Final Fantasy XIV so far...

So I have recently returned to Final Fantasy XIV, as I was bored with it a few months back, and have now found that since starting all over again, it is far much more of a game than a grindfest.

The new quests that give experience are great, the storyline is doled out in digestible chunks, Gridania is still a pain to navigate (going to the conjurers guild drives me batty), the Chocobo prerequisites are a little long winded, but give you the chance to meet all the cities representatives, and as a whole, I am finding more and more that I look forwards to logging in each night, rather than finding any excuse not to.

The recent 1.19 patch is a very VERY impressive chunk of content, and a good marker for things to come. I for one am now seeing the Final Fantasy in XIV, (and once I see Tonberries im sold) and feel the game is approaching the point where I would happily pay around €6 per month (plus 50c per additional character) to play.

I am getting the same feeling I did when I started XI for the first time, that the game was bigger than me, and that there was so much ahead to earn and do, which was not at all the feeling I got back when I first started XIV. I am feeling a much stronger progression track, as the game sign posts you along the way now, instead of expecting you to know where to go and what to do.

The increase to inventory and retainer storage is amazing. 100 slots was just under enough, now this is just perfect. I never fill it up!

The Materia system is excellent, giving a very interesting spin on the grind that was terrible to start with, and allows you to make your gear unique. I am a little confused with all this dated stuff, but assume I just need to get rid of it all and get new bits, which I will. The experience normalisation for all monsters was a great idea, and has now opened up thousands of experience camps across Eorzea, which hopefully, once people have calmed down about the power levelling thing, will give us our Dunes > Qufim > Garlaige > Altepa progression.

One thing that has stood out to me the most though, is that no matter where I go, or what I am doing, other people are EVERYWHERE! There has literally been no occasion so far (other than grinding mobs) where I have not seen random people pass by on Chocobo's, run through in gathering gear, or just randomly waddle past me. This bodes greatly for the community, as this is the key reason I got bored of WoW, the world died, and with it so did any sense of comradery.

All in all, I would say the direction the game is now heading is great, and while it is going to take a miracle to get it popular, (people will be very reluctant to give it a second chance without a considerable reward for coming back), for those of us that are playing it now, I think, in my personal opinion, I can say I love it!

This is just my way of providing feedback for the developers though, and open to opinions or criticism if you feel it is needed.

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Originally Posted by Vahzl

So I have recently returned to Final Fantasy XIV, as I was bored with it a few months back, and have now found that since starting all over again, it is far much more of a game than a grindfest.

The new quests that give experience are great, the storyline is doled out in digestible chunks, Gridania is still a pain to navigate (going to the conjurers guild drives me batty), the Chocobo prerequisites are a little long winded, but give you the chance to meet all the cities representatives, and as a whole, I am finding more and more that I look forwards to logging in each night, rather than finding any excuse not to.

The recent 1.19 patch is a very VERY impressive chunk of content, and a good marker for things to come. I for one am now seeing the Final Fantasy in XIV, (and once I see Tonberries im sold) and feel the game is approaching the point where I would happily pay around €6 per month (plus 50c per additional character) to play.

I am getting the same feeling I did when I started XI for the first time, that the game was bigger than me, and that there was so much ahead to earn and do, which was not at all the feeling I got back when I first started XIV. I am feeling a much stronger progression track, as the game sign posts you along the way now, instead of expecting you to know where to go and what to do.

The Materia system is excellent, giving a very interesting spin on the grind that was terrible to start with, and allows you to make your gear unique. I am a little confused with all this dated stuff, but assume I just need to get rid of it all and get new bits, which I will. The experience normalisation for all monsters was a great idea, and has now opened up thousands of experience camps across Eorzea, which hopefully, once people have calmed down about the power levelling thing, will give us our Dunes > Qufim > Garlaige > Altepa progression.

One thing that has stood out to me the most though, is that no matter where I go, or what I am doing, other people are EVERYWHERE! There has literally been no occasion so far (other than grinding mobs) where I have not seen random people pass by on Chocobo's, run through in gathering gear, or just randomly waddle past me. This bodes greatly for the community, as this is the key reason I got bored of WoW, the world died, and with it so did any sense of comradery.

All in all, I would say the direction the game is now heading is great, and while it is going to take a miracle to get it popular, (people will be very reluctant to give it a second chance without a considerable reward for coming back), for those of us that are playing it now, I think, in my personal opinion, I can say I love it!

