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

[Tomino]

Again, it's all a matter of weights.
You still focus too much on the fact that a lv20 Conjurer would take most of his INT from his own physical stats.

From my point of view:
Lv20 character 5 INT + Conjurer Job modifers (like FF11) 10 INT + Conjurer gear + 30 INT = 45 INT

You class change into a Pugilist, you get like +40 STR from gear/class mod. so the fact you only have 3 STR as base stat is next to trivial.


I believe the stats allocation you are free to distribute won't be worth more than 10% of your total stats.
Should they represent more than 50% of your total stats value, this would lower the importance of gear and, more, give too much weight to the "nolifer attribute" of each player, since you'd be top ace on EVERY class given you can play 24/7.

[McGoonagle]

Why not? SEs been implying complete free character growth, so I don't think there should be a cap. You'll obviously need to be a bit head smart and not dump everything into just one stat. Great system to separate the bad from the good :D

They could set up optimization rules so that even though there is no "you can't do that" rule, there will be combinations of relative skills that will be more effective in practice than simply maxing out one ability.

A:B:C = 1.1:1.0:0.9 is better in a lot of situations than A=3, B=0, C=0 (or A=0, B=3, C=0 and so on.)

[Kaelan?]

Again, it's all a matter of weights.
You still focus too much on the fact that a lv20 Conjurer would take most of his INT from his own physical stats.

The answer to "this mechanic wouldn't work right" is not "let's make this mechanic useless so it doesn't matter!".

I'm pretty sure their designers are a little smarter than that. You can't make a good game by swiping under the rug things that don't work unless you're a programmer.

[Solace]

I would think that physical level has more to do with HP/MP and maybe even quest levels. Oh and almost forgot JAs... Your stats should be stored in the weapons.

[Tomino]

The answer to "this mechanic wouldn't work right" is not "let's make this mechanic useless so it doesn't matter!".

I'm just saying some of you are mistaking character customization ( ff11 merits style) with players having full access to stats allocation, which would also be a living hell for game designers to work on.

[QotsaM]

So still no infos about left-handed/right-handed characters in the builder?

[Cooleko]

One thing I thought was nice is maybe SE is abandoning the exp base cap? They killed a low lvl mob and got 9 exp then leveled to lvl 2 and 3? This means that a lvl 50 mob might give 5k exp or something to that effect. very nice news.

If they had lvled to 10 instead of 2 i would just think they had an exp reduction from the kill, but for such a low lvl to get that amount is suggestive

[Ziero]

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.

Perhaps that's the point, the balance to the entire system. If you want to be good at everything you have to balance your character to have efficient stats at multiple things. But someone who wants to be dedicated to a specific class can be much more proficient at that one class. The 'balanced' player has the advantage of being much more flexible in events and filling multiple roles while the 'focused' player has the advantage of being the best at that one singular role.

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.

As suggested before, Skill level only seems to affect Abilities and Spells a player has access to, and not the actual stats of a character. You're learning to use a new weapon and thus you will have to learn all the attacks and abilities that you can do with that new weapon. There will be no reason to smack weaker mobs for pittance exp, you could just hit normal level mobs for normal exp but you do so with fewer abilities.

This also may tie into whatever kind of 'sub ability' system they're using this time around. SE said many times players will be somehow able to access skills and abilities from other classes they've leveled while on a different class. So it may mean that instead of constantly having to change class on the fly in a Levequest, you could instead somehow just mix and match abilities from multiple classes you've leveled. Instead of having to have a half assed Gladiator build and a half assed Conjurer build, perhaps we'll be able to take skills from one and the other to make a focuses 'Paladin' build. At this point, I haven't seen any real info on how the 'sub job' system works, so maybe once we know more about everything, the pieces will all fall into place.

Also, how come there's absolutely zero info about the Hand/Land classes. They were supposed to be a big change from XI but it doesn't seem they're getting any love. =(

[Kaelan?]

There's a bunch of info about the new Synth system in the alpha manual. As far as crafting abilities/stats, I don't think any of that has been revealed yet (I don't even know if there's any in the current alpha).

[Yeargdribble]

"I want to try gladiator now", so you buy a board and shield.

Fuck yeah, dual-wielding shields.

[Charismatic]

Fuck yeah, dual-wielding shields.

FF2 style

[Baffle]

Perhaps that's the point, the balance to the entire system. If you want to be good at everything you have to balance your character to have efficient stats at multiple things. But someone who wants to be dedicated to a specific class can be much more proficient at that one class. The 'balanced' player has the advantage of being much more flexible in events and filling multiple roles while the 'focused' player has the advantage of being the best at that one singular role.

Maybe so, but I just think that would be incredibly disappointing. Especially coming from XI, where none of that mattered. Besides, it's not like there's anything to stop people from making multiple characters.

Oh well. Here's hoping SE has something up their sleeve.

[Uzor]

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.

I think you're both thinking of it wrong.

Yes, I think Physical will be an overall stat increase for all characters. After all, it would make no sense that a battle-hardened Gladiator switching over to a Mage class wouldn't suddenly lose all of his physics just because he pick up another weapon.

