FFXIV Random Speculation/Question thread II: Let's Speculate the Speculations

[FREDTHETARU]

Wow where are you exactly in that water elemental pic? Didn't even know you could get past the beginning areas.

Cassopeia(spelling) Hallow

Its a cave southwest of camp blood shore. Some pretty tough mobs in there, only mobs i could kill were the man-o-wars.

There are hippoglyphs, bombs, gnats (can cast Thunder II.. ouch), anglers, spider-things, arihmans(sp), slugs, lady bugs, man-o-wars down there. i think thats all i saw

[Calemero]

Wow where are you exactly in that water elemental pic? Didn't even know you could get past the beginning areas.

That is in the beginner's area. Most likely Cassiopeia Hollow. Also there are multiple Elementals all over the place. I came across an Ice Elemental yesterday near the Isles of Umbra.

Also a Lindwurm, Greater Pieste, and Boar.

[mastamind]

Did the guild npcs tell you the recipes or was it just trial and error?

[LD]

I think a better idea would be to use the GCD for what the term implies, have the "cooldown" on normal attacks equivalent to your modified weapon speed and then cooldowns on spells/other abilities as SE sees fit.

Isn't that exac-...nvm, forget it.

Hopefully they'll change it in that case- if they created a system like that, it should be used the way it's supposed to imo- to choose how many pillars to wait for if at all, not just go for 3 every time.

In solo situations, there is a point to using abilities quickly to finish off a mob asap or to simply generate a bit of TP (ex. you're @900 TP and you wanna use Brandish, a GAx AOE move that's ACTUALLY USEFUL; it's thinned out mob HP enough to make groups more manageable). I can see how it may cause problems in groups (a decent tank may make situations less urgent), but in those cases BRs come into play. I've never done one myself, but I imagine it musses with the bar timing. Even then, urgency could come into play.

It's a moot point, I haven't really tested it.

What I HAVE noticed is that the bar sequence will change sometimes. Instead of 1>2>3, it'll be 1>3>...2, then after you hit it, two really big bars come up. So in some cases the sequence isn't always predictable, forcing you to go with that you have right away. Unfortunately, this usually makes attacks even longer, since you're expecting one thing and don't know when to attack. Not sure if it's a glitch or some intentional consequence of using (or having used) certain weapons. I first noticed it with the GAx, but have only seen it once or twice since, even with different weapons. I'll give GA a try next test.

[Hyan]

Anyhow, I wouldn't judge the combat before it really opens up.

I dunno what SE's plans are, but to me the system sounds like during group play and when mobs start being in bigger groups and have much more hp things will get more hectic. Not so much right now.

But I don't think they made it slower than usual yet again unintentionally. Sigh, we're just guessing for now and probably for a long time to come.

[ascalon]

I think the weird Effect Guage thing is a glitch. I've seen it happen a few times and its pretty annoying trying to time abilities.

Mind you, I haven't really noticed a huge difference between an uncharged and charged ability: certainly not enough to always warrant the time to fully charge an attack.

On the issue of controls, mouse camera controls are still really funky at the moment - whereas using a gamepad (in this case an XBOX360 pad wirelessly connected to PC) was so much easier. PC you can't move the camera AND select abilities at the same time. Having camera controlled by the right stick on the pad you can.

Certainly not saying that the gamepad is better or anything, but it seemed easier to use for everything except chatting and hitting abilities way to the right on the action bar that would be easier to hit with keys on keyboard.

Obviously we'll have to wait and see what the PS3 users choose to do. I imagine most of them have USB keyboards (I know I do, but I'll most likely be getting the game on the PC first).

[FREDTHETARU]

The effect gauge is useful.
On my conj the difference between fully charged and not is about 30 dmg.

Times when this is useful, actual example:
While leveling, I could use my first attack fully charged, and take a little over half a mobs HP, then on my next cast i could just do a quick 1 bar cast to finish it off.
If i killed it with only attacks that launched as soon as they were ready, it would take 3. Its quicker to do a 1charged + 1uncharged then it is to do 3uncharged. Thus avoiding getting hit by the mob and losing HP, and making for faster exp.

