Fighting Desperately...

[Aldwin]

...

I wish some empathetic developer who was a true fan of FFXI would bring it back to us in some form. I don't need the brand to enjoy the game, by any means. I need mystery, intrigue, challenge, depth and adventure to fill a void that was left by some of my most fond and fantastic memories in gaming.

.

I really liked this last part, it describes my feelings exactly. I played xi @ na launch, loved it for about 5-6 years. I have played most recent mmos, swtor, wow, rift, aion. I can't find that sense of adventure I loved about xi so much. Wow was fun, and I think it has a lot of really good qualities in an mmo, but I'm bored of it and find the community to be , for the most part, rude, impatient and out for themselves only.

I've been off and on in xiv since launch. Restarted quite a few times. Only recently after 1.2 started playing again. Its small things that really bother me. An example, I was doing a level 30 leve just a few minutes ago. I don't like the way there is crystals all around each zone. I know they are pretty much exactly like all other mmos do, a "quest hub", although most other games use a city type area, or village, the concept is the same. But I feel like xiv didn't even try to disguise these "hubs" at all, and it breaks (omg, this word everyone loves to hate) immersion for me. I also was slightly annoyed at how every leve is almost the same. Kill X number of enemies (again, a very common mmo trend) but each time I kill a few, the music changes, one runs away, another 2-3 spawn (with no tactics to pull them, its always 100% link, I don't like that either, I enjoyed XI sneak/invis/scent agro detection the best out of any game i've played).

Each job only has a few abilities now, which I also feel is a little too easy. There is what, about 12-15 abilities per job. I know in games where you might have 20-30, you actually only use a few, but while the concept might be the same, having more choices gives me (an illusion maybe?) feeling of being more complicated. And I like that. When wow watered down their talent trees (in 3.0 i think) I didn't like that either. I enjoyed having 61 talent points with various ways to choose my skills, even though there was only 1-2 (optimal) uses for them, it felt more complicated.

I've seen a few mentions in this thread of this game being too easy now. While I can kind of agree on that, at the same time I have to disagree. I find myself looking things up online more often than should be imo. I don't even think playing this game (xi was the say way) is possible in full screen unless you have a second pc to look things up, or don't mind logging out often (small humor here). I've been recently doing some quests, and leveling professions. I asked some friends what I should level on to skill up. I asked them to not tell me exactly what to make, but more how to find out from the game, what I should be doing. They were like "huh? i have no idea lol". Look recipes up online was the most common advice I got. It may have worked in xi, and again, I loved that game. But to not have thing like, a recipe book, or something of the sort, today, at this point in gaming where I would think games have evovled over time, feels like buying a car but they forgot to put wheels on it.

I never found the sense of adventure and exploring in other mmos that I did in xi, and I can't find it here yet either. I'm by no means a "vet" of this game, my highest level being 33 atm, but I do feel like I am having to try to like the game, and overlook the many things I find that I don't like, just to continue on. Small things in the programming really leave me feeling "wtf where they thinking?". Another example, distrubiting attribute points. I like the concept, it seems to work, but why on earth can't I do it while i'm mounted, or keep moving? It really makes me feel like the programming itself is very amature.

[Enfarious]

know i played it since jp release, but my point was the dates mr "11 is awesome and 14 sucks" up there posted had the na classic and zilart releases a year apart also

Oh, ok glad we're on the same page.^^

[Enfarious]

...Its small things that really bother me. An example, I was doing a level 30 leve just a few minutes ago. I don't like the way there is crystals all around each zone. I know they are pretty much exactly like all other mmos do, a "quest hub", although most other games use a city type area, or village, the concept is the same. But I feel like xiv didn't even try to disguise these "hubs" at all, and it breaks (omg, this word everyone loves to hate) immersion for me. I also was slightly annoyed at how every leve is almost the same. Kill X number of enemies (again, a very common mmo trend) but each time I kill a few, the music changes, one runs away, another 2-3 spawn (with no tactics to pull them, its always 100% link, I don't like that either, I enjoyed XI sneak/invis/scent agro detection the best out of any game i've played).

