NDA Partially Lifted as of June 12

[Aeni]

Re: NDA Partially Lifted as of June 12

My experience thus far in LL has been that just through normal questing I was able to get to 19 with little to no issues and with no dungeons (Hard to get a group together or get invited for a group with a lack of healers) The trick is to make sure you do plenty in between quests, whether it's grinding monsters for some materials to use for cooking and other crafts, or participating in FATE or working on your Hunting log. The issues with MOST players is the race to level cap. That will burn your options out very, very fast, and leave you to only dungeons and occasional FATE to get you to where you need to before the next set of quests become available to you.

Main storyline quests actually run up to level 30 this time around, so that just means that you were still too low in level to get the next set of those quests.

I was able to get to 19 on my MRD before exhausting my quests (leve allowances were slow to replenish and I really only started playing Saturday early morning) and it took me roughly 8 hours of actual playing time. With a couple of dungeon runs and a completed Level 2 Hunting Log, I'd probably be sitting at 20sh no problem with some quests still yet to play with. The obvious solution is to form a static group for dungeons or have a very active linkshell.

[Hayde]

Re: NDA Partially Lifted as of June 12

My experience thus far in LL has been that just through normal questing I was able to get to 19 with little to no issues and with no dungeons (Hard to get a group together or get invited for a group with a lack of healers) The trick is to make sure you do plenty in between quests, whether it's grinding monsters for some materials to use for cooking and other crafts, or participating in FATE or working on your Hunting log. The issues with MOST players is the race to level cap. That will burn your options out very, very fast, and leave you to only dungeons and occasional FATE to get you to where you need to before the next set of quests become available to you.

Main storyline quests actually run up to level 30 this time around, so that just means that you were still too low in level to get the next set of those quests.

I was able to get to 19 on my MRD before exhausting my quests (leve allowances were slow to replenish and I really only started playing Saturday early morning) and it took me roughly 8 hours of actual playing time. With a couple of dungeon runs and a completed Level 2 Hunting Log, I'd probably be sitting at 20sh no problem with some quests still yet to play with. The obvious solution is to form a static group for dungeons or have a very active linkshell.

No, it really ends at level 20ish. I didn't say that as in "Oh, she didn't give me any more quests!" I mean it literally has a screen that pops up saying "Thank you for participating in FINAL FANTASY XIV's beta test, you have reached the end of the story line for this beta testing!" or something along those lines.

You'll know you reached the end when you:

EDIT: Okay I can't get the spoiler tags to work, a certain event happens and then you choose your grand company--after selecting one you do one more quest and that's the end of it.

[Aeni]

Re: NDA Partially Lifted as of June 12

Damn, I went over patch notes and it seems that I misread the part where they said it's GRAND COMPANY and GUILD LEVES up to 30. Wow ... seriously SE? Level cap is 35 but main storyline quests end at 20. That's exactly the point where it ended in Alpha and Phase 2 and 3. Maybe they don't want to spoil the rest of the game but they'll need to add in those NPCs that boost your level since (a) they aren't allowing much time for play until towards the end of Phase 3 and presumably when Phase 4 rolls around, they're not going to make any more drastic changes to the game) and (b) players need to test the mid-tier (late 20s to late 30s) content for balance and what-not.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but SE has NEVER had a dedicated dungeon management team in either FFXI or FFXIV 1.0, where they can make necessary adjustments or patch the game in lightning fashion should encounters be found to be either bugged or unbalanced (too easy or too hard) This means problems with dungeon content aren't likely to be remedied or addressed for weeks at a time after problems are discovered. Maybe Yoshi-P is changing that this time around and is also adopting the new strategy Blizzard employed in the "good enough as long as we patch things right away" instead of the usual "won't release until it's perfect", but it only works with the right support team in place. Something that SE has lacked in many of their online ventures up until now.

- - - Updated - - -

Too illustrate from Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street's design philosophy for content (especially for end-game content)

The Process	Track One	Track Two
Phase 1	Design Content
Phase 2	Build Content
Phase 3	Test Content Internally
Phase 4	Test Content on PTR (Test Server) via Public Participation	Design Next Content
Phase 5	Release Content - Support Team in place to handle bug, exploit and tuning inquiries	Build Next Content
Phase 6	Continue to monitor current content situation; adjust accordingly	Test Content Internally - Support Team to provide insight; redesign if needed

The process then repeats itself over into the next expansion.

You'll need two content design teams; one with the experienced members and those that handle the actual content development, the second to provide support, that necessary communication line from CM (Community Managers, the people that deal with the players aka "Customers") to the development team as well as being able to know how and what to tweak, correct or change to get the content closer to the planned goals and as well as provide the best experience for the players.

