synaesthetic

A short guide on how to find the best Free Company, in three easy steps! 1) Point your browser of choice to unity-arr.enjin.com. 2) Click on the "Recruitment" tab. 3) Fill out the application! 8-)

Every single game most certainly does not have this limitation. RIFT allows you to use any piece of gear, regardless of level or whether you can equip it or not, in the wardrobe tab. SWTOR has Adaptive Armor, which changes its armor class (but not its appearance) to the heaviest one that your particular class can use, allowing tank-Jedi to wear mage-Jedi robes and vice versa. DCUO doesn't have this restriction, either, allowing you to use the appearance of any item you've obtained during your playtime, whether you still have it or not. So no, I cannot wear any piece I want. Because I want to wear the Alchemist lab coat while fighting Twintania as a summoner. Because I want to combine the Foestriker body and armored boots and gauntlets on black mage to make a battle-wizard outfit. Because I want to mix and match sets to make more outfits so I don't look like a clone of every other goddamned black mage or summoner or scholar or warrior or bard. As it stands, all that this glamour system, with its ridiculous limitations, is going to allow me to do is to make sure my sets match even when I'm using pieces from multiple sets. All it'll really let me do is get rid of that ugly BLM robe. It won't let me get crazy creative with outfits, farming dungeons left and right for pieces, leveling crafting jobs to get their AF, buying lots and lots of various bits of gear from crafters (isn't this the entire point of the glamour system? to help crafters?), playing around with the system to take loads of screenshots while burning through glamour prisms at a rate best described as scary--all the while funneling gil toward crafters who are desperate for any sort of relevance. I won't be doing any of that. I'll maybe buy a handful of them, get rid of that horrible face-hiding BLM robe and sort out my outfit so it's not mismatched. Then I probably won't use any more until I get new gear. Imagine how much of my gil I would have redistributed to crafters if they had not totally hobbled and utterly crippled this system.

It's still an arbitrary restriction, however this is arguably the more minor gripe. The real big stupid one is that it's restricted to only what your class can equip. That's silly. It tremendously limits the possible outfits we can construct, especially for Disciples of Magic. Tanks will be able to use basically everything and the casters will get to use nothing but cloth. This also leaves out the extremely attractive DoH artifact armor sets, which are all varied and interesting and could easily be used to create some really visually striking outfits when combined with other sets from other armor types. There's absolutely no logical reason whatsoever to limit the costuming system this way. It's totally and completely arbitrary. There are no technical issues that would cause this limit, since all races can play all classes and they all share the same animations, anyway. This limit is just as ridiculous as the inability to dye most dungeon sets and all artifact sets.

Reserved.

Reserved.

Indeed. MMOs are definitely services. They are built like services, billed like services and even marketed like services! When a new patch or expansion comes out, all the devs can talk about is all the new features they've added. They aren't talking about artistic vision or thematic import; they're talking about new hairstyles, new dungeons, new gear, new UI elements, etc. Which is basically the equivalent of Netflix coming out with a new software update that allows high-resolution audio, then announcing that they've added 4K videos to the 2014 release lineup. MMOs are not art and furthermore they cannot be art by definition. They are a service; an entertainment service that have far, far more in common with Netflix, Hulu, Spotify and Pandora than they do to art games like Journey, ICO, Shadow of the Colossus or Okami.

The perfect MMO... Take Final Fantasy XIV and give it: TERA's active-avoidance full-collision combat GW2's living story and gear-agnostic PvP SWTOR's heavy story emphasis in questing (dialogue options plz) WoW's exceptional raiding/end-game design RIFT's... well, everything cool from RIFT, but especially its costuming. plus... - rebalance for a six-player party size. - add a true support/hybrid role and rebalance bard for this purpose (more MP, cross-classes from CNJ and MSK, songs have greater effectiveness, lower overall damage). - add musketeer/MSK and its associated jobs, corsair/COR (damage) and machinist/MCH (pet-based support). - add fencer/FNC and its associated jobs, mystic knight/MYS (tank) and red mage/RDM (support). - add nomad/NMD and its associated jobs, thief/THF (damage) and blue mage/BLU (support). - add more alternate role jobs to other classes... marauder: berserker/BSK (damage) gladiator: dark knight/DRK (damage) pugilist: dancer/DNC (healing) archer: ranger/RNG (damage) lancer: defender/DEF (tank) thaumaturge: necromancer/NEC (support) conjurer: geomancer/GEO (damage) - allow classes much more freedom in what they can use as cross-class actions in order to bring them more in line with jobs in terms of power. remove cross-classing from jobs entirely, and instead give them five job-specific actions to replace those missing actions; i.e. ensure that all tanks have a Provoke equivalent, all casters have a Swiftcast equivalent, for example, such as giving Scholar a spell that allowed their fairy to cast a spell for them while they cast other spells, or White Mage a spell that allowed them to cast a spell at half the cast time while moving. - scalable raid/trial sizes, 6-24 players, encounters scale in difficulty/complexity with larger raid sizes and more loot drops with more people present. - dynamic raid/trial difficulty. every wipe makes the fight just a little easier by slightly lowering enemy HP, damage, defense and attack/cast speed. - "story" mode difficulty setting. much easier, very forgiving, mechanics akin to Hydaelyn's healing on Ultima SM, drops no loot but completes quests and yields gear vendor tokens, instead of using the Echo buff. - "time-attack" mode difficulty setting for all dungeons, trials and raids. fixed raid size (6 for dungeons, 12 for Coil, trials etc, 24 for CT etc), timed runs, gear is level synced to the recommended level, no dynamic raid difficulty, yields achieves and cosmetic rewards for clearing and other challenges, all runs are scored at the end. - completely rebalance crystal tower/labyrinth of the ancients as a reasonably-challenging mid-level endgame experience, rather than the utter faceroll it currently is. dynamic difficulty will ensure nobody gets stuck on it too long. I could probably sit here all day and do this but I think I'll stop here. Suffice to say that the perfect MMO will never, ever exist because companies seem completely unable to learn from the successes and mistakes of their predecessors. Why do they all think they have to reinvent the wheel from scratch?

