post 1.19 reviw by MMORPG.com

[Jennestia]

I'm sorry, I am failing to see what makes the UI the "pink elephant in the room". Its hardly horrible and I personally thought and still think the slide-out aspect of it is nice. If you're going to include crafting as part of the "UI" then well ehhhh.

The ONLY problem with the interface that isn't a player preference is the fact it is a server side interface, which with improper server optimization produced the delays we experience.

[Tibian]

I'm sorry, I am failing to see what makes the UI the "pink elephant in the room". Its hardly horrible and I personally thought and still think the slide-out aspect of it is nice. If you're going to include crafting as part of the "UI" then well ehhhh.

1. Fading animations create unncessary time 'lag.'
2. The endless grocery list of 200 items can get extremely taxing to look through.
3. You can only trade 4 items at one time.
4. There is no mail delivery system.
5. LS Administration UI is non existant, in fact, the entire LS menu has no information at all (Location, Player level, Class, etc).
6. Drag and drop doesn't exist.
7. Very few world objects can be interacted with with the mouse.
8. Name tags above characters obstruct targeting with the mouse. There should be individual options to turn on/off Self Name, Player Names, NPC Names, Enemy Names, Object Names.
9. When selling/buying/or exchanging an item to retainers there is a 2-3 second lag that confirms you purchased something.
10. There is no buyback feature.
11. When casting a spell, you need to target an enemy, hit your spell keybind, then choose AOE or Non AOE, then confirm your target again (even though you're already targeting it) with enter.
12. Macros take literally 30 seconds to a minute to fully execute.
13. Multiple action bars are not shown on the screen, making it difficult to select spells in time intensive situations becuase you have to toggle to another bar. There should be multiple action bars shown on the UI at all times.
14. Buff/Debuffs cannot be moused over on the party unit frames for any information, while many icons still share the same or similar design making it difficult to differentiate.
15. Timers are not shown on party unit frames.
16. You cannot rotate the party unit frames right or left or adjust the buff/debuff icon locations.

And the biggest reason why the UI sucks, is because it is primarily server side, not client side. Making the UI more streamlined and functional would increase player satisfaction with the game immensely. We're battling not only monster mechanics, but server problems and terrible archaic UI systems as well. We should ONLY be battling monster mechanics.

The list continues. I just thought I'd make sure you know why the interface is such a massive issue and needs to be completely redone.

[Mustang]

i agree fully with this new review, its quite fair imo.

[ddc]

[SIZE="7"]INCOMING WALL OF TEXT TAKE COVER[/SIZE]

This article is pretty much spot on. More or less.

I agree with DDC, first post person.

I like to lurk mostly. More interested in reading other people posts than making my own most of the time. Plenty of threads have posts that say what I think anyway.

okay way to sound like every other tard who doesn't know about the dev swap and how they had

1st of all, please use quotation marks or something that makes it clear when you are quoting and when are stating your own opinion. It makes your posts easier to read. No, I'm not trying to be a jerk or grammar nazi (man my last post had so many errors that I actually found).

Anyway, he's a tard for not following FFXIV's development? According to your post he says it's "beyond me". That another way of saying "I don't know". He sounds ignorant because he's stating he's ignorant. I've seen the word "western" (though it may have been in the same post) too many times in this thread. Is releasing and charging $50 for a game that typically described as "unfinished" and sending the game back into beta testing for a year for the game to still be unfinished an eastern development concept? The game should have reached stability after the beta ended. It's a year later. After paying $50, it's fair for people to expect a finished game when the game released rather than in an uncertain future.

Over dramatic, if you hate the UI, you hate the UI. Personally I thought it was a good mix between the current UI's of lame mmos, and XI's UI which I love, but see how opinion is in my statement? Yeah liking or not liking a UI isn't a matter of "i hate this UI and so does everyone else", that guy hates the UI, he probably likes the Western Wow clone UI model, some of us hate it (wow didn't invent it but it is most notable)

I agree with this mostly. I don't agree with "he probably likes the Western Wow clone UI model, some of us hate it (wow didn't invent it but it is most notable)". I really don't like when people say "He doesn't like X because (I think) he like Y". Y=popular alternative that the speaking dislikes . It's a pretty bad ad hominem. You are right though. He should have stated whats wrong with the UI instead of simply calling it trash. As previously stated (albeit unclearly), I also enjoy FFXIV's (and ffxi's) UI and detest WoW's UI.

