First ImpressionsFollow

Respect your opinion but....

Give it another 5 levels.

Post level 10, you have to start learning mob weapon skills so you can avoid them. Your own skills need to be considered otherwise you will not kill optimally and around level 15 some of the class quests and main quests (certainly for Uldah, cant speak for others) start to get very difficult. It is dumbed down, it is easy, but persevere. Yoshi-P himself said that he was going for an easy entry experience for new players, but it does get better. I am really enjoying THM after not enjoying Glad during beta 2, so give that a try and see if you get on better with it.

Homeboy, the day people start judging a combat system based on standard encounters is the day I quit playing MMOs. Get real.

I love the game and my argument was not against it.

Herein lies the issue. As I have said before, I'm reserving judgement about XIV until the launch version hits and the game is considered market ready, but I think it's fair to express concern. The early to mid game does not yet support the idea that combat has enough room to expand into something that, in your own words "will be far more complicated than you may think".

The warlock combat rotation you listed above has much more elasticity to it than XIV's battle mechanics will allow thus far. Any and all of the points of that rotation which are reactive are triggered by a number of situations that require much more than adjustments to abilities. The same synergy doesn't seem to exist in XIV as it does in WoW. That is to say, there may be clear advantage for choosing an ability or an order of abilities; however these choices don't yet exist as a result of having to make other choices. In most any game, there is a synergy between several of the abilities of your class that would suggest a clear path to maximizing DPS.

Example:
'Ability A' reduces the mob's resistance to 'ability B' which amplifies the damage of 'ability C' which adds a debuff that extends the duration of the damage over time effect of 'ability D' which shortens the recast of 'ability E' which reduces the MP cost of 'ability F' which refreshes the effect of the debuff from 'ability A'.... so on and so on.

This isn't a bad thing because it keeps a player focused and managing several things at the same time for their character. SE seems to have some of this in place already, but there isn't much accounting for other elements like team and environment. It is these details that I feel are important and will be much more difficult to implement in such a short amount of time. Not only that, but I also feel that they need to be addressed simultaneously rather than piece by piece. Instead of just doing something because it has an effect on the other, the example you used for WoW could create the situation based on multiple things that are not all ability related.

The easiest example I can think of; certain battle mechanics which require movement disrupting rotations that use channeled spells. The most common rule in WoW: BC "Do not stand in the ******* fire!". Simple design and pretty common sense reaction that isn't game changing on it's own, but becomes more of an actual decision than reaction when you pair it with other elements of combat.

Add a teamwork element to the same example:

Did a member of your party apply some sort of debuff that increases your damage temporarily? If the debuff is up it might be worth it to try and withstand the damage... Are you close enough to the support that is giving you an aura which reduces your fire damage taken? If not it may not be worth it, but... could it be worth it if your healer has enough MP to keep you up if you do decide to bathe in the flames anyway? Are they in range to heal you? Will forcing them to reposition if they are out of range put them in danger? Does it have adverse effects on other members of the group? In essence, it's a single challenge that forces a myriad of decisions that all dynamically impact each individual player, the group either in part or as a whole and possibly even the environment all at the same time.

tl;dr

It's one thing to have a wipe to a boss in a raid because someone missed a stun or interrupt. Been there, done that. It is something completely different to be able to manipulate your surroundings (team or environment) at a critical point in battle in such a way that if several other members can respond and react properly, creates a gambit. In some cases it could even be a gambit not realized until much later in the encounter. Creating challenge that doesn't feel artificial (ie gear check, tank and spank, rage race, ect) takes quite a bit of time to set in motion but is much more rewarding in my honest opinion.

I seem to recall all my fights in FFXI were basically CTRL-1, F8, ENTER, CTRL-2, F8, ENTER, ALT-3, F1, ENTER, CTRL-1, F8, ENTER... (I was a caster, usually).

At least 1-2-3-1 sounds easier on my hands.

From levels 1-25, the most I remember doing is auto attacking until my TP was high enough to use an ability. That's it.

Having 1-2-3 to press on trash mobs in the early-mid levels sounds 100x more engaging then FFXI's old combat system atleast.

Some people have a funny idea what a "Standard encounter is."

Solo play?

Party Play?

Leve?

Guildhest?

FATE?

There are too many variances on the 'standard' to call attacking a field monster anything of the sort. The 'standard' in this game is playing its content. Not walking up to something and stabbing it multiple times and calling it boring.

The reactions in the Beta thread is positive, including many of those who were negative about phases 1 and 2. My Guild's FFXIV chapter hit record high activity last night alone and the reactions there was overwhelmingly positive among a crew that was once so negative that the Chapter was naught but a ghost town with a handful of stalwarts. And many of them are FFXI veterans as well.

My own personal experience is that the battle curve has sharpened just a tad, especially in the main quest fights. And yes, I've heard people doing call outs about the level 15 quest. I'm not quite there yet so I'll make my impressions later.

I want to be frank. People who are bored are playing the wrong class for them. Each class plays differently and has a vastly different feel to them. Especally CNJ to THM. Field monsters are easy, but they are literally designed to be as such, so that gripe will fall on deaf ears.

