FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot and other reviews & hilarious discoveries about FFXIV

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

What's sad is the games that SE rushed FFXIV to beat to market have either been pushed into 2011 or December of this year. And really, there's not much stopping the WoW faithful from getting Cataclysm anyway (even though some people feel Blizzard is making a major mythos mistake with that one).

The rush to get FFXIV to market clearly was not worth the trouble.

Getting a new a PC is top priority for me, but I'm still not touching this til it launches on PS3. I'll build with FFXIV and Deus Ex: Human Revolution in-mind and I'll wait and enjoy other stuff in the meantime.

In fact, I doubt I'll be up for a new MMO even early next year. 3DS and all that. Q1 and Q2 of 2011 look pretty intense right now. Not the mention the rise of the portable online RPG has just begun. I can enjoy Phantasy Star Portable 2 online fight now, without all the foibles and commitments of an MMORPG. Its pretty sweet. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd and God Eater Burst aren't far behind.

[Absentia]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

I kind of dismiss most reviews anymore. I see them more as 'professional' opinions. I've had major fun with multiple titles that are usually marked as mediocre by reviewers, because my taste/views vary much differently than their own.

I've had a few hours experience with FFXIV so far, and I've enjoyed what I've played. The UI and menus don't really bother me, so to each their own I guess. *shrugs*

[Malacite]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

I'm reserving my judgment until at least an update or two is all I'm saying.


If SE doesn't get their shit together within that time frame, I'll just stick to 11 until if & when they do. I like XIV so far, but it really is lacking in some areas and as others have said, the UI is in bad need of tweaking. The thing is a lot of this is fixable, it's just a matter of if and when SE does and sadly, going by their track record with XI (not counting the recent awesome updates) things don't look so good. I choose to remain cautiously optimistic. It's taken SE just over 5 years to really improve on XI and make it a great MMO, but they did it. I just hope they don't take nearly so long with XIV or anything they do will be too little too late (and there's no excusing it either, I mean did they not learn a damn thing from XI?)

[Raydeus]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

Like I've said before, fixing and adding the little things that should've been there from the start is precisely SE's weakest (by far) point.

They will eventually get around to do it, in 4-7 years from now.

[Ziero]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

My statement still stands. Unless FFXI magically stated looking horrible, all of a sudden. (I know I don't really need to say this, but really, look at freaking WoW and tell me that isn't atrocious.)

With XI being as old as it is, many people have already completely dismissed the ability to start up and play. XI is the same boat as Everquest, a good solid game but woefully outdated. Even people who enjoyed XI will eventually want to move on to something different, and if XIV can offer the same kind of feeling while offering improved gameplay systems and functions, it will more then find it's space to shine.

lacking polish ?= major gameplay problems

Yes. UI issues are a major problem, but it just needs minor fixes to work fully. Outside of the whole Retainer/Market system, all the biggest problems are really small issues. Annoying problems that really shouldn't exist in any form and just need simple fixes and changes to repair fully.

That's polish.

UI lag, Chatbox interruptions, lack of internal crafting database, small things that will make a world of difference.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

First let me say this, I am a HUUUUGE SE/Squaresoft fangirl. I have damn near every game they ever made...and I'm serious. It says SE, I buy it. Now top that off with the fact that I'm an RPG nut and Final Fantasy is THE series. I have spent over $100,000 on FF stuff and could be nearing $200,000. I try to buy every PAL/NTSC/JP version of ever FF game. Ya, I'm a screw loose. Ok with that said, lets talk FFXI and FFXIV....

When FFXI was coming out, words can not explain my anticipation. I had a countdown board and I pestered my JP friend to no end, so much so, that he ended up getting infused with my hysteria. So he bought the game when it came out there and drove me absolutely insane by sending me screenshots and even a video. Well, about a month before my birthday I received a very large package from him and it was the JP HD with the game. I was over the moon! I was IN A FINAL FANTASY GAME!! Do you realize how many times I had played FF for hours and dreamed about being in the game? (Oh come on after long sessions of a game you've dreamed about it too.) Now I was in it....a part of it....a part of the story...there weren't words. No matter what I could overlook the issues with the game and still soldier on because it was a level of involvement that I had never experienced before.

