Final Fantasy XIV Official Release Thread

SE announced a whole slew of more details about the upcoming changes in the next version updates for Nov/Dec and first quarter 2011. There's a whole slew of stuff that they're fixing, and it looks to me like they're addressing pretty much every concern put forth by the community so far.

Most shocking to me was the announcement of a completely new and separate interface designed specifically for kb/m users.
 
Looks like they really listened to the feedback and are implementing tangible upgrades to the game. Too bad they didn't see the need to do these back in Beta. I guess having to give away a free month of play time to keep the player base did it.

I look forward to seeing the improvements in November. That's when I'll decide if it's worthwhile sticking around for the December updates. Thank you Mabu for the information. I'll pass it along to my nephew who has my buddy pass.
 
They may have listened, but it's really too little too late. The major changes (no auction house still) are coming in 2011, 4+ months after release. I'm sure a large part of the poeple that played the game in the first month or so no longer play because SE is hopeless. I know I sure did.
 
Just as I get characters into the 20s, they make it easier.
Ain't that a b-

Anyways, loving the impending updates.
 
Snowknight26 said:
They may have listened, but it's really too little too late. The major changes (no auction house still) are coming in 2011, 4+ months after release. I'm sure a large part of the poeple that played the game in the first month or so no longer play because SE is hopeless. I know I sure did.
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I really don't think that we'll ever have a traditional AH. And to be honest, we don't necessarily need one in that sense either. When you think about it, market wards with a search feature is basically an AH. If they can make it so that you can purchase an item directly from a search instead of seeking out the retainer in the wards (by having the reatainer selling the item "deliver" it to you, per se), then why do you need an actual AH? You wouldn't, because a system like that would provide the exact same functionality as an AH.
 
Mabu said:
I really don't think that we'll ever have a traditional AH. And to be honest, we don't necessarily need one in that sense either. When you think about it, market wards with a search feature is basically an AH. If they can make it so that you can purchase an item directly from a search instead of seeking out the retainer in the wards (by having the reatainer selling the item "deliver" it to you, per se), then why do you need an actual AH? You wouldn't, because a system like that would provide the exact same functionality as an AH.
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As long as the search feature is decent, then sure it would turn the market wards into an Auction house.

I for a long time wondered if it was luck or genius that made FFXI into what it was. FFXIV has convinced me it was pure luck.
 
The biggest problem I have with it is my character cannot jump. That is a dealbreaker for me.
 
Today I find myself glad that this game was released in such a poor state. I have put in numerous hours to develop my character, which I would have done regardless of how bad or good the game is (because I know that no MMO has a smooth launch and I am down for the long haul with XIV), and have done so while saving myself over $30 in fees. This game went from being an upsetting expensive purchase to an incredible value. I would like to tip my hat to SE for making the right move yet again.

An in-depth look at the upcoming UI changes has been released: Lodestone
 
They will need to tread lightly...

I'm concerned that they've set themselves up for a huge fall once they do start charging. If the game isn't the greatest thing since sliced bread, it'll just turn into a niche MMO. With TERA on the horizon, I've heard/seen lots of chat about "Play FFXIV while its free, till TERA releases" lately.

Most of my LS has bailed. The other LS's I've joined only have a handful of people. My GF has gone back to playing Warhammer. If people are just hanging on while its free, I can only imagine what will happen when those who decide not to pay dump. Server population is hovering between 600 and 800 lately on Wutai. This used to be a 2400 pop server.

I'm in it to see how the game pans out, but night after night of solo gameplay is reminding me alot of FFXI - and without a solid LS structure, or Group Join structure, I dont see how playing for 10 hours straight to get a half level past 20 is anyone's idea of a good time.

I have a 25 Thaum and 21 Conjurer now...where are the groups needing heals!? :)
 
CannonDub said:
Today I find myself glad that this game was released in such a poor state. I have put in numerous hours to develop my character, which I would have done regardless of how bad or good the game is (because I know that no MMO has a smooth launch and I am down for the long haul with XIV), and have done so while saving myself over $30 in fees. This game went from being an upsetting expensive purchase to an incredible value. I would like to tip my hat to SE for making the right move yet again.

