Honest First Impressions? (For those of us still on the fence)

[Aksannyi]

I'm not playing yet. First of all, I don't have a single machine capable of coming even close to running the game. Secondly, reading forums and posts and all over the interwebs, I'm not getting a great impression of the game, but considering internet people are never happy, that doesn't mean much. Lol.

So this thread, I would like for all of the "fencers" like me, from people who have started playing, to post some Pros and Cons about the game, so that those of us who don't really know if we want to invest can use the info to make a decision. As it is, reading BG is a lot of hate, reading here is a lot of zomgLOVEmew, I'd like some [as] objective [as possible] opinions.

Post whatever you think will be helpful to a fencer like myself to make an informed decision. Since I am one of the people who will have to spend a crazy amount of money to play (by either buying a new computer or a console), I'm not going to have the luxury of a 30 day trial to see if I like it. So I'm counting on YOU! Lol. Of course, not just me, but I'm sure others will find this thread useful if people can do their best to remain objective.

Thanks in advance if anyone can jot down some things they like and dislike about the game.

EDIT: Adding this quote, as it seems to sum up the direction of this thread nicely:

While I'm sure some of you may appreciate J9's contributions, I need to add a remark here. J9, this thread is for those of us in this community that is currently on the fence regarding the purchase of this game at a later date (i.e., PS3) While you're certainly welcome to contribute, the fact that you do not currently play this game does not lend credence to your posting. Aksannyi has already said that she's been researching the various forums and communities and that she's hesitant with her decision because she realizes that a lot of the information on the internet is anecdotal and not evidenced-based. Much like your post.

Please refrain from posting or reposting the opinions of other players so as to not derail this thread. Leave this open to those of us from this community to add our comments and opinions about the game and let Aksannyi and the others decide on their own.

I'll add my opinions here in a minute.

[Jarre]

Re: Honest First Impressions? (For those of us still on the fence)

|I'll be honest to say people would be biased as people WILL compare it with FFXI and people need to keep an open opinion on it as it is not FFXI its a totally different new game.

Pros for me -

Solobility - its difficult for me to find time for parties so the ability to solo more is good
Quality of scenery / graphics
Story line easy to follow
New battle system (still getting to grips with but have found it easier than FFXI's at the start)

Cons
Computer resource hogging
No AH type system, Bazarrs are nightmare to find things in and people are selling inflated at the moment.
No MP regen when in passive mode

Oh and go into your setting and disable your language filter, they've made it quite adult from some characters, its defaulted to on. funny having a Lalafell NPC telling me someone is "pissing him off"

[Kailea]

Re: Honest First Impressions? (For those of us still on the fence)

I am enjoying myself overall but I will admit there are a few things that bug me, and I am sure will be changed/fixed later

PROs (for me)
Solo ability, and the ability to get things done in around 30 mins (normally, I am sure endgame will be different)
dyable cloths, and the ability to pretty much equip what ever you want....to a point
Character creation
graphics and music (my god I love you Nobuo Uematsu ;p


CONS
Guild leve reset time (I do understand why its set for so long though)
No Auction House or a way to search retainers (sure this will change later)
Crafting is way to multi class dependent.... (for god's sake I should not need 4 different classes to make arrows)

[jenova_9]

Re: Honest First Impressions? (For those of us still on the fence)

PROS
it's getting better and better, mew!

CONS
no ninjas yet, mew.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Honest First Impressions? (For those of us still on the fence)

Has the interface stopped sucking since open beta ended?

[Fliegar]

Re: Honest First Impressions? (For those of us still on the fence)

Has the interface stopped sucking since open beta ended?

I moved my entire interface 1 inch to the left and couldn't be happier.

[Malacite]

Re: Honest First Impressions? (For those of us still on the fence)

Pretty much what Kailea said, though I'd like to add that at least so far, the playerbase is just as aggravating as it was in Beta.

Hardly anyone wants to party, no one replies to shouts etc... and where's our damn AH + MH already SE. I mean for all the game's misgivings, I am honestly loving the hell out of it. The graphical difference alone between 11 and 14 is like night and day, and yes, it does contribute to my enjoyment (HD kitty ftw )


Right now, it feels like it's 1/2 ~ 3/4 finished, but that's what version updates are for. I just hope the updates aren't every 3 months like with XI. Come SE, you can do better than that.

