FFXIV, a brief Review Request

[Zason]

So, I missed out on Beta, and I do not think they will offer trials any time soon.

 

I am looking for some feedback on the game, the good and bad.

 

I am on the fence considering I have limited time to play. However I am an avid lover of all things FF. With that said, I never really played FF11 to speak of. I hoped on a friend's account one time to have a looksee.

 

It seems interesting, but what makes it fun? What sets it apart from the other MMOs? What is similar to others.

 

I could read reviews (which I have) but I want some personal opinions from fellow RPers. >:+)

 

"Z"

[Chveya]

PROS:

 

- It's beautiful.

- You can utilize every class in the game, in any combination you please, all on the same character

- Gathering professions are more than just mindless point-and-click

- Crafting actually has a level of skill (and intuition) required

- Character creation is too addictive

 

CONS:

 

- It'll eat your system if you haven't got a good one.

- You can go nuts with classes, but your stat allocation still needs to be kept in mind

- Gathering can be a little... random

- Crafting will make you want to throw something heavy at your screen at least once

- Character creation could have a little more customization. Hello, not everyone is a size 2!

[Asyria]

That has to be the fairest Brief Review ever.

[Hayden]

Pro

 

-The game is Fun. To put it simply.

- The Game is engaging. It grabs your interest and holds it. Good story, well put together world. Reaslistic.

- Beautiful. Can't state that enough! Detail. From the characters emotions, facial expressions EVERYTHING. They really worked hard ot make this game awesome.

- You can Solo, and I like that.

- Guild Leves are a nice change. I enjoy them

- The game encourages you to be a jack of all trades and that appeals to me. You have to mine to get what you need to smith to build the components to make your armor. Or leatherwork, you really need to take advantage of the many DOW, DOL, DOH and what not.

 

Con

 

- The biggest Con for me is the Square Enix Downloader/updater. It is highly ineffecive. It works Randomly for some people, awesome for a few, and not at all for most. I spent 3 days trying to download the Beta and only for 25% done. 45 min I was able to utorrent it all. When my CE copy came it took 3 hours to ATTEMPT to download the patch and only got 15%. I was able to utorrent EVERYTHING there in 10 min. No question about it, I should be able to depend on the GAME's built in update system. With FFXIV you can't. It fails on an EPIC level and I dare anyone else to argue.

 

- There are a lot of Bugs. The game is only a few days old so these bugs will probally be fixed. I found it hard to get a party going and a few of us had to restart the game.

 

- The market Ward system is sloppy and will leave you Frustrated. It is difficult to FIND what you need by simply checking everyone's bazaar. It's just messy. 1 hour looking and I still couldn't find what I wanted. When I finally DID find it, I had no idea if the price he was asking was fair...since I had NOTHING to compair it to.

 

- The Payment System is sloppy and complicated. Not as bad as some may lead you to believe. But I found it bothersome. Do-able, but bothersome.

 

- There are various little things that you might find bothersome, Leve cooldown time, exp limmit's and such. But thats a matter of opinion.

 

OVER ALL

 

The game is amazing, it's fun, it's beautiful and it's deep. You'll enjoy it. This ain't WoW this is a whole new category of awesome.

[Zason]

I like new levels of awesome!

 

I played WoW for a while, even worked for their ingame customer support. Hate it. I am more the UO generation.

 

They kind of game I would easily assimilate to is the sandbox style, with player housing/cities and the like. There have been some promising MMOs that failed on this concept. /sigh

 

So, I can be any class, but if I set my stats a particular way, I will only be good in a class that uses those boosted stats? I usually stick with one character and would hate to mess it up.

 

What would be a good multiclass with the Thaumaturge? I usually like to tank or play niche/utility classes that allow for me to be creative.

 

I know it is PVE focuesed, but what of any PVP elements?

[Xzenivar]

They've said there will be PVP in the future, but are working on it still.

 

A good combo for Thaum, first thing that comes to mind is Conj, and if you like tanking then you'll want a mix of Glad and perhaps some Marauder.

 

As for stats, its kind of like that, but the physical stats all work well for for DoW and casting stats are the same for DoM. But tanking I'd say Vit then a balance between STr and Dex, its good to keep in mind your style of combat.