Each job only has a few abilities now, which I also feel is a little too easy. There is what, about 12-15 abilities per job. I know in games where you might have 20-30, you actually only use a few, but while the concept might be the same, having more choices gives me (an illusion maybe?) feeling of being more complicated. And I like that. When wow watered down their talent trees (in 3.0 i think) I didn't like that either. I enjoyed having 61 talent points with various ways to choose my skills, even though there was only 1-2 (optimal) uses for them, it felt more complicated.
...

I really wanted to /quote the whole thing but 2 walls of text i a single post seems wrong ...
I have to agree, they made the whole levequest process like they were trying to cater to 8 year olds, there is no variety but the goal is always pretty much exactly the same, Kill X mobs @<pos> >>> gate back >>> repeat. As much as this hurts me to say, at least in WoW/Rift/SwtOR/[Fill in more of the same]/STO you'd get quests(some repeatable) in a town/city and go out to do them, it was a little more immersive than go to town have someone jot stuff in my notebook then > tele > kill > tele > kill.

On the abilities front, again gear for 8 year olds, if a 16 year old picks up a game and can remember the 284 different combos (Darksiders/Dante's Inferno/[fill in more]) then even if you want to cater to them you don't have to dumb it down to 1 ability every 4 levels, which @80 is only 20 abilities for your main. Really in XI(don't get mad, I referenced 7 other games already) the ~80 spells and abilities you had as a 75 mage or /mage made things more interesting. I'm not saying I/we need/want 80, but I for one think that more than 20 is a must, IDC if they don't fit onto a hotbar, they shouldn't have to be on a hotbar for me to use /ac "kick ass ability" <t>. I know I know typing is hard, and little clickable pictures make it easy, and menus with a mouse/kbd require that you use the cursor keys for something other than moving the camera. That still doesn't mean we need these super limited choices, a BLM that has to either cast AoE or wait for a combo (not hard just an example) or on that one boss that's only weak to "wind" we have to rely on a whm to DD or a blm using whm spells that can't combo and aren't all available because having a full array of spells both single target and AoE, or being able to switch between single and AoE, would just be too many abilities for a person to manage...

[ThePatriarch]

Your leaving out the part well before NA release, from JP release on.

I made a typo, JP release date was November 2002.

My point still stands. Within 2 years, there were 2 full expansion packs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XI

[Sephrick]

I made a typo, JP release date was November 2002.

My point still stands. Within 2 years, there were 2 full expansion packs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XI

True, but in those two years they weren't making a whole new game while maintaining a game they were planning on throwing away.

The sad reality is 1.x isn't "Final Fantasy XIV" anymore, it's "Thank For Not Filing A Class Action Law Suit Fantasy XIV."

This is why I hope E3 features more than a trailer. We need to see just how different 2.0 can be.

[TheVedis]

True, but in those two years they weren't making a whole new game while maintaining a game they were planning on throwing away.

The sad reality is 1.x isn't "Final Fantasy XIV" anymore, it's "Thank For Not Filing A Class Action Law Suit Fantasy XIV."

This is why I hope E3 features more than a trailer. We need to see just how different 2.0 can be.

lol a class action erveryone would easily lose


you cant sue people over you not liking a game you buy

[Sephrick]

lol a class action erveryone would easily lose


you cant sue people over you not liking a game you buy

I was joking. But still. 1.x is just a "thanks for sticking around."

It's just a chance to get some exclusive stuff. Yoshida already has said the pace of the game will slow down in 2.0.

The ease of 1.x is the trade off for paying to play a broken mess till 2.0 is released. Yet people try to act like its a finished product. Even SE said it wasn't when it was released, hence the events of the past year and a half.

People need to remember 1.x is being made to be thrown away.

[yaten]

Update: Bought and re-installed FFXI today. Another soul enters Asura! I don't know what that other guy was saying, but all the nostalgia and old memories are still fully intact. Was surprised at just how much I remembered after almost 2 years of absence, and amazed that there were actually people leveling up in West Ronfaure! I expected to see a ghost town of Sand'Oria, but it really wasn't. Leaving my FFXIV account active for now, but it's taking a back seat for a while.

ah, to bad im in bahamut maybe if i cant find a LS ill come over and join you

[Xoo]

Been visiting the FFXI forums, and the first page is full of people going back to the game. I've met a handful ingame that have recently returned and/or created a new character. The game still has a heart beat.

[Sfarzoso]

Too many long ass posts for me on this thread, Bai!