Comments from the Devs

[Sigmakan]

np next you know better! (please don't take me too seriously)

Anyways the gear swapping thing could be easily countered with a long enough cooldown on all skills to not make it really viable during combat.

Meh, NDA edit (I think, dunno)

Hopefully their comment doesnt suggest that gear will only progress vertically. I guess we'll see soon enough!

[Vuitton]

I don't understand the CE for PC thing. Is it only an issue for 1.0 account holders that bought the regular edition of the game and who now want 2.0's CE bonuses? I have 1.0 CE and 2.0 CE, so I think I should be good?

[bluefan]

Omg this one is fucking hilarious. If you bought the ARR PC CE for your 1.0 account, you wasted $70:


Legacy pays from day 1:

Eh, my wallet is a blackhole when it comes to physical CE items.

[Takiwaki]

I actually fear their comment means there may not be benefits to gear swapping. In beta, pieces of gear had a bajillion stats on them, one piece of gear per slot was always the best. There was no horizontal progression. I figured it was just a beta placeholder thing, but this recent dev comment has me a bit concerned. Then again, how can you release so much gear and weapons and NOT have horizontal improvements.

I would love some horizontal/situational gear but not to the extent of swapping every second maybe a set of gear for being more tanky or a set for being more dmg oriented, There was definitely a difference there when you looked at what glad could have worn during beta. I really hope its not pure vertical growth.

[Draylo]

1.0 CE buyers already get the items from 2.0 CE... So you still get the pre-order items if you bought the 2.0 CE having already owned 1.0. You aren't getting screwed if you really wanted those new real life items and the pre-order items.

[Alkar]

Omg this one is fucking hilarious. If you bought the ARR PC CE for your 1.0 account, you wasted $70.

Hmm, nope. They're simply saying that if you did NOT buy the original CE you need to use the digital upgrade to get the items because the codes won't work. Original CE owners get this upgrade for free.

[Takiwaki]

Hmm, nope. They're simply saying that if you did NOT buy the original CE you need to use the digital upgrade to get the items because the codes won't work. Original CE owners get this upgrade for free.

Sooo in other words if you bought the ARR PC CE for your 1.0 (non CE account) you wasted $70, since it wont work? lol

[Adajer]

*Has 1.0 regular non Legacy
*Bought ARR PC CE Physical
*Going to buy Digital Upgrade
*Smashes Sunglasses
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lo...u8ydo1_500.gif

[Alkar]

Sooo in other words if you bought the ARR PC CE for your 1.0 (non CE account) you wasted $70, since it wont work? lol

It's not even out yet, you haven't "bought" anything. In that case you simply get a refund and get the CE digital upgrade.

[Takiwaki]

It's not even out yet, you haven't "bought" anything. In that case you simply get a refund and get the CE digital upgrade.

Well obviously you can get a refund/cancel the order... Its just lame for those that already bought the CE thinking they can just upgrade AND wanted the CE physical items, which the digital upgrade does not give. In that way they are indeed losing out, as those that want the the CE physical items will have to buy both the CE and the upgrade, if they want to use their old non-CE account.

If the person had a PS3 they could get the physical and Digital CE items from the PS3 CE by adding it to their already existing account, not having to buy the digital upgrade at all.

This is why some are not happy.

[Rionel]

Compared to the numerous sets I had when I was playing FFXI, this is a breeze of fresh, cool air.

I agree.

I think that's the thing that bothered me most about FFXI. How every single thing you did involved some sort of gear swap. It became more about how I micro managed my equipment and spellcast than actually playing. I mean, I dealt with doing spellcast and windower stuff 'cause that was basically the best way to be effective, but it just got kinda dry after a while.

Hell, you even need a gear swap program for when you change jobs once you've accumulated enough gear just from the sheer amount of stuff you'd have to bring. I think it got a little too out of hand.

I think that's the biggest reason FFXIV is really appealing to me and I haven't looked back to FFXI. It really is just a breath of fresh air to just think about playing than think about notepad editing my spellcast and finding out I left that one headgear or ring in my moghouse.

[Wulfgang]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...740#post996740

Might as well pretend this thread is used for anything but armchair developer talk:





The QA is interesting

Omg this one is fucking hilarious. If you bought the ARR PC CE for your 1.0 account, you wasted $70:


Legacy pays from day 1:

Assuming you only wanted the ingame items, you theoretically would have "wasted" only ~$30 (difference between $80 PS3 CE physical price and $50 digital CE upgrade price; if you bought PC CE accidentally, just cancel and buy PS3). A lot of people want the soundtrack / artbook / etc. so it's not really wasted regardless. If you own the 1.0 CE (can't believe I still have mine and didn't blow it up like ShepardG), you get the CE ingame items for free as described below, but no early access or preorder bonuses. If you're legacy and 1.0 CE owner, you get the early access, but no preorder bonuses.