List of shit I want added (some of it is already planned)

1. CTRL + R
2. In-game crafting help (your own recipe book and for the love of God have NPCs recommend crafts to you like in XI)
3. Better explanation of rank requirements on gear/items
4. Auction House + Mog House
5. /search (I honestly do not like the new party interface)
6. faster guildleve cooldown (24 hours is plenty)
7. quicker Anima recharge (how about 2 per hour?)
8. Adjust some of the recipes. How stupid is it that I have to be a higher rank to make something of a lower rank? (upgraded tools for example)

About point 8 - What I mean is, looking at the requirements to make say a Bronze Hammer for smithing, I need to be in the next tier of crafting to synth it if i want to make my own materials for it. That is just silly. Another example is the Hoplon shield. It's listed as a rank 1-~10 synth for Armorer on lodestone, but two of the ingredients you need (Bronze Plate & Dodo Leather Strap) require 11+ Armorer and Tanner to make. So, I skill up on it after I'm past it? huh?

At least with crafting, recipes don't seem to have an EXP cut off point, at least none that I've hit yet. I'm rank 9 smithing and I'm still getting skill ups off of basic stuff, where as in XI there would have been a cap. Oh yeah this is another beef of mine I totally forgot, simplify crafting! I'm sure it's too late to remove shards from the equation sadly, but here's something I really just don't get.

In XI, to make an ingot, you took fire + 4 ores, usually of the same type. This is not the case in XIV. A copper ingot for example, first requires you gather 4 ores like in XI, however instead of a fire shard you need a fire crystal which is mind boggling given it's such a low level synth, and the final product requires shards. But that's SE for you. Anyway, after you do that you get about 12 copper nuggets. You then take 5 of those nuggets with fire shards and you finally get your ingot.

Why the extra step SE? And why the fire crystals? Why not just 4 ores + 6~8 shards or something = ingot? I mean, wouldn't the nuggets be carved from the ingots with wind? I could be wrong but I've never heard of nuggets being extracted from ores. They're usually just smelted right away removing the impurities and then crafted into whatever shape or form is needed.

[jenova_9]

Re: Honest First Impressions? (For those of us still on the fence)

Please go to SQUARE ENIX Support Center > Contact Us > Suggestions and Feedback. Let them know some things need to be changed ASAP.

here are my suggestions:

1) Auction House, how can you have a crafter driven economy where a crafter cannot buy parts from other crafters efficiently to make goods used by other classes. I cannot stress enough how much this is needed. im tired of seeing Moko Grass X10000000 and nothing i need.

2) Player Search Commands - Seriously? i thought this would be a given. nothing more needs to be said.

3) Get rid of the new party search system, no one uses it. Bring back one that involves what was stated above.. a player search function in which if your looking for a group is just as simple as being put into a window... (FFXI)

4) /invite player that IS NOT IN FRONT OF YOU! seriously im not running 10 minutes to form a party anymore.

well FFXIV sounds a little crazy but things will improve.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Honest First Impressions? (For those of us still on the fence)

Well I'm not a solo player so the solo aspect doesn't mean much to me. I will say this though, I started Conjurer and when I tried to do some nub Guildleves I got my ass handed to me occasionally. So its not a cake walk at times.

If you get into an ls, better yet with people that you know, then getting people together to do stuff is MUCH easier. Choosing from the population to get stuff done is hit or miss. I like to walk around and strike up conversations with people and chit chat. Sometimes you find chatty people that add you to their friends list and sometimes they are a bit bitchy...especially if they are crafting! lol

The retainer/no AH issue is a HUGE problem for me. Spending hours of my time looking around for something, then finding it at an extremely inflated price, then looking around some more hoping to not spend every dime you have, and spending even more of my time just reminds me WAY too much of the long walks in FFXI or the seeking for party. It takes too much of your time when it shouldn't. If they wanted this game to be more play friendly and streamlined, they certainly dropped the ball on this part.

I like the way ls's are set up but I miss being able to read ls chat exclusively. There is only General and Battle tabs for the chat windows and I'd like my Party and LS options. I'm busy as a mage and sometimes shit gets past me and I feel bad it I don't respond to someone talking to me. I still need to set up filters but I have a feeling that isn't going to be a miracle cure.

