FFXIV Storyline revealed!

[hexx]

Re: FFXIV Storyline revealed!

Except they're not assault rifles, and if Bastok's the one invading, the enemy won't be fighting them head-on. I'm not a Bastoker so I don't know how advanced their guns are supposed to be, but if they were like our early guns they were inaccurate, prone to failure and took a long time to reload.That's assuming every Bastoker unit gets a gun.If they stand outside Windurst's walls they will get nuked. They're outside with guns, the mages are on ramparts nuking, early guns are just as time consuming to fire, and they're not that accurate.

The guns the Bastokans use aren't your typical musket (although they did go through that stage) for if you look at the guns we as players use, they are the same as the NPCs use. Now, of course, going back to said war, musket's would in fact be in use, and yes they are highly innacurate and time consuming to reload, but remember there is a solution to that. Much like the English (and other countries with guns) in the past, they would set up a staggered firing line to make up for the slow reload of the musket.

Asides from that, Bastok also had their heavy artillery (cannons) that could very easily decimate whatever walls and towers the Windurstian mages were using to cast from. All in all, Bastok had many advantages to easily counter what both Sandoria and Windurst had to throw at them.

[Malacite]

Re: FFXIV Storyline revealed!

Asides from that, Bastok also had their heavy artillery (cannons) that could very easily decimate whatever walls and towers the Windurstian mages were using to cast from. All in all, Bastok had many advantages to easily counter what both Sandoria and Windurst had to throw at them.

This is a big reason Bastok was an unrivaled naval power; They don't even have to assault windurst from the plains, they can just bombard them from the sea and there ain't shit Windy can do about it. Also, from what I gathered from that article (I don't even remember where I read about the battle of konschat, though I think it may have been the Vana'diel tribune... damn I miss that thing) they weren't using muskets;

A musket, as you said, was too slow and inaccurate which means some Elvaan knights would have gotten in close to attack, but Bastok didn't take even one casualty. It was a completely slaughter that left even Bastok in shock of the effectiveness. Plus a lot of the ingame models we use closely resemble shotguns/early rifles from the 1900's.

My analogy is still correct though; they're basically using rifles vs middle-age tech, which is simply no contest especially given the size of Bastok's army. It's not all that hard to imagine every soldier having a gun either given Bastok's abundance of ores and advanced smithing techniques. I maintain that anyone other than the Quadav (possibly the Antica as well since they're bugs which means they'd have a very tough carapace) would be utterly screwed.

But again, this is SE writing a silly fantasy that doesn't adhere to convectional widsom/physics >_>

Finally yes, as Hexx pointed out, they could simply have lines of riflemen swapping out to maintain a constant barrage of gunfire.

[jenova_9]

Re: FFXIV Storyline revealed!

hmm guns have their charm, but in a fantasy world, they spoil the fun, nyah! :p

[CrimsonDeath]

Re: FFXIV Storyline revealed!

hmm guns have their charm, but in a fantasy world, they spoil the fun, nyah! :p

Not really. Technology is part of fantasy too. Not everything fantasy is swords, shields and dragons.

[jenova_9]

Re: FFXIV Storyline revealed!

ya true, but um, um I dunno lol.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: FFXIV Storyline revealed!

hmm guns have their charm, but in a fantasy world, they spoil the fun, nyah! :p

My Ranger and Corsair would like a word with you.

FFXIV is going to have high technologies in parts of the games, its been there in the previews and the director hinted at the possibility of bringing in something akin to Magitek Armor from FFVI.

Guns aren't a leap after that.

People complained about Vincent and Barret having guns in FFVII because it was a "Fantasy" game and yet that "fantasy" world was very modern, had helicopters, cell phones and the internet - what didn't really make sense was people fighting with giant swords, but I could buy into that so why not guns?

If the King of Figaro, Edgar, can have chainsaws and machinegun-like crossbows, guns can be in a fantasy game. I mean, the guy has a castle that can submerge itself beneath the earth and move to different places. He's pretty high-tech for some womanizer sitting on a throne.

