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Final Fantasy XIV Information Thread | PC Open Beta... yeah it's not really open.
- Thread starter Kagari
- Start date
Classic_Gs
Member
Original model or new i5, i7?hteng said:on my Alienware m11x with CPU OC, i got like 1300ishframe rate is around 20-30 so i guess it's fine for mobile gaming.
Classic_Gs
Member
[8000 and over] Extremely High PerformanceFirestorm said:
the hell do these numbers mean
Easily capable of running the game on the highest settings.
[55007999] Very High Performance
Easily capable of running the game. Should perform exceptionally well, even at higher resolutions.
[4500-5499] High Performance
Easily capable of running the game. Should perform well, even at higher resolutions.
[3000-4499] Fairly High Performance
Capable of running the game on default settings. Consider switching to a higher resolution depending on performance.
[2500-2999] Standard Performance
Capable of running the game on default settings.
[2000-2499] Slightly Low Performance
Capable of running the game, but may experience some slowdown. Adjust settings to improve performance.
[1500-1999] Low Performance
Capable of running the game, but will experience considerable slowdown. Adjusting settings is unlikely to improve performance.
[Under 1500] Insufficient Performance
Does not meet specifications for running the game.
Taken from FFXIVcore.com
InfiniteNine
Rolling Girl
Hope it's spruced up a bit, since I'd rather see a few on the races on the cover.
FFXIVcore -
FFXIV Beta to begin in one month from today (16th June 2010)
Our lovely translators have translated a recent Famitsu article from E3, where they interview Tanaka. Read the translated quote yourself.
Tanaka: The beta version we're showing at E3 is nearly complete and should be ready to be made public soon. Currently, we're still debugging. Once alpha tests finish this week and we return to Japan, we will begin preparations for the start of beta testing. It's not set in stone, but I think I'll need to make everyone wait for one more month.
FFXIV Beta to begin in one month from today (16th June 2010)
Our lovely translators have translated a recent Famitsu article from E3, where they interview Tanaka. Read the translated quote yourself.
Tanaka: The beta version we're showing at E3 is nearly complete and should be ready to be made public soon. Currently, we're still debugging. Once alpha tests finish this week and we return to Japan, we will begin preparations for the start of beta testing. It's not set in stone, but I think I'll need to make everyone wait for one more month.
InfiniteNine
Rolling Girl
Hell yeah, I get to join in on the action then! Can't wait for the PS3 invites to start going out!
HomerSimpson-Man
Member
Classic_Gs said:
Didn't know any of this. I just said "Screw this" and enabled FRAPS and saw the game run from 30 to 60 fps on high and nodded my head.
Classic_Gs
Member
Rather bland.Kagari said:
This is up on SCEA's website.
InfiniteNine
Rolling Girl
Goddamnit, they need to keep the phases named consistently. ):Kagari said:
Kagari said:
From this german website
And the boxart is shit, hope it's just a placeholder. We need a plain background and the logo, or an amazing illustration by Amano like most of XI's boxart.
Final Fantasy XIV.
The private demonstration was broken up into three phases, and then an interview with...I want to say...Tanaka and other guy? Man, lying and saying you're from EGM really gets you places.
Phase 1 was character creation. I essentially didn't give a fuck, so I implored my guide to skip immediately to Phase 2.
Phase 2 was a guided tour around the beautiful city of Limsa Lominsa. It was a triple, wide-screen monitor setup in 3-D (he still would not confirm 3-D for the final product, but really, why the hell would you not?), which was pretty awesome. He directed me around the absolutely beautiful city, keen to highlight the new lighting engine (it *was* pretty awesome). He showed off the Adventurer's Guild (didn't go inside), the Culinarian's Guild, and some random points of interest throughout the city. I was using a standard PS3 controller, though a keyboard and mouse was arranged in front of me, and it was perfectly natural.
One of the most impressive aspects of the graphics (which were a bit glitchy at this odd stage between alpha and beta) was that since the city and outlying areas are technically the same "zone", you can see other (tiny) adventurers out in the steppes running around and fighting. And that's fucking FAR, maybe the equivalent of half a mile or more. The draw distance is absolutely insane.
This Phase wasn't quite the most intense, though, so once again, I slammed my guide's head against a wall until we moved on to Phase 3.
Phase 3 was a quick guildleve quest (with an NPC buddy helper) in a subterranean area. It's been awhile since I played XI, but it was directly comparable to the tunnels outside of Norg (I want to say Kuftal?) It was absolutely beautiful. I can't stress this enough. Varicolored, bioluminescent plantlife lit up the damp, natural textures of a natural cave system. The 3-D really brought it to life, too.
