FFXIV Bitter Sweet

[Gaddes]

This right here is exactly why I was afraid of these devs taking over XIV in the first place, they did the same thing to XI by releasing Abyssea, they just don't comprehend the meaning of progress much less the meaning of balance.

As a long-time player of FFXI who escaped that ship right before Abyssea, one of the easiest things they could've done in that game to prevent burn out would've been to increase the drop rates. That would've been my idea of "balancing" that game... so much frustration farming Sea/Sky/etc for kills that would sometimes not drop anything at all, or drop a single item 1 time out of 6 that people would then fight over. Oddly enough though, the grind in that game felt less boring than some of the grinding in this one so far...

[Dragonskin]

I do wish NMs weren't given the FATE treatment and it would be nice if some of these can have their difficulty ramped up way more. At least in FFXIV there is no real penalty for dying (i count that as a positive and a negative) so why not make them a lot more deadly?

I'm torn on the death penalty in modern games. I don't miss deleveling... and I don't really miss corpse runs.. but the current trend of just getting gear damage as a money sink to combat the ever inflating economy is just as lame.

[MistressAthena]

As a long-time player of FFXI who escaped that ship right before Abyssea, one of the easiest things they could've done in that game to prevent burn out would've been to increase the drop rates. That would've been my idea of "balancing" that game... so much frustration farming Sea/Sky/etc for kills that would sometimes not drop anything at all, or drop a single item 1 time out of 6 that people would then fight over. Oddly enough though, the grind in that game felt less boring than some of the grinding in this one so far...

Because FFXI had a soul, it had a community. You met people, got to know people, hundreds on a daily basis due to how the game made you work together on literally everything. Sea/Sky/Dynamis, etc. were fun, they were fun because you knew that's not the only thing you had to do. There were NM's, leveling other jobs, doing numerous side quests, and the stories, etc. etc. etc. This is why End Game didn't seem as tedius or boring in FFXI.

As for "Well this game just came out" excuse, doesn't fly for me. Why? Because even if they do add more story it'll be "ok, lets finish the story in a week and go back to grinding out those endless dungeons!" Yea... NO thanks.

The combat system in FFXI had more depth than this as well, and dieing was actually worth something in a negative way. Also made the grind less tedius and more exhilarating.

I do wish NMs weren't given the FATE treatment and it would be nice if some of these can have their difficulty ramped up way more. At least in FFXIV there is no real penalty for dying (i count that as a positive and a negative) so why not make them a lot more deadly?

I'm torn on the death penalty in modern games. I don't miss deleveling... and I don't really miss corpse runs.. but the current trend of just getting gear damage as a money sink to combat the ever inflating economy is just as lame.

I honestly don't mind Armor degrading, since.. that's realistic. I don't like how they do it though in modern games.

The thing I hate most about how they combat the "economy". Is "Soul binding" Armor. I find that the most lame, because not only does it make no sense, its proof that the game is bogged down in free or armor, or that the players are given way to much of it, that they have to literally put a stop mechanic in to make sure it all won't go back into the markets.

Again, sorry for the FFXI comparison, but in FFXI the weapons/Armors were alot harder to come by, allowing me to buy it, then sell it. Was just more realistic, and balanced out the economy by itself since the markets were not being injected with thousands of free gear hourly.

Note: Again, not saying it needs to be exactly like FFXI! Just chill out on the free armor SE let the crafters actually have something worthy of making.. There is more than enough crafters to keep the markets going even if the quests gave no armor or weapons at all.

[OnyxStrife]

This is exactly why I'm only playing this game/staying subbed to it until Wild Star comes out. If they fix things before that day comes, I'll stick with this. But if they don't, I'm outty. It's just a timesink while I have no other games to play.

[Randalthor]

Thanks for putting this together. I think you have nicely laid out the main issues with this game.

I subscribed for 3 months as I think that is sufficient time to give an MMO a chance and see the direction it will go in.

As it stands right now, I will not be resubscribing unless many of these things get addressed. I understand that these would be fundamental changes to the game, but necessary for long term success.

I will be incredibly disappointed if SE handles the new jobs just like SMN where there is barely a SMN story and its synced to the lvl that the parent class is at so you don't have to lvl it at all in order to get to 50. Also, you share your attribute points between all jobs under a class so SCH/SMN share attribute points which is moronic considering that one is DPS and one is a healer.

As a FF fan since FF2 in the US, I am pretty disappointed at what this game was in 1.0 and even more disappointed that they still couldn't get it right for 2.0.

[BlackHaloJT]

I think referencing FFXI is justified. Any game that is still going after 11 years had some soul to it. It had everything you said. Like I said in one of my posts I'm sure a lot of people that played the first FFXIV also played FFXI. What I can't justify is people saying well "this game ARR just came out give it time" But the truth is it didn't just come out it just got covered up into something that is a abomination. When FFXIV V1 came out it was a shocking transition. No one knew what to think of it since most thought it would be FFXI part 2. The people that stuck with the game voiced their opinions and with enough voices the devs took notice. What transpired was a series of events that led to a decent foundation where it left off called 1.23. Yes it needed a lot of work it was by far the perfect game. But then two years later we have V2 ARR and I'm guessing most of us on this thread as myself look around and ask wtf happened.

Did meteor hit and brainwash the devs? Blizzard top executives came swooping in after Bahamut's destruction and charmed the dev team. All they could see were dollar signs and sold their soul. And that is exactly where we are today a copy and paste with a Final Fantasy title for icing on the cake. You can only sugarcoat something for so long.

[MistressAthena]

Gotta say, the fact that they pair people up from separate servers for dungeons is a shame.. SO many people I had a great time with that I'll never see again, or can even contact.. It's a true shame that they made the world so small and cater to a much smaller population than other games under the guise that the duty finder will fill the dungeons. Makes the community even more separated and cut.

[Stargazer_Bleu]

Reading through some of these post I do agree with them for FF XIV.
It is a fun game, and I been enjoying it. Tho it seems like it does want to rush you to end level.

I also played FF XI for years, stopped shortly after the 99 cap.
Before abyessa, it really made you work together, even for lower levels.
This game lets you solo easy to the end,(with a few minor dungeons it seems) then makes you work for the end things.

There is no training for major things. In FF XI you really learned the job/class as you got closer to end game.
Even crafting seems a lot easier.
I do not get the grand feeling I did as from FF XI from starting at level 1 and earning my way up.
Or like the feeling when you got that emperian weapon finished(or at the lvl 75 version)

Tho I am curious as to what the earlier play styles of FF XIV were like.
I heard ver 1 had like job and weapon levels. Well I hope the feature big updates will add great stuff.

(Edit) Hope some of this makes sense. Got little sleep cause of neighbors blasting music all night/early morn

[MistressAthena]

I also played FF XI for years, stopped shortly after the 99 cap.
Before abyessa, it really made you work together, even for lower levels.

I stopped just before Abysea. It's a shame really I'd still be playing FFXI for a full 11 years if they hadn't completely changed it.. =/

[Jocko]

As many people predicted it would during the Alpha and Beta, ARR fell right into the same trap nearly every single other modern MMO falls into; Too much focus on 'content'. That sounds weird to say but it's true. They focused entirely on instanced dungeons and boss fights, and structured their game to progress players quickly and individually through that content. What this results in, as it does for every MMO developer, is that they can't make content fast enough to deal with the pace people complete it at and all of this horrible filler quest grinding between the actually decent story bits

When what they should have done was create a game whose primary source of content emerges from players interacting with other players. An intricate player run economy, heavy player reliance in progression, and long term character growth instead of this 'cap in a week' mentality followed by mindless dungeon runs over and over