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Meicyn · Jun 25, 2013

Riposte said:
I'm really apathetic to Limit Break as it exists now and if they can turn it into a set of cooperative mechanics as described (apparently from PSO2?), I'm all for it. Ideally, it would be more frequent. You know personally limit breaks building up slowly and being able to link to each other is pretty much like... adding FFXI's weapon skill system on top of this one. Would be amusing.

Enough fan-fiction from me though.

I haven't played PSO2, but I did play PSO and one of the more underutilized mechanics was the chaining of photon blasts. Every player had something called a MAG, which was more or less a customizable and equipable creature companion that allowed you to initiate these special abilities when your photon blast meter was fully charged, filled by taking damage or whatever. There were various photon blasts such as Pilla, which was just a big rain of AOE damage around your character, to Mylla/Youlla which was an attack/defense buff.

Initiating a photon blast took about three to four seconds. In the window of that three to four seconds for the first player who initiated it, other players could also unleash their photon blasts to chain them for a maximum of four since the party limit was four people. The incentive to chain was that the more you chained, the higher the multiplier for effects. For example, if you chained Pilla with Mylla/Youlla, both players would get the attack/defense buff instead of just the player who used Mylla/Youlla and it would be a far more potent buff than normal, including an extension to buff duration! AOE damage for Pilla would also be amplified because of the chaining, and it's by a significant amount.

However, there was one caveat... if a player used the same photon blast directly after another person, only the prior person's blast would have an effect. Two example scenarios below:

Player 1 uses Estlla (line AOE), Player 2 uses Mylla/Youlla (ATK/DEF buff), Player 3 uses Golla (single target damage), Player 4 uses Mylla/Youlla... result is that everyone's photon blasts contribute toward a crapload of damage in a linear path with an enormous attack/defense buff to the entire party.

Player 1 uses Estlla, Player 2 uses Estlla, Player 3 uses Golla, Player 4 uses Mylla/Youlla... result is that Player 2's Estlla is not counted towards increasing potency, but all other effects still apply albeit not as strong as the previous scenario.

Photon blast chaining was especially beneficial at the beginning of a boss fight. You could dish out insane damage if you had a party with fully developed MAGs and saved up your photon blasts so that you could chain them and give everyone an absurdly powerful attack/defense buff. I for one, would love something similar in this game.

BLCKATK · Jun 25, 2013

CcrooK said:
Mmmmmmm, ehhhhhhhh, can't decide which tank route I want to go. PLD or WAR.

For what I've seen now, WAR is still very good at AoE tanking, but his ability to regenerate his HP to full from AoE combat is gone, replaced with a lesser amount of HP gain. WAR's HP is still higher and his damage is still higher though. WAR also has a couple useful debuffs for DPS classes. PLD can definitely AoE tank better than before, but his damage is still lousy. However you can defend yourself really well and you have multiple abilities that can stop big enemy attacks (Spirit's Within, Shield Bash etc).

That's just from me reading and playing around with both. When the content shows up then we can really put it to the test. Personally I'm probably going to stick with PLD as it is the one I fell in love with in 1.0, but WAR's mechanics are really cool.

Parn said:
I haven't played PSO2, but I did play PSO and one of the more underutilized mechanics was the chaining of photon blasts. Every player had something called a MAG, which was more or less a customizable and equipable creature companion that allowed you to initiate these special abilities when your photon blast meter was fully charged, filled by taking damage or whatever. There were various photon blasts such as Pilla, which was just a big rain of AOE damage around your character, to Mylla/Youlla which was an attack/defense buff.

Initiating a photon blast took about three to four seconds. In the window of that three to four seconds for the first player who initiated it, other players could also unleash their photon blasts to chain them for a maximum of four since the party limit was four people. The incentive to chain was that the more you chained, the higher the multiplier for effects. For example, if you chained Pilla with Mylla/Youlla, both players would get the attack/defense buff instead of just the player who used Mylla/Youlla and it would be a far more potent buff than normal, including an extension to buff duration! AOE damage for Pilla would also be amplified because of the chaining, and it's by a significant amount.

However, there was one caveat... if a player used the same photon blast directly after another person, only the prior person's blast would have an effect. Two example scenarios below:

Player 1 uses Estlla (line AOE), Player 2 uses Mylla/Youlla (ATK/DEF buff), Player 3 uses Golla (single target damage), Player 4 uses Mylla/Youlla... result is that everyone's photon blasts contribute toward a crapload of damage in a linear path with an enormous attack/defense buff to the entire party.