This is just my way of providing feedback for the developers though, and open to opinions or criticism if you feel it is needed.

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Great post with a very nice explanation WHY you like it things. I have to say I totally agree with you, especially on the part where it finally start giving the feeling we/I had when we/I started FFXI. The world is bigger than you and there is SO MUCH to do and look forward to.

I really missed that the first year, but since 1.19 I am logged in daily. I got lucky I got a week off studying so I making shitloads of hours online right now :D

A few things I have heard are being looked at and would strongly encourage:

- Gridania/Black Shroud redesign <--- Please :( - The shroud is the only place I consistently face problems when doing quests of my level, as even when going through area's of monsters my level, there are occasionally higher level ones that pop and kill me, and it is just far too big for a starter area, and it is more confusing than Yhoator Jungle

- Power Levelling - I don't want this thread to be another one of those, but I am enjoying it, it gives you a nice alternative to the grind, however it could use to be nerfed a little

- New races - No issue with this, but would like to see the current players be offered a once only chance to choose the new ones, but not a permanent service, as once you start giving out character change services, players reps are irrelevant, and one of the key factors in XI was your reputation with other players.

- PvP - I avoided Ballista and Brenner in XI, as it just didn't feel like PvP was needed in the game. Give players a coliseum, fine, but please don't start focusing on balancing to avoid PvP issues, as this is when the game loses fun (for me).

- Mailbox System - Once this makes it into the game, you will be looking at someone more than willing to pay monthly, as in my personal opinion, this is all that is lacking now as far as core gameplay elements are concerned. I want so bad and so often to be able to send items to my LS, and we have to use the still clunky trade window, and also interrupt their activities to do so. Give us a 10/12 slot trade window, faster reactions on it, and a mailbox, and im good to go.

- Mog House/Player Housing/Guild Housing - This is something of a luxury I would hope is still being considered, but not something that we need right now. Will be nice in the future though.

- Card Game/Chocobo Digging - Another luxury for the future, but hopefully we will see it at some point.

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- Gridania/Black Shroud redesign <--- Please :( - The shroud is the only place I consistently face problems when doing quests of my level, as even when going through area's of monsters my level, there are occasionally higher level ones that pop and kill me, and it is just far too big for a starter area, and it is more confusing than Yhoator Jungle

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Agree! It is a pain to try and cut trees in the Black Shroud. I think they are working on smaller maps anyway, so this will be fixed soon.

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- Power Levelling - I don't want this thread to be another one of those, but I am enjoying it, it gives you a nice alternative to the grind, however it could use to be nerfed a little.

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I do not really like it, but I also do not have any problems with it. I am not going to make use of it until I reach level 50 with at least one class. Maybe I will use it a little when I am trying to level up 2nd or 3rd classes to get certain abilities for my main. They should nerf it a little bit, but this is really not a deal breaker for me.

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- New races - No issue with this, but would like to see the current players be offered a once only chance to choose the new ones, but not a permanent service, as once you start giving out character change services, players reps are irrelevant, and one of the key factors in XI was your reputation with other players.

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Don't mind new class, don't mind if they would offer character change services. I will not change anyway and it really has no influence on my fun, so whatever works for SE.

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- PvP - I avoided Ballista and Brenner in XI, as it just didn't feel like PvP was needed in the game. Give players a coliseum, fine, but please don't start focusing on balancing to avoid PvP issues, as this is when the game loses fun (for me).

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PvP should and will be OPTIONAL. Yoshi confirmed this, this is the only thing I really feel very strongly about. If there is any kind of world PvP you have to participate in I will quit. I like PvP sometimes, but only when I want to .... I really do not want to get forced to engage in PvP.

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- Mailbox System - Once this makes it into the game, you will be looking at someone more than willing to pay monthly, as in my personal opinion, this is all that is lacking now as far as core gameplay elements are concerned. I want so bad and so often to be able to send items to my LS, and we have to use the still clunky trade window, and also interrupt their activities to do so. Give us a 10/12 slot trade window, faster reactions on it, and a mailbox, and im good to go.

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+1

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- Mog House/Player Housing/Guild Housing - This is something of a luxury I would hope is still being considered, but not something that we need right now. Will be nice in the future though.

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They really should add housing, but now is not the time. This is a future they can work on after the game gets pay to play.

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- Card Game/Chocobo Digging - Another luxury for the future, but hopefully we will see it at some point.

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Just made a topic about digging before you made this post, please support so the devs might see it. I loved digging in 11 and I would love it even more in 14!

