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Final Fantasy XIV |OT| ARR: Alpha Closed. Beta mid-Feb

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Hopefully they add some more 3D text or go crazy and change the font colors altogether... although I'm sure that would be a much longer update.
 
They've only commented on the security improvements made for logging in. I would hope that they could do more in 10 hours than just THAT.

Just launched the game, no patch is available as of right now.
 

Forbiden

Member
I might be wrong, but doesn't the game force you to download the latest patch even when it's still under maint? My point being, I was able to get to the start up screen without the client downloading a patch, which makes me think that there really is nothing being released today and it really was only maint. I'd love for them to ninja an update though :(
 
The development team has been really good with communicating with members so far. I am not sure there are going to be any more stealth patches. The maintenance is probably for the upcoming updates but it doesn't seem like anything has changed.
 

Riposte

Member
Boss Riposte here. Finally able to post in this thread, damn! I haven't been playing awhile because I need to clear all of the 2010 titles I missed. I am pretty sure I'll be back in time for the next content update. (I am a sucker for quests.) What is the situation in the linkshell?
 
Rentahamster said:
Junior culling can be quite a massacre.

I heard that there is a quota, a percentage of juniors who must be banned before their status upgrades to members. Moderators must meet their junior ban quota or face disciplinary action from EviLore himself. It's true, I read it on Teh Intarwebz!
 

Munba

Member
A bit of delay for new quests but almost here:

Patch 1.16 is scheduled to go live in early March, bringing with it new quests, various improvements to the user interface, and more!

The list below briefly outlines the content slated for release in the forthcoming patch.

◆Outline of Patch 1.16 Content
Storylines and world quests
Quest-related system changes
Addition of icons to make quest NPCs easily recognizable
Addition of quest NPC locations to maps
Journal improvements
Reexamintion of data transfer mechanics to display all current quests and levequests on one screen
Increased speed for text scrolling in general, and further speed increase for continuous scrolling
Addition of page-scrolling control for gamepads
Rank/Level up fanfare
Examination of dramatic effects when a new rank or level is attained
Camera improvements
Ability to adjust camera distance when locked onto a target
Ability to freely adjust camera distance when playing with a gamepad
Targeting system improvements
Ability to target by type ("PC only" or "NPC only") when using a gamepad
Ability to target by clicking on character name displays
Auto-translate dictionary update
Update of auto-translate dictionary contents
Guildleve usability improvements
Reexamination of and balancing of local levequest issuing conditions
Adjustments to item condition values
Adjustments to lower the rate at which item condition deteriorates
Synthesis interface improvements
Adjustments to the item synthesis process
Increased pace of gathering actions
Changes to the frame rates of action animations to speed up gathering
Retainer system improvements
Ability to summon retainers currently operating a bazaar
Reexamination of enemy size
Optimization of enemy size for ease of play
Reexamination of stats
Addition of an auto-MP regeneration feature

For more details, be sure to keep an eye on further Topics posts in the coming days. In addition, comprehensive patch notes will be available on the day of the patch's release. Relevant dates and times will be announced in Informations posts as they become available.
 

Gromph

This tag is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance...
Staff Member
Reexamination of stats
Addition of an auto-MP regeneration feature


Yey for mages! :D
 

Teknoman

Member
So pretty much: "The true Eorzea begins here". Guess everyone was right about the next huge patch hitting early March.

Storylines and world quests
Quest-related system changes
Addition of icons to make quest NPCs easily recognizable
Addition of quest NPC locations to maps
Examination of dramatic effects when a new rank or level is attained
Ability to target by type ("PC only" or "NPC only") when using a gamepad
Ability to target by clicking on character name displays
Adjustments to lower the rate at which item condition deteriorates
Changes to the frame rates of action animations to speed up gathering
Ability to summon retainers currently operating a bazaar
Optimization of enemy size for ease of play
Reexamination of stats
Addition of an auto-MP regeneration feature


Nice stuff. Hopefully early March = first week of March.
 

