General questions

[VydarrTyr]

Please don't get offended by any of my questions. I'm simply trying to look for answers, not troll.

Hey, questions are what these forums are for.

1. Is this game totally instanced like Rift where you go from storyline quest to storyline quest? So far, it seems that way. I prefer sandbox MMO's, personally.

Like Robert said, the vast majority of content in this game is open world. And you are generally free to ignore most of it. In fact, one of the common complaints about the storyline quests is that there are very large gaps between them. You enter the game into a storyline quest, and then your second storyline quest is at level 20. After that, you generally get a storyline quest every 6 to 8 levels.

In between, the content is primarily open world. There are beastman encampments (basically a group of a couple dozen beastmen surrounding some structures) and beastman strongholds (forts filled with lots of beastmen spanning several rooms, and containing chests and NMs), which are all open world. There are dozens of mid-level NMs, and 5 high level NMs, which are all open world. And while Shposhae is technically a dungeon, it's also open world, and includes 3 low level NMs.

Along those same lines, I have a friend who has all her classes at level 50 who -- until very recently -- never did any of the storyline quests. So you're free to ignore them if you want, and just approach it as an open world sandbox type game.

Having said all that, Yoshi-P has said that 2.0 will include more instanced content. You'll eventually be able to level up doing nothing but quests. But it's not going to be the only way to level up. I think he's simply saying that there was very little instanced content when he arrived, and he's going to make it so that there's more instanced content offered. He seems to like instanced content (and I agree) because it gets rid of multiple groups competing over open world spawns. So you don't need to camp an NM for hours just to claim a spawn. If you want to fight an NM, you jump into the instance and fight it, and someone else can be fighting it at the same time. So it's still open world in the sense that you can do it whenever you want; you just don't have to compete with others to be able to do it.

2. What's the purpose of linkshells? They seem like an over-complicated system that replace the simple chat-channel system.

Like Robert said, Linkshells are just like guilds or clans in other MMOs. They've been around since FFXI (which is now 10 years old, I believe). It's basically a group of people with whom you can do stuff, and you've got a chat channel so you can speak to people in your linkshell (and only your linkshell can see it).

I personally think it's pretty helpful, and I prefer it to an open chat channel. Think of it like a chat channel that just includes your friends. So you don't have to deal with people spamming trolling junk that you don't want to hear.

3. I realize this game WAS a failure in the eyes of players before, so what has changed?

I think Robert's done a good job (as usual) summarizing many of the most important changes. There were many minor annoyances that have been resolved or improved. The Market Wards have gone from almost unusable to being pretty practical. Server lag has improved. Weapon Skill animations have been diversified. The battle system has been refined. Classes are more distinguished. The claim system has been changed.

I've been playing since Collector's Edition release, and my biggest complaint was always that there was very little content. And that's improved, and it's still improving. They've added plenty of stuff to keep us busy, and more stuff is coming about every 2 months.

** EDIT ** How could I forget to mention Materia! Other than the battle system changes, this is probably the single biggest change to the game so far. It's done wonders for improving the market, and bringing some vitality to the crafting classes. I'm not generally a crafter, but even I want to craft so that I can attach materia to some endgame stuff.

In all honesty, the list of changes and improvements is much too long to rewrite here. Like Robert suggested, the best way to experience the game as it is, is to just play it.

not much has changed. added crap that should have been here still missing allot of crap. still laggy. slow, unbalanced, easy, and boring. if you like grinding same crap over and over for hours this is the game for you. atm there is 2 dungeons and 1 endgame fight. plenty of open world crap that is unbalanced and not very fun.

Just wanted to clarify a couple of things.

First, yes, they've added stuff and more stuff is still missing. It's still a work in progress.

Second, there is much more than just 2 dungeons and 1 endgame fight. There are at least 3 dungeons (Shposhae, Toto Rak, and Ogre/Batraal). In addition to the end game fight irongripz referred to (Ifrit), end game fights have to include the high level open world NMs: Gobby, Uraeus, Great Buffalo, Dodore, and Elder Mosshorn. And end game fights should also include faction NMs (there are 3). In addition, there are dozens of mid- to high-level NMs that are open world. There are also the beastman encampments and strongholds. And there are faction leves, every job has its own quest line, and plenty more.

Third, easy? I'm not sure irongripz is in the best position to suggest what's easy or not, since she hasn't actually tried the endgame stuff yet. The new battle system has actually made fights much more challenging. Again, the best thing to do is to try them and make up your own mind. The game is still free for another month or so. Try it out, and let the dev team know what you think on the forums.