An in-depth look at the upcoming UI changes has been released: Lodestone
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Well a lot of people won't play crap, even if it is free. I really don't care about the monthly fee, but I need to be having a good time with whatever I am playing :p
 
ocellaris said:
Well a lot of people won't play crap, even if it is free. I really don't care about the monthly fee, but I need to be having a good time with whatever I am playing :p
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What you call crap, I call an MMO going through growing pains. If you want to play an MMO on launch, you have to accept these are gonna happen. It's part of the cost of being first. A lot of people seem to forget that no MMO, in the history of MMO's, had a good launch. But I am not here to argue that fact, just to state that I am enjoying my time with the game. So I guess I am getting super value, since I and having fun AND playing for free. I'm sorry that you expected this game to be without issues at launch, but that is your bad.

If you want a smooth game on launch, then MMO's are not for you. Come back in 6 months.
 
I got a 30 day buddy pass, and played for a bit. Not going to rant about my feelings on the game, I'm sure it's already been covered in the 21 pages before this. Just a funny (sort of) tidbit, I got an email the other day saying my account had been banned for spamming RMT messages. I just laughed.
 
CannonDub said:
What you call crap, I call an MMO going through growing pains. If you want to play an MMO on launch, you have to accept these are gonna happen. It's part of the cost of being first. A lot of people seem to forget that no MMO, in the history of MMO's, had a good launch. But I am not here to argue that fact, just to state that I am enjoying my time with the game. So I guess I am getting super value, since I and having fun AND playing for free. I'm sorry that you expected this game to be without issues at launch, but that is your bad.

If you want a smooth game on launch, then MMO's are not for you. Come back in 6 months.
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Disclaimer: I've not played this game, but I am going to comment on the 'Release it unfinished, and patch it later' mentality of game design.

IMHO - You shouldn't pay for an unfinished product. Of course, no MMO is ever finished, as they continuously add content and new things to do, thats part of the draw for MMO's. However, theres a difference between 'Complete game, with more to come' and 'Broken UI, unfinished product'.

We, as consumers, should not accept an unfinished product at launch, with the 'Thats how it goes, it'll be fixed in a patch down the line' mentality. We paid for this product, and expect it to work properly at launch, with minor fixes and tweaks down the line. I can name several MMO's that had smooth releases:

WoW - Except for not enough servers, due to extreme popularity, the game functioned just fine. Most issues were resolved in beta, and it was a perfectly functional game.

Champions Online: Again, picked this up and played at or close to launch. While it wasn't my cup of tea, per say, the game was 'done'.

From what I've seen of the game, read (and watched) in reviews, and read on these forums, this game was not ready for release. Thats why the company keeps giving out free play time, they realize the state of the game, and are racing to fix it before all interest is lost. Time is quickly running out -- as it should.

No consumer should be expected to pay full price for an incomplete, unfinished game with an interface like this one. Look at what happened to APB -- That game was crap at release, and the studio shut down 2 months later. Basically, you paid $60 for a game you can no longer play. And the people that pre-paid for 1 year memberships (or worse, lifetime?) are now hosed.

So while I agree that you should always follow the '6 month rule' of MMO's (and its a rule I've personally stuck to for most things, unless it gets glowing reviews at launch) -- Thats NOT AT ALL how it "should" be.
 
CannonDub said:
What you call crap, I call an MMO going through growing pains. If you want to play an MMO on launch, you have to accept these are gonna happen. It's part of the cost of being first. A lot of people seem to forget that no MMO, in the history of MMO's, had a good launch. But I am not here to argue that fact, just to state that I am enjoying my time with the game. So I guess I am getting super value, since I and having fun AND playing for free. I'm sorry that you expected this game to be without issues at launch, but that is your bad.

If you want a smooth game on launch, then MMO's are not for you. Come back in 6 months.
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I've played several MMOs at launch. This horrific. It MIGHT have been acceptable in 2007, but this is horrific. I wanted so badly to love this game but it's horrid.
 
Direwolf20 said:
Disclaimer: I've not played this game, but I am going to comment on the 'Release it unfinished, and patch it later' mentality of game design.

IMHO - You shouldn't pay for an unfinished product. Of course, no MMO is ever finished, as they continuously add content and new things to do, thats part of the draw for MMO's. However, theres a difference between 'Complete game, with more to come' and 'Broken UI, unfinished product'.

We, as consumers, should not accept an unfinished product at launch, with the 'Thats how it goes, it'll be fixed in a patch down the line' mentality. We paid for this product, and expect it to work properly at launch, with minor fixes and tweaks down the line. I can name several MMO's that had smooth releases:

WoW - Except for not enough servers, due to extreme popularity, the game functioned just fine. Most issues were resolved in beta, and it was a perfectly functional game.

