Did squenix make a mistake by investing too much in graphics and not enough in

[Vivik]

First thing first, if you want to jump and climb buildings and all that other stuff, go play WoW as you mentioned or go play a platformer.

Second, as for another MMORPG, please show me where there is another that has graphics as good as these? And the thing is, unless your running a rather expensive GPU, you can't GET the full blown abilities for the graphics from this engine. That has been stated quite a bit in articles I have read. So please enlighten me personally as to other games that are MMORPG... key acronym there MMORPG that have better graphics then what XIV can actually do when equipped in a performance PC.

The graphics are great, but what is the point if it's unplayable? Why should anyone have to go out and spend 1k on a PC to play a video game? The horrible graphics lag is what keeps me and a large majority of players from playing ffxiv. Every morning I wake up checking the tech support forums hoping for an update for the engine and every morning I am disappointed.

Did you know, since it's inception, the tech support part of the forums has never had a single GM reply? Why is that? People have asked over and over again for information on some kind of engine update so it's playable for them. But nothing is forthcoming by SE.

Ya know what I would like more than a great looking game? One that I didn't spend 140 dollars on (for two CEs) for my wife and I to enjoy together to just have it sit in the closet. If I could I would return it and get my money back.

[Geesus]

The graphics are great, but what is the point if it's unplayable? Why should anyone have to go out and spend 1k on a PC to play a video game? The horrible graphics lag is what keeps me and a large majority of players from playing ffxiv. Every morning I wake up checking the tech support forums hoping for an update for the engine and every morning I am disappointed.

Did you know, since it's inception, the tech support part of the forums has never had a single GM reply? Why is that? People have asked over and over again for information on some kind of engine update so it's playable for them. But nothing is forthcoming by SE.

Ya know what I would like more than a great looking game? One that I didn't spend 140 dollars on (for two CEs) for my wife and I to enjoy together to just have it sit in the closet. If I could I would return it and get my money back.

Well I can't answer the question about why no GM has made an anouncement on the forums but, I can say this; if you had read ahead of time about the minimum and recommended system requirements for this game, you would have been able to either 1) save the money you "wasted" on a game you couldn't play or 2) upgraded your PC(s) in order TO Play the game.

I have a 1k machine but ONLY because I started out wanting to play this game on the best system possible so I could ENJOY all the gfx put into it. Well, I couldn't do all that. The specs for my rig are great sans the GPU 9600 GT. My GPU is the minimum needed to play the game and I don't have any of those issues EXCEPT when in Ul'Dah and even those are minimal. More or less just waiting for my GPU to render what I know is there.

I think it sucks the 2 of you can't play as you would have liked but sorry, this is the case for most newer games that are coming out. Doing your research ahead of time to look at your parts and to make sure they can at least handle the min. Reqs is always important. I can't tell you how many "Can't run game on brand new Win7 64 bit machine with 6 GBs of RAM /rage" comments I have answered. Come to find out the onboard GPU chip is shite! Just cause it can play youtube videos in HD doesn't equate to how it will play a game.

[Coldfire]

That's why I always recommend a highend entry model these days if someone asks for a card that can do games :P
The 100 bucks more is worth the lesser headaches

[Vivik]

Well I can't answer the question about why no GM has made an anouncement on the forums but, I can say this; if you had read ahead of time about the minimum and recommended system requirements for this game, you would have been able to either 1) save the money you "wasted" on a game you couldn't play or 2) upgraded your PC(s) in order TO Play the game.

I have a 1k machine but ONLY because I started out wanting to play this game on the best system possible so I could ENJOY all the gfx put into it. Well, I couldn't do all that. The specs for my rig are great sans the GPU 9600 GT. My GPU is the minimum needed to play the game and I don't have any of those issues EXCEPT when in Ul'Dah and even those are minimal. More or less just waiting for my GPU to render what I know is there.

I think it sucks the 2 of you can't play as you would have liked but sorry, this is the case for most newer games that are coming out. Doing your research ahead of time to look at your parts and to make sure they can at least handle the min. Reqs is always important. I can't tell you how many "Can't run game on brand new Win7 64 bit machine with 6 GBs of RAM /rage" comments I have answered. Come to find out the onboard GPU chip is shite! Just cause it can play youtube videos in HD doesn't equate to how it will play a game.

My system more than meets the required system information for running this game. As a matter of fact my video card was the "recommended" card for this game ( Nvidia Gforce GTX 460). I did research before the game was released and the game actually played fine for us for about a month after launch. After an update our frame rates went to shit and in town we get about 4fps.

I have read a few others having the same problems as we do yet nothing has been addressed on SEs end to fix it.

There is nothing wrong with my machine. I can play just about anything on max with little to no lag. It's SE shit engine that is the problem.

Just to add my PC scored over 4k on the benchmark on full HD (been a while can't remember the settings) I don't really know what else we could have done to research anymore information.

[Geesus]

My system more than meets the required system information for running this game. As a matter of fact my video card was the "recommended" card for this game ( Nvidia Gforce GTX 460). I did research before the game was released and the game actually played fine for us for about a month after launch. After an update our frame rates went to shit and in town we get about 4fps.

I have read a few others having the same problems as we do yet nothing has been addressed on SEs end to fix it.

