Final Fantasy XIV Then...

[abigsmurf]

Things to test/observe:

-try to run the game in absolute minimum possible settings.

-Is there anything in particular causing a crash? A spell effect, looking at a certain object? Trying to load something?

-get Speedfan, keep it open and logging whilst FFXIV is open. Are the temps abnormal (~95c is when modern cards tend to crash)? Are your voltages off? Look at the +12V -12V, are they significantly out (it's normal for them to be a bit off? Don't assume because Crysis runs fine that it's not a heat/voltage issue. Badly coded games can overstress gfx cards (like SC2 not having a frame rate cap so the menus run at 1000's fps and melt PCs)

-did you upgrade from an ATI card? Make sure you use a driver removal tool to get rid of all traces. GFX card drivers are notorious for not uninstalling cleanly and they interfere.

-get a graphics card overclocking tool, lower the clock speed very a small percentage, does that fix it (if so, it's power saving to blame)? Does underclocking by a large margin fix it?

[talizker]

Also Tob, does it do the same thing windowed and full screen (and at different resolutions)?

[Tobal]

seems all res's windowed or full screen, just had good 20 min spell before it crashed,
GPU ran at 70-80c, 80's when in town or in busy camps, CPU cores around 55-60c.

that was will all the settings but Ambient Light set on or to high, at 1280*720 windowed.

[abigsmurf]

any info on the voltages? Any visual artifacting?

[C']

Have you considered swapping the old 250 into your new PC just to test?

Obviously not a long-term solution but would highlight for definite if the 465 is to blame.

[Tobal]

no artifacting apart from some screen tearing which only happens when vync not forced on and for all this testing i turned it off, voltages are +12 = 11.97 and -12 = 11.21

i'll try do rare's suggustion of pullout my gtx250, after ff11's events on monday

[C']

So, what is everyone’s opinion now we’ve had our first solid weekend since launch? Those of us who have been able to play properly anyway (sorry Tobal ).

I’ve definitely enjoyed myself playing. Crafting is very addictive and the first thing I do when I log on now is head to the Adventurer’s Guild and see if my Local Levequests have refreshed. Whilst, in theory, it will be possible to cap a craft without spending a single gil, I can say that with my two main crafts already at 9 and 10 (Goldsmithing and Cooking) relying on rank ups via levequests will be very slow and as it gets higher you will need to spend your own gil so the EXP demands become higher.

The upside of goldsmithing is that I actually have accessories in my neck, ear and wrist slots. Nothing amazing, but it is new gear. Plan to use my clothcraft and upgrade my standard gear too.

A few things are confusing. The anima system is increasing very slowly. Such that I assume there has to be some point where it resets back to 100 after a period of time (maybe a week like the fatigue system). It costs either 4 or 6 anima to teleport to a city/camp and I don’t think I’ve even managed to recover that much since I started. Are we supposed to be limiting ourselves to a single teleport a day?

Party play is also difficult to gauge right now. I’m already noticing that the EXP grind is becoming a little too demanding to solo but party play is incredibly difficult to organise and run with a distinct lack of satisfactory mobs to grind on. You can’t even look for group like in FFXI so I’m wondering if this is even how the developers want us to play. Regional Levequests are a lot of fun but again the difficulty is very difficult to gauge. We did one rank 20 leve yesterday at one star difficulty which proved far too easy so we tried three stars on the next one only to get wiped out to a single attack.

There’s definitely a lot I want to see though with many things unanswered. Class quests remain a mystery although I’ve now earned my first Pugilist Guild Marks. And when we found that dungeon on Saturday evening, I am intrigued what could be in there once we level up enough.

[InvisibleKid]

My experience hasn't been a resounding 'meh' - which seems to be the vibe as I read the internets - but more of a 'Hmm'.

99% of the time I have no idea what is going on.
I have no idea if I'm doing things 'right'.

I'm currently viewing it as a supplement to XI rather than a whole MMO adventure in it's own right.

It fails to have a leading story - or hints of one that will grip me.

All in all, I love my character - I love synthesis and I'm definately intrigued as to where they're going to take it.

OT Question:
Do I have to basically write down recipes as they're revealed to me if I want to develop in a synthesis type? (ie. Armorcraft?)

[elaniel]

I've really enjoyed it. It was very easy to pick up. The leve's I think are the best part (although a difficulty gauge would be helpful before starting). I read over on FFXIV that the level of the leve is not necessary to what level the enemies are (maybe that stat should be included).