I can't do that with FFXIV.

The blinders are off. I spent the better part of seven years playing FFXI. It immersed me in the FF world so completely that the "omg I'm in a FF game" newness was gone. Now I can look at this game with open eyes and have another MMO FF to compare it to.

FFXIV is beautiful and HUUUUUUUUUGE! I explored every inch of the areas in the testing phase. In fact, I don't remember what level I was but it wasn't very high because I wanted to see it all. It's just that beautiful. Now there is an issue with this huge world though. At this time, travel can be a royal pain in the ass. If you want to go to another city, well section off at least TWO HOURS of your time. Yes, the 15 - 20 minute walks between cities that you complained about in FFXI are gone, they've made it even longer. Oh once someone travels to a city/aetheryte you can hitch a ride in their pt and get teleported there and then you'll have the aetheryte yourself (provided you remember to touch the crystal lol). But teleporting costs Anima and if you like to do a lot of leves and travel from city to city every day to do so, you'll run through this ASAP. Oh, you get back 6 Anima every day....but 6 isn't shit when it costs 4 to travel to a city/aetheryte in whatever area you are in and 6 to another city. So you'll do a good piece of traveling in this game just to save Anima.

tl;dr If you run low on Anima, good luck walking 2 hours to the next city or pony up some gil and grab a teleport if you can find one. Huge game is HUUUUUUGE!

The battle system is.....different. FFXI had the basic RPG battle system with "limit breaks" (weapson skills) and "combos" (skillchains). FFXIV as an active battle system which I have no problem with. In a way, I like it better than FFXI because I was tired of seeing melee engaged but then the mob would move and they'd be standing there with their back to it not hitting. "Oh sorry, was playing <insert game name here> on my PSP/DS and didn't see the mob move." Yes, they'll still engage and just stand there I'm sure but you'll know more quickly now if they are paying attention or not. But the buggy skillchain system (battle regimen) and macros are annoying to say the least. There are basic systems in the game that should have been throughly tested by now and fixed. Many of the issues have been reported ad nauseam on the tester forums too. SE says they are listening more but are they? I still have had issues with the "you can not attack" bug or the "you can not do that now" bug. Still? Yet more issues that have been brought to their attention multiple times.

tl;dr Well known issues since the dawn of the game are still in the game. Why? Only SE knows...

Now lets remember that SE made this game solo friendly but something people are forgetting is that they didn't say it wasn't going to a time sink. The game is a huge time sink as any pay to play MMO should be, its how they make their money. I've been hearing, in game, people moaning about how they thought the game was supposed to be casual and not such a time sink. Seriously? Where's my blist? Traveling takes time if you don't have the Anima to spare, job leveling (sans leves) takes time but you can solo a lot now, farming shards/crystals or ingredients takes time, etc. To enjoy this game to its fullest is going to take some serious time. So get over it, FFXIV is a time sink. The biggest thing to change is that you can solo a lot easier (i.e. if you only want to solo for 3 or 4 hours a week you can do so comfortably).

tl;dr FFXIV is a time sink so get over it.

Oh and on to the crafting system....oh good lord I could right a f'in thesis on this shit. Ok lets do a simple synopsis of crafting in FFXIV. You decide to be an Armorer because you want to repair your own equips. So that means collecting shards to craft with and ingredients to craft with too. Well thats not too bad because as I do leves and kill mobs, I get drops. Oh wait, crafting now takes multiple shards (crystals)...hmmmm...thats kind of rough but I'll grin and bear it. So if I need ingredients to craft, some of them need to be farmed up via Botanist and Miner. I have to level those TOO!? Oh come on....But again, we trudge on and do our best. Let's remember that the act of doing each of these things takes hours and hours of your time. So that means hours and hours of Armorer, hours and hours of collecting shards/crystals, hours and hours of Botanist, hours and hours of Miner,.... But what is this!? If I want to be a successful armorer I need to level Leatherworking, Goldsmithing, and Weaving also!!? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA...are you serious?? Yes....yes you are....so thats hours and hours of Leatherworking, hours and hours of Goldsmithing, hours and hours of Weaving...Oh and you think thats it? Wait theres more! In order to be a successful Leatherworker you need to level subs for that job...and for Weaving...Here check it out:

