Jove

So after trying every so often my code just went through a minute a go. I'm EU by the way, but basically... I preordered from Amazon.co.uk, they sent me an email with the 18 digit code straight after my confirmed purchase email. In that email it tells you to go to the preorder site, which I did and was asked to log in. I put in the username and password of the account I've been using for beta and then I'm confronted with this: So I completed that and my beta account was made into a Square Enix account (the one you use to login to their main site for all of their games) and I noticed under my list of games I had nothing. Several hours later I put in my 18 digit code, logged in with the above account and it actually works. The window changes and I'm presented with the other code, which I have to put into a linked website, and is then accepted. At this point I noticed that my beta account, now a Square Enix account has FFXIV under the "my games" tab. Convoluted to say the least. But I did notice that on the old Square Enix account page, which has FFXIV listed as a service, they mention that the site is getting a revamp on the 22nd to coincide with the launch of ARR. I could be totally wrong but I think as long as your game appears in your general Square Enix account, then you should be good.

Wow, really well put and I couldn't agree more, especially with this... I've said more or less the same thing about a lot of modern mmorpgs that I've played, were it just seems you're disconnected from the other players around you. I'm not sure how to exactly describe it, but it's not something I've experienced in XIV. It's just an example of like you say, polishing the rough into diamond. To be totally honest, after my previous mmo experiences, I swore to not play another one again. I hated leveling, questing, even the traditional combat mechanics and I think WoW most of all, left a really bad experience with me. However, within 30 minutes of playing XIV I was in love, I levelled my marauder to 20 by Sunday without even trying, just from the fact that I was excited to do and see all the things. XIV has a lot of gameplay in it that I thought I'd never really enjoy again, but all of the small details, tweaks, attention to detail and differences in XIV all add up to a really fantastic experience. I haven't been this excited to play a game in a long time, so for me that says it all really. Also it's the first FF game I've been excited for and have played since XII. So double yay.

I would definitely be interested in this LS, I'm EU, but 8am to 4pm EST is 1pm to 10pm for me, which is kind of perfect. I'm a total noob to XIV, I've only managed to participate in phase 4, but from what I did play, I enjoyed it immensely and I really can't wait to log back in. Group and end game content is something I'd love to do with a regular group of people, as I get kind of anxious about it with strangers. I find the whole experience far more enjoyable when you actually know your comrades fighting beside you (and not so stressful when you mess up and everyone dies...:cactuar: ). EDIT: Forgot to ask, is this for group content from lower levels to high, or just end game type stuff?

The whole time zone difference really isn't that much of a big deal in my experience. I've been in a lot of groups made up of both EU and NA players and although there were some players who completely missed each other, it's not like we all work 9 - 5 jobs and can only play in the afternoons, so for the majority of us, our play times were usually overlapped. I'm an EU player but I chose Balmung, since there's no difference in between EU and NA servers and from the beta I didn't really see any times of inactivity. Also if you go with Balmung or Gilgamesh, where the majority of us live, there's a chance you might miss out on some players or activities because of timezones, but if you go to a completely different server, then you'll definitely miss out on players and activities.

Personally I think the game mechanics for classes reflect the RP aspect quite well, in the sense that by training different classes, you unlock techniques which can be used by your main go to class. So for example, Logan is a marauder, but it only makes sense for him to learn other fighting styles, even just a little so he can both put to use different techniques and styles and also to learn the various weaknesses of those methods of combat. I mean would it be so out of place for a marauder from Lominsa and familiar with fishing spears to take a shine to being a Lancer? Probably not unheard of. Likewise a lancer from Gridania would probably be pretty familiar with a chopping axe, and take a shine to the marauder style of fighting. At the end of the day both weapons are giant sticks with blades on the end. But you can apply that logic to different classes, magic users dabbling in other arts, crafters being proficient at making various items made up of different materials. My opinion is that everyone is really good at a few things, mediocre at a ton of things, and utterly hopeless with everything else. I mean it varies of course and sometimes you do get people who are godly (like Gandalf, I mean seriously, awesome at swords, staffs, magic, solo'd a Balrog, self raised? Guy is seriously OP, basically a time lord) but everyone has a weakness (Gandalf was totally fooled by Saruman. Gandalf kinda strikes me as a person who would reply to a Prince of Nigeria email) and I think weakness, or flaw is most important. I mean even if your character is really good at everything, it could still work as long as they have some flaw or weakness (I bet you can think of some characters who are extremely skilled, but reckless, costing them mistakes, or elitist about their abilities to the point of alienating everyone around them). Idk, for me, godmode is more a case of affecting others without consent and being infallible. There's a huge difference between claiming to be the best and being the best and there's nothing better than proving a show off wrong. Anyway, personal preference with Logan is to train up some weapon fighting classes, specialising in a couple of methods of engaging the enemy (no fisticuffs however). He might even do some crafting/collecting, being a survivalist, but as for anything magical? Isn't going to happen.

