Alpha First Look: Video 3 - The Black Shroud

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Originally Posted by OJtheLIONKing

New rule. Any thread that mentions jump gets immediately ignored. I think that might be a good way to stop embarassing ourselves in front of the rest of the MMO community that doesn't have this insane obsession that a small but extremely loud portion of FFXIV players do. Get over it already, jeez.

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You don't get to decide that. Saying "get over it already, jeez" is rather "loud" on your part.

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Originally Posted by Jynx

Am I the only one slightly dissapointed that unfurling the map happens in MASSIVE chunks?

Eh I guess I should take what I can get though it encourages people to explore the maps at least. (I'm just worried that simply getting to a aether plaza of the area will bassically reveal the entire area around it making it not actually encourage exploration but just reveal the map as people hopscotch to aether nodes.

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The massive chunks revealed kinda seems to defeat the purpose. In open areas it may not be to bad but in a dungeon it could show too much at a time I think.

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Originally Posted by syntaxlies

The massive chunks revealed kinda seems to defeat the purpose. In open areas it may not be to bad but in a dungeon it could show too much at a time I think.

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Each chunk seems to be completely customizable in its shape, so a dungeon would probably reveal one room at a time, depending on what the designers want to do. One reason a huge chunk of the map is revealed in the video is because he crossed the corner of two chunks really quickly. I think they should probably make you go more towards the middle of a chunk before revealing it, that way you both find yourself always traveling a little into the unknown (which seems fun) and the other is it prevents you from stumbling upon the four corners of four huge chunks and suddenly revealing the whole map.

Another thing I hope is only field maps do this and that dungeon maps require doing a quest that forces you to some how explore the dungeon a little before you ever get the map. Hopefully something more interesting than coffer keys like in FFXI, but it doesn't really have to be.

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Originally Posted by Linkurrra

I noticed this too, however I am leery to request such a feature! Ever play Everquest II? They had this and it got so annoying NPC's would jump, holler, and yell to get your attention everytime you traversed to another area! You leave come back to the same area and the same NPC would do the same thing over and over.

Maybe it's just a matter of adjusting the timing, or using it sparingly in an area instead of having ALL NPC's do it. but when ppl mention stuff like this I cringe because that is all I can think about is how annoying it was to have all the NPC's yelling at you when you enter an area! lol

Now an interesting dynamic would be have this tied to fame/reputation! As you do more for a faction or area the more attention you get from the NPC's and they ask for your help directly!

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Oh yeah it's definitely a matter of timing. In GW2 some of the NPCs get ridiculously annoying because they're on a one minute loop. I figure 5 minutes is good enough. hell, if not voice acting for a particular NPC, then they could throw in background chatter, grunts, laughter, crying, etc. This way they don't have to record new voices for each language. It's these small things that could add "life" to towns, cities, and any other populated areas.

Looking at the video, I feel like they designed a gorgeous town, designed NPCs, and just threw the NPCs there without really taking into consideration the sort of mood they would set.

I just don't want to visit towns and run through them. I want to be able to walk around and feel a sense of life in the towns.

The game world looks beautiful, and I love what they did with the music. You'll notice that at times in the video, no music is playing, but when you enter a new area, the music subtlety begins to play. It's small little details like this that help bring immersion into the game. It looks wonderful!

But I have to agree with some of the posters here that some of the animations need polishing in which it is my hope Square gets around to doing. I think they need to have those "momentum" animations people have been suggesting, and at least give an option to toggle the camera rotate feature the ability to rotate the camera without rotating the character at the same time. It doesn't seem to make sense that the character is just spinning in place and not moving their legs. I know Square is trying to achieve some level of realism an quality into their world. I think this fits into that catagory. Nit picking aside, again, I think the game is looking amazing. I can't wait to start playing it :)

Area looks 100x better than old Grid, but i'm still worried there has been no show of unlocked camera. That's kind of a deal breaker for me. Also still the same spinny character movements.

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Originally Posted by Riv

Area looks 100x better than old Grid, but i'm still worried there has been no show of unlocked camera. That's kind of a deal breaker for me. Also still the same spinny character movements.

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Just like Ifrit said you are a bunch of blinded fools...

very nice, cant wait

So in summary,

- Jump is okay, just avoid over-use in these walkthrough videos.

- Camera Lock on character needs to be toggled off for these walkthrough videos.

- Map is cool, just that the revealed portions are too big.

- Lack of character inertia is jarring.

Feedback done.

OH the anticipation looms.. everything looks awesome and the exploration with how there doing the maps is great. The water fall thing was cool and that one area through the gate in like a small dungeon looking area was scary..

lots of BS in this thread too... I absolutly love the fact that i can jump over the obsticles that i could not in 1.0. As for the jumping in the video get over it people... It makes me want to search all you jump haters out cross servers and show you my obsessive compulsive jumping disorder for a few hours.