Improvements Update.

[ringthree]

I haven't played since the Beta. As everyone knows the game was terrible then. I have tried to keep abreast of the improvements to the game to see when/if it was going to be interesting to play. I have to say, like with FFXI, the improvements to the development team have been massive. But update notes don't really give me a good idea of how much things have improved.

I was hoping to get some impressions on what has happened so far and what direction the game is heading. I have heard several people say wait until 1.18. Is the game playable for a regular player right now? What is coming in 1.18 that is going to make the difference?

[Kaiyoko]

I haven't played since the Beta. As everyone knows the game was terrible then. I have tried to keep abreast of the improvements to the game to see when/if it was going to be interesting to play. I have to say, like with FFXI, the improvements to the development team have been massive. But update notes don't really give me a good idea of how much things have improved.

I was hoping to get some impressions on what has happened so far and what direction the game is heading. I have heard several people say wait until 1.18. Is the game playable for a regular player right now? What is coming in 1.18 that is going to make the difference?

From what we've been told this is the list of possible things in 1.18:
-Combat Adjustments (Auto Attack, beyond that we don't know)
-UI Changes
-Dungeons/Raids lvl 30 and 50
-Bye bye fatigue

Probably is more, but I can't remember at the moment

[Kurokikaze]

I have videos for every major patch on my youtube channel (link in sig). Usually up day after patch.

I'd say for new players the game is moderately playable as there is more to do than there was before... Although I still say wait till June to jump back in and check it out.

[OWS_Tonx]

Yeah, the game's pretty tolerable now. I took about a 2month break shortly after release because it was so terrible. Pretty good now though. I play at least a couple hours day and always have shit to do, be it helping our lower-ranked members get NM gear, ranking up DoH classes or killing the bigger NMs out there. And there's always crafting.

But yeah, what Anthonystar posted, hopefully will make the game even better. Hell, the game is free right now lol I'm not complaining.

[Kaiyoko]

I have videos for every major patch on my youtube channel (link in sig). Usually up day after patch.

I'd say for new players the game is moderately playable as there is more to do than there was before... Although I still say wait till June to jump back in and check it out.

Defiantly in decent shape for new players. Once you get anywhere 30~50 though it gets boring at the moment. I do HNMs regularly but it's fairly dull. Taking a chance that wasting my time is worth it killing the NMs lol....

Edit- Just to add on 1~20 even though I feel like it's a little fast because I'm used to XI's leveling pase, seems fairly rewarding because you're leveling quickly enough.

[blythe]

Number one thing for me is they got rid of that ridiculous RNG skill-up system. Now it's you kill a mob, you get SP, like a proper MMORPG

Made a huge difference in terms of playability IMO

But if you logged on now you're going to notice a lot of changes, most for the better. It's definitely not a good game yet though.

[Hyan]

Not enough changes have been done so far. Tanaka got nothing substantial done before he got kicked out and Yoshida's larger improvements have yet to be seen. 3 months were pretty much "wasted" not to mention the few week setback due to the tohoku eq.

But yeah, like was said, we're getting close to seeing the fruits of their development on the core game behind the scenes in 1.18 and beyond. It may be able to catch up on the rather lackluster first half of the year or not, either way I wouldn't bet on anything at this point.

Some people (like me) may find it entertaining to follow the development, if you don't care definitely wait for 1.18 or even beyond. The combat "overhaul", for example, comes in two parts. That probably means the game will be quite a construction yard for some time and things won't make much sense.

[ringthree]

Not enough changes have been done so far. Tanaka got nothing substantial done before he got kicked out and Yoshida's larger improvements have yet to be seen. 3 months were pretty much "wasted" not to mention the few week setback due to the tohoku eq.

Can you please explain this in more depth? Which 3 months were wasted, and when was this few week setback? And what is the Tohoku eq?

But yeah, like was said, we're getting close to seeing the fruits of their development on the core game behind the scenes in 1.18 and beyond. It may be able to catch up on the rather lackluster first half of the year or not, either way I wouldn't bet on anything at this point.

Some people (like me) may find it entertaining to follow the development, if you don't care definitely wait for 1.18 or even beyond. The combat "overhaul", for example, comes in two parts. That probably means the game will be quite a construction yard for some time and things won't make much sense.

When they started they had a bunch of "sacred cows" that they said they would never do. Like auto-attack, an AH, real content (LOL), etc. It seems like they have slaughtered most of those, but are there any things that they swear they are not going to change that are still stupid and annoying? Or has the development team really become more responsive, like in FFXI?

[Hyan]

Oct.-Dec.(maybe even January) due to changes in management, and the restart of development. Whatever larger changes Tanaka had in store, are probably not going to see the light of day anytime soon if ever. Tohoku earthquake caused them a 2 week delay, although it could be more than that too.

I don't think Yoshida has any sacred cows, but they are obviously going to be limited by their resources and manpower. It's a large team, but it's not massive.

If you ask me, XI and XIV management have been collaborating since the change and XI's changes are the result of Yoshida's ideas and SE's attempt to save face.

