Thread: FFXIV Patch 1.18 Reception    

So, Patch 1.18 has dropped, as seen here in our updates thread (http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/105...807-21-2011%29). How do you feel about the patch? Are things coming along smoothly or running too slow for you.

FFXIV has been in its extended free time for a while so are they making the progress needed to make you feel better about its eventual re-launch?

They need to fix cure mp cost. 1.18 wasn't all that great, still shitty.

It's a move in the right direction but it's like a drop of water in a pool of things needed, I only played one evening and decided to wait for more. Also, worried about how current content sustain with future updates.

*Waiting on 1.19*
Considering FFXIV does not have a beta server up yet, and they are "working on pushing out updates"
I would consider any major overhaul of the system most likely a "beta test" for the public to play with more or less in which case alot of bad things may turn up. In which case I seem right on seeing threads ranging fromf "strange aggro" , slow auto attack, marauder being "craptacular" archer domination, healing costs insanity . new raids are "favored for ranged", THM going from awesome to "sucks" with low dps + no longer good healer" so on.

Hopefully by 1.19 they fix the 1.18 beta test mess

*also waiting on swimsuit* >.>

http://imageboard.neko-sentai.com/_i...26ee4f758e.jpg

The NA+JP community has shown great interest in the swimsuit, several modders have shown up to work on various alterations of the swimsuit which is a promising for the .DAT community at least

Imo, I think it's getting to the Final Fantasy-esque point. I don't agree with the threads complaining about curing cost and nerfs. The game was way too easy. It was impossible to tell a decent play from a horrible play when anyone can spam AoE Sacrifice III non-stop with Siphon MP and Exaltation. Same with all the other class moves and weaponskills.

Overall, I like where it's going. My only complaint is their amount of game content with each patch; however, I can understand that fixing mechanics is more important right now.

engine (graphics) still needs better optimization damn it... SE needs more d00ds working on this project

I'm somewhere between the top two... still playing, but I wish there was more to do.

MP cost might seems to screw with solo players, but it is actually pretty balanced (IMO) when it comes to parties.
Dungeon is pretty fun, but everything else is pretty much the same. but, at this point i feel it is worth checking back every major patch.

Kind of a step in the right direction, but still needs a ton of work. Dungeons are fun, but player mindset still seems to be ARC only on Trabia, maybe on a few others. And it doesn't help if you're in a small server.

EDIT: Quick pro/con list. Aware of putting dungeons on both lists, but it's more of a love/hate thing.

Pros
Dungeons.
Dark Matter for repairs.
Gathering SP changes.
Beastmen strongholds.
Return being free and on a 15 min. recast.
EXP for completing quests.

Cons
Dungeons
DCing in dungeons boots you (To be addressed in 1.19)
Auto attack initiation (Just feels odd having to use F to draw my weapon, too used to XI's system maybe?)
Mob placement around grade 5 logging/mining nodes for Treespeak, Halatali, and Iron Lake.
Lack of repeatable quests/etc. for grand companies to earn marks.
MP for Cure/Sacrifice.
Enmity changes.

Amazingly balanced patch for what it is (a part of the new combat system on top of the old mechanics). Very unexpected, but then again, I didn't expect it to be delayed by this much either, so it evens itself out I guess.

IMO a lot of complaints have to do with issues that have been there from the beginning ,but haven't been as apparent as they are now due to increased difficulty, like the ARC situation. I don't think it has much to do with 1.18 changes especially.

If they can put out rehauls every 2-3 months from now on it shouldn't take too long from this point to get where I want the game to be. Frankly, though ,the AA and enmity overhaul is not what I have been anticipating the most, but they're working on every issue so that's fine.

1.19 looks infinitely more appealing to me though. Content is quite meaningless (to me) until I see the mechanics change. I am certain that the content will be appealing when the time comes, but I'm not so sure whether the scope of gameplay changes will be good enough.

Originally Posted by AnsemGaga

They need to fix cure mp cost. 1.18 wasn't all that great, still shitty.

Fuck off, one of the best parts of the patch.

