Final Fantasy XIV so far...

[Vahzl]

So I have recently returned to Final Fantasy XIV, as I was bored with it a few months back, and have now found that since starting all over again, it is far much more of a game than a grindfest.

The new quests that give experience are great, the storyline is doled out in digestible chunks, Gridania is still a pain to navigate (going to the conjurers guild drives me batty), the Chocobo prerequisites are a little long winded, but give you the chance to meet all the cities representatives, and as a whole, I am finding more and more that I look forwards to logging in each night, rather than finding any excuse not to.

The recent 1.19 patch is a very VERY impressive chunk of content, and a good marker for things to come. I for one am now seeing the Final Fantasy in XIV, (and once I see Tonberries im sold) and feel the game is approaching the point where I would happily pay around €6 per month (plus 50c per additional character) to play.

I am getting the same feeling I did when I started XI for the first time, that the game was bigger than me, and that there was so much ahead to earn and do, which was not at all the feeling I got back when I first started XIV. I am feeling a much stronger progression track, as the game sign posts you along the way now, instead of expecting you to know where to go and what to do.

The increase to inventory and retainer storage is amazing. 100 slots was just under enough, now this is just perfect. I never fill it up!

The Materia system is excellent, giving a very interesting spin on the grind that was terrible to start with, and allows you to make your gear unique. I am a little confused with all this dated stuff, but assume I just need to get rid of it all and get new bits, which I will. The experience normalisation for all monsters was a great idea, and has now opened up thousands of experience camps across Eorzea, which hopefully, once people have calmed down about the power levelling thing, will give us our Dunes > Qufim > Garlaige > Altepa progression.

One thing that has stood out to me the most though, is that no matter where I go, or what I am doing, other people are EVERYWHERE! There has literally been no occasion so far (other than grinding mobs) where I have not seen random people pass by on Chocobo's, run through in gathering gear, or just randomly waddle past me. This bodes greatly for the community, as this is the key reason I got bored of WoW, the world died, and with it so did any sense of comradery.

All in all, I would say the direction the game is now heading is great, and while it is going to take a miracle to get it popular, (people will be very reluctant to give it a second chance without a considerable reward for coming back), for those of us that are playing it now, I think, in my personal opinion, I can say I love it!

This is just my way of providing feedback for the developers though, and open to opinions or criticism if you feel it is needed.

[Evenstar]

So I have recently returned to Final Fantasy XIV, as I was bored with it a few months back, and have now found that since starting all over again, it is far much more of a game than a grindfest.

The new quests that give experience are great, the storyline is doled out in digestible chunks, Gridania is still a pain to navigate (going to the conjurers guild drives me batty), the Chocobo prerequisites are a little long winded, but give you the chance to meet all the cities representatives, and as a whole, I am finding more and more that I look forwards to logging in each night, rather than finding any excuse not to.

The recent 1.19 patch is a very VERY impressive chunk of content, and a good marker for things to come. I for one am now seeing the Final Fantasy in XIV, (and once I see Tonberries im sold) and feel the game is approaching the point where I would happily pay around €6 per month (plus 50c per additional character) to play.

I am getting the same feeling I did when I started XI for the first time, that the game was bigger than me, and that there was so much ahead to earn and do, which was not at all the feeling I got back when I first started XIV. I am feeling a much stronger progression track, as the game sign posts you along the way now, instead of expecting you to know where to go and what to do.

The Materia system is excellent, giving a very interesting spin on the grind that was terrible to start with, and allows you to make your gear unique. I am a little confused with all this dated stuff, but assume I just need to get rid of it all and get new bits, which I will. The experience normalisation for all monsters was a great idea, and has now opened up thousands of experience camps across Eorzea, which hopefully, once people have calmed down about the power levelling thing, will give us our Dunes > Qufim > Garlaige > Altepa progression.

One thing that has stood out to me the most though, is that no matter where I go, or what I am doing, other people are EVERYWHERE! There has literally been no occasion so far (other than grinding mobs) where I have not seen random people pass by on Chocobo's, run through in gathering gear, or just randomly waddle past me. This bodes greatly for the community, as this is the key reason I got bored of WoW, the world died, and with it so did any sense of comradery.

All in all, I would say the direction the game is now heading is great, and while it is going to take a miracle to get it popular, (people will be very reluctant to give it a second chance without a considerable reward for coming back), for those of us that are playing it now, I think, in my personal opinion, I can say I love it!

This is just my way of providing feedback for the developers though, and open to opinions or criticism if you feel it is needed.

Great post with a very nice explanation WHY you like it things. I have to say I totally agree with you, especially on the part where it finally start giving the feeling we/I had when we/I started FFXI. The world is bigger than you and there is SO MUCH to do and look forward to.

I really missed that the first year, but since 1.19 I am logged in daily. I got lucky I got a week off studying so I making shitloads of hours online right now

[Vahzl]

A few things I have heard are being looked at and would strongly encourage:

- Gridania/Black Shroud redesign <--- Please - The shroud is the only place I consistently face problems when doing quests of my level, as even when going through area's of monsters my level, there are occasionally higher level ones that pop and kill me, and it is just far too big for a starter area, and it is more confusing than Yhoator Jungle

- Power Levelling - I don't want this thread to be another one of those, but I am enjoying it, it gives you a nice alternative to the grind, however it could use to be nerfed a little

- New races - No issue with this, but would like to see the current players be offered a once only chance to choose the new ones, but not a permanent service, as once you start giving out character change services, players reps are irrelevant, and one of the key factors in XI was your reputation with other players.