Player 1 uses Estlla, Player 2 uses Estlla, Player 3 uses Golla, Player 4 uses Mylla/Youlla... result is that Player 2's Estlla not counted towards increasing potency, but all other effects still apply albeit not as strong the previous scenario.

Photon blast chaining was especially beneficial at the beginning of a boss fight. You could dish out insane damage if you had a party with fully developed MAGs and saved up your photon blasts so that you could chain them and give everyone an absurdly powerful attack/defense buff. I for one, would love something similar in this game.

You are bringing back some great memories. Photon Blasts in PSO were great! Chaining with my friends was a great way to make an Ultimate run a little easier, especially when you first hit LV 90 - 100 and its still pretty tough. That Shifta/Deband boost was incredible.

Part of me wishes that FFXIV borrowed from that instead of what we have now, but I believe that the Limit Break system will continuously be updated and altered. I wouldn't be surprised if after release Limit Breaks were not restricted by role anymore.

Teknoman · Jun 25, 2013

Excalibur and Lightbringer 4 life.

Also I think limit breaks would be better if they were tailored per job and not just classification of job.

I dunno what to think, but I kinda dont want Slepnir to end up as a special mount. Thats just a little much.

omlet · Jun 25, 2013

Riposte said:
That's the kind of stuff is what I'd like to see, although Paladin can cast cure on himself so it is not a perfect example. On the other hand I'd be totally okay if the situation was like Gladiator having the ability (and passing it on to Paladin) and casting cure on himself (somehow exclusively from Paladin), because in my vision of this mechanic classes being able to do these co-op combos alone makes them stand out from jobs and also solidifies their solo utility. (This reasoning applies best to combos that wouldn't be mainly a party benefit.)

Except that PLD shouldn't bother setting Cure anymore because it's a waste of GCD to use it because MND isn't a natural PLD stat anymore so your cures do like 1/3 of what a WHM can cure for with the same spell. At 50 I was self-healing for about 3% of my total HP vs getting healed for about 10-11% from a WHM using the same low-rank spell.

Maleko Saint · Jun 25, 2013

Teknoman said:
Excalibur and Lightbringer 4 life.

Also I think limit breaks would be better if they were tailored per job and not just classification of job.

I dunno what to think, but I kinda dont want Slepnir to end up as a special mount. Thats just a little much.

Don't think we'll have to worry about that. Stated in the same blog post it was just messing around with the Dev tools, but I don't think they'll also let something like that get into the hands of thousands of players. Funny though, the Lalafell even has his arm stretched out and readied in the same fashion that Odin does.

Allard · Jun 25, 2013

omlet said:
Except that PLD shouldn't bother setting Cure anymore because it's a waste of GCD to use it because MND isn't a natural PLD stat anymore so your cures do like 1/3 of what a WHM can cure for with the same spell. At 50 I was self-healing for about 3% of my total HP vs getting healed for about 10-11% from a WHM using the same low-rank spell.

Probably not for a group setting, but PLD does have access to one of the more efficient means of generating MP. I remember even with curing not helping nearly as much, I could be self-sufficient with my cures do to the MP combo. Plus convalescence in a tight pinch. Much like classes, certain skills have a time and place and in a small group or light party cure can be a helpful boon, especially in a close boss battle with the con running out of MP or is dead, that little bit can get you over the line.

omlet · Jun 26, 2013

Allard said:
Probably not for a group setting, but PLD does have access to one of the more efficient means of generating MP. I remember even with curing not helping nearly as much, I could be self-sufficient with my cures do to the MP combo. Plus convalescence in a tight pinch. Much like classes, certain skills have a time and place and in a small group or light party cure can be a helpful boon, especially in a close boss battle with the con running out of MP or is dead, that little bit can get you over the line.

Yeah, I'm meant in a group setting at high level. It's not bad for soloing and yeah the MP restore effect from WS is pretty decent. And it's also not bad at low level when mobs don't hit that hard even in dungeons.

LowParry · Jun 26, 2013

BLCKATK said:
For what I've seen now, WAR is still very good at AoE tanking, but his ability to regenerate his HP to full from AoE combat is gone, replaced with a lesser amount of HP gain. WAR's HP is still higher and his damage is still higher though. WAR also has a couple useful debuffs for DPS classes. PLD can definitely AoE tank better than before, but his damage is still lousy. However you can defend yourself really well and you have multiple abilities that can stop big enemy attacks (Spirit's Within, Shield Bash etc).

That's just from me reading and playing around with both. When the content shows up then we can really put it to the test. Personally I'm probably going to stick with PLD as it is the one I fell in love with in 1.0, but WAR's mechanics are really cool.