Riposte

Member
I will kind of miss the whole classic-RPG endurance element that came with restricted MP. However the game was decidedly not challenging and didn't play this up at all. So there isn't much to miss.
 
Wonder how the auto MP regen is going to work. For some reason I keep getting this strange feeling that it will be a spell and THM will get it if so lol. Which isnt a bad thing if it happens...so curious...lol

They need to hurry up with this update.
 

Jinko

Member
Rank/Level up fanfare
Examination of dramatic effects when a new rank or level is attained

Oh god nooooo, not that again!

The rest looks very interesting :)

I'm hoping mana regen is either on armor (make those mages wear proper gear) or a skill you buy with guild marks. (ie regen 10% of your mana every so many seconds)
 

Teknoman

Member
If its an original Uematsu theme thats short + a small sound effect, no problems here. That repeating fanfare problem in the beta sucked though lol. The best way to handle it would be straight from XI. Sound effects for everyone else, sound effects + fanfare for your character.
 

Jinko

Member
Teknoman said:
If its an original Uematsu theme thats short + a small sound effect, no problems here. That repeating fanfare problem in the beta sucked though lol. The best way to handle it would be straight from XI. Sound effects for everyone else, sound effects + fanfare for your character.

Agree the level up sound that FF11 used was perfect, with the possibility of them removing ranks we may end up with just one level up sound anyway.
 
Hyperborean said:
I will kind of miss the whole classic-RPG endurance element that came with restricted MP. However the game was decidedly not challenging and didn't play this up at all. So there isn't much to miss.

There is already a way in the game to bypass restricted MP. It's called Siphon MP and just about anybody with a pulse can leech behests until they are Thaumaturge rank 20 to get it. So effectively MP was already unrestricted, you just had to use a skill semi-regularly during your normal play.

Patch 1.16 Notes said:
Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests Quests!!!

15qon7n.jpg
 

Jinko

Member
Hopefully they are proper quest given by NPC's and not some shitty guildleve thing.

I'm waiting for the day when they remove guildleves completely :p
 

DrDogg

Member
When are the battle and class adjustments coming? I was thinking that was this coming patch, but I guess it's probably not coming until sometime after the new poll results?

I just can't get hyped to play this game at all since I have no fun partying with the current battle mechanics... :(
 

Ichabod

Banned
*Opens oven door*

*Browses over the last few pages*

*Still no mention of adding airships, chocobos, or an auction house *

"Hmm, still not quite ready yet."

*Closes oven door and walks off whistling*
 

Allard

Member
Jinko said:
Hopefully they are proper quest given by NPC's and not some shitty guildleve thing.

I'm waiting for the day when they remove guildleves completely :p

They are definitely going to be 'proper' quests. They even talked about adding the dreaded overhead icon on the NPC that marks them as "Having a Quest" into the next update to show just how many quests are there. Not expecting a 'ton' of quests but if they even add like 50 quests, it will still give people something to do for a couple weeks to a month that they didn't have before as people wait for more quests in the next update. As for Guild Leve, its not going away, they even talked about expanding it to include different types of leves etc. Guild Leves are fine, just treat them like WoW Daily Quests or something similar. They give people something quick yet rewarding to do, the quest giver and the areas are always clear so there is little back and forth traveling, and they are easy to implement.

As for the new content coming, what i'm hoping these new quests will do is supply a proper and fun narrative for the world while giving a 'modest' reward depending on how much time it takes to finish. Personally the biggest issue I have with the game is how dead it feels. Quests that make you actually travel and explore narratives within the world actually allows people to become more attached to the world they are inhabiting. FFXI did this extremely well by making a bunch of new things open up as you level. It could be a quest that simply opens up a new area, a quest that opens up a new function (Chocobos), new jobs, new missions, spell scrolls, minor accesories and equipment, maybe some gil here and there, but rarely did it supply enough gil that it was worth repeating over and over again (with exception to a few choice quests *cough* tiger fangs *cough*). If they can bring THAT part back from FFXI, I will be extremely happy.

