The whole game is a bug

Seriously, why does anyone even play this game at all? I heard that it was a complete flop when it first came out, so I didn't buy it. Then I heard that they had made some serious improvements, so I finally decided to try it out. I would have hoped that over the course of a year and a half they'd have it all worked out. If there has been significant improvement, I shudder to think what it was like back when it was first released.

When I'm playing, the NPCs will randomly disappear. Sometimes it's everyone, sometimes it's only some people. I was doing one of the beginning quests, where you escort the two kids through the forest, and one of the kids and the enemy were invisible. I could see the one kid taking damage, but I couldn't kill the enemy attacking them because I couldn't see it.

I've read several threads on this forum and others of many other people having the same problem. It seems to be linked with people who have the Radeon graphics card, so it might possibly be a driver problem. But I don't have any problems with any of my other games. All my other games run just fine with my graphics card, so the only logical conclusion is that it's Square's fault.

Also, the gathering is entirely annoying. I don't want to play a guessing game when I'm chopping wood. If I go up to a tree and start chopping it with an axe, I should gather wood. There shouldn't be some random chance that I'll get wood if I chop in just the right angle. Just let me click on the tree and end up with wood in my inventory. Making me decide where to chop and at what angle makes me not want to gather wood ever.

The synthesizing menu is completely unintuitive. It's like it's designed to drive players away. Other games will give you recipes that you can make and then you just go find the ingredients and then complete the recipe. Here, it seems like I have to guess what ingredients to put together (or just go look it up online somewhere) and then hope that it'll make something good. I don't like that at all. It makes me not ever want to synthesize anything.

Make it easier to change gear. I think it's fine to have different weapons that allow you to change to different classes, but don't make the change so clumsy. Make it so I can hotkey my gear and switch quickly from one to the other.

The shop menus should allow you to compare the item you're about to buy with the equipment that you have on, so that you can know whether it's worth buying. I don't want to have to memorize everything that I'm wearing when I go to the shop to buy something just to see if it's better than what I have.

Anytime I switch applications (using Alt-Tab) the game crashes. I should be able to switch to another application and then come back to the game--especially since you have to look up how to do anything in the game because there's no tutorial in the game for how to do it.

The game will randomly tell me that there was a server error and then log me out. Why are the servers having errors? The server should be stable, it should have redundancy to ensure that it still runs properly even if some part of it fails. If it's not really a server error, if it's really just a connection error, then at least let me stay in the game and just catch up once the connection improves. Don't log me out. Most online games let you lag a bit but don't kick you out of the game for it.

When I first started playing, there was also an error that said "Final Fantasy XIV stopped working" or something like that and just quit the application at that point. I think I fixed that by installing DirectX 11 or something, I'm not sure. But I'm really disappointed in how easy it is to crash this game. I have a nice system, there isn't anything that is wrong with my system itself that should make a game crash. It seems to me that this game is very poorly coded and that all of the effort was spent on the graphics and zero on stability or playability. (The graphics are amazing, btw, but that's entirely useless and pointless when I don't even want to play the game because it's so annoying and crashes all the time.)

Does anyone who works for Square/Enix read this board? If not, is there a place where I can voice these complaints directly to them? I'm just so glad that they give one month free of subscription. I don't want to pay one dollar of monthly fees for this game until it's actually fun to play.

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Originally Posted by ganfalfxviv

Seriously, why does anyone even play this game at all? I heard that it was a complete flop when it first came out, so I didn't buy it. Then I heard that they had made some serious improvements, so I finally decided to try it out. I would have hoped that over the course of a year and a half they'd have it all worked out. If there has been significant improvement, I shudder to think what it was like back when it was first released.

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most ppl think its playable now, still not good but we are playing an old game anyway since a new one is comming out

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Originally Posted by ganfalfxviv

When I'm playing, the NPCs will randomly disappear. Sometimes it's everyone, sometimes it's only some people. I was doing one of the beginning quests, where you escort the two kids through the forest, and one of the kids and the enemy were invisible. I could see the one kid taking damage, but I couldn't kill the enemy attacking them because I couldn't see it.

I've read several threads on this forum and others of many other people having the same problem. It seems to be linked with people who have the Radeon graphics card, so it might possibly be a driver problem. But I don't have any problems with any of my other games. All my other games run just fine with my graphics card, so the only logical conclusion is that it's Square's fault.

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Sorry but your graphical power doesnt seem to cut it. its not enough. if you at least stated more information like OS CPU RAM and HDD i could give you a more specific answer. you should know FFXIV requires alot raw power. Its only partly SE fault.

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Originally Posted by ganfalfxviv

Also, the gathering is entirely annoying. I don't want to play a guessing game when I'm chopping wood. If I go up to a tree and start chopping it with an axe, I should gather wood. There shouldn't be some random chance that I'll get wood if I chop in just the right angle. Just let me click on the tree and end up with wood in my inventory. Making me decide where to chop and at what angle makes me not want to gather wood ever.