Yeah, just from coming off the MRD I could see the potential of some really fun things with it. If a WAR is tankable for end game content, I may go that route instead of PLD. I figure at the very least WAR will be excellent for light parties. Ahhhh decisions decisions.

scosher · Jun 26, 2013

Relaxed Muscle said:
While I should applaud your effort, I think your ideas shows very well why most of the complaints in the beta forums are too norrowminded. The changes in the skills basically goes againts how FF XIV ARR is built. It would work even on a more focused action MMO, like GW2, but ARR is not that way. Is like a breed of a turn based RPG with a some focus on movement on battle, something that's shown in how most battles and encounters are designed.

Not exactly the best way to start an argument by criticizing my suggestions as narrow-minded. I could say the same about your view of how "FF XIV ARR is built."

Including more movement and active abilities does not suddenly turn a game into GW2 or Tera. In fact, most of my suggestions, such as charges, blinks, feign death, roots, incapacitates, etc. are more akin to WoW. And the way FFXIV ARR is currently built, it's more like WoW than you may care to admit. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying FFXIV should become a carbon copy of WoW. But it does need to offer a wider variety of abilities than simply weaponskills and 90 second self-buffs.

By the way, the only reason GW2 feels more "action-focused" is because they allow you to cast on the move and have a dodge roll w/ invulnerability frames for every class. I'm suggesting neither for this game.

Relaxed Muscle said:
And I entirely disagree in the TP department. Yes, not wasting your TP is still TP management, but having to build TP when Mage classes can nuke from second one is still stupid. Is like asking that mages should build up MP, why no one asks that?. Yeah, maybe it needs some changes in the TP regeneration and so, but going back to built TP? No thanks.

In actual raid encounters, if you're a DPS or tank, you're going to want to output the maximum damage or threat through your rotation. How are you "wasting TP" if you're doing optimal damage? I'll just reiterate what I said in my post regarding the problem with the current TP system: At early levels, you have so much TP that you never give it any consideration. At higher levels, you become TP starved at about 3-4 minutes into a fight, but this shouldnt be construed as TP management. All this means is that players will DPS balls to the wall for 3-4 minutes before they are out of juice.

As far as your mage analogy, you do realize that THM blow through their mana pool in seconds right? And then swap to Umbral Ice to regenerate it? That's resource management. And that's the kind of TP management and depth I hope to see in Disciple of War classes, although in different ways.

Relaxed Muscle said:
The merit system is interesting and something that the team may look down the line, but I feel is something rather unnecesary in ARR. On a game when you're locked to one rol, unless you make a new character, being able to customize your character may be important, In ARR when you can change roles with one button press I don't feel is necesary.

People like character customization not to play multiple roles, but to actually focus on one role and create a sense of individuality with their build. Right now, other than the cross-class skills you choose (and most will end up choosing the same), a THM is going to be the same as every other THM.

I don't take credit for that merit system by the way. Whether they do talent trees, trait builds, merit system, what have you, I'd just like to see more character customization. Stat point allocation is an illusion and just a trap for newbie players who don't realize only 1-2 stats are actually useful for each class.

And I agree that the current Limit Break system needs some work, although I appreciate the team effort on balancing job/classes although in a kinda cheap way.

Agree with everyone that's already been discussing it. Would love to see party "skill chains" introduced to the Limit Break system as several have already mentioned. Would remind me of Chrono Trigger.

Teknoman · Jun 26, 2013

Double and Triple techs ala Chrono Trigger would be cool. It could be different from skillchains but still work with a nice timing mechanic. Say, right after someone uses a certain attack or skill, you have to have a certain amount of TP in addition to whats required for your skill input, and activate the highlighted skill within a few seconds to get another bonus effect.

Alternatively, just set it up so certain jobs can combine attacks/buffs with one another.

theSlacker · Jun 26, 2013

scosher said:
Including more movement and active abilities does not suddenly turn a game into GW2 or Tera. In fact, most of my suggestions, such as charges, blinks, feign death, roots, incapacitates, etc. are more akin to WoW. And the way FFXIV ARR is currently built, it's more like WoW than you may care to admit. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying FFXIV should become a carbon copy of WoW. But it does need to offer a wider variety of abilities than simply weaponskills and 90 second self-buffs.

By the way, the only reason GW2 feels more "action-focused" is because they allow you to cast on the move and have a dodge roll w/ invulnerability frames for every class. I'm suggesting neither for this game.