If anyone wonders why I still play this... "game," it's my free company. (And maybe just a bit the aesthetics.) The content is lacking and uninspired and I'm so goddamned sick to death of Twintania that I'd rather go do the dishes and clean the bathroom than go to raid. If it weren't for the people I play with, I'd unsubscribe immediately. The restrictions on this system are beyond stupid. They literally have absolutely no purpose. Arbitrary restriction is NOT a masterwork. FFS if I wasn't so broke I'd go spend a hundred bucks on RIFT's cash shop just to spite Squee and their idiocy.

Hey, you know what? Fuck you. I decide what's important when it's my money being spent. The absence of these arbitrary restrictions would not harm your enjoyment of the game IN THE SLIGHTEST. But the presence of them makes me really fucking depressed about how Squee makes design decisions--with dumb, fucking moronic restrictions foremost in mind. Is there any technical reason for this arbitrary restriction? No. Hell no. This is just dumb. It's beyond stupid. It's monumentally fucking inane. There is no logical reason why you should do this. This isn't a one-off art piece by a painter. They are a business. They produce a product. Their "artistic vision" doesn't mean a fucking thing if they have angry customers.

By this monumentally stupid logic, lalafell should not be allowed to play any jobs except spellcasters, or they should have such tremendous penalties to HP, defense and attack that they'd be totally useless in any real content. Oh, and by your logic, roegadyn males would be the only race worth playing if you wanted to be a tank and all other race/sex combinations would absolutely pale in comparison. By your logic, only one player per server should be allowed to be a Dragoon or a White Mage. There is a thing called "Gameplay and Story Segregation" as well as another thing called "Acceptable Breaks From Reality." You clearly do not understand these things.

I have fun with this game; if I didn't, I would stop playing. However, I will not be silent when I think the developers are making a boneheaded move such as this. The only way to ensure that we as customers get our money's worth is to be as hard to please as possible. Square-Enix is a business. They are in it for the money. We have to be vigilant, critical and skeptical of anything and everything they do if we don't want to get screwed over.

Limsa Lominsa seems to be where the non-RPers hang out, because I consistently see OOC chatter in /say, along with zillions of crafters (which used to spam up everything, but thankfully that's been dealt with). Occasionally I'll see a few people RP in Limsa, but the level of RP there is about the same as it is in the other PvE hangouts, Wineport and Mor Dhona (which is to say none to speak of).

Basically all I can do with this system is prevent "rainbow pimp gear" from setting in when wearing best-in-slot, by keeping my gear glamoured to match a specific set despite wearing mixed set pieces. It's a waste. It's a missed opportunity. If every piece of armor was open for every job or class combination, then we could design some really neat outfits even among the limited armor models we have. I'd personally really enjoy rocking the battle-mage look on BLM with armored gauntlets and boots combined with the Foestriker body, or the sexy labcoat-and-skirt Alchemist AF. That would be so cool, but because of this completely arbitrary restriction, I can't do that. It's absolutely stupid, absurd, ridiculous that the system would be restricted this way. For those complaining about immersion, you do know that the restriction is the same as the equip restriction. This means that warriors and paladins can run around in robes and wizard hats, but nobody else can run around in plate. That's entirely unfair. Everyone should be able to use glamours on any piece, regardless of what class it requires, so long as the slots match up. These restrictions are totally arbitrary and unfairly set in the first place since plate-wearers can wear virtually everything and DoM classes have an extremely limited pool of options to choose from. Some restrictions are to be expected; the inability to modify the appearance of multiple-slot items (Darklight cowl and tank armor, for example) with single-slot items is likely due to technical limitations in the graphics engine. The roundabout use of "glamour prisms" instead of a stand-alone vanity paperdoll tab in the character sheet has its roots in the PS3's limited RAM; the system simply cannot handle any more UI elements. But the level and class restrictions are arbitrary. They do not need to exist. They serve no purpose but to inexplicably limit the enjoyment players can derive from the system. It's completely inane. ... I'm still happy I'll be able to get rid of the face-hiding BLM robe, though.