[fairyoracle75]

Re: FFXIV Storyline revealed!

People seem to forget that the evolution of warfare included quite a long period of time in which early rifles and muskets were used right along side swords. As guns slowly got more advanced close combat gave way to distance warfare and swords went by the wayside. For a long time muskets and rifles merely took the place of the bow and arrows for ranged combat while calvery and foot soldiers with swords handled close combat. It wasn't until the late 17th century when rear loading rifles were introduced that guns became so powerful. Actually it wasn't until WWI that turned the tide to create more modern warfare. There is footage around of early tanks and machine guns against horse calvery at that time somewhere I've seen from early in that war. The technological advances as the nations raced to be able to match each other in WWI was really what led to modern distance warfare of today.

I think FFXI technology wise is about equal to the late 17th and early 18th century (I believe I have the centuries right but I can get confused lol) when muskets were in use along with swords, and cannon.

Contents of A Short History of War

(And I blame the History Channel for knowing this stuff lol)

[Takelli]

Re: FFXIV Storyline revealed!

Except they're not assault rifles, and if Bastok's the one invading, the enemy won't be fighting them head-on. I'm not a Bastoker so I don't know how advanced their guns are supposed to be, but if they were like our early guns they were inaccurate, prone to failure and took a long time to reload.

Well, the guns did take a long time to reload. Look at the delay on the gun in game. If the delay in the gun in just like the guns they used in the war, then it would take a long time to reload.

If some one was charging at me with a sword, and I fired the gun and missed, I would drop the gun and pull out my own sword to fight them in melee because of the long reload of the gun.

[Ziero]

Re: FFXIV Storyline revealed!

No, because then the other countries would gang up on you. Just because you have enough military power to outmuscle every other country individually it doesn't mean you can take on the entire world at the same time. San d'Oria learned that lesson the hard way when they thought they could take over everything just because they got magic. Bastok was right not to repeat the same mistake.

Bastok was in an advantageous situation anyways. If you have guns and the enemy is marching into your territory, of course you'll shoot them down. They were defending. Having guns doesn't render them immune to being sniped or ambushed in San d'Oria's forests, or having the shit nuked out of them outside Windusts' Walls. Obviously it still gives them an edge, but you can't assume they'll be just as successful at assaulting enemy territories as they'd be defending their own.

Well when I said "everyone" I more meant everyone in the Sandy military. It was really my bad for not making that more concise. But even still, at the time this battle was happening, Windurst really had no standing army at all iirc. Between their weakened military state, a previous and devastating loss to Bastok's Navy and constant aggression from Yagudo, Windurst was in no position to really help anyone at that point. San D'oria was at it's weakest after the second Battle of Kon, the Quadav were also a non-issue at that point due to combined attacks by both a war with Sandy and attacks from Bastok. The only reason why Bastok didn't press any further attacks was the lack of any real reason to do so. Plus they've suffered massive amounts of losses on their own so they saw no real benefit to continued aggression.

Plus Bastok has the largest standing army, something like 40k troops. Last I checked that's more than San d'Oria and Windurst's armies combined. Now give them Guns and yeah, bye bye opposition. We already know the Elvaan were no match for Gunfire, and Windurst wouldn't fare any better since while Magic can be potentially devastating, it's also a time consuming act that leaves the caster vulnerable. And well, Guns = fast, ranged death. But then that wouldn't have made for a very interesting story now would it?

The size of the army alone matters very little in the long run. Not even guns alone were enough for Bastok to win it's battles. It was because of General Bavor's skills, utilizing the strategies of Schultz and a strong defensive position at the foot of Dem that Bastok was able to win the second battle of Kon. At that time, despite being highly outnumbered over 2:1 and having Sandy launch an initial sneak attack, it was because of strong leadership and tactical presence that the fight was so one sided. However in the Battle of La Theine, where Bastok had a severe numbers advantage over San D'oria, without Bavor, they fought to what amounted to be a stalemate, with both sides suffering enormous casualties. After which, Bastok's forces returned to their city, giving up their campaign to wipe out Sandy completely yet being satisfied at having destroyed the remnants of the bulk of their best soldiers.