I agree completely with that, and what I've seen of the job skills just isn't enough, be it because of long cooldowns or lack of effect. Every TP class just goes though their rotation of differently named chain skills and stacks their dots. The numerous small self buffs are terrible. I do not like how they seem to have gone for quanity over quality skill wise.

scosher said:
In actual raid encounters, if you're a DPS or tank, you're going to want to output the maximum damage or threat through your rotation. How are you "wasting TP" if you're doing optimal damage? I'll just reiterate what I said in my post regarding the problem with the current TP system: At early levels, you have so much TP that you never give it any consideration. At higher levels, you become TP starved at about 3-4 minutes into a fight, but this shouldnt be construed as TP management. All this means is that players will DPS balls to the wall for 3-4 minutes before they are out of juice.

As far as your mage analogy, you do realize that THM blow through their mana pool in seconds right? And then swap to Umbral Ice to regenerate it? That's resource management. And that's the kind of TP management and depth I hope to see in Disciple of War classes, although in different ways..

More truth bombs. As a dps in a fight long enough to starve you of TP you will not lose any dps as long as you have no time when your TP is capped. Given that you are properly utilizing your cooldowns of course. Meaning people will use it now instead of saving for later. The biggest strategy that will ever been involved, TP wise, will be if you need to use a stun at a certain point, but with the size of your tp pool it would be no problem keeping even half of it free at all times, Not to mention that I think GLD has a stun on just the GCD so will not have to have the 30 second limitation that other classes that have one have.

Azzurri · Jun 26, 2013

I'm glad I'm not the only one here that would like more skills, abilities and a merit/talent system here.

Relaxed Muscle · Jun 26, 2013

scosher said:
Not exactly the best way to start an argument by criticizing my suggestions as narrow-minded. I could say the same about your view of how "FF XIV ARR is built."

Including more movement and active abilities does not suddenly turn a game into GW2 or Tera. In fact, most of my suggestions, such as charges, blinks, feign death, roots, incapacitates, etc. are more akin to WoW. And the way FFXIV ARR is currently built, it's more like WoW than you may care to admit. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying FFXIV should become a carbon copy of WoW. But it does need to offer a wider variety of abilities than simply weaponskills and 90 second self-buffs.

By the way, the only reason GW2 feels more "action-focused" is because they allow you to cast on the move and have a dodge roll w/ invulnerability frames for every class. I'm suggesting neither for this game.

In actual raid encounters, if you're a DPS or tank, you're going to want to output the maximum damage or threat through your rotation. How are you "wasting TP" if you're doing optimal damage? I'll just reiterate what I said in my post regarding the problem with the current TP system: At early levels, you have so much TP that you never give it any consideration. At higher levels, you become TP starved at about 3-4 minutes into a fight, but this shouldn’t be construed as “TP management.” All this means is that players will DPS balls to the wall for 3-4 minutes before they are out of juice.

As far as your mage analogy, you do realize that THM blow through their mana pool in seconds right? And then swap to Umbral Ice to regenerate it? That's resource management. And that's the kind of TP management and depth I hope to see in Disciple of War classes, although in different ways.

People like character customization not to play multiple roles, but to actually focus on one role and create a sense of individuality with their build. Right now, other than the cross-class skills you choose (and most will end up choosing the same), a THM is going to be the same as every other THM.

I don't take credit for that merit system by the way. Whether they do talent trees, trait builds, merit system, what have you, I'd just like to see more character customization. Stat point allocation is an illusion and just a trap for newbie players who don't realize only 1-2 stats are actually useful for each class.

Agree with everyone that's already been discussing it. Would love to see party "skill chains" introduced to the Limit Break system as several have already mentioned. Would remind me of Chrono Trigger.

I'd say arrow-minded because when people criticize the battle system, in the beta forums, they only think of the battle system without care about balancing and how enemy encounters are designed in the game, which, after all is as important.

If you add an skill that allows a player instantly move 15 yards, invincible frames or not, you're breaking all bosses I saw in phase 3. Having to be wary of the enemy and using the limited movement to avoid damage works really well, adding dash skills breaks that.

And I'd say as important as "optimal damage" what I detected in ARR is "optimal decisions". No, doing the biggest damage output in ARR is not always optimal. That's why a lot of people said the combat is simple. But every class/job have different combos for different situations and you're not suposed to use always the same one.

I discovered this playing as GLD. You have different combos:

1) The highest DPS + enmity combo, the best weapon to keep hate.

You would say that spamming is all you need, but that's not right. You have another combo that deals less damage but give you MP back. Or you have to use Shield Bash that stuns and interrupts dangerous attacks.

The problem is, that DD's keep spamming attacks, wasting TP instead of a more carefully control of hate and TP and putting extra preassure on the tank. If I want to waste a GCD turn on using shield bash because the boss gonna use fucking Thunder III, I should. That's a way more optimal move that keep doing the highest amount of dmg/hate.

