some tasty chocolate, I snuck in from behind and snapped this revealing pic:

JP20121218_1.jpg


At this stage in development, the armour still appears to be lacking textures, but if I’m not mistaken, those horns have an uncanny resemblance to the ones found on a certain legendary beast spotted atop a snow-capped peak in a recent FINAL FANTASY XIV trailer. Now what was his name again? Bahoo... Bahi... Behemmmm...my! Would you look at the time!

I’ll see you all again soon!

Fernehalwes
 

N.A

Banned
Original 1.0 servers go offline for good on the 31st. Not surprising, there were less than 30 people on Sargatanas last time I logged in,
 

omlet

Member
Got in alpha with last wave of invites. After some update difficulties, I spent a few hours running around and got up to level 8 or 9 as archer.

It's... different. From 1.x I mean. In both good and not-so-good ways. Camera controls are so nice now with mouse, but movement is taking some getting used to. I think I won't say anything more yet until I've had time to play some more and better define my thoughts. I'm uncomfortable with some things about what I'm seeing in alpha, but they may be needless worries.

I browsed around a bit on alpha forums while game was updating... felt like punching babies after that. I think I should avoid those forums; they're worse than lodestone general.
 

Midou

Member
So I picked Lancer, and I've seen people as low as level 12 wearing full dark knight gear, but I can't seem to figure out how to get it. Is there a quest somewhere for it?

I'm enjoying it a lot compared to 1.0, even with addition of more generic-MMO questing, since really, that's a lot better than guildleves at least.

I assume it's because it's alpha, but man, there was like so many 'quests' at the start, it was crazy, then around level 13 I coulden't find any except for ones that unlocked at 15, and then it seemed guildleves was main way to level outside of straight up grinding, just like FFXIV 1.0, at 15 though, the town isn't exactly flooded with quests again.. I hope it's just an alpha thing. Don't want to end up spending 90% of the time with guildleves and grinding, or it would be same problem as FFXIV 1.0 again..
 

Akuosa

Member
So I picked Lancer, and I've seen people as low as level 12 wearing full dark knight gear, but I can't seem to figure out how to get it. Is there a quest somewhere for it?

I'm enjoying it a lot compared to 1.0, even with addition of more generic-MMO questing, since really, that's a lot better than guildleves at least.

I assume it's because it's alpha, but man, there was like so many 'quests' at the start, it was crazy, then around level 13 I coulden't find any except for ones that unlocked at 15, and then it seemed guildleves was main way to level outside of straight up grinding, just like FFXIV 1.0, at 15 though, the town isn't exactly flooded with quests again.. I hope it's just an alpha thing. Don't want to end up spending 90% of the time with guildleves and grinding, or it would be same problem as FFXIV 1.0 again..
Both things are explained in the forums, just avoid the feedback threads if you don't want to kill anyone, there are usefull threads out there that will make you feel less lost.

There's an NPC at the door of Tamtara (the dungeon) that sells you the AF armor for 1 gil, I assume that's what you meant? You've to be level 15 to equip it, though, so the "as low as level 12" thing confuses me. He also can raise your level to 15 if you are at least 10 and have done a certain quest he mentions.

Also, the quest "path" ends at 10, you can find the class quest at 15 and 20 too, but no more random quests are implemented.

Both are alpha things, of course.
 

Akuosa

Member
Where is this dungeon? :p
What, the map is too scary too? Too many zones in the alpha? :p
Central Shroud 19,27.

... now, before you ask where the quest you need to do is, I sure as hell don't remeber that, so you're on your own, hope you found it while looking for exclamations ariound, lol.
 

Jinko

Member
So I picked Lancer, and I've seen people as low as level 12 wearing full dark knight gear, but I can't seem to figure out how to get it. Is there a quest somewhere for it?

There is an NPC outside Tam Tara Deepcroft that sells all the classic specific gear.

I assume it's because it's alpha, but man, there was like so many 'quests' at the start, it was crazy, then around level 13 I coulden't find any except for ones that unlocked at 15, and then it seemed guildleves was main way to level outside of straight up grinding, just like FFXIV 1.0, at 15 though, the town isn't exactly flooded with quests again.. I hope it's just an alpha thing. Don't want to end up spending 90% of the time with guildleves and grinding, or it would be same problem as FFXIV 1.0 again..

