FFXIV Random Speculation/Question thread V: No one told me beta would have problems in it

[Kurokikaze]

Yeah hehe. It really irks me when people are like "zomg how are they gonna get this ready? the game is shit and still gotta print the DVDs."

/facepalm

You misunderstood that outzaidur... He meant that retail -> PS3 release will be "paid beta for SE" as in they're making money from us while still developing the game. They're not gonna be fucking things up in that time.

amirite?

[Destinye]

Besides:

http://i37.tinypic.com/eqcwlw.jpg

They're already in the process of getting it ready >.>

[Lithiani]

I don't, 5 years in development is a long time to not make money. Paid Beta test will be on track.

I'll think a lot less of S-E if release is as poor quality as many MMO releases are nowadays. I've always rated Blizzard, Valve and Square as the three games companies that can afford to take their time and release "when it's ready".

[Kaiyoko]

Besides:

Spoiler: show

http://i37.tinypic.com/eqcwlw.jpg

They're already in the process of getting it ready >.>

The DVDs are probably already being made. Anything at this point is release day patches for them I would assume.

[BlackheartX]

I'll think a lot less of S-E if release is as poor quality as many MMO releases are nowadays. I've always rated Blizzard, Valve and Square as the three games companies that can afford to take their time and release "when it's ready".

True but Valve is in its own league, however I doubt the game will be without flaws when it's released. So therefore it's more than likely the date will stay as it is. Also it would make more since if it's going to be pushed back further to be released with the PS3 version or maybe a month ahead of it. All MMO's have game-play problems at release that normally get refined through the course of a few months and this won't be an exception IMO.

[Questionable]

Anyone see the airship thing flying around sometimes when you're in the fields?

[Kaiyoko]

Anyone see the airship thing flying around sometimes when you're in the fields?

Yeah seen it over it the 1 day I leveled in Camp Skull. Looked very high tech compared to the FFXI airships.

[Destinye]

Anyone see the airship thing flying around sometimes when you're in the fields?

Yep even seen the 'dock' for what I assume is the airships.

[Gulkeeva]

It has those wing like things on the sides.. although it wasn't flapping (so maybe something else?), doesn't resemble anything like ffxi airships... looked hightech as someone mentioned.

I got the closest you can get to check it out, which is a cape farthest east possible where it flew overhead. Moves pretty fast, will be fun to ride one i think if its even possible, although it looked semi small (maybe the area of the fencing around bearded rock with its fencing X2)

[Lithiani]

True but Valve is in its own league, however I doubt the game will be without flaws when it's released. So therefore it's more than likely the date will stay as it is. Also it would make more since if it's going to be pushed back further to be released with the PS3 version or maybe a month ahead of it. All MMO's have game-play problems at release that normally get refined through the course of a few months and this won't be an exception IMO.

I don't know. According to the JPs I spoke to, XI was remarkably stable at launch, but fairly limited in the scope of the original game (level 50 cap, Shadow Lord as the end boss). What S-E seem focused on doing (and experience with the way they handled the two XI expansions I played suggests) is launching the game with the core of the experience only and then building on updates to the content with content and storyline drops over time.

Knowing the way S-E are, I don't expect them to vary from what was a fairly successful formula that kept the appetite of the players intact for the whole life-cycle of an expansion storyline.

[Lucavi]

They look more like blimps with wings than actual airships. I do like how they're going away from traditional FF norms like just slapping rudders and propellers on boats and calling it a day. It's FF, but not a carbon copy.

[Katlan]

Anyone see the airship thing flying around sometimes when you're in the fields?

In various areas of Las Noscia (sp) there looks like airship landing pads. Ive spotted 3 while exploring all the areas. A wooden structure w/ a circle staircase that leads to landing pad

[Eonis]

I have no problem with that model. I would prefer a more compact game at launch that is essentially clean, well thought-out, devoid of bugs and mechanistically sound, than one with an expansive world, tons of endgame in place, but with inherent flaws in the system.

You can always add more content to keep the players happy as you go, but if you have a game that is relatively unplayable at launch because you set your bar too high and tried to accomplish too many things at once, you'll lose a large chunk of players from the get-go, and most of them will never look back.

[Lucavi]

I have no problem with that model. I would prefer a more compact game at launch that is essentially clean, well thought-out, devoid of bugs and mechanistically sound, than one with an expansive world, tons of endgame in place, but with inherent flaws in the system.