I'd say that this will become even more evident in the high end content. And I predict this if you end with no TP and "penalized" with base dmg for 3 or 4 min, you're party isn't playing right and you deserve that.

About skill variety, I'm fine with having more focused roles and then having more variety of skills when other jobs classes are introduced. And I agree that stats points are usless right now, basically because stats become kinda stupid.

theSlacker · Jun 26, 2013

Relaxed Muscle said:
I'd say that this will become even more evident in the high end content. And I predict this if you end with no TP and "penalized" with base dmg for 3 or 4 min, you're party isn't playing right and you deserve that.

There is no penalty as long as you are never capped, and keep enough TP to shoot out a 20 second burst every time your 600 cross class dps cooldowns are up. The only times you are actively losing dps is when you are TP capped or if you are staved with cooldowns up. Planning around those events are basic even in games where every class has a different resource that is much more limited.

I'd say arrow-minded because when people criticize the battle system, in the beta forums, they only think of the battle system without care about balancing and how enemy encounters are designed in the game, which, after all is as important.

If you add an skill that allows a player instantly move 15 yards, invincible frames or not, you're breaking all bosses I saw in phase 3. Having to be wary of the enemy and using the limited movement to avoid damage works really well, adding dash skills breaks that.

Balance new fights and use the current ones as the basic learning bosses. You know, what you would expect from the low level instances. A small price to pay for abilities that are actually fun to use and justify a small cool down instead of everything being just a little more damage with a flashy animation.

Relaxed Muscle · Jun 26, 2013

theSlacker said:
Balance new fights and use the current ones as the basic learning bosses. You know, what you would expect from the low level instances. A small price to pay for abilities that are actually fun to use and justify a small cool down instead of everything being just a little more damage with a flashy animation.

Adding lvl 10 dash skills dosn't sound fun to me if the result is dull content and broken bosses, Aetherial Manipulation for BLM at 50 is actually more fun, limited and restricted and makes sense.

If you want dash skills, feign death, etc... play other games or wait until they bring them on other jobs/classes once they perfected the basics, adding more stuff for the sake of stuff is never good idea.

theSlacker · Jun 26, 2013

Relaxed Muscle said:
Adding lvl 10 dash skills dosn't sound fun to me if the result is dull content and broken bosses, Aetherial Manipulation for BLM at 50 is actually more fun, limited and restricted and makes sense.

If you want dash skills, feign death, etc... play other games or wait until they bring them on other jobs/classes once they perfected the basics, adding more stuff for the sake of stuff is never good idea.

Adding it to every class doesn't sound fun to me either since my main complain with the lack of these unique skills is how similar every class's play style is. Yes, Aetherial Manipulation does sound fun. The problem is that it is one skill you get at max level and it's on a 3 minute cool down, which can be an eternity. Coincidentally that is the same cool down as a Dragoon's movement skills.

Yes, I do want more unique skills instead of 50 (weak) 20 second buffs, a handful of dots, a stun, and a branching combo or two per class. Yes, I do play other games. Having more stuff for the sake of stuff seems to be the policy they have used with the current system. Why a class needs half a dozen skills that are all just "spam these to do damage" is beyond me.

No one should be suggesting just shoving new things in the game without any balance consideration of course. Telling people to just deal with the systems in place and see where the game takes them is the exact attitude people took in the 1.0 beta though, and look where that got us.

Jinko · Jun 26, 2013

CcrooK said:
Mmmmmmm, ehhhhhhhh, can't decide which tank route I want to go. PLD or WAR.

Go both, if its like 1.0 they will be specific to what you are tanking, of course you can't switch half way through a dungeon anymore.

Good thing is that they "should" use similar gear as long as its not class/job specific.

scosher said:
In actual raid encounters, if you're a DPS or tank, you're going to want to output the maximum damage or threat through your rotation. How are you "wasting TP" if you're doing optimal damage? I'll just reiterate what I said in my post regarding the problem with the current TP system: At early levels, you have so much TP that you never give it any consideration. At higher levels, you become TP starved at about 3-4 minutes into a fight, but this shouldn’t be construed as “TP management.” All this means is that players will DPS balls to the wall for 3-4 minutes before they are out of juice.

As far as your mage analogy, you do realize that THM blow through their mana pool in seconds right? And then swap to Umbral Ice to regenerate it? That's resource management. And that's the kind of TP management and depth I hope to see in Disciple of War classes, although in different ways..

Perhaps, but I feel you are forgetting something very important and that is hate/enmity, in a raid encounter you can't go "balls to the wall" if you want to live long and don't want to piss your tank and healer off.

