FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test Phase 3 Start Date Confirmed !

[Cotners]

Re: FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test Phase 3 Start Date Confirmed !

!

Yep, spearfishing.

They should have bow fishing also. Archers catching fish would be fun.

[Malacite]

Re: FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test Phase 3 Start Date Confirmed !

That's awesome.

[Freelancer]

Re: FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test Phase 3 Start Date Confirmed !

Ok heres what I found.

Making a linkshell is free and after you make it you can add a crest to it (like a knight's shield with simple marking from a flat single color to some medieval marks like stripes and such, my favorite is a red dot with a white background I found JPs using lol)

There's ALOT of new NPCs all over the map, and most of them don't have a static stance. (including old NPCs that now have new stances, thus making them more "alive").

Equipment menu still have the same look but they changed the layout of the slots.

When NPCs talk to you they get a new chat box that is placed above the HP bar (pretty big with bigger font) making chating with them less irritating with the buggy chatlog.

The sound for leveling up is the classic FF victory music and lets you know of each and everybody that levels up within a radios of 80 miles. (getting effing irritating)

The level up animation is just a tiny red rank up or blue level up text that appears over your character and is not as elaborate as FFXI's.

They combined the melee attacks formally being heavy/light into one slot being heavy attack/strike/slash w/e and it attacks twice per round includes mnk attacking 4 times, they also changed the effects of attacks, and critical hits really look critical lol.

Level for some abilites changed, I got a WS at rank 2 also they changed the amount of stamina they take and reduced them, the 1st WS I got used to take half the stamina bar but now it takes as much as the new and improved heavy strike. (like 1/6 of the bar)

Guild leves give a crapload of exp, saw 3000~ at one point, and the leves are a little glitched, also mobs have new attacks I didn't see before like moles now dig into the ground and then ambush you for massive damage (could be because I took level5 leves with my missmatch team of LS friends).

Map is glitched half the time and leve mobs aren't red dots on it half the time.

There's new graphics options to mess with. (Ambient Occlusion was brutal and cut my fps down to 20max and I honestly couldn't see what difference it made, so I turned it off for now)

FPS cap was removed or raised to 120fps, with 1400x1000ish I was getting 35-70 fps, and it goes to 14 in crowded areas (though at 14-18 it was pretty smooth that it didn't hinder me from enjoying the game) but once you hit 50+ you'll really notice how smooth the game is.

Vendors changed their stock, the 2 NPCs that sold melee (except pug) weapons shields and belts now sell all starting weapons but no shields or any high level weapons weapons, the one that sold mage/pug weapons now sells bones and ores and I've yet to find any new vendors.

Text commands are funky and useful but still lacking. (alt+p/r/l didnt work for me)

Filters started out stupid with LS chat being filtered (you can't see yours) but once its on the game feels alot better, I gotta say I love having a Linkshell.

There are new changes to the Character creator:

You can change the color of face markings. red/blue/white/black

Sun mi'qutes tails now can have 3 sizes for the tip but not so major like lets say a Persian cat.

Moon Mi'qutes tails tip color is changeable red/black/white/blue, some people made some interesting choices that were pretty neat with the overall look of the char.

Some hair styles now have variants like changing the color of the hair clip/bow/whatever or changing the hair look. (hume M face 1 with the long hair now can have either a strain on the right, left or both down or both combed back like default, the Mi'qute with pigtails can have some hair to down to cover her gigantic forhead) some hair styles that SHOULD have variants don't, like mi'qute face 8's bow cant change color or anything.

The general look of color pallets changed but the colors are the same (some people say there are more but I didn't see em).

That's about it.

[Malacite]

Re: FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test Phase 3 Start Date Confirmed !

The level up animation is just a tiny red rank up or blue level up text that appears over your character and is not as elaborate as FFXI's.

[jenova_9]

Re: FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test Phase 3 Start Date Confirmed !

Hands on: Final Fantasy XIV Beta

review!

[Nandito]

Re: FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test Phase 3 Start Date Confirmed !

Turn that crying into whining and I'm sure SE will change the level up animation. Gotta love Beta.

Now where's beta for PS3 so I can go out and buy one already...

