A Plea for Sanity

[Saeb]

My friend and I are giving a whole hearted try to really give this game a chance there is so much beauty in it and we are trying to love it because there are a lot of positive things we see in it. However, as it stands it seems like around every turn the game is just trying to discourage us from moving on. We're only about lv 14 and at a standstill.

From before I even purchased the game, the interface and account management on the website is unintuitive, and in some cases flat-out erroneous. "Enter this key into steam" What? This isn't even a steam client nor is the code a valid steam number. Even when activating my forum account, the simple task of selecting my main character seems to have been meticulously designed to mislead me in every way possible. To say the least, it is frustrating.

I don't know if Squenix takes pride in it's ambiguity out of some attempt to seem unque and edgey, but reflecting such an attitude in the Game's/account's interfaces and to a lesser extent, core mechanics simply adds NOTHING to the enjoyment of this title. It seems like from the moment I entered my credit card to buy this game, Squenix has been trying to discourage me from playing. I had to put forth a valiant effort to set foot in Eorzea, compared to just about every other MMO-title out there. This is a big deal in a competition-based industry.

FF is already unique and beautiful, it's okay to take the easy route when it comes to basic accessibility.
Now as far as in game goes. My friend and I went in with nothing but a positive state of mind, no expectations really. We didn't begrudge the game's current state of flux and "recovery", but we also took care to avoid preconcieved, unrealistic positivity.

We genuinely enjoyed our time in Gridania. Grinding was fun. Levequests...well they weren't as fun. They seemed like more of a speedbump than anything, but I soon came to appreciate the increased gil and chance for equipment to drop. However, we started experience vast disperities in the level of our equipment compared to the levels of our classes. That bronze spear I got from a levequest was nice, but that's....pretty...much..it. Upgrading gear gear pretty much became impossible, the amount of time it took to save up gil to buy the "lucky vendor upgrade" by far exceeded the time it took to outlevel it, and this is only speaking in terms of weapons. I figure that since our only source of gil was grinding/leves and vendoring everything we could probably make gil more efficiently if we'd be able to sell things to a player market. This is where our Retainer foibles began.

We spent the time to hire and set up and retainer, but when it came time to set up shop (that is after perilously searching through at least seven hundred thousand different types of market wards, which I might add are not clearly indicated in the descriptions of their corresponding item types) I was disappointed to see that the player market is INDIVIDUAL PER NATION. That being said...I chewed on my hat a bit for picking Gridania as my starting locale. We could have quit there, but as I said before we really want to love this game. I said, "screw it" I'll leave behind the aesthetic I've come to know and love for a more populated desert atmosphere. I had read that Ul'dah is in fact the center for trade and commerce.Finally we'll be able to make some gil from spoils from monsters we'd been saving up! A thriving market is ahead of us! Not only the chance at level-appropriate gear, but the off-chance of maybe wearing other armor than my starting gear and the random sheepskin mits I got from a quest.

We booked airship tickets and said goodbye to the green lush forest. This is where the major disappointment set in to the point of stopping us DEAD in our tracks. I got into the Arabesque city and made my way to the market ward, selected the battle craft ward, checked for new spears, aaaaand!........... 0. There were zero people selling my particular upgrade. The next available weapon for me was about 6 levels away, and I was already using a spear 4 levels old...
"Fine!"

I remembered seeing the spear on the NPC vendor earlier for an unreasonable amount of Gil.

"NO PROBLEM! I'm in a thriving market, I can make gil much more efficiently now that there are people in my Nation!"

I go to the market ward to sell off my stack of fire crystals. I check the price and.....what... someone undercutted the next lowest price by a huge percentage, and they'd listed 9999 items.

I began to feel the terror of a nightmare I'd once had recurring as a child, where I would be forced to count every grain of sand in a beach until I was done. I was breaking out in a cold sweat.

I understand that gear is supposed to be very crafting centric, but the supply is still just NOT THERE. I concluded that the only way to be able to even equip myself in a decent manner is to completely derail my gaming experience and go level up about 4 other crafting and harvesting jobs and just create my own! It only took about an hour of mining to find myself with about 100 bone chips and and a fist full of anxiety and hopelessness, and of my friend and I- I am the one who most enjoys crafting in MMO's, he hates it.