When are the battle and class adjustments coming? I was thinking that was this coming patch, but I guess it's probably not coming until sometime after the new poll results?

I just can't get hyped to play this game at all since I have no fun partying with the current battle mechanics... :(

Its probably not happening till the end of next month or into the next one. They issue of rebalancing the whole game right down to changing the basic structure of all the classes is not going to be easy task to say the least. Expect minor changes to the combat to happen like this update (Auto-mp regen) until they feel satisfied they know exactly what they want to do with the classes on an individual level.
 

Teknoman

Member
Ichabod said:
*Opens oven door*

*Browses over the last few pages*

*Still no mention of adding airships, chocobos, or an auction house *

"Hmm, still not quite ready yet."

*Closes oven door and walks off whistling*

Well as things are now, the market ward is really close to the way the AH worked, aside from actually having to go into the ward. Dunno what the hold up is with chocobos, but airships will most likely be added whenever they get companies sorted out.
 

TheFatOne

Member
Taking a break for a couple of days. Realized today that the GLA class is mostly useless by itself. I also realized that all the skills are the same, and that they all suck for the most part. Was only ranking that class up because I didn't want to start over, but the class isn't any fun so I'm forced to switch. Going to start over on monday. This time I'm going to focus on fewer classes. Just doing BTN,CRP, ARC.
 

Teknoman

Member
Howling Vortex and some of the shield skills are nice against magic users. Then again, i've always like swords and shields so i'm biased.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
I actually like gladiator over pugilist. Glad has a lot of good defensive skills with the shield, and can take a lot of shit before croaking.

If I wanna play dps/TP splooge, Lancer is better than Pugilist anyway.
 
Ichabod said:
*Opens oven door*

*Browses over the last few pages*

*Still no mention of adding airships, chocobos, or an auction house *

"Hmm, still not quite ready yet."

*Closes oven door and walks off whistling*


You find travel that bad you need those things? I think additional travel methods aren't necessary since most out-of-the-way destinations still serve no purpose. At least at my rank.

I think this patch will address what has really been needed. Which are quests, especially world and story related ones.

Personally, this game still feels like to much of a grind with minimal payoff for me. The last MMO title I played, made leveling feel tangible. Storyline quest eliminated most of the need to grind til I was level 35+ and every few levels something improved in a big way. Either my ability to explore, or my ability to do take and deal damage in a big way, changing my interaction with the world around me. I still feel like FFXIV is lacking simply because of the periods of grinding.
 

Jinko

Member
Additional travel methods are very much needed IMO, when i play, I spend more time running from place to place than anything else and it gets very boring.

Wouldn't be so bad if guildleves were issued at the camps instead of in town.

As for Guild Leve, its not going away

Was kind of being sarcastic, although I do hate the whole guildleve thing, such manotony, although I do thing SE are being lazy with guildleves there is a lot that could be done to make them more enjoyable.

Well as things are now, the market ward is really close to the way the AH worked, aside from actually having to go into the ward

All the more reason to get rid of the ward, make an AH and move retainers to players houses where theycan act as mail boxes (moogles).
 
Jinko said:
Additional travel methods are very much needed IMO, when i play, I spend more time running from place to place than anything else and it gets very boring.

I guess if you play nonstop for a long period of time. But I almost never run out of anima after they did their changes to the amounts and Favorite locations. I am not sure of how the average person plays this game but I still spend time away from this game. I still need to finish dead space 2 and start KZ3.

Even as such though, how many people here do not find the anima/favorite location combo to be enough?
 

Forbiden

Member
staticneuron said:
Even as such though, how many people here do not find the anima/favorite location combo to be enough?

