Forum Settings
       
Reply To Thread

FFXIV first impessionsFollow

#1 Aug 29 2013 at 10:33 AM Rating: Default
****
5,055 posts
I'm already expecting to be rated dow to oblivion because of my opinion, you know because anyones opinion who differs from the majority is already out of place to state their thoughts but here goes.

Server problems. Ive surprisingly not witnessed any of the issues other have so thats a good thing there.

Now as for the game itself Im only level 11 hence the "first impressions" and not "full review" part. The world itself doesnt seem very alive, sure you see lots of people running around but with little to no interaction/communication they might as well be NPCs. I mean for example in FFXI you saw a shout every 10 secs, you were basically constantly reminded that you were playing with other people. On XIV i may see one shout every 5 minutes, and thats if Im lucky. Also so far the equipment goes, it isnt very diverse. For example everything Ive seen so far says either +1 str +1 dex or +1 int +1 mnd and can be worn by all classes. Which means depending on if youre a melee or a mage, at your level EVERYONE is wearing the same thing. In XI there was like 3-5 different armor sets every 5 levels and instead of being restricted to just melee or mage, there were some only mnk/sam/nin could wear, other that wars could wear but thief could not, etc etc. So you might see every 3rd or 5th person wearing the same thing as you but it was more diverse at least, also some equipment gave stat increases, some gave no stat increase but more defense, other gave not as much stat increase, i.e depending on your job and duty you actually had a reason to individually look at each piece of equipment and determine which would be best for your situation.

While we're on the subject of stats. Just about every class is all based on the same stat i.e str increases physical damage on ALL classes, theres no stat that increases dodge rate or critical hit rate, dex is only used for ranged attacks, etc etc so if youre a close ranged melee all you have to do is stack str and nothing else. Whereas in XI every job counted on different stats to maximize their potential, i.e thfs needed dex and agi, war damage was str, rng was agi, pld had vit etc etc.

Now theres the story, so far nothings happened that makes me say "god i HAVE to see what happens next". Sure FFXI's story didnt get epic until CoP but the vanilla rank missions stories were at least INTERESTING enough that I was somewhat curious to carry on, and then at level 25 the dragon fight sealed the deal at the point i WANTED to see everything through to the end. It gave me the motivation I seeked. The last main story fight I did was against the voidsent black flying thing in Uldah when you get the crystal. I liked the fight mainly because it was "different" (as opposed to the random fetch quests and running around killing random enemies stuff i had been doing), it even had adds to deal with but I still wouldnt have called the experience great/epic maybe if they upped the difficulty and made it a party required fight I woulda had a LOT more fun. (we'll see if the level 15 dungeons are as good as everyone says).

The quest are rather bland fetch quest variety with hardly any thought and rather dull. The exp they give is fine though, which on the subject of exp leveling seems rather "trivial" for example you need 11k to level, the quests you take give 2-3k.. 3-5 quests later youve gained a level, its almost TOO easy, lvling at level 10 to 11 seemed to take no longer than going from 1 to 2.. Sometimes i noticed the mobs I kill give about 100+ exp. Sometimes I have the urge to just run around killing them and getting chains til I level to keep things interesting, but doing that solo would be boring, now if a party wanted to do it Id be all for it. The other thing i kinda dont like about quests are the ones that require killing an enemy for lets say their skins. I liked it more in FFXI where you actually had to kill them until they actually dropped the number of skins you needed whereas here you automatically get the item on every kill and its not even a normal drop (i.e you would never get/see said item outside the quest).

Now lets talk about aggro and death. Getting aggro in this game is a joke, I can outrun everything thats aggroed me without even using sprint, whereas in FFXI if you got aggroed by something and not close to a zone it was almost guaranteed death so you actually HAD to be careful and wary of your surroundings. Also in the event you do die theres no real penalty for it so you dont really care (oh noes i have to repair. -yawn-) thus I have no problem testing my strength against something 2-4 levels higher than me (which sometimes leads in victory and other times death). In FFXI you would never try something that reckless (at least not at low levels).

Now if I were to review this game, its not HORRIBLE but its not GREAT either. It may be better than 1.0 but Id never call it a must buy for any mmo lover (like i would have with FFXI back when i first got it and even now i recommend it highly). If i had to put a number on it it would be a 6 or 7 outta 10 (better than the 4s 1.0 used to get right?) which would put it at "ok" or "decent". I mean I give White Knight Chronicles 1 and 2 a 6 out of 10 too but I still spent 1126 hours each playing those games. Difference is I played those games that long because of the community and people i met/played with, whereas FFXIV has been mostly a solo experience. I could have never stomached WKC as long as I did solo (which is why i could platinum IT but not star ocean 4) so unless FFXIV picks up on the "actually playing with others" aspect soon (and i dont mean for one or two dungeons every 5-10 levels. Dont say FATEs because although you can invite ppl to parties to do that, you dont need to be in one to participate and be successful), or the story (or fights) turns real epic real fast. I dont see this holding my attention for even 3 months let alone the 5 years FFXI did.

In conclusion. Playing this I expected an FFXI killer instead I got a game that while decent only kills FFXI in the graphics department and nothing else. Now were this my first MMO my thoughts/feeling would probably be much different/better (because i wouldnt know what to expect), but having played FFXI first I honestly couldnt rate this game higher than that. It MIGHT happen later on but as for right now its just "ok".