I believe there are two relevant thresholds I'm paying attention to I believe will play and important role to FFXIV's long term success

1) Reaching a quality of life threshold for its customers that's relevant. If the intention is to keep the FF mmos very challenging, I know they can maintain this and still massively improve the quality of life / enjoyability for its population. The key question for the game design team is "What are your core loops / core challenges?" I know it's not to be a walking simulation or inventory management or UI navigation. Those aren't preferable challenges. I believe the preferable challenges include
* skillful application of a class in fighting an enemy
* strategic combinations of skills and abilities to create a class
* investment of time
* discovery of game mechanics
* application of the knowledge of game mechanics

So whatever those preferable, core challenges are, SE needs to get the player from login directly to those challenges as efficiently and enjoyably as possible.

2) Being an accessible game for a wide range of customers. I believe this is where a lot of people disagree and feel serving one range of customers happens at the exclusion of another. If the intention is to reach a wider range of customers with wider ranges of difficulty and playstyle, they must respect the established paradigms already present and available in other games. In many ways, this could be argued as a contribution to the quality of life as mentioned in the first threshold.

A low-time-commitment customer and/or a low-difficulty-customer will look for existing paradigms to quickly get up to speed and focus on the preferred core challenge of an MMO. Obfuscating these paradigms with poor language, ui design or mechanics turn away both of these types of players, which consist of a very large portion of the market.

Another way to look at this is to ask "Why re-design already well solved problems in the MMO genre, especially if it's not a piece of your preferred, core mechanics?"

---
From the perspective of both of these thresholds, it's my opinion that FFXIV is still a long way from being successful. The efforts since I quit 6-7 months ago show improvement in the right direction, but it's not close yet. Why am I still here? Because the FF series created a whole lot of goodwill for me during my childhood and I'm personally rooting for them to win.

Originally Posted by Lordender

I agree with everything you said, the patch is a step in the right direction however they need to do a better job at class diversity, there needs to be more challenge outside of "mob is under 50% its tp spam time!"

I want to see fights where bosses adjust to what your doing, if you stack one class the mob should cycle through immunities or stack debuff's on that type of attack on players causing the group to wipe if someone stacks it too high. I want to see interesting mechanic's in the next group of dungeons.

I don't know if its a good idea but maybe they should nerf mp costs when your solo but keep them the same while doing group content. I guess they need to figure out the pace they want solo players to go vs group pace, I have not played my con since the changes so I really don't know if its as bad as everyone made it out to be.

PS3 limitations

Originally Posted by Corrderio

Kind of a step in the right direction, but still needs a ton of work. Dungeons are fun, but player mindset still seems to be ARC only on Trabia, maybe on a few others. And it doesn't help if you're in a small server.

EDIT: Quick pro/con list. Aware of putting dungeons on both lists, but it's more of a love/hate thing.

Pros
Dungeons.
Dark Matter for repairs.
Gathering SP changes.
Beastmen strongholds.
Return being free and on a 15 min. recast.
EXP for completing quests.

Cons
Dungeons
DCing in dungeons boots you (To be addressed in 1.19)
Auto attack initiation (Just feels odd having to use F to draw my weapon, too used to XI's system maybe?)
Mob placement around grade 5 logging/mining nodes for Treespeak, Halatali, and Iron Lake.
Lack of repeatable quests/etc. for grand companies to earn marks.
MP for Cure/Sacrifice.
Enmity changes.

Sorry, what SP changes did you mean?

Probably meant how fishing isn't as easy as it once was to rank up. I, for one, really hate what they did to my behests. I don't really see the point to nerfing to the point of uselessness.

Gathering skill gains have been improved overall. The only 'nerfing' they actually did was remove Grade-7 through Grade-10 fishing waters. It was mostly because the high-grade waters didn't actually contain high-rank fish. You could literally just sit there, getting one-hit-catches of Merlthor Gobies and Vongola Clams with a (favored) Sinking Minnow all day long while getting 300~350+ skill for each catch. Then, when fatigue kicked in, you would still be getting 150~175+ skill for each inevitable fail.

Oh, and it also now rewards bonus skill when the item you catch/log/mine is of significantly higher-rank.

Speaking of fatigue... I know they removed the skill-gain fatigue for all classes, but was the gathering fatigue removed (the one that caused you to fail constantly)? I haven't actually fished much since I hit 50 (lol).

They seem to be going in the right direction imo. It's still a bit of a bore leveling up though, the Leve are all the same and very slow xp. Hardly anyone around to team up with for exp.