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

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Victrix said:
So what's the story on this now? I haven't looked at this game since the launch day horror stories
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Work in progress probably best sums it all up. It's enjoyable though, not the greatest game ever, but I find myself trying to find time every day to hop on a play a little.
 
Victrix said:
So what's the story on this now? I haven't looked at this game since the launch day horror stories
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It's coming along.

I had some fun with it when it came out, but that dried up when my friends stopped logging in.

The gameplay has come a long way, though, and the GAF LS almost always has someone in it to talk to, which helps a lot.
 
Hmm. I did a little reading, it sounds like there are pretty serious patches coming soon as well, on top of the changes in the last year.

Also liking the (gasp) flow of information on their forums between the dev team and their community. I didn't think SE paid any attention to their american audience.

Plus, no sub fee, so yay! I'll see if I can find a copy, I know my local megamarts don't have it, I was at them recently looking for a different PC game (doesn't seem a good thing to not have your flagship MMO not stocked by the big retailers...). I'm also utterly baffled that there seems to be no way to buy this online/download the client, unless I'm missing something?

Anyhow, I think I'll give it a shot, I'm looking for something to play around with until GW2 comes out :P
 
Yoshi-P on Power-leveling and the Claim system revamp

Hello, this is Yoshida, the Producer/Director.

I appreciate all the comments from your heated discussion.
I will post my objectives regarding power leveling and the removal of the claim system.

I want to make it clear now that I believe there is no way to settle this argument in a way that everybody will be 100% satisfied with.
Also, this is going to be a very long post, so it may be a difficult read.
(I decided that I would divide up the post, rather than rush through each topic. I hope you read my entire post.)

This is an extreme example, but even for non-online, stand alone games, there are players who enjoy completing the game even if they use cheats to obtain all items or max out their levels. However, other players feel that this is a waste of time and that it defeats the purpose of buying the game. As such, this is a difficult issue to address.

In MMOs, there are players who would like help with leveling, because they want to play with other players as soon as possible. There are also players who would like to help new players level up, so that they can play with them. These players don’t want strong restrictions on power leveling, nor to be confined to parties with major level differences.

In contrast, there are players who believe that, “Players grow together with their characters,” “If other players are power leveling, leveling up becomes meaningless,” “Power leveling will become a necessary part of the game,” and “Power leveling will disrupt areas for proper party play.”

Even without considering RMT and people who level up other players’ characters for profit, this issue is the cause of a lot of friction. For online games, RMT and people who level up other players’ characters for profit will both certainly exist, so they must be considered. This is a good point of discussion, but opinions will vary based on perspective, so it is difficult to reach a definite conclusion.

Thus, I will post the development of how we reached the new specs.

Why the claiming system will be removed
We decided to remove the claiming system from FFXIV because we decided that claiming would become a troublesome spec in the future development of the game. When considering large scale PvE content involving multiple parties and PvP between large numbers of players, the spec that claiming occurs on a 1:1 basis becomes a nuisance. Also, instances will become more prevalent in future content. The concept of having to claim opponents to prevent being disturbed by other players becomes less and less relevant, so we decided that claiming is unnecessary.

Securing reward rights
Up next is the decision on the right to obtain rewards.
This regards who has the right to obtain experience points, dropped items, and quest completion flags when multiple parties (including solo players) attack the same monster.

In first generation MMOs the party that dealt the most damage to the monster was given the rights to the rewards. In the worst case, fighting over rewards was possible. The claiming system in FFXI was implemented to avoid this issue. I decided that it would be best for the player or party that attacked the monster first to obtain rights to the rewards. This makes it so that “the early bird gets the worm,” which I think is the simplest solution. Future content will be heavily instanced, so we think that NMs in public fields will be the most affected by these changes. Rather than allowing players to fight over rewards, I think it is better to feature some kind of gameplay system to make third party involvement in a NM battle impossible. As such, I decided to implement a “first attack” system for rewards rights.

Revision of distribution of rewards
Up next is experience points, the center of our debate.
If we simplify the specs, power leveling will certainly become easier.

I will provide an example involving soloing that is easy to understand. (Power leveling a party involving multiple levels is complicated) Suppose you attack a level 50 monster with your level 1 character. If a level 50 character nearby kills the level 50 monster, the skill points will be given to the level 1 character.

However, the gap between your level 1 character and the level 50 monster is too large, so the “defeating a higher rank monster bonus” will be significantly reduced. The experience points earned by the level 1 character will be adjusted quite drastically.

