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Oldschool Alpha Tester, thinking of returning...Follow

#1 Dec 25 2014 at 3:26 PM Rating: Decent
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Hello all. I've been playing FFXI for the past 10 years now. I was invited to Alpha Test FFXIV with a select few hundred people some years back. Alpha tested it, beta tested it and didn't stick around. The devs didn't listen to enough feedback, blah blah, things have changed, etc.

I was reinvited to beta test a realm reborn and did so, I just don't remember which beta phase it was? I was curious if the characters I had would still be saved on the servers I made them on and if I would still have their names. I wouldn't really want to rejoin without retaining the names I had which would probably be taken by now. I'm very sorry, I wish I could figure out which phase it was.

A big problem I had with FFXIV was the copy paste zones, I heard they fixed that but can anyone explain how? The zones were just, incredibly easy to move around in and all looked exactly the same, they were just very uninteresting. Has that changed?
What about time requirements? My days of spending 10 hours a day camping HNM's and such are over, even FFXI's current level of dedication is a bit taxing on my real life. Also, is there a lot of elitism in FFXIV?

Last question, for being there in Alpha, Beta, since FFXI, etc, do I get any sort of token item in FFXIV? I do know I bought the original collectors edition when the first version came out as well, but what about for beta testing, alpha testing or half my life on ffxi? Even some little cape with a gold star saying "SE thanks you for being retarded enough to give them THIS much of your life, here's a useless cape for town gear!"?

Anywho, thanks for any help!
#2 Dec 25 2014 at 3:52 PM Rating: Default
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Copy Pasta -
It still exists, it's just not as noticable unless you're looking for it because the zones are "themed" now, think FFXI style zones but with less to do in them. Unlike 1.x, everything worth anything is in an instance or instanced dungeon. The "overworld" is largely wortheless aside these things called "FATEs", which if you played GW2 or PSO2, it's similar to that..only not exactly random and is the actual way to progress your character besides spamming dungeons.

So the world is less copy pasted, but you also spend far less time in it aside unlocking dungeon entrences and spamming fates.

Elitism -
It exists and it's fairly high, more so than XI (some just won't admit it) - It depends on your server cluster though but it definitely exists, especially if you choose to go against 'BiS setup', as this game is vertical progression unlike XI and XIV 1.23.

You don't get anything special unless you bought 1.0 Collectors Edition you get the XIV ARR's CE for free if it's still registered on your account. The only other perk is 'Legacy' status which is if you paid for 3 total months before September 2012 when XIV went P2P. Overall if you like the generic 'status quo' MMORPGs that tend to come out the last 5 years or so..you'll love ARR, it was their intention to make a 'familiar MMORPG' and they succeeded in spades.

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#3 Dec 25 2014 at 3:59 PM Rating: Decent
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AlmightyApkallu wrote:
I was reinvited to beta test a realm reborn and did so, I just don't remember which beta phase it was? I was curious if the characters I had would still be saved on the servers I made them on and if I would still have their names. I wouldn't really want to rejoin without retaining the names I had which would probably be taken by now. I'm very sorry, I wish I could figure out which phase it was.

1.0 characters still exist, though I'm not sure about alpha or beta characters.


Quote:
A big problem I had with FFXIV was the copy paste zones, I heard they fixed that but can anyone explain how? The zones were just, incredibly easy to move around in and all looked exactly the same, they were just very uninteresting. Has that changed?

They changed the zones around a lot. They split everything into different, more diverse areas. The shroud is still a forest and thanalan is still a desert and stuff, but the areas are much different now.


Quote:
What about time requirements? My days of spending 10 hours a day camping HNM's and such are over, even FFXI's current level of dedication is a bit taxing on my real life. Also, is there a lot of elitism in FFXIV?

FFIV doesn't require that sort of time commitment. The only crazy long grind in this game is the relic weapon and that's totally optional.

As for elitism, there's always going to be some level of elitism in any online game. There's a not a huge amount of it here though.


Quote:
Last question, for being there in Alpha, Beta, since FFXI, etc, do I get any sort of token item in FFXIV? I do know I bought the original collectors edition when the first version came out as well, but what about for beta testing, alpha testing or half my life on ffxi? Even some little cape with a gold star saying "SE thanks you for being retarded enough to give them THIS much of your life, here's a useless cape for town gear!"?

1.0 characters have a neat "I survived the calamity" tattoo on their backs. Also, since you have the 1.0 CE you get that stuff as well as all the 2.0 CE items.
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#4 Dec 25 2014 at 4:15 PM Rating: Good
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Thanks for the replies folks. Kind of disappointing about some things. So I will get a tattoo on my back? And I get the 1.0 CE collectors items?