Oh and to add, the Materia system is looking very good.

Agree that Gridania blows, no one does leves there because it's a pain to navigate. Why do Grid leves when you can just do Uldah or Limsa ones over and over?

Also, I feel like I have to wear a "Party search" shirt or something. The current system is so terrible. Some kind of basic seeking system is even welcome.

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Originally Posted by Vaer

Agree that Gridania blows, no one does leves there because it's a pain to navigate. Why do Grid leves when you can just do Uldah or Limsa ones over and over?

Also, I feel like I have to wear a "Party search" shirt or something. The current system is so terrible. Some kind of basic seeking system is even welcome.

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I don't know about that part, most JP do leves in LL or Grid. Ul'dah leve blows, why do you want to get nerfed XP reward is beyond me. Camp Broken Water and Halatali are like ghost town. Maybe your server has really low pop or something.

the only thing i would like right now is some mini-games like Triple Triad, or chocobo racing.

Great post, OP! To me, the best thing I've noticed since 1.19 is definitely the apparent population increase and boost in activity. I hope it lasts this time. I always notice a spike in population/activity after patches, but this time it seems to have increased 10-fold.

I can, for the first time, honestly say that the game is showing promise of success now.

With regards to the leves not being done in Gridania, I have just done my first ever gathering leves (took Botany to 25 on my original character purely grinding trees and bush), 4 of which were in Gridania, and didn't really have much of an issue with them. I love the look of the zone, but it is true that it is just too big, and far too windy and twisty, even if it is a forest.
I popped over to Ul'dah for my next few leves, and while they were closer to the camps, the quest objectives are still far too spread out.

We like exploring SE, but don't force us to do it in every leve, every time. Give us some that are closer to the camps, or don't involve camps at all, and I will be a happy taru. (refuse to refer myself as a lalalalalalalalathing).


Oh and to further forward my campaign for a mailbox system, me and a LS mate spent an hour trading 150 items from our alts to our mains last night. AN HOUR. That's an hour to trade something, that when done in games like WoW and Rift, takes 2-5 minutes from start to end. PLEASE , for my sanity's sake, implement a better trade system, and get those moogles trained in the art of letter delivery.

In regards to Gridania, you do realize that EVERYTHING is getting COMPLETELY redesigned, right? Every single city and zone is going to be redesigned with functionality and artistic appeal in mind. The world will feel much more accessible and alive once the redesigned maps are in.

I really getting addictive to the game once again by saying that i been having Wife Agro all this week..
things that I believe they need to add is :
-Mail System
-House (Mog House)
-PARTY SEARCH ( By this I even believe would alleviate a bit the Power leveling issue.. however they will fix this problem on patch 1.19a already been said)
-New UI restructured

If you guys would compare the difference between the issues or features People think they need to add today with the suggestion from 3 months ago the difference is vastly, I think SE is doing a great job. The only thing now is they need to add content like Chains of Promothia when even though it was low lvl instances they were not meant for just anyone but in fact for people who like strategic content this to encourage people to keep playing. If they keep adding Content like ifrit that after 4 days I believe was down (I have not even fight him once yet just to clarify) already the game will loss a lot of people due to lack of content for End Game.

Other than that thumbs UP for SE and their Job.:cool:

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Originally Posted by MariyaShidou

I don't know about that part, most JP do leves in LL or Grid. Ul'dah leve blows, why do you want to get nerfed XP reward is beyond me. Camp Broken Water and Halatali are like ghost town. Maybe your server has really low pop or something.

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Haven't done any of the higher level ones, (look at my level) but I did try to do some of the lower level ones a while back, unless they have been changed, I remember one that was right next to the camp but they made you go all the way around and up a ramp like 5 minutes away just to get there. No thanks. I'd rather just do the ones that are easy to get to and don't make you walk in a ton of different directions.

I guess I can't tell the difference because there is no one at any of the lower level camps anyway. Mysidia is one of the higher pop servers.

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Originally Posted by miqokini

In regards to Gridania, you do realize that EVERYTHING is getting COMPLETELY redesigned, right? Every single city and zone is going to be redesigned with functionality and artistic appeal in mind. The world will feel much more accessible and alive once the redesigned maps are in.

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Yup I saw it in the development video, and can't wait for the redesign. One thing I always wanted to do in FFXI was erase my memory of the entire game, and start again, to enjoy it all over, looks like I am getting a variation on this chance in XIV.