- PvP - I avoided Ballista and Brenner in XI, as it just didn't feel like PvP was needed in the game. Give players a coliseum, fine, but please don't start focusing on balancing to avoid PvP issues, as this is when the game loses fun (for me).

- Mailbox System - Once this makes it into the game, you will be looking at someone more than willing to pay monthly, as in my personal opinion, this is all that is lacking now as far as core gameplay elements are concerned. I want so bad and so often to be able to send items to my LS, and we have to use the still clunky trade window, and also interrupt their activities to do so. Give us a 10/12 slot trade window, faster reactions on it, and a mailbox, and im good to go.

- Mog House/Player Housing/Guild Housing - This is something of a luxury I would hope is still being considered, but not something that we need right now. Will be nice in the future though.

- Card Game/Chocobo Digging - Another luxury for the future, but hopefully we will see it at some point.

[Evenstar]

- Gridania/Black Shroud redesign <--- Please - The shroud is the only place I consistently face problems when doing quests of my level, as even when going through area's of monsters my level, there are occasionally higher level ones that pop and kill me, and it is just far too big for a starter area, and it is more confusing than Yhoator Jungle

Agree! It is a pain to try and cut trees in the Black Shroud. I think they are working on smaller maps anyway, so this will be fixed soon.

- Power Levelling - I don't want this thread to be another one of those, but I am enjoying it, it gives you a nice alternative to the grind, however it could use to be nerfed a little.

I do not really like it, but I also do not have any problems with it. I am not going to make use of it until I reach level 50 with at least one class. Maybe I will use it a little when I am trying to level up 2nd or 3rd classes to get certain abilities for my main. They should nerf it a little bit, but this is really not a deal breaker for me.

- New races - No issue with this, but would like to see the current players be offered a once only chance to choose the new ones, but not a permanent service, as once you start giving out character change services, players reps are irrelevant, and one of the key factors in XI was your reputation with other players.

Don't mind new class, don't mind if they would offer character change services. I will not change anyway and it really has no influence on my fun, so whatever works for SE.

- PvP - I avoided Ballista and Brenner in XI, as it just didn't feel like PvP was needed in the game. Give players a coliseum, fine, but please don't start focusing on balancing to avoid PvP issues, as this is when the game loses fun (for me).

PvP should and will be OPTIONAL. Yoshi confirmed this, this is the only thing I really feel very strongly about. If there is any kind of world PvP you have to participate in I will quit. I like PvP sometimes, but only when I want to .... I really do not want to get forced to engage in PvP.

- Mailbox System - Once this makes it into the game, you will be looking at someone more than willing to pay monthly, as in my personal opinion, this is all that is lacking now as far as core gameplay elements are concerned. I want so bad and so often to be able to send items to my LS, and we have to use the still clunky trade window, and also interrupt their activities to do so. Give us a 10/12 slot trade window, faster reactions on it, and a mailbox, and im good to go.

+1

- Mog House/Player Housing/Guild Housing - This is something of a luxury I would hope is still being considered, but not something that we need right now. Will be nice in the future though.

They really should add housing, but now is not the time. This is a future they can work on after the game gets pay to play.

- Card Game/Chocobo Digging - Another luxury for the future, but hopefully we will see it at some point.

Just made a topic about digging before you made this post, please support so the devs might see it. I loved digging in 11 and I would love it even more in 14!

[Vahzl]

Oh and to add, the Materia system is looking very good.

[Vaer]

Agree that Gridania blows, no one does leves there because it's a pain to navigate. Why do Grid leves when you can just do Uldah or Limsa ones over and over?

Also, I feel like I have to wear a "Party search" shirt or something. The current system is so terrible. Some kind of basic seeking system is even welcome.

[MariyaShidou]

Agree that Gridania blows, no one does leves there because it's a pain to navigate. Why do Grid leves when you can just do Uldah or Limsa ones over and over?

Also, I feel like I have to wear a "Party search" shirt or something. The current system is so terrible. Some kind of basic seeking system is even welcome.

I don't know about that part, most JP do leves in LL or Grid. Ul'dah leve blows, why do you want to get nerfed XP reward is beyond me. Camp Broken Water and Halatali are like ghost town. Maybe your server has really low pop or something.

[Mural]

the only thing i would like right now is some mini-games like Triple Triad, or chocobo racing.

[miqokini]

Great post, OP! To me, the best thing I've noticed since 1.19 is definitely the apparent population increase and boost in activity. I hope it lasts this time. I always notice a spike in population/activity after patches, but this time it seems to have increased 10-fold.

I can, for the first time, honestly say that the game is showing promise of success now.

[Vahzl]

With regards to the leves not being done in Gridania, I have just done my first ever gathering leves (took Botany to 25 on my original character purely grinding trees and bush), 4 of which were in Gridania, and didn't really have much of an issue with them. I love the look of the zone, but it is true that it is just too big, and far too windy and twisty, even if it is a forest.
I popped over to Ul'dah for my next few leves, and while they were closer to the camps, the quest objectives are still far too spread out.

We like exploring SE, but don't force us to do it in every leve, every time. Give us some that are closer to the camps, or don't involve camps at all, and I will be a happy taru. (refuse to refer myself as a lalalalalalalalathing).


Oh and to further forward my campaign for a mailbox system, me and a LS mate spent an hour trading 150 items from our alts to our mains last night. AN HOUR. That's an hour to trade something, that when done in games like WoW and Rift, takes 2-5 minutes from start to end. PLEASE , for my sanity's sake, implement a better trade system, and get those moogles trained in the art of letter delivery.