My review of the 1.20 from a GAME DESIGN perspective.

[KenJammin]

From a design point this game gets some things right and some things totally wrong. They'res some pretty strange things that are finally out and we can now comment on them, speculations that came out true as well as some of the design elements that show a strong understanding of FFXIV's basic combat.

Whats confusing to me is some elements make no advancement to combat depth but have been added regardless while others have made tremendous strides to streamline combat. I've never been so baffled by a developers ability to make some really good decisions and really bad ones all at the same time. So lets get to it!

1. Combo System:
First of I think its safe to say most people love the combo system, It gives meaning to old weapon skills in the game as well as giving players opportunities to do lots of damage in one quick sweep, really fun to notice big chunks of damage coming out of enemies as opposed to slowly chipping away at them like in FFXI.
Element that wasn't thought out:
Yep you guessed it positioning, I think everyone going into this update was weary about this from the first place and yep it makes as little sense as people thought it would. What combat advantage to I gain attacking enemies from the side? Some of it makes sense, like attacking from the rear (so long as they fix the abusable targeting system to make it so even solo you can still back attack, without para/stun/etc), even attacking an enemy thats currently targeting you (GLD), but i don't understand the point of attacking enemies from the side. Who is having trouble moving to the side of an enemy and hitting a button? I feel like SE is insulting my intelligence here, am i supposed to feel proud of myself for remembering to re-position myself before doing an attack? I mean they'res no coordination here what-so-ever on any other party member before i do it.

The only possible argument you can make for such a lazy gimmicky mechanic is it encourages players to practice organized hate management for the sake of,(and get ready for this) BEING ABLE TO ACCOUNT FOR ENEMY AND PLAYER POSITION LAG!

I guess my real point here is for the sake of this games combat enemies only need 2 hemispheres of attack zones, back and front. Just simplify the system and make all the side position weapon skills condition-less since any one solo or organized player need only a lag free environment to pull them of consistently.

2. Armory system:
I was a fan of the armory system, I like the new system better but i don't understand the point of the new one. Everyones going to have second wind, bloodbath, cure, and raise. Some of the more experienced players will have chameleon maybe but outside of pandering to a new players fantasy of character customization the system serves no real purpose anymore. I get its supposed to make the Classes stand out from the Jobs in the future but why not just give classes they're own unique skills to make them stand out from jobs? Especially considering 80% of the "customizeable" (yes i put that in quotes on purpose) abilities are mostly defensive or healing related abilities and have no real bearing on the bulk of the characters now thankfully more defined class identity.

So all that said i'm calling you out SE this system is to delude new players. Just like the failed subjob system in FFXI. Its a great business idea but I think the newer age of gamers wont be fooled and think you need to abandon gimmicks with respect to the intelligence of gamers that appreciate streamlined content and won't be disappointed when they realize second wind and cure will always be on their action bar...

3. Player Search:
Nailed it SE Nice work.
Gotta give credit where credit is due.
You can set the job your looking for partys as while being another job. Brilliant should have been in FFXI a LOOOOOOONG time ago, mixed with the ability to teleport anywhere and you can now solo leve's, craft, do quests, while looking for a party. Brilliant simply brilliant.

4. The Attributes:
I thought I was going to hate it but it actually got me to pay more attention to my stats which i think FF games need considering the fact that SE LOVES calculation modifications based on level difference, (can't blame them its a good calculation western developers should adopt, it makes character growth more prominent while still preserving end game discrepancies.)
My only issue here is let us reset it, In a game where players can change jobs why lock us into types? If i want my lancer to be solo oriented with points in mind and vit for a period of time why not let me experiment with that for a bit, the point reset based on time that was in before 1.18 was a really smart and new age solution to the common problem of stats reset issues. I'll leave this at that since i don't know if SE has any plans to let us reset stats, i believe it was eluded they'red be something added in the future i just want to encourage it being added in case Yoshi-P is on the fence about it.

All and all the game so far shows A LOT of promise. Some of the new elements that got introduced I feel like i have a right to speculate about, some of the other stuff like EXP, the contrast between doing end game fights for equipment vs affixing materia i'm going to give them some time to sort out.

The new UI's for party search and abilities are snappy and crisp, and simple things like drawing weapons no longer slowing you down to even the chocobo music getting quite when you stand still really show that someone at SE is paying attention to the more subtle annoyances.