I'm just wondering if my characters will be there. How do I even check which characters I have or which would still exist? Is there also a way to check available and taken names?
#5 Dec 25 2014 at 4:20 PM Rating: Good
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Side note: I went to my square enix account management thing (which I have for FFXI) and it's showing the characters I have and on which servers. 90% of the names are blue, I can click on them and it shows the character that I made. So I'm guessing that means they still exist within the servers? My big question is, what about the characters who's names are not highlighted? It shows that I had them made on X_Server but can't click them and look at them.

Also, is there a way to check which names are available?

I'm also guessing to play I need to download the latest client? I only have my CE 1.0 and of course installed the last thing I had is the Realm Reborn Beta client, how do I get the newest client/game and start playing?
#6 Dec 25 2014 at 4:59 PM Rating: Decent
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Maybe the greyed out characters are alpha/beta characters that don't really exist any more? No idea really.

For name availability, just check the Lodestone site and do a search on the name you want. It'll tell you if a character with that name already exists, and on which servers.

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/
____________________________
75 Rabbit/75 Sheep/75 Coeurl/75 Eft/75 Raptor/75 Hippogryph/75 Puk
75 Scorpion/75 Wamoura/75 Pixie/75 Peiste/64 Sabotender
51 Bird/41 Mandragora/40 Bee/37 Crawler/37 Bat

Items no one cares about: O
Missions no one cares about: O
Crafts no one cares about: O
#7 Dec 25 2014 at 5:25 PM Rating: Good
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Yeah, I dunno either. They're all showing up on lodestone, so I guess they exist within the servers.

Big question now is, how do I get back into the game? I don't need to buy anything, right? Just, subscribe? Where do I get the client though? Again, I have had the original 1.0 collectors edition since the release date. Still sitting on my PC desk.
#8 Dec 25 2014 at 5:30 PM Rating: Good
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I think you can download the client from the website. You may have to resubscribe first though.
____________________________
75 Rabbit/75 Sheep/75 Coeurl/75 Eft/75 Raptor/75 Hippogryph/75 Puk
75 Scorpion/75 Wamoura/75 Pixie/75 Peiste/64 Sabotender
51 Bird/41 Mandragora/40 Bee/37 Crawler/37 Bat

Items no one cares about: O
Missions no one cares about: O
Crafts no one cares about: O
#9 Dec 25 2014 at 6:52 PM Rating: Excellent
All 1.0 characters were imported over. Alpha and early beta characters were not saved. I think characters in the last wave of beta testing were saved for 2.0.

Theonehio has given you the pessimist's view, so I'll balance things out with an optimist's view.

Quote:
A big problem I had with FFXIV was the copy paste zones, I heard they fixed that but can anyone explain how? The zones were just, incredibly easy to move around in and all looked exactly the same, they were just very uninteresting. Has that changed?


Yes and no. The zones are now much more difficult to move around in. The vast empty spaces are gone, but so are the stupid tunnels that connected zones, so you have zone loading in between. That said, each of the zone areas has a much more distinctive personality. The only part of the Shroud that even resembles its 1.0 self is the Sylphlands. The only part of Thanalan that feels even remotely the same is Little Ala Mihgo.

I was personally happy with the reduced world map, because the details are so greatly improved.

Quote:
What about time requirements? My days of spending 10 hours a day camping HNM's and such are over, even FFXI's current level of dedication is a bit taxing on my real life. Also, is there a lot of elitism in FFXIV?


You can easily get away with 1-2 hours every few days and still derive enjoyment. Participating in grindy content for the sake of grindy content is not really a requirement at all. SE is carefully nerfing the older content as new content is added in, and there is nothing nearly as time consuming as Dynamis or {sky}/{sea}. The biggest elitism we see comes in the form of primal EX and later Coil fights. "No bonus allowed" is a rallying cry of many pickup groups, meaning that they want someone who has already cleared the fight, under the assumption that that means they know how the fight goes. However, none of that content is required for game progression - there's a side storyline in Coil and finishing the Ex fights gets them off your quest list, but you're not blocked from the main storyline by not doing either one.

In all other content, the newbie bonus message will be greeted with cries of joy. People are still hungry for soldiery tomes (needed for iLvl 100-110 gear) and doubling the amount of bonus in some of the daily content really helps a lot. Most people will be kind and help out, especially if you get a good Free Company.

Quote:
Last question, for being there in Alpha, Beta, since FFXI, etc, do I get any sort of token item in FFXIV? I do know I bought the original collectors edition when the first version came out as well, but what about for beta testing, alpha testing or half my life on ffxi? Even some little cape with a gold star saying "SE thanks you for being retarded enough to give them THIS much of your life, here's a useless cape for town gear!"?


Imported 1.0 characters get the tattoo, and if you had the 1.0 CE that carries over to 2.0 as well. Legacy accounts (paid for three months of 1.x) also have a reduced subscription rate ($10/month) and got their character's names or real names, as desired, listed in the credits for 2.0. And a unique chocobo. Also, some 1.0 gear or items remained exclusive to that content, like the hermes sandals and the goobbues they gave away that last summer.