After a quick primer on how to fight/bring up the menu (keep in mind, I have NO experience with the Alpha, so I won't be able to tell what changed), the quest was on to defeat four GIANT ENEMY CRABS (yes). So, I wandered around and found a pair, and engaged in battle. They linked, I might add.
The battle system is extremely, extremely interesting. I played as a Thurmaturge, which was a bit off for me, as I was almost exclusively a melee character in XI. Moreover, I was soloing (well, duoing, my NPC character providing support), so I'm not sure how the pace will direct correlate, but it seemed significantly faster than a battle in XI. One fantastic feature is the ability to queue up abilities and spells, which apparently plays an important role in the "batttle regimen" skillchaining, which he was unable to demo.
The new stamina system was interesting, to say the least. Almost all abilities require stamina, some more than others. Your stamina bar slowly recharges, of course, but the bar acts almost as a variable sort of Action Bar from FFXIII, where you can decide how to fill it up. This is an added layer atop MP cost (many direct damage spells DID NOT COST MP), and atop recast time (many spells did not have a recast time, either), meaning that in many circumstances, your damage was *only* limited by your stamina gauge. There are also, of course, TP attacks. TP built up *fast* (I had 2,900 in less than a minute), and the two abilities I had only 1,000 TP. Since they were labeled as such, I assume certain TP attacks will cost more or less TP, which is fantastic, as I thought the weapon skill system in FFXI was rather dull.
This is a LOT to keep track of, and should offer a great amount of depth, in my personal opinion. Stamina, MP, TP, Recast Time, Battle Regimen, and so on. Spells I had included two direct damage, Paralyze, Gravity, Poison, Bio, Drain, two TP, and a thirty-minute-recast-time ability called "Regain MP", or something, which either completely or at least drastically refills your MP in a pinch. I love the reduction of two-hour abilities into thirty-minute abilities, as the two-hours would cause tons of boring wait time between difficult battles as players waited for their trump cards to return.
Anyway, after I defeated the first crab, the second one TOOK OFF. I had to put away my weapon into passive mode to run fast enough to catch up as it scuttled through the cave. It finally found two buddy crabs, and immediately turned to fight with its new reinforcements. Quick note: as long as you're in passive mode, your HP and MP regened at a fair clip. This is the primary reason, I assume, why nomad XP groups will be the norm in XIV, as there's really just no reason to sit there waiting for things to spawn. In any case, I crushed two of the crabs, and the third took off yet again, leading me to the cave cul-de-sac with some water spirits. Having reached a dead-end, the crab turned in one last desperate attempt to fight, but was quickly dispatched.
At this point, I'm not sure if this was in the original stated goal of the guildleve, but I then had to kill two water spirits (which look completely awesome) in the same cul-de-sac. Here, we had some serious issues. I become oddly locked on the second row of my two rows of spells, which unfortunately lacked any kind of direct damage spell. (Two rows/20 slots is all you get, by the way.) Switched to keyboard/mouse, no luck. So, I was unable to kill the water spirits, but I'm sure I would have destroyed them given a proper chance. Bug report!
In the interest of giving people something to read, I'll post this now. I'll edit momentarily to include what I learned from the (fairly short) interview with the devs.
Edit: So, I sat down with two very important looking Japanese men and asked them questions via a translator. First we were offered a traditional Japanese lunch, though, which was delicious, so thank you, Square Enix.
We didn't have much time, so we were only able to ask a few questions. Let me...let me grab my notebook here...
First question was, blah blah blah, success of WoW, how would you say these elements impacted your design, and which elements were you absolutely adamant in retaining from FFXI?
He stated that their primary focus in FFXIV was creating an environment that would lend itself to a more casual session of play. However, the depth and complexity of FFXI, especially at higher levels, would be retains and expanded upon. Also, they really wanted to retain cross-platform compatibility.
Second question, if you knew that your game would sell equal amounts either way, would you make it a more difficult title, or a more casual title?
Here, they took the politically correct approach of, "Well, we love variety. We would want the initial stages to be friendly and welcoming, but the later stages need to be challenging in order to give the player a sense of accomplishment when they achieve certain milestones. This is really what we aimed for in FFXIV."
Third question, large-scale battles in the first game typically took place with 18 players in an alliance. Are you planning the change of the scale of these battles in XIV, and if they are made larger, how can you reconcile that with your desire to make the game easier to pick up and play?
