Final Fanstasy 11 - how is it? Need new MMO.

Don't go into a game with any particular mindset. This tends to fuck with your gaming experience. And that's all I have to say about that.
 
People who complain about the UI are usually new players who don't know how the macro system syntax works, or that there is even a macro system. Once you figure that out, the controls are actually very good since you don't even need the mouse to play.

In actuality, 75% of the game can be controlled from just the numpad.
 
FFXI was my first MMORPG.

The things that I liked about it were:
Cool classes/races
Cool AF armor
Interesting abilities and skill chains

The things that I didn't like:
Taking 10 hours to get into a party if you're a melee type character
Japanese players unwilling to group with Americans
Ridiculously overinflated economy
Uninspiring monsters
No concrete evidence on what benefits can be gained by boosting a stat
Crafting is a time/money sink, failures mean lost materials
Traveling took forever

All in all I really did not enjoy my time in FFXI. However I think you might since you are looking for a game that you can dedicate your time to. I actually liked WoW much more than FFXI but we have different tastes.
 
3)EQ2 - Didnt like the feel or artstyle. laggy/warping animations, some areas looked gorgeous while others looked like an NES game. Combat mechanics felt off.
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Obviously there is going to be a difference from opening zones to new zones.

Elaborate on "artstyle". I really don't stand, stare, and critique the "art". I play and have fun.

Also elaborate on "combat mechanics" feeling "off".

How far did you go? What level? Classes? As someone already asked: How long ago was this you played?
 
ITPaladin said:
Obviously there is going to be a difference from opening zones to new zones.

Elaborate on "artstyle". I really don't stand, stare, and critique the "art". I play and have fun.

Also elaborate on "combat mechanics" feeling "off".

How far did you go? What level? Classes? As someone already asked: How long ago was this you played?
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1) I just boughtthe complete newest package containing the newest expansion and made a character in the newest area. The art style seems very unrounded if that makes sense. Objects/buildings/landscapes are all very straight with not too much natural curves going on like in say (WOW, Guildwars, or LOTRO). The draw distance is way way too short and kills the imersion. Having a q6600@4g, 4g ram and sli'd 8800gtx's I would expect to be able to smoothly run a 4 year old game on max, but no. Players, rocks, fences magically appear within 20 feet or so and this is at max settings. Too me the world is "flat" and "dull" appearing.

2) combat felt off as I didn't get the feel that I was in direct control of my actions. I didn't get the "connected" feel when using abilites like I do in Guildawars or WOW. Too many moves/abilites that did pretty much the same thing and not enough variety for me. Sure there are like a million abilities for each class but this just gets redundant.

3) I played it initially at release and got a warrior to lvl 30 or so before quitting. A year ago I tried again and got a necro to lvl 20 or so before quitting. Last month I tried for my last time and got an assasin to lvl 15 before quitting again.
 
neueziel said:
The things that I didn't like:
Taking 10 hours to get into a party if you're a melee type character
Japanese players unwilling to group with Americans
Ridiculously overinflated economy
Uninspiring monsters
No concrete evidence on what benefits can be gained by boosting a stat
Crafting is a time/money sink, failures mean lost materials
Traveling took forever
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hm... just a few things to point out on what you list as negatives...

Yes, seeking for a party can take a while... and that's one of the largest drawbacks of the system. (You really really need to be able to seek for multiple jobs at once!)

I've never had an issue with Japanese players not being willing to party with Americans. I'd say that over 50% of my parties had at least one person in it that only spoke Japanese... heck in a decent number of them, I was the only one that spoke English.

Economic inflation... unlike WoW, FFXI is a player driven economy. Buying/selling to NPCs is something that's very seldomly done. As such you really only need to worry about the economy rapidly inflating which was only the case for a very short time period following the discovery of an exploit (which was rectified when the exploiters along with the billions of gil they were storing were banned) Also, with changes made a couple years ago, FFXI has been undergoing consistant deflation for well over a year now.

Yes... seeing the same monster models reused can get old. It is a PS2 game... that places all sorts of limitations on it :/

I *LOVE* the FFXI crafting system. It rewards those who do thier research and punishes those who don't. It's how I made my "living" in the game. The biggest thing to realize about the crafting system is that normal quality items are (for the most part) worthless. The high quality items are where the money is, and you need to have 11 to 51 more crafting levels than the item to have a decent to good chance of getting a high quality item. Meaning that you won't (usually) make money while leveling. However... once you've leveled it, you can start making other stuff to get a return on your investment. It's a game of statistics and expected returns on multiple synths... which means that failing can mean a loss of materials is kinda pointless... that should be factored into your evaluation of the profitability/cost of the synth.

Along the lines of crafting... with stats, it requires research. What stats do aren't independent of each other... it's a more complex system than WoW. For example melee damage is dependent on the DMG stat of your weapon, your str, your attack, the enemies vit, and the enemies defense. You can't just say that the addition of 2 str ups damage by 1... it's more complex than that.

And yes... traveling could be improved on... although as you level and unlock more ways to travel it does get better.

