New to the game and just some observations

First off, I just want to say that I have been playing SWTOR since launch. I left that game due to the horrible new "Expansion". it was a hard decision. And before that, I left WOW for the same thing. I have started playing FF14, trying to find my new "home". And I am sure there are many others out there as well like me.
So for all of you veteran FF14 players, no flaming required. These are just my personal observations, so take it with a grain of salt.

There are a LOT of pros and cons for this game, and right now I have played for my initial 30 days after purchasing and downloading the game. And I have subbed for this month.

Here are a few of the things in this game that, so far, I am not a fan of.

1. Limited character abilities and skills tree. Would be nice to actually have some combos and different skills to choose from. This would enhance the gameplay. Right now I find it kind of boring to only have 3 or 4 attacks at level 50.

2. Forced dungeons/flashpoints as part of the progression. NOT a fan of this at all. I am more of a solo player, so having to depend on a "Duty" to pop while leveling is no fun. I understand that it is a part of the storyline and is that way to explain what is going on in the FF14 universe. Still, not a fan of it.

3. The crafting skills are pretty good. The only complaint about those I have, is the cooking skill. Just seems like the recipes require a ton more items to create the foodstuffs, than the rest of the crafting skills do. Just seems a little lopsided and needs to be trimmed down some.

4. The biggest issue by far that I think needs to be added, is the ability to save your HUD and GUI settings. So that way you can apply those to any new or alt character.

There are a lot of things I do like about the game too though.

Being able to craft just about everything is great.
The graphics are really good as well as the cut scenes. Makes gameplay very nice.
Players seem to be a lot more helpful and nicer, not so toxic like some of the jerks on those "other" MMORPG's.

I am still learning things about this game. Still on the fence about sticking with it or not. Ill give it another month to feel it out, and see if this is the one or not.

Welcome to Eorzea!

Yeah, all games have their Pros and Cons. I tend to prefer FFXIV over WoW, Swtor, and ESO, some may disagree and each to their own - it's not everyone's cup of tea. That said, my 2 cents on your gripes:

1. You do get more abilities from 50-90 (some of which are just incredible to behold) though a lot of skills were removed and condensed in previous expansions - some like it for ease of play (and want it condensing further), others preferred having more - it's a no-win situation for the devs, but they do try to balance it a bit. That said, FF doesn't really use skill-trees like other MMO's so your chosen playstyle really comes down to the class you play and the abilities it provides. It's more rigid than other games, but you can play any class on your character and switch freely between them which other games don't allow.
2. I can kind of see where the devs went originally with this - it is an MMO and the idea was to promote the multi-player side with required instances. That said, they already have Trusts (NPC's that can replace playable characters in dungeons) from 70 onwards, which are been implemented for the base game and earlier expansions over the next few patches to make it more single player-friendly.
3. I've only levelled culinarian so far so couldn't really comment, saying that, I'm told Culinarian is the easiest craft to level so that may be why?
4. You can backup your settings to the cloud from the character select screen but doesn't allow applying it to alt characters. That said, I believe there is a way to do it for PC players by copying/pasting folders in the game directory.

There's a lot to discover in the game, I kind of envy you experiencing it all for the first time and I wish you well.

Welcome!

I'm new to the game too (started proper in December). I'll admit that I have, and do, struggle with some elements of the gameplay myself. I don't really have much talent for gaming and my reaction times and hand-eye coordination are, shall we say, lacking which causes me problems sometimes.

However, I will say that despite these (personal) challenges, the story FFXIV is telling has kept me hooked. It has been an emotional rollercoaster that I didn't expect, but keeps me coming back for more.

And agreed - the community have been incredible too. From the forum, where have received plenty of advice, encouragement and support via a thread I started when I've hit obstacles/brick walls, to those players in-game who, unlike some MMOs, are really supportive, tolerant and patient toward new players.

I'd encourage you to stay the course - there is more to like than there is to dislike, and not sure where you are in the game's story - but it only (in my opinion) gets better!

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Originally Posted by Timex

2. Forced dungeons/flashpoints as part of the progression. NOT a fan of this at all. I am more of a solo player, so having to depend on a "Duty" to pop while leveling is no fun. I understand that it is a part of the storyline and is that way to explain what is going on in the FF14 universe. Still, not a fan of it.

3. The crafting skills are pretty good. The only complaint about those I have, is the cooking skill. Just seems like the recipes require a ton more items to create the foodstuffs, than the rest of the crafting skills do. Just seems a little lopsided and needs to be trimmed down some.

4. The biggest issue by far that I think needs to be added, is the ability to save your HUD and GUI settings. So that way you can apply those to any new or alt character.

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I can't comment on the first point cause I agree, but I can comment on the rest
2nd point: They are working on it. There will be a trust system for each of these which means u dont need to play with others. Just do the dungeons with the Scions or whomever the game lets you.
3rd point: THis is pretty normal as food is almost always required for all raiders. There needs to be a trade of so that gatherers can get some income too from this.
4th point: Eh? But you can save it? - its true initially you need to set up yours skills, but it makes sense as it is highly recommended to read your tooltips once while doings so. Then after it its there and stays forever. Or what do you mean?

Nice to see new players joining 14 :) welcome! Take your time playing at your own pace ^^

I'll never understand why people play a multiplayer game and then get annoyed when they have to do multiplayer things.

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Originally Posted by Shuuli

4th point: Eh? But you can save it? - its true initially you need to set up yours skills, but it makes sense as it is highly recommended to read your tooltips once while doings so. Then after it its there and stays forever. Or what do you mean?

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OP is talking about saving the UI from one character, and applying it to a different character. Not setting up skills for different jobs on the same character.
While this is currently possible on PC, it requires digging into the game's directory, finding the correct folders for both characters, and copying one character's folders to the other.