However, that would make little sense when it comes to leveling other classes. I'm guessing "Physical" is simply an overall character level. When you exp on your jobs, this is something that levels up across all jobs and is shared. Its basically your base attributes.

I'm guessing the allocated stat points are your skill level. When a Gladiator picks up a staff instead, its only natural he do not have the same proficiency in this as his sword. So when changing to a new class, you temporarily lose your allocated points. Remember when SE said weapons are how you increase your stats? Yeah.

So basically, allocated stats are on a per-weapon basis. When you level up your skill level in Sword, you get C number of points to allocate among your stats. So when you change from Gladiator to Thaumaturge, you would reset your stats to your Physical Level + Skill Level. This way, each class would have their own stats, without a Mage having to worry he would be gimped from leveling Gladiator first.

It would also be interesting if the only way to cap your "physical" level would be to cap all other jobs. That would actually benefit people that decide to level other jobs beyond giving them Maat's Cap, and would be yet another time sink that we all know SE loves to do.

[Tomino]

One thing I noticed :
dead mob, experience on class was 9, experience on physical was 3.

It could be that classes level 3x times faster (makes sense) but also that they somehow cap depending on physical level (which indicates how much cool and veteran your character is).
This would suggest players to go out and try 3 classes to ease the grind necessary for a physical level up.

[Ziero]

Maybe so, but I just think that would be incredibly disappointing. Especially coming from XI, where none of that mattered. Besides, it's not like there's anything to stop people from making multiple characters.

Oh well. Here's hoping SE has something up their sleeve.

It was actually touched upon with Merits in XI. SE wanted people to have some sort of uniqueness by making them focus more on which specific skills they wished to boost. I see nothing wrong with refining that concept to allow players to better specialize what kind of actual character they want. You will still be able to experience every class and ability in the game on one character, you just couldn't do it all at the same time.

If (when) they allow players to re-allot their skill points, players can still make their character the best at every class, it's just there will most likely be a restriction where you can only re-distribute skills at towns or something.

I'm guessing the allocated stat points are your skill level. When a Gladiator picks up a staff instead, its only natural he do not have the same proficiency in this as his sword. So when changing to a new class, you temporarily lose your allocated points. Remember when SE said weapons are how you increase your stats? Yeah.

I can see that being the case, it would end up being the most fair way to do this kind of system.

It would also be interesting if the only way to cap your "physical" level would be to cap all other jobs. That would actually benefit people that decide to level other jobs beyond giving them Maat's Cap, and would be yet another time sink that we all know SE loves to do.

This on the other hand is a horrible concept. While that would be an asset to those who feel they have to level everything, it would be a massive hindrance to those who only want to level specific classes. I have absolutely no interest in leveling any mage classes or weaver(remember, land and hand disciplines are Classes as well) or hell even Archer or Lancer. I plan to be a Marauder, Miner and Blacksmith only. Why should I not be able to cap my character level because I want to specialize in specific classes instead of being spread across every single job in game. Your reward for leveling all those jobs is having all those jobs leveled, while trinkets for achieving such a task are nice, they shouldn't be related to simple things everyone should be able to accomplish, like getting to max character level.

[Purrrfect]

Care to speculate on whether the /check system is based off physical level or class level?

[maldave]

Your reward for leveling all those jobs is having all those jobs leveled, while trinkets for achieving such a task are nice, they shouldn't be related to simple things everyone should be able to accomplish, like getting to max character level.

Well maybe SE doesn't want you to level up your character easily to "max". This isn't a Blizzard game you know, where you level up your char to max within a week. For SE the road, the adventure and huge part of your online gaming is actually "the way" to get to max level, not like in WoW where leveling is seen just as a small step to the "real" game which starts at max level (aka raiding).

[arus2001]

Think people are trying too hard to speculate on the physical levels and such at this point when, in a few short hours, we'll have folks who'll be able to firsthand explain the process.

Far as XI's merit system goes, it sucked. All options weren't created equal and trying to be unique would usually just get you laughed at.

[Ziero]

Unique as in you could tell someone was a Career War (Gaxe merits) over a career Mnk (h2h merits) and stuff. While I agree merits had a lot of faults, the concept was an attempt (poor as it was) to give players more uniqueness in their characters.

Well maybe SE doesn't want you to level up your character easily to "max". This isn't a Blizzard game you know, where you level up your char to max within a week. For SE the road, the adventure and huge part of your online gaming is actually "the way" to get to max level, not like in WoW where leveling is seen just as a small step to the "real" game which starts at max level (aka raiding).

Who said anything about making it easy to reach max level? I'm just saying it's a dumb idea to think that you would need to cap every job to reach it because not everyone wants to play every job.

[Odin'sLaw]

That's exactly what I want.

Of course there would need to be a system in place to be able to reset the stats. I'll die in one hit, sure, but I can take you down just as quick! It's like Russian roulette!

good thing this game isn't been translated by 4Kids http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bpG0P1Ks_8 its litrally a 5 second thing but from 3:25 you know what i mean