This information is only up to level 30 crafting since that's all lodestone has. (Not my info, taken off the web)

Gold Smithing:
Required subjob: none

Leatherworking:
Required Subjob: Tailoring lv. 11-20 x10 (Lv. 1-10), lv. 21-30 x6 (Lv. 11-20)
Required Subjob: Alchemy lv. 11-20 x1 (Lv. 1-10), lv. 21-30 x2 (Lv. 11-20)
Required Subjob: Goldsmith lv. 11-20 lv. 21-30 x1 (Lv. 11-20)

Armor Smithing:
Required Subjob: Leatherworking lv. 11-20 x4 (Lv. 1-10), lv. 21-30 x1 (Lv. 11-20)
Required Subjob: Carpentry lv. 11-20 x2 (Lv. 1-10)
Required Subjob: Weaving lv. 21-30 x3 (Lv. 11-20)

Weaving:
Required Subjob: Leatherworking lv. 11-20 x13 (Lv. 1-10), lv. 21-30 x10 (Lv. 11-20)

Black Smithing:
Required Subjob: Leatherworking lv. 11-20 x2 (Lv. 1-10), lv. 21-30 x1 (11-20)
Required Subjob: Weaving lv. 21-30 x1 (Lv. 11-20)

Wood Working:
Required Subjob: Armor Smith lv. 11-20 x2 (Lv. 1-10), lv. 21-30 x1 (Lv. 11-20)
Required Subjob: Alchemy lv. 11-20 x4 (Lv. 1-10), lv. 21-30 x4 (Lv. 11-20)
Required Subjob: Black Smith lv. 11-20 x1 (Lv. 1-10)
Required Subjob: Leatherworking lv. 21-30 x2 (Lv. 11-20)

Cooking:
Required Subjob: Alchemy lv. 11-20 x1 (Lv. 1-10)
Required Subjob: Gold Smith lv. 21-30 x2 (Lv. 11-20)

Alchemy:
Required Subjob: Culinarian lv. 11-20 x3 (Lv. 1-10)

tl;dr Put on your big boy pants because the entire crafting process is a royal pain in the ass. The act of crafting is fun, but the rest of it puts the T and S in Time Sink.

(This next section is a review of the game AS IT STANDS NOW. So get that through your thick head before you post "OMG are you stupid they announced they were going to do something about this!") So let's say "Screw leveling Botanist/Miner/Fisher, there aren't enough hours in my life to do all that shit!" Ok how are we going to get those nice tidy items? Oh ya, we have to use the bazaar system! So that means going from bazaar to bazaar on PC's or their retainers. Wheeeeeeeeee thats hours of my time! So wait, I can spend hours and hours looking for a good deal on crafting items by browsing bazaars or hours and hours of my time leveling Botanist/Miner/Fisher...hmmmm what to do, what to do! Not only is this a royal pain all by itself but the UI is so f'in clunky that you want to rip your hair out! So lets go to the retainer sections and shop. After I get there I see that the place is packed with retainers and there are people shopping. What does this lead to? Lag. Oh yes, its not groundbreaking lag but when the UI is so laborious to go through to buy stuff, the bit of lag you get can be a serious pain. So you target the retainer, you open your menu, you click browse, you wait for a box to pop up, you wait for it to populate, you scroll through the items, choose what you want to buy, click the accept button, another box pops up, it confirms the item and price but if there are multiples you need to click accept, ANOTHER box pops up with the unit/set price and now you choose how many you want, now confirm this and click the accept button again and buy it (then hitting return and return again to exit this bazaar and then target another retainer/pc and do this all over again)....and add lag to the mix. Imagine doing this over and over until you can find all the items you need at reasonable prices. Give me a T....Give me an S! And yes, they've announced that they are going to fix this, make it easier...time will only tell....but I will say that ANYTHING would be an improvement over this horrendous clunky pos.

tl;dr Bazaar/Retainer system is total crap. Their intentions were good (helping prevent RMT) but the execution was horrible. This needs to be fixed, and fixed well, ASAP. Time will tell...