I do now, but only because my playtime has gone from 16~ hours a day to 3 or 4 hours a day. When I was playing for longer periods of time, my anima was still constantly sapped, or I had to spend a lot of time traveling from point A to point B.

Now with less time to play, my anima is back to like 100 by the time I need to use it again, and considering that Cities are now 1/2 the anima cost of what they used to be, and that I only teleport to my favorite locations, my anima will probably never run out.
 

Munba

Member
I think they killed airships (for the main cities) just when they put teleportation method. Maybe they'll add them to go to the other continents, at this point.
 

Riposte

Member
I think guildleves is a great base to work from. I mean I would have loved them in FFXI. However where they failed was making the game's challenges mostly filler. They could fix that by making the combat system more interesting and make everything more challenging to fit that deeper system. Or maybe just add more exciting guildleves.
 

Allard

Member
Munba said:
I think they killed airships (for the main cities) just when they put teleportation method. Maybe they'll add them to go to the other continents, at this point.

I think Airships will come but only later when they get a place like Ishgard up and running or something. There are several small ports in the field for airships to goto and the actual places are still very much there with talking NPC's and everything saying about how they are under 'maintenance'. (Gridania Airship field is right below the adventurers guild).

As for transportation in general. I want them to get better transportation methods in too, and this is coming from someone that basically never runs out of anima. Just teleporting all over the place is an immersion breaker for me, especially since the only alternative is simply walking everywhere at the same speed all the time. They really need to get chocobos into this game so people can at least traverse the terrain at a higher speed and still feel like they are a part of the world.
 

Darte

Member
Is it just me or is anyone experiencing weird lags?

Retainer models aren't loading at all in market wards for me, targetable things like doors aren't loading either unless i relog. NPCs after cutscenes just become names on the ground D:
 

Jinko

Member
Hyperborean said:
I think guildleves is a great base to work from. I mean I would have loved them in FFXI. However where they failed was making the game's challenges mostly filler. They could fix that by making the combat system more interesting and make everything more challenging to fit that deeper system. Or maybe just add more exciting guildleves.

I thought FoV was so much better than guildleves, obviously FF11 didn't have the UI to pull it off and keep the player updated like 14 does.
 

Allard

Member
Jinko said:
I thought FoV was so much better than guildleves, obviously FF11 didn't have the UI to pull it off and keep the player updated like 14 does.

I'd actually like Guild Leves to mimic FoV more myself. Instead of a hard 36 hour timer, you have a timer that resets every hour or two and you get maybe 2-3 leves in each category (local and regional) to select during said hour. Each hour the guild leve counter resets and the available stock changes as well. You can still hold only 8 leves at once thus making choosing the one with the best reward or waiting for a better reward more... rewarding. This way when they inevitably add more guild leves, your choices don't feel like they restrict what you can do later while at the same time forcing you to make a choice when you actually get to the counter.

They balance it by making the leves reward less on the default basis and then implement more things like Guardians Favor to make it more rewarding for people in the casual spectrum (play like 10 hours a week at most). BUT it doesn't require people to come on during certain times of the week just to maximize the potential. The whole premise of the leves as they currently are rewards the more hardcore then casual, and they said the leves were designed for more casual spurts too :(
 

Darte

Member
Ugh this is getting ridiculous. I'm on Rabanastre if anyone has the same prob but I'm problems with NPC loading properly. After every cutscene or they become names on the ground and never load, as well as sometimes not even loading at all (relogging fixes it). "Menu" doors are also not loading sometimes ;;
 

Munba

Member
Letter from the Producer IV

Hello again, FINAL FANTASY XIV fans. As always, I hope you are all enjoying your adventures in Eorzea.