This was a pleasure to read, seriously. It's nice to know that we're not all experienced players from XIV 1.0 and XI. I personally had a lot of fun figuring out how to tank in Sastasha with with a bunch of other newbs, I actually got KO right at the end but we managed to finish off the fishdude and I was raised, fortunately completing the quest. Although when I got to Gridania I had to mentally pump myself for the new challenge as I found tanking kind of stressful (I don't like being relied on), so of course I finally hook up to the duty finder and lo and behold, a group was found straight away! "Wow" I thought to myself, "let's do this!". And then Sastasha loaded up. I forgot to select the new dungeon :C Although it's nice to know that I can participate in a raid half a continent away and as much as I love being a marauder, I think for parties I'm going to level up lancer.

Just give me a gun, a musket or at least a crossbow. Pls.

I had the same dilemma when it came to archery, since that's the class I've usually played in MMOs, but I didn't want to specialise in being a bard as there's no way in Hydaelyn I'd be caught singing. I don't know how classes and jobs will be affected by end game content, but I assumed people would want a bard over an archer so I went with something else (also Limsa Lominsa is a badass place to start in my opinion). However, the best thing in this game is that you're not stuck to your class. I'm praying for a marksman or musketeer class because that's my true calling. But until then, you have a lot of options, so just choose your second favourite... or at least the one you dislike the least. A good way of looking at each class is by their roles. Marauders and Gladiators are both tanks, if you want to do dungeons with strangers, you have to be a tank, there's no way around that. So do you really want to tank? A dual sword wielding character sounds more like DPS to me, so even if it's not swords, a lancer or pugilist might suit your play style more? I think whether you're having fun playing your role is probably the most important choice you can make. Besides you can easily RP your different role, for example a dual sword wielding knight might theoretically get some lancer training for chocobo jousting. (I really want chocobo jousting to be a thing)

I had no idea he was here until Thursday last week but fortunately the tickets hadn't sold out, which was surprising considering the place was packed. His talk ended at half eight in the evening but the book signing queue was so long I didn't reach him until about 11:30pm. I'm pretty sure he didn't go home until the early hours of the morning, but he signed all of our books with little drawings and quotes. Such a wonderful guy. Oh man, disappointment is certainly an understatement, a six week workshop with Gaiman would be... wow, basically. I kind of grew up on Pratchett, well, Discworld, weirdly enough I just couldn't get into his kids books as a kid, but Rincewind? Yeah I totally got into that. Good Omens was the first thing I read that had a bit of Neil in it and it's what got me to read Neverwhere, American Gods and Stardust. I love those three books but I'd have to say American Gods is my favourite (despite not being American) followed closely by Neverwhere and Stardust. I'm a pretty big Sherlock Holmes fan (and by extension, a Jeremy Brett fan), although Lovecraft is actually a bit more of a recent read for me. I mean I had always known about Cthulhu and such, because internet, but I'm really impressed by a lot of his other short stories, well the ones that go a bit more in depth than "it was too indescribable to write about". As for Douglas Adams, again I'm also a huge fan, although it was kind of painful to read Mostly Harmless. As for Neuromancer, that's okay, I'm pretty dense too :cactuar:

Books? Give me a few ideas of what to read please? Been wanting to read a few new series lately. What sort of books do you enjoy reading? I read from a very wide variety of stuff so I'm just as comfortable reading something like Gaiman's Coraline, as I am Ballard's Crash. But if you've got a preference to fantasy/scifi/nonfic/horror/whathaveyou, lemme know and I'll see what I can dig up out of the old library. Gaimen! I saw him yesterday at a book signing, he did a little talk and read from a couple of his books. I'm pretty sure his voice could put me to sleep in a thunderstorm. He even signed my copy of Good Omens with "Have a nice doomsday", which reminds me... Any Terry Pratchett fans here? I'm also going through two huge books of Arthur Conan Doyle and H.P Lovecraft and I really, really need to get around to reading Neuromancer, I've been meaning to for weeks.

...SIX. SIIIIIX. :bouncy: I'm sorry what? Speak up I can hardly hear you :lol: Okay how about this, these are the Fantasies I own, and I haven't played any of them in ages... so help me decide, pls? From right to left, I, II, IV, V, VI and VIII I mean seriously, how do I choose between those awesome covers? I know they're not indicative of the game but guuuwhh :cactuar:

I can barely stand 4 hours, but let's see... Finally completing The Last of Us? Loading up Final Fantasy XYZ? (But which one between I and VI?) Read a book. Maybe complete 485968 other games I tend to forget about. Feed my cat. Learn how to play FFVIX (I still don't know how materia works or crafting). Drool over FFXIV screenshots. Play with SweetFX on the benchmarks. Hibernate. I think that just about sums it up.

Wow okay, that was far more awesome than I was expecting

So many cool screenshots, makes me miss the game already. You can change that keybind, actually. Change the 'disable hud/ui' keybind to something besides scroll lock (I personally use ctrl+shift+h). You should do the same thing with the screenshot keybind (or remove it entirely) so that you don't have to deal with taking two screenshots at once (which can waste disk space and also causes a bigger stutter). Good to know, thank you and I'll get right to it! ...next week :C Also contributions to the thread Gods. This is Logan /smirk Chocobos are awesome :chocobo: Marauders, they fight on the sea... and in the sea, right? I took this half an hour before the end of the beta, seemed kinda fitting :3

I swear I saw Isilme Turuphant too, but you know, being Lominsa, it's hard to tell through the wall of carbuncles.

