BroodingFicus

Going by the notice they posted here, http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/240082-Aether-Data-Center-Down?p=3052265#post3052265 there really isn't a 'plan' to fix anything. So I doubt we will see a resolution so much as its all about to get worse on the 23rd and stay bad until traffic dies on its own. Which hopefully will be within the month but I still don't feel I should pay them for an inaccessible game. I work from home and I can say I tried for four straight hours with zero results. Both times I even managed to get in a queue, the lobby error eventually booted me anyway. If we can't get on now, launch is gonna make it impossible. I also like how they say that Gilgamesh and Balmung /happen/ to be on the same data center. You freakin' put them there! They didn't stumble in there on their own. What I managed to play yesterday was great but I'm left kinda bitter when its all a matter of luck if I can play at all and for how long. Probably won't go over with new players either. You are gonna have a free week when your game isn't playable to huge chunks of people? *thumbs up* Great plan.

Agreed. Obviously they did not know those servers would become jammed originally but it seems like at some point someone would have thought to separate them. Besides, they did make the data centers after the fact. It seems like Gilgamesh and Balmung at least should have been put in different corners. I have started to dread duties though. I've leveled with the same person on every alt I have 1-50 and while I understand having instances of populated areas and try not to curse when we have to take turns teleporting in and out to get in the same one, I really hate that it splits us after duties as well. Especially since the maps are so large and we end up needing to chose between leveling alone for a while or teleporting to the nearest town to play the 'which instance are you in game' all over again. I'm not super computer literate beyond what I need for my own purposes but why the heck aren't parties kept together in the first place? Not that the instances do much good when no one can log in anyway.

In a queue too. ITS LIKE XMAS

You and me both . I'd kill for a glimpse of a queue at this point.

What's weird is that, if it's really limited to the servers using the new instancing system, this is something they could have tested without the servers going live. Seems like something is pretty fundamentally borked with the system. Behemoth is having issues too though and it does not have the instanced thing so...*shrug*

Yeah now I can't even get into the lobby. 2002 errors

Selahdis Gharl. I GOT A JAR OF DIRT I GOT A JAR OF DIRT...ok I'm done. *goes back to looking at 1014 errors* [align=center][/align]

Well something is happening at least. I couldn't see my characters but just now I was able to do my name change and get a brief flash of that little bouncing mog before 1014.

1016 and 1009 for me...which are apparently the same thing according to the error that pops up . *whines at HW's door* Edit: and 1014

Wait...I had a life? /AND/ Sanity? I was living the dream.

I can get behind you there. I have an Ala Mhigan who is in his 30's and can't write or read much beyond his own name. He has a midlander teen teaching him but I haven't run into too many others with that sort of thing either. Granted I think some races may be more literate than others. I would expect a higher percentage of illiterates among refugees and the more nomadic races like Miqo'te etc. Personally its travel that I'd like to see more of. Most of my people live on ships or travel continuously but I often here people talking about traveling very long distances in a days time (Ul'dah to Gridania etc). Maybe I'm wrong but it seems like teleporting/airships are not common use items going by the opening scenes of the game consisting of us traveling to the city by ship/cart etc. Walking, chocobos, boats and the like seem like they are more common in Eorzea for adventurers and merchants to get around. I'd like to see more people who crew ships or ferries, who travel between towns with supplies and good and the like or even just everyday adventurers on the road.

Want red and black Coeurl. BAD. Wonder where that will come from. No Au Ra naming conventions yet but many other things. Just *rattles out of chair* with excitement. Wonder how likely it'll be that a two man FC who doesn't craft can build an airship/what else you can build in there.