Suppose you attack a level 3 monster with your level 1 character and a level 50 character nearby kills the level 3 monster. The level 3 monster is appropriate for a level 1 character, so there will be no major drastic loss in experience points.

These are the basics. I will move on to determining whether or not a player is power leveling.

Determining power leveling
The standard for battle length from here on out will be 30-40 seconds to defeat a monster of the same level while soloing. It would take about 4-5 seconds for a level 50 character to defeat a level 3 monster next to a level 1 character. The level 1 character can obtain the full amount of experience points just by standing there. However, the level 50 player involved is spending their time leveling up the other player instead of playing other content.

At this point, it depends how the level 1 character feels about being "helped" by the level 50 character.

Forcing out power leveling
It is not easy to distinguish whether the above actions are an act of good will or serve the purpose of RMT or leveling up other characters for money.

By investigating logs, it is possible to identify for-profit violators and mete out punishment, but it would be very difficult to completely put an end to these actions. Doing so would require implementing very complicated specs, which will place a strain on ordinary users.
Distribute experience points based on the amount of damage done to the monster
Distribute experience points based on hate
The above methods were used by first generation MMOs to reduce power leveling, but these methods have their own problems. Players can aggressively fight each other over experience points, classes that do not do much damage are at a disadvantage, and for-profit violators can create bots that randomly attack monsters and steal EXP. (As I said earlier, we will punish for-profit violators. However, we do not want to ban ordinary players, so it will take us time to properly identify for-profit violators.)

One thing we would like to avoid all costs is EXP stealing by bots.

Conclusion
Taking everything into consideration, we understand that there will be pros and cons no matter what, but ultimately, we have decided that as a current generation MMORPG we would like to do something about,

"new players who would like some help, because they want to play with their friends as soon as possible, as well as players who are willing to sacrifice their own time to help out new players get involved in the game quicker."

We plan on implementing end-game content that is extremely difficult, so if assistance is necessary to reach this point I believe that it should be OK for players to help each other out, as long as there are players who are willing to help out.

Differences in gained experience points based on the difference between the player’s level and the defeated monster’s level will still exist, and will be adjusted. Our goal is to prevent any kind of extreme behavior. If any loopholes are found, we would like to fix these issues as they are discovered.

I believe that whether a player is playing seriously or not is a separate issue from whether the player is receiving assistance or not.

Personally, I am the type who believes that it is more fun to work hard and experience as much as you can first hand up until at least level 40, but if somebody comes asking for help saying, "I tried my best up until level 30, but I don’t have any more time!" I will help out.

Of course you would want your friends to enjoy an MMO that you enjoy playing, and if somebody is stuck in a situation where their enjoyment is hitting a wall, you would want to help out. Ultimately, it would be best for everybody to get along and play together.
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I just bought the game today and started playing. I have some questions:

What should i do after i have done the 8 guildleves?

What are NM?

How do i acquire new gear/is it essential in the beginning?

Is Disciple of the Land/Hand necessary to progress (Getting gear, gil, exp)?

If so, what would be recommended to begin with (I'm not much of a crafter)?

Are most people in the GAF guild stateside?

Thanks. Will send out a PM when i'm online the next time for a invite to the guild if that's ok.
 
accx said:
I just bought the game today and started playing. I have some questions:

What should i do after i have done the 8 guildleves?
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Try crafting leves. Essentially a free method of skilling up crafts w/o expending shards/crystals and materials.

What are NM?
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Notorious Monsters, essentially stronger versions of a type of monster that drops some specific kind of equipment.

How do i acquire new gear/is it essential in the beginning?
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This'll be different from other folks but as I've seen (pre-1.19 stat adjustments), gear makes very little difference from 1-10. Personally I leveled most of my job in level 1 onion gear solo from 1-16 and opted to really only upgrade because it would be sorta silly not to. But as it is, theres really no "ZOMG if you don't have this by this level you are gimp!" Kinda makes me sad though since XI had different tiers of gear that you could recognize folks wearing from dunes to qufim etc. Just upgrade stuff as you can.

Is Disciple of the Land/Hand necessary to progress (Getting gear, gil, exp)?
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It sorta is and it sorta isn't. I fully recommend you pick up a DoL job purely for the money you can make off of it.