But from a game design perspective the development team is still showing signs of immaturity, I hope they continue to ask themselves the tough questions like "What about our game is different then every other MMO!?", "What about FFXIV advances the genra of online RPG gaming!?", instead of falling into the pattern of "well we don't fully understand it but maybe people will like it anyway" mentality that got them into so much trouble in the first place...

That is a long post, I love this game, I love seeing so many new ideas coming out of FFXIV, as always SE has my continued support.

Post your comments, your feelings with out reading my post or the other posters cause you have no etiquette, or whatever else you want. I don't know anyone else who nerds over this game and I think if i bore my girlfriend with anymore details about it she's going to leave me, so thanks for reading lodestone users.

[Firon]

Actually the positioning of the combo system is fine i pull of my combo's 95% of the time until someone decided to move the target, Also when solo every class can do an 1> 2 combo, those solo combo's do enough dmg to kill stuff in a few seconds. Now the only thing i feel like they should tweak on the combo system is the mp cost for mages. Mages need their mp cost reduced for combo's they don't have to wave the mp cost like tp but at least make them cost 50% of the spell amount.

I don't think its fair melee get 2 free ws but we pay full mp for magic combo's, the thunder combo currently cost around 1.3k mp, which is about 33% of my mp pool.

[Lunae]

Unfortunately for me, the graphics (I guess it's with a combo?) for THM casting elemental spells, and getting that brilliant light on yourself with a success has made this game unplayable for me I wound up with a migraine when I was testing things out with my husband on level 50 sheep up near Riversmeet last night and 15-20 minutes of the half hour or so, I was only targeting something, then having to look at another screen while I pressed the buttons.

I did have to push everything that had used the neon blue text into a separate text box too when they'd changed it a few patches back.

[viion]

I agree with most of what you said except 3. Player Search, as I dont think its the correct system and still find a lot of flaws in it, but everything else is good.

[ViciousValentine]

Im not trying to troll..im just really upset about Thaumaturge. While I understand the icons and spell effects are mostly filler, the actual mana regen system is very poor. The Conj recieved a very balanced mp-regeneration system which really works in dungeons and primals. While I find myself standing a corner as thm waiting for my mana to regen 50% of the time. I love the risk-reward gameplay...and i love a heavy nuker...but this class just feels strange. I don't think Square Enix should design games based on standing and doing nothing waiting to DPS. All of the Thm mana-regen abilities are poor and restore a small portion of what you actually need. 4mp per hit...come on >_< 714mp to cast my best spell.. All i can say is im glad Conj is rid of it.

[Betelgeuzah]

Bard will make it all better.

So will BLM.

[Catapult]

Point re-allocations are meant to be possible very soon - they just couldn't get them working for this patch.

Planning is underway to give players the option to undo point allotment in a future patch.

[ChiefCurrahee]

I don't mind the positional modifiers on WS. It adds a slight element of strategy in an otherwise auto-attack > WS battle system.

The armoury system I also don't mind, While I'll have staple skills set to my bar nearly 100% of the time like 2nd wind and Cure as you've pointed out. However It allows me to take up skills, that I fee,l will suit what ever it is i'm currently doing. Like FFXI subjob system (which for that game was fine) adds utility to my main class, but unlike FFXI's system, doesn't pigeon hole me into something super specific.

FFXIV still has another year until ver 2.0 drops This isn't the last change or reform to classes /skills / battle / UI / game we'll see.

[Roaran]

I had high hopes for the combo system, unfortunately for MRD, you have 2 combos to choose from, one for tanking, and the other for DD. There's no choice and no strategy at all, it is as if they grouped up 3 WS, reduced their power to a single one, and called it a combo. (Sadly that's exactly what they did).

[Coglin]

I had high hopes for the combo system, unfortunately for MRD, you have 2 combos to choose from, one for tanking, and the other for DD. There's no choice and no strategy at all, it is as if they grouped up 3 WS, reduced their power to a single one, and called it a combo. (Sadly that's exactly what they did).

Big axe swinging oafs, flailing there weapon back and forth in rampaging, berserking, whirlwind swings are not to be known for stratagy, planning, or even much thought process in general. They are to be known for damage dealing capabilities and bringing attention to themselves.