Players Who Own the FFXIV version 1.0 Collector’s Edition
Players who own the FFXIV version 1.0 Collector’s Edition will receive the FFXIV: ARR Collector’s Edition in-game bonus items (Helm of Light, Baby Behemoth Minion, Behemoth Barding, and Coeurl Mount) for free. The in-game bonus items will be delivered via Moogle Letter when FFXIV: ARR launches.

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...96bf81c212957d

I'm just going to buy a PC CE; $$$ to burn lately and I'm down to support the cause and hang onto the physical items.

[Kohan]

I think that's the thing that bothered me most about FFXI. How every single thing you did involved some sort of gear swap. It became more about how I micro managed my equipment and spellcast than actually playing. I mean, I dealt with doing spellcast and windower stuff 'cause that was basically the best way to be effective, but it just got kinda dry after a while.

Hell, you even need a gear swap program for when you change jobs once you've accumulated enough gear just from the sheer amount of stuff you'd have to bring. I think it got a little too out of hand.

I think that's the biggest reason FFXIV is really appealing to me and I haven't looked back to FFXI. It really is just a breath of fresh air to just think about playing than think about notepad editing my spellcast and finding out I left that one headgear or ring in my moghouse.

It just goes to show how opinions can differ, but what you dislike is part of the reason I enjoy FFXI so very much.

Being able to min-max not just one set, but multiple sets, allows for numerous levels of progression. For example, I may be a BLM, and I may not get a new MATK piece for my nuking set one day, but I could get a piece of Enfeebling gear instead. I can progress in various directions rather than just one, and I absolutely love that.

Not being able to do so in FFXIV is one of the things that turns me off from it. That's essentially what every other MMO does. You're aiming at far fewer pieces, therefore, and that's unfortunate. I prefer a great multitude of goals, and FFXIV doesn't offer me that.

[Headspace]

It just goes to show how opinions can differ, but what you dislike is part of the reason I enjoy FFXI so very much.

Being able to min-max not just one set, but multiple sets, allows for numerous levels of progression. For example, I may be a BLM, and I may not get a new MATK piece for my nuking set one day, but I could get a piece of Enfeebling gear instead. I can progress in various directions rather than just one, and I absolutely love that.

Not being able to do so in FFXIV is one of the things that turns me off from it. That's essentially what every other MMO does. You're aiming at far fewer pieces, therefore, and that's unfortunate. I prefer a great multitude of goals, and FFXIV doesn't offer me that.

I actually liked gear swaps as well. I never had many, but I still liked it. When I started leveling up a melee job after being mage for so long, I loved switching from ACC+ gear set to a STR/DEX or whatever for WS when I was leveling up.

[Lucavi]

It just goes to show how opinions can differ, but what you dislike is part of the reason I enjoy FFXI so very much.

Being able to min-max not just one set, but multiple sets, allows for numerous levels of progression. For example, I may be a BLM, and I may not get a new MATK piece for my nuking set one day, but I could get a piece of Enfeebling gear instead. I can progress in various directions rather than just one, and I absolutely love that.

Not being able to do so in FFXIV is one of the things that turns me off from it. That's essentially what every other MMO does. You're aiming at far fewer pieces, therefore, and that's unfortunate. I prefer a great multitude of goals, and FFXIV doesn't offer me that.

I'd rather let class specifications handle that instead of gear, because it offers me more choice (good thing) that I can control (also good thing), instead of yielding to the drop-rate gods as the only way to enhance my character, stat-wise.

Talent trees, talent wheels, trait trees, whatever you want call them. Speccing into Explosive shot in WoW was amazing, as was speccing into Hot Streak in Rift. The closest thing I could get in XI was meriting Angon or something.

[arkaine23]

I enjoyed gear swapping. It gave me a lot of lateral progression/goals. Spellcast made it somewhat easier once setup, but um the game needed that functionality from the get-go rather than as an add-on. What I did not enjoy was spending 15-20 mins in the MH swapping out my inventory for a totally different job... half the time I was just about ready and then the LS would decide it'd be better if I came on a different job than the one was gearing up on. Seems Armory Chest both saves inventory and auto-makes some macros. But it sounds like it'll be much simpler, like there'll be fewer stats to gear for and that you'd swap when a situation called for it (like off-tanking for a bit on a DD job), not on every action.