I'm having fun making lots of OMGWTF memories though. Raptors + level 10 Marauder = INSTANT DEATH! (Hits for 4k with 700 hp lol) Conversation went like this:

Person: Ok, stand back. I'll go hit it and see if I can take it, then you run in with the cures.
Me: Um...no.
Person: What?
Me: Um...that is red to me so......no.
Person: That doesn't mean much, there are 3 of us so its red to us individually but could be blue to us combined.
Me: HAHAHA......no.
Person: Come on! Give me Stoneskin, it will be fine!
Me: You are seriously going in? /sigh
<casts Stoneskin and runs the opposite direction>
Person: GOING IN!!!
<runs up and hits the raptor for 5 points of damage>
Person: ....oh shit....
<raptor busts out laughing, bites off his head and shits down his throat>
Me: Ummm...ya....so about that....

I'm also worried how things are going to change when the regular edition is released. The servers are pretty busy right now as it is, the influx could make the game harder for me to play since I didn't update my PC yet. (Had to spend it on daughters 30th birthday that she was freaking out over. le sigh)

And I won't even get into an aspect of the game that is very controversial and one of the reasons I don't log on as much as I probably would otherwise...

-------------------------------------------------------

This is from someone that was pretty negative about the game. I always buy FF games and play them so it was a given I would but I will say that I wasn't looking forward to it. Usually I get the game, install, update, and log in and play till I drop but not with this game. I got it, it sat on my desk till the next day, I installed at my leisure (not watching for the second it was done to go to the next step), updated it and didn't realize when it was done, and then didn't log immediately on. I installed and updated several other PC's plus was on the web reading stuff and posting here. I would say that I wasn't gungho about FFXIV one bit.

Now that I've played it, I am slowly starting to get the bug. I'm starting to think about what I need to do when I'm doing something else. I'm starting to get the itch to log in when I'm busy. It is slowly but surely growing on me bit by bit. Will that last? Time will tell, but I can say right now that I'm enjoying my time (but I am partying all the time I'm on - except for today maybe). Would I reccommend people to run right out and get it? Nah. I saw one of my godsons this weekend and he was all in my face about the game. I told him to wait. To give me at least a month before buying it (well before me buying it for him lol). I think people, who have the capability to play it and are on the fence, should wait till the end of October before deciding. Wait to see what people think long term and wait to see if there will be some type of patch or announcement dealing with some of the issues the game still has. Because, as us ex-FFXIers know, its not all about the game but also about how the company, thats developing it, handles major issues. I really want to know if they've learned anything at all from FFXI....

[Firewind]

Re: Honest First Impressions? (For those of us still on the fence)

Pros

• Solo play is as effective as group play. You can also log on for just a few mins a day and get something done.
• Game looks great. The scenery and cities look awesome.
• Victory fanfare is back for the stupid "FFX-XIII suck for not having it!" fanboys
• Music is awesome (though I've been hearing the Limsa Lomina theme since Alpha testing so I'm sort of sick of it myself)
• Taru no longer talk like Ned Flanders
• Shantotto isn't in the game
• Crafting no longer requires millions of gil to get to Lv10
• Battlesystem is very fluid and fast paced (for an MMO)
• The Mithra and female Hume emote actions are adorable.
• Fishing is fun.
• Everyone can teleport and warp.
• Fatigue system and the fact that armour and clothing aren't restricted by class means that you are not only encouraged but rewarded by trying out different classes while bored.

Cons

• Speed of battle system makes Ventrilo a requirement for coordination so if you're shy on the mic or lag out when running Vent, you're shit out of luck.
• No real way to quickly toggle between targets for party members.
• Taru are a bitch to heal because of the above.
• Japanese players are a bitch to heal because they all seem to play Taru.
• They slowed down gathering from Open Beta which makes HELM a chore rather than something you do while farming.
• The HELM minigames suck (except fishing).
• Guildleve cooldown sucks if you don't have a lot of friends to share and space out leves with.
• Fatigue system can be annoying if you haven't got suitable weapons for the other classes.
• It will take you a while before you are out of the starter gear due to how long it will take to level about 6 different crafts to get a Leather Harness or Bronze Dagger.