Alpha and beta testers didn't really get any perks. I was in alpha for 2.0 and all I got was an earlier join date on the official forums for my troubles. Smiley: lol

I would invite you to fire up your accounts and take a look for yourself. As a 1.0 player with access to your mog station account, you don't have to buy a new copy of the game (download the 2.0 client here) and you may even get some free days once you activate the 2.0 client (I think it was 7-14 free days? I can't remember.)

If you would like to hop servers and join us on Lamia, The Swarm is full of many ex-FFXI players, and we're always willing to help people progress. You can transfer one of your 1.0 characters to our server, or just create a fresh character from scratch to start. I decided to abandon my old level 40 BLM character and create a new one from scratch.

Edited, Dec 25th 2014 8:04pm by Catwho
#10 Dec 25 2014 at 7:27 PM Rating: Good
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Thank you very much for the replies and information and thank you Catwho, I'll keep your generous offer in mind. There's one friend I had from way back when I'd like to track down, if I can't find him I would probably take you up on your offer. So it'll only cost me $10 to jump back in and start having fun eh? How long would it take the 2.0 client to download and update, is it one of those "full 10 hour day" sort of things? Sounds quite tempting. Again, thank you everyone.

Edited, Dec 25th 2014 8:28pm by AlmightyApkallu
#11 Dec 25 2014 at 7:42 PM Rating: Good
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Oh and another thing (sorry they keep popping into my mind!), when I made my characters way back when, I'm not sure which are from 1.0 and which are from 2.0 beta. I know that I did play 1.0 up until right at the point they started charging a monthly fee, at that point I stopped. Does it have to be the EXACT character from 1.0? When I made my characters they were all a bit of an experiment. While I want to keep the names, their longevity wasn't expected so I didn't make them appear like I would want for the long run, heck, Male Miqo'Te didn't even exist in 1.0. I thought I remembered their being an option to change your character's appearance, race and gender completely, isn't there?
#12 Dec 25 2014 at 9:31 PM Rating: Excellent
You'll get a free bottle of Fantasia after you've paid for 30 days, I believe. That grants you one free re-make of your old character. It should keep the tattoo.

As for the client download, I've heard 2-3 hours depending on network congestion.

Edited, Dec 25th 2014 11:03pm by Catwho
#13 Dec 25 2014 at 10:03 PM Rating: Good
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Catwho wrote:
You'll get a free bottle of Fantasia after you've paid for 30 days, I believe. That grants you one free re-make of your old character. It should keep the tattoo.


I see. Is there no way to pay without waiting the 30 days? Thanks again for your help.
#14 Dec 25 2014 at 10:04 PM Rating: Excellent
I think you get it up front after paying. It was because people got 30 days free when buying the game fresh, and there's also a limited 14 day free trial (but you can't use your old account for that.)

Edited, Dec 25th 2014 11:05pm by Catwho
#15 Dec 29 2014 at 11:12 PM Rating: Excellent
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Importing a 1.0 Character gave you a one-time recreate... I still have one on one of my characters I never used. So you'll get that and a fantasia. It also allows you to change the name as well. I went from dude to chick (inspired by Sara from BoF) added a letter to my name, and then banked the fantasia. Also got another fantasia from one of the longer rewards later on that I was able to "bank" by leaving it in my mail as they are unique.

Edited, Dec 29th 2014 9:16pm by desmar
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#16 Dec 30 2014 at 3:18 PM Rating: Excellent
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You can buy fantasia in the mog store for $10 I think. I'm going to buy one with the expansion to change into a lizard.
#17 Dec 30 2014 at 4:08 PM Rating: Good
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Legacy Player who played during Beta got one Fantasia for free.

Then every player who pays for 30 days subscription gets one as well.

After that, you can purchase them individually via the cash shop.

Beyond that, there's a certain level of re-customization you can have via the Aesthetician once you unlock him with a level 15 quest. It's 2000 gil a pop after the first free one for completing the quest. Hairstyle, Hair Color, scars/marks, tatoos and face paint are all customization via this route. Eye color, Face Shape, Race/Clan, Height, etc are not.

And I think that covers the re-customization options - did I forget anything?

Edited, Dec 30th 2014 5:12pm by Hyrist
#18 Jan 01 2015 at 11:58 PM Rating: Excellent
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How do you get the one time recreate? It seems my characters have the little tattoo on their back.