XI team is more responsive, and I think XIV will get its test world later than XI, but the XIV team is working on core aspects of the game while XI team doesn't have to, so their situation isn't exactly similar.

[ringthree]

Oct.-Dec.(maybe even January) due to changes in management, and the restart of development. Whatever larger changes Tanaka had in store, are probably not going to see the light of day anytime soon if ever. Tohoku earthquake caused them a 2 week delay, although it could be more than that too.

Oh, duh. Thanks, I thought you were referencing a different internal shake-up that I missed.

I don't think Yoshida has any sacred cows, but they are obviously going to be limited by their resources and manpower. It's a large team, but it's not massive.

If you ask me, XI and XIV management have been collaborating since the change and XI's changes are the result of Yoshida's ideas and SE's attempt to save face.

XI team is more responsive, and I think XIV will get its test world later than XI, but the XIV team is working on core aspects of the game while XI team doesn't have to, so their situation isn't exactly similar.

I have similar feelings about the state of both games. How many more "core" things do you think that FFXIV needs to be a fully functional game? Obviously combat is something that is so critical that it is their number 1 priority, but I am also interested in their instanced dungeons. I always felt that if the SE team could take something like the instanced dungeon format that others do well (WoW/Rift), they could do it so much better. The new zones look absolutely amazing, but I am really concerned about how they are going to approach it. Is it really going to be instanced and unique? Anymore insight into what these are going to look like?

[Kurokikaze]

The 3 core things they need to focus on imo: Combat/Class Balance, UI speed/layout for keyboard/mouse, and PC optimization.

Sprinkle some content here and there.

[OWS_Tonx]

The 3 core things they need to focus on imo: Combat/Class Balance, UI speed/layout for keyboard/mouse, and PC optimization.

Sprinkle some content here and there.

Class balance for sure, but I do just fine with my keyboard/ mouse right now. I havnt tried a controller yet though.

I definitely want to see more content and hopefully the dungeons aren't going to be ridiculously easy and actually take time to acquire the nicer gear it has to offer. Should hold everyone off for a bit

[Kaiyoko]

Class balance for sure, but I do just fine with my keyboard/ mouse right now. I havnt tried a controller yet though.

I definitely want to see more content and hopefully the dungeons aren't going to be ridiculously easy and actually take time to acquire the nicer gear it has to offer. Should hold everyone off for a bit

I'd have to agree on the keyboard + mouse controls. They play nicely for me, I really don't see what needs to be changed beside custom formatting. Maybe if you play exclusively with the keyboard it might be terrible.

[Hyan]

I have similar feelings about the state of both games. How many more "core" things do you think that FFXIV needs to be a fully functional game? Obviously combat is something that is so critical that it is their number 1 priority, but I am also interested in their instanced dungeons. I always felt that if the SE team could take something like the instanced dungeon format that others do well (WoW/Rift), they could do it so much better. The new zones look absolutely amazing, but I am really concerned about how they are going to approach it. Is it really going to be instanced and unique? Anymore insight into what these are going to look like?

Going with what Kuro said, plus server hardware and optimization too.

Fortunately we are going to get a sneak peek of the new instances probably next week. Right now your guess is as good as mine, although I don't personally expect anything spectacular on that front with all the other improvements having higher priority for now.

Yoshida doesn't seem like a guy that has unique ideas to me, but then again, right now this game needs someone like him more than someone with great innovations imo. Maybe that'll change someday.

[Drakath]

The game is still garbage. If you weren't one of the few who were able to stick around before, you sure as fuck won't be now.

[ringthree]

Going with what Kuro said, plus server hardware and optimization too.

Fortunately we are going to get a sneak peek of the new instances probably next week. Right now your guess is as good as mine, although I don't personally expect anything spectacular on that front with all the other improvements having higher priority for now.

Yoshida doesn't seem like a guy that has unique ideas to me, but then again, right now this game needs someone like him more than someone with great innovations imo. Maybe that'll change someday.

I am afraid that unique ideas got hi-jacked into cost-cutting measures before the reshuffling. Personally, I think the graphics and style of FFXIV are so good that some of the game play can be derivative for the time being. The difference between Tanaka and Yoshida is like night and day. I agree that right now it seems like Yoshida is not an idea guy, but we don't know if that is because he isn't one or if he knows that before you can implement good ideas you have to have a good platform.

I may be wrong on the timing of this, but wasn't Yoshida behind Abyssea? Abyssea was a sea-change for FFXI.

[Kurokikaze]

I may be wrong on the timing of this, but wasn't Yoshida behind Abyssea? Abyssea was a sea-change for FFXI.

Yeah he was. He got sniped for this project in Dec.

[sruon]

That was Matsui I think, current battle director?

[ringthree]

That was Matsui I think, current battle director?

I don't remember exactly how it happened, but one of them go bumped up from FFXI battle director to full FFXI director, to FFXIV director, right?

[Kurokikaze]

Hmm.. It might have been Matsui then. I know FFXIV stole some people from FFXI.