A musket, as you said, was too slow and inaccurate which means some Elvaan knights would have gotten in close to attack, but Bastok didn't take even one casualty.

Bastok lost 10k of it's 50ishk military force at the second battle of Kon, but since sandy lost 70 out of almost 90k, it was certainly very one sided.

[Jei]

Re: FFXIV Storyline revealed!

More information translated from Dengeki
FFXIVCore.com - Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV, FF14) Fansite

[fairyoracle75]

Re: FFXIV Storyline revealed!

“Beast tribe” is a name given to these people from the government. They look different from the people living in the cities and have different philosophies and religions, but they have their own culture and knowledge. Eorzea is now a three-way deadlock between the “people” of the empire and the “people” of the beast tribes, and adventurers sometimes get caught in the crossfire. According to the setting, the two are irreconcilable, but they do say the enemy of an enemy is a friend… not to mention, not all beast tribes view humans as enemies, and there may be those that live peacefully, those that betray, and even those that try to make deals with humans.

Cool! It sounds like in the true sense of a mercenary we might be able to ally with Beast Tribes? I wonder if this might work like Fomor Hate or something? You know do more work for one group and the NPCs from the opposed group will target you? I don't want to suppose too much though. lol

As for the normal monsters, their behavior in the field has also evolved. In FFXIV, as in FFXI, monsters can be categorized as passive, aggressive, and linked, but in FFXIV there are also monsters that are in packs or monsters that prefer to live alone. There’s also a food-chain sort of relationship planned.

Sounds like the AI might be a bit more complex. Perhaps there might be actual predation amoung the mobs with each other?

Lastly, the “summons” existent in other games in the FF series also make their appearance in FFXIV. However, unlike FFXI, these summons are closer to god-like existences, and in order to gain their help, even higher hurdles must be overcome.

Is this a hint that there will be some kind of playable Summoner class?

[Jei]

Re: FFXIV Storyline revealed!

I think if they really are god like, they might appear as part of the story and maybe aid us during some missions.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: FFXIV Storyline revealed!

If summons are going to be harder to get than FFXI, I think they're going to be more player specific than job specific. SMN was a problematic class to add because to make it accessible to pick up from a newcomer standpoint, they seriously had to dumb down the job concept and they eventually did.

I'd like summons to be powerful when challenged and I'd like there to be benefits to beating them for everyone rather than just some silly trinkets for 19 other jobs and one job being able to call forth gods. So long as there are restrictions to how many you could have and they help define your playstyle further, I think that could be a better way to implement it.

Kinda like how they did it in FFVI or FFVIII, so long as you had a summon equipped, you could get particular benefits for just having them equipped rather than always summoning them.

[Takelli]

Re: FFXIV Storyline revealed!

I'd like summons to be powerful when challenged and I'd like there to be benefits to beating them for everyone rather than just some silly trinkets for 19 other jobs and one job being able to call forth gods. So long as there are restrictions to how many you could have and they help define your playstyle further, I think that could be a better way to implement it.

Well, if there is a summoner class in the game, and they are able to summon elementals along with dietes, then they should have the elemental give stat bonuses to people depending on the element. Like fire being str lightning being dex and so forth. And they can have a diete and an element out at a same time, and they act as a NPC but are weaker if both are out at the same time.

[Feba]

Re: FFXIV Storyline revealed!

Sounds like the AI might be a bit more complex. Perhaps there might be actual predation amoung the mobs with each other?

FFXII already did this, so it wouldn't be a huge leap.

But don't think for a second that more complex AI on the field makes for more complex AI opponents. If SE can stick with the "use random abilities until someone dies" method they so love and have it work, they will.