Speaking of retainers....so I can put 80 items on my retainer, SWEET!! So he can stand around and sell 80 items and make me bookoo buckems! BZZZZZT! No? Well he can stand around and sell 40 items and make me some good coinage, right? BZZZZZT! WTF? So how many items can he sell? TEN!? TEN F**KING ITEMS WHEN HE HOLDS EIGHTY!? Ok...who thought of this little nugget? I want their nuggets to meet my foot. Retainers are Mog Safes and thats awesome but, again, limiting how many items you can sell at a time to so few is just asinine. Now add to this that you are a crafter and you are skilling up by making stuff, stuff that does NOT stack. Yep, that retainer fills up quickly and you better set your prices pretty darn low if you want inventory to move fast. Ten...seriously? Ten??

tl;dr Limiting the amount of items you can sell, yet again, is stupid. If your retainer can hold 80 items, you could at least let us sell 20 of them.

I could go on about other issues but I don't have the time and I don't think you really want to see 10 pages of my thoughts so let me sum this up for you. I'm a huge SE/FF fangirl. I want this game to succeed. I want to wake up and think about when I can play again because I'm so into the game. I want to love this game......but I'm having a hard time. I don't have a problem with time sinks, I take them for what they are and live with it. What I have a problem with is poor execution. SE has delivered a product that needed more time in the womb. Should MMO's still have glitches after release? Yes they should but not to basic gameplay mechanics. Those should be the most tested of all. There are things in this game that have been reported and not fixed, why? I just want to know why and then maybe I can reason out why something, thats persisted through in house testing and alpha/beta testing, is still plaguing us. Things needed to be tweaked, tested, and fixed. And I don't care who you are, you can not deny this because it is so blatantly obvious. Then there are the WTF were you thinking aspects of the game. They want to make it solo friendly and it is but it isn't casual friendly and people need to get over that. You still need to sink a good amount of time into the game to enjoy all the aspects of it. It's a MMO, its the nature of the beast.

So whats my verdict. I give it a 5.5/10. What do I think of Gamespot's rating? Not much. What do I think of my rating? Not much? Why? Because the game is less than a month old. How can you review a MMO thats less than a month old? In 6 months, then I'll start listening to reviews. Would I recommend this game to people? If you are a seasoned MMO'er and a FF fan, then yes. If you are a nub MMO'er, no. If you aren't a FF fanboy, no. At this point, there is too much to dislike and I want people to really like the game. I've been telling people to wait until March. There will be a new influx of fresh faced hopeful people to play with and, I pray to god, that they'll have done some tweaking and fixing by then. So as the game stands now and if it would stay this way, 5.5/10. Otherwise, ask me in 6 months.......if I'm still playing. Like my Grandmother used to say "you can slap a coat of paint on a piece of shit, but it's still a piece of shit". Let's hope they listen to the user base this time and don't just slap a coat of paint on it. (FYI, I'm not saying the game is a piece of shit, its a saying so get your undies out of your crack. I'm saying it has some major flaws that need to be worked out and if they just go "Oh here are some new jobs!" instead of fixing them, thats how the saying applies.)

[Paradigm777]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

Final Fantasy XXV Online

New features!

-Players will now get to play a game of chess with the AI to determine synthesis success or failure! Why play just one game when you could be playing two?!

-Navigate through twenty simple menus for easy access to your inventory and bazaar!

-Maps are for squares. In the spirit of exploration we've eliminated them from the game. Who knows where you'll end up next?!

-No recipes? No problem! Figure it out yourself!

-New and improved UI! FFXXV will now ask you to confirm every keystroke in order to guarantee that you never press the wrong button again!

-Forget job systems, everyone is now a squirrel dual wielding rubber chickens! Go nuts!

-Join the fight against RMT! Accuse someone of trading in game currency for real money and we'll ban them on the spot!

-Be careful not to minimize the game while in fullscreen mode or your character could be deleted forever!

-Don't forget to press the Breathe button on your action bar every 2 seconds or you'll die!