Also, another time that its useful, say I have a mob almost finished off, and i see it start to charge a nasty TP move (like a slugs Vicious Discharge, high dmg + silence), and I know an uncharged attack wont quite be enough to kill it. I can wait just a little bit longer for it to charge up and then launch the attack before the mob gets its TP move off. I've had to do that a few times.

[ascalon]

Yeah I agree Fred. Guess this plays into SE's idea of "tactical" gameplay. Which is fine by me. As long as there's always a tradeoff to using it fully charged, otherwise everyone will insist on it.

[Metafox]

I hate to bring up this acronym, but would you say that the dps of the charged attack is higher then? I'd think they'd want to add charged attacks in order to provide us with the option of higher burst damage but lower dps.

[FREDTHETARU]

I hate to bring up this acronym, but would you say that the dps of the charged attack is higher then? I'd think they'd want to add charged attacks in order to provide us with the option of higher burst damage but lower dps.

Well different classes have different draw backs. Like i heard for melee it would be higher damage but lower acc for example.

On my conj, I didn't notice any draw backs to charging the gauge other then having to wait a little longer for it to charge. But in a party situation, you wouldnt want to launch a cast as soon as your action bar was ready anyway... unless you want to die haha.

Currently, not sure if this is intended or not, but my Spirit Dart (ranged magic damage w/ no mp or tp cost, builds tp) generates CRAZY hate. If I do a spirit dart, i'll get hate, then my partner vokes, he gets hate, if I do spirit dart again i'll get hate again. Sometimes even after I wait for him to get a hit or 2 in.
Then again he was using voke as a lancer, and voke is a glad ability, so not sure if the potency is effected by that.

Either way, conj is a hate machine. We actually stopped leveling together until he leveled glad up to 10 to get voke, cuz no matter what I did, even if it was just 1 spirit dart, i ended up tanking.

Surprisingly, buff spells and cure spells generate little-to-no hate.

[Calemero]

Well different classes have different draw backs. Like i heard for melee it would be higher damage but lower acc for example.

On my conj, I didn't notice any draw backs to charging the gauge other then having to wait a little longer for it to charge. But in a party situation, you wouldnt want to launch a cast as soon as your action bar was ready anyway... unless you want to die haha.

Currently, not sure if this is intended or not, but my Spirit Dart (ranged magic damage w/ no mp or tp cost, builds tp) generates CRAZY hate. If I do a spirit dart, i'll get hate, then my partner vokes, he gets hate, if I do spirit dart again i'll get hate again. Sometimes even after I wait for him to get a hit or 2 in.
Then again he was using voke as a lancer, and voke is a glad ability, so not sure if the potency is effected by that.

Either way, conj is a hate machine. We actually stopped leveling together until he leveled glad up to 10 to get voke, cuz no matter what I did, even if it was just 1 spirit dart, i ended up tanking.

Surprisingly, buff spells and cure spells generate little-to-no hate.

Same exact thing with Archer and I was paired with a Rank 10 Gladiator. Quelling Strike (x3 charge) + Normal shot pulled instant hate. Did not help in the least lol.

[bluestar]

i have more smithing questions of course heh
- so obviously blacksmithing is weapons and armorer should be armor, but it looked like the actual weapons required some woodwork as well, were you able to actually successfully synthesize some of those weapons, or missing components?

the one that really stood out to me was the decorated bronze spear and the differences it makes from the base bronze spear

[Purrrfect]

the one that really stood out to me was the decorated bronze spear and the differences it makes from the base bronze spear

If you've played Aion, it sounds like the crafted weapons that you have to HQ a base weapon recipe (like Oak Bow) and then that HQ is an ingredient for a better weapon that is still the same level (You're just risking a regular HQ item for a HQ+2 item). In Aion that 2nd recipe has a NQ and HQ also, so really there are 4 different versions of the same weapon, and both NQ/HQ from the 2nd synth are better than HQ of the first synth. This also helps drive up material values since potentially a metric shit ton are needed if you are unlucky.