 

For casting, what kind of magic do you want? Attacks,Debuff, buffs, healing? Int will increase the power of your attacks, while Pie will boost your accuracy. Mnd gives more MP and supposedly( I haven't tested it myself in retail) boosts your healing magic.

 

Character concepts are supremely useful here, not just for rp, but for mechanics as well.

[MereLee]

I am on the fence considering I have limited time to play.

 

No worries with having few time to play cuz you can do your 8 leves in a couple of hours and catch up with those who did theirs yesterday. They gotta wait 2 days or so to get a new set of 8 anyway. Although Levequests are only a more efficient way to level up, not the -only- way to level up.

 

So, I can be any class, but if I set my stats a particular way, I will only be good in a class that uses those boosted stats? I usually stick with one character and would hate to mess it up.

 

You can reset part of your points and re-distribute as you need. If you need to reset more points, you gotta wait about half hour or a bit longer (I haven't take the time yet). I personally like to hit the "Reset" button when I know I will be in town for a while, so when my party is ready for leveling again -- and if I decide to change class -- I might be able to reset a few more points and then re-distribute accordingly to my new job.

[Zason]

Ah, so there is a stat reset of sorts.

 

So I can experiment without permanent damage to my very special main character? I like that!

 

I am at the precipice, looking over, about to fall head long into FFXIV love. haha.

 

I was thinking something Theu/Lancer or Theu/Pugilist. Is that feasible or just a dream?

 

"Z"

[Xzenivar]

Thaum/Lancer seems a fairly popular choice, on FFXIVCore.com there is a guide to making that combo. You may want skills from other classes as well, but really its all viable.

[Zason]

Ooo! Guides!

 

Om nom nom nom!

 

 

((Thank you))

 

"Z"

[Xzenivar]

:lol: Anytime

[Chveya]

That has to be the fairest Brief Review ever.

 

Well thanks. I tried to stay away from "This is awesome!" or "This sucks!", because I know awesome and suck are relative.

[TeeBeeDee]

I totally agree with the Pro comments made, but I'd like to add some more Con:

 

The world feels very empty, This is especially true in Ul'dah where you can literally walk for miles before seeing anything other than a rock. Mobs are repeated. A lot. And finding things that are somewhat around your level is a excercise in futility as many times the mobs that are just the right level for you will share spawn points with things that either waste your weapons durability or kill you with a strong glare.

 

Leveling up your ranks is essentially spamming you're basic attack over...and over...and over. Unfortunately the system favors repetition over efficiency so if you know that you can kill that squirrel in one massive fireball of doom due to your stat allotment and its elemental weakness....then the fireball of doom is the LAST thing you want to cast as you wont get jack for skill points.

 

Advice: If you are planning on playing on a gamepad the default key mapping is horribly limited, especially given the games lack of accurate targetting. I'd suggest picking up a 3rd party mapping program such as Pinnacle Game Profiler (30 day free trial, $20 US to purchase) or Switchblade Pro ($2/month license fee) I've also heard good things about Xpadder but I havent used that myself.

Anyway, the point of this is to remap the keys the way you want, including mapping traditional mouse controls to one of the analog keys and using a "Switch" trigger to make them do different things depending on if the switch is held down. To give you an idea, I used to do this in other MMOs that werent gamepad compatible and on a regular xbox controller I got 36 button combinations to work. You can also use both the program and the default gamepad controls, if you're sneaky.

[Freyar]

Pros

[*]Beautiful World and Scenery

[*]Interesting and Mildly-Addictive Crafting

[*]Interesting and Addictive Gathering

[*]Easy Access to All Jobs/Classes/Etc.

[*]Easy Mix-and-Match Job Abilities[/list:u]

 

Cons

[*]Noticably Repeated Landmarks

[*]Terrible "Targeting" Algorithm ("Tab Targeting")

[*]Severe Combat Latency

[*]Aggressive Mobs Spawn On Players[/list:u]

 

Pretty simple list so far. I might expand on it later.

[Satisiun]

• [*]Aggressive Mobs Spawn On Players[/list:u]

 

Ah? So are aggressive monsters no longer given any sort of pre-aggro grace period before they notice and attack someone who they spawned on top of or within their aggro zone, as was the case of XI? Shoddy bit of programming and unfairness, there.