-Coming whenever the hell we feel like it but probably much before it's actually been tested and ready to be released!

[Aeni]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

I won't try to post a review of my own here because quite frankly, I have better things to do with my time (No, I'm not being trite here, but I'm being honest. This game deserves a lengthy review and it would literally take me hours and maybe days to put together my thoughts and provide a lot of evidence to back it up)

Suffice to say, TGM basically got a few of my gripes in her post and although I can't agree with her 100%, I have to say that she has captured my frustrations as well as anyone can.

My problems stem from the fact that during beta, there was little in the way of a two-way communication to the developers. To contrast, when I participated in alpha, closed beta and then open beta in FFXI, I was not only encouraged to provide reports to the developers, I was given 3 emails to certain people within Square (pre-SE) that would be liason to the process. I had pre-printed forms to fill out with regards to bugs and other issues and I could provide other things to them, including media evidence of issues (if they needed clarification) I was a small handful of non-JP players chosen for the alpha and there weren't very many english speaking players at the time. Yet Square went out of their way to assign a bilinguist to the task and I could communicate with someone (either by phone or email)

In FFXIV, there was zero communication and an apperance of intentional avoidance of communication on SE's part. I could not get a hold of anyone nor could I find the appropriate channel to discuss the issues that plagued the game. The major points of contention for me was:

-UI
-Quality of Life
-Battle Regiment
-Inventory Management

While there were issues plaguing the crafting, leve and other functions of the game, they were of little importance to me given the sheer size of the game and the scope and magnitude of the systems that were being built in. For example, I could live with not having any in-game mail and an auction house but that was dependant largely on the promises of an account-based retainer system. They scrapped the idea and instead settled on character-based retainers which is a step back behind the inventory management they had in FFXI even with the limited storage.

To compare the beta testing experiences with another game, World of Warcraft, which I currently am involved in (Cataclysm) they are night and day (Blizzard and SE) In Cataclysm, there's access to an extensive reporting system in which you can categorize your concerns and then send them (in-game) your concerns. They can range from issues with installation all the way to particular problems you're encountering in the game. And almost always, there's a real human behind that system reviewing the reports and then having them conveyed to the developers. This is what separates these two companies and why one is more successful than the other.

Besides the in-game reporting feature, Blizzard took the time to provide a forum (a set of forums actually) dedicated to discussing findings with other players. This is important, because the community as a whole can now participate in active communication with the key developers and issues such as exploits can be readily and quickly resolved. What happened with FFXIV is that a lot of exploits never got fixed from beta and are now making their presence known in live and is gradually eroding away at the economy (ironic, isn't it?) and at player experiences.

I'll just stop here before I find myself getting caught up with this post.

[Neverslip]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

... again... unconcerned (yet certainly not excited for anymore) until PS3 release. I agree a review on a MMO at release is silly. However I also agree that some of these bugs I've read about for what seems forever should not have been in the release.

[wrongfeifong]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

You see, this is where I take issue.

This isn't a beta anymore. This isn't the time for taking feedback and fixing/changing things that just aren't working. That was months and months ago. I only played in the beta, and from what I can tell all the shit that sucked then still sucks now. SE pulled the same thing with FFXI: It was fucking awful at release and it took them what, 5 years of updates to get it straight?

I'm not buying it this time around. I bought FFXI at launch because all that was going through my mind was FUCK YEAH FF ONLINE I CAN BE A DRAGOON AND IT WILL BE AWESOME. I experienced the shit they put out then, and it's clear they haven't learned a thing since then.

You want to give them money to beta test and pretend they care about the player's opinions? Go ahead. I've been there once and I know SE doesn't give a shit about the opinions of the people playing the game and will just continue on with the same bullshit as long as people keep paying them a monthly fee.


Honestly, I don't care what Gamespot and other shitty online review sites think either, but that doesn't mean they aren't right on the money with this one.

You just going to know that you going to miss tons of crap during this time of year when every reach level 50 and you are stuck on fatigue system playing 5 months to reach level 50 to enjoy the contents later. What hard is that in that 5 month time, your friends who already reach 50 going to enjoy it without you then you come ask them to help you and they are all done.