Then why are you arguing? Because that is exactly what we've been asking for - the jobs to be accessible once you've reached level 30 on a class. It's ridiculously easy for SE to plop NPC trainers in Coerthas outside of Ishgard. I doubt that you are taking into account the lore-wise justification of going into Ishgard. I personally love how the FFXIV developers stick to their guns, and as far as I've made it, following the MSQ has allowed things to progress in an established timeline. Instead of playing other games where entire sections are subverted or never truly explored, the game takes you along and touches each area. So some classes are locked eh? Perhaps that is because Ishgard itself will remain virtually locked with our adventurers being special snowflakes who get to come in. Until we see how Square Enix will introduce this, I find this "Shortcut the MSQ" to be a bit disturbing. New forces are being discovered in the land up North. Not in the areas we have been, otherwise we would have already found them. To find something new, one must go to the place that is new. I would hope that an RPer over all others might at least acknowledge this. No one is asking square to break their lore or subvert the MSQ. As has been said here already, moving the job quest givers outside the state of Ishgard does not have to be a huge violation of existing plot lines. At 30 a quest giver appears. Why? Any number of reasons. Thus far most of the job quest givers have been out on their own on some very specific mission where we happened to come across them. Not in a guild somewhere. Most of the jobs are technically off limits rp wise for exactly that reason. We became (insert most jobs) through very special circumstances that technically cannot be replicated by the general masses. The same could have been done here. When you really look at it, people are bothered by the fact that FFXIV is not sticking to its guns and has changed the way they did things in a way that negatively effects many individuals.

Inaccurate for some cases. Try this version: "Many people are annoyed that they may have to revisit old content, which they have already worked for, in order to access, and begin earnestly working towards, at least some of the new content, which they have paid for." I don't think people have to revisit old content, if you're already beaten the MSQ, there is nothing to revisit. If anything they're giving us a helping hand by starting the classes at 30 instead of 1. True if you plan to use an existing character at 50 who is already done up to 2.55. Not true for new players or anyone who may want to make an Au Ra without being forced to sacrifice the appearance of an old/long standing character.

Early Access Pre-order FINAL FANTASY XIV: Heavensward to play the game ahead of the official launch! * Early access is scheduled to start on Friday, June 19, 2015. Please note that there is a possibility of maintenance taking place during the early access period. * In order to enjoy the benefits of early access to Heavensward content, you need to be playing FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn and have made sufficient progress in the main scenario. As such, early access will not be available to new players who pre-order the FINAL FANTASY XIV Online all-in-one bundle and have yet to begin their adventures. * A FINAL FANTASY XIV service account is required to participate in early access. * Details will be made available when pre-order codes are distributed. http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/heavensward/#product_area Ah! Then I will rehash my stance, having been presented with the specific information I asked for. They ARE giving people some decent bits of warning. I still think "Sufficient progress" is a bit vague here, perhaps on purpose, but well played, Melkire. Yeah they are giving some warning. Probably could be done a bit better going by the amount of people who didn't notice it . I think I figured it out after the last live letter when I actually went looking for the information directly. Up until then I thought 30 was the only requirement.

Yeah. Its accepted. It isn't changing now. However, as was pointed out, this is a P2P game. I'm a huge supporter of this vs F2P but it also means they are held to higher standards and are not above criticism. Especially when the requirements being dropped on you are hugely time consuming and pointless. Everyone here supports the game and pays for their monthly subscription. Any time spent miserable for trivial reasons is a waste of money invested for the player. This discussion is not reserved to the RPC and I think it will be seen more after newer players realize it. As it should. Maybe it will change nothing and it will always be this way. Maybe not but if no one questioned design choices we would be left with a bunch of generic MMO's. What is great about this thread is people are suggesting good alternatives. It isn't simply complaining. The issue has been proven as something easily solved without damaging anyone else's experience. If any one here has hostility against that kind of talk, do take it elsewhere.

Mischaracterize much? Seriously Nat. How am I doing that? Is it not the position of many people in this thread that they should have access to the new classes in heavensward simply by purchasing the expansion? Lots of people seem opposed to the idea of finishing the 2.0 content to do so. I think that is an accurate assessment, if its wrong, someone who is complaining please clarify what you actually want. From what I have seen, myself included, most people in this thread would like the jobs to remain consistent with the already established formula for ffxiv. As in have them acquired at level 30. Everyone here thus far seems perfectly willing to complete the 2.0 content from that point on but they would like to do so as the classes they wish to be. Not everyone feels this way, especially those who plan to simply level it on an existing character and are not effected by needing to redo the whole story again to make an Au Ra/are not new and needing to level 1-50 and complete all story content as a class they do not desire. If you do not believe the current lock out to be an issue that is fine obviously. It is a lot of work to level through the MSQ and to 50. I can speak to this seeing as I have the unfortunate pleasure of enjoying alts. Gate locking the jobs however makes this chore even worse because you are forced to undertake a huge time sink as a class you don't want in order to even begin working toward having an AST etc.

