Shocker

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Originally Posted by KiriA500

The graphics weren't better.

The cutscenes are also about the same. 99% of them are just our character standing around like a doofus while everything else happens.

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Lol... Perfect example of blind fanboying. I love this game, have hardly anything bad to say about it, but if you're saying the graphics aren't better in 1.0 and cutscenes are "about the same"? Jesus Christ people like you make me laugh so much.

Graphics were improved in some areas, such as lighting and overall area design. They were cut back in other areas, most notable is textures. I'd still take ARR over 1.0 though, the game still looks gorgeous and overall I consider the changes to be an improvement despite the few steps they have taken backwards in some areas.

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Originally Posted by Cegiana

1.0 and 1.23 had different battle systems. 1.0 cnj had all the elemental magic and thm did not play the same in 1.0 and 1.23. The cutscenes were drastcially better in 1.0, the new team did the GC cutscenes in 1.?? which werent anywhere near as good as the cutscenes from the main scenario, which was made by the old team.

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I found the CS from the grand company missions (made from the new team) as good as the main story CS from the old team

As example a Grand Company mission CS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MpnspR2qt4

Or this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6GkS...tailpage#t=103

Textures were high, so i guess you could say graphics were higher, but everything was copy/pasted throughout the enitre zone, once you stepped out of Uldah, you'd of seen the terrain for the entire region without having to move, it was no different.

But what does it matter, no one could play, i mean look how poop it looked on "low settings"
http://i.imgur.com/f82CMTm.jpg
.......... compare that to 2.0 low settings.

More important than the graphics, for me, the voice acting in those 1.0 beginning cutscenes was miles better than the cringe-worthy stuff we have now. Plus, the dialogue seemed better in 1.0. Yda mistaking the player for a heavenly "psychopomp" and saying "Nana? Is that you?" Genius! xD Everything I can think of in 2.0 is bland and uninspired in comparison.

Hmm.. I'm not sure if the rest of 1.0's voice acting was as good as the stellar opening scenes, though. I'll have to go back and compare 1.0 Minfillia to 2.0 Minfillia.

Anyway, with the 2.0 acting being so bad, I'd rather have no voice acting at all. At least they allow me to switch to the Japanese audio so I don't have to have my soul murdered by 2.0's terrible English accents.

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Originally Posted by viion

Textures were high, so i guess you could say graphics were higher, but everything was copy/pasted throughout the enitre zone, once you stepped out of Uldah, you'd of seen the terrain for the entire region without having to move, it was no different.

But what does it matter, no one could play, i mean look how poop it looked on "low settings"
http://i.imgur.com/f82CMTm.jpg
.......... compare that to 2.0 low settings.

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I wont be surprised if this is how a good chunk of players had to play. I know I was able to play on medium, and I was still afraid my laptop might caught fire lol.

ARR has managed to do what several other MMOs have failed to do - combined decent, non-cartoony (not the "absolute best") graphics with a usable framerate. Don't get me wrong, WoW with the settings right can look amazing, but it's incredibly dated. SWTOR looks fancy, but Ultra/High settings in an open world (Alderaan, Hoth etc) will bring a high-end gaming PC to under 10fps.


Also: you can improve the graphics in this game slightly over what you can see normally - set up a profile on your video card that over-rides all the game settings. That's if your PC can handle it, al lot of people find that their "awesome" PC isn't really all that good when put to the test ;)

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Originally Posted by neizero

Yep graphic quality/texture resolution was a lot higher, graphic design however was inferior. Also needed a much more powerful pc to run smoothly.

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My pc now same as before ran 1.0 highest settings no problems. Now with 2.0 lag lag lag, mob glitches more lag, I tend to think its more the servers over crowded now than before. Seriously in 1.0 after everyone abandon ship we had it nice. Low numbers. I will admit mmos are cpu bound more than gpu bound and more people in a given area the more cpu action you have going on. Physics is cpu bound as well unless your NVidia GPU. I'm AMD.

played since beta 1.0... call me crazy but i want 1.23 back :( they way 1.0 evolved... sure it was a train wreck at release, but for those that stuck through it til the end, saw a game that was rewarding, and paced. now... the combat system feels so shallow... idk im still actively playing, but i can definitely say that when i got a piece of darklight i was able to rejoice (even if i banged my head against an rng to get it) as opposed to going, "yawn i ony need 10 more prae runs for x gearset" and graphical detail... i had a high end pc, so i could play high end pc games and even with maps being copy/pasted the lighting and textures were beautiful. and as much a i love the variety of the world now, i miss a huuuge open world, compare to a cramped everything everywhere one. /wishesfor1.23privateserver

I can sum up the comparisons with ease.

