The STR and weaknesses of FFXIV - is it above the rest?

Hi, I was wondering what everyone thought the strengths/pros and weakness/cons of ffxiv were. This could help us pinpoint out what ffxiv's str or weakness are that separates this game from the rest of the mmos on the market. I know this is subjective to opinion, but I'm sure if we get enough opinions we will see several repeat offenders. Overall I love the game even though I do have a lot of weakness and cons.

STR/PROS:
good graphics
1 character to rule them all
Final Fantasy lore
Housing (soon)
Races
Emote motions without text
Controller supported
Chocobo companion
Dungeons (instanced)

Weakness/CONS:
Short Aggro pursuit by mobs
No sense of "danger" when Aggro due to above
Only one type of Aggro
No open world dungeons
Can't use duty finder with chocobo companion
Lag
Fast leveling
Lack of variety of ways to level efficiently
Too many people wear same gear at end of game (vanity fix)
Lack of Emerson in the world
Small zone size
No real time boat/air ship travel
Mining and botany are identical in leveling experience (not XP, but the process)
Core classes are obsolete once you obtain a job.
Game play is too similar to world of Warcraft
The jump button

This game does have a surprising lack of Ralph Emerson.

Pros and cons weigh differently, so a listing really isn't a good measure of something. For example, I love jump buttons lol. The game being like WoW is HIGHLY subjective. WoW followed in the footsteps of games like EQ and utilized practically everything EQ did for gameplay. We always copy something in some way (whether we see it or not). That much is a fact.

That's odd, I had alot of fun with WoW, so following it would not make it an auto 'con' for some.

I'd say the key weakness at this moment is the lack of content. Everything we hear about 2.1 seems more and more like, 'things that we meant to put in at release.'

The last two "cons" on your list are what helped make the game more popular than it was. I come from XI and 1.0, and I'm excited and love the changes to a more modern MMO.

I think the game has it's flaws and a lot of your cons I agree with, but I think it's on par and in some cases the better game out there. Especially since it's vanilla and the subs are still holding at least for now. We'll see in a few months.

100% subjective.

Any game where I can't jump a small rock that's in my way automatically gets uninstalled. As has already been pointed out, pro/con lists with something like this are incredibly subjective, you may as well have started a thread asking What is the best music to listen to?

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Originally Posted by Pinworms

The jump button

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Are we back on the beta forums?

reads like someone who loved FFXI and is currently disappointed that FFXIV isn't FFXI 2.0

There.... there are people who don't like having a jump button? BUT WHY?

I'm glad FFXIV at *least* has a jump button. I get annoyed enough that I can't jump anywhere I want... invisible walls are everywhere, and it drives me crazy. And I wish we could swim >.< But at least they're not pulling an Aion, where you just walk into the water as if it was dry land... and then slowly die over time.
But these are mini complaints.

The only real "con" I can agree with is the tiny zone size. One of the biggest things I always looked forward to in MMO's was exploring and finding new things. Pretty much right from the beginning of the game once I figured out how easy it was to get around, the entire feeling of exploration got shattered. I know its an unfair thing to say (and don't get me wrong, I enjoy this game), but it feels *much* more like a single player game that allows you to chat with others at the same time... and occasionally group up for a short dungeon. Oh well, I'll just keep playing and hope things get more exciting.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pinworms

Hi, I was wondering what everyone thought the strengths/pros and weakness/cons of ffxiv were. This could help us pinpoint out what ffxiv's str or weakness are that separates this game from the rest of the mmos on the market. I know this is subjective to opinion, but I'm sure if we get enough opinions we will see several repeat offenders. Overall I love the game even though I do have a lot of weakness and cons.

STR/PROS:
good graphics
1 character to rule them all
Final Fantasy lore
Housing (soon)
Races
Emote motions without text
Controller supported
Chocobo companion
Dungeons (instanced)

Weakness/CONS:
Short Aggro pursuit by mobs
No sense of "danger" when Aggro due to above
Only one type of Aggro
No open world dungeons
Can't use duty finder with chocobo companion
Lag
Fast leveling
Lack of variety of ways to level efficiently
Too many people wear same gear at end of game (vanity fix)
Lack of Emerson in the world
Small zone size
No real time boat/air ship travel
Mining and botany are identical in leveling experience (not XP, but the process)
Core classes are obsolete once you obtain a job.
Game play is too similar to world of Warcraft
The jump button

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PROS
I agree the graphics are good, much better on PC than PS3, but looking forward to PS4.
I agree that having the option to only have to play one char is a pro, but right now since there are not a lot of ways to level alt classes/jobs I could not say this was a hands down PRO, plus I like alt chars :)
FF Lore/Story is awesome, much better than in most MMOs, IMO
I would definitely put the JUMP BUTTON in PROS (LOVE)
Cant really put housing as a pro until it comes out (may end up being super lame and cause issues or amazing)
The current Races IMO, are sweet, but the way they have it set up I think it would be hard to add more and this is not on par with other MMOs to me.
I guess emote motions are cool.... I don't think that makes it better or worse than other MMOs
The Chocobo companion could be worked on to be more useful. I have not really used him on any of my classes/jobs. I would use him more if he didn't make it so I was in a party, have to dismiss to add my friends, and you cant have him out while in the duty finder. I would count the potential as a PRO but not how it works now.
I think that fast leveling should be a PRO, if there were alternative ways to do it and additional classes/jobs to level which will come.

