Final Fantasy XIV

[toythatkills]

I hope everyone is made to start from scratch...

[MyNameIsBruce]

Another ex xi player here will definitely be looking forward to this, hope it wont make my pc cry, as its a bit old, that would mean I need a PS3...

[sj33]

I'll be playing it even if I have to run it at lowest graphics settings tbh.

[C']

Good news, it will be interesting to start on a brand new server this time round without high lvl JP players already way ahead.

Also would be nice if they kept the same server names and gave you the opportunity to claim character names from the same server on FFXI, so you can be sure noones gonna take your name.

It will be nice if we could ensure we can keep our character names reserved for the new game. There's talk over at AK about the possibilites of character transferring across games which I'd say is highly unlikely but even if it was offered I think I'd rather start from scratch.

I still have fond memories of Rargh: The Early Years, all newbies doing low level missions and stuff. I remember randomly bumping into Tobal on La Theine Plateau on one of my early sessions and teaming up only to get randomly slaughtered by a passing orc. And our assault on the Shadow Lord was still a brilliant event.

I've had people say to me that I took a long time leveling up, haven't experienced a wide number of jobs etc. but I wouldn't do anything different. I enjoyed it so much.

[Hohum]

I hope everyone is made to start from scratch...

Extremely unlikely that they will let you port across characters from the previous game, so this should be the case.

Tobal, can you change that image to a link instead please?

[Daragon]

I'm not entirely convinced it will be set in Vana'Diel, so it probably wouldn't make too much sense to allow a transfer.

Plus if it's introducing a male mithra, I see quite a few players wanting a race/sex change.

[mikewl]

Any character transfer would be just the name and race and maybe some rare/ex newbie gear.

[SuperBeatBoy]

FFXI has to be the worlds most boring mmo i have had the trouble of getting into. More so than Eve space ferrying Online.

Its probably going to be really japanese and outdated on release, WoW is probably going to be 10 years ahead of this on launch. Ouch!

Gah, i'm in a rotten mood tonight. Ignore me!

[GluedOnBeard]

For anyone to state that EVE is more fun than FFXI must be in a state of madness!!

I am going to try and hear as little as possible on this game as I fear it may just steal my life away.

I hope that they do give serious thought to the combat system so that you can play the game in all styles rather than being forced down a set number of paths that everyone else believes is best!!

[Zapp$ter]

I might be tempted by this actually, as I'd be able to start at the same time as everyone else.

[MyNameIsBruce]

I'm not entirely convinced it will be set in Vana'Diel, so it probably wouldn't make too much sense to allow a transfer.

Plus if it's introducing a male mithra, I see quite a few players wanting a race/sex change.

Female Galka??

Actually theyre asexual, ah phew!

male mithra will be good, lets hope there no furry sex goings on though! it is a furrys wet dream tbh

[Darwock]

Oh man, I really didn't expect this news and it's thrown me into a state of confusion - I would LOVE to get into this having had some of the best gaming times of my life in FFXI, but I'm just not convinced it's going to be a good idea. It requires a lot of investment at the best of times, but now I'm in a situation where 95% of the people I would want to play alongside are in a completely different timezone. I would end up with a lot of sleepless nights.

I hope that they do give serious thought to the combat system so that you can play the game in all styles rather than being forced down a set number of paths that everyone else believes is best!!

This is one of the things (and there were many) about FFXI that would drive me to an uncontrollable and probably irrational rage... I felt people started learning how to play the game from websites, and then others were often bullied into playing the same way. Doing anything outside the 'allakazham' (or A.N other wiki style site) approved method was taboo. I had the most fun I've ever had in combat as a summoner/black mage.. fighting hand to hand and then creating skillchain combos with my summoned avatar and magic bursting a nuke afterwards. I think on at least one occasion I was actually made a laughing stock because of this.. however this style of play captivated me - I spent days just testing out each of my avatars abilities with my weapon skills to see what chains I could make. Bursting a drain spell in solo combat to kill an enemy and restore my health for the next fight was so sweet! I had one awesome party where they allowed me to do this and there were two black mages and the three of us were all scoring magic bursts.. it may have been better if I had been kicked out and replaced with a ranger of course - the problem I have with the FFXI community is that most parties would have done exactly that.

Mostly I was a black mage player and was often expected to play as a half assed healer. I can still recall one big event in Chains of Promathia where we went in to the fight with the same team/set up as always, bar one guy that was like a friend of a friend of one of the team members or something. This guy started complaining that I was using a black mage/summoner (which I had always used) instead of subbing white mage.

I don't think any of the team realised but I got so fecking angry that I actually left the battle arena and was half way to logging off, until I got a PM from someone that made me reconsider and go back in. It would have been very bad, as scheduling these events was a nightmare and I think it had already been delayed by a few weeks - but that's how angry it made me. I don't think I want to open that door again.

Another thing that seriously pissed me off as a PS2 player is that all the PC community were using add-on hacks and exploits, programs to predict the pop times of notorious monsters and best times to do synthing and all sorts of stuff. Even if I could have used those on PS2 I wouldn't have, just what is the point??? That's something that worries me about this too if it will eventually get a PC release. The PS3 players will be left at a disadvantage due to the lack of cheating mechanisms available to them.

THe worst of it was after I had left the game when I read that people were using analysis tools to parse all the combat data of an entire party and get figures and charts of how much damage everyone was doing. Not so bad if you use it to evaluate your own performance... but naturally something like this is only going to be used to point out what a bad job someone else is doing. In my day it was people looking down at you for not having the best gear... this was the next step I suppose.

Wow, I think I've just talked myself out of being interested in FFXIV! I'll be surprised if I can hold out until the launch date though... despite all of that I still love it!

[Ady]

No 360 version? Does Square not want this to sell? Sony console exclusivity is soo 1998...

[sj33]

^I was a bit suprised myself, given the 360 has a sizable FFXI playerbase.

Mind you, SquareEnix would have wanted to have the game crossplatform with the PS3 and PC. While Microsoft were willing to bend the rules and allow FFXI on 360 to be crossplatform woth the PC and use PlayOnline rather than Live, they may have been less inclined to allow PS3/360 cross-platform play.

This is pure speculation though, of course. I suspect money did change hands (did it need to? Sony still have FF Versus XIII).

[Tobal]

Pigeon holing of the jobs is a standard of all mmo's, and while it was certainly a problem for the elite crowd you'll find most people don't mind what sub you use on you main job as long as its useful. The one thing that still put this game above the likes of WoW for me is the quick and easy changing of subjob to meet situational needs, and patches over the recent years have improved the /NIN onry ways of the past(for melee), SAM(balanced att/def with mediate), DNC(healing/support), WAR(all out damage), THF(one hit crits, hate management) and /NIN(avoid damage).

i hope 14 retains the Main Job/Sub Job gameplay the last thing i want is to be stuck down one path on my character.