I don't disagree that there is still a lot of fine tuning to be done with the TP system and battle system in general, but comapred to phase 2 the battle system is already looking a lot better with the simple change of GCD's.

Just like in 1.0 I expect this game to go through several battle revisions, just like WoW and every other MMO has during its time after launch.

And I'd say as important as "optimal damage" what I detected in ARR is "optimal decisions". No, doing the biggest damage output in ARR is not always optimal. That's why a lot of people said the combat is simple. But every class/job have different combos for different situations and you're not suposed to use always the same one

This, fights like Ifrit and Garuda aren't really about DPS they are about survivability and making the right choices, keeping DPS up is important of course but even in WoW if you don't move about at the correct moments you will be dead and then resource management and all the DPS in the world isn't going to help you.

Munba · Jun 26, 2013

It seems Beta3 will end on July 14.

Please note: FFXIV Beta Phase 3 will end on Sunday, July 14 at 2am PST. PS3 Beta Phase 3 registration codes will expire at this time. Characters will not carry over into Beta Phase 4 and new PS3 Beta keys will be required to access Beta Phase 4.

http://www.gamesradar.com/keygiveaways/final-fantasy-XIV/

Jijidasu · Jun 26, 2013

Munba said:
It seems Beta3 will end on July 14.

http://www.gamesradar.com/keygiveaways/final-fantasy-XIV/

Seems very likely to be true. As I mentioned in an earlier post there is a niconico live event with Yusuke, Higeoyaji and Yoshida on that day about phase 3, I imagine it will mark the end of it.

Gromph · Jun 26, 2013

Munba said:
It seems Beta3 will end on July 14.

http://www.gamesradar.com/keygiveaways/final-fantasy-XIV/

Jijidasu said:
Seems very likely to be true. As I mentioned in an earlier post there is a niconico live event with Yusuke, Higeoyaji and Yoshida on that day about phase 3, I imagine it will mark the end of it.

So maybe on Test #4 is the 24x7 online until the event

Jinko · Jun 26, 2013

Gromph said:
So maybe on Test #4 is the 24x7 online until the event

Seems that way, it was mentioned that phase 4 would be 3-4 days after phase 3 also, if no major issues were discovered.

PopInnovation · Jun 26, 2013

So... we need to be invited to phase 4 even if we were in the beta for phase 3 on ps3?

Not sure how that makes sense...

mackaveli · Jun 26, 2013

PopInnovation said:
So... we need to be invited to phase 4 even if we were in the beta for phase 3 on ps3?

Not sure how that makes sense...

NVM. I thought phase 4 was open beta???

Mature · Jun 26, 2013

Phase 4 of the beta test is open to everyone. =)

ZiZ · Jun 26, 2013

Jinko said:
Seems that way, it was mentioned that phase 4 would be 3-4 days after phase 3 also, if no major issues were discovered.

really? I was under the impression that it would be in mid august, and like only a week or so long.

Allard · Jun 26, 2013

ZiZ said:
really? I was under the impression that it would be in mid august, and like only a week or so long.

They are actually testing a sizable amount of stuff in preparation for launch client and the first update after launch. For one, they are testing PvP in phase 4 (This is the one thing that 'won't' be transferring over to the launch version, they made that very clear semi recently), and they are stress testing the housing system in phase 4. On top numerous other services that hadn't been large scale tested yet that are expected to be in at launch.

ZiZ · Jun 26, 2013

Allard said:
They are actually testing a sizable amount of stuff in preparation for launch client and the first update after launch. For one, they are testing PvP in phase 4 (This is the one thing that 'won't' be transferring over to the launch version, they made that very clear semi recently), and they are stress testing the housing system in phase 4. On top numerous other services that hadn't been large scale tested yet that are expected to be in at launch.

housing is in Phase 4? I hope they don't expect us to buy testing houses with our money seeing as how you get to keep Phase 4 money.

but that's really good to know. It makes the wait much easier.

Skyler · Jun 26, 2013

There'll only be 1-3 days downtime between Phase 4 and Early Access, and the Beta Roadmap has Phase 4 as only 1-2 weeks long.

Teknoman · Jun 26, 2013

Another PC key give away was posted in the other thread by Ricck:

http://www.zam.com/giveaways/final-fantasy-xiv-a-realm-reborn.html

Allard · Jun 26, 2013

ZiZ said:
housing is in Phase 4? I hope they don't expect us to buy testing houses with our money seeing as how you get to keep Phase 4 money.

but that's really good to know. It makes the wait much easier.