I feel the same way honestly. When the game came out I got too caught up in PvE stuffs, trying to get my FC built up so we could do endgame content in the future and spending a lot of time clearing content. As a result, now in March I've got good PvE progress, but almost no RP progress! Now it feels as if it's just too late. All of my roleplayer friends are so far ahead of me and so involved in their own plots that I simply can't fit in anywhere. I'm left with trying to find new people to RP with and sometimes it just gets so annoying to bother I don't even really try. Edit: Another problem I should mention is that I don't like events, date auctions, light "entertainment" kind of RP stuff. My character has a plot, a story, something that's serious, brutal and deadly, and could have major repercussions for her and those she cares about. I want to find people who can regularly be involved in this story idea, some folks who really want to get involved in an epic yarn about the the lost civilization of Nym, ancient Allagan technology, Garlean spies and assassins and the aftermath of the Calamity... I want my RP in FFXIV to be like my old D&D games. I want to get into some serious epic plotting. But nobody seems interested.

Ildoo has the right of it. You've got 8 linkshell slots for a reason; use 'em. The Free Company confers benefits for raiding beyond what an LS can possibly match. I'm serious in that I'd absolutely approve your application in a second. We're so chronically short of black mages it's not even funny--we have only three BLM mains in the whole FC, one of which was asked to switch from MNK. No other job has the AE power that we do and I'm sure it'll become necessary in future content!

When I bring new recruits into Unity, we do not make them PUG their way to Turn 5 and i90 average. I can't count how many new Unity members that I've brought in, and then we helped them kill Titan HM on their first day in. If you apply and are interested in raiding, but are behind gear-wise, we'll start by bringing you to Turns 1-4 so you can absorb gear that would normally go to freeroll, vanity or simply be trashed. Other members of the FC would certainly be keen on getting you CT runs, running normal dungeons for myth, attempting EX primals on the side... TBH, it's pretty horrible that your FC expects you to catch up to them. It's much more efficient and far, far faster if they simply help you catch up. If you were to apply to Unity, that's exactly what would happen--we'd pull together and get you up to speed with the rest of the raiders in your group.

You should consider Unity. We have three Coil groups running currently, and though I don't have any plans to add more, we run them intentionally over-capacity (yes, this does mean people swap out from time to time) to make sure everyone gets a chance to go. Outside of that we have lots and lots of people who run everything outside of Coil at pretty much all hours, so there's rarely a shortage of things to do. Even though it's not specifically a roleplaying FC, Unity is full of roleplayers. We also just recently got our FC house and decorated it as a roleplaying space--I'll be setting up a thread soon to reserve timeslots to use the house for RP--so it's not the gaudy, furniture-stuffed mess that most FC houses seem to be. Anyway it sounds like the FC you're in, despite having friends in it, is kind of giving you the third wheel treatment. That's unfortunate and since they seem to be leaving you to fend for yourself (which is even more unfortunate) I think you should look into other companies. Like Unity.

Zenimax used all of the mighty graphics prowess at their disposal, all the wonderful graphics tricks and rendering capabilities of DirectX 11 to make... ... Brown World. Where everything is brown. Everything.

Thrill of Battle is best used to show the entire world (well, at least 23 other people) just how much of a bad ass motherfucker you are and take Behemoth's meteor directly to the face and survive.

Due to my experiences playing TERA, I will never, ever, ever touch a Korean MMO with a thousand-foot pole ever again. No thanks. That kind of RNG/Pay2Win crap can die in a hotel fire. An AIDS hotel. During bees week. Ahem. Moving right along. Wildstar's biggest problems: Focus on 40-player raids at endgame (fuck you, Carbine). Combat is a terrible confused mess that doesn't know whether it wants to be TERA or Guild Wars 2.

It would be a viable option if the drops were actually worth anything. Or rather, if anything in this game was actually worth anything.

At least with Square's take on "hard mode" dungeons, they actually change the layout and enemies significantly, including all-new bosses rather than the same old bosses with more HP and a few extra abilities.

My bad. It's okay, I forgive you.

People will always have a problem with what other people do. I always get some science fiction involved in my fantasy, and considering Allagan tech, there's stuff already on Eorzea that makes an 80s mobile phone look like tin cans and string.

The way I've used linkshells and linkpearls in RP is effectively like a police radio. The pearl is worn as an earring; touch the pearl with your finger and then talk and everyone with a matching pearl or the original linkshell can hear you. There are the beginnings of a future plot with my character where she, attempting to circumvent the limits of linkshells and other communications methods, accidentally ends up developing the magitech equivalent of a quantum entanglement communications device, so that plot will have a lot to do with linkshells, Garlean radios and other bits and pieces of communications tech.