Deja vu? FFXI....try get Sky now ... good luck buddy.


Aeni, please don't praise blizzard for their crap.

I was in one of the top raid guild for a period and i found the game is horrible STUPID. Yes, the boss are hard, NOT. They are all patternized, Boss A will move to the right @ 50% hp, he will do this @ 45% hp, he will cast X @ 30% hp. Yes pretty much just summerize what every boss does in that game. Is it hard? No, you just follow the pattern to advance to next boss.

Blizzard does have their forum, but guess what people use it for? Cyber sex chat, little kids come on complaint about their class overpower by this and that.
Do they response to it? NO, i never see a moderator for that forum.

More is that blizzard let them game take in third party UI. Of course, you are not going to complain about their UI, i painfully hate their UI as it was too simple and easily make mistakes (drop items and stuff), you can use third party UI to get an advantage.

Let me tell you how skillful i am as a priest. Chromage change colour! Doing poison and various status. I click "H" and spam it, it will automatically spot which type of cure i should use to fix which type of status aliment. If people are hurt, i spam "K", it will automatic adjust which type of heal spell and its power i should use and it will AUTO target whoever is hurt or prioritize the TANK.

So in most of the bosses fight, i just spam 2 keys, "H" and "K" pretty nice right? Do i have anything else to do? Not really, just stand at certain position when my Boss fight HUD alarm me "XXX boss is @ this stage" "move over @ this area on the map"

That pretty much summarize what a TOP guild priest and one of the best priest of the server does in that game, neat right?

Also for god saken, their GM never APPEARS nor responses in game. I saw FFXI's GM running around playing with me, but i never saw a WOW GM whenever i called. You call that service?

[Etra]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

Quite frankly, does anyone with half a brain even listen to reviews from these sites anymore? Hell, I don't listen to reviews period. People will bitch to bitch. However, because I'm waiting for my episode of Top Model to load, I will reply with the review.

* Absolutely miserable interface
I don't find it miserable. It's bad, but miserable?

* Does a poor job of communicating important information
Like? Read the manual that comes with the game. That's what it's there for. If you jump in the game and have no idea what the controls are and blame it on the game, you fail at everything. Not just life, but everything. If you're expecting to be spoon fed everything (and, honestly, you pretty much are with Leves and Scenario quests), this game isn't for you, and I love it for that.

* Limited questing means you're always looking for something fun to do
...Like group? If people haven't noticed yet, FFXI style grouping is in-game and very profitable for exp. Try it out.

* Everything about the economy stinks
Soooo... We're now rating economies of a game that isn't even a month old? Okay... America's economy stinks. Shall we all jump ship? SOS, girl overboard.

* Every aspect of the game is filled with dumb obstacles.
Like? I don't see any except no recipe book (which they are working on, if I remember right.)

Fail review is fail.

[Malacite]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

TGM summed it up nicely. I just want to re-iterate again what Tim Buckley said over @ CAD: (paraphrasing here)

Every MMO gets a 6-month grace period to allow for some version updates. If, by this time, XIV has not improved and really developed into a full and fun MMO, then yes it fails. I've always been more lenient with XI because it was SE's 1st MMO, and had a lot of great qualities. More importantly, it has really become a fun and awesome game again.


But this is 8 years later. Tanaka & Komoto have learned all they need from XI, and there's absolutely no excusing the bullshit we're seeing in XIV. For everything they've fixed, they've broken something else - mostly shit that didn't need fixing in the first place. Like crystals.

In XI you use a crystal, put the ingredients in and go. So why then, in XIV, did they feel the need to dramatically fuck with this? I like the mini-games, they're cool and it's more immersive, but there's a number of really fucking annoyances.

First and foremost, if you disconnect or fail the synth, you're screwed. Not only are your crystals gone, but every single material used in the synth as well. At least in XI you had a chance to salvage some of the materials. This is offset somewhat I guess by raw materials being far, far easier to procure and store though (at least they got that part right.)

The second thing that absolutely drives me up the wall is the change to crystals. Who's brilliant idea was it to break crystals into 3 separate groups? Instead of just having crystals, and later clusters which were basically crystal stacks, we know have this overly complicated and, to me, infuriating system of tiers.

