Famitsu/Dengeki: Hands-on w/ α & Future β Plans

[ScGr]

For example, take a Conjurer. Level 5, Skill Level 2.
He decides he wants to punch a bitch. He dons some knuckles.

Pugalist, Level 5, Skill Level 0.

Physical retains, Skill depends on weapon.

I would just reword this.

[Character] Level 5, Pugilist 0
[Character] Level 5, Conjurer 2

[TauuofSiren]

A system that encourages creativity and freedom, very nice. In FFXIV I'm sure we'll see more oddball setups that actually work, which will give all players more setup options. Those RDMs and WHMs who insisted on meleeing in FFXI exp parties may be in luck... well, maybe.

Perhaps the Luck stat will help you get to Kirin on the first try.

[Baffle]

No, here's your break in logic.
Physical Level=Statistical Level.
This is your overall ranking. Think of it like Final Fantasy Tactics. Physical XP grants stat boots, Class EXP grants skills and abilities.

For example, take a Conjurer. Level 5, Skill Level 2.
He decides he wants to punch a bitch. He dons some knuckles.

Pugalist, Level 5, Skill Level 0.

Physical retains, Skill depends on weapon.

How could that possibly work, though? The one thing they've kept boasting about is the ability the change jobs on the fly, but if your stats remain the same, doesn't that kind of ruin it? If you want to play two jobs that use entirely different sets of stats, you're forced to either only be proficient at one or mediocre at both.

I'm really hoping that there's more to it that we don't know about yet, otherwise this is all very disappointing. One thing about FFXI I liked so much was that you could do many different things on a single character, but with point allocation I'm afraid people will end up having to make separate characters to play different classes, which kinda defeats the whole point of being able to change jobs.

[Rustyhagun]

Oh. A familiar name!

All the info so far has been concise in explaining that Physical Level is separate from Skill Rank. They are two different forms of XP, and two different forms of growth. Changing arms doesn't change Physical Level, remember they don't want Arm changing to feel like you're moving backwards like the FFXI complaints.

In far back interview Tanaka or Komoto said they were debating weather or not to let people be a "jack of all trades". It doesn't look like that is what they have decided.

It would be absurd to assume that we wont be able to re-do our stats, but I wonder how easy it will be? As simple as changing arms or touching Aethyrite? Or will we have to re-grind to get our Physical Level back up?

That doesn't make sense. If your out in the world exploring and you finish a battle and you quickly want switch to your lvl30priest to heal yourself quickly how are you going to allocate your points and spend huge minutes re-allocating properly and then switch back to re-allocate back to your lvl35gladiator. Doesn't add up, that the time you spend building that 30 priest will have its stats in it place that you put there and when you switch to your lvl 35 gladiator your stats you acquired up to that point are still there?

Re-allocating, is something an NPC, in town, is going to let you do for a huge gil fee. Because SE isn't going to want that exploited. Because people should think before they put points into a stat.

[ScGr]

I am wondering the same thing my self, only time will tell.

I guess there is more incentive to create additional characters now.

[bluefan]

I am wondering the same thing my self, only time will tell.

I guess there is more incentive to create additional characters now.

Which doesn't make sense.

Thought SE was all about the one character philosophy. Isn't that why they said they created the weapon --> class switch on the fly system?

[Metafox]

How could that possibly work, though? The one thing they've kept boasting about is the ability the change jobs on the fly, but if your stats remain the same, doesn't that kind of ruin it? If you want to play two jobs that use entirely different sets of stats, you're forced to either only be proficient at one or mediocre at both.

I'm really hoping that there's more to it that we don't know about yet, otherwise this is all very disappointing. One thing about FFXI I liked so much was that you could do many different things on a single character, but with point allocation I'm afraid people will end up having to make separate characters to play different classes, which kinda defeats the whole point of being able to change jobs.

I'm concerned about this too. If I'm playing some kind of a mage, I won't be at all competitive unless I stack magic stats. If I want to switch over to a melee, I don't want to have to do a quest or track down some npc.

I've also been concerned about the physical vs. weapon level thing. Maybe there's something I don't know, but it sounds like the physical level will keep our stats really high when we want to go back and play a different class. If it's like that, then going back to play another class will basically be like ffxi's skillup parties. We'd run around beating up weak things trying to get our weapon levels up instead of getting the experience of leveling a different class. That sounds really not cool.

[Gokulo]

If it's like that, then going back to play another class will basically be like ffxi's skillup parties. We'd run around beating up weak things trying to get our weapon levels up instead of getting the experience of leveling a different class. That sounds really not cool.