Champions Online: Again, picked this up and played at or close to launch. While it wasn't my cup of tea, per say, the game was 'done'.

From what I've seen of the game, read (and watched) in reviews, and read on these forums, this game was not ready for release. Thats why the company keeps giving out free play time, they realize the state of the game, and are racing to fix it before all interest is lost. Time is quickly running out -- as it should.

No consumer should be expected to pay full price for an incomplete, unfinished game with an interface like this one. Look at what happened to APB -- That game was crap at release, and the studio shut down 2 months later. Basically, you paid $60 for a game you can no longer play. And the people that pre-paid for 1 year memberships (or worse, lifetime?) are now hosed.

So while I agree that you should always follow the '6 month rule' of MMO's (and its a rule I've personally stuck to for most things, unless it gets glowing reviews at launch) -- Thats NOT AT ALL how it "should" be.
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I appreciate your post because it was well thought out and not just blindly spewed hatred towards the game. What makes it even more impressive is the fact that you have not played the game, given that posts of the same nature by those who have played the game are unsubstantiated, mindless garbage.

That being said, I would like to take issue with your choice of the term "broken". A broken game implies one that is not playable in it's current state, meaning it crashes constantly, or glitches to where the game is literally unplayable and will simply not run, which was simply not the case with FFXIV.

FFXIV, at its launch as well as currently, is NOT a broken game. The game was playable upon release and any "game breaking" bugs were fixed within 3 weeks of the standard edition release. Those bugs are the well known SP glitches, meaning the game was still playable, but had some issues that needed patching. The UI is not broken. It functions 100%. I think an more appropriate term to describe the game would be "unintuitive," and I agree with this statement.

SE has come out and admitted its shortcomings and is also taking tremendous strides to listen to player feedback to fix things that players deem unintuitive very quickly. The admitted that they spent their time during the beta focusing on fixing game breaking bugs rather than addressing game play and UI issues brought up by the testers. They are already coming out with two major patches, one of which releases next week, to fix the most common complaints.

I would also like to point out that WoW had it's fair share of issues upon release. There were multiple broken quests and one bug that I recall which made dead mobs appear to still be alive and standing, which Blizzard fixed in a timely manner. Once again, these were not game breaking bugs, but what I like to call "growing pain" issues. I have the utmost faith in SE that they will continue to listen to player feedback and make the game even better. Like every other MMO, this takes time.

The most common complaints are the UI and the lack of content. Once again, the UI issue is being addressed as soon as next week. As for lack of content, this is arguable. Some people define content as quantity of quests or the presence of end-game content. I define content as having things to do in the game. When looking at it with my definition, there is an overload of content. There are multiple classes and crafts to level, and all can be done with just one character. I am noticing that those who are bemoaning the lack of content are the same people who have chosen to only play one class in the game and are trying to level cap it as soon as possible. They are realizing that at the higher levels there currently is not much to do, which is common of ALL MMOs on release. However as someone who is working on getting his 5th job class to rank 20 (out of 50), I am overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I have to do in this game. It simply feels like there isn't enough time in the day for me to get all that I want done.

FFXI was a game with a niche market, and XIV is no different. It is not designed to appeal to the crowd who desire instant gratification and want new "shinies" every 2-3 levels. I spent over 20 levels in the EXACT SAME gear in FFXI (my RSE), but that just made getting my new gear that much more enjoyable. This game is all about character building. You must level up multiple job classes to get the most from your character. The first 3-6 months of this game will be spent doing things that will pay off in the long run. For an example, take a look at my character profile, link. I understand that this is not the type of gameplay that everyone wants, and that is fine. Some people want something different. Luckily we have a hobby in which there is no lack of choices to help someone find the game that suits their play style. For those of you who find that FFXIV is not your cup of tea, I respect that. I am always open to hearing other's opinions on the game, but if you are just going to call it "crap" or "broken" without any supporting evidence, then I feel your argument is weak.
 
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FFXIV, at its launch as well as currently, is NOT a broken game. The game was playable upon release and any "game breaking" bugs were fixed within 3 weeks of the standard edition release. Those bugs are the well known SP glitches, meaning the game was still playable, but had some issues that needed patching. The UI is not broken. It functions 100%. I think an more appropriate term to describe the game would be "unintuitive," and I agree with this statement.
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The game was horrific. Could you log in and move around the world, yes. Was there big lag problems, an utterly unbelievably bad UI, and a complete disapointment of game play, yes. Being able to log in and move around a world does not mean the game is not broken.