SweetFX. I'm using these settings. They're pretty extreme at times, but I like what it does to metal textures. Aghh! I'm so sorry, I totally forgot to say thank you for this. I downloaded it the other day but couldn't get it to work, despite it running fine in the benchmark. I finally fixed it though and the results are really nice! And by fix, I mean that I actually put it in the same directory as the game exe and not the boot exe... :cactuar: Anyway it looks great, a few simple tweaks really adds some depth to the game and I just wish that taking in engine screenshots/disabling the UI also didn't disable the SweetFX... because it's a pretty damn sweet effect.

So I found a nice quiet place to myself... EDIT: Reminds me of Balamb.

So this is definitely a first impression from myself, having not experienced XI, XIV 1.0 and the previous betas of XIV: ARR. The first time I got to play was Friday morning before the servers locked up. Although after reading a ton about ARR, seeing various videos and spending hours on the character creator and benchmark beforehand, I was really excited to get started. I can say without a doubt that excitement still exists. Games such as WoW really burned me out of traditional MMORPGs and I never really got into Terra or other games, I figured since then that I wouldn't find another RPG which I would find fun or be drawn into. However there's something about this game that has me really feeling it, but I'll break it down to categories to help my thoughts or this whole post will be a jumbled mess. Combat: I'm really enjoying it, I love the combo system and that enemies can perform area attacks which you have to move away from. I mean it's enough to keep you on your toes and thinking without being overwhelming and it makes combat feel a bit more dynamic. Also the Fates, Guildhests, Guildleves and hunting log are really good, quick distractions that isn't "quest number 2984". Visuals: Yeah we all know it all looks good, I can't really say more than that. I'm liking the design style a lot though and I felt truly badass when I received my first full set of matching armour. Combat also looks pretty spectacular and I can hardly see the enemies in Fates because of the huge amount of rainbow bleeding in from your eyes to the back of your skull, which should be a bad thing but it's quite awesome to gaze upon. Sounds: I spent 10 whole minutes renting a :chocobo: just to listen to the song. I'm also really liking the environmental ambiance and location songs, they really put you in the mood. It's just a shame the sound jitters a lot when the area is busy. Feels: The last FF game I played was XII and I have to admit that XIV reminds me somewhat of that, partly because of the art style and partly because of (from memory) the gameplay is similar at times. Regardless, although I didn't feel it at first, XIV definitely feels like an FF to me now, I just had to get into the world proper (or ride a :chocobo: ). I have to say though the NPC dialogue is amazing in Lominsa, the "shites" and "arses" were totally unexpected and I never, ever expected to see "colder than a dead whore's crotch". Certainly makes me feel like I'm in a port city (just like the one I live in IRL) and I don't know if vulgarity gives NPC character, but it definitely makes me read what they have to say out of shear amusement. So there's already a ton more I could say but this is already too many words. I mean all the time I'm writing this is all the time I could be playing, which I definitely will be doing for the foreseeable future. I just wish it performed better on my computer, it definitely isn't running as fast as the benchmark. But I'm hooked and that's all there is to it really.

I finally noticed one of you in game, Nel Celestine But only because Nel said "hello" in chat and I spent several minutes looking around all over Lominsa while checking these forums just to be sure it was the same Nel. Being bad with names, plus having a terrible memory, and usually complete unawareness of my surroundings aren't probably the best attributes for spotting you guys in game.

So I've not played FFXI or FFXIV and this is my first chance to play the beta. All I can really say is, so many good feels, especially after riding a :chocobo: for the first time (I literally spent the whole ten minutes running about humming the song) Anyway, after finally getting a full set of matching armour, I feel kind of epic. p.s @Zyrusticae, what program did you use for that lighting effect? I saw it posted somewhere ages a go and I can't for the life of me remember what it was.

Limsa Lominsa here too, enjoying the sea breeze and gentle slaughter of the local wildlife. Although I'm also partly redecorating, so I've had to go AFK for various lengths of time.

Okay so I finally registered my character to the Balmung server, the best part? When it came up as successful my character jumped for joy just as I was all "YES!". The feels. Now it's just a case of getting the error when I try to log in with my character...

Same here, I believe this is my fourth or fifth attempt to create my character now only for the server to be all "lol no". Tried Virgil's fix too.

Well I did have the problem of the game not recognising my mouse to distract me for five minutes, but thanks to Guns of Icarus having the same problem last week, I quickly realised it was detecting my controller and quickly fixed the issue. Now I just have to wait to login... :chocobo:

I don't want to feel like a "princess". ;; Blargh, I say. Hahah me neither... that is why I am playing a commoner roegirl that isn't very feminine. But I still want a unicorn mount! You'd think a horse that has a giant freakin' horn on it's head, perfect for impaling any fool to get in your way, would be more suited to some kind of knight or warrior riding in to battle. But maybe that's just me, I mean, if you've played TES: Oblivion, you learn not to mess with Unicorns.