(let hope I get some serious replies. I mean I even took the time to spell stuff properly and add punctuation, something we all know i RARELY do around here)
#2 Aug 29 2013 at 10:40 AM Rating: Excellent
**
259 posts
You could have just said "Its not FFXI" instead of an essay.
#3 Aug 29 2013 at 10:48 AM Rating: Good
You're probably going to get just as many rate-downs because you started off your post talking about getting rated down. I read what you posted and I have to say, my experience is completely opposite of yours. I see lots of chatter in the zones, the quests are anything but bland, the story is fantastic so far and I've seen an amazing variety of gear. It's honestly as if you aren't actually playing FFXIV and have accidentally posted this in the wrong forum.
#4 Aug 29 2013 at 10:50 AM Rating: Good
Can you summarize that? I only have an hour for lunch.
#5 Aug 29 2013 at 10:52 AM Rating: Default
Too Funny

I just posted a similar, less involved, thread. And personally I like the essay. If you graduated kindergarten I think you can manage to read a few in-depth sentences and paragraphs. Don't knock writing styles or lengths, writers don't appreciate it.

Valid arguments and feeling exactly the same way. These forums were built for communication and interaction and discussion, not blind statements on the posts themselves.

Nothing will ever be like FFXI, that is "Vanilla - ToAU and maybe WotG." The game's challenge was what made it so good, its requirement for interaction and cooperation is what kept people coming back for me punishment.

FFXIV seems lacking in the more basic retainment qualities that keep players playing. The fear, and one I feel that will eventually rear its ugly face is that players will drop off too quickly for FFXIV and the game will eventually we subject to the FtP market because of the drop-off of the playerbase.
#6 Aug 29 2013 at 10:56 AM Rating: Excellent
If what your saying, or the way you say it, is too boring, I can so say so. It's honest feedback.

Summarizing is a true art form, especially if your goal is to communicate your thoughts to a wide range of readers.
#7 Aug 29 2013 at 11:02 AM Rating: Decent
It doesn't take more than a few seconds to read a few paragraphs, maybe a minute tops. I've been a writer and screenwriter for years and I've developed a talent for online journalism as a result.

Since these are discussion forums, maybe one should actually focus on the discussion and not the "length" of writing. I know four year olds and five year olds who can read that just fine in a minute or two.
#8 Aug 29 2013 at 11:08 AM Rating: Decent
**
352 posts
Try makeing your own gear, materia slots start showing up early. The best thing i have done to help me is realize old FFXI is dead and never comeing back, that game stlye i think wouldn even be popular these days, so just say your peace and move on.
#9 Aug 29 2013 at 11:23 AM Rating: Default
****
5,055 posts
AaronLamm wrote:
It doesn't take more than a few seconds to read a few paragraphs,



This.

I reread it as I was looking for spelling mistakes and it took me less than 5 minutes to do, so as for the "i only have an hour lunch" comment. Umm if it takes you that long to read something than a normal adult can do in under 5 minutes or less then something is seriously wrong.
#10 Aug 29 2013 at 11:33 AM Rating: Good
**
259 posts
I read the whole thing. I just meant that you could have just said, "Its not FFXI" as your summary.
#11 Aug 29 2013 at 11:35 AM Rating: Default
Gnu wrote:
Can you summarize that? I only have an hour for lunch.


If it takes you an hour to read that...
#12 Aug 29 2013 at 11:37 AM Rating: Default
Arjuncorpse wrote:
I read the whole thing. I just meant that you could have just said, "Its not FFXI" as your summary.


I disagree. I think he was just using FFXI as an example, but I agree with some of his points.

For example, I also don't like how there's no danger and you can outrun any monster easily 100% with no Sprint, and they give up after a couple of seconds chasing you. I wish the world had more threats. Right now a level 10 can prance through a level 50 area and probably not die.

But in my opinion, you aren't even prepared to make much of a first impression at level 11. That's the game's fault, it starts rather slowly (one of its big flaws IMO).

Edited, Aug 29th 2013 1:39pm by Killua125
#13 Aug 29 2013 at 11:40 AM Rating: Excellent
***
1,556 posts
Well you wrote a long description of what you think is going on. I respect your opinion but disagree on many points. Mainly, you seem to still have quite a bit of affection for FFXI.

DuoMaxwellxx wrote:
Now as for the game itself Im only level 11 hence the "first impressions" and not "full review" part.


Consider what happened within the first 11 levels of FFXI for comparison. I'll restrict it to the very beginning of FFXI when it launched to be fair.

You were solo. You did not group. Leveling my white mage in Ronfaure was so incredibly lonely. No one to interact with. Eventually, I saw someone shout in town about a linkshell and joined. Limited social interaction through the LS...but my battles were fought alone.

I ventured into La'Theine afterwards at around 10. Still, no one shouted often during this time. No one asked any questions. There were none to ask: you were doing nothing but leveling for the first 1 to ~12 levels of FFXI solo. Remember? Quests weren't a big deal until the rest of us figured out that they were great for reputation grinds. Then, guides appeared. In fact, FFXI could be purchased with a guide. Do you remember it? The (in)famous) Brady guide? While it had a lot of inaccurate information, I believe it covered some basic quests. I would tell with accuracy but I chucked mine about 3 months into the game.