Thank you all for the comments!

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Originally Posted by Nezerius

OP is talking about saving the UI from one character, and applying it to a different character. Not setting up skills for different jobs on the same character.
While this is currently possible on PC, it requires digging into the game's directory, finding the correct folders for both characters, and copying one character's folders to the other.

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Documents > My Games > FFXIV > Character folder.

You don't have to do any kind of crazy digging lol.

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Originally Posted by Ransu

I'll never understand why people play a multiplayer game and then get annoyed when they have to do multiplayer things.

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Because the game is fun solo despite there being other people in it. Primarily. Also because sometimes humans find alternate uses for things - aside from what the creator intended - and we enjoy those alternate uses. Such as playing an MMO despite preferring solo play.

I completely respect and understand why you, personally, would not complain about having to play with other humans in a multiplayer game. But feigning ignorance as to why other people do it is silly. Surely you understand subjectivity and the infinite spectrum of needs and desires, along with the human tendency to complain about things.

So, the direct answer to your question is because some humans find solo play fun, and there is plenty of solo play in this game. Some humans will then play this game mostly solo while still disliking group play. As humans commonly do, some will complain about entertainment that isn't entirely satisfying... even if they voluntarily chose entertainment that clearly won't be entirely satisfying!

And as for never understanding why:

Why do you complain about them? Same reason. Because humans get hooked on the idea that the "way to do it" in their brain is the "right" or "only" way. When humans see behavior contrary to what they believe to be "right," then they complain. Caveman behavior, yeah... but oh so fashionable.






...Humans sometimes. For pete's sake LOL.

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Originally Posted by Breakbeat

I completely respect and understand why you, personally, would not complain about having to play with other humans in a multiplayer game. But feigning ignorance as to why other people do it is silly. Surely you understand subjectivity and the infinite spectrum of needs and desires, along with the human tendency to complain about things.

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I'm not feigning ignorance. I solo a lot myself, but the idea of playing a multiplayer game and then complaining that you can't 100% solo everything is absolutely ridiculous. It would be like me going to a forum for a single player game and complaining there's no multiplayer.

You can already solo 90% of the game, its not the end of the world running a dungeon every few levels. Thankfully trusts are horribly slow making running with players still the superior option, but I overall was and still am completely against the existence of trusts in this game. They basically ruined FFXI for me and I was not happy when they announced them in XIV.

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Originally Posted by Ransu

Documents > My Games > FFXIV > Character folder.

You don't have to do any kind of crazy digging lol.

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Yes, that's where the character folders are located. However, depending on the amount of characters one has, it still requires digging through the log files to ensure you have the correct folder to copy over.
That said, I've never mentioned any "crazy digging", or that the process is in any way difficult once known. However, it's still not nearly as user friendly as a simple feature that would automate this process.

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Originally Posted by Nezerius

Yes, that's where the character folders are located. However, depending on the amount of characters one has, it still requires digging through the log files to ensure you have the correct folder to copy over.
That said, I've never mentioned any "crazy digging", or that the process is in any way difficult once known. However, it's still not nearly as user friendly as a simple feature that would automate this process.

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The one with the most recent log time stamp is the character you last logged into. The 16 character hex code doesn't ever change for your characters so just create a copy of each one by adding .copy (character name) at the end of the copied folder name.

Simple as that.

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Originally Posted by Ransu

The one with the most recent log time stamp is the character you last logged into. The 16 character hex code doesn't ever change for your characters so just create a copy of each one by adding .copy (character name) at the end of the copied folder name.

Simple as that.

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You're completely missing the point. I never claimed the process is difficult once known. As I had already stated, this process is still not nearly as user friendly as a simple feature that would automate this process.

1. With "skills tree", if you mean being able to choose something different from another player of the same job, they were a bit more choices in the past. And they were removed because everyone were taking the same most useful and optimised thing, making the rest useless to have in the game. Most of other mmos with "choices" are having this problem too. For example when i was playing GW2 there was a lot of people who did tell me "why did you choose these skills ? Go copy/paste this build from metabattle, nodody is playing with what you are using", when i did choose some things for fun rather than conforming to the META. There is still a bit of fake "choices" in FF14 as well : if you jump into the latest savage raids with your tank, don't do it with tenacity melds if you don't want some people harshly telling you that crit/dh/det is better.

3. I think this is fine because unlike other crafting classes, cooking doesn't require intermediate ingredients from other classes all the time. For example if i want to do some armor, i will often need some leather or jewels i can't do with the armorer, wich makes the item more lengthy and difficult to do. If you lower the ingredients required for culinarian recipes, they will become way too easy to do compared to other crafting classes... and people will probably start asking to nerf them as well for the sake of making everything balanced. As if crafting was not dumbed down enough already.

3. Yes, another 3. Needing a lot of ingredients is realistic. Did you never get baited by some "do this delicious recipe with eggs and milk only !" Youtube thumbnails, to realise once watching the whole video that on top of the "only" two advertised ingredients, you also need this one, and this one, and this other one too ? XD

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Originally Posted by Ransu

I'll never understand why people play a multiplayer game and then get annoyed when they have to do multiplayer things.

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Well I do not mind playing with other people at all. Matter of fact, I rather enjoy some of the flashpoints etc. But, when I have to wait for a flashpoint/dungeon or whatever, pop for my story progression, it is annoying. I sat waiting on a flashpoint to pop for almost 30 minutes. It would make more sense for those story progression flashpoints/dungeons to be done with NPC party members.
As far as doing multi-player stuff, it IS fun, and I do enjoy those when I CHOOSE to do them.

I am just saying that, for me, having to wait for those to populate while doing the SOLO STORY portion, is no fun.