It was an absolute embarrassment for a company of the reputation and size of SE to put that out and put their name on it. I would have been ashamed to have my name on that product.
 
CannonDub said:
I appreciate your post because it was well thought out and not just blindly spewed hatred towards the game. What makes it even more impressive is the fact that you have not played the game, given that posts of the same nature by those who have played the game are unsubstantiated, mindless garbage.

That being said, I would like to take issue with your choice of the term "broken". A broken game implies one that is not playable in it's current state, meaning it crashes constantly, or glitches to where the game is literally unplayable and will simply not run, which was simply not the case with FFXIV.

FFXIV, at its launch as well as currently, is NOT a broken game. The game was playable upon release and any "game breaking" bugs were fixed within 3 weeks of the standard edition release. Those bugs are the well known SP glitches, meaning the game was still playable, but had some issues that needed patching. The UI is not broken. It functions 100%. I think an more appropriate term to describe the game would be "unintuitive," and I agree with this statement.

SE has come out and admitted its shortcomings and is also taking tremendous strides to listen to player feedback to fix things that players deem unintuitive very quickly. The admitted that they spent their time during the beta focusing on fixing game breaking bugs rather than addressing game play and UI issues brought up by the testers. They are already coming out with two major patches, one of which releases next week, to fix the most common complaints.

I would also like to point out that WoW had it's fair share of issues upon release. There were multiple broken quests and one bug that I recall which made dead mobs appear to still be alive and standing, which Blizzard fixed in a timely manner. Once again, these were not game breaking bugs, but what I like to call "growing pain" issues. I have the utmost faith in SE that they will continue to listen to player feedback and make the game even better. Like every other MMO, this takes time.

The most common complaints are the UI and the lack of content. Once again, the UI issue is being addressed as soon as next week. As for lack of content, this is arguable. Some people define content as quantity of quests or the presence of end-game content. I define content as having things to do in the game. When looking at it with my definition, there is an overload of content. There are multiple classes and crafts to level, and all can be done with just one character. I am noticing that those who are bemoaning the lack of content are the same people who have chosen to only play one class in the game and are trying to level cap it as soon as possible. They are realizing that at the higher levels there currently is not much to do, which is common of ALL MMOs on release. However as someone who is working on getting his 5th job class to rank 20 (out of 50), I am overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I have to do in this game. It simply feels like there isn't enough time in the day for me to get all that I want done.

FFXI was a game with a niche market, and XIV is no different. It is not designed to appeal to the crowd who desire instant gratification and want new "shinies" every 2-3 levels. I spent over 20 levels in the EXACT SAME gear in FFXI (my RSE), but that just made getting my new gear that much more enjoyable. This game is all about character building. You must level up multiple job classes to get the most from your character. The first 3-6 months of this game will be spent doing things that will pay off in the long run. For an example, take a look at my character profile, link. I understand that this is not the type of gameplay that everyone wants, and that is fine. Some people want something different. Luckily we have a hobby in which there is no lack of choices to help someone find the game that suits their play style. For those of you who find that FFXIV is not your cup of tea, I respect that. I am always open to hearing other's opinions on the game, but if you are just going to call it "crap" or "broken" without any supporting evidence, then I feel your argument is weak.
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All good points :). I didn't play the game, but would like to eventually once things get ironed out. Some of the game breaking bugs I had in mind were the mouse issues I read about, the server-side UI stuff, and the auction house (which isn't broken, per say, but VERY unfinished).

The general impression I get is this game isn't finished, which you're right, is very different from broken. I believe much of the above that I just mentioned was fixed shortly after release. But the bad UI, auction house, and other things just scream 'Unfinished' to me -- which is still not something that should have been released. Some other games have definitely been broken at release, and it was more a general MMO routine of "Release it broken/unfinished to get income coming in, and patch it later" which I take issue with.

DC Online, I believe, just pushed back their release date by 6 months, because they wanted to make sure the game was in good shape before going live. I've got some friends in the beta, and they have a lot of positive things to say about the game at this point.

From everything I've read/seen, FFXIV should have done the same.
 
Direwolf20 said:
All good points :). I didn't play the game, but would like to eventually once things get ironed out. Some of the game breaking bugs I had in mind were the mouse issues I read about, the server-side UI stuff, and the auction house (which isn't broken, per say, but VERY unfinished).