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Originally Posted by Vaer

Haven't done any of the higher level ones, (look at my level) but I did try to do some of the lower level ones a while back, unless they have been changed, I remember one that was right next to the camp but they made you go all the way around and up a ramp like 5 minutes away just to get there. No thanks. I'd rather just do the ones that are easy to get to and don't make you walk in a ton of different directions.

I guess I can't tell the difference because there is no one at any of the lower level camps anyway. Mysidia is one of the higher pop servers.

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I don't know about lower level, but lvl 30 and 40 people do mostly leves in Grid or LL. Ul'dah leve reward is nerfed, Broken Water is only a little bit crowded now because people gather there to go to Zaha'rak, barely anyone doing leves there or Halatali. And no, traveling distance are rather equal in leves in all three camps, there will always be leves that make you run a decent road (No 5 mins mind you, every leves can be done 8< mins total unless you don't know how to use map).

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Originally Posted by Vahzl

A few things I have heard are being looked at and would strongly encourage:

- Gridania/Black Shroud redesign <--- Please :( - The shroud is the only place I consistently face problems when doing quests of my level, as even when going through area's of monsters my level, there are occasionally higher level ones that pop and kill me, and it is just far too big for a starter area, and it is more confusing than Yhoator Jungle.

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I am very excited to see what they will do with this, its one of the reasons my linkshell choose Grid as its Grand Company, I hope it gets a complete re-design. I want to feel like I am in a forest not in a ditch under a forest, although I know this would not happen due to design constraints but if they could I would love for them to redesign it like Witcher 2's Flotsam forest, I havent see a better designed forest on any other game I have played.

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Originally Posted by Ilethius

I am very excited to see what they will do with this, its one of the reasons my linkshell choose Grid as its Grand Company, I hope it gets a complete re-design.

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Don't tell me it's not because of the Nophica's poster.

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Originally Posted by MariyaShidou

Don't tell me it's not because of the Nophica's poster.

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No one can resist boobies!

Glad to see people on the whole seem to agree too, nice that we have one friendly thread in amongst all the power levelling angst. :)

It is a breath of fresh air to see a post like this. Rather than trolling or whining you are giving concrete reasons for everything you say and its clear your actually PLAYING the game the way the dev's intended it to be played rather than exploiting a bug and whining about it.

Good on you my friend!

I agree with pretty much everything in OP's post. XIV feels more like old school FFXI than modern day FFXI does, and I'm okay with this.

Bring on the jobs and the PvP.

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Originally Posted by Vaer

Agree that Gridania blows, no one does leves there because it's a pain to navigate. Why do Grid leves when you can just do Uldah or Limsa ones over and over?

Also, I feel like I have to wear a "Party search" shirt or something. The current system is so terrible. Some kind of basic seeking system is even welcome.

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for rank 40's everyone does grid cause the sp is best. since 1.18 ive pretty much only done elves in grid unless i needed marks elsewhere.

edit: but yea, grids layout sucks unless you are DOL, then the tunnel style mp makes it very easy to lvl.

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Originally Posted by syntaxlies

for rank 40's everyone does grid cause the sp is best. since 1.18 ive pretty much only done elves in grid unless i needed marks elsewhere.

edit: but yea, grids layout sucks unless you are DOL, then the tunnel style mp makes it very easy to lvl.

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Ah, well, that makes sense. I've never had a job that high so I had no idea.

I just find it generally annoying that they artificially increase the amount of time you have to spend by making you go around (I'm not sure if the lower level Grid leves were changed, haven't done those since beta/launch) where it would just be easier to cut straight across. It's remnants of the old design, another example of this is the center gate in Uldah outside the Adventurer's Guild. But to each their own.

delivery system and moghouses thats all i want now thx so far SE i love the new patch oh and maybe do away with gear damage i stood around foir several hours waiting on repairs wasting my gaming time wich is limited seems a bit rediculous to me but other than that after the patch game feels more like final fantasy and less like noobyville
again good job so far listening to us devs thanks again orihima techico

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Originally Posted by smokymcweed

delivery system and moghouses thats all i want now thx so far SE i love the new patch oh and maybe do away with gear damage i stood around foir several hours waiting on repairs wasting my gaming time wich is limited seems a bit rediculous to me but other than that after the patch game feels more like final fantasy and less like noobyville
again good job so far listening to us devs thanks again orihima techico

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Now the Repair NPC repair all your gear up to 99% and the most expensive price is 5k per piece.