Here, they almost directly said no, we're not really looking to change it. In fact, parties will have a 15-player hard maximum, which also implies to me that the clunky three-parties-into-an-alliance system is gone, thank goodness.
Fourth question was how are you planning to integrate the game with social networking features outside of the game itself?
This was a weird one. One of the men (not Tanaka) seemed to want to flex his English and attempt to answer this question without his translator, but I couldn't get a ton out of it. He claimed that the official FFXIV website will be a very "in-depth" experience with personalized information, and that players could form something larger than linkshells called "companies"? I couldn't quite get the gist, here, but I didn't want to seem rude, so I just nodded and smiled.
Final question was, you obviously are trying to draw the FFXI userbase with some familiar and comfortable elements, such as the design of the races. How do you plan to really offer new experiences for these loyal players at higher levels?
He really talked up the Armoury system, and how it was his desire to completely eliminate the concept of an "accepted build" via min/maxing at the end-game, stressing unique combinations of abilities. Which sounded awesome to me, anyway.
And that's it! Feel free to ask me any questions you'd like.
The private demonstration was broken up into three phases, and then an interview with...I want to say...Tanaka and other guy? Man, lying and saying you're from EGM really gets you places.
Phase 1 was character creation. I essentially didn't give a fuck, so I implored my guide to skip immediately to Phase 2.
Phase 2 was a guided tour around the beautiful city of Limsa Lominsa. It was a triple, wide-screen monitor setup in 3-D (he still would not confirm 3-D for the final product, but really, why the hell would you not?), which was pretty awesome. He directed me around the absolutely beautiful city, keen to highlight the new lighting engine (it *was* pretty awesome). He showed off the Adventurer's Guild (didn't go inside), the Culinarian's Guild, and some random points of interest throughout the city. I was using a standard PS3 controller, though a keyboard and mouse was arranged in front of me, and it was perfectly natural.
One of the most impressive aspects of the graphics (which were a bit glitchy at this odd stage between alpha and beta) was that since the city and outlying areas are technically the same "zone", you can see other (tiny) adventurers out in the steppes running around and fighting. And that's fucking FAR, maybe the equivalent of half a mile or more. The draw distance is absolutely insane.
This Phase wasn't quite the most intense, though, so once again, I slammed my guide's head against a wall until we moved on to Phase 3.
Phase 3 was a quick guildleve quest (with an NPC buddy helper) in a subterranean area. It's been awhile since I played XI, but it was directly comparable to the tunnels outside of Norg (I want to say Kuftal?) It was absolutely beautiful. I can't stress this enough. Varicolored, bioluminescent plantlife lit up the damp, natural textures of a natural cave system. The 3-D really brought it to life, too.
After a quick primer on how to fight/bring up the menu (keep in mind, I have NO experience with the Alpha, so I won't be able to tell what changed), the quest was on to defeat four GIANT ENEMY CRABS (yes). So, I wandered around and found a pair, and engaged in battle. They linked, I might add.
The battle system is extremely, extremely interesting. I played as a Thurmaturge, which was a bit off for me, as I was almost exclusively a melee character in XI. Moreover, I was soloing (well, duoing, my NPC character providing support), so I'm not sure how the pace will direct correlate, but it seemed significantly faster than a battle in XI. One fantastic feature is the ability to queue up abilities and spells, which apparently plays an important role in the "batttle regimen" skillchaining, which he was unable to demo.
The new stamina system was interesting, to say the least. Almost all abilities require stamina, some more than others. Your stamina bar slowly recharges, of course, but the bar acts almost as a variable sort of Action Bar from FFXIII, where you can decide how to fill it up. This is an added layer atop MP cost (many direct damage spells DID NOT COST MP), and atop recast time (many spells did not have a recast time, either), meaning that in many circumstances, your damage was *only* limited by your stamina gauge. There are also, of course, TP attacks. TP built up *fast* (I had 2,900 in less than a minute), and the two abilities I had only 1,000 TP. Since they were labeled as such, I assume certain TP attacks will cost more or less TP, which is fantastic, as I thought the weapon skill system in FFXI was rather dull.