You can always add more content to keep the players happy as you go, but if you have a game that is relatively unplayable at launch because you set your bar too high and tried to accomplish too many things at once, you'll lose a large chunk of players from the get-go, and most of them will never look back.

AOC, I'm looking at you!

Really, it comes down to bugs and kept promises. The game has to be somewhat clean, especially in this day and age. With so many MMOs out there to jump ship to, you can't throw out a half-assed product that looks like it wasn't tested until the last weekend before launch.

You also can't go out promising the moon to players, then delivering a clump of dirt. Mr. Fable has done this twice, and go figure that the series hasn't sold well. Age of Conan is the undisputed KING of empty promises, to the point that they even went back and started patching the nudity in the game on NPCs, despite swearing up and down that the game was meant for mature audiences. Its no wonder there was a mass exodus from the game in a few short months.

SE's pretty good at keeping their promises, though; mostly because they promise nothing, but hey, if we're never promised something, we can't get mad when we don't get it, right? Its a sound strategy in its absurdity.

[Questionable]

In various areas of Las Noscia (sp) there looks like airship landing pads. Ive spotted 3 while exploring all the areas. A wooden structure w/ a circle staircase that leads to landing pad

Yeah I saw those too... has a small couch or something and a toolbox? it's fenced off ATM.

[Eonis]

AOC was exactly the game I had in mind when I wrote that. It, and WAR (which I actually liked better, as the battleground leveling system was really quite well-implemented and neat~).

Thinking of AOC's launch makes me shudder, to this day. It was toted as a WoW-killer, but fizzled out in months. And I see why: sure, it was a beautiful game, with in-depth character customization, but those things do not take you past the fact that, once you stepped of the character creation screen, you were faced with an unintuitive, hollow game riddled with bug upon bug.

I'm actually glad I haven't seen the epiphet of WoW-killer attatched to FFXIV; this seems to be a kiss of death for a lot of newly launched MMOs. The lack of that, I think, is partially due to what you're saying Lucavi, with SE not making too many promises, and therefore not having too many promises to keep. It's not that they're setting the bar low, it's just that they're not setting it to an unrealistic point they can't deliver on.

[Questionable]

Though, SE usually releases pretty good games, for single player FF series at least. At least the traditional style ones. And I'm sure they base stuff on FFXI and not stray too far from it on the parts that attract people. I can't see 14 being a failure, it might deviate from what people want it to be but not to the point that it sucks.

I still see lots of 11 in 14 and that's a good thing for players like us. They actually did make it somewhat more "casual" which I like, took out a lot of the unnecessary annoyances and time sinks in 11 which I hate.

-Mog house - fuck that, I hate it
-Job change - on the fly now
-Auto sort and different categories inventory
-More space
-Teleport at lower levels, even though limited by anima but you had to get 37 to self teleport or 18 warp.
-No exp loss
-Gaining phy exp while dead
-Seamless zoning

Sure there are others, but these already make it less bullshit than 11. I calculated that I spent around a few days total time staring at zone loading screens in the 5 years I've played FFXI.

[Lucavi]

WoW is a bar scene, and FFXI is an art museum. One has infinitely more life than the other, but the latter is just so refined and "pure" that it is still fun to spend a lot of time in.

AOC just failed. I wanted to see it do so well, but when I saw the PVP beta vids, something just seemed... off. I almost caved in and bought it after I saw the armor sets for tanks, but I'm glad I trusted my gut and held off.

Besides, FFXIV looks to have some killer tanking mechanics now, so its still super exciting to look forward to. FFXIV will have a supremely better launch than AOC or WAR - I think the only thing that's going to hold it back is the graphic engine requirements (to be fair, AOC was super-intensive at the start, all the way up to its first year out) and its "difficulty curve".

SE has already taken lessons from FFXI about making proper starting tutorials, so it should be fairly easy for true rookies to slide right into this, even if they haven't played FFXI, and it'll have more than enough veterans like us to keep sales strong and hopefully keep the level of hype up.

I'm excited to see how they're changing the battle speed for phase 3. I feel like they're almost there, they just need to balance things like accuracy/resists and the damage/usefulness of actual WSes.

[Katlan]

Yeah I saw those too... has a small couch or something and a toolbox? it's fenced off ATM.

Yeah, fairly confident those will be field airship dock's so you can also catch a ship outside of town. Or to take you from one part of area to another (aka: bloodshore <-> Skull valley type thing)

[Hyan]

WoW is a bar scene, and FFXI is an art museum.

I'd say "Glorified chat room" represents XI better :D.