Grouping began at around 12 for most people in Valkurm. Miserable times if you were not the right class. Thankfully, I got into quite a few parties because I was a healer. Little social interaction since we were playing with a lot of Japanese players at the time. You were in this area (possibly searching for a group for 2~4+ hours) until 18 or 20 when you took the long, painful, solo walk to Jeuno.

You probably went into your early 20s without a subjob due to not being able to obtain the parts for the quest easily for your level.

This was in a game where solo play was highly discouraged. It was a very disorienting feeling, I recall.

In comparison, I see so many shouts just about every minute in any starting area of FFXIV: ARR. There are so many questions people ask because, quite frankly, they don't hold your hand (as much as you may disagree) all the way through the storyline and quests. You have to utilize outside resources sometimes. Remember, FFXI didn't put as much emphasis on quests.

People are willing to group as your first guildhest begins at around 10-12 if you keep up with the main story. Party play in FFXIV is more friendly. So I have a player who decides to force disconnect on me. Oh no! I'm screwed. I have to go all the way back to Ul'dah and start shou...wait. We can just wait for the queue to fill someone else in. This is an intelligent way to handle party systems in MMOs.

Also, due to the possibility of traveling to different cities much earlier than you could in FFXI, people from all over Eorzea are able to join your Free Company. Mine currently has around 230 members. If you think there is no socialization, you simply haven't looked hard enough! Every second in the starting areas you should see shouts from people recruiting for their FCs. There are actually incentives to join FCs, after all. Right now, I have an EXP bonus buff on thanks to our FC rank increasing.

Quote:
The world itself doesnt seem very alive, sure you see lots of people running around but with little to no interaction/communication they might as well be NPCs. I mean for example in FFXI you saw a shout every 10 secs, you were basically constantly reminded that you were playing with other people. On XIV i may see one shout every 5 minutes, and thats if Im lucky.


Walking through Ul'dah, I disagree. The world is vibrant. The NPC chatter as ambient sound in the background adds to the effect: that you are within a city that is overflowing with people.

Again, I don't know where you're sitting but shouts are quite frequent in the starting zones and even in the cities. If I need to know something, I simply shout in a city and receive 7 different respones in the next minute: 4 tells and 3 shouts in reply. The community is very friendly from what I see and willing to help. At least, that is the case on Midgard.

Quote:
Also so far the equipment goes, it isnt very diverse. For example everything Ive seen so far says either +1 str +1 dex or +1 int +1 mnd and can be worn by all classes. Which means depending on if youre a melee or a mage, at your level EVERYONE is wearing the same thing. In XI there was like 3-5 different armor sets every 5 levels and instead of being restricted to just melee or mage, there were some only mnk/sam/nin could wear, other that wars could wear but thief could not, etc etc. So you might see every 3rd or 5th person wearing the same thing as you but it was more diverse at least, also some equipment gave stat increases, some gave no stat increase but more defense, other gave not as much stat increase, i.e depending on your job and duty you actually had a reason to individually look at each piece of equipment and determine which would be best for your situation.


This is still the case. My archer is capable of using INT and MND pieces from my THM. It's definitely not what I should be striving for. Later on, when you get into dungeons, you will find gear exactly as you had mentioned: designated for 2~3 classes only. Only those classes may roll 'need' on the gear to obtain it.

Everyone was wearing the same thing in FFXI up until and even past 70 (at the time of release, I believe the cap was either 65 or 70). I think this may be an illusion you have placed on yourself.

Everyone was wearing bronze equipment (yes, even the subligar). Everyone had their bronze or onion sword...their ash staves....and their generic gear available from the NPCs. You wouldn't be using the AH at this time since you wouldn't have had the money at the start of launch. I certainly did not.

Everyone wore a vermillion cloak, scorpion harness, or hauberk at some point in the 50s. Everyone wore brigadine, gold hairpins, jujitsu gi (if you had the money to buy one), etc in the 40s. Ochiudo's were almost always seen on any class that could use them. All the models were generic and could not be changed. In fact, what was Vermillion cloak? Just a remodeled version of some of the lower level cloaks and special/ex items. How many colors did vermillion come in? One.

In 14, you have the ability to dye your clothes a different color. Also, I believe the NPC gives you the armor reward on certain quests as a randomized color. This prevents everyone from looking the same.

In fact, I would argue that there is more versatility, currently, in FFXIV armor. Yes, people have gotten the 'basic' quest armor but that is easily outclassed by the dungeon or vendor/market place armor which not everyone is capable of getting initially. Also, people quest in different starting areas. The items you get in different areas are not the same most of the time. That means, appearance-wise, they look different as well.

This becomes readily apparent as you approach the late teens and early 20s. Yes, they have reskinned one of the dalmaticas several times and the cloaks but at least we have the option to change their color and even disable certain pieces of gear if we do not want them visible, allowing for more customization.

I am not there yet but I have seen jobs in the 30s running around with what looks to be artifact armor. Just today I saw a whitemage (level 35) running around with red and white. Sound familiar? You see, we never had any customization that you speak of in FFXI until we got this unique armor in the 50s. Even then, everyone had it eventually and we looked the same regardless. What differentiated us was 'endgame' armor which did have unique models.
.
Quote:
While we're on the subject of stats. Just about every class is all based on the same stat i.e str increases physical damage on ALL classes, theres no stat that increases dodge rate or critical hit rate, dex is only used for ranged attacks, etc etc so if youre a close ranged melee all you have to do is stack str and nothing else. Whereas in XI every job counted on different stats to maximize their potential, i.e thfs needed dex and agi, war damage was str, rng was agi, pld had vit etc etc.