The general impression I get is this game isn't finished, which you're right, is very different from broken. I believe much of the above that I just mentioned was fixed shortly after release. But the bad UI, auction house, and other things just scream 'Unfinished' to me -- which is still not something that should have been released. Some other games have definitely been broken at release, and it was more a general MMO routine of "Release it broken/unfinished to get income coming in, and patch it later" which I take issue with.

DC Online, I believe, just pushed back their release date by 6 months, because they wanted to make sure the game was in good shape before going live. I've got some friends in the beta, and they have a lot of positive things to say about the game at this point.

From everything I've read/seen, FFXIV should have done the same.
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It's Not Broken; Just Doesn't Meet Expectations For A MMO.

Yes, this game isn't broken as in you will crash every time you login although it did have the minimize and crash bug at launch. It isn't broken at all if your definition of broken is does it run properly? And yes it does run just fine especially now that Nvidia and AMD have updated their drivers to support it.

What Vengeance and others have said is that the game is broken as in meeting their level of expectations for what is considered fun. The way the game seems to play is that it's a crafting simulator. Which would have been fine if they had done a press release and stated what their goals were for the game. But they kept everyone in the dark, and let us figure out what the game was about by word of mouth or reading fansites which I consider to just be more word of mouth. Thus I got sucked in by Square's previous body of work.

So basically here's a MMO that your main focus will be learning to craft because if you don't know how to craft, you won't be able to repair your gear. I remember so many people putting up for sale shops and just having their broken gear in it for you to repair. I was like... WTF is wrong with you'll? Why don't you just repair it yourself. Then I found out for every class, you need to have the proper crafting skill to repair their gear.

And that was just a HUGE red flag for me as there isn't much bag space to start with. For every item that is gathered there is a +1, +2, +3 etc version that takes up even more space, and there wasn't any clues as to what materials you use to craft with. FFXIV literally made you go to odd looking fansites to learn the basic pattern materials to repair your gear. I thought I was going to get a virus every time I clicked a link.

And to get the materials if you play solo was nearly impossible sometimes if you couldn't find the one guy that had what you needed for sale. So you're literally just begging people for materials to repair the gear you spent hours gathering materials to craft. Of course you could just go read on the fansite what monster dropped the item you needed, but there's another catch. The finished crafted item you needed the materials for might be another crafting tree so you now need to find a person that is high enough level to make it. Or spend more time leveling another craft to make it. Which requires more bag space that doesn't exist. Get the idea? MMO's are designed to be time wasters; not fun wasters.

Yes there are Linkshells, aka guilds that people join to have a craft fest. And I will admit that the people who flocked to the game were pretty darn nice. It didn't attract many rowdy crap talking people at all. So if you liked the crafting aspect of the game, I could see where this game is just perfect for you. But I came in thinking I would gear up and go out into the world and slay dragons. Not squirrels. :(


What I Find To Be Wrong With FFXIV.

But what me and many others disliked about the game is that crafting was always a secondary thing you did to make money while waiting for enough people to go kill Boss Monsters. I mean if it was spelled out somewhere at the start, I may have been more receptive to the concept. But it wasn't as Square Enix kept a cloud of secrecy over everything. Thus when I found out the things I liked, dungeons, rare boss type monsters, raid type bosses, etc didn't exist; I got pissed. And with the cloud of secrecy over the game, you couldn't even leave a message on the official FFXIV message boards to inquire if they intended to add these basic features at a later date.

All we had were fansites. The Lodestone at launch didn't have one piece of FFXIV relevant information on other than WASD moves your character and click a spell to use it. After being left out in the cold, I realized this game was crap. Broken if you will as I was having -100 fun playing it. I wondered out loud at what point would they patch an actual game in? Remember, my expectations of crafting were something you did to pass time before the next fun event. And I think that turned a lot of people away at that point as I think others think likewise.

Then you add in funky things like the UI design, UI lag, game lag, no auction house, etc which just piled onto the fact I wasn't having fun in the first place; and now you have a person that won't even play a free game. That's how turned off I am at this point. But reading the new patch notes I have a small modicum of hope. I just want to get my $80 worth of actual fun I suppose. Patch in some fun dang it! LOL. :)


The Future of FFXIV.