[Malacite]

Re: NDA Partially Lifted as of June 12

You know there's also the Hunting Log and Dungeons to level up in right? It's true that leves suck - more than they did before actually - but I don't see hitting 35 being that big a deal. People managed it just fine in the previous beta with only Gridania unlocked (mind you, there was that 1 quest that leaped you 5 levels ahead automatically).

[Dux]

Re: NDA Partially Lifted as of June 12

I never made it past 27 in beta 2 I got so bored doing leve's my head fell off and I stopped logging in.

Lets hope Beta 3 doesn't make me that bored again....

[Aeni]

Re: NDA Partially Lifted as of June 12

You know there's also the Hunting Log and Dungeons to level up in right? It's true that leves suck - more than they did before actually - but I don't see hitting 35 being that big a deal. People managed it just fine in the previous beta with only Gridania unlocked (mind you, there was that 1 quest that leaped you 5 levels ahead automatically).

Ugh, Mal, you do realize that there are other classes that players would like to level up, right? This kind of flippant remark isn't exactly appreciated. And last I checked, Hunting Log level 2+ requires dungeons to progress (in fact, the Log starts to fill up with nothing but monsters from dungeons), so the Log in itself becomes entirely useless in this discussion after level 20 ...

[Hayde]

Re: NDA Partially Lifted as of June 12

The problem with hunting logs is starting from page 2, about roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of your page requires you to defeat enemies and bosses from dungeons for completion credit. Personally, I'm about half-way done with page 3 when the beta ended and it required me to kill mobs from the Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak. The mobs and bosses you need to kill varies on your current class (so THM/GLA/PUG would have to kill things in the Hatali(SP? Embarassed I don't remember this name -_-) dungeon). Because I rolled a conjurer--that is, lolhealer and managed to join a fairly large social LS on the beta server I'm on I had absolutely no problems getting into dungeon groups. However, I'd wager to say that DPS classes are going to have a much harder time getting groups with only 1 class in beta being capable of healing full-time.

Other than that, yes there are leve's and FATE's to do your grinding in as well. Don't forget Guildhests!

[Malacite]

Re: NDA Partially Lifted as of June 12

I was just saying there's a slew of options, but ultimately yes when the quests start to dry it up it really sucks for leveling multiple classes and it's why I wish mob grinding was still a viable alternative for those who choose to do so. It's also why I'll positively rage until I collapse if I lose any character data.

[Etra]

Re: NDA Partially Lifted as of June 12

Figure since SE has no jurisdiction on these forums... and haven't seen this particular data mine posted yet... Sooooooooo...

Level 01 - Ruin: Deals magic damage to target. Potency: 100

Level 02 - Bio: Deals magic DoT to target. Potency: 10 Duration: 30s

Level 04 - Ruby Carbuncle: Summons "Carbuncle Mage"

Level 06 - Miasma: Deals magic DoT to target. Potency: 5 Duration: 30s Additional Effect: Inflict 20% "Heavy" & an ailment that halves the amount recovered on heals. Duration: 30s This Heavy will not be cancelled if target takes an attack. (TN: This one was tricky for me, might've @#%^ed this one up)

Level 10 - Sustain: Consume 15% of your max HP to grant HoT to your pet. Potency: 5 Duration: 15s Cannot be used if current HP is less than 15% your max HP.

Level 14 - Wither: Deals cone-shaped magic damage towards target. Range: 120 degrees

Level 15 - Diamond Carbuncle (QUEST): Summons "Carbuncle Guardian".

Level 18 - Self-Sacrifice: Out of your current HP, consume 20% of your max HP to raise your own magic damage for a set time. Duration: 12s Cannot be used if current HP is less than 20% max.

Level 22 - Miasma II: Deals magic DoT to AoE. Potency: 5 Duration: 30s Additional Effect: Inflict 20% "Heavy" & an ailment that halves the amount recovered on heals. Duration: 30s This Heavy will not be cancelled if target takes an attack. (Again, not sure of the additional effect)

Level 26 - Fog: Decrease target's range of throwing, archery, and magic by 10 yalms. Duration: 30s

Level 30 - Barrier: Raise your physical defense by 10%. Duration: 15 min.

Level 30 - Bane (QUEST): Scatter a target's DoT & Status Ailment to surroundings. Duration: Based on DoT / Ailment. If you did not inflict the DoT / Ailment there is no effect. Additional Effect: 15% chance to reset the duration of the scattered DoT / Ailment. (TN: This was a doozy. Might be way off. Sounds like it spreads an enemy's DoT or debuff to surrounding enemies. Not sure if this is the actual quest ability you learn.)

Level 34 - Bio II: Inflict magic DoT to target. Potency: 20 Duration: 60s Additional Effect: Raises target's chance of taking critical damage 3%.

Level 38 - Autoimmunity Raise your own physical defense 10%. Duration: 12s Can only be used if HP is less than 20%.