Carpentry is going well for me, although still makes no sense at times. Can't really make any items (besides masks if anyone wants one just ask) as a lot of the equipment requires other classes to make. Also, the wood is super expensive, and seems beneficial to do guildleves to get the wood rewards to be able to make anything. It's also annoying that to make a level 8 bow, you need to have level 16 carpentry skills. Also, I'm getting good recipes to make parts of weapons, but they seem to be weapons I need a metalworker for.

Biggest complaint, damned retainers! It's impossible to find anything. I've luckily managed to find a few small things from bazaars, but even with a search finding items will be a pain as the retainers are scattered all over the place and you have to load to get between them.

I know I've pointed out a lot of complaints, but I am still enjoying it. Although, it would be hard not to after spending over 3 years on Phantasy Star Universe and how much of a grind that game was.


Hey Rare, if you want to make me some equipment, I'll be happy to pay for it! Or at least trade you a bunch of Lauan mask's for it


Just read over on FFXIV Core that Retainers are being removed (or unsummonable?) I hope I can get my items back off of him! Game is in emergency maintenance until 1pm.

[C']

OT Question:
Do I have to basically write down recipes as they're revealed to me if I want to develop in a synthesis type? (ie. Armorcraft?)

I have been doing. I assumed they would be logged in your journal but they aren't. The Lodestone website also has a section which lists recipes by craft as well (under Synthesis).

Hey Rare, if you want to make me some equipment, I'll be happy to pay for it! Or at least trade you a bunch of Lauan mask's for it

Sure. It's only copper stuff right now so it's cheap enough for me to make (I think I gave away Copper Chokers to near enough everyone on the LS on Saturday I was spamming so many of them) and it gets me some more rank points.

I can make the following:

Copper Choker (Attack+1 Mag. Potency+2)
Copper Earring (Evasion+2)
Copper Wristlet (HP+11)

I've been trying to craft Copper Rings (Accuracy+2) but failed every attempt so far.

Let me know what you want and I'll sort when I get home later.

Clothcraft items are a little more expensive and I don't think I can fund too many of those synths myself right now.

Hope that retainer thing is only temporary. She's holding a lot of my materials.

[elaniel]

I already got a choker, would it be manly enough to ask for an earring please?

[C']

Yeah, those are only 800 gil a piece so can sort for you no problem.

[Rep]

I love it! As already mentioned the Local levequests are great Looking at the recipe lists, Woodworking is a good subcraft, I can make status daggers, clubs and Staves again with Alchemy Crafting with the offhand gave a completely different animation, I was grinding herbs with a rudimentary wooden roller, rather then using my fancy pants furnace. It even yielded a higher amount of whatever I was making at the time.

Story (at least for Gridania) has that element of Mystery like WotG had, and Is miles for interesting then the first two acts of Limsa Lomina were.

Performance Issues are the main gripe, I'd be surprised If any PC In existence can run this with full bells and whistles at a constant 60fps.

Retainers are hilariously bad, I gave up looking after about 10mins, It's like someone squashed Rolanberry Fields into a phone box.

[NoelEdwards]

After having it a week now I've still not played it due to getting the error "server unable to connect to lobby". I'm very disappointed with it I would have thought problems like this would have been sorted for launch.

[C']

I was grinding herbs with a rudimentary wooden roller, rather then using my fancy pants furnace. It even yielded a higher amount of whatever I was making at the time.

Was that a consistent increase in output or did you just happen to HQ one of the synths? I've been switching between main and off hand tools just to add it a bit of variety to what I'm doing but end results have always been the same.

Craft wise I think I've got a rudimentary understanding of what's going on. Seems pretty clear that HQ results will (at least in part) be determined by the final quality score with the different actions changing the progress/durability/quality scores in different ways. Rapid Synthesis can increase your progress by massive amounts (had 30% increase on a couple of occasions) but barely increases quality, whereas Bold is the opposite. Both of these can be risky as it seems durability takes a bigger hit when either of these fail. Standard is obviously a balance between the two but can also offer progress with no impact on your durability score at all.

One thing me and Moot discovered yesterday is that using HQ (+X) ingredients increases your starting quality score so in theory it should be easier to HQ with those.

Oh and I have to give S-E credit for the amazing animations. Lalafell and Mi'iqote especially. I love watching the characters in action (if anyone hasn't seen a Lalafell doze whilst sitting down I recommend it).