1.0
-Much much higher resolution textures, better graphically
-Many very large uninspired copy/paste environments making the amazing graphics go completely to waste outside of character and enemy models
-Again, very large environments, the zones were gigantic
-Somewhat lifeless world
-Partying via camp spots best way to level
-Outside dungeons, strongholds that actually seem like strongholds
-Clunky yet tolerable combat

2.0
-Downgraded graphics, textures, much better use of lighting
-Tiny maps but very inspired areas that look amazing artisticly and graphically with said lighting
-World feels far more alive than 1.0
-Quests & Fates a main sourse of EXP
-Cringe worth voice acting
-Clunky yet tolerable combat system
-Dungeons all instanced

In a nutshell, nothing but a bunch of trade offs that they should of done the first time to make an alright game.

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Originally Posted by KiriA500

You know how a limit break locks your character in place during the duration of the attack? Now imagine every single ability/spell doing that. It was atrocious.

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Now I feel worse for not playing it.

I'm very turned off by melee classes in ARR, due to all the gliding. Doing a Rage of Halone in the air looks ridiculous. Most of other skills too. Wouldn't be a problem if not for all those red circles :\

This thread was not at all what I imagined it would be, based on the title.

1.23 was world apart from 1.0 and i think people are forgeting that. Yoshi P. was the director of 1.23, what i dont really understand is why he scraped some of the better parts of the game.

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Originally Posted by Drakzen1

1.23 was world apart from 1.0 and i think people are forgeting that. Yoshi P. was the director of 1.23, what i dont really understand is why he scraped some of the better parts of the game.

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I agree. 1.23 was fantastic. I thought that is how ARR would be. The game was going in a really solid direction then...oh well ; ;

As far as 1.0 is concerned, it had:

• Greater graphical fidelity, which meant higher textures and detail on a macro scale. (Please stop confusing graphics with aesthetics)
• It had an advanced lighting system, which allowed for a greater range of shadow "depth." (Unfortunately, it did not have the ability to produce environmental shadows of the quality we see in 2.0)
• Character aesthetics and detail were EXTREMELY high, so that even with very few character creation options to choose from, each character looked unique even at a distance.
• Environmental elements were copied and pasted to make up about 50% of the game's visible terrain. However, there were many iconic locations hidden throughout the game which were unique in both location and appearance.
• Character Inertia, where we didn't come to a stop the second we let go of the "w" key or analog stick. This added a lot of believable realism to characters.
• Cut-scenes with outstanding camera work/positioning, and effects. If the sun was just rising in the field where your cut-scene was activated, it would be rising in the cut-scene as well.
• 2.0's lighting effects are not unique to it's version. 1.0 had these same lighting effects moving forward with the patch that introduced Castrum Novum to the game. They were, however, only implemented to areas newly introduced to the game, which pretty much meant only Castrum Novum.
• Little known fact, the original release date for FFXIV 1.0 was projected as October 2013. For whatever reason, it was forced out early and incomplete, as a result we now have 2.0.

I found the game to have a much larger appeal to me in it's appearance as far as character design, lighting, and texture quality goes. Terrain design and placement does not equal graphics, this is aesthetics.

The voice acting in 2.0 does not suck, the audio quality does. In 1.0, the sound system was extremely well done and took advantage of everything your sound card was capable of producing. 2.0's sound system is... lacking. I frequently cringe when I hear spoken lines in the current version because half the time they fizzle at a particular octave.

1.0 as many "Legacy" players are recalling it, is not 1.0 but more likely 1.17 and onwards as around that patch the game picked up in quality extremely quickly.

The combat did suck for 1.0... it absolutely kicked ass at 1.19 which was a hybrid system of what we currently have and 1.23's system! (You could still cast spells while running, auto attack was just introduced, you didn't have to wait for auto attack because you still had all your regular "normal" attacks.

The UI sucked because it was laggy as hell all the way to 1.17. It was improved to beyond recognition by 1.19 and the lag was 99% gone (It still existed slightly while trying to sell junk to NPCs).


This is getting a bit long so I'll just say this.
Those of us dissatisfied with 2.0 only have ourselves to blame.

It was asked of us during the middle of 1.0's improvements:
Fix the game and improve upon the current system?
or
Drastic changes to all systems?

I think that, had we known what they meant by "drastic changes," we might have voted differently and 2.0, as we know it now, would not have existed.