It's an alpha thing, they have only added quest chains up to 10 with a few higher quests here and there.
 

omlet

Member
I assume it's because it's alpha, but man, there was like so many 'quests' at the start, it was crazy, then around level 13 I coulden't find any except for ones that unlocked at 15, and then it seemed guildleves was main way to level outside of straight up grinding, just like FFXIV 1.0, at 15 though, the town isn't exactly flooded with quests again.. I hope it's just an alpha thing. Don't want to end up spending 90% of the time with guildleves and grinding, or it would be same problem as FFXIV 1.0 again..

I dunno about you, but I definitely don't want to be hand-held to level cap by a bunch of uninteresting throw-away-content checklist leveling quests.

(In general) I think there's just a clash between quest-driven progression and "adventure~" and you really can't have the former while fostering the latter, and if you don't have the latter, then your game plays like a to-do list of chores to rush through, at least to an extent. If your game's leveling path is quest-driven, it turns into an impersonal, largely solo-oriented errand-boy(or girl) grind of "find the exclamation marks!" In my experience with games like WoW and TERA (and XI and XIV and a few others), a WoW-esque quest-driven leveling system tells the casual player to expect that kind of training wheel mindset all the way to level cap (and if that rug is pulled out from under them, they get bored/frustrated and leave), and it tells other players who are looking for a more open sandbox (if that's the right term) experience or a more community-oriented experience (you know, the whole MO part of MMORPG) that they're playing the game "wrong" by not doing the quests (which will alienate those players) Also field monster strength--or lack of it, rather, being balanced for solo play--makes grouping up to do quests so faceroll easy it's even more boring than doing them solo.

Of course, this is just alpha, and I've heard that straight up party grinding is intended to be a fast (probably faster) way to level up past the starting zones, so things are subject to change and it's too early for me to judge the rest of the experience off one day's worth of alpha testing. My character is also at level 50 on every combat class from 1.x, so in a way it only concerns me as far as leveling SMN or an alt would go. Still, I am a bit worried about what this could possibly (key words: could and possibly) mean for the future of the game and its community.
 
They do intend to cater to the wider audience that games like WoW and GW2 reach with their questing models and soloable content.

I don't think that all of them will be simple "check list" type quests, but there will be plenty of those too.

Party grind is certainly viable.. in a duo or in a party of 4 or so, taking on higher level monsters definitely yields good exp.

Leveling without quests is certainly "doing it wrong" in Alpha because you end up broke vs having a few thousand gil.. but aside from that, it is perfectly viable.
 

omlet

Member
Rebind your A and D key to strafe and that should fix your movement issues.
It's not that, it's how W and S work now in relation to the camera. As in, they're NOT in relation to the camera, like it was in 1.x, they're "go forward" and "walk backwards" depending on your character's facing, not the camera's. I was crashing into so many walls...
 

Jinko

Member
My character is also at level 50 on every combat class from 1.x, so in a way it only concerns me as far as leveling SMN or an alt would go. Still, I am a bit worried about what this could possibly (key words: could and possibly) mean for the future of the game and its community.

This is the thing, you get your hand held through one class to cap which is no bad thing, especially when the armoury system is designed to level more than one.

I am a big fan of quest chains and so far have found them to be generally entertaining, I know that for me personally I would sooner quest to 50 than be forced to grind there either solo or in a party, for me parties are more for dungeon content, end game and group quests.

One thing I will say is that they do need to offer party based group quests, and hopefully dungeon quests as well, obviously we aren't going to see that until lvl 15 though.

It's not that, it's how W and S work now in relation to the camera. As in, they're NOT in relation to the camera, like it was in 1.x, they're "go forward" and "walk backwards" depending on your character's facing, not the camera's. I was crashing into so many walls...

If you press the left mouse button you will walk in relation to the way your character is facing, if you press the right mouse button you will walk in relation to the way the camera is facing, this is pretty standard in MMO's, clicking both together is probably the easiest option of course.
 

omlet

Member
This is the thing, you get your hand held through one class to cap which is no bad thing, especially when the armoury system is designed to level more than one.
You're right, this is a good point that I wasn't thinking all the way through.

I am a big fan of quest chains and so far have found them to be generally entertaining, I know that for me personally I would sooner quest to 50 than be forced to grind there either solo or in a party, for me parties are more for dungeon content, end game and group quests.
To me, doing quests like are in the alpha right now are a grind. Being able to do them solo when you don't have a lot of time on your hands has its merits, don't get me wrong, but I don't play MMOs for a solo experience, and I don't really understand why anyone would.

