Final Fantasy XIV Then...

[mikewl]

That's some good points Tal.

I've been in so many MMO launches if there is one thing that always seems to be the case is that your left with some dissapointment, they are rarely up to scratch but you have to look at them in the longer term, some you can see the potential and others you just can't.

I just read an article on Eurogamer about MMO subscriptions and they said something that to me seems to hit the nail on the head, alot of people are looking for that next great thing in MMO gaming, they go into every game launch with high hopes and are left dissapointed, they are jumping ship everytime a new game comes out, alot of MMO's have failed because of this, I think developers need to realise that the launch period in todays market has to be very very good or these same people will give up and just look towards the next game on the radar.

FFXIV will stay alive because of its name and FF fanbase but it seems they may have blown any chance of having a huge hit on their hands.

I feel like they made some strange design decisions with it, one I've been thinking about is how they have tried to make certain aspects more casual friendly, yet at the same time introducing other aspects like gear damage which is certainly something the casuals will be put off by, in fact I hate the whole gear damage side of things myself, its a chore to keep fixing things, when I upgrade my gear and want to sell off old stuff to free up inv space i'm left having to write down a list of what's needed to fix everything, hunt down all the items then either level up crafting skills to fix myself or pay others to do it for me, its a whole process I just cba to do, i've just ended up chucking some old gear as its just not worth the hassle.

As much as I do like the game sometimes I do just feel like everything is more drawn out than it should be.

On some leves, especially two which I did with Rare last night we're just designed to make it last longer than it should, they did it by making three spawn points, run to A then B then C, back to B back to A back to C and you just feel like your spending more time running round in circles than actually doing anything of any point, in the end you spend about 4 minutes fighting and 10 minutes running.

Though I would say my biggest dissapointment so far is i'm Rank 22 and i'm still in the same zones I was at level 1, same scenery, same music etc, awhile ago I wen't on a trip to see new zones and get an idea of whats to come and you can see how limited its going to be, Coertheia* is absolutely enourmous but the whole place looks the same.

I personally think the zones are just too damn big, there is a complete lack of variety and sense of adventure, finding new places etc.

Compare the first 25 levels to FFXI, you had three small starting zones near the city's, three big zones for 10-13 then the Valkurm Dunes and Selbina upto about lvl 20, then Jugner and Battalia downs and Sauramougue Champaign and Jueno.

I think that was all in the original game too and that is a vast amount more variety than we have got on FFXIV, even though FFXIV may be as big in scale its just not got anywhere near the variety.

Looking at things I do think they released at least 6 months too soon.

[Rep]

FFXIV will stay alive because of its name and FF fanbase but it seems they may have blown any chance of having a huge hit on their hands.

I don't believe name alone will be sufficient, just look at the repercussions after 2 months. There were only 700 people on the server when I logged in last night, and these are people that are currently playing for free, just think about that number once the monthly fees kick-in. The fanbase is fickle and without trying to sound too negative the damage has been done. Coupled with the reactions to FFXIII too and you've got a base they won't be easily swayed.

With regards to the FFXI launch, this isn't 2000 anymore, being able to playonline was pretty novel but now we taken things like that for granted. No more trying to hook your Dreamcast upto a phone socket anymore

I agree with skewed comments towards content though, as I've stated over and over, you're not going to have 8 years worth of content for a launch game. What is missing though is the development experiences in that time.

There's some interesting sights to be honest on the world maps, have you explored all the caves? There's an entire map I've not visited yet, which is suppose to be stunning.

[C']

“You are not facing the target”

That’s the big thing that pisses me off right now. I don’t understand why if I want to Taunt something or Cure someone I have to face them. Targeting is already difficult enough as it is, and this just adds another level of awkwardness in the middle of a battle.

This isn’t meant as a criticism of the ARC class (more the random enmity mechanics) but sometimes I get frustrated when the mob runs off to hit the ARC and I struggle to Taunt it back (due to “you are not facing the target”) so have to go running after it. As Wedge said we were duoing last night and in the end I just got fed up and once a mob ran off I just switched to the next one and let him finish it off.

Similarly, the only difference between me and Dj duoing a leve the other night with no deaths, and having to "zombie" it with a couple of deaths was because it was hard for me to back him up with the odd Cure here and there as I didn't happen to be fighting directly opposite him.

I think this may represent the game pretty well. The problems when viewed in isolation may seem like little niggling issues that could be looked over for a time (as long as they get fixed), but when you combine all the little niggles together it becomes harder not to get annoyed and view it as a bigger problem.

[mikewl]

There's some interesting sights to be honest on the world maps, have you explored all the caves? There's an entire map I've not visited yet, which is suppose to be stunning.

Maybe i've not but i've been to everywhere I could see and find, been to Mor Dhona, been in the caves like Cassiopia Hollow, been right outside the 4th non working city and while some of the zones are nice I can tell once you hit lvl 30 or so you'll be in Coerthas until you hit the cap just going from camp to camp which looks the same as one another.

As for the damage being done, you may be right, the population just keeps dropping each week.

[mikewl]

[QUOTE=C';1771947]
This isn?t meant as a criticism of the ARC class (more the random enmity mechanics) but sometimes I get frustrated when the mob runs off to hit the ARC and I struggle to Taunt it back (due to ?you are not facing the target?) so have to go running after it. As Wedge said we were duoing last night and in the end I just got fed up and once a mob ran off I just switched to the next one and let him finish it off.

This bugs me too, because I pull hate sometimes before even doing 1 point of damage to the mob, I have a buff which ups damage and just using it while engaged in battle pulls hate, even after you have taunted or provoked the mob.