Seeing as things like strength and accuracy come from physical level and are separate from class rank (which all it does gives skills it seems atm?) I'd think you don't really need to go back to weaker monsters - you just fight whatever you can now, just w/o a lot of skills.

[ScGr]

Which doesn't make sense.

Thought SE was all about the one character philosophy. Isn't that why they said they created the weapon --> class switch on the fly system?

Well, look at merits. I think they could be compromising their philosophy with trying to give players what they want.

http://www.businessinsider.com/you-s...stomers-2010-4

Very stat minded players will see the problems with having Physical Levels separate from Skill Ranks, but will the casual players XIV is going after? They will put the stats where ever they want them and switch jobs as the choose.

The other crowd will invest in multiple characters and treat switching arms as sub jobs.

Who knows? All we really know is that leaks and interviews concisely point towards {Physical Levels ≠ Skill Rank}.

[Metafox]

Seeing as things like strength and accuracy come from physical level and are separate from class rank (which all it does gives skills it seems atm?) I'd think you don't really need to go back to weaker monsters - you just fight whatever you can now, just w/o a lot of skills.

Hmm, that wouldn't work too well for me. My favorite thing about ffxi was dropping everything to start over with a new job. It felt worthwhile because everything accumulated on my character. If I went to do something else, my character would still have those job levels, so I felt like I was actually accomplishing something. It would kind of not be as fun if I have to get an alt every time I want to start over.

[Satyr]

<message deleted>

[Satyr]

WOW i JUST got a invite to Starcraft II beta one hour ago doesnt look like I will be getting any sleep tonighyt

[Xyphere]

PSO? In my FFXIV?

Give the soundtrack a listen. Some of the battle themes seem really give me a real PSO vibe.

[Tomino]

i think you're keeping gear out of the equation.
We don't know yet, it could be that gear will provide more than 70% of your actual stats, in which case your character native stats would matter a lot less.

Also, I think it'd be fair to give players who excepionally love certain classes the chance to shine a little more. FF11 did the same but only in the merit points / endgame part of the game where you'd merit certain weapons, certain traits and so on.

Not to mention, unique rewards such as CoP rings will still ask you to pick a "favorite" class among others.

[Azurewrath]

I can't see it working like some people are saying. Level up your physical level, get stats, put them in, then theyre like that for all jobs.

Thatd be silly, like someone said, what if you're a Gladiator max level then you decide you want to be a conjurer? Hello 15 magic compared to 200 STR. Oh, but then you can just re-allocate your stats... That'd take way too long. Oh, then you can just give yourself decent INT and STR.. Then you'll just suck all around.

My speculation is that you'll get points to spend in your class every time your JOB level goes up, but each job will be different, so if you get 5 points to spend, you get 5 points in that job, and theyll be there for that job, but not for others.

So

Level conjurer to level 2, put your INT up from 1 to 5.

Switch to Pugilist which is level 3, he has 15 STR and 1 MAG.

Switch back to CON, level 2, 5 INT, 1 str.

It'd work perfectly.

And maybe physical level is just a way for people to see how insane you are. in XI, you could see a 75 guy, but you had no idea what that meant. Maybe thats his only 75 job?

Maybe he has Maats cap? This way, if he has maats cap, his physical level will be huge, but that wouldnt affect his stats, only his job level would.

I dunno, we'll probably figure it out in a few hours from leaks.

[Shiinpu]

Physical level determines your base stats, job level determines skills and may or may not have a stat bonus, and SE would've seen the "b-b-b-but what if I wanna level a mage and a melee?" issue right away and they are not idiots. There's really no need to talk about it beyond that. We'll know how it works soon enough.

[Kaelan?]

Thatd be silly, like someone said, what if you're a Gladiator max level then you decide you want to be a conjurer? Hello 15 magic compared to 200 STR. Oh, but then you can just re-allocate your stats... That'd take way too long. Oh, then you can just give yourself decent INT and STR.. Then you'll just suck all around.

My speculation is that you'll get points to spend in your class every time your JOB level goes up, but each job will be different, so if you get 5 points to spend, you get 5 points in that job, and theyll be there for that job, but not for others.

Yeah, this is what I think they'll do as well. It makes too much design sense to do it any other way.

I don't know about physical levels stacking, but it would be cool to have a number that just meant "total job levels", just for the hell of it.

[supercoco]

thought all our stats would raise automatically like ff11 .
Will we have freedom while raising up our stats?

[Gokulo]

Yes, that's what they said.

[Cairthenn]

Five freedoms for you, Super Coco.