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YOU dont like the gathering system doesnt mean all other ppl dont either. Its a mini game if you didnt understand it say it so, this system protects us from RMT farming. With a bit of knowledge you can get what you want pretty fast.

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Originally Posted by ganfalfxviv

The synthesizing menu is completely unintuitive. It's like it's designed to drive players away. Other games will give you recipes that you can make and then you just go find the ingredients and then complete the recipe. Here, it seems like I have to guess what ingredients to put together (or just go look it up online somewhere) and then hope that it'll make something good. I don't like that at all. It makes me not ever want to synthesize anything.

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So you dont like working? is that it? All recipes are on lodestone, other than that you can get recipes from completing leves. The synth menu is a bit complicated like the whole UI but its not as bad as you make it out to be.

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Originally Posted by ganfalfxviv

Make it easier to change gear. I think it's fine to have different weapons that allow you to change to different classes, but don't make the change so clumsy. Make it so I can hotkey my gear and switch quickly from one to the other.

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try using macros, its basicly the same only better.other than that hotbars are crap :p

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Originally Posted by ganfalfxviv

The shop menus should allow you to compare the item you're about to buy with the equipment that you have on, so that you can know whether it's worth buying. I don't want to have to memorize everything that I'm wearing when I go to the shop to buy something just to see if it's better than what I have.

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Thats a good suggestion, lets hope they implement it into 2.0

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Originally Posted by ganfalfxviv

Anytime I switch applications (using Alt-Tab) the game crashes. I should be able to switch to another application and then come back to the game--especially since you have to look up how to do anything in the game because there's no tutorial in the game for how to do it.

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Thats been so since FFXI, its sad but at the moment they cant do anything about it. About looking everything up be cause of lack of tutorials, sorry but be a bit more specific about that. There are alot of npc you can talk about almost anything. Seems like you didnt talk to a lot of npc at the beginning of the game, dont know what you need a tutorial for more than that. And btw its recommended to play in windowed mode for the time being.

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Originally Posted by ganfalfxviv

The game will randomly tell me that there was a server error and then log me out. Why are the servers having errors? The server should be stable, it should have redundancy to ensure that it still runs properly even if some part of it fails. If it's not really a server error, if it's really just a connection error, then at least let me stay in the game and just catch up once the connection improves. Don't log me out. Most online games let you lag a bit but don't kick you out of the game for it.

When I first started playing, there was also an error that said "Final Fantasy XIV stopped working" or something like that and just quit the application at that point. I think I fixed that by installing DirectX 11 or something, I'm not sure. But I'm really disappointed in how easy it is to crash this game. I have a nice system, there isn't anything that is wrong with my system itself that should make a game crash. It seems to me that this game is very poorly coded and that all of the effort was spent on the graphics and zero on stability or playability. (The graphics are amazing, btw, but that's entirely useless and pointless when I don't even want to play the game because it's so annoying and crashes all the time.)

Does anyone who works for Square/Enix read this board? If not, is there a place where I can voice these complaints directly to them? I'm just so glad that they give one month free of subscription. I don't want to pay one dollar of monthly fees for this game until it's actually fun to play.

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The servers tend to be unstable 12hr after a patch, after that its most of the time your connection, probably. but since you did not write down the errors i cant say for sure. If you are using WLAN, it could be unstable. Lag and connection lost are 2 different things, dont mix them up. If i loose connection ind Diablo 3 for ex. i am kicked out of the game too. (i am starting to hate that game lol)

That FF stopped working can have many reasons, OS, drivers or just bad install and or corrupted files.
At this point its seems more likely to me that your system is not good enough for the current version.
Other then alt+tab the game normally doesnt crash. there are very few bugs that let the game crash.
and yes this is the official forum and the producer Yoshida himself posts here from time to time.
Everything here is getting read by SE employees.

My final comment: It seems like you did not know it but after 3 months of release the dev team got replaced by the current team and since then, a new game has been in development while improving the current version. 2.0 is comming out soon with improved servers, better graphic engine and more player oriented gameplay.
At least thats what was promised to us lol.
You didnt seem to play the game alot, thats to bad but you got your first impression and you decided its to much of work to deal with. Thank you for your post.

Thank you for your post, ganfalfxviv. Unfortunately as this is more feedback than a question on any specific issue, I have moved it to the appropriate section. I hope that a fruitful discussion can continue now that it is in the correct place. Thanks again!

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Originally Posted by GinTama

most ppl think its playable now, still not good but we are playing an old game anyway since a new one is comming out

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What's coming out? When?

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Sorry but your graphical power doesnt seem to cut it. its not enough. if you at least stated more information like OS CPU RAM and HDD i could give you a more specific answer. you should know FFXIV requires alot raw power. Its only partly SE fault.

