Open Beta & Early Access, Live Letter 8 Discussion

[Havoc Snow]

This was cleared up on the beta forums a week or two ago, during P4 you won't be able to remake your character, and presumably not even during Early Access. The specific wording Hvirine used was "at launch." So while he may have meant to include Early Access into that, since it's technically launch for many of us, it's safe to assume you won't be able to change your name, race, or appearance until August 27th.

NOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

 

Now I have no choice but to deal with my character's sub-par appearance and embarrassing name for at least a week of game time... :cry:

 

(Btw, I take it changing race is not an option?)

You'll be able to change race, gender, clan, appearance, birth day, patron, name, and starting city all when they let us remake our characters. Basically you'll get to completely remake your character as if you were making a brand new character while keeping all of your current levels.

[Eve Malusion]

This was cleared up on the beta forums a week or two ago, during P4 you won't be able to remake your character, and presumably not even during Early Access. The specific wording Hvirine used was "at launch." So while he may have meant to include Early Access into that, since it's technically launch for many of us, it's safe to assume you won't be able to change your name, race, or appearance until August 27th.

NOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

 

Now I have no choice but to deal with my character's sub-par appearance and embarrassing name for at least a week of game time... :cry:

 

(Btw, I take it changing race is not an option?)

You'll be able to change race, gender, clan, appearance, birth day, patron, name, and starting city all when they let us remake our characters. Basically you'll get to completely remake your character as if you were making a brand new character while keeping all of your current levels.

Aside from that he also spoke briefly about one of the veteran bonuses being a character remake voucher, which he said would let you change appearance / race.

[Niteshade_Rune]

Woot, going to have to start reading through these translations between tonight and tomorrow evening after work, cant wait, its so close!!

 

Also like the brief summary i saw on the lodestone regarding the veteran reward system they are going to have. *cheers*

[Niteshade_Rune]

Holy hell, I had no idea we were getting housing! that is just, yes!

 

as if i wasnt even more in anticipation for launch, that discussion just made it worse. I'm loving that we will be seeing a Barbershop feature a bit after launch. I'll make sure to use my initial free full over appearance change to make any(if any applicable) major changes that wont be covered in the Barbershop feature and then just jump into the gorgeous Realm of Eorzea. yay!

 

some of the talk of the Grand Companys reminded me i know NOTHING about them or their styles and the gear that each has. <--some homework for me to do after work between now and next weekend

 

Also, Companions? were these in 1.0 , was that what i vaguely remember something about after a point in our story related quests we'd get some sort of follower like ally that would b able to join us on some quests?

 

On a random note : Im going to have to do a few random character starts with different classes during Open beta. Just for the sake of seeing the gear we end up in during that brief intro cinematic based on our class choice lol

[Eve Malusion]

Holy hell, I had no idea we were getting housing! that is just, yes!

 

as if i wasnt even more in anticipation for launch, that discussion just made it worse. I'm loving that we will be seeing a Barbershop feature a bit after launch. I'll make sure to use my initial free full over appearance change to make any(if any applicable) major changes that wont be covered in the Barbershop feature and then just jump into the gorgeous Realm of Eorzea. yay!

 

some of the talk of the Grand Companys reminded me i know NOTHING about them or their styles and the gear that each has. <--some homework for me to do after work between now and next weekend

 

Also, Companions? were these in 1.0  , was that what i vaguely remember something about after a point in our story related quests we'd get some sort of follower like ally that would b able to join us on some quests?

 

On a random note : Im going to have to do a few random character starts with different classes during Open beta. Just for the sake of seeing the gear we end up in during that brief intro cinematic based on our class choice lol

If memory serves, that is the same armor as will be displayed in creation when you set it to showing you in "Job" gear, so if it's just to see the gear in the intro cinematic you can do that without having to leave character creation.

[Havoc Snow]

The companion it refers to is your Chocobo. They have job specific barding you can get for them, so you can dress your chocobo up like a Black Mage, or a Dragoon.

[Fiona Swift]

At first I was a little upset seeing how Phase 4 is so far off, but good things are worth waiting for.

 

A lot of interesting stuff came out in this Live letter; the Veteran rewards look great and have a lot of use to them. Loving the housing concept art and various artwork they showed off.

 

I'm okay with that level 20 cap since it avoids people blowing through the content on a beta weekend; I don't even plan to level much at all. Mostly just test settings and look for bugs since I am working on 2 of those 3 days.

 

Loving the concept of housing! Might not be something I immediately work on but it is just another thing to do in the game which is great for RP and immersion.

 

I like the idea that people in a Free Company get some bonuses, it probably works by allowing the Free Company to unlock perks as they level up (rank up etc).

 

Only issue now is find a nice Free Company and Link Shell to call home.

 

So what do you all plan to do during Beta? Consider it official and start up actual characters and begin to let your story unfold; Or just keep it simple and test the game and specifics such as the PvP system?

[FreelanceWizard]

So what do you all plan to do during Beta? Consider it official and start up actual characters and begin to let your story unfold; Or just keep it simple and test the game and specifics such as the PvP system?

 

Interview and recruit for Mysterium, of course!

 

Other than that, try to get attuned to the Aetherytes in all three cities so I can more freely move around.

 

Since P4 is largely a stress test, I'm okay with considering it a free part of early access.

[Lren]

So what do you all plan to do during Beta? Consider it official and start up actual characters and begin to let your story unfold; Or just keep it simple and test the game and specifics such as the PvP system?

 

Get racing to 20 so that I can focus on gear and crafting >>;;

[Fiona Swift]

So what do you all plan to do during Beta? Consider it official and start up actual characters and begin to let your story unfold; Or just keep it simple and test the game and specifics such as the PvP system?

 

Interview and recruit for Mysterium, of course!

