What's your first impression of Eureka?

[The_Distinguished_Anarchist]

Part 1.
At 1000 characters per post, it’s going to take several posts to describe how complex the awfulness is, so bear with me:

In a word?

Appalling.

I have long maintained that the one of the best selling points of Final Fantasy XIV: ARR is how little it resembles both Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV 1.0. This zone is a combination of slightly watered down versions of the two worst features of Final Fantasy XI, and a mechanic highly reminiscent of similar hamstringing mechanics in other MMO's I have played. The results of this combination are worse in more ways than one. I will elaborate on these issues at length below:

[The_Distinguished_Anarchist]

Part 2.
1. Bad influences from FFXI
At it's launch, Final Fantasy XI was an objectively bad game. Personal tastes aside, it is not something that the vast majority of gamers would enjoy spending time playing. There are many reasons for this, but the primary one is that the adventuring and exploration aspects of the game were irreparably damaged by a pair of clashing mechanics. Considered individually-- as I believe they were conceived-- they do make sense to include. But it wasn't long into the game before they overlap, and playing Final Fantasy XI became a recreational chore. I did not play Final Fantasy XI through most of its expansions, so my perspective is entirely from the early months of the game.

Mechanic A. Players lose experience when they die.

Mechanic B. You must be in a party to get anything accomplished.

[The_Distinguished_Anarchist]

Part 3.
The result of combining A and B? You have an online adventure game in which no one ever wants to adventure. You're stuck grinding with everybody else, whether you want to or not, because it's the only way you'll ever be able to get anywhere. The designers wanted to make an immersive cooperative adventure game; losing EXP for losing battles was just another means of giving players a more personal stake in an enveloping game world. The players responded to this by creating a culture of standardized EXP parties, undermining the entire "adventure" aspect for which the game world was presumably created.

[TarynH]

Part 1.
At 1000 characters per post, it’s going to take several posts to describe how complex the awfulness is, so bear with me:

You can get past the 1000 character limit by posting something at or under 1000 characters, and then editing the post, and pasting the rest in.

[The_Distinguished_Anarchist]

EDIT: Good to know

However, a new feature was introduced in Eureka that is worse. So much worse. The Notorious Monster Train. This is a gigantic horde of players who make their way from one side of the zone to the other doing nothing but slaughtering the mobs that cause the NM fates to spawn. If your party is unfortunate enough to be leveling on a particular mob that spawns that monster, you are done until the fate has been spawned and the train moves on. Might as well sit down and do nothing until then, or try to find another mob that the train is not eradicating.

That the above issue can be solved by simply "not trying to XP grind on mobs that spawn the NM's" is not a solution to the problem. Especially not for players dedicated obsessed enough to keep a map handy with the locations of mobs and their levels.

2. Bad influences from other games.
The other mechanic introduced is the concept of the Magia Board and Magicite. To explain this problems with this system, I'd like to talk for a moment about another MMO called The Secret World (recently relaunched as Secret World Legends), and a now defunct mechanic that was present in an end-game zone called the AEGIS system.

The AEGIS system was essentially a system of shields that were placed onto enemy mobs in that zone. Before you could do damage to a mob, you first had to bring down their shield. There were three types of shields: demonic, cybernetic, and psionic, and three equippable AEGIS disruptors that corresponded to each shield. You additionally had three equippable shields of your own that reduced damage from the respective mobs. It was imperative that you equipped the proper controllers when facing a mob of the given type, or you would die a very quick death.

The default game controls for switching your AEGIS were awkward and extremely difficult to use, which lead to most players getting a third-party mod that switched your controllers automatically, thus rendering the whole mechanic largely redundant.

It was also a combat mechanic that brought literally nothing new to the game. Same abilities and effects with an artificial increase in difficulty. There was no skill involved with the AEGIS system and no tactics beyond the rare enemy that had more than one type of shield that needed to be taken down, requiring you to switch your controllers on the fly in battle-- which triggered a several second long global cooldown that could only be improved by leveling the controllers up. ...I should mention at this point that the AEGIS controllers also featured a leveling system in they improved slightly with increased use-- more damage dealt to mobs, less damage taken from mobs, and most importantly a shorter cooldown upon switching to them.

In the end, the system brought virtually no improvement to the game whatsoever. It was a boring, restrictive process that stifled the combat experience, and was unsurprisingly chucked from the game with the relaunch.

The Magia board shares a number of striking similarities with the AEGIS system. And sadly they share the same underlying problem. The elemental leveling system and the Magia board are supposed to feel like a progression mechanic. Something to build upon the existing combat system and allow further customization of builds to compliment one's play style. Instead it is the complete opposite: a completely vertical gear check that forces players to gear up to get out. The massive grind duration that this system entails is not exactly welcoming to players who only have a few hours to play each week. The only purpose for systems like the AEGIS and the Magia board should be as reminders for how terrible an idea it is to gate progression behind a gear check.

[Ruf]

Part 1.
At 1000 characters per post, it’s going to take several posts to describe how complex the awfulness is, so bear with me:

In a word?

Appalling.

I have long maintained that the one of the best selling points of Final Fantasy XIV: ARR is how little it resembles both Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV 1.0. This zone is a combination of slightly watered down versions of the two worst features of Final Fantasy XI, and a mechanic highly reminiscent of similar hamstringing mechanics in other MMO's I have played. The results of this combination are worse in more ways than one. I will elaborate on these issues at length below:

I have to say that i like where this is going already! pls let me say that this first post already resume it for me ^^ ty

[Aomine1992]

So after actually just playing and having fun I have to say from a social aspect and a overall coorprative play aspect this was the best thing they did, it reminds me of ffxi and farming fates in northern thanalan...

- people are actually talking to each other and working together as a team, people are going out of their way to help others, and you spend so much time interacting with others you don't even notice how time flys by, I've made more friends in Eureka then I have almost my whole time playing this game. The grind for the first couple steps of the relic weapon doesn't make ppl want to split their wrist.

There are still some obvious issues with Eureka but not to bad SE...

[Texa]

At high levels it's like you're doing your best to build a big elaborate sand castle but then when it's done the kids come and throw snakes at it until you die.

[Ruf]

you spend so much time

I am glad it is working for you because that is what i read & comprehend from your post. If Eureka was what you needed to make more friends well good for you.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

I am glad it is working for you because i read this from your post.

Way to cut down everything to "you spend so much time" lol.

I just finished my first relic, and it didn't take more than 20 or so hours, probably less. And I enjoyed it. Atma took longer for most people, and then on top of that, you had to do the books.