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CPU: AMD Atholon II X3 3.3 GHz
RAM: 8GB 240-pin DDR3 1600
Video card: Radeon HD 7750, 1GB VRAM 128-bit
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB, 7200 RPM

That should be good enough to play any game that's out. Yeah, there are definitely better graphics cards out there, but what I have should be sufficient. Especially since I'm not trying to run the game with the graphics turned all the way up. (For example, I see no reason to have x32 anti-aliasing on, when x2 looks just as good.)

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YOU dont like the gathering system doesnt mean all other ppl dont either. Its a mini game if you didnt understand it say it so, this system protects us from RMT farming. With a bit of knowledge you can get what you want pretty fast.

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It's stupid. If it's a mini-game, it's an epic fail of a mini-game. Mini-games are supposed to be games and therefore fun. This is not fun. It's annoying.

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So you dont like working? is that it? All recipes are on lodestone, other than that you can get recipes from completing leves. The synth menu is a bit complicated like the whole UI but its not as bad as you make it out to be.

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If I want to work, I go to work and do my job. When I come home and want to relax and play a game, I want it to be relaxing and fun, not work. If you want to work, get a second job. Don't make a game become a second job.

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Thats been so since FFXI, its sad but at the moment they cant do anything about it. About looking everything up be cause of lack of tutorials, sorry but be a bit more specific about that. There are alot of npc you can talk about almost anything. Seems like you didnt talk to a lot of npc at the beginning of the game, dont know what you need a tutorial for more than that. And btw its recommended to play in windowed mode for the time being.

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Why can't they do anything about it? I have tons of other games that I play that can do that. It shouldn't be a hard feature to implement. It sounds like they just have incompetent people on their programming teams. I switch in and out of games all the time--even when they're in full-screen mode--and have no problem. It's only FF14 (I never played XI, but the way the games have gone downhill since Enix merged with Square, I don't even know why I tried 14). It's recommended to play windowed? Why? Because they can't write a game that will play full-screen? Everyone else does. EA writes games that you can play full-screen without any problem. They don't try to make people pay for a public beta, which is really what this game is at the moment.

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That FF stopped working can have many reasons, OS, drivers or just bad install and or corrupted files.
At this point its seems more likely to me that your system is not good enough for the current version.
Other then alt+tab the game normally doesnt crash. there are very few bugs that let the game crash.
and yes this is the official forum and the producer Yoshida himself posts here from time to time.
Everything here is getting read by SE employees.

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I shouldn't have to pull my whole system apart and do ten hours of research to find out what drivers I'm missing and what missing pieces I need to put together just to play a game. Every other game I've installed and run on this computer has just worked. That's the way games should be. I shouldn't have to look up on forums to see how to make my game work.

And that's great if SE employees actually read this board. They need to know how quickly they drive away new players with all of the things that are wrong with this game.

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My final comment: It seems like you did not know it but after 3 months of release the dev team got replaced by the current team and since then, a new game has been in development while improving the current version. 2.0 is comming out soon with improved servers, better graphic engine and more player oriented gameplay.
At least thats what was promised to us lol.
You didnt seem to play the game alot, thats to bad but you got your first impression and you decided its to much of work to deal with. Thank you for your post.

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Yes, I knew that. I had heard that the whole team was replaced. That's why I thought it would be alright to try the game now. I thought that it would run. Apparently I was wrong. I also heard that 2.0 would be released at the same time as the PS3 version, and maybe I'll start playing again when it is released. But, that's not a "new game", it's just a new version of the same game. Unless you're saying that I have to buy it again and get a new account to play it on, which wouldn't surprise me, coming from SE, but it would be stupid and annoying. I probably just won't play the game until 2.0 does come out, and then I'll see if they fixed all the annoyingness and bugs in it.

Okay, i will try to keep it short since its too much work :p.
System is ok but its not rly enough, i know most game are better compatible and require less power but thats simply the crappy base the old team left and the new team got to work with. The thing with gathering is not for everyone but i for my part like even if its abit slow.

Putting effort into something should be normal. Maybe its too much for you for what you get in the end but its just a game. Synthing is fun for me, i like to find out what i need and where to get it and using the synth system the best way to get either HQ items or just alot of them in a short time.

Since you knew that a new team got to work on this, i dont know much about programming but when you get something whats finished then you cant just rip it out hack it into small bits and try to assamble it again.
The problem with alt+tab is something (i believe) rooted deeply in the corecode off xiv, maybe someone else can give you a more specific answer. But anyway with current game and current server its not possible. BUT will be possible with 2.0 btw.

2.0 is basicly a new game what they worked on and are working on while implementing new things into ffxiv and listening to feedback. If you dont like the current game version at all come again in a few months when 2.0 is out.
And i dont believe you have to buy FFxiv again to play 2.0.

Hi Allastair.

Your feedback is appreciated.