Cross class is important and many people would, I think, go back and level up to a certain point in certain classes to get any abilities that might be valid (not sure if we know which classes will cross yet or not but still). However generally this is something you would be able to do on your own time. Level your main job then go back and work on cross classes while technically already being fully capable of doing content. It also seems logical to learn your actual job /then/ mix in other bits rather than the reverse where you learn how to play a WHM per say, switch to AST and suddenly lose most of those abilities for completely new ones. That said they also are locking it behind story which means unlocking the new jobs also forces you to do all the MSQ content past 50. Why not do it right away? Because unless you have a love for your class, leveling 1-50 (60? Not sure if there will be cross class skills added higher) and doing the whole MSQ to 2.55 is not likely to be an enjoyable ride. However, if you can enjoy the class you want, you have motivation to slowly work on getting extra little skills through cross classes that make you and your parties life easier. At least that's how I would see it and how I felt when I had to level Paladin for my Warrior. I hated Paladin but I did it because after playing Warrior I could see the benefit and I would work on it until I got frustrated and switched back over to overpower things in the face instead.

As was mentioned I don't think anyone did. Up until a few weeks ago I thought you had to be level 30 of an existing class to start it which I was more than ok with. I leveled a conjurer with a ridiculous name and became a white mage at 30 and then sat there with my fantasia waiting to turn him into an Au Ra and go pick up my AST job quest. It was only later, after purchasing HW, that they clarified it and everyone sorta realized the MSQ was a gate. No other job requires you to do the /entire/ MSQ. Sylph Management, a level 20 quest I think, is the doorway quest to being able to get the job quest line started. As long as you were 30 on your class and 15 on your cross class, you could go get it at that point. So continuing this tradition would actually not have altered anything at all since it is what they have been doing from the start. Which is why so many thought this is how it would be. More or less the new Jobs are just that. Jobs with no base class. It stands to reason they should start at 30, which they do...you just can't touch them because they locked the quest givers away. The only logical reason is because they are trying to keep the story cohesive but even that is flimsy. Au Ra change that, as has already been said. On top of that most of the jobs we can get already were not given to us by a 'guild'. We were special snowflakes who learned the trade from wanderers and passersby on almost all occasions that I can think of. They essentially made three new jobs but gave them guilds like classes, but kept a job like level requirement and then locked them behind the MSQ. Its all very strange. As to this set up helping anyone learn their role? It won't. People will rush through because they are not enjoying themselves. There is also no restriction that says you have to be a class of the same role. I could level a bard and then switch to AST if I wanted too. Is it smart? No. Will people do it? Yes. FFXIV is actually pretty good in my mind, at teaching you your role the way things are. It ramps up slowly if you follow the MSQ which is why it doesn't make sense for you to do it as a different class than the one you want end game. I'm not saying it is a poor design choice. I am saying it is pointless and is only causing frustration. ..also please yes. Account wide MSQ would solve so many issues because this story line is only going to take longer and longer as FFXIV continues, which I hope it does for many years to come. It also would have solved the MSQ issue for the new jobs, at least for veteran players who have kept up with the story. New players/returning ones not so much but it would have been as step in the right direction that didn't hurt anyone else.

Its been a super long time since I used this but I have not drawn a FFXIV themed thing in quite a while. However I found an old doodle of my pirate and...a few hours later this happened.

A linkshell is a chat function. No different than speaking in party chat etc only you are only speaking to the people who are in that specific link shell. Thick of it as a guild chat without the guild. A free company is just FFXIV's word for a guild. An FC can have it own house, activate perks etc.