And... I've ranted enough... back to work with me XD
 
All you need to know is that FFXI is a fucking horrible game and there is no reason to play it. You would be much better off with a doll house and some barbies.
 
CodeX said:
Well, that is the mark of a triple A game...
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Could be controlled from the numpad. You can use keyboard, mouse, or gamepad...whatever you prefer. However, I personally like playing with only the keyboard...this allows for only 1 device to be used and you can easily lay a keyboard across your lap while sitting on a couch without worrying about a mouse. But if you like the mouse, you can use that, too.

fuzzy-1 said:
1) I just boughtthe complete newest package containing the newest expansion and made a character in the newest area. The art style seems very unrounded if that makes sense. Objects/buildings/landscapes are all very straight with not too much natural curves going on like in say (WOW, Guildwars, or LOTRO). The draw distance is way way too short and kills the imersion. Having a q6600@4g, 4g ram and sli'd 8800gtx's I would expect to be able to smoothly run a 4 year old game on max, but no. Players, rocks, fences magically appear within 20 feet or so and this is at max settings. Too me the world is "flat" and "dull" appearing.

2) combat felt off as I didn't get the feel that I was in direct control of my actions. I didn't get the "connected" feel when using abilites like I do in Guildawars or WOW. Too many moves/abilites that did pretty much the same thing and not enough variety for me. Sure there are like a million abilities for each class but this just gets redundant.

3) I played it initially at release and got a warrior to lvl 30 or so before quitting. A year ago I tried again and got a necro to lvl 20 or so before quitting. Last month I tried for my last time and got an assasin to lvl 15 before quitting again.
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The game was designed for the PS2...so of course it's not going to run well using FFXI's built-in graphics options. However if you go to any FFXI fan-board, you can read instructions on how to change registry values to make the game run and look very nice.

Necro and Assassin aren't even in the game...you mean Summoner and Thief? If 30 was your highest job, then of course the game is going to seem simplistic. All those jobs have only a few abilities under level 30. By the time you get to 75 you're going to have more abilities/spells than you can find a place to use.



The game is fun...however don't play it unless you have a lot of time to devote to it and don't play it if you like to play by yourself (it will be very boring).
 
neueziel said:
The things that I didn't like:
Taking 10 hours to get into a party if you're a melee type character
Japanese players unwilling to group with Americans
Ridiculously overinflated economy
Uninspiring monsters
No concrete evidence on what benefits can be gained by boosting a stat
Crafting is a time/money sink, failures mean lost materials
Traveling took forever
Click to expand...

It sounds like you last played in 2005. All of those things have changed drastically and for the better.
 
I've been temped to try the game again as Blizzard is just giving everyone frree epics in WoW to keep them occupied until the expansion...

...I just can't bring myself to do it though...I remember playing and it was an absolute bore. Sad because I'm a VERY big FF fan.
 
I've also been in the market for a new good PvP game since the Fury devs went and pissed all over their game. I have actually resorted back to Dark age of Camelot, sad I know. I just cant seem to find any other game with decent PvP action.

I can't wait for a new game. I'm watching for Warhammer, Age of Conan, Darkfall, and Aion.
 
If you have never played another MMO FFXI will make you hate the genre, do yourself a favor and play WoW first.
 
Xrave said:
It appears that way to NA customers since the PS2 version actually was released a few months later than the PC version in the US.

However the game was designed and made for the PS2. In Japan the first version of FFXI was out for about two years before the PC version was made (released in both Japan and US at the same time). The game itself supports "good" graphics (as good as DirectX 8.1 can support) to PC users, however if you do play it on the PC you can manually increase the graphics a good deal through the registry.

The 360 version has increased visual support built into the game (mainly larger view distances, but this can be manually added in the PC version).
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it was definately designed for the PS2. as evident by the fact that the graphics render very snappily in comparison to the PC version even on high end equipment of the time and up through the geforce 6 series. the 7-8 series i'm sure probably have closed the gap but I remember a lot of people being frustrated that the little PS2 was outpacing their PC, even at equivalent settings. the fact is the PS2 graphics chip has an insane amount of bandwidth available to it, so as long as things are managed well so you aren't overflowing its tiny amount of ram, you can pretty much stream stuff in and out of it as much as you want.
 
fuzzy-1 said:
1) I just boughtthe complete newest package containing the newest expansion and made a character in the newest area.

ROK then

The art style seems very unrounded if that makes sense.

No.

Objects/buildings/landscapes are all very straight with not too much natural curves going on like in say (WOW, Guildwars, or LOTRO).

Heh LOTRO? That has some very abrupt angles if you are talking graphically technical. I have two 50s in LOTRO so I know.
WoW doesn't have the same engine so if it does have the curves you so love, then it can get away with it. Personally I don't stand around and critique the minor things that don't affect gameplay and I would never notice them in the process of gameplay.

The draw distance is way way too short and kills the imersion.

Having a q6600@4g, 4g ram and sli'd 8800gtx's I would expect to be able to smoothly run a 4 year old game on max, but no. Players, rocks, fences magically appear within 20 feet or so and this is at max settings.