I believe that the 2.0 is meant to address a host of UI flow and streamline processes for gathering and crafting. Over the past 1.5 years, SE has received most of the feedback you have posted in some shape or form. On occasion, we've gotten community managers acknowledging that the information has been submitted, where other times, the community managers will submit the info like ninjas.

The disappearing NPCs may be a hiccup in the installation or patching process. And while it may not sound like the best solution, you may have to reinstall the game and patch again to make the NPCs appear.

Like many of the folks here, we've become accustomed to the layout and the processes. Many have left, some have stayed. Each with their own motives for playing.

We will see what 2.0 and the following patches bring.

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Originally Posted by GinTama

Okay, i will try to keep it short since its too much work :p.
System is ok but its not rly enough, i know most game are better compatible and require less power but thats simply the crappy base the old team left and the new team got to work with. The thing with gathering is not for everyone but i for my part like even if its abit slow.

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It's not enough? Let me quote to you the system reqs that SE published with the game. My system is well above those reqs.

CPU: Athlon X2 2.0 GHz. Actual: Athlon II X3 3.3 GHz, which is basically twice as fast.
RAM: 2GB. Actual: 8GB, which is 4 times as much.
Video card: Radeon HD 2900 with 512 MB VRAM. Actual: Radeon HD 7700 with 1GB VRAM. That's twice the VRAM, and a much faster GPU.

I don't see how you can possibly say "It's ok but not really enough." It's well over the reqs. "Enough" means "meet the requirements", or at least that's what it should mean. And, I know that the reqs are just the bare minimum. But I'm not at the reqs in any single component, I'm at least twice as good as the reqs. The game should therefore run without problem. It should not be an issue. It shouldn't crash. I shouldn't have disappearing NPCs.

I don't know all that much about computer programming, but I am very skeptical when you tell me that something as simple as alt-tab is involved with deep coding in the game--that the problem can't be easily handled without a complete overhaul of the code. That seems like just an excuse.

And, yes, I am willing to put effort into a game. That's part of what makes a game fun. But it shouldn't be work. It should be entertaining. It should be fun. I should be wanting to put effort into it, not feeling like I'm compelled to put effort in where I don't really want to.

System bottle-necking has been a known issue since nearly day one; it's something that will most definitely be addressed in 2.0, as has been announced in some interviews somewhere.

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Originally Posted by Sav

System bottle-necking has been a known issue since nearly day one; it's something that will most definitely be addressed in 2.0, as has been announced in some interviews somewhere.

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Are you saying that's why I keep getting server error messages?

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Originally Posted by ganfalfxviv

It's not enough? Let me quote to you the system reqs that SE published with the game. My system is well above those reqs.

CPU: Athlon X2 2.0 GHz. Actual: Athlon II X3 3.3 GHz, which is basically twice as fast.
RAM: 2GB. Actual: 8GB, which is 4 times as much.
Video card: Radeon HD 2900 with 512 MB VRAM. Actual: Radeon HD 7700 with 1GB VRAM. That's twice the VRAM, and a much faster GPU.

I don't see how you can possibly say "It's ok but not really enough." It's well over the reqs. "Enough" means "meet the requirements", or at least that's what it should mean. And, I know that the reqs are just the bare minimum. But I'm not at the reqs in any single component, I'm at least twice as good as the reqs. The game should therefore run without problem. It should not be an issue. It shouldn't crash. I shouldn't have disappearing NPCs.

I don't know all that much about computer programming, but I am very skeptical when you tell me that something as simple as alt-tab is involved with deep coding in the game--that the problem can't be easily handled without a complete overhaul of the code. That seems like just an excuse.

And, yes, I am willing to put effort into a game. That's part of what makes a game fun. But it shouldn't be work. It should be entertaining. It should be fun. I should be wanting to put effort into it, not feeling like I'm compelled to put effort in where I don't really want to.

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My understanding is that systems that are playing with Windows XP do not experience the ALT TAB issue. Windows Vista and Seven games that go full screen seem to have had issues with DirectX 9.0. I can't recall if these issues apply to 9.0c so that games and in hindsight, haven't tried playing games like Witcher or Neverwinter Nights 2 on a Windows Vista/Seven system.

Now I'm wondering if I try running the game with Windows Basic visual settings instead of Aero will I trigger the same issue?

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Originally Posted by ganfalfxviv

Are you saying that's why I keep getting server error messages?

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It's a possibility. I'm not too tech savvy when it comes to these things, but I'm sure it could be a factor. The current server hardware is pretty wonky, so who knows. I get errors occasionally, maybe every week or so. It seems mostly random.

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Originally Posted by Fiosha_Maureiba

My understanding is that systems that are playing with Windows XP do not experience the ALT TAB issue. Windows Vista and Seven games that go full screen seem to have had issues with DirectX 9.0. I can't recall if these issues apply to 9.0c so that games and in hindsight, haven't tried playing games like Witcher or Neverwinter Nights 2 on a Windows Vista/Seven system.