This is inaccurate. Please read what each stat does on your character screen. There are more stats currently in FFXIV than there were (are) in FFXI. Most of them do multiple things (like determination). Not only that, but you may HEAVILY customize your character through which stats you choose when you level. Remember how FFXI handled leveling? Yes, your stats were auto-assigned.

If I want to put INT into my marauder, I most certainly can do so. Will I be the same as a marauder that is properly optimized? Hell no. And 'properly' optimized will be different for everyone until the number crunching begins.

Quote:
Now theres the story, so far nothings happened that makes me say "god i HAVE to see what happens next". Sure FFXI's story didnt get epic until CoP but the vanilla rank missions stories were at least INTERESTING enough that I was somewhat curious to carry on, and then at level 25 the dragon fight sealed the deal at the point i WANTED to see everything through to the end. It gave me the motivation I seeked. The last main story fight I did was against the voidsent black flying thing in Uldah when you get the crystal. I liked the fight mainly because it was "different" (as opposed to the random fetch quests and running around killing random enemies stuff i had been doing), it even had adds to deal with but I still wouldnt have called the experience great/epic maybe if they upped the difficulty and made it a party required fight I woulda had a LOT more fun. (we'll see if the level 15 dungeons are as good as everyone says).


I hate to tell you but the first few missions I did in FFXI bored the **** out of me. They were seemingly trivial tasks that didn't mean crap to us at the time. You need groundwork (a solid foundation) before you may begin the story. This is true for just about any game.

This is even more critical since this is the SECOND release of this game. The story is, you might say, the most important aspect besides the improved gameplay.

And let me tell you: the story is incredible. It isn't CoP just yet but it is on par with the 3 national missions from FFXI.They might even exceed those. This game has a ton of potential for storyline just as FFXI did. You will want to know more just like you did with the Shadow Lord.

I love FFXIV's unique personal story option.They can be extremely challenging based on what class you chose to play. I struggled a few times with the Ul'dah personal story on THM just because of the adds and having no way to heal myself until I could get to 10, get physick, and learn to heal myself as a cross class ability.

I love this challenge and have not stopped feeling that challenge since level 3~5.

Quote:
The quest are rather bland fetch quest variety with hardly any thought and rather dull. The exp they give is fine though, which on the subject of exp leveling seems rather "trivial" for example you need 11k to level, the quests you take give 2-3k.. 3-5 quests later youve gained a level, its almost TOO easy, lvling at level 10 to 11 seemed to take no longer than going from 1 to 2.. Sometimes i noticed the mobs I kill give about 100+ exp. Sometimes I have the urge to just run around killing them and getting chains til I level to keep things interesting, but doing that solo would be boring, now if a party wanted to do it Id be all for it. The other thing i kinda dont like about quests are the ones that require killing an enemy for lets say their skins. I liked it more in FFXI where you actually had to kill them until they actually dropped the number of skins you needed whereas here you automatically get the item on every kill and its not even a normal drop (i.e you would never get/see said item outside the quest).


The quests were rather bland in FFXI as well.

"Go fetch me some bat wings".
"Um..what are you doing with all those bat wings?"
"SHUT UP!"

I like that the leveling is easy in the beginning because right now it moves at a snails pace when trying to obtain the next level. But the best part is..is that you are given SO many options when you want to level. Guess what option you had in XI? Yeah: go form that Qufim party PT. You may spend 5 hours searching while getting no invites on your dragoon or dark knight and would not have been able to do much in that time frame. Right now, you can do quests at your own pace and level without the help of others. Is that too boring? There are guildhests that pair you with 3 other people to accomplish a simple goal (similar to a kindred seal/beastman seal battle). Want to change it up a bit? There are SIXTEEN dungeons to choose from as you level up. Not only that, but the dungeons are very close together in level. As you level out of one dungeon, you are able to access another. And the dungeons are very impressive so far: each unique in both its plot, setting/environment, and objective!

Quote:
Now lets talk about aggro and death. Getting aggro in this game is a joke, I can outrun everything thats aggroed me without even using sprint, whereas in FFXI if you got aggroed by something and not close to a zone it was almost guaranteed death so you actually HAD to be careful and wary of your surroundings. Also in the event you do die theres no real penalty for it so you dont really care (oh noes i have to repair. -yawn-) thus I have no problem testing my strength against something 2-4 levels higher than me (which sometimes leads in victory and other times death). In FFXI you would never try something that reckless (at least not at low levels).


You die and you are forced back to your home point. Depending on where you put it, it can be a big deal. Repair may seem lofty now but when you fight higher caliber enemies that actually pose a threat, you may notice. If you try going into a level 40+ area, you will die if you are around 10. You can outrun them on the chocobo but most of these mobs are not directly in your way or obscuring an objective so that you should never be around them at your level.

This is the only point where I will concede that you actually do have a point. So the penalty for death has been lessened. I think they've learned that dying often (many times due to someone else's carelessness) is not fun.

Quote:
Now if I were to review this game, its not HORRIBLE but its not GREAT either. It may be better than 1.0 but Id never call it a must buy for any mmo lover


You wouldn't know, honestly. You have only done a day's worth of work on your character. This is why you didn't call it a review, remember? These are your first impressions which will most likely change if you decide to continue playing. Telling people that it isn't a must buy makes no sense if this is the logic you wish to abide by.