I write this because we are on our last leg. I want to salvage my enjoyment of this game, but it seems like Squenix is only aiming to infuriate me. IT SEEMS, that this company made sure to create a game but hire NO ONE who knew how to create an MMO. Why do I write this? I don't know, perhaps I am just seeking some solace, perhaps there's a light at the end of the road which I do not see yet. Therefore I call out to all who read or even skimmed this message. Help us.

[Ruri]

IT SEEMS, that this company made sure to create a game but hire NO ONE who knew how to create an MMO. Why do I write this? I don't know, perhaps I am just seeking some solace, perhaps there's a light at the end of the road which I do not see yet. Therefore I call out to all who read or even skimmed this message. Help us.

Mistakes have been acknowledged, people fired, new director, new version 2.0. For now we're stuck with what there which is not great I know. But the game IS being remade by people with more common sense and who listen to us. So I would suggest holding off to 2.0 if you dislike this version so much because there's only so much they can do with the current client.

[Saeb]

Something that also blows my mind, when I search the item's price history to even try and have a chance at being competitive in the market this is all I see:
1 gil
0 gil
0 gil
0 gil
0 gil
1 gil
0 gil
0 gil
0 gil
250 gil
1 gil
0 gil
0 gil
0 gil

This is the point where I wonder if I am still awake or if everything up to this point was a bad dream

[Ruri]

Should have been here before when there was NO market search. Had to go to every retainer, click them, open a menu, and choose bazaar to see what they were selling. Now THAT was FUN!

[Stanislaw]

Seeing as you're on the same server as I, I'll send you a tell if you're on. If not, send me one when you do log in.

Let's see if I can help you out any.

[Vaen]

-Try to find and join a helpful linkshell. They should have several skilled crafters who will happily make you some lowbie gear.

-Yeah the game economy is pretty messed up, but (you'll find this is the answer to 98% of the issues here) it's going to get better with future patches and the market ward clusterphuck should be solved by 2.0.

-Besides lvl1 Weathered weapons/tools, I've never had to buy gear from a vendor NPC (that's actually how it is in almost ALL MMO's, in my experience), and you can start crafting some lowbie things successfully with just one or two crafting skills at level 5, which takes like 20 -30 minutes to reach tops.

-Around level 10 you'll start noticing classic-style quests that some NPCs in the towns give if you talk to them. This is another good source of lowbie gear.

-Gridania is awesome, but its always worthwhile to switch it up and go to the other cities, yes for Ul'dah's markets, but also for quests, change of scenery, fun, etc.


Hope that helps!

[Raldo]

People don't sell low-level gear, because it's doesn't sell as well as high-level gear. Simple as that.

[Bulwarkz]

Well, I'll tell ya right now as far as gear goes - it's not that diverse. I'm sorry that you went all the way to Ul'dah to find that out, but yeah NPCs don't do hardly anything for gear - and the items on the MW are 6 or so levels apart like you said. When I hit my first 50, I noticed there wasn't another LNC I wasn't nearly identical to. You'll have to farm at 50 and beat end game for semi-diverse items.

Also, the outside of Gridania is in pretty bad shape and they intend to do some serious overhauling on it for 2.0. It's an extremely linear maze... a forest in real life would be nothing like that lol.

Most of your complaints are well known. That's why they're completely overhauling the game. 2.0 comes out very late this year or early next year.

[Saeb]

Thank you for the replies. I don't have much else to say right now. I seem to have vented most of my energy in the original post. It's just exasperating.

[Avraym]

Unfortunately, Cornelia is one of the less populated servers, so matts and gear are scarce.

From what I understand Saeb, a lot of these issues in relation to gear could be countered if you and your friend took up crafting / gathering.

Working in unison would make the job twice as easy, and the new recipes are no challenge to craft.

A "mentor" would also be helpful to you guys.

The game is tough, and requires a positive mind and positive thinking, which you generally have.

The UI and setup options are both laggy and unintuitive I agree, but I remain hopeful that they will fix/update this in the near future.

Your critisicm was both fair and well worded.

I personally simpathize with you and your friends situation and would be only too happy to lend you a hand with gil and assist with crafting if you were on my server. I like to think there are others out there with this same attitude, regardless of server.

Come transfer time, you find yourselves struggling, choose World #5, and I will be only too happy to assist.

Welcome to FFXIV.