1. CTRL + R
2. In-game crafting help (your own recipe book and for the love of God have NPCs recommend crafts to you like in XI)
3. Better explanation of rank requirements on gear/items
4. Auction House + Mog House
5. /search (I honestly do not like the new party interface)
6. faster guildleve cooldown (24 hours is plenty)
7. quicker Anima recharge (how about 2 per hour?)
8. Adjust some of the recipes. How stupid is it that I have to be a higher rank to make something of a lower rank? (upgraded tools for example)

1. CTRL+R does work? You have to open the chat box first but I have never had any problem with getting CTRL+R to work.
2. FFXIV really needs a recipe list that can be viewed at any time like on Aion.
3. Rank requirement is your Physical Rank, not Class Rank
4. It wouldn't be so bad if there was some kind of search feature for the Wards like in Phantasy Star Universe. Why there is no way of searching the Wards is beyond me.
5. I've had no problem with using the search/seek function as it's not that much different than games like Aion.
6. It's not that the cooldown is bad IMO, it's the fact there there are so few of them. When you're at the 10-20 level region you can basically only get about 6 or 7 leves which means you only gain about a level a day. It's a pain having to find a number of people and teleporting the around the world just so you can get more than an hour's worth of fighting into a night's gaming session.
7. You can teleport the entire party for the same amount of anima so it's more a case of making teleporting by yourself cost less anima since I can port a full party for the same amount it would cost me to teleport myself.
8. It was like that in FFXI which was stupid. To be able to craft something the fact that you need to vastly outlevel it is annoying.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Honest First Impressions? (For those of us still on the fence)

Personally, I hope they keep AHs the fuck out of this game. Saying you want AHs is like saying you want RMT in the game inflating and deflating the economy as they see fit - which is exactly what would happen. Without a centralized system, its practically impossible for RMT manipulate the system as they did in FFXI. Dropping the AH is a good move. Barter/trade is far more realistic for the kind of settings MMOs go for.

Can't find what you need? Oh well, take up the craft yourself.

Additionally I guarantee you the second they put in an AH, the crafting jobs will fall to the wayside and many more people will just stick to building a melee character, never growing to be anything more than some dumbass that just hits stuff and needs everyone to do everything else for him.

They do need a sort of universal searchfor the retainer system. Who's selling what where and for how much. If teleporting is easy enough to do then a BBS and dealing with the seller directly is the best way to go. Just let them search for the item, give the location, position, player name and price from that retainer.

Only downer is with such a system would allow people to few and undercut others, giving the 24/7 loser the ability constantly benefit while the people at work/school can't do a damn thing to compete. Perhaps an app could be devised to search the system from outside the game and allow you to make adjustments to your retainer.

If someone doesn't think of it now, they'll do it eventually, i figure.

[Aksannyi]

Re: Honest First Impressions? (For those of us still on the fence)

I really want to know if they've learned anything at all from FFXI....

This is huge for me, too. I have to wait anyway because of my finances, but if/when I get the money to spend on a computer (which I would only be buying for the sake of this game really otherwise I'd put more money toward paying off my student loans), I'm hoping by then I'll know how SE deals and if they've addressed major issues.

[Grizzlebeard]

Re: Honest First Impressions? (For those of us still on the fence)

Personally, I hope they keep AHs the fuck out of this game. Saying you want AHs is like saying you want RMT in the game inflating and deflating the economy as they see fit - which is exactly what would happen. Without a centralized system, its practically impossible for RMT manipulate the system as they did in FFXI. Dropping the AH is a good move. Barter/trade is far more realistic for the kind of settings MMOs go for.

Can't find what you need? Oh well, take up the craft yourself.

That has to be the stupidest shit I've seen posted on this board in a long while and that's saying something.

[Taskmage]

Re: Honest First Impressions? (For those of us still on the fence)

Can't find the arrows you need? Oh well, level mining, botany, smithing, clothcraft and carpentry yourself.

[Aksannyi]

Re: Honest First Impressions? (For those of us still on the fence)

It is kind of an extreme way to circumvent RMT. Yes, RMT exploded and destroyed the economy of FFXI but for all of the rampant gilbuying in the game, there was far more in other games and they still had AH systems. It's a little like destroying all of Mexico just to take out some of the drug cartels hiding there. Overkill, plain and simple.