Well I think this may be the first MMO with a dual launch 6 months after the first launch. So they have 6 months to add in actual game play that the masses expected when we purchased the PC version. How will this work out? No idea. Maybe the PC launch issues will be forgotten when the PS3 version launches. Or maybe the people considering it will just read the old reviews and leave it on the shelf. I just wished that companies actually learned lessons from these failures in the MMO market. If you do it right, you will have paying customers for 10+ years. If you botch it, you will have absolutely nothing to show for your hard work. I'm just hoping the future patches add in enough fun for me to try it again.



Sorry if I ticked someone off that thinks the game is perfect as is. Like I said I was misinformed about what the game was about when I purchased it. I expected a social gathering to go do bigger and better things; to become kings of our domain. I came in expecting to level up, kill badass Final Fantasy bosses, and wear their drops to flaunt the fact I had the skill to others. I didn't expect to gather and craft until my eyeballs fall out. That's my issue with the game; and I don't expect others to share my views. Just my 2 cents I suppose.
 
It sounds like the game didn't live up to what you expected, which is fine. Thats not broken, per say.

Lots of people think EVE online is a total borefest (often referred to as 'Excel Spreadsheets in space', thank you Yahtzee), but the game, for what it is, is incredibly deep and complex and amazing and really quite good. Its not at all your standard MMO. If you heard 'Space MMO', EVE is not what you'd expect. That doesn't make it a broken game though.

I guess what I'm saying is, while this game didn't meet you expectations, that doesn't necessarily mean its bad. What makes it bad is that its not finished. If the things you expected to be there eventually make their way into the game, and are a big part of it -- then this game was released unfinished. However, if those things never make it in, and were never intended to be made part of the game, then its not that the game is unfinished, its just that its not what you expected.

The lid was kept pretty tight on this game, and what its about, so I'll agree that there wasn't enough information released about it ahead of time. This is typically a red flag for me, and all the more reason to hold off on a purchase.
 
Direwolf20 said:
It sounds like the game didn't live up to what you expected, which is fine. Thats not broken, per say.

Lots of people think EVE online is a total borefest (often referred to as 'Excel Spreadsheets in space', thank you Yahtzee), but the game, for what it is, is incredibly deep and complex and amazing and really quite good. Its not at all your standard MMO. If you heard 'Space MMO', EVE is not what you'd expect. That doesn't make it a broken game though.

I guess what I'm saying is, while this game didn't meet you expectations, that doesn't necessarily mean its bad. What makes it bad is that its not finished. If the things you expected to be there eventually make their way into the game, and are a big part of it -- then this game was released unfinished. However, if those things never make it in, and were never intended to be made part of the game, then its not that the game is unfinished, its just that its not what you expected.

The lid was kept pretty tight on this game, and what its about, so I'll agree that there wasn't enough information released about it ahead of time. This is typically a red flag for me, and all the more reason to hold off on a purchase.
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Yes I agree with you wholeheartedly. What the Developers put out and what I expected to be purchasing were 2 totally different beasts. I think the crafting mingame in FFXIV if taken in 1 hour doses is absolutely fabulous with the exception of the lack of a recipe book. I just expected to be able to kill cool creatures the rest of the time. And that part of the game is lacking substance.

I wish someone could rip every good thing about low rated MMO's and make them into a super delicious MMO. So far there's APB's character selection screen and now FFXIV's crafting minigame. I wonder what will be in the future? :)

If Square had melded everything together at launch, we wouldn't be having this conversation. I don't need tons of elaborate questing to do at launch or tons of dungeons, nor bosses. But I need a little bit of all of those to feel like I have choices in game. And choices about how to get to the end is what makes successful MMO's popular. Diverse things to do in game that will lead you to where the developer wants you to be.

Just little fun things; all I require. Seeing how many menus I can click with X amount of lag isn't fun to me. At least they are trying to fix it by November / December. Well get it to a "fun" state by adding in the things that should have been there from launch.


If I were you Direwolf20, I would hold off on purchasing this until the PS3 version launches. Then read the happy reviews and the nasty reviews. Take it all in to see exactly how much the game has evolved. Then base your purchase off that. As it is now it's not worth $50 and sure isn't worth $80 even with the free Buddy Pass and free months. Don't listen to arguments about the game's potential; see what the game has to offer right then at that point in time.


Potential means absolutely nothing; reference to APB.
 
Are they extending the free trial again for the second time, or did I read my e-mail wrong?
 
I wish someone could rip every good thing about low rated MMO's and make them into a super delicious MMO.
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They did this already, it was called WoW :).