You don't necessarily need a DoH job to level, but as you get higher you will end up having to pay around 4-6k per item to get stuff repaired to 100% (unless you repair from npc exclusively and even then its only up to 75% and i think overall it ends up costing more due to the amount repaired to cost ratio). Personally I recommend you level at least one DoH job that relates to the main class you want to level (eg: I did goldsmith since I was leveling THM first and THM weapons mostly require goldsmithing repairs).

If so, what would be recommended to begin with (I'm not much of a crafter)?
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Like I said, DO a DoH job for sure, if you want to level a crafting job, try to match it with the DoH job. Example: Miner and armorcraft/blacksmithing/goldsmithing go hand in hand. Botany with Alchemist/Carpenter (mostly carpenter), and Fishing with Alchemy and Cooking
 
accx said:
I just bought the game today and started playing. I have some questions:

What should i do after i have done the 8 guildleves?

What are NM?

How do i acquire new gear/is it essential in the beginning?

Is Disciple of the Land/Hand necessary to progress (Getting gear, gil, exp)?

If so, what would be recommended to begin with (I'm not much of a crafter)?

Are most people in the GAF guild stateside?

Thanks. Will send out a PM when i'm online the next time for a invite to the guild if that's ok.
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Go do quests, beat up enemies in the field, join parties and beat up more enemies, or talk the important npc that gave you a linkpearl at the beginning and try to get a story mission. Also check out the grand companies in the city.

NM are Notorious Monsters or mini-bosses of sorts. They either look different than a normal version of that monster, look the same but with a different name, or are just larger. They usually drop rare items or equipment.

Acquire new gear by snagging stuff at the market ward (there is an item search now), having people craft it for you, or just buy it from the npcs around town/npc in the battlecraft ward within market ward.

Disciple of the Land/Hand isnt necessary...but it does help.

GAF LS is a good mix of different nationalities...I think. Decent amount from the states though.
 
The OP is in desperate need of updating.

A few critical things I found:

1) Oh god patch downloads

Torrent them from here: http://tehkrizz.net/FFXIV/downloads.php

2) Godawful visual tearing, vsync forced on in the ATI control panel doing nothing

Install RivaTuner, use D3DOverrider to force it on: http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=rivatuner

3) No fullscreen windowed support and alt-tab crashes the game?!

Install http://www.ffxivcore.com/topic/14092-run-game-in-windowed-fullscreen-mode-instructions/

4) I can't push right or left on the dpad to scroll pages!

Ok I got nothin.

edit: I forgot 5) Need PS3 gamepad to work in Win7

http://www.motioninjoy.com/

--

In game as Sjan Sjet, can someone mail me a gaf linkshell, or do I have to contact someone online? I'm in Linsa.
 
Hey, what's the deal with char slots right now since it's free?

Make as many as I want, or don't, because I'd have to pay for them all later, or what?
 
accx said:
Is Disciple of the Land/Hand necessary to progress (Getting gear, gil, exp)?
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not at all
the only detriment being your physical level will suffer
but since they're doing away with that
it won't be a problem for long


Victrix said:
Hey, what's the deal with char slots right now since it's free?

Make as many as I want, or don't, because I'd have to pay for them all later, or what?
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i'm sure you'll have time to delete them before they start charging you
 
jiggle said:
i'm sure you'll have time to delete them before they start charging you
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That works - I need to play around with different appearances until I find one I like, so I can just bail out on the other characters once they start charging, after I've had a chance to find the Perfect Digital Hero

Is there some way to stop the camera from auto-centering? It's making me really nauseous, having the camera constantly fighting me when I'm moving it around.

edit: not liking the ui lag on interacting with vendors either, the menus are server side?!
 
jiggle said:
Victrix said:
Hey, what's the deal with char slots right now since it's free?

Make as many as I want, or don't, because I'd have to pay for them all later, or what?
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i'm sure you'll have time to delete them before they start charging you
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You can actually cancel them right now and the slots will remain open and usable.

I did that way back before they announced they wouldn't be charging for the foreseeable future, 2 extra slots cancelled on the site, active in-game.
 
Chocobos will be in finally?! And airships?!?!?!

I might actually consider logging in later this month. Well, Gears of War 3 comes out on the 20th, my whole schedule will be occupied by Gears so I hope this patch comes out before that.
 
I find it sort of hilarious that Chocobos and Airships are coming into a game named Final Fantasy a year later.

But whatever. They're making meaningful, substantial upgrades to the game, I can appreciate that.

I'm racking up a list of Shit I Do Not Like though, I'll probably go make a useless forums post and then abandon the official forums for fear of fanboy attack.

