FFXIV Random Speculation/Question thread VIII: Alpha Was The Best Beta v2 -_-;

[el_tio]

So I partied for like an hour today and skill gains seem kind of messed up. Sometimes I would get 200 exp during a fight, but at the end none would be awarded. Sometimes I wouldn't get any and the other 2 guys would, sometimes one of them wouldn't and I would.

I think that might be a bug with the display of rewards and not the rewards themselves. At least I remember a post in dev-na feedback section saying as much.

[fauxe]

I can only come to the conclusion that they've been working on textures and motion capture for the past 4.5 years. Especially after seeing this. Face. Fucking. Palm. Gonna be a great game, though, can't wait.

[Kirb]

any decent newbie guides out there? I guess my Gladiator learned some skills... yet I can't find them anywhere.. (Yes, I fail)

Menu > Skills and Traits > click on the empty dropdown menu on the right.

I can only come to the conclusion that they've been working on textures and motion capture for the past 4.5 years. Especially after seeing this. Face. Fucking. Palm. Gonna be a great game, though, can't wait.

Wait, what?

[Kylewhataru]

The common response when you bring that up seems to be to say the date. Like someone says "All MMOs have had these types of problems upon release", the proper answer, it seems, is to say "2010". I don't know what that means, but be prepared for someone to tell you the date because of the observation you just made.

It means you don't release shit that plays like something from 10 years ago, it's a very simple concept in the video game industry in general, not just MMOs.

Oh I've beat that horse to death on the EU beta forums. I think that even the most impassioned people on here -- and I'm not necessary talking Squeenix fanboys or the SEDF (I after all, am the former) -- have become resigned and perhaps even apathetic to the fact that this game is not going to live up to its promise on release

I wish I never played the beta, but I guess it saved me the $75 I was going to drop on the collector's edition, I have never been so disappointed in a game before, the whole experience has been so bad it feels like a mindfuck, can't believe how many hours I've spent reading about this game and drooling over pictures, even built a new PC for it (though I play many other PC games as well, so it's not like its a waste) but it was all for nothing.

The "it's just beta" excuse doesn't cut it, as has been said the CORE game is broken, they can't fix everything that needs to be fixed by retail, I doubt even in 6 months, because they made the game wrong, there is TOO MUCH that needs to be completely wiped away and redone, almost everything is fucked, this beta feels like an extremely early Alpha.

In the back of my head I wanted this game to be a decent success, get decent subscription #s, etc. but the success of MMOs is largely Dependant on launch, this is going to be a failure regardless of what gets fixed... if someone is reading a review of the game a year from now and sees that it got a 6/10 at launch, they're not going to reason that it has gotten better and is maybe an 8/10 at that point, they'll just assume it still sucks.

[Greedouw]

Menu > Skills and Traits > click on the empty dropdown menu on the right.




Wait, what?

Yup, I'm a retard... thank you!

[Kylewhataru]

I can only come to the conclusion that they've been working on textures and motion capture for the past 4.5 years. Especially after seeing this. Face. Fucking. Palm. Gonna be a great game, though, can't wait.

Wow, seriously? Just wow.... that video makes things even more depressing, that's like worse than what bethesda does in their games...

[Lucavi]

How come attack magic can crit, yet healing magic cannot? I know I'd sure like a few random crit heals when my tank is getting his face pounded in.

That vid is hilarious, but its easy to see even in the woods outside of Grid. You'll see the same stream about 15 times across the zone (there are two of them - one wide one which often has crabs in it, and one narrow one with bees), and you'll see the same loop-de-loop entry way to get up to the higher ground (again, there are two - one is a simple "double back and go up the hill", while the other one involves running to the left - always to the left! - if you want to continue on the "ground floor").

I know re-textures happen, but I didn't expect to see them right on top of one another in such short distances.

[Holly Short]

Anyone on Selbina unable to get on? I switched chars and my char on Selbina is unavailable but Beta site doesnt show the server as being down.

[Kuroanagi]

I can only come to the conclusion that they've been working on textures and motion capture for the past 4.5 years. Especially after seeing YOUTUBE LINK. Face. Fucking. Palm. Gonna be a great game, though, can't wait.

Because every MMO has 100% totally unique environments right?

I'm not going to to boot up WoW and not see the same 3 tree textures or the same 4 hill models?

