New to FFxiv

Hello i'm new to Final Fantasy XIV and I had a few questions about this game.
1) What is the version 2.0 and where can I find what is going to be implemented into version 2.0.
2) How does the leveling system work in this game do I lose levels as I die? Leveling fast or slow?
3) How does the trade skill system work and is it worth while to use?
4) Is there any ability to customize your UI? Like EQ2 has, also can I stop the auto hide hot bars?
So far I really like this game all but the weird lag running thru the city. And hope to stay for a while once I learn the game.

I'm also new to FF14 and so far I'm enjoying it! Anyway to answer some of your questions:

1) You can check out what 2.0 is all about here: http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/teaser/

Version 2.0 is what some people also call the console version. It's Square's way of trying to make FF14 work for the PS3 while implementing huge changes to the current game to diminish / remove some of the major issues that plagued the game at launch.

2) The leveling system in FF14 is the same as any other RPG out there -- you gain XP by killing mobs / doing quests and as you gain XP, you gain levels. There are a lot of classes to choose from and from what I know, each class has their own respective level. I can see that you currently have a level 1 THM. If you level one class, only that class will gain a level up meaning all of your other classes will still be at the level that you left them. One of the benefits of leveling up other classes is the ability to include none specific spells to your current class i.e. a THM that can cast cure or a CNJ that can cast lightning etc.

When you die, you need to select the return option via the main menu. This will teleport you to your home point. You will get a debuff for a few minutes reducing your stats for a certain percentage but that shouldn't be much of a problem. I don't think there's any XP loss if you die, but I'm not sure about this. No you will not get a level down if you die, that's for sure.

3) What do you mean trade system? If you mean the ability to trade items with other players, then yes it's possible. There's no main way to sell items like the auction house in WoW, but the community's hoping that one will be implemented in the future.

4) Again do not take word on this since I'm not sure but AFAIK it's currently impossible to use add ons although they're planning on implementing that feature. You can stop the auto hide of your spell bars by going to the main menu > configuration > System > Action bar display to ON.

Good luck and have fun. If you have more questions feel free to ask. If I made any mistakes, I'm imploring the vets to correct them.

Thank you for the info :-)

That's all good and correct info, but I'd like to add a few bonus details.

1) There is a misconception that 2.0 will be a completely different game. However, while it will bring dramatic improvements to the game experience through the redesigned infrastructure and some new content, the bulk of the gameplay and content changes will continue to be added between now and then. When 2.0 launches we will have the same classes with the same abilities and many of the same items, though we might get a slight cap increase between now and then.

2) In addition to the debuff, you do lose about 10% durability on all your equipment. You don't lose the equipment durability if another player casts Raise to revive you. I'd also add that multi-classing is required to some extent. Virtually every class has 3 or 4 abilities from other classes that make a big impact on their effectiveness. Most of them can be obtained fairly early on, below level 20.

3) There is no AH, but there is a system for buying and selling items. On most servers it's the Market Wards in Ul'dah. Players can buy items directly from the search counter, making it like an AH, but players have to set up NPCs to sell their goods manually from inside the wards. They are always working to streamline this process, but, as you can probably gather from the odd side-effects of direct purchasing, the 1.0 data system wasn't initially designed to support this.

4) Yes. 2.0 is going to have a moddable UI. You can also move items around if you click the lock in the micro menu in the lower-right corner.

Welcome to FFXIV!

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Originally Posted by Sheranfur

If I made any mistakes, I'm imploring the vets to correct them.

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A few things are a bit incorrect actually. As I have been playing this game as long as physically possible (day1 of alpha test) I guess that makes me a veteran.

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Version 2.0 is what some people also call the console version. It's Square's way of trying to make FF14 work for the PS3 while implementing huge changes to the current game to diminish / remove some of the major issues that plagued the game at launch.

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This statement is somewhat true, but let me clarify. Version 2.0 will be playable on a PS3, however this is not why they are making it. FFXIV PS3 version was originally promised to be launched simultaneously with PC version. However, former dev team failed to keep this promise, citing difficulties in porting the software into PS3 format (something to do with PS3 GPU not powerful enough or something). So the PS3 version got delayed indefinitely. Meanwhile a lot of people were really unsatisfied with the launch of FFXIV PC version, and this resulted in the original dev team being replaced with the one we have now. This team came to the conclusion that FFXIV in its current state was a rotten piece of garbage that was not worth saving (rightfully so). So they began work at the beginning of last year to essentially recreate the game from scratch, complete with new servers, new graphics engine, new everything. They are continuing to update the current version of the game in hopes of keeping players busy (and also to get some money from the subscriptions) while they work on the new FFXIV. Eventually though, we won't be playing this game anymore. When 2.0 is completed, all our character data will be transferred to new servers where we will begin playing the new game they have created.

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I don't think there's any XP loss if you die, but I'm not sure about this. No you will not get a level down if you die, that's for sure.

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You are correct, you do not lose exp when you die, or ever for that matter. Exp only goes up in this game, never down.

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3) What do you mean trade system? If you mean the ability to trade items with other players, then yes it's possible. There's no main way to sell items like the auction house in WoW, but the community's hoping that one will be implemented in the future.