There is nothing wrong with my machine. I can play just about anything on max with little to no lag. It's SE shit engine that is the problem.

Just to add my PC scored over 4k on the benchmark on full HD (been a while can't remember the settings) I don't really know what else we could have done to research anymore information.

So then it's the XIV updates (doubt it but asking anyways) or the NVIDIA driver update from I think 2 weeks or so ago? I have read and personally cannot explain why you all are having that issue. I did my updates from Nvidia and have no issues. And since others such as myself don't have issues, what makes you think SE is the cause? If it happened to EVERYONE, absolutely I'd totally agree and would be just as upset. So then you have to ask, "Did my update fail or get corrupted or is something on my machine the cause. Maybe, it's the drivers themselves on certain cards OR manufacturers of those cards" Just saying not pointing fingures at you/wife or Nvid OR SE. I deal with this type of stuff all day long so I'm just throwing stuff out there for you to try and assist.

[Vivik]

So then it's the XIV updates (doubt it but asking anyways) or the NVIDIA driver update from I think 2 weeks or so ago? I have read and personally cannot explain why you all are having that issue. I did my updates from Nvidia and have no issues. And since others such as myself don't have issues, what makes you think SE is the cause? If it happened to EVERYONE, absolutely I'd totally agree and would be just as upset. So then you have to ask, "Did my update fail or get corrupted or is something on my machine the cause. Maybe, it's the drivers themselves on certain cards OR manufacturers of those cards" Just saying not pointing fingures at you/wife or Nvid OR SE. I deal with this type of stuff all day long so I'm just throwing stuff out there for you to try and assist.

It started happening long before the most recent driver updates. I actually had installed the updates hoping to get some better frame rates but had to roll the driver back because of a heat problem after using the driver. I have no idea what "broke" the game for us but I remember the update, it was when they fixed the "ticking" sky and moved it to a smooth animation. Like I said, it was a long time ago. Just have not bothered to play but once a week or so just to log in and see it's still broken.

[Felicia]

So then it's the XIV updates (doubt it but asking anyways) or the NVIDIA driver update from I think 2 weeks or so ago? I have read and personally cannot explain why you all are having that issue. I did my updates from Nvidia and have no issues. And since others such as myself don't have issues, what makes you think SE is the cause? If it happened to EVERYONE, absolutely I'd totally agree and would be just as upset. So then you have to ask, "Did my update fail or get corrupted or is something on my machine the cause. Maybe, it's the drivers themselves on certain cards OR manufacturers of those cards" Just saying not pointing fingures at you/wife or Nvid OR SE. I deal with this type of stuff all day long so I'm just throwing stuff out there for you to try and assist.

Totally agree here. I find it funny that some people seem to think devs like to seriously mess with the core gfx engine between patches. Sure they might tweak things here and there, but I doubt they are making serious changes that cause your FPS to go from playable to unplayable.

If I were in your shoes, having known that the game once ran fine and all, I would start investigating the time frame when things started going south. Drivers were mentioned above, what about heat or hardware failure? Maybe a component is getting too hot and throttling? Maybe the PSU is dying and can't feed enough power to the GPU. What about malware and other software issues?

Personally, I'm glad the PCs have become more accessible (price and stability) in the last decade or so. However there's a reason why it used to take a good bit of knowledge and patience to properly troubleshoot issues (thinks back to VIA chipsets *shudders*).

[Rydin]

The graphics are great, but what is the point if it's unplayable? Why should anyone have to go out and spend 1k on a PC to play a video game?

Off the top of my head I can list quite a few games that require very hefty systems to run adequately....

Metro 2033, Witcher 2, Crysis 2, Shogun 2... Metro 2033 is even worse than FFXIV... Running it on 2560x1600 with Max AA, tessellation, max textures, shadows... have fun with that.
Try needing multiple cards to run it max

[Ilean]

Off the top of my head I can list quite a few games that require very hefty systems to run adequately....

Metro 2033, Witcher 2, Crysis 2, Shogun 2... Metro 2033 is even worse than FFXIV... Running it on 2560x1600 with Max AA, tessellation, max textures, shadows... have fun with that.
Try needing multiple cards to run it max

They may require monster systems to be maxed out, but my PC that pumps witcher 2's beautiful environments at 45 fps on medium settings will choke on FFXIV if more than 3 people are on screen.

Also the idea that a MMO may not have action based gameplay is as stupid as saying that JRPGs may only have menu based combat. Technical or design limitations may have limited gameplay to slow, uninvolving gameplay in the genre's early years but there is no reason why it should stay that way forever.

[Rydin]

They may require monster systems to be maxed out, but my PC that pumps witcher 2's beautiful environments at 45 fps on medium settings will choke on FFXIV if more than 3 people are on screen.

Yea... but there is a certain type of person that wants to run maxed settings with the min requirements....
and gets mad at the game when their card can't do 2560x1600 with 16xaa

Also the idea that a MMO may not have action based gameplay is as stupid as saying that JRPGs may only have menu based combat. Technical or design limitations may have limited gameplay to slow, uninvolving gameplay in the genre's early years but there is no reason why it should stay that way forever.

for the record, I don't have a problem with action based gameplay in an MMO... I'm guessing that part wasn't aimed at me.. but just sayin....