Now, before you call me a white knight, take a careful look at my signature. I've spent an enormous amount of time in FFXI. I cherish it and there will always be a special place for it in my heart just like Ragnarok. However, I realize that times change and that looking through my rose-tinted glasses just makes me seem archaic.

Perhaps some of these changes are for the better? Perhaps we will not have to deal with the lack of feedback from the development team for the first 2 years of gameplay. Perhaps they will actually listen to OUR concerns instead of doing things their way and telling everyone else to shove it.

Give the game a fair chance. If you still feel the same way, no one should get on your case about it. You can tell them you honestly tried it and didn't like it. At that point, it's a matter of personal preference. If they are mature, they will agree to disagree and you can move on to a game you really enjoy (or perhaps head back to FFXI).

Right now, people can dismiss your post based on some of the inaccuracies that I have pointed out. If you are able to eliminate those inaccuracies, you simply have an opinion. Your opinion is just as valid as any other.

Edited, Aug 29th 2013 2:11pm by HitomeOfBismarck
#14 Aug 29 2013 at 11:51 AM Rating: Good
*
79 posts
^ You sir are my hero everything you said is spot on. The OP basically read the first 2 pages of a book and tried to say the book was bad and we all know how that goes.
#15 Aug 29 2013 at 11:55 AM Rating: Good
Gotta say that while I enjoyed reading your review I 100% disagree with your assessment of the game. I, like you, amd level 11 and I was addicted at level 2. It's so much damn fun. I miss the old MMO style of playing and while I understand that FFXI is dead and never coming back I appreciate the level of upgrade FFXIV has received while still staying true to the traditionalist MMO. THis will probably be the very last game (MMO) to follow the traditionalist route as we see more and more "action MMOS"..ie Wildstar and Elder Scrolls. I love FFXIV and will be here for the next 4 years most likely, hell SWTOR had me for 2 years lol.
#16 Aug 29 2013 at 11:57 AM Rating: Good
*
132 posts
I would agree, that your first sentence should be removed. It's almost like saying, "no offense."

As for chatter, I think you might need to look into changing servers? I see quite a bit of chat in shout, FC and LS on Utlros.

Once you start getting story quest rewards around lvl 13-14, you will start seeing materia slots in gear, though I have to admit, as an archer, I was disappointed to only see them in the tank and mage gear. I'm not sure if this was intentional or what, but seems odd to me.

I have to admit, I haven't paid as much attention to the story as I typically do in amn MMO as I was rushing a little to get my airship pass so I can start to level with my gf when she starts. I haven't noticed anything to make me snooze though.

As for the quests... I think it would be hard to make an RPG without these types of quests. The differentiator is supposed to be the FATEs. I'm not sure what people are looking for as quests in MMORPGs these days. It could be like FFXI and 1.0 release where you were grinding mobs.

I died around level 10 not realizing the adjacent area was level 40+ while exploring. I was not able to outrun them and the aggro distance was further.

All in all, I would say lvl 11 isn't going to be very telling of the game as a whole. You have to remember that major MMOs make sure that their content eases in for new players as well as long time MMO'ers. The first 20 levels is meant as in intro. Give it some time.
#17 Aug 29 2013 at 12:06 PM Rating: Default
****
5,055 posts
Arjuncorpse wrote:
I read the whole thing. I just meant that you could have just said, "Its not FFXI" as your summary.


its not supposed to be FFXI I simply used it as examples. WKC nor DC universe online were FFXI either but what they DID have was interesting/compelling enough to hold my attention for 8-12 hours a day everyday for 2 month (in dcuo's case) and 3 months (in WKC case) Im just waiting to see FFXIV pull that feat off, and so far its not doing it
#18 Aug 29 2013 at 12:16 PM Rating: Excellent
*
132 posts
I just realized that this is like trying to date a wholesome girl then complaining that she didn't put out on the first date.
#19 Aug 29 2013 at 12:40 PM Rating: Decent
****
5,055 posts
[quote=HitomeOfBismarck][/quote]

Now thats what I call a reply. But lets get down to it shall we.

Yes FFXi first 11 levels was just running around gustaberg, konschtat highlands solo killing stuff. However the danger and community was there. i.e be in the wrong place at night and ghosts/skeletons/undead come out and eat you alive, get put to sleep constantly by a sheep and youre dead, fight a sheep close to a goblin and dead again, attack leaping lizzy thinking its just another lizards and, dead again, and lets not forget being a newbie in konstacht all of a sudden seeing blood tear baldruf for the first time and nearly crapping yourself. As for community what I mean if for example i was in the wrong place at night resting, undead agrroed me and i would have surely died... then our of nowhere another player showed up and starting healing me, keeping me alive while i fought. That doesnt happen (so far) in FFXIV, We eventually became friends for years after that (with me saving his *** countless times too).

Or two newbies attacking something they shouldnt and getting owned.. so we decide.. ok lets party up and take it down.. and we do. So depending on the right circumstances the first 11 levels wasnt always completely solo. however in XIV i dont see those circumstances occurring. (also i had my subjob items before 20 :p we ought crabs and flies in parties and wasnt hard to take down a ghoul or get someone to help you get that one :p). I loved that long solo walk to Jeuno to me it was like a test of proving your "worth" you had to be aware of your surrounding, and put your sneaking skills to use (it was easy for me being a metal gear solid vet lol. But it still keep me on edge and sweating the whole way).