Again just pure opinion, not even trying to give and unbiased view. Some people who didn't grow up playing WoW and more modern mmos wanted the combat to slow down, if you didn't like that they made it slower this game is not for you. This guy assumes there's a standard of mmos, not that there are multiple genres in mmos, and that he's not the guy for this one.

While the combat is slow. Regardless, of course it's his opinion. He's a review writing his impressions. It's his job to state his opinion.

Here you go with "western" again. Was FFXI your first mmorpg? Most mmorpg's both older and newer than FFXI have much faster combat systems.
Here's a youtube video of a korean game that was released a year before FFXI: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRWYb9gc8tg

The combat is actually slower now.

Games don't have to be accessible to people, devs have the right to develop a game however they want and take a risk on sells.

You are 70% right. Developers don't have to make games accessible if they don't want to so long as they are their own publisher. They just need to be cool with losing money because nobody who isn't a masochist is going to pay money for it. You don't have make a game inaccessible to be difficulty. Only crappy games do that. Ninja Gaiden on xbox was a fairly difficult game that didn't tie your hands behind your back (though it did put an eye patch on you in the way of a crappy camera). Contra on the nes is another one.

[Yves]

Look, Final Fantasy players are the snobs of the MMO world and it isn't a bad thing. Most of us love the complexity of XI and enjoy the surface concepts of XIV as they are moving in that direction. FF fans also have generally enjoyed that the game if often times unguided in what needs to be done next - it keeps the lazy players out. We all like these aspects of the game. We love the grueling pace of the game (for evidence, look at all the QQ about power-leveling and PL'ing.)

With that said, a lot of people don't. In fact, most people don't. It isn't uncommon to see people in XI join and then leave two weeks later when they weren't capped (pre-abby.) The same thing is true in this game. The general public doesn't clamor for a complex, difficult, time-consuming game that punishes ignorance - they want games that reward the smallest of actions.

I can understand the viewpoint of the review (despite my and their bias) and respect it. And after doing that, I'm more than happy to go back and play XIV with the thousands who the feel the same way that I do.

[Cxplorer]

Totatly agree with the review! The game is needs a lot of changes to attrack new people. Otherwise,it will fail. Gamers now a days don't want to play a frustating game like FFXI or this game. They want something fun and enjoyable.

[ddc]

The public doesn't like for a video game to be a lot like working a second job. The power leveling issue is an issue because it defeats the purpose of even having levels. The reason people quit is because it's a boring grind. The main issue with most mmorpgs is that it's a boring grind. You spend hours in one area fighting a uninteresting fight until you are strong enough to move up to the next area and rinse, repeat until you get to make level. FFXI went the extra mile by making impossible to solo decently without the right class combination and required you to level two job to not suck at the game. Difficult is not the right word to describe it. Tedious is what it is. It's difficult (and fun) when you got pass the boring parts which is the entire leveling process. The only fun battles that gave a reasonable amount of experience from and are able to grind in are high level. Everything else have time limits on them. God forbid we have too much fun in the game. You have to work for it. Neither FFXI nor FFXIV are any more complex than other mmorpg's, on the market. They are just more tedious and uninviting. That's why I had to stop playing FFXI. The level cap rose and I decided I couldn't handle anymore of it. Even when I tried, I couldn't ever find a party or get one going anyway. I really enjoy FFXIV. So I'm hoping they add more content for all level ranges. Til then, I'm going back to mining. Ironically, I happen to gathering and crafting. It feels more involving and rewarding than in most games even though I'm just doing the same repetitive actions over and over. I also like being able to craft my own gear that's not underwhelming. I made my own shield and boy am I happy.

I can't express how much I really do enjoy the game despite it's problems. That's why I'm so vocal about it. I'm very eager to see it improve even more.

Completely unrelated, (I can't find a PM button) are you SSC Yves?