[Freyar]

• [*]Aggressive Mobs Spawn On Players[/list:u]

 

Ah? So are aggressive monsters no longer given any sort of pre-aggro grace period before they notice and attack someone who they spawned on top of or within their aggro zone, as was the case of XI? Shoddy bit of programming and unfairness, there.

 

Yeah, I've been smacked upside the head a number of times by inopportune spawns by these freakin' fish that live outside of water. They spawn, and hit me before I can even see them on the map or in front of me.

[Tadir]

Noticably Repeated Landmarks

 

 

People need to start leaving this off lists. Really... That's how the industry works. Especially with seamless zoning. There just isn't time to model all that terrain. If people really think it's that much of an issue go look at ANY OTHER MMO EVER MADE. It's always done because it's necessary if you ever want to make a deadline. Holding it up as a con is like holding up the fact that there is a skymap is a con. Yes, they could model out every single cloud and set up the world so it randomly spawns them in the sky, but that would take way more time than they have.

[Zyrusticae]

Not to mention the real-world has a high tendancy for repetition. In fact Limsa Lominsa appears to have far more topographical variety than any real-world island plain I know of...

[Chveya]

I'd rather have a few rocks repeated than the awful trees from back in the EQ days. Anyone remember those?

 

 

But srsly. Textures, models, and objects get repeated. It happens everywhere; and not just in MMOs. It's just how the industry is. The world may not seem huge, but when you think about how long it would take them to individually sculpt a different tree for every.. single.. tree. And then again for rocks. And then again to make sure this hill doesn't look like that hill.

 

That stuff takes time. And money to pay the designers. We'd never have a game if they did that.

[Freyar]

Noticably Repeated Landmarks

 

 

People need to start leaving this off lists. Really... That's how the industry works.

 

I disagree. While I can (to some extent) accept repeated terrain, the degree to which these landmarks repeat themselves in one journey is distracting and less immersive. Is it a major problem, not really. But it's still a problem.

[Tadir]

It's not like they are using a random terrain generator. Every polygon of every surface that you can see in the game is made by hand. Do you have any idea how long it takes to do concepts, model, unwrap, texture, normal map, shadow map, place and size every single object? If terrain weren't reused you would never get a game.

[Freyar]

It's not like they are using a random terrain generator. Every polygon of every surface that you can see in the game is made by hand. Do you have any idea how long it takes to do concepts' date=' model, unwrap, texture, normal map, shadow map, place and size every single object? If terrain weren't reused you would never get a game.[/quote']

 

I understand that, Tadir. However you seem to still be dismissing my point that these landmarks are still too frequent. On my way down from Gridania to Uldah, I see the "ramp" to higher points in Shroud three or four times. They're so different that they're easy to remember going through which makes them seem like they are overused rather than providing a more natural bit of terrain.

 

We're in procedural terrain and detail generation these days and while I don't expect MMOs to use it, I don't expect patterns to be the whole of the map.

[Gossamer]

I honestly haven't noticed any bothersome repetitions in my journey. Then again, I'm the type who only spots this sort of thing if I'm actively looking for it, which I tend not to, so.... ^^;

 

Perhaps people are just noticing more of these repetitions because the zone/region maps are just that much bigger then what I've seen elsewhere in MMOs? I mean, in FFXI we had smaller but (for the most part) more unique zones. So far here, I've only seen a few different landscape styles, but they're a whole lot bigger.

[Chveya]

Noticably Repeated Landmarks

 

 

People need to start leaving this off lists. Really... That's how the industry works.

 

I disagree. While I can (to some extent) accept repeated terrain, the degree to which these landmarks repeat themselves in one journey is distracting and less immersive. Is it a major problem, not really. But it's still a problem.

 

I don't even notice it. And I've fully run to and from all three cities.

 

In my opinion, it's New Car Syndrome. You never see anyone with the car you just bought before you have it; but now that you're aware of it, suddenly they're everywhere.

 

Those landmarks that aggravate you so aren't massively noticeable to people who aren't deliberately looking for them.