They won't charge or charge much, it will be like chocobo companions in current beta more then likely, something triggered from the wandering bard. The whole point of the test is to see how the zones work with numerous players in the zone along with testing how much the zones can handle with the housing instances and when they need to add new instances when it gets too full. You won't get to keep the houses and likely won't get to use the 'features' of the houses so the data can't be corrupted when ported over to the launch game.

devious.one · Jun 26, 2013

Allard said:
They won't charge or charge much, it will be like chocobo companions in current beta more then likely, something triggered from the wandering bard. The whole point of the test is to see how the zones work with numerous players in the zone along with testing how much the zones can handle with the housing instances and when they need to add new instances when it gets too full. You won't get to keep the houses and likely won't get to use the 'features' of the houses so the data can't be corrupted when ported over to the launch game.

On top of that, come release I doubt Housing stuff will be crazy expensive anyways. Yoshi-p basically said one of the ways he plans to combat Gilsellers is by taking the emphasis off of needing large amounts of gil for stuff in game.

Allard · Jun 26, 2013

devious.one said:
On top of that, come release I doubt Housing stuff will be crazy expensive anyways. Yoshi-p basically said one of the ways he plans to combat Gilsellers is by taking the emphasis off of needing large amounts of gil for stuff in game.

Welll.... except Yoshida mentioned specifically for housing it actually would take all the gil of 4-5 friends to get even the lowest form of housing upon its release XD. Housing plots can be bought and traded, the price also fluctuates based on demand. At the start the price will be the highest and it slowly drifted lower day by day waiting for someone to snatch it at a specific price.

Ferr986 · Jun 26, 2013

Allard said:
Welll.... except Yoshida mentioned specifically for housing it actually would take all the gil of 4-5 friends to get even the lowest form of housing upon its release XD. Housing plots can be bought and traded, the price also fluctuates based on demand. At the start the price will be the highest and it slowly drifted lower day by day waiting for someone to snatch it at a specific price.

So, theres not personal houses for one person? only houses for free companies?

Ricck · Jun 26, 2013

From FFXIV's twitter, there's some PS3 beta keys here. ( the site is getting hammered)
http://www.novacrystallis.com/?p=7759

Yondy604 · Jun 26, 2013

Tons of keys going around

RiderKairuu · Jun 26, 2013

UGH I need a PS3 key

C.Dark.DN · Jun 26, 2013

Here's a PC and PSN key that might work hopefully from that German facebook giveaway. Your need to create German or European SE and PSN accounts. The keys and German instructions are below.

Quote to see.

Allard · Jun 26, 2013

Ferr986 said:
So, theres not personal houses for one person? only houses for free companies?

At the start of housing service, housing will be free company only. After housing has been established and they see how many resources (on server side) they need, they will open it up for personal housing, and even further then that they may even make it possible to have more then 1 house on a personal level in the future. This is their plan, it will have personal housing in the not to distant future but housing will launch with just free company angle on it, and it will supposedly be expensive to start.

Teknoman · Jun 26, 2013

Yondy604 said:
Tons of keys going around

Hopefully we'll have alot more worthwhile feedback coming.

C.Dark.DN · Jun 26, 2013

So... Warrior is going to be a tank while Dragoon and Monk are the only two melee DPS in groups? Will Warrior DPS be viable?

ebil · Jun 26, 2013

C.Dark.DN said:
So... Warrior is going to be a tank while Dragoon and Monk are the only two melee DPS in groups? Will Warrior DPS be viable?

I don't think WAR will be a viable DPS in a full party anymore (but they might still shine in low-man content). I mean you could not be using Defiance but that kind of defeats the point of being a WAR in the first place as your most powerful Job Actions use Wrath.
I see Marauder getting a dedicated DPS job (like Berserker or Viking) when they introduce alternate jobs, though.

Relaxed Muscle · Jun 26, 2013

C.Dark.DN said:
So... Warrior is going to be a tank while Dragoon and Monk are the only two melee DPS in groups? Will Warrior DPS be viable?

Well he can do more dmg than PLD, but I doubt he can hold againts any other DPS. Is clearly designed as a Tank.

So yeah, only DRG or MNK on launch for melee DD.

theSlacker · Jun 26, 2013

C.Dark.DN said:
So... Warrior is going to be a tank while Dragoon and Monk are the only two melee DPS in groups? Will Warrior DPS be viable?

Either way it looks like Warrior will be more fun. Their job skill seems like it actually changes the way they play and gives them a separate resource to manage. Even currently with the way skills are Marauder feels more fun then lancer. Get a ton more survivability solo and feels like around the same damage around lv 30 along with a cone aoe attack. Would be even more fun if Mercy Stroke had a 30 second cooldown, but whatever, seems everything gets long cooldowns in this game.