Now I'm wondering if I try running the game with Windows Basic visual settings instead of Aero will I trigger the same issue?

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I'm not running DirectX9, I'm running 11. And I'm running Windows 7, but every other game I've played has been fine. I can alt-tab in and out of Sims 3, Spore, SC2, etc. They don't crash. So, it's not the system. It's FF14.

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Originally Posted by GinTama

Okay, i will try to keep it short since its too much work :p.
System is ok but its not rly enough

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RFLMAO My rig has 2 gigs of ram, Geforce 8600M (Have SLI but one of the cards crapped out) 2.20 Intel dualcore and my rig plays *ok* I too have bad npc loading times, but not like the OP (in battle). Saying his rig isn't enough... is crazy. My pos must be magical then!

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Originally Posted by Amyas

RFLMAO My rig has 2 gigs of ram, Geforce 8600M (Have SLI but one of the cards crapped out) 2.20 Intel dualcore and my rig plays *ok* I too have bad npc loading times, but not like the OP (in battle). Saying his rig isn't enough... is crazy. My pos must be magical then!

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LOL.

I don't think it's NPCs loading, though. Because sometimes they'll load, and I'll see them, then they'll disappear. And no matter how long I wait, they don't come back. So I really do think it's a graphics thing, not a network/connection thing.

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Originally Posted by ganfalfxviv

I'm not running DirectX9, I'm running 11. And I'm running Windows 7, but every other game I've played has been fine. I can alt-tab in and out of Sims 3, Spore, SC2, etc. They don't crash. So, it's not the system. It's FF14.

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Two things, first the quoted one: You might have DX11 installed in your computer. However, FFXIV runs with DX9.0c, which means that you are in fact not running DX11 at all, you're running DX9.0c (newer DirectX builds come with the older ones built-in so that older applications can still run, the older versions are literally what runs).

Also, alt-tabbing is not exactly as easy to implement, specially when going from full-screen, as you think it is. It requires your graphics driver doing a lot of 'jumping', changing it's focus from one graphics-heavy application that works one way to another that works a different way. That's why certain older games would crash when alt-tabbing.

The upcoming complete change in graphical system utilized in 2.0 is meant to address those issues.

(and for Fiosha, I run NWN2 on a W7 machine at home and- It does not plays well with alt-tabbing at all)

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Originally Posted by Fiosha_Maureiba

Hi Allastair.

Like many of the folks here, we've become accustomed to the layout and the processes. Many have left, some have stayed. Each with their own motives for playing.

We will see what 2.0 and the following patches bring.

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I may just have to wait until 2.0 to play. I want to play the game, but I'm stuck on the one mission (I think it's called something like Souls something-or-other) where you have to escort the two kids in the forest. I can't pass it because there's this one spot where Powle's being attacked by a monster (I'm assuming it's the same as the first three or four giant mosquito things that I killed) and I can't see or kill the monster. I can watch (him?/her? I'm not sure which) get attacked and take damage, but I can't kill the enemy and therefore I can't complete the quest. Since this is like the only quest I have (I did a few levequests on the side, some of those were actually fun), I assume I need to complete it to go on with the game. At any rate, I don't have much choice but to stop playing, unless I just want to keep repeating the first half of that instance over and over.

I've updated my graphics card driver to the latest version available. According to other people with Radeon cards, that isn't sufficient. It certainly hasn't been sufficient for me. I don't know what else I can do other than wait for SE or a driver update to fix the problem. I mean, I could rather quickly get a degree in programming and fix the problem myself, but I'm definitely not that motivated. :P

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Originally Posted by ganfalfxviv

I may just have to wait until 2.0 to play. I want to play the game, but I'm stuck on the one mission (I think it's called something like Souls something-or-other) where you have to escort the two kids in the forest. I can't pass it because there's this one spot where Powle's being attacked by a monster (I'm assuming it's the same as the first three or four giant mosquito things that I killed) and I can't see or kill the monster. I can watch (him?/her? I'm not sure which) get attacked and take damage, but I can't kill the enemy and therefore I can't complete the quest. Since this is like the only quest I have (I did a few levequests on the side, some of those were actually fun), I assume I need to complete it to go on with the game. At any rate, I don't have much choice but to stop playing, unless I just want to keep repeating the first half of that instance over and over.

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Also to add SOME assistance here: What is your primary battle class? If you have something with a self-centered non-targetted AoE you can bypass the graphic issue by simply running to where you think the monster is and triggering it, it should damage it regardless and that should change it's hate to you-
Of course, that works only if you're willing to actually go through that trouble to continue with the game.

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Originally Posted by ganfalfxviv

I'm not running DirectX9, I'm running 11. And I'm running Windows 7, but every other game I've played has been fine. I can alt-tab in and out of Sims 3, Spore, SC2, etc. They don't crash. So, it's not the system. It's FF14.