As for lack of shouts its true I can literally count one one hand the number of shouts I saw and I played at least 10 hours that day. Maybe its because im on a JP server so theres hardly anyone on when I play but what i stated about lack of shouts is indeed fact.

As for your stats question yes i could put any stat i want on my PUG but what sense would it make to but IT or MND on him/her? how would that not be a total waste of stat points? Just because you have the OPTION to do something doesnt mean you should do it, so in that case I didnt mind FFXI auto stats. Now if every stat had SOME benefit to EVERY class the i could see why you would but lets say INT on a mnk, it might not help as much as STR but it would do SOMETHING useful, but that isnt the case is it?

Also at starting levels no everyone didnt wear the same thing, you had ppl in bronze gear, you had the robe like gear mages wore, you had the obis/far east like gear that mnk/sam/nin wore, you had leather armor and you had scale armore.. thats 5 different sets right there that ppl wore around 10.


As for the missions in FFXI at the begging year there were mainly "go here click on ??? and kill that" which was bland but the dialogue/cutscenes inbetween them made you wanna do them. I dont see that i XIV, the any semblance Ive seen in a story i XIV from the ti me you get off the cart in ULdah isnt seen again unto the sultan-tree fight when you have to take on to black flying voidsent which is around what level 8? thats inbetween doing 30+ other bland fetch quests with no real story. Sure turning it batwings in FFXI was no better but at least it was repeatable, profitable (at that level) and built reputation.

As for giving it a chance well I gave DCUO and even WKC 2-3 months of my time despite only thinking them of being 6-7/10 and actually had fun (i.e i wasnt forcing myself to play them, the lack of content and doing the same thing everyday just got old so i stopped. it was fun from the start but got repetitive after the first 8 hours.. the time it takes to hit level cap in DCUOs case anyway). That being said i can at least give it that amount of attention, but even better I got a full 180 days free (i.e i dindt have to spend MY money on it) so it gets half a year to impress me, if it really doe get better thats MORE than enough time to prove it. After all from what you say it should achiev ethat goal even before the 30 free days is up. So we'll see.


#20 Aug 29 2013 at 12:45 PM Rating: Excellent
*
190 posts
HitomeOfBismark. I Gave you an upvote just because you finished a book. :-)
#21 Aug 29 2013 at 1:05 PM Rating: Excellent
Avatar
*
126 posts
OP I did read the entire post.
I think everyone sould be expressing their opinions whether the community likes to see them or not. I have never wore rose tinted glasses on here and say what I honestly feel. Good or bad about the games I play.

You said the game is not horrible but not great. I respect your opinion, but do remember it is just that, an opinion.

I too played ffxi from the start, still sub to this day, and although I have not enjoyed SoA (ewwww).....I will continue to sub to it as there are other parts of the game that to me, to ME , are alot of fun and hold some great memories for me.

That said, imo ffxi is far inferior to ffxiv, after 10 years of ffxi, I welcome this ffxiv change with open arms. It was never meant to be a copy of 11 nor necessarily a copy of its design.
The speed for levelling and getting through initial things will be a blessing for some people with uber busy schedules , or those that simply want a change for once. Just as many people may not want to die 45 times walking through a zone as those that do. Again, its just personal preferance and I do see why you think the way you do coming from ffxi.

I also play, wow, tera, rift, pay for those that are subs and those extra perks for the ftp ones. All these game are good, just good imo, as well as ffxiv and 11.
I dont see any outshining another to me.
And you know what, thats cool and ok lol. Games arent meant to be life changing and that vital or important, thats what rl is for.

All mmos are basically the same, level, quests, gear, raid, repeat, with a side order of distractions with crafting, fishing and some pvp. All the same. Some more time consuming/grindy, others far faster. Some definately involve more when it comes to stat allocations etc but is that "harder"? Not for most people.

Wont comment on lore/story as I never have interest in any story..meh idc about it, i didnt find ffxi story line interesting at all, ended up eventually just scrolling as fast as I could through it and have completed all till last expansion. No games lore interests me but again, for those that do, Im sure many love ffxiv lore so far and many dont. Thats always going to happen, people are different Oo.

Communities, exact, ffxi only "seemed" better simply because ppl felt forced to pretend to care in order to get anything achieved.
And alot (NOT ALL lol) of people wouldnt lift a finger to help anyone outside their ls. Mob stealing, rude chat, racism, downright nasty behavior in there as much as ANY other game. Sad but true.
There are vile horrid people in every single game...and always some that are very nice, its just hard to find those nice ppl lol

You are not right nor wrong, anymore then me or anyone else that replys. We all have different perspectives, expectations, tolerance levels etc.

All Im saying is that you simply have to weigh out if the things you dont enjoy about the game are vast enough for you not to pay for the sub. Its ok if not...theres nothing wrong with stopping, lifes too short.

Many will leave, many will stay, just like every other game in existance.