This is coming from a life long mmorpg melee dpser. I want Lancer to be more fun, but just doesn't feel that way. Unlike other games the pure dps melee classes just don't seem like they get enough in return for the lack of being able to tank.

Jijidasu · Jun 26, 2013

Teknoman said:
Hopefully we'll have alot more worthwhile feedback coming.

I wouldn't count on it mate. I put it down to about 3 in 10 testers have the capacity to deliver legible feedback, and about 1 in 10 of them do it in a way that's not outright embarrassing.

Seeing the more recent Rep responses I get the feeling they've more or less set a standard in which they can meet before launch, the rest of the changes are either going to be later or not addressed. Particularly that no in instance /tell business, that's just silly.

LowParry · Jun 26, 2013

From what I've read, PLD is your best single target tank. WAR as your best AoE target tank. Whatever the hell that's suppose to mean. lol - either way I'm still debating which route to go with tanking. I like both. Hell, I may just level up both.

omlet · Jun 27, 2013

PLD AoE tanks just fine as long as your DPS are assisting correctly.

Allard · Jun 27, 2013

omlet said:
PLD AoE tanks just fine as long as your DPS are assisting correctly.

Same with WAR single target tanking. Its a lot more evenly spread compared to 1.0. They just tank differently but not differently enough where it requires restrategizing the entire party. Warrior... the Brute Force Tank, Paladin... The resource management Tank. Both wear heavy armor, both can deal semi decent damage with the right mindset, both can AOE tank, both can single target tank. Warrior just does AOE tanking by damage and general damage mitigation (defense up) or partially healing itself with the damage it does. PLD tanks using MP and tp balance and its moves are more focused on control of battle rather then specifically damage (Flash AOE for hate + blind). In the end they make a great pair in 8 player parties rather then needing one over the other.

Jijidasu · Jun 27, 2013

With FFXIV: ARR now in it's final phase and heading into the release window next week I have compiled a bunch of information in regards how to maximise the visual quality of the game.

By using the following tweaks you can expect your frames to drop a small amount, depending on your hardware.

For now the SGSSAA profile and down-sampling method listed in this guide is only covering Nvidia cards as I have no knowledge of how AMD handles these processes. If someone is using something similar on AMD hardware please PM me and I will have it added.
---

Anti-Aliasing for FFXIV

As of phase 3 (phase 4 yet to be confirmed) FFXIV: ARR has a very ineffective source of FXAA which is why the game looks extremely jaggy without it being down-sampled. For those unable to down-sample (guide below) we thankfully have Nvidia Inspector with SGSSAA (Sparse Grid Super Sample Ant-Aliasing) here to save the day:

FFXIV: ARR at 1440p down-sampled to 1080p with 4x SGSSAA looks like this:

Click to expand...

How to force SGSSAA with Nvidia Inspector:

Step 1: http://www.techspot.com/downloads/5077-nvidia-inspector.html Download and unzip in a safe place.

Step 2: Open Nvidia Inspector and on the right side in the middle area is a red box with a spanner and screwdriver, click it.

Step 3: This is the control panel where you can change things. Click the yellow star/sun icon at the top.

Step 4: Box prompt, name the new profile whatever you like (FFXIV:ARR)

Step 5: Now you have your new profile made, click the icon two icons to the right of the yellow sun icon.

Step 6: Add ffxiv.exe from the SquareEnix/FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn (Beta Version)/game directory.

Step 7: Copy the settings in this image directly:

Step 8: For Antialiasing compatibility you MUST type in 0x004012C5 as it will not show in the drop down.

Step 9: Click apply changes.

Step 10: Done.

Down-sampling

Refer to this Neogaf thread by Corky for detailed step-by-step instructions.

When using down-sampling you will notice much higher contrast, I encourage players to fiddle with the in-game screen gamma settings to fix this to your liking.

SweetFX

SweetFX works with AMD and Nvidia hardware alike.

SweetFX is a visual enhancement suite which can alter tonality, contrast add HDR and Bloom among many other things. It is in effect an active "photoshop" filter for games.

To install place unzipped files in both /SquareEnix/FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn (Beta Version)/game and /SquareEnix/FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn (Beta Version)/boot directories. You can alter the settings in your SweetFX_settings.txt. I also recommend adjusting your in game gamma.

Download HERE.

C.Dark.DN · Jun 27, 2013

Neat, I'll mess around and see what kind of FPS I get on my notebook , lol. 660M.

Mature · Jun 27, 2013

Why are the new thread counts for the beta forum limited to 750 characters? =/

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