This is a LOT to keep track of, and should offer a great amount of depth, in my personal opinion. Stamina, MP, TP, Recast Time, Battle Regimen, and so on. Spells I had included two direct damage, Paralyze, Gravity, Poison, Bio, Drain, two TP, and a thirty-minute-recast-time ability called "Regain MP", or something, which either completely or at least drastically refills your MP in a pinch. I love the reduction of two-hour abilities into thirty-minute abilities, as the two-hours would cause tons of boring wait time between difficult battles as players waited for their trump cards to return.
Anyway, after I defeated the first crab, the second one TOOK OFF. I had to put away my weapon into passive mode to run fast enough to catch up as it scuttled through the cave. It finally found two buddy crabs, and immediately turned to fight with its new reinforcements. Quick note: as long as you're in passive mode, your HP and MP regened at a fair clip. This is the primary reason, I assume, why nomad XP groups will be the norm in XIV, as there's really just no reason to sit there waiting for things to spawn. In any case, I crushed two of the crabs, and the third took off yet again, leading me to the cave cul-de-sac with some water spirits. Having reached a dead-end, the crab turned in one last desperate attempt to fight, but was quickly dispatched.
At this point, I'm not sure if this was in the original stated goal of the guildleve, but I then had to kill two water spirits (which look completely awesome) in the same cul-de-sac. Here, we had some serious issues. I become oddly locked on the second row of my two rows of spells, which unfortunately lacked any kind of direct damage spell. (Two rows/20 slots is all you get, by the way.) Switched to keyboard/mouse, no luck. So, I was unable to kill the water spirits, but I'm sure I would have destroyed them given a proper chance. Bug report!
In the interest of giving people something to read, I'll post this now. I'll edit momentarily to include what I learned from the (fairly short) interview with the devs.
Edit: So, I sat down with two very important looking Japanese men and asked them questions via a translator. First we were offered a traditional Japanese lunch, though, which was delicious, so thank you, Square Enix.
We didn't have much time, so we were only able to ask a few questions. Let me...let me grab my notebook here...
First question was, blah blah blah, success of WoW, how would you say these elements impacted your design, and which elements were you absolutely adamant in retaining from FFXI?
He stated that their primary focus in FFXIV was creating an environment that would lend itself to a more casual session of play. However, the depth and complexity of FFXI, especially at higher levels, would be retains and expanded upon. Also, they really wanted to retain cross-platform compatibility.
Second question, if you knew that your game would sell equal amounts either way, would you make it a more difficult title, or a more casual title?
Here, they took the politically correct approach of, "Well, we love variety. We would want the initial stages to be friendly and welcoming, but the later stages need to be challenging in order to give the player a sense of accomplishment when they achieve certain milestones. This is really what we aimed for in FFXIV."
Third question, large-scale battles in the first game typically took place with 18 players in an alliance. Are you planning the change of the scale of these battles in XIV, and if they are made larger, how can you reconcile that with your desire to make the game easier to pick up and play?
Here, they almost directly said no, we're not really looking to change it. In fact, parties will have a 15-player hard maximum, which also implies to me that the clunky three-parties-into-an-alliance system is gone, thank goodness.
Fourth question was how are you planning to integrate the game with social networking features outside of the game itself?
This was a weird one. One of the men (not Tanaka) seemed to want to flex his English and attempt to answer this question without his translator, but I couldn't get a ton out of it. He claimed that the official FFXIV website will be a very "in-depth" experience with personalized information, and that players could form something larger than linkshells called "companies"? I couldn't quite get the gist, here, but I didn't want to seem rude, so I just nodded and smiled.
Final question was, you obviously are trying to draw the FFXI userbase with some familiar and comfortable elements, such as the design of the races. How do you plan to really offer new experiences for these loyal players at higher levels?
He really talked up the Armoury system, and how it was his desire to completely eliminate the concept of an "accepted build" via min/maxing at the end-game, stressing unique combinations of abilities. Which sounded awesome to me, anyway.
And that's it! Feel free to ask me any questions you'd like.
notworksafe
Member
HappyBivouac
Member
Kandinsky said:
You're the worst cynic ever.
New Famitsu Interview.
http://www.eorzeapedia.com/2010/06/17/famitsu-interviews-tanaka-and-kurosawa-at-e3/
http://www.eorzeapedia.com/2010/06/17/famitsu-interviews-tanaka-and-kurosawa-at-e3/
InfiniteNine
Rolling Girl
Bart? That's a weird name for a dragon.jiggle said:10 bucks says it starts with a B and ends with a T
IonicSnake
Banned
InfiniteNine said:
Most likley Burt.
InfiniteNine
Rolling Girl
Ah, that makes much more sense!IonicSnake said:
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