If you don't like it, don't use it. I seriously doubt it'll be viable to blink into different gear constantly.

[Kohan]

I'd rather let class specifications handle that instead of gear, because it offers me more choice (good thing) that I can control (also good thing), instead of yielding to the drop-rate gods as the only way to enhance my character, stat-wise.

Talent trees, talent wheels, trait trees, whatever you want call them. Speccing into Explosive shot in WoW was amazing, as was speccing into Hot Streak in Rift. The closest thing I could get in XI was meriting Angon or something.

Though I understand where you're coming from in terms of the pre-Abyssea, level 75 days, that hasn't held true for some three years now. Papers, upgrade items, tokens, etc., have basically eliminated most drop rate concerns. You put in the effort, and you'll eventually get what you want—not due to luck, but because you've accumulated something that can be cashed in for it. I definitely believe it's a welcome change, and I do still prefer it to the sort of progression that you mention, as it provides a reason to do various events rather than, say, whatever one would provide the most EXP as expediently as possible.

Of course, by going on about this, I'm threatening to turn the FFXIV discussion into an FFXI discussion, and I don't want to do that. My main intent was to demonstrate how some changes can be perceived as good or bad, depending upon your perspective.

[Rionel]

It just goes to show how opinions can differ, but what you dislike is part of the reason I enjoy FFXI so very much.

Being able to min-max not just one set, but multiple sets, allows for numerous levels of progression. For example, I may be a BLM, and I may not get a new MATK piece for my nuking set one day, but I could get a piece of Enfeebling gear instead. I can progress in various directions rather than just one, and I absolutely love that.

Not being able to do so in FFXIV is one of the things that turns me off from it. That's essentially what every other MMO does. You're aiming at far fewer pieces, therefore, and that's unfortunate. I prefer a great multitude of goals, and FFXIV doesn't offer me that.

I find it so amusing how completely opposite my taste for FFXI has changed compared to what you just said. It's kind of fascinating actually how even after so long, people can still enjoy the FFXI style of gameplay (which is totally cool by me).

'Cause I absolutely hated max-ing stuff in FFXI haha.

The gear would have to be significantly better than what I previously owned, or had to vastly improve one of my abilities for me to even think about it. Big things like Myochin Kabuto/Saotome Kote for Meditate, or Elemental Staves for spells, or getting a empyrean/mythic/relic are what really mattered to me since you can immediately see a big effect on your actions with these things.

But stuff like getting 3 to 5 extra STR for my WS set or 1~2 MATK for nukes... I don't really care about that that much. The difference so small that you have to literally go get 3~4 pieces with that margin of improvement to make any noticeable change. You'd probably have to parse and actually be paying attention to what you're doing to even seen anything chance. I mean, FFXIV will probably run into this issue too as many MMOs are probably like this, but FFXI just took it to such an extreme to me.

Maybe that's why I got a bit frustrated? Haha.

If FFXIV had gear swaps for a larger scope of stuff (like, changing a gear set depending on if you were solo, if you were in a party, for this dungeon or that dungeon) I think that'd be cool by me. Just so long as it doesn't get too minute like swapping for every action like FFXI does.

That would be my happy medium.

[arkaine23]

Reading the original post it sounds like its just a side effect of Armory Chest... being able to change gear mid stream, yet the game itself imposes some kind of limit on what this does in battle so that you can't use it on every action. Maybe puts everything on cooldown or something, like when you change jobs. The original intent however is to give you an easy way to build full gear change buttons for your town-strutting, X dungeon or Y dungeon sets, solo, party, etc, like Rionel just said. The system is meant to make changing all your gear quick and easy and pull that stuff out of your inventory space..

There should be a purpose for different sets. Said purposes are not specific actions or abilities, but specific encounters, switching up playstyles, that sort of thing. Stop jerking your knees. Just because there was a blue crab and a way to change your gear does not mean ARR is XI-2.

[Oreth]

Im totally confused by all this FFXIV 1.0 CE malarkey now...

Im FFXIV 1.0 CE Windows Owner. I am also a Legacy player.

I want to get all the physical goodies, in games CE goodies and the Pre Order Bonus goodies for A Realm Reborn. I am going to Pre-Order and buy the PS3 CE version of ARR... I presume I will get everything for my main account?

I also have a secondary account that is only the standard version of the game but that is Legacy. I am going to apply the CE bonus code from the PS3 version of the game above to make this account into a CE account. Then to get the pre order stuff im going to pre order a seperate standard PS3 copy of the game. Boom both accounts have everything including early start the only thing i dont get is 30 days free game time?