Thoughts from a casual

[SkyeWindbinder]

^^lol This.

Someone make it stop... Please?

[Kyri]

I felt 14 was waaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy to easy to level, even before powerleveling and I definitely feel it needs to ramp up on the difficulty. I was very disappointed when we got jobs and didn't have to level them, more bleh when everyone on the server had all the AF the very next week. Someone powerleveling could seriously get like 20 levels in the time it took me to write this. Though I love this game and it's my #1, that's disgusting><

[Ruisu]

The game should be harder in general, not FFXI hard, because I want an actual difficulty and not that artificial crap. I'd rather everyone experience the same difficulty in order to make people less awful at the game, but the dev team isn't willing to risk gaining less subs. So whatever. Game should be harder in general, though.

[Yrusama]

I think what XIV misses most from XI is something you brought up: the ability to chat during battle. There were countless times I accidentally let a party member die as a WHM because I thought I had time to direct or inform the party between cures. I remember having some really in-depth conversations with parties in XI, even players who I knew I might never see again. In 1.0, however, if I joined a Natalan party nearly all of my attention was spent on the battles. There was literally no time to socialize. How do you develop a significant bond and trust with a party member if they're a stranger for the duration of a 4-hour party? Needless to say, my friends list didn't see many updates. I'll admit I made a couple of friends while crafting and chatting in Ul'dah.

[Earendur]

Casual play will be the death of us. Party based content all the way, and mobs need more HP atleast so the battle isnt over before it even started.

[AmandaHuggenkiss]

How do you develop a significant bond and trust with a party member if they're a stranger for the duration of a 4-hour party?

Easy.
I had pure social shells I would invite players I met to.
Also, I never had issues typing chat at anytime during 1.0 game play.
Maybe playing with a controller helped that...

[Zenaku]

I think what XIV misses most from XI is something you brought up: the ability to chat during battle. There were countless times I accidentally let a party member die as a WHM because I thought I had time to direct or inform the party between cures. I remember having some really in-depth conversations with parties in XI, even players who I knew I might never see again. In 1.0, however, if I joined a Natalan party nearly all of my attention was spent on the battles. There was literally no time to socialize. How do you develop a significant bond and trust with a party member if they're a stranger for the duration of a 4-hour party? Needless to say, my friends list didn't see many updates. I'll admit I made a couple of friends while crafting and chatting in Ul'dah.

You meet a lot of cool people the few that want to talk and you end up adding them to your friendlist. In Dungeon runs in wow i end up meeting awesome people but they was in other worlds which end up sucking ass they have to make a char on your world and give them some start money so they can level up quick or you join and they give you starting money overall it sucked. I met a few awesome people doing party one of them i'm still friends and that been over 1+year i did that party in ffxiv so ya you could meet awesome people partying.

[-S-a-g-e]

I feel like ffxiv is missing something to keep players playing, casual and hardcore alike. I played ffxi for 6 years as a casual player( all per abysea, and that game made me want to come back and play every time I took a small break. I'm not sure this break from 14 is making me itch to come back, yes I'm going to play, and yes I like much of the game it just doesn't have that driving factor 11 had.

Things I liked in 11:

Difficulty: even as a casual the challenge of that game is what made it great. You strived to do your best in every xp party to maximize your time. V 1.0 was just to easy, every part of it was easy, leveling, individual mobs, dungeons, instances. what initially got me hooked on 11 was how smart you had to play just to get to cap. In v1.0 I slept thru cap on every combat job solo. I have died less in ffxiv than probably my first month in 11. I do like how easy the first few level were in 1.0 it helps new players get into the game without discouragement, but each level bracket should get gradually tougher. And by tougher all I mean is more challenginging to dispose of the mob in front of you. Party leveling should yield higher xp than solo leveling and it should take more to kill a mob, this "spam move while running oh shit I didn't even touch that mob" leveling is the most boring thing I've ever played in my life. Plus the speed at which you run thru mobs leaves absolutely no time for chat.

Solo play: I think many people have thought v 1.0 is more solo friendly than 11 but I feel that's completely backwards. Yes you can solo 1-50 and do most everything but instances on your own, but you could do alot of that in 11 also. I solo'd all the time in 11( being a fan of the least sought after jobs) I would find a spot which dropped items I needed for crafting and solo, slowly but solo it was. I think soloing should be easier but not as pitiful as it was in 1.0. But the best part of solo play in 11 was NM hunting, there was so many low level NM's to hunt which still dropped decent gear and it was hard.

I think writing this has discouraged me even more about xiv but I'll save my judgement for when the servers come back up

Difficulty: As Gramul was saying many don't agree because honestly outside some of the story related missions the game was really easy. What a lot of people call hard in FFXIV = time sink. "It took 3 hours to kill Kirin that was so hard" No it was hard to sit there for 3+ hours to kill one boss for 0-3+ pieces of loot. (Of course I'm referring to the old days) The game was a time consuming monster and it was great it was the Japanese Everquest and that's what they was aiming for. A more appropriate word would be challenging, there was times even during normal parties where things got challenging but I would never label it hard.

FFXI wasn't solo friendly at all up til they added the Fields of Valor and that even applies to Beastmaster. Beastmaster took some skill and patience to play at first and there was a few classes that could solo but your EXP would never even remotely come close to the exp gain you would get in a group. You make a few goods points here and there referring to FFXI but with the slue of new content coming in 2.0 there will be plenty of content even for the low level player. You will have quests, leves, FATE system (assuming they have lower level versions), revamped older content like chocobo caravans, behests which can be tackled solo or with a group, new dungeons as well for lower level groups. As you said wait til you play it before you give a full assessment though I understand this was just a synopsis of what you would like to see.

[Carzilla]

I'd agree, but only to a certain degree. I remember the first time I took an airship in FFXI and it did have some kind of weird magic to it. You worked hard to get the pass and as a new player it's definitely not a breeze. Finally you wait on it to show and you're able to board. FFXIV to me lacks this as everything is sort of handed to the player, the only difficulty is in traveling from one destination to the next repeatedly. There is no find "x" item in a foreboding dungeon like Eldieme Necropolis where you're scared, nervous and excited at the same time. It's all so obvious and pointed out for you in XIV.

All that to say, traveling and experiencing zones in XI was in itself fun despite potential death and mishaps making it a significant time sink.

I'd rather invest more time and have more "magic", than to spend less time and really be uninterested in what's going on. If that makes any sense.

^ this is exactly what 14 1.0 was missing, and it was because of the instant gratifications. And answer me this what type of gamer needs quick and instant gratification

-instant gratification
-instant teleport
-aquireing new skills instantly just cuz you leveled up
-no death penalty
-skills are spectacular from the start instead of progressivly getting better.

pretty much everything is just handed to you in 1.0 no sense of danger or accomplishment.

SE needs to take off the training wheels and safety padding from this game and go old skool.

[Ticks]

Chief Kurrahee made some points that made me think. Every zone in FFXI had a partying camp. From Dunes to Quifim, to Jungles, Garlieage, CN - lol - and so on. Lots of friends were made at these camps. Only one party camp in FFXIV - Natalan - at end game. I hope ARR isn't 'End Game" before it begins.