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The statement in bold is incorrect. FFXIV has an auction house alternative called "Market Wards". Although I can understand if you didn't know how to use them. It's rather complicated to get started with it. You must first employ an NPC from the adventurer's guild called a "Retainer". Once you have at least one retainer (you can have 2). You will be able to enter the market wards and summon your retainer. You can then trade items in your possession with your retainer. The retainer acts as a personal item bank at this point, until you choose to sell your items. You can do this by managing your retainer's bazaar. You can then sell items from your retainer much like you would from your own bazaar. Once your items are for sale they will be displayed in the market wards "Item search feature" which can be found in the menu when you first enter the market wards. "Item search feature" essentially functions like an auction house, you can look through categories of items to find what you need and buy it right from item search screen. It also displays the price history for items that have sold recently. Market wards entrances are located near the aetheryte's in each of the three main cities, and marked with a green triangle on the map (It's the same place as your grand company HQ if you know where that is). However, only the Uldah market ward is worth using as that is the most populated city where you are most likely to have buyers for your items.

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3) How does the trade skill system work and is it worth while to use?

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Since you said trade "skill" I'm going to assume you're talking about the crafting system. Like other MMOs you can create your own items by crafting them in a process called "Synthesis". To do this you need to have the proper tools equipped (Like battle classes, changing your equipped main hand item will change your class. So to be a crafter you have to equip a tool in the main hand) Once you have changed to a crafting class, you will have access to the "Synthesis" command in your menu. Clicking this will bring up a window where you can begin to craft something. First you'll need to click one of the empty boxes. This will bring up your inventory which you can then choose items to use as ingredients in the synthesis. FFXIV does not tell you what items you need in order to make something, so you'll have to look up the recipes here.

Once you've got the ingredients placed in the window, you then choose which tool you want to use to craft the items (main hand or off hand tool). Using either main hand or off hand effects what will happen if you get a HQ (High quality) synth. I'm not really sure but I think the main hand gives you a HQ item (item with +1 in the name), and the off hand will increase the yield (so instead of getting +1 item, you might just make more of it, like you'll get 600 arrows instead of 300).

After you choose the tool, then you have to play a mini game to make the item. At this point you will see your character begin to make the item with your tool, and a menu will come up. You'll also notice a glowing orb on your tool. The glowing orb tells you how the synthesis is going. If the orb is white, the synthesis is going well and you have a high chance to succeed when you click things in the menu. A yellow orb means the synthesis is getting unstable and things you click will fail more, red orb is worse than a yellow orb, and a orb that flashes different colors is worse than a red one (I think). If your synthesis actions fail enough times you might start to see sparks flying out of the orb, which means you really screwed up something.

Now to explain what the things in the menu do. You start out with 4 options. Standard Synthesis, Rapid Synthesis, Careful Synthesis, and Wait. Each of these things has an effect on the progress%, the durability, and the Quality of the item you're trying to make. Progress is displayed by the little bar in the menu, it'll go up when you do an action. The goal is to try to get the progress bar all the way to 100% without letting the durability reach zero. Standard synthesis will usually raise the progress bar by a decent amount without lowering durability too much, so if you're just trying to level up, this is the option you'll be using the most. Rapid synthesis will raise your progress bar a lot if it succeeds, but it fails a lot, and you lose a lot of durability when it fails, so it's risky to do this one. Careful Synthesis doesn't raise the progress bar much, but it does raise the quality a lot if it succeeds. Like rapid, careful synthesis fails more often. Do careful synthesis if you're trying to get a HQ. The last option "Wait" effects the colored orb. If your orb starts to get bad, you can use wait to try and get it to go back to a white orb. Waiting lowers your durability by a little bit each time you do it though, so you can't just do it all the time.

If you can't get your progress bar to 100% before durability reaches zero, then you'll fail the synth and lose the ingredients you used. If you always failed the synthesis, it probably means that your crafting level is too low to make that item, so you'll need to try to make something closer to your level. For leveling up, try making something that's about 5-10 levels higher than you are.

Imo, (and this is really an opinion) crafting is not worth the effort right now as far as making money goes. People who got crafting to 50 will disagree as there is a lot of benefits to getting a craft leveled (namely repairing your own items and putting your own materia on) but I would argue that you can usually just find someone to do this for you. For making money I would suggest just doing a gathering class and selling the materials you find. Gathering can be pretty boring (crafting is too though?), but it's a lot less complicated than crafting and you don't have to put any money into it to level it up.

Anyways this post has gotten far too long. Hope it helps lol

Very VERY informative post Zetsu. I haven't heard about the retainers until now. +1 for you :)

You deserve more than one Like for this. Excellent!

Only thing I would like to add to Zetsumei Tsunarash's informative post is in regards to 2.0. The other great aspect of you starting now is, the way the lore will act and change as we approach 2.0. Only those of playing now will have actually "lived" through whatever is about to happen for the 2.0 Lore which will be new. So we will see what type of cataclysm occurs to bring us to the 2.0 launch and those people will just get "story" 2.0 with back filler.

Just wanted to throw that in there for funnzies! :p

I want to add that you CAN stop the auto-hide of the action bar. In-game, go to Configuration > System and Toggle Action Bar display on. The lodestone config section is up-to-date as far as I can tell, so you can check it out to see what other settings you can mess around with.