Level 42 - Addle: Inflict target with 10% "Slow Cast". Duration: 12s

Level 46 - Serpent Tongue: Increase your "Fast Cast" 10% and decrease range your range of magic 10 yalms. Duration: 15s

Level 50 - Aura Burst: Deals magic damage to surrounding enemies. Additional Effect: Knocks back target 10 yalms. (TN: Not sure if it's the enemy you target or all hit by the spell. No potency was given in the doc I have)

Summoner Skills (These sound like Summoner abilities but I'm not sure how the levels will work out):

Level 04 - Proto Ramuh: Summon "Ramuh Spirit".

Level 15 - Proto Titan: Summon "Titan Spirit".

Level 30 - Proto Garuda: Summon "Garuda Spirit".

Level 35 - Fester: Deal damage based on the number of DoT / Ailments you have inflicted on target. "60 Potency" damage per DoT / Ailment. Only Arcanist/Summoner DoT / Ailments count toward damage. No effect if you did not inflict DoT / Ailment to target. (TN: Sorry if wording is strange. Might have messed this one up)

Level 40 - Proto Ifrit: Summon "Ifrit Spirit".

Level 45 - Harm's Way: Have your pet take damage for one other party member (excluding yourself). Duration: 12s

Level 50 - Enkindle: Execute a Fulfillment skill on currently summoned pet. Can only use when a Summoner pet is summoned. (TN: Not sure what this means without context, but maybe using stuff like "Diamond Dust" etc.?)


Soo yeah. Judging by the corresponding levels you unlock summons as a summoner, Ramuh is the mage, Titan is the tank, Garuda is the healer, Ifrit is the melee DPS.

[Aeni]

Re: NDA Partially Lifted as of June 12

Playing a hunter as a main in WoW, I should like the pet classes, but I am not really digging it (but that's my bias, since I prefer physical damage over magical damage classes)

I'm thinking of PGL/MNK, maybe, but I really like tanking. Maybe I can make it work ... I don't know.

[Hayde]

Re: NDA Partially Lifted as of June 12

I have no idea where this put tidbit of info, but I discovered something while fiddling with my configuration file. For those of you running borderless windowed mode (not sure anyone else runs this aside from me, I suspect most people are running in fullscreen mode) your game resolution may not be matching up to your computer's resolution. I found my game's graphics a bit worse than some screenshots I was seeing on various communities including this one, and to my surprise I found the culprit.

If you go to My Documents (or Documents) > My Games > Final Fantasy XIV Beta > ffxiv.cfg (open it with notepad or something) you'll see all your settings laid out;

in my case it looked like this:

<Display Settings>
MainAdapter
ScreenLeft 208
ScreenTop 230
ScreenWidth 1280
ScreenHeight 720
ScreenMode 2
FullScreenWidth 1920
FullScreenHeight 1080
Refreshrate 60
Fps 1
AntiAliasing 1
FPSInActive 1
ResoMouseDrag 1
MouseOpeLimit 0
Gamma 50

I had to change the bolded area's to 1920x1080 and I looked quite a bit better after that. Anti-aliasing still needs a bit of work but I've been using SweetFX to inject SMAA into it. It's not perfectly, and I think made the shadows a bit jagged but overall it's still better than the native AA in the game.

[Aeni]

Re: NDA Partially Lifted as of June 12

I had to change the bolded area's to 1920x1080 and I looked quite a bit better after that. Anti-aliasing still needs a bit of work but I've been using SweetFX to inject SMAA into it. It's not perfectly, and I think made the shadows a bit jagged but overall it's still better than the native AA in the game.

Just so we're clear, that's only for windowed-borderless mode and not full screen mode, in case others were thinking that they'd have to do this.

Regarding the AA bit, according to what I've read on the forums, AA isn't working at all and I think SE has said that it's a known issue. They were thinking of rolling out a fix in Phase 4 as a temporary measure. Because they are rolling out DX11 by the first expansion, I think the staff working on DX9 are kind of fractured over the two, and aren't getting too much leeway into what they can do for DX9. This is a completely separate team that is working on the PS3 which we all know is still not yet where they want to be (they're still optimizing the graphics for that platform)

If you're running Nvidia drivers, use the control panel and edit global settings to force FXAA and multi/super sampling. Be aware that it might cause problems or crash your game/PC, but if you really need to play the game with the best possible graphics, then that's something to consider. My own images have similar issues (which DakAttack pointed out) but I had AA turned off for the duration of Phase 3 while I'm testing the controller UI as well as finding that optimal sweet spot in performance and quality.

[Etra]

Re: NDA Partially Lifted as of June 12

Is there any way to get the PS3 style HUD menu thingy for the controller on the PC? I'm not a fan of using the controller with that bottom right menu.

Edit: Nevermind. >.> Implemented at a later time.