I have a confession to make—I hate planes. And I'm using "hate" in the strongest sense of the word here. Call me old-fashioned, but I never saw the flight of man as anything but a mathematical impossibility. Just looking out the window, I can tell these wings definitely aren't big enough! And yet here I am, writing my fourth letter at 30,000 feet. Why? Well, because FFXIV is a global endeavor, and after the recent changes to the development team, it's fallen to me to head to our offices in L.A. and London to give everybody the lowdown on the game's new direction, milestones, etc. I'll also be having a couple of interviews with representatives from some fan sites, which I hope will allow players in regions outside of Japan the opportunity to get to know me a little better.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team is safe on Japanese soil, wrapping up preparations for patch 1.16. This patch brings the long-awaited introduction of sidequests, and our localization staff has been hard at work putting their final touches on their translations in order to bring you an unforgettable linguistic experience. We originally intended for 1.16 to go live before the end of February, but unfortunately I had to make the decision to delay its release for a few days to allow our Quality Assurance teams in North America and Europe sufficient time to perform all the necessary testing, rather than rush a release of content that was not of an acceptable quality. I understand your frustration, but ask that you bear with us just a little longer.

Regarding the frequent World crashes affecting many of you, patch 1.15b introduced a measure to help address this issue. While there has been a dramatic decrease in the number of crashes, we're aware the issue has yet to be fully resolved, and so our team is continuing its efforts to improve server stability.

And now for a bit of good news! The official forums mentioned in previous posts are almost ready, with a beta version of the site ready for launch on Tuesday, March 8! Our original plan was to release a preliminary version in March that featured limited functionality, but thanks to the diligence of our web team, it looks like we'll be able to release a beta version that will closely resemble the final product. I'll be writing a message to kick off the forums, and I'm looking forward to reading all your posts. (^-^)v

Turbulence? Really!? Is the pilot trying to make me soil myself!?

To help me forget how much I hate being on planes, let me try and calm my nerves with a couple new concept designs...

614_0.jpg


Evil armor!? (name definitely not official)
From left to right (more or less):

* Widen hemline in cute fashion
* Make the ankle slimmer than usual in the vein of Amano
* Evil Armor – Finalized
* Visor hinge here
* Roegadyn
* Male
* Female
* Miqo'te
* Ears extended to sides for Hyur. Back same pattern as front
* Miqo'te Tail

614_1.jpg


Black mage!?
From left to right (more or less):

* Black Mage Armor – Finalized
* Hat material is straw or leather or undecided
* Hyur male
* Race-specific characterisics
* Elezen male ears
* When black, have hat worn low on face
* Lower than normal position
* Miqo'te ears
* Miqo'te tail
* Lalafell male ears
* Hat in default position, center of the brim is slightly upturned

As some of you may have guessed, both of these are designs for some of the new items I spoke of in my last letter. As stated in the last Players' Poll, we are currently working on class-specific equipment. Though the above designs are finalized, we still have to tailor and model them to each of the five races. So while I can't promise an immediate release, I promise that the wheels of progress are in motion.

For those of you worried that your favorite class or current rank won't be represented—don't be. We're working on more than just high-level gear, and plan to gradually release items for various ranks over the course of the next year. Keep a keen eye fixed on coming patch notes to see if your class is next!

Also, in my next letter I plan to explain the "introduction of new synthesis concepts" bit from last month in a little more detail.

And finally, the second Players' Poll has come to a close. As with the first, the turnout was overwhelming, with tens of thousands of users taking the time to make their voices heard. We've compiled all the data and begun to analyze it, but I've chosen to hold off revealing the raw data and my personal interpretations of the numbers until after patch 1.16 goes live. Please understand, patch content is our top priority, and the decision to temporarily delay the unveiling of the poll results was made in order to ensure the quickest possible patch release. But fret not! The data will be made available in a few days.

That's all I've got for now. Until next time, I wish you all the best in your Eorzean endeavors.

Talk to you all again in a few days! (^-^)
 

Riposte

Member
Wow, I bet those will look amazing in-game!

On another note: I really hope they don't forced old job names unto the classes in this game. It would be so jarring since each class fits very nicely into the game's setting, which has rarely been in the case in any FF.
 
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