It is pretty, and I adore the writing (same team as VS/FF12/TO?), haven't really gotten into the game much beyond the intro areas yet though.

How substantial is the quest/storyline/mission content right now? Does everyone just grind repeatable kill/craft quests, or is there a significant amount of other stuff in the game?
 
Unknown Soldier said:
Chocobos will be in finally?! And airships?!?!?!

I might actually consider logging in later this month. Well, Gears of War 3 comes out on the 20th, my whole schedule will be occupied by Gears so I hope this patch comes out before that.
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At the current rate, the patch will probably come out after gears.
 
Victrix said:
I find it sort of hilarious that Chocobos and Airships are coming into a game named Final Fantasy a year later.

But whatever. They're making meaningful, substantial upgrades to the game, I can appreciate that.
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Well to be fair the installations have been there since the beta. Probably would have came sooner if this current team had been working on it since it launched.

The overall story is fleshed out ever 5-10 levels while the quest and sidequest help define the world and the current state of affairs. (fear of invasion)
 
staticneuron said:
Well to be fair the installations have been there since the beta. Probably would have came sooner if this current team had been working on it since it launched.
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Or if the game came out a year later, as it should have.
 
Riposte said:
Or if the game came out a year later, as it should have.
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That is a horrible idea because most of the changes have been because of community reactions and developers actually listening to our concerns. If the game would have launched a year later, it would have the same crappy mechanics it launched with.... except with chocobo's and airships.
 
staticneuron said:
That is a horrible idea because most of the changes have been because of community reactions and developers actually listening to our concerns. If the game would have launched a year later, it would have the same crappy mechanics it launched with.... except with chocobo's and airships.
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Well there would still be beta testing (which this basically is) and I'm sure the staff at SE aren't as mindless as they seem to appear.
 
staticneuron said:
That is a horrible idea because most of the changes have been because of community reactions and developers actually listening to our concerns.
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Those reactions were usually to things like "The game shouldn't punch me in the balls when I log in" and "Things should be in the game." Issues which--you'd hope--would have been addressed had the game not been released at least a full year early. And honestly, the fact that they needed to be told this stuff is a pretty bad sign to begin with. Are we now content with software developers releasing incomplete garbage and then a year later saying "at least the next patch will be adding monitor support!"?

I appreciate that SE is trying very hard to fix the situation and they are doing good work now, but if someone complains that it should have had chocobos before a year after release there is no room for "to be fair." Don't be fair, they screwed up. It's fine to call them on it.
 
Jinko said:
Well there would still be beta testing (which this basically is) and I'm sure the staff at SE aren't as mindless as they seem to appear.
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The original team made a beta already and still didn't know what they were doing, what on earth makes you think that the original team would have made it better when they didn't get it right in the first place?

Cathcart said:
Those reactions were usually to things like "The game shouldn't punch me in the balls when I log in" and "Things should be in the game." Issues which--you'd hope--would have been addressed had the game not been released at least a full year early. And honestly, the fact that they needed to be told this stuff is a pretty bad sign to begin with. Are we now content with software developers releasing incomplete garbage and then a year later saying "at least the next patch will be adding monitor support!"?

I appreciate that SE is trying very hard to fix the situation and they are doing good work now, but if someone complains that it should have had chocobos before a year after release there is no room for "to be fair." Don't be fair, they screwed up. It's fine to call them on it.
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The point is, the replaced the entire team behind the initial mess and that would not have happened unless the game was released. The situation with the airships and chocobos does not exist in a vacuum. Alot of steps came before these positive changes and these changes are thanks to the new team who saved the day after the disastrous launch. And of course the new team in fielded suggestions. They inherited this mess and the fastest way to consumer satisfaction in a short amount of time was to poll the current users and compare/contrast the wants of the consumers against the conceptual changes the original team wanted to put forth.
 
Cathcart said:
Those reactions were usually to things like "The game shouldn't punch me in the balls when I log in" and "Things should be in the game." Issues which--you'd hope--would have been addressed had the game not been released at least a full year early. And honestly, the fact that they needed to be told this stuff is a pretty bad sign to begin with. Are we now content with software developers releasing incomplete garbage and then a year later saying "at least the next patch will be adding monitor support!"?