At launch, WoW was a combination of all the 'right' things that MMO's had to offer (at the time), with the polish of Blizzard. That made it the success it is today :).

I'm giving this until at least the ps3 launch, but I might consider that the 'real' launch and apply the 6 month rule even then. Depends on what people say. I love Final Fantasy, never played 11 but did have hopes for 14. We'll see what happens :)
 
I'm waiting for the interface improvements before I try this game out, did this patch include them?
 
The interface moves so much faster it is like night and day. I'm going to login tonight and give it a go to see how it pans out. But for the 30 minutes I was logged in after getting the patch was a much more enjoyable experience.

I noticed one oddity though. I opened with the spell poison and after it fell off, the UI auto selected it again to be cast? Or maybe I pressed the keybind 4 instead of 3. Anyway it was a much more enjoyable experience and that's what a game is supposed to be.
 
I was in beta and the controls made the game pretty much unplayable imo. I mean I didn't dig the FFXI controls either, but they were workable. With FFXIV there was this big beautiful game world I wanted to explore.. but just couldn't. From what I've seen both here and elsewhere I'm glad I didn't buy it.
 
Snowknight26 said:
Very minimal changes were made. Still not worth playing. Maybe in March..
Click to expand...

I wouldn't call what was included in the patch minimal. It wasn't everything that needed to be fixed for sure, but it did show that they care. I think the speed of the UI is so much faster that I would liken it to one of those Nvidia miracle drivers. If you know what I mean. :)

I don't know if I would recommend it to someone yet without a much longer session of game play experience with the changes. I didn't even open the crafting screen to check that out yet. But I like what they did so far as far as the crispness of the combat as a caster at least. Thus I'm looking forward to the next round of patches.
 
merith said:
I was in beta and the controls made the game pretty much unplayable imo. I mean I didn't dig the FFXI controls either, but they were workable. With FFXIV there was this big beautiful game world I wanted to explore.. but just couldn't. From what I've seen both here and elsewhere I'm glad I didn't buy it.
Click to expand...

You saved yourself a lot of second guessing and headaches by waiting for improvements. I wish I had done the same. Not meaning to bad talk Square any more than I have in the past, but if they had waited and improved the stuff before launch; we wouldn't be musing about the "What If's" now. At least they have the PS3 launch upcoming to iron everything out and relaunch the franchise.
 
This patch is far from a miracle, but if you left due to UI stuff, try again now. It's significantly better.
 
The patch did a lot to help the game, there is still work to be done.

Most notable improvements are:


Server lag has been dramatically improved, I feel like I'm playing a video game rather than a board game finally.
Everything in the UI that had a unreasonable delay (so far) has been reduced to 300ms (typical for an mmo) Applying stats, switching gear, equipping abilities etc)
Skill points are now flat values not dice roles.
Inventory sort
Only showing information that matters, for example when you select an equipment slot it only shows items in your inventory that apply to that slot, no more 80 items to dig through to find the only other weapon in your inventory.


There are of course more things they've improved upon. I activated a free buddy pass the day before the deadline for the extra 2 months of game play. I've played more in the last 24 hours than I have since launch, the game can actually be enjoyed.

Things that still need to be added:
Auction House, Auction House, Auction House, Auction House. (It took me nearly 2 hours to find a Lv11 weapon for my THM. I found one person that had one and I didn't even look at the price because I had no option really. Doubling my damage is worth any amount of money IMO) I went to the proper ward each time, that was a poor decision apparently because I eventually found it in a different ward)

Maps are sluggish, make them smooth to navigate.

Stamina bar, cast bar, canceling abilities is unintuitive (manageable but not as clear as it ought to be)

This one wont happen, but allow custom ui, kthx.

Fix the patcher, I had to use utorrent to download the patch (dht enabled)
SE Patcher: 2-4kB/s DL 30-34kB/s UL
utorrent 1.4MB/s DL 300kB/s UL (capped upload)

I downloaded a patch from blizzard the day of patching at 3.4MB/s (max speed until Tuesday 60/5 from charter 84.99$ for 6 months 99.99$ after)

I'm sure there are plenty more things that need fixing this is just what comes to mind.





Something SE needs to express that they haven't IMO is:
Configure the settings to allow 60FPS on average!!!!

Its a big deal

Most MMOs are just fine at 20-30fps, not this one. FFXIV frame rate needs to be like a racing games FPS. High at all times to be able to enjoy the game properly.
 
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