You forgot tome caps, cross-class skills, gear lockouts, etc. FFXIV punishes you for doing everything on one character to begin with, contrary to how it's advertised. Either have one or the other, you know? I do understand what you are saying here. If someone has only one character and reaches the tome cap they are done for that week until it resets even though they may have multiple classes they need to grind for. On the other hand if that person has say a WHM as one character and a Pally as another, they can finish one and then go grind out the other. Same thing goes for gear lockouts. Its the idea of keeping someone around by giving them something to do vs keeping them around because you restricted their progress on purpose and now they have to sit on their hands for a week. All MMO's have lockouts etc...at least all the ones I've ever played. However none of the other MMO's, all of which do contain the same lockouts, hated on alts so viciously as FFXIV and I think that makes these things that are generally excused as staples suddenly much more irritating because we are noticing them in an unpleasant way. Personally it seems like the new job gating is just another example of FFXIV discouraging alts but their message has never been clear. Please do not make additional characters. We don't like it. But here is a new race...and you don't get more inventory even with all these classes to level and all the gear you have to carry around...and your tome cap is the same for all your classes...so are your gear lockouts. But please...don't make more characters...even though you are paying us for 8 slots. There are very real benefits to having multiple characters aside from just looks or RP. In the same way that it is personal choice which class/job you play or do not, it really should also be player choice if they wish to put all their proverbial eggs in one basket or not. Especially since square gave us SO MANY EGGS and is now offering shinier baskets. I suppose you can make the choice but it is frowned upon by making it a chore. It is the same chore that new and returning players will face if they wish to pick up new classes due to the restrictions set in place so maybe someone will take notice one day. Probably not but we can dream.

I think it's safe to say that you'd need to finish 2.55 before entering Ishgard during Early Access. And opening the three new jobs. Au Ra will be available from the get-go. Yep. That seems to be the way of it at this point. *pets alts sadly* If I didn't believe the MSQ should be account wide when completed before, I certainly do now. Its atrocious on replay and it isn't always great the first time through anyhow. I'd say each installment about five or six of the quests are essential and the rest are ridiculous padding where the Warrior of Light/main character is sent on stupid errands like he/she secretly had a partial lobotomy and forgot they actually had better things to do before they agreed to delay saving the freakin' world to get everyone some tea. Do it once. Done. Its replay value is 0. And if you don't want me making alts, don't give me new races. Up until now I was willing to accept that making alts was my decision and I would just have to suffer for it. But with Au Ra, there is a very mixed message here. Have a new race but oh, don't make new characters or we'll make things supremely dull for you and we won't even let you be the class you want. HAVE A NICE DAY. Suffice it to say I imagine myself in the MSQ with my Au Ra AST to be being about as much fun as laying on a bed of fire ants. *clicks angrily through dialogue*

-More nautical/pirate themed things (anchors, maps, a little bag of gil etc...maybe a fish bowl) -More properly sized tables. Some of the 'dining' tables are more like coffee tables at best. -Kitchen things. Pot rack, a pot belly stove, knife holder. I don't know. Just...things. -Completely agree with more slots. I almost would like more outside as well. Our small plot has been at its limit outside for so long that anytime a new thing comes out a tree has to magically disappear. -Not so much a 'what' as a....something else but I wish you could delete the overhead light/fan entirely and just light a room with the candles or smaller lanterns...and more candles. I've got pirates running a tavern ok. They don't do 'respectable' light fixtures.

The point was not missed. Obviously we all play for more than one reason. Most of us here RP, we have friends who play, we enjoy dungeons, PvP etc in some combination that keeps us paying monthly. However enjoying or not enjoying a class does not make an individual narrow minded and it seemed an odd thing to say personally. Fact of the matter is some people will enjoy certain roles and classes while others will not. No one is right or wrong in that thinking. It still just seems odd that the new classes are locked up so tightly while simultaneously being used as a promoting tool. I'm not certain it will drastically effect anything aside from old players who wish to level an Au Ra as the new classes without using a Fantasia on an old character and new players/returning players who have their heart set on doing that exact thing as well. *shrug* But it bothers enough people that there has been quite a bit of talk about it. We'll see I suppose. At this point nothing is changing before the release and I'll settle for waiting the the MSQ exp buff to finish leveling my WHM along the other alt making individuals out there. *lifts kilt in salute* We shall suffer together. . I think we need a mascot.