Environment wise... wow. Go to Limsa during sunset or sunrise. There was a lot of heart put into the scenery in this game and it shows. Out of all locations the dullest of them all is Ul'dah. Which, you know, it's a desert. If you want some stunning scenery in that location go north.

Also, there's quite a few callbacks to FFXI here, including a few beast-men tribes who've decided to make new homes here.

Has anyone done a FATE yet?

Nobody has access for 1.0 characters yet so we can't answer the first question yet. The differences in the storyline between Survivor and New character.

And yeah. I've done a few FATEs. They're easier to get involved into now, and heee, the music for the NM ones is catchy.

If you didn't delete your character, s/he'll carry over.

I'm wondering if they're going to take the "everyone blacked out, nobody remembers" approach. Like, perhaps even your character doesn't remember what happened.

Honestly, I'd prefer that if you didn't make it to cap that they just let me keep my name and reset everything else. Honestly, I don't see why they need to storyline the fact that their game was badly made. I get that they like story, but this just feels very odd.

Let's see here. . first impressions. . . . [PC]

My first impression is that they need to do with account management and payment processing what they did with XIV. I almost bailed before getting the beta client downloaded over the headaches I had yesterday. I had no issues registering a beta key or getting into my account to change passwords and verify username, and it STILL took me 3 hours to log in enough to download the beta client. That much trouble just to give you a second chance? That's asking a lot from the 21st century ADD generation.

It's a really good thing they had "free" thrown in there.

So I get the client installled, hit character creation screen. Hardware mouse cursor, speed feels right

. . . Wow, the mouse actually feels correctly setup! I guess they got at least ONE thing right. . .

oh yea, character creation! I thought it was decent in 1.0. Experiencing ARR, I realized how wrong I was, and considering Character creation was about the best part of 1.0, I figured it was either a great sign of things to come. . . or I was experiencing the high point of ARR.

So I held my breath, chose a server, and dove in.

Storyline time (no spoilers)

Ok, storyline makes sense, a complete 180 spin from 1.0. Everything I expect from a FF title: Gripping, visually stunning, linear and comprehensive without really giving you the 'big picture'.

And then I get control of my character.

Movement: looks like FFXI, feels like WoW. Character movement does not feel sluggish at all, and I approve of this. I hit the spacebar and I jumped. I almost smiled a little. Jumping animation makes the Taru Lalafel look like they're doing jumping jacks, but I digress.

Quest system:

Almost flawless. graphical icons segregate storyline quests from standard quests extremely well. quest tracking implemented, comprehensive, and well thought out. . except for when the quest destination is in a separate zone, especially if you're new and don't know your way around. I'm almost starting to be impressed in spite of myself.

Fate:

Someone complained it was like RIFT, which they disliked. You can compare it to that, but I much prefer to compare it to miniature versions of FFXI's campaign system. It works, it breaks the monotony of standard quests, gives out decent XP yields [granted, I'm only level 10, so this may change]

I don't want to admit it to myself, but I'm secretly thinking that the redesign team are NOT another bunch of clueless id10ts puffed up over their own importance over working for superior Japanese gaming company.

Combat:

I started a conjurer. I'm level 10. It takes 2 solid seconds to cast stone, and then there's a GCD reset.

I'm ok with this. It feels like XI, and I always liked the slower "tactical combat" feel. If you've never played XI, it might frustrate you.
Aero is an instant cast DoT, stone imparts a gravity affect. . . starting to think the redesign team is actually COMPETENT!

Overall gameplay:

Combining all the above, I grudgingly admit that the redesign team has built something worthy of being released. It may actually be worthy of the Final Fantasy title. The interface is intuitive and easy to manipulate, the areas are open, the quests exist are engaging.

in short: My biggest and only real complaint is the account management system, which has NOTHING to do with ARR by itself [though it still has a huge impact on experience, which is why I specifically included it] if you're asking yourself: "Should I give FFXIV another chance", the answer is

ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you're asking yourself: "Is it worth paying a monthly fee to play"?

I'm still undecided on that one. I haven't actually had to deal with repairing or crafting yet, it APPEARS as if there is an AH [I haven't really been following development] but if that's the AH it needs organizational work. I haven't experienced party or instanced dungeon play, though if combat continues it's "XI" feel, *I* will be satisfied [personal preference]

Parting thoughts:

Ps3 support is a big mistake. I hate consoles anyway, but the Ps4 is around the corner. Limiting the PC version of the game to 7+ year outdated console hardware is not a good tactical move ImO. The flip side is that the game doesn't look BAD, and my system barely gets warm running it, but I want to see them add MORE, and when MORE is limited by such a relatively low common denominator I get sad ; )

I REALLY wanted to hate what they did. I was bitter over 1.0, and it consumed me to a greater extent. As much as i want to hate it, it's solid, it's fun, and I'm having a good time.

Hopefully as I get deeper into it and actually read up on development and imminent content it'll get exponentially better. If it doesn't, though, It's still solid to rest on what it currently is.


----------[If you read that whole post, you're nuts]