____________________________
http://i.imgur.com/FokEtHo.png
#23 Aug 29 2013 at 1:55 PM Rating: Good
***
1,556 posts
DuoMaxwellxx wrote:
Yes FFXi first 11 levels was just running around gustaberg, konschtat highlands solo killing stuff. However the danger and community was there. i.e be in the wrong place at night and ghosts/skeletons/undead come out and eat you alive, get put to sleep constantly by a sheep and youre dead, fight a sheep close to a goblin and dead again, attack leaping lizzy thinking its just another lizards and, dead again, and lets not forget being a newbie in konstacht all of a sudden seeing blood tear baldruf for the first time and nearly crapping yourself. As for community what I mean if for example i was in the wrong place at night resting, undead agrroed me and i would have surely died... then our of nowhere another player showed up and starting healing me, keeping me alive while i fought. That doesnt happen (so far) in FFXIV, We eventually became friends for years after that (with me saving his *** countless times too).


Good point. :) I do miss this. In fact, I commented today that I was sad that elementals and bombs no longer aggroed on casting. I've also noticed that things don't 'link' like they used to in XI so that you can pull and be relatively safe.

HOWEVER...I believe this to be the case with the very beginning. Today, I fought my first malboro. Up until this point, I could face tank everything with relative ease and not die. I have infinite MP with umbral ice and a cross skill heal. How am I to die unless I get interrupted a lot?

So I foolishly thought, "Wow, I probably don't even need to avoid bad breath." So I took it. And then I died. That was the first death I've had since level 20 I think.

So, like you, I am still in the process of forming my opinion about the game! I agree I miss some of the things you did but I am interested to see how they will compensate for the perceived ease of use later on. People say that the honeymoon ends once you get to the Sunken Temple. I'll let you know if that's the case.

FFXI trained you in an exponential way. Things never really got easier: you just learned to not make the same mistakes. FFXIV traints you more linearly. "So you're level 8 are you? Well, we don't think you're ready for this harder stuff so continue to learn the basics."

It's more structured for new players. In a game that flopped the first time, you want (and expect) the game to have a broad audience that it wishes to reach to make up for the revenue lost. Remember, one of the big complaints about 1.0 was its 'difficulty' or confusing UI/instructions. The developers most likely wanted to steer very clear of any ambiguity hence why we have an approximate linear model now.

DuoMaxwellxx wrote:
Or two newbies attacking something they shouldnt and getting owned.. so we decide.. ok lets party up and take it down.. and we do. So depending on the right circumstances the first 11 levels wasnt always completely solo. however in XIV i dont see those circumstances occurring. (also i had my subjob items before 20 :p we ought crabs and flies in parties and wasnt hard to take down a ghoul or get someone to help you get that one :p). I loved that long solo walk to Jeuno to me it was like a test of proving your "worth" you had to be aware of your surrounding, and put your sneaking skills to use (it was easy for me being a metal gear solid vet lol. But it still keep me on edge and sweating the whole way).


I didn't have any help. ; ; The Japanese players who had leveled past 50 actually made an effort to come to the dunes and help the new NA players obtain those items eventually. I did have a sub job before hitting Qufim but many I know didn't, unfortunately. Same case for the summons. I had a JP friend help me obtain all of the summons as a level 60 white mage when most NA players weren't even thinking about leveling summoner at the time.

See it's complex because I completely understand where you come from yet I'm also at that point in my life where I can't spend all the time in the world on a game like i could when I played FFXI so I appreciate the ease of difficulty in the beginning. I hope things are more difficult later on but not to the point of ostracizing people like FFXI did.

DuoMaxwellxx wrote:
As for lack of shouts its true I can literally count one one hand the number of shouts I saw and I played at least 10 hours that day. Maybe its because im on a JP server so theres hardly anyone on when I play but what i stated about lack of shouts is indeed fact.


Could be. You can always come to Migard. :) I have only run into one @#%^ so far! Good fortune.

DuoMaxwellxx wrote:
As for your stats question yes i could put any stat i want on my PUG but what sense would it make to but IT or MND on him/her? how would that not be a total waste of stat points? Just because you have the OPTION to do something doesnt mean you should do it, so in that case I didnt mind FFXI auto stats. Now if every stat had SOME benefit to EVERY class the i could see why you would but lets say INT on a mnk, it might not help as much as STR but it would do SOMETHING useful, but that isnt the case is it?


It's an illusion. :) Do you know about Diablo III and all the complaints that players had (the D1/D2 players)? How they could no longer customize their character even though the customization they had in the previous two games were based on optimization and, therefore, not customizable by definition? You kind of have that effect going on here. However, I would say that I don't think everyone has figured out just what each class is capable of and what stats should be optimized. For instance, I am stacking INT every single level on my BLM. However, two other stats are very important as well: VIT (we have the lowest HP in the game) and PIE (mana pool). What ratio do I balance these stats with?

It's nice to have the option. Also, they have some really interesting stats that I haven't seen before such as determination. You can't use your bonus point on it but there is yet another form of customization: materia. And each piece of gear can only have a certain max of a certain stat so you have to plan carefully.

The point of bringing up your quotation on stats was twofold:

1) I wanted to demonstrate to you that each piece of equipment still has choices between which stats you want to put on them
and
2) You will be doing the same thing with stats that you did in XI for the endgame portion of XIV. The damage calculation seems to be nowhere near as simple as 'stack only str as a melee character'. This doesn't take into consideration survivability (VIT is nice for just about every class in close range I would assume).

To give you an analogy, I would consider International Ragnarok Online (or any version of RO). I'm thinking of two different wizard builds. In fact, the same analogy applies to Diablo 2 as well. There was the school of thought that maxing dodge through increasing AGI is the better way to go for wizards in RO and then there was the school that advocated increasing DEX to maximize block chance for wizard (they used shields). In Diablo, there was a school of thought that you should max VIT for a sorceress and just be a sponge for all the damage and a school that advocated DEX to maximize block chance.