*EDIT*

Honestly, all I really wanted for 1.0 (Legacy* 1.0, not actual 1.0) was for them to fix the server infrastructure (to combat the "plumes" problem) and give us richer environments.
We got richer environments... we're still waiting on the better servers apparently.

^ Exactly I feel the same way in every aspect you hit the nail on the head well done.

Everyone will have a different opinion on this.

All I know is, I loved taking screen shots in 1.0. There was so much breathtaking scenery (No, I never cared about the copy and paste). However, I have yet to take a single screenshot of ARR, nor have I desired to. However, I knew the quality was going to take a hit well before 1.0 shut down.

As for the cutscenes themselves, I agree with the op that they were better.

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Originally Posted by Kittra

This is getting a bit long so I'll just say this.
Those of us dissatisfied with 2.0 only have ourselves to blame.

It was asked of us during the middle of 1.0's improvements:
Fix the game and improve upon the current system?
or
Drastic changes to all systems?

I think that, had we known what they meant by "drastic changes," we might have voted differently and 2.0, as we know it now, would not have existed.

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Wow, amazing post Kittra. Exactly how I feel. This part of your post stood out to me. ^

You're so right. I would of voted differently in an instant. All I wanted was a more polished 1.23. More stream-lined. Fixes here and there. Things added. Instead we got... this. It's not terrible, but it's not good either.

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Originally Posted by M4Fade

Wow, amazing post Kittra. Exactly how I feel. This part of your post stood out to me. ^

You're so right. I would of voted differently in an instant. All I wanted was a more polished 1.23. More stream-lined. Fixes here and there. Things added. Instead we got... this. It's not terrible, but it's not good either.

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my sentiments exactly and as kittra pointed out,with yoshi at the helm of 1.23, i thought thats what it was going to be.. a redesigned engine with 1.23 mechanics in play, and that's what many of us wanted, a fulfilling game exp that oozed longevity... problem with going the casual route is, casuals dont stick around, sure new ones will pop up in their place but what about the hardcore...

You know what I really miss? The sounds effects. Even a single step your character made felt like it had some weight to it. That, and the songs, atmosphere and overall "life" the old version gave.

There are some great things 2.0 brought, without a doubt, but I wish they would've kept some of the old things. Not everything from 1.0 or 1.23 was horrible, why did they have to fix some of the things that weren't broken?

As much as I hate to admit it, the game feels more of a glorified WoW than a Final Fantasy game with all that focus on getting everything done immediately, reaching endgame so fast, item levels, zergy FATE groups, shallow leveling, meaningless progression and absolutely no sense of danger when exploring (I'm pretty sure you could explore Mor Dhona as a Lv. 20 character without dying once).

I dont know where you guys got the idea that there were a small amount of cutscenes in 1.0, sure the class quests only went up to lvl36, but those quests were ETERNAL, with you traveling everywhere and a bunch of detailed cutscenes everywhere you went plus a few instances per class quest. Also the only reason the class storylines ended at lvl36 was because the new team took over. When people looked at the dat files, there were up to (and in some cases, past) lvl50 storylines but they got thrown out the window once the old team was replaced. The dat files have the storyline past lvl50 in the class quests AND the main scenario (Titan was either lvl52 or lvl56 main scenario in the original teams plan,) however they were in written Japanese and German only, so I have no idea what the storylines were about. For comparison sake, the class quests now are about 1/4th the size of each original class quests, give or take. Also, the ARR storyline is focused on making you feel special, acting like you did a lot by the lvl10-15 quests, when in reality they were no challenge at all. In 1.0, you were special because you had the echo, but they didn't kiss your butt. In fact, I seem to remember them getting mad at your character quite a fews times. lol

Still, like I said before, I am having a BLAST playing ARR. However, SE really needs to release an offline version of FFXIV so noobs can see what they missed. Even better if you could switch on/off the fall of dalamud (which affected the game in many ways, garlean invasions, town invasions, camp invasions, mobs became bigger in size, insane thunder skyline, meteors falling skyline, dalamud in the atmosphere skyline, invasion of mor dhona, etc...) It is doable, just make all mobs lvl 52 cap and instead of having the path companion not be part of the storyline, s/he can always be with you, leveling when you level, fighting what you fight, customizable job for the path companion and BAM, you have a solo-player FFXIV1.0/1.23 hybrid. Yeah yeah yeah, they'll have to rework the RAIDs, no more killing the ants at the same time. :) A fan can dream...a fan can dream...