Comments from the Devs

[Kaylia]

I think you're over exaggerating a bit. It's not that terrible anymore, it's just finding proper groups that's terrible. I've played Rift and Tera while waiting for this game to get better and grind hasn't been pleasant in any of them. With combos, new abilities, etc it's actually pretty alright imo. That's assuming you can find a group.

Like you said, finding groups is a pain in the ass. I didn't bother for the last 15 levels since gathering a group take a while, and you lose the possibility to AFK whenever you want. I don't know how fast it would have been if I had joined one, but soloing wasn't slow enough for me to care. It took me around 2 hours to get the last level (17k/leves every 15min), which is generally the time it takes in most mmo.

That's not the issue tho. What bother me is how you spend your time in this game. It doesn't reward exploration, it doesn't reward diversity...you're rewarded for staying around the same outpost for 10 level, then move to another very similar area and repeat the process. Even worse, this game always rewarded players who abused the system and grinded in a very specific way (link specific leves, camp behest once every 30min, repeat "kill as many enemies"). I tried different cities to break the monotony, but your animas take such a huge hit that it's not worth the trouble.

The "role playing" aspect of MMO is what entice me. I'm not talking about role playing with other players, but I want my leveling to feel like an adventure of some sort. I want to fill my screenshots folder with hundred of different scenery and monsters I fought. I can't do that in FFXIV, or at least, I can't do that while doing something useful. The game actually punish me for getting sidetracked and trying to enjoy the world (anima cost, random death by lv 90 monsters..etc).


Not everything is bad about the game. Like I said multiples time, the story is interesting (even if it's way too scarce), the writing is generally very good (npc, quest dialogues..etc), gearing your characters is actually fun (most of the gears look badass), but there is something very wrong with the leveling process.

[kyod]

Even worse, this game always rewarded players who abused the system and grinded in a very specific way (link specific leves, camp behest once every 30min, repeat "kill as many enemies").

You had me up until this. Please tell me how doing behest every 30min or repeating certain leves abuses the system in any shape or form?

[Kaylia]

You had me up until this. Please tell me how doing behest every 30min or repeating certain leves abuses the system in any shape or form?

Why do you think they changed how Behest works? The way it was working 6 months ago created a ridiculous leveling experience where players would wait 25 minutes afk, spam enter to claim one of the few places in the party, and complete an easy mission that gave more XP than any non-linked leves. It was broken and stupid.

I'm not saying that players did anything wrong, but when the "efficient" way to play is to ignore 95% of the content, there is something very wrong.

[kyod]

But how was it abusing the system? That implies players are using some bug or other nefarious means (i.e. Salvage Dupes). Working within the game's own mechanics hardly qualifies as abuse.

[Elcura]

But how was it abusing the system? That implies players are using some bug or other nefarious means (i.e. Salvage Dupes). Working within the game's own mechanics hardly qualifies as abuse.

Same way that Leve-linking used to get abused. Technically it was all within the confines of the system, so it wasn't illegal to do, but abusing the system was the only way to get the best exp.

Abusing a mechanic doesn't mean it's automatically something nefarious, lol. People do shit like this in all sorts of games, only in MMOs it means a lot more.

[Kaylia]

But how was it abusing the system? That implies players are using some bug or other nefarious means (i.e. Salvage Dupes). Working within the game's own mechanics hardly qualifies as abuse.

You're reading way too much into my wording. I called it abuse because players were playing in a way that Square Enix did not anticipated, even if it was within the game mechanics.

Anyway, arguing semantics wasn't the point of my post. I was simply demonstrating how repetitive and limited the leveling experience has been over the last years in FFXIV. It was always more efficient to repeat the most rewarding activity than doing some variation and seeing different aspect of the games. In that sense, the game did improve, but it still has a long way to go.

[edit]
I need sleep...so many mistakes.

[Cichy]

Like you said, finding groups is a pain in the ass. I didn't bother for the last 15 levels since gathering a group take a while, and you lose the possibility to AFK whenever you want. I don't know how fast it would have been if I had joined one, but soloing wasn't slow enough for me to care. It took me around 2 hours to get the last level (17k/leves every 15min), which is generally the time it takes in most mmo.

That's not the issue tho. What bother me is how you spend your time in this game. It doesn't reward exploration, it doesn't reward diversity...you're rewarded for staying around the same outpost for 10 level, then move to another very similar area and repeat the process. Even worse, this game always rewarded players who abused the system and grinded in a very specific way (link specific leves, camp behest once every 30min, repeat "kill as many enemies"). I tried different cities to break the monotony, but your animas take such a huge hit that it's not worth the trouble.

The "role playing" aspect of MMO is what entice me. I'm not talking about role playing with other players, but I want my leveling to feel like an adventure of some sort. I want to fill my screenshots folder with hundred of different scenery and monsters I fought. I can't do that in FFXIV, or at least, I can't do that while doing something useful. The game actually punish me for getting sidetracked and trying to enjoy the world (anima cost, random death by lv 90 monsters..etc).


Not everything is bad about the game. Like I said multiples time, the story is interesting (even if it's way too scarce), the writing is generally very good (npc, quest dialogues..etc), gearing your characters is actually fun (most of the gears look badass), but there is something very wrong with the leveling process.

You got a point. The game has no type of progression when you exp. In RIFT or TERA you get guided by quests and storyline to move around the world and you pick up exp along the way while experiencing all those things. Lets hope that the map revamp Yoshi has planned will help with this, he said they are making 3 themes per map.