Neither of these are illusions, either. Now we have more control over how we want to play should this be the case for classes in the endgame setting.

Quote:
Also at starting levels no everyone didnt wear the same thing, you had ppl in bronze gear, you had the robe like gear mages wore, you had the obis/far east like gear that mnk/sam/nin wore, you had leather armor and you had scale armore.. thats 5 different sets right there that ppl wore around 10.


Ok but how many times were those sets rehashed over and over again? Every 5 levels, actually. The appearances didn't really change till the 40s and only if you were super rich. You knew when someone was wearing Ochiudo's because of their red hands or Jujitsu because of the white cloth on black belt.

I see what you are saying: you want to differentiate classes based on different styles of gear. Maybe that will be the case? Have you seen some of the players running around in town who are 35+? They were some very interesting gear indeed...and there is also different looking gear from each of the 3 Grand Companies. I think we will have plenty of decently designed gear. Dying is a nice way to deal with the beginning situation where everyone has the potential to look the same.

Quote:
As for the missions in FFXI at the begging year there were mainly "go here click on ??? and kill that" which was bland but the dialogue/cutscenes inbetween them made you wanna do them. I dont see that i XIV, the any semblance Ive seen in a story i XIV from the ti me you get off the cart in ULdah isnt seen again unto the sultan-tree fight when you have to take on to black flying voidsent which is around what level 8? thats inbetween doing 30+ other bland fetch quests with no real story. Sure turning it batwings in FFXI was no better but at least it was repeatable, profitable (at that level) and built reputation.


Please get up to the cutscene where you take an airship to another city. Your mouth will drop I think. Then, go fight Ifrit. It is...spectacular. Do you remember WotG? I get that kind of vibe from the current storyline. I don't think they really have strayed far from the FFXI narrative style: perhaps just a slow start. And they've added voice acting. Can you imagine? :D

You should also read some of the 'fetch' quest dialogue. It isn't WoW. The writing is actually very good. Limsa drove me crazy because everyone talks like a freaking pirate.

Again, I think you have a valid point because it isn't up to speed with XI...as you think of it. But remember: when XI was launched, the very first expansion was launched as well. It came bundled in the NA version. Three new classes had been introduced. Summons were finally accessible. 40 new areas were introduced. Rank 10 nations were finally available after RotZ was released. So we received both the base game (which was incredibly simple at the time) plus a whole ton of new content (like Yuhtunga Jungle area and all the areas related to SAM/NIN/DRG).

And remember that almost all FFXI expansions built upon the base storyline of XI in some way.

Hence, give it a chance. With promised new content and updates every 3 months, it should get interesting pretty fast.

Quote:
As for giving it a chance well I gave DCUO and even WKC 2-3 months of my time despite only thinking them of being 6-7/10 and actually had fun (i.e i wasnt forcing myself to play them, the lack of content and doing the same thing everyday just got old so i stopped. it was fun from the start but got repetitive after the first 8 hours.. the time it takes to hit level cap in DCUOs case anyway). That being said i can at least give it that amount of attention, but even better I got a full 180 days free (i.e i dindt have to spend MY money on it) so it gets half a year to impress me, if it really doe get better thats MORE than enough time to prove it. After all from what you say it should achiev ethat goal even before the 30 free days is up. So we'll see.


Perhaps it's the job you're playing or maybe you're just sick of MMOs all together. I think I've made similar mistakes in the past. I recently wrote a review for Guild Wars 2. I thought it was the most incredible game I had ever played doing it the first time through. Then you quickly realize that there isn't anything to do in the end and making a new character is just going through the motions of leveling again with nothing new except a few zones.

Point: my writing the review before thoroughly testing the game was a mistake. Atmospheres during the launch of MMOs are some of my fondest memories because of the massive quantities of people around pouring tons of energy into a new game. Enjoy it.

So come on over to Migard, join this lovely FC, and have some fun!

Edited, Aug 29th 2013 4:06pm by HitomeOfBismarck
#24 Aug 29 2013 at 3:04 PM Rating: Decent
****
5,055 posts
heh kinda hard to go to a server thats full :p and when i do transfer it would be Gilgamesh... i finally wanna see some RPing in my MMORPGs... that alone would keep me interested even if i never bothered to actually level/play seriously again.

As for not having the time. yeah i work 40 hours a week whereas in FFXI i dint work at all so i played that 8-12 hours a day EVERY day whereas with FFXIV its 4-5 hours a day 5 days a week then all day on my off days and even still i want the level of tasks in FFXI.. like something that takes as long to get (or as hard to get) as relic, and has equal stats to boot (i.e exclusive weapon skill, unique hidden effects etc etc) something that only a handful of ppl will have because its that hard to get or too much of a timesink to get that most ppl would bother. Sure because of work it might take me a year to do what i coulda done in a few months. but even still Im all for it. If ill be that guy everyone eyes are on as a "strut" down Ulah with it. Heh i remember all the attention I got when i had a thief knife back when they were 7 or 70mil.. hopefully FFXIV has equally rare/hard to get items
Reply To Thread

Colors Smileys Quote OriginalQuote Checked Help

 

Recent Visitors: 217 All times are in CST
Anonymous Guests (217)