Message from actual new player

[TonyMontana]

Here's the thing. The game doesn't have a flat learning curve. You actually have to use BOTH of your brain cells to play. Yes, some things are tough to figure out. But if you ask around, or spend some TIME, they become apparent. Have you tried joining a shell and asking for help, or random shouts? They work wonders. The whole "i just started and i don't know everything" theme is getting old.

I dont have a PS3 so I dont know the answer to this question. How easy is communication via console vs via PC. Also will PS3 users be using things like ventrilo?

[Polaritie]

Here's the thing. The game doesn't have a flat learning curve. You actually have to use BOTH of your brain cells to play. Yes, some things are tough to figure out. But if you ask around, or spend some TIME, they become apparent. Have you tried joining a shell and asking for help, or random shouts? They work wonders. The whole "i just started and i don't know everything" theme is getting old.

Frankly, at level 20 DoW before patch anything within 3 levels of you was cake (barring NM and the like, obviously). This patch has made it drastically harder to fight things higher level than you. I had to rest after two leve mobs at only 2*. It put them at equal to my level. Multiple healing sources, Shock Spikes, and healthy amounts of AoE... which would have destroyed them pre-patch, were just enough to keep me alive at 20% HP.

I don't really think I should be able to go up to something ten levels above me and smash its face in. But frankly, I think there's some kind of level penalty going on now, because ten levels now reduces my damage by around 90%.

[Kailok]

What they should do is make it so that 1-20 the mobs aren't AS hard, and then gradually increase the level of difficulty. This will get new players used to their classes and abilities enough, while also introducing the idea to them which level mobs they need to be attacking. The devs need to remember that new players are NEW to the game, so they don't have everything figured out yet, and if fighting a marmot is incredibly tough just at level 1-20, it could be discouraging.

Difficulty balancing strategy:

Mobs 1-5 = lowered to 20% of current difficulty.
This allows new players to get adjusted to controls and their first spells.

Mobs 6-10 = lowered to 40% of current difficulty.
This will give the new players a change to start thinking how to better use their abilities to best kill the monster, while also keeping themselves alive. The initial basics of strategy.

Mobs 11-20 = Lowered to 60% of current rank difficulty.
This phase will give the new players a chance to start finding groups (with a hopefully refined party search system in the future) and figure out how the XIV party mechanic in this game works.

Mobs 20-35 (when health starts to increase more) = Lowered to 80% of current mob difficulty.
By this time, players will have been able to learn their class, the game, and how to play with others. From this point on, they will start needing to figure out how to better work a party strategy, and start analyzing what types of monsters are weak to what in order to make a quicker kill (Remember, these are NEW players we're talking about).

Mobs 36-50 = 100% of current difficulty.
By this point players should know how to do their jobs and do them well. By the time they hit 50, they should know exactly how this game works, and what they can expect when it comes to challenges in the future.

Obviously my numbers are just percentages and it would certainly be harder to figure out with code, but it's the theory behind it that I think would work if they devs figured out how.

[Zetonegi]

Stuff

It also lets veteran players get through the boring early levels quicker letting them actually start using all their class skills.

[Alhanelem]

Hi all,

I bought this game and played it for the first time 2 weeks ago. I've been on every day since (loving it!), and just experienced the patch. As you can see, I'm a level 20ish archer and marauder. I've played a few hours since the patch hit, and I'm completely disappointed. I wasn't even attacking mobs much higher than me before the patch, but occasionally I'd hit something 1 or 2 levels above and I'd make it through alive. Now, I get my ass kicked by mobs 2 levels below me and anything higher it's hopeless. All my hand picked gear (mostly by helpful players) isn't helping at all and the game just generally seems way HARDER. Harder than it should be..it just kills the pacing. Sorry, but I play video games for fun, not to be bored and frustrated. I was pretty happy right before the patch with the level speed, combat flow and yeah, I died now and then when I did something stupid, but now the game seems excessively hard. So all you high-level people with lots of experience, I'm glad you are having fun, but I'm going to go play Aion now. I suspect a lot of other new people like me feel the same way. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with this patch at all...it just simply made the game no-fun for me as a new player around my level. I've been severely nerfed playing other MMOs too, and it just kills the fun for me when that happens. It's like someone took away half of everything you've been building up and working hard at. Normally, that is called a punishment.

And yes, I've done nothing but group with other new players since the patch. We get our asses kicked constantly, even when 3 of us gang up on a mob 2 levels above us. Both of my friends logged out with a long goodbye and quit, both claiming they might be back after 1.20, but probably not with GW2 and SWTOR coming out. So there I was alone, at level 20 with crappy gear and nobody to play with surrounded by monsters that I can't kill. Yuck. I guess there is a form of permadeath now in this game after all, in the form of this pretty digital purgatory I found myself standing in.

Don't you think this is a bit of an excessive knee-jerk reaction to what is probably not an intended effect of the patch? Did you stop and think that your problem probably isn't going to be permanent?

I find it a stretch to believe that someone could play for two weeks, have fun, then a patch comes along that has a few issues and BAM! I'M QUITTING FOR GOOD!. Give them a chance to straighten it out.

[Bahn]

Don't you think this is a bit of an excessive knee-jerk reaction to what is probably not an intended effect of the patch? Did you stop and think that your problem probably isn't going to be permanent?

I find it a stretch to believe that someone could play for two weeks, have fun, then a patch comes along that has a few issues and BAM! I'M QUITTING FOR GOOD!. Give them a chance to straighten it out.

That's pretty much my mentality at this point. I think the OP needs to calm down a bit and just take a break. Along with PLing, the sudden "difficulty" increase from 1-20 doesn't sound like it was thought through by Square (probably because they made 1-20 leveling easier due to feedback from the original beta). This is the issue with patching a live game along the way without providing any sort of beta test server to provide feedback on: you only get to learn about the consequences of your work when it actually starts affecting the players. I am informed by my XI friends that they're actually doing a beta server in XI which allows all players from all other servers to log in and test proposed changes and providing a means for players to give feedback.

IMO when Square has the time and resources to do so they should probably go this route with XIV. I know when asked about a beta test server awhile back Yoshida simply said that they're unable to "at this time", but judging from the way 1.19 was handled, it seriously sounds like any dramatic changes to the game NEED to be tested with the community before becoming live.

Kailok's proposed solution for leveling is also a pretty elegant one too. Obviously it should be polished, but that could be a great way to address the current leveling issues with 1.19.

[Bled]

You always could... at least the whole time after NA release worms in Ronfaure or Gustaberg, and when you got close to 10 you could do worms in the highlands and then you could do worms, bats, goblins in shakrami. Did that on several jobs way back when. All you needed was a bit of selbina milk and some good old fashioned 'not suck'.

I said effectively solo, and if you think that was effective you obviously never got into a Korroloka Tunnel JP worm leveling group which was better then valkrum exp parties.

It was possible to solo it just was not practical compared to groups once you hit 11-12.

[Biggs]

I find it funny that the number one complaint in the game before was that everything was easy mode. And now that they have actually made it so you have to do a little actual WORK to level up and the mobs dont just fall down for you and give 500xp when you stike them, everyones crying there eyes out. You all do realize that, and I think they have said this many times already, the game is still being redeveloped. Which means not only will they balance a lot of these issues out in the coming weeks, but they will also be adding more stuff to the game that will also need to be balanced out after its release. Its not an ideal situation for the players, and I understand that people want to play a game that has been released already, but the fact remains, this is a unique situation for any game, especially an MMO, to be in. No one would pick up and play a game still in development and complain about this stuff because they would know its still being worked on. Why SE didnt just shut it down in order to rework it is beyond me, but they are damaging their reputation MORE by not doing so. You wouldn't have new players doing these things and being dissapointed this way if they just reworked it offline. Instead you have people that nitpick about every little change because everytime we begin to adjust to the last set of changes, they add and change more. I would advise everyone that actually wants to give this game a real and fair shot, to put it down and not play it until they announce they are ready to charge for it. I understand this advice will go completely unheeded because gamers, by nature, are an impacient lot, but maybe, just maybe, someone will start pickin up what I am layin down here.

[AceofRains]

So, did anyone else but me think the OP is fake?
I haven't got the chance to try 1.19 yet, but I have a play time of probably as much
as they claim to have, if even. So I think I'm gonna give it a go, and if its really that bad.
I don't really care, I'll wait for a rebalancing patch.
Oh by the way, 1.19 comes with a 1.19a and most likely a 1.19b.

[Bled]

I find it funny that the number one complaint in the game before was that everything was easy mode. And now that they have actually made it so you have to do a little actual WORK to level up and the mobs dont just fall down for you and give 500xp when you stike them, everyones crying there eyes out. You all do realize that, and I think they have said this many times already, the game is still being redeveloped. Which means not only will they balance a lot of these issues out in the coming weeks, but they will also be adding more stuff to the game that will also need to be balanced out after its release. Its not an ideal situation for the players, and I understand that people want to play a game that has been released already, but the fact remains, this is a unique situation for any game, especially an MMO, to be in. No one would pick up and play a game still in development and complain about this stuff because they would know its still being worked on. Why SE didnt just shut it down in order to rework it is beyond me, but they are damaging their reputation MORE by not doing so. You wouldn't have new players doing these things and being dissapointed this way if they just reworked it offline. Instead you have people that nitpick about every little change because everytime we begin to adjust to the last set of changes, they add and change more. I would advise everyone that actually wants to give this game a real and fair shot, to put it down and not play it until they announce they are ready to charge for it. I understand this advice will go completely unheeded because gamers, by nature, are an impacient lot, but maybe, just maybe, someone will start pickin up what I am layin down here.

Actually as i saw the polls, a vast majority of people on the forums wanted the leveling to stay the same difficulty and anyone advocating harder leveling or party play was a FFXI fanboy. Now that the leveling is a bit more difficult people are starting to panic.

This is at least how i see these threads playing out