If you press the left mouse button you will walk in relation to the way your character is facing, if you press the right mouse button you will walk in relation to the way the camera is facing, this is pretty standard in MMO's, clicking both together is probably the easiest option of course.
I know it is, and as I mentioned I love how responsive the mouse/camera controls are now. It's just that I've been on XIV for the past 13 months, so that muscle memory is going to take a bit of time to unlearn. I did end up mostly just doing the both-mouse-buttons movement when I wasn't numlock autorunning.
 

Jinko

Member
To me, doing quests like are in the alpha right now are a grind. Being able to do them solo when you don't have a lot of time on your hands has its merits, don't get me wrong, but I don't play MMOs for a solo experience, and I don't really understand why anyone would.

Definably room for both I think, just as you don't craft in a group you don't have to level a battle craft that way either, its all about choices and individual play style.

I can understand how someone would want to be part of a linkshell/guild/community and still want to do their own thing.
 

omlet

Member
Definably room for both I think, just as you don't craft in a group you don't have to level a battle craft that way either, its all about choices and individual play style.

I can understand how someone would want to be part of a linkshell/guild/community and still want to do their own thing.

I definitely can, too, and there have been plenty of times where I've logged on to an MMO with a certain solo-play goal in mind for the session, but at the end of the day it's still an MMO. XIV needed some better solo-play combat options, so I'm not begrudging the existence of these quests as much as I'm just unimpressed with their implementation... perhaps, though, after playing MMOs as long as I have, there simply really is no way to impress players like me with a system like this no matter how well it's implemented.
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
I'm impressed. game goes quickly, things go faster now that menus aren't server based.

Very disappointed they kept the stupid system where gear gets worn out though, there's no reason for it.


Also, how do you sell to vendors?
 

Midou

Member
What, the map is too scary too? Too many zones in the alpha? :p
Central Shroud 19,27.

... now, before you ask where the quest you need to do is, I sure as hell don't remeber that, so you're on your own, hope you found it while looking for exclamations ariound, lol.

It's just most directions seem to lead to level 30-40+ enemies. Is there a way to set markers on my map? The name of stuff isn't always too helpful, and while exploring I always end up running back to some high level zone cause I forget I've already been there.

Also, 19,27 is just a giant tree. :p Edit: My bad. And Now I see it on the map, derp.

I was pretty sure I've been everywhere but I could be wrong
 

Midou

Member
I'm impressed. game goes quickly, things go faster now that menus aren't server based.

Very disappointed they kept the stupid system where gear gets worn out though, there's no reason for it.


Also, how do you sell to vendors?

System I'm most disappointed they kept is enemies running away during guildleves. Even with my Lancer's 'slow' and me hitting an enemy, I haven't seen a way to kill it before it reaches its allies. Sometimes they run off at 90% life. If anything, they should run away when they have 1 or 2 hits left to die, so you actually have some chance to kill them before they reach their allies. Worst part is, if you were running away from the creature the same way it runs from you, it would totally be hitting you the whole time, you need to be in range to attack, but enemies never seem to feel that way.
Of course, this is just alpha, and I've heard that straight up party grinding is intended to be a fast (probably faster) way to level up past the starting zones, so things are subject to change and it's too early for me to judge the rest of the experience off one day's worth of alpha testing. My character is also at level 50 on every combat class from 1.x, so in a way it only concerns me as far as leveling SMN or an alt would go. Still, I am a bit worried about what this could possibly (key words: could and possibly) mean for the future of the game and its community.

I loved party grinding in XI, would love to see it be the best way in XIV as well. I just hope with region servers, we have an FF MMO where people actually talk. Whenever I ran through major towns in XI, it was like playing a single player game, all towns sounded dead. I always assumed it was because of all regions playing in one, and people likely just talking among parties and guilds.
 

Xux

Member
I'm impressed. game goes quickly, things go faster now that menus aren't server based.
Yeah, I'm surprised that they managed to make it feel faster and deeper.
Very disappointed they kept the stupid system where gear gets worn out though, there's no reason for it.
Yeah, they might as well just make it so you can never sell anything you equip if that's what they're going for.
System I'm most disappointed they kept is enemies running away during guildleves. Even with my Lancer's 'slow' and me hitting an enemy, I haven't seen a way to kill it before it reaches its allies. Sometimes they run off at 90% life. If anything, they should run away when they have 1 or 2 hits left to die, so you actually have some chance to kill them before they reach their allies. Worst part is, if you were running away from the creature the same way it runs from you, it would totally be hitting you the whole time, you need to be in range to attack, but enemies never seem to feel that way.
Water cancels them running away. Pretty need quirk to an otherwise extremely situational spell.
 
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