I also find I am starting to find soloing leves more efficient because of this, when soloing I use alot more of my jobs abilities than when partying, I plan my moves more, mobs just die too quickly in a party to really do much, it just becomes a case of everyone spamming their quickest attacks to get in on some action, sometimes I try and buff and the mob is already dead.

In FFXI partying everyone played a part, had some plan to follow to benefit the team, yet in this sometimes you just see it all happening and before you know it you find you didn't really get a chance to actually do anything, which must be especially the case for mages.

[Rep]

Mage progression is painfully slow, as actions performed during battle only will grant rank points, and even then it's sparse. It might not sound that bad, but since mp recovery is on a 10 minute timer, you have to hold back more then ever. The best parties are the ones that we've been overwhelmed on, since it means I could spam cure over and over.

[talizker]

In FFXI partying everyone played a part, had some plan to follow to benefit the team, yet in this sometimes you just see it all happening and before you know it you find you didn't really get a chance to actually do anything, which must be especially the case for mages.

Fundamentally for me this for is for sure my biggest issue, plus as you said earlier about the zone progression/variation is disappointing at this stage.

Another problem I had when I logged on last night when I fancied buying some new gear was that the Market Wards (in Ul'dah) were virtually empty which doesn't bode well for a non AH trading environment.

I'm hoping this matures into a similar experience to when I started XI (at EU launch) but I fear we may never get to see that, even given that this is from SE. Can it not just be 2004 again?

[Tobal]

forgot to cancel at the end of oct, so i logged in last night to a empty server and did a few levie till it crashed(after a good 50mins, so i wasn't angry).. ah well ff11 still free till december if i pay for this crap instead, but i can't bring my self to log in, the crafting system is just total ****, way, way to many steps for the simplist of items.. you shouldn't be needing 6 items to make a lvl7 spear all which require 4 crafting jobs over lvl10 to make and 2 field jobs to farm the items, casual my arse, i shouldn't be able to reach lvl 10/15 in a main job and still be strolling around in lvl1 gear, because im being punished for not crafting.

[C']

Whether you still care by now is probably questionable, but what is it particularly you need gear wise? Between myself, Grendalf, Buju and Dj I’m pretty sure we could sort you out with pretty much anything for your current level. I do appreciate your grievance in this area (I complained about it myself a lot weeks ago) but I can say that as bad as you may find it now, it was many times worse back then. At least now we have (some) people who use the market wards correctly and I’d say 95% of the time, when I need a particular ingredient I can find it with little trouble.

Anyway, amongst this mountain of negativity I’ve been forcing onwards. Hit physical level 36, Pugilist 25 and got my three main crafts (Goldsmith, Leatherworker and Weaver) up to 20. Had a good run of PGL guild marks over the last week too so I just need another 2.8k and I’ll have every mark reward that I can get until rank 30. Even started getting marks for my DoH classess too.

Server population is getting depressing though. Was down to 800 last night. S-E must be questioning their decisions now if people won't even play for free.

[abigsmurf]

Squeenix recognise there's a serious problem with the game, they talked about it at their investors meeting: http://kotaku.com/5682254/faith-in-f...s-resurrecting.

The problem with adding a free month is that most of the people are actively quitting, they're not just saying "I'll remove my CC and play it up until the time runs out". They get the bad PR of having to give away another free month whilst failing to deal with the huge drops in numbers.

[Daragon]

Can everything that is inherently wrong with the game be fixed with a single update? Honestly, Square Enix probably would be better served to just shut off the servers and relaunch when they're in a more confident position, admit that mistakes have been made and apologise.

A 3rd free month would really hurt them I reckon.

[Rep]

The free months aren't working though, I've used about 3 hours of the 2nd one, if that. People are turning their backs and cancelling free subscriptions, that's the state of affairs. How would the people who are enjoying the game react to switching it off for several months though? Will they be alienated and turn their backs instead?

[Tsingtao]

Same the extended free trial has no impact only means I haven't cancelled, still haven't logged on. I just don't get how this made it to a general release it really is one of the worst games I have ever played.

For me the biggest issue is the under lying game mechanics are just plain horrible. Server side interface, battle that requires button mashing, no AH and the equipment wear. Just plain made of suck and fail as far as I can tell, I am doing some research for if I do play but right now the more I read the more I hate it.

Just really how did they come up with this?

[C']

No, one single patch won’t sole all the problems as the issues are too vast. For some, they are not happy with the lack of basic features (retainer search, sorting inventory, overcomplicated craft recipes etc.) whereas others are more fussed about the distinct lack of content.

The November patch is more aimed at the first kind of issue whereas December is when we get the first planned “content update”. Even after those, I wouldn’t expect everything to be sorted after those two updates but hopefully it will be more in line with the sort of end product we should have had in September.

Not really sure what benefit shutting off the servers will bring? Yes, they are going to need a massive relaunch (in line with PS3 release most likely) but what you suggest would just likely piss off the remaining players who actually WANT to keep playing (and it’s us that S-E are going need to generate positive word of mouth for that time).

A third free month would offer no benefit now.

[Daragon]

If it's as broken as you say though I can't imagine the number of those still wanting to play would outweigh the number of those who want the sweeping changes.

As soon as the game moves to pay to play then even more damage will be done if things aren't ready and everyone realizes that.

Which ever way you look at this there are going to be casualties, whether it's those who want to keep playing or those who are discouraged by the current state of the game. Common sense would dictate that the smaller number should be the ones who suffer, but we're dealing with SE here so common sense went walkies long ago.