I would also add as PROS:
Scenery - awesome environments (ties into game immersion and I think they nailed it) Beautiful world (especially for having been blown up 5 years ago....)
Engaging Melee classes/jobs, ARN, CON, WHM, SCH, SMN - all interesting classes/jobs to play (THM, BLM seem very boring to me)

CONS
I very much agree that the agro distance is silly. Playing any ranged class is very frustrating with this mechanic the way it is.
Chocobo Companion definitely needs work, as stated above.
Lag is pretty bad in some cases on this game and is a SERIOUS issue with the way they have encounters set up. Though, I have just adjusted my gameplay to compensate. Works most of the time :P
Lack of ways to level alt classes/jobs is an issue. Both for making the armory system useful and general enjoyment of the game. Variety.
I HATE the tank DL gear. Dumb tin can helmet thing.... Vanity slots would fix this and as the game progresses more gear available will address the everyone wearing the same thing issue.
I use the airship often, only used the ferries at lower levels really, but the teleport system works for me so I wouldn't personally put that as a CON for the game.
Small zones/world in general is a BIG DEAL. I hope they will be releasing more soonish.
Agree that classes should have some relevance in the game after 30.
Agree that having to level botany and miner at the same time/right after each other would kill me.

Other CONS I would add:
No class/job diversity. I'm not a fan of "This class dose this job and that's it. Every bard is pretty much DPS, Every White Mage is Heals." Most jobs have the potential to be so much more diverse and I hope that with adding more jobs it will alleviate some of this concern.
Gil Spam is an issue that warrants mention as a CON of the entire game. I have shout turned off and a full blacklist and still get my chat filled with Gil Seller tells. It is worse here than I have experienced in any other MMO.
I also have to add that Maintenance every other day is ridiculous. Im usually one in favor of weekly maintenance. But every other day? No, that's not what we are paying for.

yeah, stupid jump button, if i wanted to jump...i would of leveled DRG!

Quote:

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CONS:
Fast leveling
Lack of variety of ways to level efficiently

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Eh, I'd argue that these two are mutually exclusive. I mean, if you want to level as fast as possible I don't think you can complain about having only one way to do it. And people are always going to pick up the fastest option available from many.

Thank you for the constructive feedback. Yeah it's a lot subjective, but we will eventually notice that a lot of us will agree on certain points. Those points are the ones that will become less subjective. Here is another con I forgot.

Con:
Main story quest while leveling requires participation in instanced dungeons. This is becoming harder for people.
The trials should be either a solo or duo. Getting a full group on the msq trials is getting harder for people.

Hopefully the new version of the duty finder will make these both not even a factor.

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Originally Posted by Pinworms

Short Aggro pursuit by mobs
No sense of "danger" when Aggro due to above
Only one type of Aggro

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The short aggro pursuit is indeed a bit silly, especially because of the invincibility. I heard that back in XI, some players pulled aggressive mobs to lower levels areas, the results are predictable, so there's a reason why this exists. The invincibility is there just to prevent a certain hit and run tactic. However, I agree the aggro pursuit is too short.

The danger is there if the enemy has ranged attacks, and from what I have experienced, almost every enemy inflicts Heavy on you (even if they don't possess any Heavy infliting abilities) if they hit you while you are mounted.

There are two aggro types, sight and sound. Most enemies are purely sight aggro, but it's stupid they can't hear you run right behind them. However, some enemies (like the Dullahans in AK) are both sight and sound aggro (just try to run past a Dullahan, behind it, you have to do it pretty far from it).

Cons:
lag issues with dodging AoEs
no seamless world
weekly lockouts
tome weekly caps
too much filler quest in main story
not enough voice acting
endgame content lacking

Pros:
-All in one character.
-Visually appealing.
-Crafting is more in depth than your average 1 click complete mmo.
-Decent story/world.
-Interesting classes with decent distinguishing features between them.


Cons:
-Server responsiveness (with moving from aoes, or casts finishing after you move, or sometimes getting canceled if you cast shortly after stopping).
-One character for all jobs is nice, but so far in this game the benefits aren't that strong. In most games it would save a lot of rep grinds and such, in this it just means if you level crafting you can meld/repair your gear. Instead it comes with the negative of not being able to gear more than one class at a time and no quests to level with.
-Crafting needs to have a few higher level options, yes fully melded 70 gear is better than darklight, but is replaceable and not that much better. Having a few 90 options that are comparable to myth/drops would be nice. A lot of what I sell is actually to other crafters.
-Melding, I'm sure many will call me a whiner but I think the overmeld success rate needs a bit of a boost. Considering that the only way crafting gear stands a chance is with full melds, it can get very frustrating to fail 11 times with a 35% chance on the second meld of an item.
-Very grindy. Running WP 50 times per job is not fun. Even alternating to the slower AK for some of the runs isn't fun. That's really the two choices you have.
-XP of activities that aren't FATE grinding + lack of quests. Leveling second/third/fourth combat classes is pretty boring. I still have some side quests available, but I have to travel and run out there for a side quest that gives 4000 xp when a fate gives me 8-15k. Combat leves don't give enough xp to be worth it. Dungeons don't give enough xp to be worth it, especially when combined with half the time not being able to finish because your group is crap.
-hitboxes/clickboxes. Trying to mouse click target things is extremely difficult, and combined with the next point makes targeting unpleasant.
-tab targeting is just.... why when i'm facing 3 mobs and wanting to just tab to the next one close to me, would it instead pick the one that is off to the left and out of range by 15 yards?

While I really miss blood agro, there are two types of agro. Some mobs have to see you walk past them, others will agro if they "hear" you.