Take for example, Bronze Ingots. Well, in XI you used a fire crystal, 3 copper ores and a tin ore and BAM ingot! No, not in XIV. First of all, the ingot is actually a lower rank synth than the nuggets used to make it! This is great in the long run (HQ'ing finished goods) but horribly annoying in the short term when skilling up. Furthermore, to make ingots you now need nuggest first, not the ores (and most smithing leves reward you in ores which is so stupid when you can't process them until rank 10.)

So to make the nuggets, you need rank 10+ BSM, the standard 3 copper + 1 tin, but here's the kicker - You need a fire crystal. Yeah, that's real fucking great SE. Make the recipes to create basic materials required for the majority of the other synths of varying ranks both much higher than the stuff you need said materials for to skill up on, and require crystals, which are much much harder to procure than shards.

Oh and clusters are in the same boat now too. You don't just use one and get 12 crystals like in XI, they're catalysts for higher level synths. Why they felt the need to over-complicate things in this manner is just absolutely beyond my understanding. They went and fixed almost everything that was annoying about crafting in XI (you can actually skill up for pretty good profit now and it's fun) but then they make crystal gathering just a complete pain in the ass. Good job assholes.

In XI, the crystals were never the issue - it was gathering and storing materials without breaking the bank. XIV does a very good job of fixing that with the greatly improved gathering systems (no more competing for mining points for example) but then they go and make gathering enough crystals the hard part. It's aggravating enough grinding through the crafting ranks without having to worry about running out of catalysts tyvm SE.


/rant off. There are more points I can make about the game, but I really just wanted to outline what is at the moment my biggest peeve with the game. Well that & Travel Time but TGM pretty much covered everything else in detail. Why the crap didn't they just leave it at 1 crystal of the right element per synth ...

[Aeni]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

Aeni, please don't praise blizzard for their crap.

Let me first preface this lengthy response by telling you right now that your command of the English langauge is very poor. All I know about you is that you currently live in Canada and therefore you should be speaking the English language as it is both a sign of respect of your current residence and the fact that it is one of two major languages spoken in that country (the other being Canadien French) Since I have granted you both the courtesy and respect in understanding your difficulties with the language by both carefully reading your posts and then figuring out what you are trying to convey, then you should at the very least reciprocate that respect.

Your response has indicated that you have (a) no intentions of reciprocating that respect or (b) you've butchered my post as you tried to make sense of it and completely took it out of context and misunderstood it.

Fact

1. I never once compared customer service between the two companies. Read my post over again. My story was strictly regarding the beta testing and my previous experiences with FFXI and my current experience with Cataclysm. The lack of communication tools during FFXIV as compared with FFXI and the lack of developer responses by SE in comparison to Blizzard. I've tested more than a dozen major labels for more than 8 major developers over the past 15 years so I'm quite confident in my experiences and how it relates to this particular discussion.

2. I never once mentioned specific points regarding the UI in my post. I only listed 4 areas where I feel improvements should've been made as were pointed out by many astute testers during beta and SE failed to act upon it before release. Note that I already stated that...

I won't try to post a review of my own here because quite frankly, I have better things to do with my time (No, I'm not being trite here, but I'm being honest. This game deserves a lengthy review and it would literally take me hours and maybe days to put together my thoughts and provide a lot of evidence to back it up)

... and therefore I have not even mentioned anything specific about those problems.

Everyone has a right to their opinions so you need to keep that in mind and make sure you know what the fuck you're reading before you go spouting nonsense out of your fingertips.

[DakAttack]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

Seriously?

ITT:

[Gman]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

TLDR summed up...

They should have made it more like FFXI... why fix what ain't broken? They should have taken the things from FFXI that worked, and worked well, and kept them, or improved upon them. Things like Mog Houses, travel methods, skillchains, and even the fucking ability to search for a fellow PC. etc, etc. (I won't say auction houses, but I will say searchable items for sale). As many problems as FFXI had, it did so many things well, that it's a damn shame they didn't take that knowledge and put it to good use in this game. Why re-invent the wheel? Only S-E knows....