[jenova_9]

Re: FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test Phase 3 Start Date Confirmed !

playing FFXIV is like being on a trampoline! people go mew mew mew and have good times! of course some might fall off, but they'll get back on and have fun! =^^=

[Malacite]

Re: FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test Phase 3 Start Date Confirmed !

playing FFXIV is like being on a trampoline! people go mew mew mew and have good times! of course some might fall off, but they'll get back on and have fun! =^^=

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceWZ624wBVA"]YouTube- The Simpsons - Trampoline Nightmare[/nomedia]

[Taskmage]

Re: FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test Phase 3 Start Date Confirmed !

LOL With some clarification by Malacite, I now agree. Playing FFXIV is a lot like being on a trampoline.

[Freelancer]

Re: FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test Phase 3 Start Date Confirmed !

I tried to do some crafting but other than making useless junk like wires and chains I couldn't find any recipes for actual gear, well I did find some but they required mats from other crafts and though I could just craft them I found that most of them have unknown recipes or are made from junk that drop from mobs nobody kills and even if they did, there isn't an AH for me to look at and the market ward is utterly useless and annoying to search mules one by one when there are like hundreds of them.

Crafting is torture lol, but its less screwy than fishing.

[Malacite]

Re: FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test Phase 3 Start Date Confirmed !

Here's what I find to be fucked up.

Apparently Brass items are a higher tier than Iron.


Did I miss something? Since when is Brass stronger than Iron?

[Taskmage]

Re: FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test Phase 3 Start Date Confirmed !

I tried to do some crafting but other than making useless junk like wires and chains I couldn't find any recipes for actual gear, well I did find some but they required mats from other crafts and though I could just craft them I found that most of them have unknown recipes or are made from junk that drop from mobs nobody kills and even if they did, there isn't an AH for me to look at and the market ward is utterly useless and annoying to search mules one by one when there are like hundreds of them.

Crafting is torture lol, but its less screwy than fishing.

In attempting to experience this aspect of the game for myself yesterday, I stumbled on these resources:
FFXIV Crafting Database
[ame=http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/showthread.php?t=97235#]Recipe List - Phase 3 - Order of the Blue Gartr[/ame]


I just wanted to be able to make thread and fletchings from all the feathers and fibers I've been collecting through botany, but apparently even the rank 1 recipes for those basic items require you to get some kind of special training from the guild to have a decent chance of success. To get training, I've read, I need to buy books from the guild using guild marks, which allegedly sometimes drop from local crafting leves. So I checked out the local leves for carpentry and weaving, and four out of the six available recommended you be at least rank 5. Of the two rank 1 leves available, one of them, the weaving one, required me to have yet another kind of special training to have a decent shot at succeeding in making the required item, so I failed that one miserably. Neither of those leves had guild marks as a reward anyway. So basically getting started in crafting is a huge, frustrating catch 22. I'm gonna try to break-synth my way to rank 5 today and see if access to those leves makes things any better but so far it is indeed torture.

---------- Post added at 11:35 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:29 AM ----------

By the way, spearfishing as currently implemented works exactly like harvesting with a scythe. Sparklies will appear in some tall grass/brush, you walk up and choose Spearfish from the menu, do a little animation with the spear and it'll tell you if you got an item. Slightly disappointing. I wonder if maybe the region around Limsa doesn't contain the geographical features for spearfishing and so they just shoehorned it in for testing by putting the hot spots for it in the grass. I expected some shallow waterways like in Saruta.

[Etra]

Re: FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test Phase 3 Start Date Confirmed !

Crafting just makes me want to cry. I spent an hour yesterday looking for Lightning Crystals in that hell pit market place (and found none.) Sooo took another hour to go farm up about 24 of 'em to attempt to craft spindles three times. First time, fail. Second time, fail. Third time, I got the quality so high I ended up crafting 33 in one go. Rewarding as hell.

I really hope the retail product has an AH. There just has to be. This is not 1995.

[Nandito]

Re: FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test Phase 3 Start Date Confirmed !

Crafting just makes me want to cry. I spent an hour yesterday looking for Lightning Crystals in that hell pit market place (and found none.) Sooo took another hour to go farm up about 24 of 'em to attempt to craft spindles three times. First time, fail. Second time, fail. Third time, I got the quality so high I ended up crafting 33 in one go. Rewarding as hell.

I really hope the retail product has an AH. There just has to be. This is not 1995.

Sooo... happy cry then?

[Omniblast]

Re: FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test Phase 3 Start Date Confirmed !

What times are the exact playtimes for the beta? I thought they would restrict it to certain times of the week & day?