 

Other than that, try to get attuned to the Aetherytes in all three cities so I can more freely move around.

 

Since P4 is largely a stress test, I'm okay with considering it a free part of early access.

 

Yeah I think I am going to do the same and just to try and attune to all 3 major cities early. That way I can move around with just a bit of gil pre-level 15 at launch in case anything calls for it.

 

Plus I get to play "can I run faster than the level 30+ mob "

[ArmachiA]

I'm getting both Armi and Loki to 20 and their sub classes for their jobs to 15. I think I can probably squeeze out Daej and Ash too, since I won't be roleplaying at all during Beta 4 (I need to race change my characters before I can do that , the only exception is the Ball event, where I'll just be rolling a copy of either Armi or Loki and going to that)

[Salty Lake]

You'll be able to change race, gender, clan, appearance, birth day, patron, name, and starting city all when they let us remake our characters. Basically you'll get to completely remake your character as if you were making a brand new character while keeping all of your current levels.

 

So we can change everything except our character's name?  Cool!

[Adelpha]

You'll be able to change race, gender, clan, appearance, birth day, patron, name, and starting city all when they let us remake our characters. Basically you'll get to completely remake your character as if you were making a brand new character while keeping all of your current levels.

 

So we can change everything except our character's name?  Cool!

You can change that too!

[synaesthetic]

Oh, fucking wonderful. Three days? What the hell, Squeenix? What the fuck can we test in three days?

 

The preorder people whined, didn't they? They complained that Phase 4 made early access worthless.

 

Seriously, this puts enough of a bad taste in my mouth I'm almost, almost tempted to not pay for your game again, Squeenix. Look, I bought your game when it was a terrible, buggy, unplayable mess and you can't even give me early access? Seriously, screw you.

 

Yeah. Not too happy right now, especially with the level cap so low. I can't even start my Free Company during Phase 4, so by the time launch hits, the name will probably already be taken by someone else during early access.

[Miss Marigold]

What the fuck can we test in three days?

 

It's not really about testing: It's primarily meant to be a free trial. Yoshi-P said this in the live letter and has said so previously as well. The dates given were in line with my expectations.

 

Regardless, the situation is what it is. Even if I agreed with you that things were somehow unfair—which I don't—posting a bunch vulgar complaining isn't going to do anything except dampen our collective elation over the pending release. If you're so mad about this that you simply must express it somehow, please go attack your pillow or something instead!

[Naunet]

• They may allow /tell in instanced raids at some point, but they're concerned about harassment. It's not a technical issue; the feature has just been disabled. (Q20)
  

 

This is such a bullshit excuse. I'm absolutely convinced they fucked up their coding somehow and they're just using that as a hand-wave, because seriously? If they're concerned about harassment, staff more or better GMs to get ticket times low and give players a functional and streamlined report system. Cutting people off from whispers just because they're afraid people will be "mean" is idiotic.

---

I understand putting a level cap on the beta but that kind of restricts the pvp testing to legacy players. I know things won't change but I think it would have been better for them to have the cap be 30 with job quests disabled instead of having the cap be 20. I do understand time restrictions as 3 days isn't that long but wouldn't it be in their best interest to have as many people testing it as they can instead of leaving it up to just the legacy group?

What's more, people can't form their Free Companies in phase 4.

[Ildur]

It's primarily meant to be a free trial. Yoshi-P said this in the live letter and has said so previously as well. The dates given were in line with my expectations.

 

Ah, I remember the good old days, when a Beta test primary function, be it open or closed, was to test the game and not being a glorified one-time trial.

[Miss Marigold]

Ah, I remember the good old days, when a Beta test primary function, be it open or closed, was to test the game and not being a glorified one-time trial.

 

They're making no guarantees with respect to preserving user data, so calling it anything other than a beta would be rather foolish in my opinion.

[Ildur]

You only get a small portion of the content when compared to the full game, your progress might or might not carry on, and testing isn't the real focus. In the good old days, we called those 'demos'!

[Vee]

Anyone know what time on the 19th the OB ends?

[Miss Marigold]

You only get a small portion of the content when compared to the full game, your progress might or might not carry on, and testing isn't the real focus. In the good old days, we called those 'demos'!

 

I was around then too, you know!

 

Not to go on about this, but this is what Wikipedia says a demo is:

 

A game demo is a freely distributed demonstration or preview of an upcoming or recently released video game. Demos are typically released by the game's publisher to help consumers get a feel of the game before deciding whether to buy the full version.

 

This is what Wikipedia says an open beta is:

 

Open betas serve the dual purpose of demonstrating a product to potential consumers, and testing among an extremely wide user base likely to bring to light obscure errors that a much smaller testing team might not find.

 

Personally, I think "open beta" is the more accurate and descriptive of the two terms. You can call it a demo if it makes you feel better though!

[Ildur]

I'm basing my definitions of what a demo and a beta are on how they differentiate from each other on a practical basis. Wikipedia isn't an authority here.

 

Three days of testing will only show the most obvious of errors while allowing a lot of balance issues and bugs pass by. This will, more than likely, have huge repercutions on the Arcanist class, as people won't have enough time to test it properly.

The main purpose for this open beta is evidently to act as a publicity stunt and probably to test stress on the servers. Any actual testing of gameplay is just an added bonus. So it's really a demo.

[rynshun]

Read this at work on my phone. Thanks for compiling all this together. Must say though I am SUPER excited for the Housing! I want to build one of those beds in my own bedroom!

[Miss Marigold]

So it's really a demo.

 

Oh yeah? Well I think it's really an open beta!

 

Whatever. It doesn't matter! It's going to be fun no matter what it's called!

[Ildur]

Yes, it's going to be a fun demo, I agree! :lol: