Breaking down some of the screenshots

[Exekutor]

2nd pic, the Lulu character is only showing a first name. Going to be able to hide last names or something?

has already been discussed: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...cussion/page24

[Keith_Dragoon]

I'm more curious about "Lulu" having no last name!

Lulu could be a Pet/Chocobo

Edit: By "Pet" i also include NPCs like adventuring Fellow style or your campanion.

[casker]

Yeah but Lulu has a dark fireball icon next to her name and casting firaga in one of the shots. Chocobo? Really doubt it. Lulu is a mage, and so far the names they pick depict the classes they represent (Delita is paladin, Aerith is the white mage, etc)

[Reyn]

Those of you whinging over the graphics, refusing to believe that SE would release a promotional image at less-than-max settings have clearly never seen this (click for full size):



In comparison...



...doesn't look too bad. IMO.

That said, I think a degrade in quality is to be expected when promised a new engine intended to run the game smoothly on lower end machines. I'm not sure how anyone could be surprised?

Honestly, the most exciting thing for me is that the downgrade isn't anywhere near as dramatic as I feared it would be. I think I can live with a less impressive ground texture in Thanalan if it's no longer the only texture I'm looking at from one end to the other of the entire region.

[Nakiami]

Oh holy balls 2.0, that CG War just made my desktop wallpaper.

[Laraul]

WHAT LOW RESOLUTION TEXTURES?!? I see NONE! Less than those in the present game. WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE LOOKING AT? Are you people referring to the foliage and shrubbery not being in ultra-high detail? I mean one person refers to "low resolution textures" and everyone assumes the game has "low resolution textures." You just are seeing what you WANT to see.

[Psion]

I couldve sworn a while back they mentioned chocobos also having jobs as well, so you could have your chocobo casting cure on you. At least, i think i recall that being the example they used.

Most likely surnames are here to stay, but if you noticed with one screenshot of the carpenter manqote, there was a tell by Kain H., not Kain Highwind. This suggests to me that you will probably be able to send /tells using their last initial, provided there's not two people with the same first name and last initial. It would certainly make sending tells quicker.

I wouldn't be surprised if they have a config option that lets you see only your first name for cutscenes and game display though.

[Cthulhu]

Both the characters are using the AF weapons from the jobs questline. I hope this puts to rest the debate about what weapons the promissory note is for.

[AlphaDragoon]

WHAT LOW RESOLUTION TEXTURES?!? I see NONE! Less than those in the present game. WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE LOOKING AT? Are you people referring to the foliage and shrubbery not being in ultra-high detail? I mean one person refers to "low resolution textures" and everyone assumes the game has "low resolution textures." You just are seeing what you WANT to see.

Specifically, people are talking about the ground and rock textures closeup. The current ground textures in Thanalan look normal mapped, while the ones in the 2.0 screenshot look almost like they're just textures.

I noticed as soon as I saw the 2.0 screens. If those screens are indeed how it looks when the game is run at the recommended settings, then I'd say the textures did get a minor downgrade. It's well worth it to give up some of the detail to achieve the variety in design we're getting and the game still looks amazing, possibly even more so thanks to the real-time lighting upgrades, but let's not pretend like it isn't there.

[YuriSan]

No words to describe my excitment...(no joke, no trolling)