[Lucavi]

I actually loved the grind in XI, assuming I could play the jobs I wanted to with the people I wanted to (strong people with high-class gear amongst us all), and I especially loved getting the huge XP chains in TOAU that ran in the hundreds. I actually found XI's grind better than XIV, and had more fun in XI when I was actually "fighting" than I had grinding in most games, including WoW and Rift. Each game had their own high points, like grouping up and sealing rifts in Rift, or randomly stopping my questing to keel some Alliance bastards in WoW, but pound-for-pound, I've never had a more "enjoyable" experience than I had when blasting the battle music in CoP dungeons or ToAU outside zones and grinding for a few great hours.

The key word, however, was the "fighting" part. My time spent in XI will be forever tainted by the sheer amount of time it took to get a party with certain jobs in the first 5 years or so. Also, not having any actual "quest" or "storyline" involved with XPing kind of devalued it, but I only felt that way after playing other MMOs that incorporated those aspects. Initially, the act of beating the shit out of crabs, pugils and beastmen was more than enough fun. Who the hell doesn't enjoy Pentaspam? I'm sure that shit is still as fun as it ever was.

[Cichy]

I actually loved the grind in XI, assuming I could play the jobs I wanted to with the people I wanted to (strong people with high-class gear amongst us all), and I especially loved getting the huge XP chains in TOAU that ran in the hundreds. I actually found XI's grind better than XIV, and had more fun in XI when I was actually "fighting" than I had grinding in most games, including WoW and Rift. Each game had their own high points, like grouping up and sealing rifts in Rift, or randomly stopping my questing to keel some Alliance bastards in WoW, but pound-for-pound, I've never had a more "enjoyable" experience than I had when blasting the battle music in CoP dungeons or ToAU outside zones and grinding for a few great hours.

The key word, however, was the "fighting" part. My time spent in XI will be forever tainted by the sheer amount of time it took to get a party with certain jobs in the first 5 years or so. Also, not having any actual "quest" or "storyline" involved with XPing kind of devalued it, but I only felt that way after playing other MMOs that incorporated those aspects. Initially, the act of beating the shit out of crabs, pugils and beastmen was more than enough fun. Who the hell doesn't enjoy Pentaspam? I'm sure that shit is still as fun as it ever was.

It's becoming for me this way too in XIV. I'd love to just get an exp party where everyone around my level just wants to kill mobs together but right now everyone got spoiled with PLs and they assume there will be one.

Going back to what Kaylia said. If there will be a dramatic change in the way we experience the world it wont be until 2.0 and implementation of new trial. Doing anything right now right before the maps change would be a waste of time.

[kyod]

It's becoming for me this way too in XIV. I'd love to just get an exp party where everyone around my level just wants to kill mobs together but right now everyone got spoiled with PLs and they assume there will be one.

Trabia must have missed the boat, because I've been in zero random parties where we had a PL, so in my experience we've never had the expectation of having one in grinding parties. The only time I've ever had a PL is in parties with LS members only.

[Horus]

The grind in FFXI was fun to me, I dont know if it was because it was my 1st MMO and i didnt know any better. Doing SC with a DRG on my DRK was fun. Then having the blm nuke it. Bird camps was alittle boring but on my BLU it was fun. Doing a RDM BRD and BLUx4 on birds was crazy fun. I can at least bare EXPing in FFXIV now. I dont like leve's so i didnt exp much that way, but once 1.19 came out it was on lol.

[Kaylia]

You got a point. The game has no type of progression when you exp. In RIFT or TERA you get guided by quests and storyline to move around the world and you pick up exp along the way while experiencing all those things. Lets hope that the map revamp Yoshi has planned will help with this, he said they are making 3 themes per map.

Enhanced regions should definitively improve the current situation for me....it's probably what I like the most about 2.0.

What I hope they will do is find a decent balance between questing, guildleves, party grind and dungeons. If they could find a way to include everything, and I do believe it's possible, you would have enough options to grind on whatever you want. They will need to improve party searching considerably tho.

[Priran]

Bonjour ici !

Après confirmation auprès de Naoki Yoshida, certains serveurs seront ouverts avec la sortie de la version 2.0 et il y sera uniquement possible de commencer avec un nouveau personnage. (Les nouveaux joueurs pourront donc choisir de démarrer tous sur un pied d'égalité s'ils le souhaitent ou alors de rejoindre un ancien serveur).

Afin d'éviter une certaine inflation il est aussi prévu que les futurs quartiers marchands ponctionnent les bourses de certains joueurs. Il en est de même pour certains contenus haut niveau. (Cela ne veut pas dire que ces contenus ou que les quartiers marchands ne seront uniquement accessibles qu’aux personnes fortunés !)

Encore une fois tout cela est encore en développement, il m'est donc impossible de fournir plus de détails.

Hello here!

After confirmation from Naoki Yoshida, some servers will be opened with the release of version 2.0 and there will only be possible to start with a new character. (New players can then choose to start all on an equal footing if they wish to join or else an old server).

blahblahblah

[shidobu]

thats nice and all but. whens that server merger gonna happen..

[Corrderio]

After 1.21 when they evaluate server population. Though in SE time that could be a year from now.

[Draylo]

They obviously don't care about the current players, focusing on the big fish from 2.0.

[Grey Jorildyn]

"wait for 2.0" has basically become the new "ps2 limitations".

Inb4 "ps3 limitations" once 2.0 "arrives".

[shidobu]

"wait for 2.0" has basically become the new "ps2 limitations".

Inb4 "ps3 limitations" once 2.0 "arrives".

pretty fucking much lol

[Burningthought]

After 1.21 when they evaluate server population. Though in SE time that could be a year from now.

Mid January actually.

[Corrderio]

Really? I thought they were holding off til 1.21