Alpha First Look: Video 4 - The Black Shroud II

[Sylkis]

I very much enjoyed what I've heard so far. Including the ambient sounds, its all great. Could you comment on the battle music? I'm curious if its changed.

I think they might have took out most of the battle themes by Uematsu, they wouldn't fit with the BGM right now.

[Coombah]

The aetheryte has a hole right in the middle of it but I didn't notice any dalamund thing in it

[Raxia]

/cries
i lubbs you development team. i really do <3

[Psion]

my gods, and to think... this is just the landscapes of the beginning of 2.0, when they're having to work overtime to create a bazillion (or 40) zones. Remember FFXI and how those landscapes looked, and how with each expansion we got, the landscapes just seemed to get more and more stunning? (other than abyssea :P)

Now imagine what future zones in ffxiv will look like with the dev team having more time to dedicate to them... @_@

[Luaq]

Still have have to post that I am not happy with the 360 turn without moving it's feet as if the character was on a spinning plate and the fact that the moment the character stops walking the next frame it is standing. I need those two animations, head turning and animation between walking and standing, I need to see it in a video or I'll panic on that matter until the release, please make them, actually you already had them in the old version !!

Everything else is looking great. The dev team has done an amazing job, there's just these little missing animations that gives me a GuildWars feel that I don't want.

The only thing I'm scared of next is my computer running the game. Though the release isn't for so soon maybe I'll have time to put money in that PC of mine, since there are other games I want to play that'll need that upgrade anyways...

[Rex]

Still have have to post that I am not happy with the 360 turn without moving it's feet as if the character was on a spinning plate and the fact that the moment the character stops walking the next frame it is standing. I need those two animations, head turning and animation between walking and standing, I need to see it in a video or I'll panic on that matter until the release, please make them, actually you already had them in the old version !!

Everything else is looking great. The dev team has done an amazing job, there's just these little missing animations that gives me a GuildWars feel that I don't want.

The only thing I'm scared of next is my computer running the game. Though the release isn't for so soon maybe I'll have time to put money in that PC of mine, since there are other games I want to play that'll need that upgrade anyways...

Damn it it's alpha! They've said multiple times animations are not complete

[Tupster]

Damn it it's alpha! They've said multiple times animations are not complete

Alpha is the time to make sure you point out things that look like problems. If for some reason they do not see it as a problem then they won't fix it and you cannot assume that anything is considered to be not be final. Being alpha is exactly the reason one should complain, it is easier to fix now rather than later.

Also, that bit about personal attacks you quoted seems inappropriate, because the post you were responding to actually praised the devs but was simply pointing out something which might be changed to make the game better. I would consider that more constructive, and more helpful than "It all looks perfect", which is nice but actually unhelpful to anybody's creative process (although it does help ones self-esteem).

[Soukyuu]

Alpha is the time to make sure you point out things that look like problems. If for some reason they do not see it as a problem then they won't fix it and you cannot assume that anything is considered to be not be final. Being alpha is exactly the reason one should complain, it is easier to fix now rather than later.

While that's true, and YoshiP tells the devs that having an apologetic mindset of "it's only alpha" is not allowed (read the interview translations), complaining about stuff that they already said is not implemented yet (= animations) doesn't do any good.

[Tupster]

While that's true, and YoshiP tells the devs that having an apologetic mindset of "it's only alpha" is not allowed (read the interview translations), complaining about stuff that they already said is not implemented yet (= animations) doesn't do any good.

Thank you for pointing that out. That's fine, if they've actually noted they are working on that particular aspect. I had not seen that bit of info.

[Jamison]

Alpha is the time to make sure you point out things that look like problems. If for some reason they do not see it as a problem then they won't fix it and you cannot assume that anything is considered to be not be final. Being alpha is exactly the reason one should complain, it is easier to fix now rather than later.

Not an attack on you, just a jumping-off point for my post.

Alpha is *not* for pointing out problems, it's for testing the server structure and limitations. It's for putting load on the entire system looking for points of failure. These alpha client/servers branched off from the main code some 2-3 months ago and are not reflective of where the team is today -- let alone when beta starts.

That being said, the MMO world is unlikely to ever see another alpha that looks as polished as ARR does.

Beta will be the time to offer constructive feedback on all aspects of gameplay and design.