[kaisamoht]

quick question.. is there a place, in limsa lominsa, where I can buy other kinds of gears, like to make my char look like a fisher or conjurer, instead of just keeping my archer gears on and switching weapons only?

[aiyah4la]

Anyone on Selbina unable to get on? I switched chars and my char on Selbina is unavailable but Beta site doesnt show the server as being down.

I just tried to relog onto besaid and rabanastre after getting kicked off bodhum and can't connect to anything, maybe everything going down atm? That status site seems pretty slow to update.

[Kirb]

Wow, seriously? Just wow.... that video makes things even more depressing, that's like worse than what bethesda does in their games...

Every developer does it to some extent, bud.

It would be stupid to not reuse textures or assets.

That being said, I do wish XIV had some more variation in the larger regions.

[Kylewhataru]

Because every MMO has 100% totally unique environments right?

I'm not going to to boot up WoW and not see the same 3 tree textures or the same 4 hill models?

Not spread out in the exact same pattern over and over, I challenge you to make a youtube video showing something like that in WoW, go ahead, try.

[Kylewhataru]

Every developer does it to some extent, bud.

It would be stupid to not reuse textures or assets.

They didn't just reuse a tree, don't play stupid. The entire thing is just the same terrain repeated over and over again.

[Kirb]

They didn't just reuse a tree, don't play stupid. The entire thing is just the same terrain repeated over and over again.

Terrain geometry is an asset. Not saying they used it well, but this is a very common thing to do.

Chill out.

[Lucavi]

Yeah, I've never seen this before. That little two-stone walkway in LL is used over and and over and over again, and on the same mail roadway. FFXI didn't have that. I know this game is a big graphical beast and everything, and every company re-uses textures to save space (see: Fallout 3), but you shouldn't be able to pick it out so easily. Its one thing to see the same kinds of houses in a town. Its another thing to follow the same road and think to yourself "was I just here?" because you passed the same rock cluster with the same little broken rock on the left side for the third time in a 2 minute walk.

Granted, in the outer, non-starter zones, I haven't seen the same phenomena, but I've seen it easily in LL and in Grid, and playing in Grid seriously reminds me of playing the first 80% of FFXIII.

Kerb: Go play FFXI, and head to Valkurm dunes. See if you see any repeating features again and again (not talking about trees, but formations). For example, head into the dunes from the highlands, and look at the first tunnel you go under. Do you find yourself going under a similar tunnel 5 times throughout the zone, all in a relatively straight path? You won't, because the zone doesn't have many (or any, aside from the actual beaches) distinguishing features that repeat again and again. It'd be like seeing the boat in Valk 5 times throughout the zone. That's what he's talking about here, and its incredibly noticeable. Its not like seeing a type of tree or a type of house or a type of mountain in the distance - these are terrain models that are used again and again in rapid succession. Its one of those things that once you see it, you cant unsee it.

[Greedouw]

Anyone on Selbina unable to get on? I switched chars and my char on Selbina is unavailable but Beta site doesnt show the server as being down.

Just got kicked (R0)

[Achitophel]

It means you don't release shit that plays like something from 10 years ago, it's a very simple concept in the video game industry in general, not just MMOs.

A game having problems is dependent upon the date?

September 6th, 2010! BOOYAH

[Kirb]

Again, not saying they used it well, just that reusing actual terrain geometry in game development is to be expected. I assure you that a lot of terrain in any game are cut and paste, but the trick is, as you said, to make it as less obvious as possible, whether through placement or straight out modifying it. The dunes, for instance. If you check the walls of the dunes, you'll almost be certain to see a repeat somewhere in a section of wall or a patch of grass in the trees. But the repeat is so insignificant that it's ignored.

The biggest problem I see here, I think, is that SE developed terrain assets for a smaller region, but spread it across a really big area, which meant that they had to repeat a lot of terrain just to make ends meet. I was expecting each part of the map to have a distinct look, their own little 'zone,' but it doesn't appear to be so. Hopefully most other zones will have more unique terrain, I haven't checked out the zones outside the starter ones.


And my name doesn't have an e in it.

[bacchikoi]

I just tried to relog onto besaid and rabanastre after getting kicked off bodhum and can't connect to anything, maybe everything going down atm? That status site seems pretty slow to update.

I am unable to log in to Rabanastre as well :<