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I can't find the places that spoke of it before, but my understanding of it was FF14 (or any of the games that have this issue) are using DirectX 9 code? And though we have DX11 installed, we can run code optimized for DX9 and DX10. And something in one of the methods in DX9 doesn't play well with Vista/Seven (CTRL + ALT + DEL, WIN + L, and the UAC will also crash your game).

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Originally Posted by Skies

Also to add SOME assistance here: What is your primary battle class? If you have something with a self-centered non-targetted AoE you can bypass the graphic issue by simply running to where you think the monster is and triggering it, it should damage it regardless and that should change it's hate to you-
Of course, that works only if you're willing to actually go through that trouble to continue with the game.

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I'm a conjurer. As far as I know, the only offensive spells I have are stone and aero and I think they only target one person. I try using tab to select the monster, but that doesn't work. It just toggles between me and Powle. I'd do that AoE trick if I had such a skill, but then I'm worried that something similar (and more lethal) will happen further down the line.

@OP

As others have mentioned, the game is going to go through a major overhaul by the end of the year, so I'd expect a lot of your issues to be resolved by then. If you're finding some aspects of the game enjoyable, by all means continue playing. You can at least progress your character a little further. (there won't be any character data wipes transitioning to version 2.0)

I don't mind the gathering system much, and as you do it more, you start to memorize where things are based on certain factors. There are also good sources online that tell exactly where you can gather each item with all their parameters. As mentioned earlier, this system was put in place primarily to combat RMT. (not that I think it's affecting bots too much...)

The crafting system has been talked about recently, and it seems it's going to see some big changes for the new version. We will get a recipe book which shows exactly which ingredients are needed for a synth and Yoshida has also mentioned we might be getting one-click synthesis for low difficulty recipes. The current system is set up, once again, to combat bots, but to also make you work to craft that HQ piece of equipment. It wouldn't be very special if everyone could just have a chance to click a button and it may or may not HQ. Why a recipe book wasn't included in the original version is beyond me, but a lot of their design choices with the original game baffle me.

For now, if you see the potential this game has, stick with it and enjoy the current story in place that will go away when the new version comes. I'd expect most of your issues to be resolved by the end of the year. If you can't bear with how the game currently runs, you can always shelve it and come back later when the new version is active.

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Originally Posted by Orophin

@OP

As others have mentioned, the game is going to go through a major overhaul by the end of the year, so I'd expect a lot of your issues to be resolved by then. If you're finding some aspects of the game enjoyable, by all means continue playing. You can at least progress your character a little further. (there won't be any character data wipes transitioning to version 2.0)

I don't mind the gathering system much, and as you do it more, you start to memorize where things are based on certain factors. There are also good sources online that tell exactly where you can gather each item with all their parameters. As mentioned earlier, this system was put in place primarily to combat RMT. (not that I think it's affecting bots too much...)

The crafting system has been talked about recently, and it seems it's going to see some big changes for the new version. We will get a recipe book which shows exactly which ingredients are needed for a synth and Yoshida has also mentioned we might be getting one-click synthesis for low difficulty recipes. The current system is set up, once again, to combat bots, but to also make you work to craft that HQ piece of equipment. It wouldn't be very special if everyone could just have a chance to click a button and it may or may not HQ. Why a recipe book wasn't included in the original version is beyond me, but a lot of their design choices with the original game baffle me.

For now, if you see the potential this game has, stick with it and enjoy the current story in place that will go away when the new version comes. I'd expect most of your issues to be resolved by the end of the year. If you can't bear with how the game currently runs, you can always shelve it and come back later when the new version is active.

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I don't actually mind the act of synthesizing itself--where you have to pick among the three choices until the crafting is complete. What I don't like is the fact that you have to guess what ingredients to use. I mean, yeah, you can go online and look it up somewhere. But it seems to me that it would nicer for the creators to simply include it in the game so I don't have to go to a forum/wiki to look it up, it can just be right there. But, I mean, most games just have a button that you click and it makes the thing for you. I don't mind the non-specialness of that at all. I just want the pants.

And, like I said, even if I want to stick with the game, I can't stick with it, if the monsters keep disappearing. I can sit there and heal myself ad infinitum, but if I can't target and attack the enemy, then I can't really play the game well.

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Originally Posted by ganfalfxviv

I don't actually mind the act of synthesizing itself--where you have to pick among the three choices until the crafting is complete. What I don't like is the fact that you have to guess what ingredients to use. I mean, yeah, you can go online and look it up somewhere. But it seems to me that it would nicer for the creators to simply include it in the game so I don't have to go to a forum/wiki to look it up, it can just be right there. But, I mean, most games just have a button that you click and it makes the thing for you. I don't mind the non-specialness of that at all. I just want the pants.