Something wrong on your end then. I have Opteron 146, x800 xt/pro Xtasy unlocked, 2 GB RAM and can see people and things far away. For example if I stand at Qeynos gate, I can see players across Antonica.
My system can't handle high settings or it grinds.

EQ II does not use SLI F.Y.I.

Perhaps you didn't have your distance slider turned up?

Too me the world is "flat" and "dull" appearing.

Another personal critique I don't understand. It looks realistic enough to me. I don't need unnatural eye popping colors. I guess WoW is for that.

2) combat felt off as I didn't get the feel that I was in direct control of my actions. I didn't get the "connected" feel when using abilites like I do in Guildawars or WOW. Too many moves/abilites that did pretty much the same thing and not enough variety for me. Sure there are like a million abilities for each class but this just gets redundant.

Seems any MMO you click your mouse... Not playing WoW I don't know what else a developer can come up with to make me feel in direct control. You can't get any more direct with today's technology. Maybe when they start wiring our brains to games it will be more direct.

Obviously some classes will have more combat arts or spells than another.

My mains have always been paladins. I don't see any redundancy in my skills there.

3) I played it initially at release and got a warrior to lvl 30 or so before quitting.

Yah no one can judge EQ II today based on release. It is different.

A year ago I tried again and got a necro to lvl 20 or so before quitting.

Not enough time to get into meaty class abilities. Twenty is where it just starts.

Last month I tried for my last time and got an assasin to lvl 15 before quitting again.

Ditto.
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..............................
 
Xrave said:
The game was designed for the PS2...so of course it's not going to run well using FFXI's built-in graphics options. However if you go to any FFXI fan-board, you can read instructions on how to change registry values to make the game run and look very nice.

Necro and Assassin aren't even in the game...you mean Summoner and Thief? If 30 was your highest job, then of course the game is going to seem simplistic. All those jobs have only a few abilities under level 30. By the time you get to 75 you're going to have more abilities/spells than you can find a place to use.



The game is fun...however don't play it unless you have a lot of time to devote to it and don't play it if you like to play by yourself (it will be very boring).
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You aren't reading the thread properly Xrave. :)
 
 
The problem most people have is it's not a ultra hyper clicky super exstraveganza like a LOT of the MMOs out there. You should not have to be clicking a button or hitting your numbers ever 1/10th of a second. If you want that type of game then go find a game like WoW which requries no skill other than twitchy fingers and ADD. FFXI is about a TEAM of players taking down something much MUCH harder than them. Yes the leveling can become a grind, (what game doesn't?) But the endgame is SO very VERY good. In FFXI a group of bad players simply can't get stuff done in the endgame scene. A group of good players (guild, linkshell, clan whatever you want to call it) can get through most of it. But the harder portions of the endgame scene are NEVER cake walks. I'm not pointing to AV (ultra mega boss that the developers claim is beatable but no one can figure out how).

And the econ. It is player driven. This means if you want gil you have to do something for it. It doesn't magically fall from the sky. IT also means gil is worth something. (There is a reason it is 40-50$ / Million.) And yes, leveling a craft costs something! You know what that means? It's actually worth something! I almost quit about 16 months ago because I thought I wasn't going to have the time to play. I had given everything away. Turned out things changed and I did have time. So I went back and I had leveled a craft. Now 16 months later I had worked hard some and I'm richer than I ever was in the game. Why? Because I took some time (not 10,000 hours a week, just time after work) and put some research and effort into making gil.


I guess I am a "fanboy" because I play the game. But I've also played CoV, WoW, LOTR demo. If you have to have crysis graphics to enjoy a game, find another game. It is a PS2 port that is for sure. If you fingers can't rest for 2/10ths seconds between hitting a key or you'll get bored, find another game.
 
Xrave said:
People who complain about the UI are usually new players who don't know how the macro system syntax works, or that there is even a macro system. Once you figure that out, the controls are actually very good since you don't even need the mouse to play.

In actuality, 75% of the game can be controlled from just the numpad.
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i found getting a game pad worked best i could not play FFXI with out one
that said

get a game pad if you want to play FFXI
also be ready for one hell of a grind and lots of waiting to get a party
FFXI is hard very hard youll have to work for every extra bag slot even to level past 50 you need to do quests (the game was first caped at 50 and later moved to 75)

and its filled with RMT farmers
i may go back to it at some point but not for a wile
 
and its filled with RMT farmers
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The RMT problems in FFXI are almost non-existant now. (One of the reasons gil is incredibly expensive if you try to buy it with $$$ through RMT sites) There was a time when it was an issue. It has been fixed though.
 
Yea, at one point RMT was a huge problem (2005 era), but SE became very proactive about it in about 2006.

Now there is almost no RMT in end-game activity. The only RMT is done by new characters repeating quests or farming items that normal players don't even bother with. SE (they actually created a team called the Special Task Force) usually bans these characters within a few weeks time before there's any chance for advancement.
 
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