Also, why do I have to level a job I have absolutely no interest in to be able to play something else? Not even hardcore FFXI made you do that. I don't want to sound like a whiner or a complainer, but unless I'm mistaken I've been told that I have to reach level 10 as my starting job which is Arcanist to be able to play as a Fisherman. I also can't switch classes until this class is level 10, which really sucks because I really don't like this class but don't want to reroll a new character... Is there something I'm missing?
#19 Jan 02 2015 at 12:18 AM Rating: Good
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AlmightyApkallu wrote:
Also, why do I have to level a job I have absolutely no interest in to be able to play something else? Not even hardcore FFXI made you do that. I don't want to sound like a whiner or a complainer, but unless I'm mistaken I've been told that I have to reach level 10 as my starting job which is Arcanist to be able to play as a Fisherman. I also can't switch classes until this class is level 10, which really sucks because I really don't like this class but don't want to reroll a new character...

You seem to have conveniently forgotten about the part where FFXI made you wait til level 30 before you could unlock most of the jobs... Just stick it out til level 10. It'll only take a few hours at most.


AlmightyApkallu wrote:
Is there something I'm missing?

Patience?
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75 Scorpion/75 Wamoura/75 Pixie/75 Peiste/64 Sabotender
51 Bird/41 Mandragora/40 Bee/37 Crawler/37 Bat

Items no one cares about: O
Missions no one cares about: O
Crafts no one cares about: O
#20 Jan 02 2015 at 1:18 AM Rating: Excellent
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Right, you had to be 30 to choose advanced classes, but you could switch between starter classes at any level, from level 1. Also, I don't really see it as a thing of patience, I just don't want to play Arcanist at all, I would much prefer to switch to anything else. Of course, if I must I must and I will. I liked the system they originally had better where you could just switch your class.
#21 Jan 02 2015 at 1:46 AM Rating: Excellent
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Also, if anyone could help me with this one most frustrating issue.

My legacy tattoo completely disappeared! It was on my character and vanished. I've not used the fantasia potions or any kind of appearance changer. I've also tried the /lmark on /legacymark on /lmark off and /legacymark off commands. I've tried doing them multiple times and in succession, nothing seems to bring the tattoo back. Even tried logging off and restarting my PC, still unable to bring the tattoo back even when using the above commands. Will I ever get it back? :(
#22 Jan 02 2015 at 1:51 AM Rating: Excellent
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The game is going to 'force' you to level a lot of classes for job unlocks and cross class skills and there's a good chance you won't like them all. If you have that much of a problem with it you may as well quit right now because it'll only keep happening.


IIRC /lmark is a toggle. No 'no' or 'off' addons needed.
____________________________
75 Rabbit/75 Sheep/75 Coeurl/75 Eft/75 Raptor/75 Hippogryph/75 Puk
75 Scorpion/75 Wamoura/75 Pixie/75 Peiste/64 Sabotender
51 Bird/41 Mandragora/40 Bee/37 Crawler/37 Bat

Items no one cares about: O
Missions no one cares about: O
Crafts no one cares about: O
#23 Jan 02 2015 at 8:24 AM Rating: Excellent
You cannot complete most quests as a fisherman anyway. 2.0 has a much clearer demarcation between "battle" class and the DOL and DOH classes.

Level 10 can be obtained in about 1-2 hours of running around. You have to do the first to guild class quests too, which are very easy. After that, the guild master gives you permission to go join other guilds. Then you can unlock fisherman.

Just be aware that you won't be able to maximize your fun on fisherman unless you also level up a battle class at the same time. That's because a lot of the fishing quests for fast leveling come from guild leves, and you have to have an appropriately leveled battle class to unlock the guild leves. This bit me back when I was racing to get fisherman up. I had to go back and level my white mage some more....

Can't say I blame you, though. Fisherman was my first class to 50 too :) It's very fun and relaxing.
#24 Jan 02 2015 at 10:31 AM Rating: Excellent
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Thanks for the replies. I plan on rolling as a DRK once that gets introduced. Until then I'll probably play some kind of melee class if need be to help with fisherman.

Tried /lmark as well without on or off, still won't bring my mark back...
#25 Jan 02 2015 at 10:58 AM Rating: Excellent
You might enjoy maurauder/warrior. It's the DPS based tank class. So you get all the fun of hitting things really hard, with all the perks of being a tank. Overpower is WAAAAAY more fun that Flash, too. I've been playing WAR for a few months now and now that I've gotten PLD to the mid 40s to compare..... yeah, WAR wins all the way.
#26 Jan 02 2015 at 2:02 PM Rating: Excellent
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Well, it sounds fun, but to me oddly enough what attracts me is the "Artifact Armor" which I have no idea how hard that stuff is to get in FFXIV. In FFXI I played DRK and PLD main for a long time and so I guess that's why I'd like to play them here. Rogue looks entertaining as well.

Another question...

I see there's a bunch of different kinds of swimsuits and lingerie. Different colors, designs, patterns. Did they ALL come from the summer event? Is there any other way to obtain them? And if not, when does that event come around? I hear I get some kind of voucher to be able to purchase one, is that the only way?
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