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I can tell you that the current devteam does intend to include a recipe thing for real in the game come 2.0 (in fact, they have stated that you'll be selecting recipes instead of ingredients in 2.0), but right now they are technically limited and cannot adjust that right now. Indeed that is true so much that the actual Lodestone page has all the recipes (although third-party sites have a far better search and filtering system)

Most of OPs issues will be fixed with 2.0. Some things will be exactly as OP suggests, such as synthesis and equipment swaps.

Check the link in my signature, I think you'll find everything is mentioned there somewhere.

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Originally Posted by ganfalfxviv

And, like I said, even if I want to stick with the game, I can't stick with it, if the monsters keep disappearing. I can sit there and heal myself ad infinitum, but if I can't target and attack the enemy, then I can't really play the game well.

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Just curious, are you only having this problem with that one quest or is it everywhere? I can understand the frustration about not being able to advance the story, but if you can fight things otherwise, you can at least progress your character in the meantime. In some cases (mostly in towns or highly populated areas for current content) the 40 character max draw limit gets reached, but this sounds like something else entirely.

If this is a reoccurring problem for you everywhere, you might want to submit a ticket via the technical support forums and see if there anything they can do for you there. I don't know off the top of my head if there's a known problem with that quest or not or if it's just a general graphics/ATI driver issue. I think I've seen more complaints about Nvidia cards than ATI cards as of late.

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Originally Posted by Orophin

Just curious, are you only having this problem with that one quest or is it everywhere? I can understand the frustration about not being able to advance the story, but if you can fight things otherwise, you can at least progress your character in the meantime. In some cases (mostly in towns or highly populated areas for current content) the 40 character max draw limit gets reached, but this sounds like something else entirely.

If this is a reoccurring problem for you everywhere, you might want to submit a ticket via the technical support forums and see if there anything they can do for you there. I don't know off the top of my head if there's a known problem with that quest or not or if it's just a general graphics/ATI driver issue. I think I've seen more complaints about Nvidia cards than ATI cards as of late.

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It's not just that quest. Like, I'll be in Grinadia in a shop or something and the shopkeeper and other NPCs will just disappear. It's usually everyone in the room/area, but sometimes it's only some people. Like, in that quest, I can see me and Powle but no one else. Once or twice when it's been people in a building that disappear, I can make them reappear by leaving the building, going to another area where there are people, and then coming back. But I've had times where every single person is gone. Every once in a while I'll even disappear, but usually that's just because it's loading my new gear or something.

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Originally Posted by ganfalfxviv

It's not just that quest. Like, I'll be in Grinadia in a shop or something and the shopkeeper and other NPCs will just disappear. It's usually everyone in the room/area, but sometimes it's only some people. Like, in that quest, I can see me and Powle but no one else. Once or twice when it's been people in a building that disappear, I can make them reappear by leaving the building, going to another area where there are people, and then coming back. But I've had times where every single person is gone. Every once in a while I'll even disappear, but usually that's just because it's loading my new gear or something.

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That's strange. Rezoning does require that all character models be reloaded in the current engine, which has invisible zone lines in places. Depending on your connection and system the reloading could take a little while. What's the connection integrity widget doing during this? That's the little icon in the top-right corner with S, R and numbers. If you're mostly disconnected ( R=0 ) then often nothing will load, but you can move freely.

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Originally Posted by ganfalfxviv

When I first started playing, there was also an error that said *"Final Fantasy XIV stopped working" or something like that and just quit the application at that point. I think I fixed that by installing DirectX 11 or something, I'm not sure. But I'm really disappointed in how easy it is to crash this game. I have a nice system, there isn't anything that is wrong with my system itself that should make a game crash. It seems to me that this game is very poorly coded and that all of the effort was spent on the graphics and zero on stability or playability. (The graphics are amazing, btw, but that's entirely useless and pointless when I don't even want to play the game because it's so annoying and crashes all the time.)

Does anyone who works for Square/Enix read this board? If not, is there a place where I can voice these complaints directly to them? I'm just so glad that they give one month free of subscription. I don't want to pay one dollar of monthly fees for this game until it's actually fun to play.

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*I got that message "double attacked" on me just awhile ago...(pissed me off) and I'm NOT about to blame my PC(Duo-Core Quad CPU, 8GB RAM and on Win7)! I feel your pain but I'm a FF-fan boy, I don't think I'll quit anytime soon.
Maybe I would want to upgrade my GeForce GTS 450 but it not really giving my problems ATM(or is it?).

SE really needs critical feed back like this and I'm all for specific improvements over these issues. I'm not so much into code but as much 14 has in it due to UI and other "bells and whistles", it's probably their ambition that's causing the system to crash( much like how Microsoft Windows like s to crash alot).

Ladies and Gentlemen....

