Comments from the Devs

[Skai]

By the way...

Alpha First Look: Video 5 - Quests and Combat

We hope you enjoy our fifth installment in the Alpha First Look video series, in which we witness our heroes undertaking quests and engaging in battle.

The Duty List allows players to complete a quest from start to finish without needing to refer to the journal, as quest objectives and destinations can be easily confirmed through this new feature. Combat is also improved to be more intense and varied—weaponskills can be used to initiate battle, and spells can be cast from further away.



* The battles in this video involve low level enemies. Targeting and actions are demonstrated with the mouse instead of keyboard for greater clarity.

* Level progression is primarily quest-based.

* The battle system is currently undergoing significant revision, including changes to all damage algorithms and the claim system.

My god that UI.

[Lucavi]

Yeah, its pretty nice.

[Niiro]

Gonna take some getting used to but I'm certainly looking forward to watching the screen and not being glued to the chatlog 90% of the time.

Spoiler: show

I hope they're not too attached to that combat stance for the hume, or does everyone turn into a hunchback and/or look like they're squatting to take a crap when wielding a spear.

[Churchill]

I love that you swap classes mid dungeon and I hope that stays as is. You are welcome to enter and exit on the same job if you like.

[miokomioko]

They had already begun restricting mid-raid job/class changing (Skirmish). I hope they extend it to all raids, instances, etc.

I like having the ability to switch jobs at will in the field, assuming I'm not in battle or during any timed event... but I think the benefits of leveling multiple jobs should only really be the abilities you acquire (and obviously the increased opportunity to fill slots in a party).

[Jintu]

You think they'll ever do voice overs for their videos or someone explaining stuff?

[Cichy]

You think they'll ever do voice overs for their videos or someone explaining stuff?

not until 3.0

[Burningthought]

Gonna take some getting used to but I'm certainly looking forward to watching the screen and not being glued to the chatlog 90% of the time.

Spoiler: show

I hope they're not too attached to that combat stance for the hume, or does everyone turn into a hunchback and/or look like they're squatting to take a crap when wielding a spear.

Not all the animations are in yet, they've addressed some of the animation stuff already.

[DeathbySnoosnoo]

I like it a lot aside from the giant ass quest accepted/completed, that'll get old fast...

[Ghostsix.Midgard]

Yeah, and the accompanying fanfare..
Also the downwards scrolling battle text looks "cheap" to me, I can't explain it. It was similar in TOR correct? I hope there's a way to make it just fade out or something.
And those battle effects will be chaotic in a full PT I think.

Game looks gorgeous though.

[Burningthought]

Yeah, and the accompanying fanfare..
Also the downwards scrolling battle text looks "cheap" to me, I can't explain it. It was similar in TOR correct? I hope there's a way to make it just fade out or something.
And those battle effects will be chaotic in a full PT I think.

Game looks gorgeous though.

Only your damage shows as scrolling, everyone else in the party has the popping text.

[Spider-Dan]

Dumb question, but why does the job changing make WHM so necessary for endgame?

It's a combination of 1) the playerbase insisting that jobs must have clearly defined roles and 2) only two mages exist. In pre-1.18, THM was better but CNJ was still more than acceptable, but after the class/job rework, the only toon that can heal at all is CNJ/WHM. So you're essentially stuck waiting for WHM for anything harder than challenging-while-solo.

[vadre]

I hope they ditch the graphic that appears before every single TP skill (and the hissing noise). I get that it's supposed to harken back to FFs of olde but it's pretty lame, and just adds even more noises and flashes to what is already a pretty chaotic battle system.

Also, I think they need to ditch some (read:all) of those squatting buffs (like hawk eye etc), they don't really add much gameplay value and stacking up like 4 of them often is kinda lame.

[Sephiroth]

I hope all job switching within dungeons goes the fuck away. AV was terrible for it. You'd happily play through as BLM and then just before the final boss you're asked to change to your full AF monk with gimp outdated weapon that you've no experience of playing outside of that fight because you don't enjoy the class. You spend half the battle trying to figure out how your new combos work and do shit damage because you suck at monk.

[Gokulo]

First benchmark shots on the blog:
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/blog

[Kurokikaze]

Cool. Can't wait to get that spreadsheet up and running again like we did for 1.0. Would be nice to gauge what works best for the game.

[Lucavi]

Bring that shit on. Ready to see what this game can look like with more than the base PS3 technology applied.

[Eagleheart]

New PC should be finished today *~* just in time for benchmark!! Can't wait.

[shidobu]

Cool. Can't wait to get that spreadsheet up and running again like we did for 1.0. Would be nice to gauge what works best for the game.

was just asking about this the other day

this benchmark better fucking release on monday/tuesday if i dont get into the final alpha >: (

[Aratharn]

I hope all job switching within dungeons goes the fuck away. AV was terrible for it. You'd happily play through as BLM and then just before the final boss you're asked to change to your full AF monk with gimp outdated weapon that you've no experience of playing outside of that fight because you don't enjoy the class. You spend half the battle trying to figure out how your new combos work and do shit damage because you suck at monk.

So they should change this mechanic cause you suck as MNK.