About Beta invitation

[ispano]

EDIT: Entire section removed for fear of NDA getting me suspended...oh well Left the part below since it doesn't mention ARR Alpha.


Seriously, why redo the graphics engine? WHY??? That's not what needed improvement, the original FF14 storyline and graphics were not things that needed to be redone when they decided to fix FF14. The original story writers were better than the new team, you can clearly see that because the cutscenes from the Main Storyline were drastically better than the Grand Company storyline, better use of the camera, better NPC reactions, much more dialog and we didn't need a full hardcore party to see the story (which was the BIGGEST failure of the Grand Company storyline,) we should be able to SOLO the ENTIRE storyline and full party for Raids and getting weapons/gear only. It's a FF game, I shouldn't need 7 more people (and dozens of attempts which can easily bring the number of people from 7 to over a hundred total if you count all the retries which involve finding new party members) just to see the storyline. Seriously Square, this should be a FF game first and a social game second, not the other way around, the original team understood that, the new team does not. It doesn't help that they listened to the social game fans that complained nonstop in the forums, why are the ones that know nothing are the first to complain? Ugly FF games are rare, like Mystic Quest and FF7, but usually FF games are known as beautiful pieces of art, don't take the art away from FF14 (although it's pointless to ask now since it's already done...)

Actually the Engine DID need to be redone. It was what was causing the issue of only so many people appearing on screen at once. Also just hinting at the fact you might be a tester is considered breaching the NDA.

[Elexia]

Actually the Engine DID need to be redone. It was what was causing the issue of only so many people appearing on screen at once. Also just hinting at the fact you might be a tester is considered breaching the NDA.

Half true. The engine XIV used wasn't designed for MMOs but it works with offline titles perfectly fine so the engine didn't need to be redone, they just needed to build one designed specifically for it or switch to UE. The new engine SE is developing (Luminous) is being designed to be future proof but this time they built an engine based around for ARR.

However as for Cegiana's post, we haven't really seen the capabilities of the current team but I'm pretty sure they're all the same except for the managerial team, however given they want this to be a quest based level progression, yeah not too high hopes for quality story since not even the story driven SWTOR did that well.

[Eekiki]

we haven't really seen the capabilities of the current team but I'm pretty sure they're all the same except for the managerial team, however given they want this to be a quest based level progression, yeah not too high hopes for quality story since not even the story driven SWTOR did that well.

[ispano]

I want Tardar Sauce

[Velhart]

yeah not too high hopes for quality story since not even the story driven SWTOR did that well.

Actually, the best thing about SWTOR was it's story driven approach to level grinding. It was it's end game and exploits in PvP that it had trouble with. I would go as far to say that SWTOR is my favorite approach to quest grinding.

I am sure the beta of FFXIV: ARR will give us better incite on how the main storyline quests will be approached.

[Eekiki]

Actually, the best thing about SWTOR was it's story driven approach to level grinding. It was it's end game and exploits in PvP that it had trouble with. I would go as far to say that SWTOR is my favorite approach to quest grinding.

I am sure the beta of FFXIV: ARR will give us better incite on how the main storyline quests will be approached.

I agree with this. Leveling was a blast in TOR. Once that was done, though...

[Exn]

I would go as far to say that SWTOR is my favorite approach to quest grinding.

I am sure the beta of FFXIV: ARR will give us better incite on how the main storyline quests will be approached.

Yeah I gotta agree with that too. TOR really only gets crapped on when people talk about it these days, but it had the best quest level grinding of any MMO I've tried. It was one of the few games I've played where I wasn't concerned with endgame (even before I discovered how bad it was..) and just enjoyed the stories (more like interactive movies). In every other quest grinding MMO, I haven't paid ANY attention to the lore behind the quests.. It's tremendously boring, especially when doing it solo, which is the majority of the grind for most people..

If SE wants to ride the quest grinding bandwagon like most mainstream MMO, at least take from the best quest grinder out there. It's still early, so I hope they really consider some updates to the system.