Mr. Conway Twitty..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og1QRtcWdEY

LOL, that's just great! ^^

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Originally Posted by REDace0

That's strange. Rezoning does require that all character models be reloaded in the current engine, which has invisible zone lines in places. Depending on your connection and system the reloading could take a little while. What's the connection integrity widget doing during this? That's the little icon in the top-right corner with S, R and numbers. If you're mostly disconnected ( R=0 ) then often nothing will load, but you can move freely.

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I don't have a connection integrity widget. But I can watch the resource manager while the game's running to see if that's the problem. But, if it were, why would it make people disappear? If they're already there, that means they've already loaded. I could understand it being the connection if they were never there to begin with, but that's not the case.

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Originally Posted by PSxpert2011

*I got that message "double attacked" on me just awhile ago...(pissed me off) and I'm NOT about to blame my PC(Duo-Core Quad CPU, 8GB RAM and on Win7)! I feel your pain but I'm a FF-fan boy, I don't think I'll quit anytime soon.
Maybe I would want to upgrade my GeForce GTS 450 but it not really giving my problems ATM(or is it?).

SE really needs critical feed back like this and I'm all for specific improvements over these issues. I'm not so much into code but as much 14 has in it due to UI and other "bells and whistles", it's probably their ambition that's causing the system to crash( much like how Microsoft Windows like s to crash alot).

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I was a fan boy myself, until around FFX when they ruined the series and then it just went downhill from there. I still buy the games and play them just out of loyalty, but none of them has been nearly as fun as 7 and 8 were. They really really need to remake 7 with current-day graphics. It was their best game ever, and SO many people would buy it if they made it.

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Originally Posted by ganfalfxviv

I don't have a connection integrity widget. But I can watch the resource manager while the game's running to see if that's the problem. But, if it were, why would it make people disappear? If they're already there, that means they've already loaded. I could understand it being the connection if they were never there to begin with, but that's not the case.

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You have to have the widget unless you've dragged it off-screen somehow. It's right above the minimap. Those invisible rezone lines could be the cause of things disappearing. You cross one, in town or out west of Bent Branch, and everyone vanishes and starts to reload. If you've ever tried buying directly from the market wards you get the same behavior because it has to temporarily rezone you to where the item is being sold. Both of these are side-effects of some poor design and implementation choices in the server and networking code. The server and networking code are replaced in 2.0.

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Originally Posted by REDace0

You have to have the widget unless you've dragged it off-screen somehow. It's right above the minimap. Those invisible rezone lines could be the cause of things disappearing. You cross one, in town or out west of Bent Branch, and everyone vanishes and starts to reload. If you've ever tried buying directly from the market wards you get the same behavior because it has to temporarily rezone you to where the item is being sold. Both of these are side-effects of some poor design and implementation choices in the server and networking code. The server and networking code are replaced in 2.0.

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Oh, in the game? Is that what that is? I was wondering. It never explained what that was. In fact, most of the UI was unexplained. Some of it is quite obvious, but other parts aren't.

Are you kidding me??? You can't change gear in combat? I mean, that makes sense, but it makes the gatherer classes extremely vulnerable. If I could have a pickax in my off-hand (which it won't let me do) then that'd be fine, because I could still do real damage to the enemies. But if you're attacked while you have one of the wimpy law of the land classes' gear equipped, is there nothing better than running away from the enemy until you're not in combat anymore? I mean, there's the throw rock skill, but it only does like 2 damage per throw.

Either let me change to a battle class when I'm attacked or let me equip the non-battle tools in off-hand so I can still be a conjurer for when I'm attacked.

http://www.mmoworldnet.com/wp/wp-con...llezel_640.jpg

For obvious reasons, I drew this with half-effort.

I also think it's funny when I'm chopping wood and it tells me "You sense maple branches below where you are chopping." immediately followed with "There is nothing left to gather at this location." I suppose that means my senses are wack.

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Originally Posted by ganfalfxviv

I also think it's funny when I'm chopping wood and it tells me "You sense maple branches below where you are chopping." immediately followed with "There is nothing left to gather at this location." I suppose that means my senses are wack.

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That can be weird, yes. But that means that you've just exhausted the node for now (or ran out of attempts I forget which). However, next time you attempt in the same place the maple branches will be in the very same place still, so you know where to aim for next time.

Although most of the issues you are talking about are a problem with the engine/servers/planned to be fixed in 2.0, it seems like you are finding any reason not to like this game. If that's the case, you really should cancel your subscription.

It's totally normal to not like a game. But there are many of us that do like it, are expecting to like it come 2.0, or have grown on it over the past year. Either way, we will continue to play. It's your choice whether or not you want to have faith in SE and 2.0 or give up on it now.

Let me at least say that the improvements that you have heard about are mainly more subtle changes to things like combat, leveling, and the overall flow of the game. And already, there's a lot more to do than there was half a year ago (which one of the complaints during launch was a lack of content)