[Calemero]

I'm loving this armor style. The masks also add a mysterious feel to the overall appearance.

This is the level 12ish Cotton Body/Legs with Leather Gloves/Boots/Toolbelt. Next is the 17ish Felt set I believe. Will check that out tomorrow.

Spoiler: show

http://i46.tinypic.com/2w7plhw.png

[Celeras]

People use a controller? I thought the internet had pretty much resigned itself to only using keyboard/mouse for every game that's played on a PC.

Most people playing FFXI used a controller, the same will probably be for XIV. The way its meant to be played.

[Urza]

Most people playing FFXI used a controller, the same will probably be for XIV. The way its meant to be played.

I know I probably wont make friends saying this, especially given i've been purely a lurker up to this point but here goes anyway.

FFXI had the potential to attract a MUCH larger player base than it did. It might not have reached WoW status, but it most certainly could have had double or triple what its peak numbers hit. It wasn't the graphics, or the difficulty that kept alot of people from playing.

It was the god awful control scheme that was entirely based around the lousy ps2 controller when I know, at least outside of Asia, most people were playing on their PCs. Not to say it shouldn't have had a version of the UI for those people, but imagine a WoW style UI thats easy to use and can do almost everything in one or 2 clicks instead of how 11 ended up forcing you to either make macros or click 5-10 times to accomplish the simplest of tasks. A good portion of people I know in WoW at least tried FFXI, the craptastic control scheme is literally the only thing that kept them from playing. Could they have gotten used to it, maybe, but it was so painful even back at release compared to any other PC game that it just wasn't worth the effort. I've personally tried 3 times to get into FFXI over the years, from the first day of its release in the US till just recently as I was getting excited about 14. I like just about every bit of the story, quests, classes, mini games. I just can't bring myself to level up using the controller on a PC format that is so inefficient compared to a keyboard and mouse.

I'm very excited about ff14, as well as several other people I know. I promise not a single one of them will be willing to play if the control system is like FFXI, they'll want to, but they won't be able to stomach it. Combat might not have to be quite as fast as WoW, but seriously a good WoW player was going ADD if a skill took over 3 seconds to cast. Anything much over 2 seconds between skills gives the brain to much time to do other things, gets you out of the frame of mind for the game. And don't say time to move around and choose new skills requires more than that 2 seconds, way to many raids under my belt to believe that.

[bluefan]

I spent almost 2 years playing XI with my keyboard. It worked, I was fine with it.

Then I finally had enough spending money to get a decent gamepad for the PC.

Never looked back.

If XIV is designed for the gamepad like XI was, it'll be fine. MMOs have always been keyboard and mouse, but XI has clearly shown breaking away from the mold isn't a bad thing. Plus, looks like XIV has done away with the heavy menu style interface XI was notoriously known for.

And a controller is far from being inefficient...don't know how you came up with that crazy idea.

[Tezz]

Well at least with a gamepad you can set up the controls however you want. It was too annoying for me so i switched back to keyboard.

Although, now having 15+ abilities it is a tad annoying scrolling through them like FF11 macros, but nothing to sweat over.

[Dizzy]

Urza wall of text

FFXI on PC was meant to be played with keyboard-only controls. Many asian PC games work like this if you've played any before. All you have to do is set the controls to "compact" keyboard and it's standard WASD movement. Given that we have what, 10 pages of 20 macros built into the game (not even considering the ease of use of windower macros), I don't see why going through menus should be considered a problem since you can map everything to hotkeys. The menus are actually easier to navigate if you don't use the mouse; the only reason I found to use the mouse in XI was to select a specific target in a swarm of mobs, which rarely happened.

[Dizzy]

Whoops lagged for some reason double post