[Yves]

The public doesn't like for a video game to be a lot like working a second job. The power leveling issue is an issue because it defeats the purpose of even having levels. The reason people quit is because it's a boring grind. The main issue with most mmorpgs is that it's a boring grind. You spend hours in one area fighting a uninteresting fight until you are strong enough to move up to the next area and rinse, repeat until you get to make level. FFXI went the extra mile by making impossible to solo decently without the right class combination and required you to level two job to not suck at the game. Difficult is not the right word to describe it. Tedious is what it is. It's difficult (and fun) when you got pass the boring parts which is the entire leveling process. The only fun battles that gave a reasonable amount of experience from and are able to grind in are high level. Everything else have time limits on them. God forbid we have too much fun in the game. You have to work for it. Neither FFXI nor FFXIV are any more complex than other mmorpg's, on the market. They are just more tedious and uninviting. That's why I had to stop playing FFXI. The level cap rose and I decided I couldn't handle anymore of it. Even when I tried, I couldn't ever find a party or get one going anyway. I really enjoy FFXIV. So I'm hoping they add more content for all level ranges. Til then, I'm going back to mining. Ironically, I happen to gathering and crafting. It feels more involving and rewarding than in most games even though I'm just doing the same repetitive actions over and over. I also like being able to craft my own gear that's not underwhelming. I made my own shield and boy am I happy.

I can't express how much I really do enjoy the game despite it's problems. That's why I'm so vocal about it. I'm very eager to see it improve even more.

Completely unrelated, (I can't find a PM button) are you SSC Yves?

OMFG KID! Dood! No idea you were playing haha. You actually come up in LS conversations sometimes. I think Knocker might have mentioned that you sounded like Eddie Murphy on Skype. Either him or someone else. Hope things are going well!

Ironically, this brings me to a really interesting point about the FF MMO franchise - community. The game seems to keep a pretty tight-knit following which is a really cool aspect.

[Cichy]

At this moment in time, Final Fantasy XIV is an odd bird. Patch 1.19 has made some great changes, but the roadblocks still remain for a player that had issues at launch. The same disagreeable decisions remain and look likely to be around a while. For someone who has stuck through the bad times, this patch is great, excellent, and a fine addition, but for those who need a reason to go back, this is not it yet. Like last time, Square are still some ways off, and a massive overhaul is still needed - but, without wishing to be too negative, it is slowly progressing and it may not be the complete train wreck once thought. There is a glimmer of hope, and as a Final Fantasy fan, I desperately hope the developers make it the game it should and can be.

This sum up is very fair. 1.19 has been great but the game still remains unpleasant and hardly accessible for newcomers.

[AarosLunos]

Replies below:

You can only trade 4 items at one time.

This is true, but is going to be revamped

There is no mail delivery system.

SE has stated several times that this is being worked on

LS Administration UI is non existant, in fact, the entire LS menu has no information at all (Location, Player level, Class, etc)

SE has also acknowledged this issue. Sounds like they are starting to work on it!

Drag and drop doesn't exist.

This is also being added...

Very few world objects can be interacted with with the mouse.

This was more of a problem pre-1.19 especially because of aetherytes and nodes being interact only.

When selling/buying/or exchanging an item to retainers there is a 2-3 second lag that confirms you purchased something.

There seems to be a large misconception about this within the community. While this was the norm back in beta, I have not experienced this in nearly 10 months. Now, I have done some testing on this, computers that barely meet the minimum requirements will have strange lag issues, computers that exceed those requirements do not have the issue.

When casting a spell, you need to target an enemy, hit your spell keybind, then choose AOE or Non AOE, then confirm your target again (even though you're already targeting it) with enter.

There are several fallacies to this point. If you are using macros you can specify whether to use AOE and which target without it requiring a sub target or extra UI prompting. Also using the aoe command will allow you to toggle the UI element I believe.

Macros take literally 30 seconds to a minute to fully execute.

Macro speed for equipment and action swaps does suck. But that is not a UI issue as it is an optimization issue.

Multiple action bars are not shown on the screen, making it difficult to select spells in time intensive situations becuase you have to toggle to another bar. There should be multiple action bars shown on the UI at all times.

This is in the works too.

And the biggest reason why the UI sucks, is because it is primarily server side, not client side.

Again that is patently false. This is an old throw back from beta when there were debug traps in the game engine. The only effective way to debug any issue in a client-server environment like this is to return the data to the servers for evaluation. This is what was causing beta era UI lag.

Are you going to make claims that the UI also sucks because of no hardware mouse? LOL