I appreciate that SE is trying very hard to fix the situation and they are doing good work now, but if someone complains that it should have had chocobos before a year after release there is no room for "to be fair." Don't be fair, they screwed up. It's fine to call them on it.
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I wouldn't say they needed to be told what stuff to fix, from what I gather the new team took over, had mutliple things that needed fixing and asked us which they should do first. I'm sure they know the problems and what needs to be done about them, but instead of just fixing stuff, they are asking us the order to do it in.

I don't see that as a bad sign at all, in fact I think just the opposite. It's more refreshing to see them communicate with the consumers to figure out what we'd like to see happen.
 
If the game was released later the "crappy" mechanics would have been far more developed(with more content to boot) and probably most importantly they wouldn't have thrown away the ATB-like combat system in order to adapt to shitty servers.
 
Riposte said:
If the game was released later the "crappy" mechanics would have been far more developed(with more content to boot) and probably most importantly they wouldn't have thrown away the ATB-like combat system in order to adapt to shitty servers.
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Stamina system was garbage. Good fucking riddance.
 
I'd have to agree the stamina system was pretty shitty.

I like the changes the new team have made, one day I hope to sign in and it play like WoW (joke..... ok maybe a little true)
 
DrForester said:
Have they gotten rid of the gear and weapon health yet?
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Nope but they've adjustments so that all gear degrades *much* slowly if you meet the optimal rank and class specified. Though now death comes with an approximately 8% degradation after 20 I believe if you return (equipped items don't degrade if you get raised). I think around level 1-10 there is no death penalty and 4% degradation between 11-20.

Its also much simpler to repair now as all items can be repaired through 1 of 5 possible dark matter with varying grades from 1-5. Grade 1 repairs 1-10, Grade 2 repairs 11-20 etc etc. So it isn't hard anymore to find repairs anymore, and less so if you can repair stuff yourself as a crafter.
 
Darte said:
Nope but they've adjustments so that all gear degrades *much* slowly if you meet the optimal rank and class specified. Though now death comes with an approximately 8% degradation after 20 I believe if you return (equipped items don't degrade if you get raised). I think around level 1-10 there is no death penalty and 4% degradation between 11-20.

Its also much simpler to repair now as all items can be repaired through 1 of 5 possible dark matter with varying grades from 1-5. Grade 1 repairs 1-10, Grade 2 repairs 11-20 etc etc. So it isn't hard anymore to find repairs anymore, and less so if you can repair stuff yourself as a crafter.
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Also helps you can buy the items from NPCs and just find a friend or fellow crafter around to help repair it. It's rather nice really.
 
FFXIVgaf is friendly and helpful, thanks guys.

I've invaded the linkshell with three rl buddies (two of them gaffers). We'll see how long we last. Two are scarred veterans of the initial launch, the same two who played a bunch of FFXI. The other is like me, played a tiny bit of FFXI, otherwise just a general FF fan (or used to be anyway, heh).

Oh, is there a crafter crew in the linkshell that can dole out newbie gear (rank 20ish I guess? whenever leveling slows down?), or is it Find/Buy/Make Your Own Stuff? We were all running around at rank 15 in our peasant equipment, getting thrashed by rank10 leve mobs.
 
Victrix said:
Oh, is there a crafter crew in the linkshell that can dole out newbie gear (rank 20ish I guess? whenever leveling slows down?), or is it Find/Buy/Make Your Own Stuff? We were all running around at rank 15 in our peasant equipment, getting thrashed by rank10 leve mobs.
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We can make stuff for you, just ask. To make it easier for us, you could gather the materials ahead of time (as much as you can) so that we don't have to look for it ourselves.

Check YG to see a list of items and their recipies:

http://ffxiv.yg.com/

You might also want to take a look at the mid level NM gear:

http://ffxiv.yg.com/items?f=unq=1;trd=1;c=1

protip: just search a category and filter by unique and ex properties.

You can also check this list to see the items you can get from the rank 25 dungeon:

http://www.ffxivpro.com/update/2011-07-22

Also, this list of all the sidequests has the item rewards. Do the low rank ones to get gear.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/7722-List-of-All-Sidequests-(work-in-progress)
 
jiggle said:
so the red moon we've been seeing is sp event related(?)
http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/topics/detail?id=1f556d9818e4d92c236311c85c436b40e7fd7b90
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Awesome, so we werent crazy.

1138_0.jpg


Dalamud orbits the moon...so what does that make it? Either way, hopefully it doesnt just lend to beating up giant white rats and some rat king.

EDIT: Whats with the...things sticking up on Dalamud? I guess its either going to be alive, or some sort of artificial satellite.
 
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