[DEV] Question about "Characters created during phase 4"

[Cer]

I think they would need to be explicitly clear if they meant just appearance. Since it's open beta, i think they would make a lot of enemies wiping progression. Lots of potential on-the-fence customers will quit if they have to start over.

[Seirra_Lanzce]

I've been asking since road maps published :X

[Orophin]

I think they would need to be explicitly clear if they meant just appearance. Since it's open beta, i think they would make a lot of enemies wiping progression. Lots of potential on-the-fence customers will quit if they have to start over.

They just need to be clear about it. There are several games that wipe your progress in open beta before retail. IIRC, the only thing that was saved from 1.0 beta to retail was your character template.

[ArkhamNative]

In my experience, "closed beta" = definite wipe, "open beta" = almost always wipe, "early access" = never wipe. So ARR's "open beta = hopefully no wipe" (as I interpret it) was a very pleasant surprise.

If they did only mean appearance, it's a very unfortunate translation, as in, I wouldn't consider it a point worth making a big deal about.

The 1.0 CE gave "1 week early access" as a perq. However, with every v1 purchaser and the rest of the planet in open beta, and probably carrying forward their character progress, it kind of serves no purpose to restrict logins to some of those for a week or so.

Anyway, I'll be glad if SE wants to clarify it soon. Might be better to get it out of the way before the headache of Server Transfer v2.0 descends upon us all.

[Kinseykinz]

I believe it's going to be character data. I say so because in the beta timeline under phase 4 it says
"- Characters created during this phase will be carried over to the official release.
* Circumstance may necessitate the deletion of character data"

I've always understood it to mean that come phase 4, our progress and characters will be saved. Afterall, they won't delete a 1.0 character, so 'Circumstance may necessitate the deletion of character data' would only refer to progress in this case, not the actual character/appearence. Basically, worst case would be they have to roll-back a server if they think there was a major issue/exploit etc.

Also, according to the roadmap, for phases 1, 2, and 3 it was explicitly stated that characters would be deleted at the start of the next phase. And usually it was stated in the phase before it
IE: -"Phase 3 characters will be deleted at the start of phase 4." is listed under the Phase 3 portion of the roadmap, not phase 4. Using this logic, if they planned on not carrying over character progress, they would have added that into phase 4's roadmap.

In addition to this, the little information that has been provided by SE on ARR servers and how we get on them also implies, that our characters might be 'locked' to Phase 4 servers. It's vague, but considering they are planning on letting anyone with an Account have Beta 3 access so we can communicate with eachother, it is plausible that they plan on having us select our servers pre release. (Especially since anyone with a character created pre ARR release, will not be able to roll that character on a New Character server. Basically, this would force anyone who got 'early access' via Phase 4 to keep their 'early' progress on an established server. Only new characters,could start on a new server at official release.)

Current Plans for World Transfers

We wanted to briefly discuss the current plans for selecting new worlds and world transfers for A Realm Reborn. Once the global data centers are set up for A Realm Reborn, we are planning the following for world transfers.

In the event that you don't complete the transfer procedure, you will be transferred to a pre-determined world.
In the event you complete the transfer procedure, you can select from a list of worlds you can move to and will be transferred to the world of your choice.


In order to eliminate any concerns about being transferred to a world you didn’t want to move to or being separated from your friends, we will be keeping the transfer procedure open for a long period of time as well as making various announcements to ensure that everyone is aware and can go where they like.

For Beta Test phase 3, fundamentally we are planning to allow anyone who possesses a Square Enix FINAL FANTASY XIV service account to participate in testing, so it will be possible to make contact with your friends from within the game.

We will be preparing thorough details regarding this whole process so that there is no confusion, and will be announcing them at a later date.

Yes, I know this too is very vague and will need a lot of clarification, but I take all this information to mean come phase 4, character progress is saved in part, because we're on the servers we'll be on at release to save it.


Basically, for now, I'd plan on having data saved, and playing as such...but not getting my panties in a bind if they had to reroll my character for any reason. Most important to me is to 1. Get on a server with my friends. 2. Help my hubby and friends who are new to the game, get started.

[Doki]

Beta Phase 4 starts:
You import your 1.0 data, and start playing and doing stuff. You can't change your name or appearance.
You play and level and get loots all the way to end of phase 4, when Official launch starts.
As long as no game breaking exploits are found that would allow stuff like leveling to 50 in an hour, duping items, or generating massive amounts of gil, character data from Phase 4 will carry over into official release intact.

So for instance, 2 weeks into phase 4, they notice that there's an NPC that buys an item for more than another NPC sells it for, and the economy tanks as that infinte gil floods the market. At that time, they would likely bring the server down, fix the issue, wipe character data, and bring it back up. You could then create a new character or re-import your 1.0 character and keep going.

Once official release happens, you would log in with your Phase 4 or 1.0 character, and go talk to an NPC that would handle changing your name and appearance.

At least that is how I interpreted everything the devs have said over the last few months of updates.

[Joshster]

I would love to see some official feedback on the OP. As vague as the details are, I believe any character progress during Phase 4 will carry into the release. Unless I hear otherwise, I plan on treating Phase 4 as such. I think the early access will be separate from the open beta, entirely.

[Spectre]

This is my guess, but official clarification would be nice:

You might be able to keep the character it's self you create in phase 4, progress and whatnot are unlikely to carry over. They do state there may be early access offered between the end of Beta 4 and release, but typically no beta progress carries over to the live version.

Where my reasoning comes from:

Q: When characters are carried over to ARR from Version 1.0, will we only be able to change our character's appearance one time at launch? Can we use our one time change during phase 4 of the Beta as well? Or will it be possible to do it twice, during phase 4 and at launch?

A: Please keep in mind the Beta is a testing period meant to check data. All character data has been examined thoroughly, and there are no bugs. However, I would like our players to understand that they will not be able to change their character's appearance until ARR is officially released. The problem with allowing this before then is that if something goes wrong when changing a character's appearance, it'll be difficult to determine if whether it was the result of a bug, an error with the data transfer, or some other process that occurred between beta and release.

they give little hints about not changing the character data until release, just in case there is a problem. Now ganted they are just talking about apperance here, but if apperance is that big of an issue to change and save, then progress may be a bigger issue.

[Kinseykinz]

This is my guess, but official clarification would be nice:

Where my reasoning comes from:
they give little hints about not changing the character data until release, just in case there is a problem. Now ganted they are just talking about apperance here, but if apperance is that big of an issue to change and save, then progress may be a bigger issue.

They aren't truely worried about changing character appearance in BETA somehow affecting launch. They are more concerned that if someone had an issue changing their character during beta (lost their inventory for example), they wouldn't know what caused the issue (in the Beta), and therefore would have a hard time fixing the issue. They are being extremely careful with our initial character data because they don't want anyone to lose their character/inventory/or progress from 1.0. This however, does not affect progress, as a matter of fact, saving our progress in Phase 4, actually helps them protect our character data as they would at least have 2 save points to reference and use if issues arose.

Basically, importing characters and allowing us to progress on them could be considered a 'test' in and of itself. Adjusting imported characters, looks, names etc. is a whole separate issue and stress (test). Therefore, doing both at the same time, could make problem solving hard if a bug was found.

[Aldora]

I think i might be one of the very few who don't want their Beta Progress saved on their main (1.0) character. The reason why i probably won't touch my 1.0 in the Beta is that Beta content is still under development and is subject to change. I want to play with my Main character when the content has been finalized and ready for launch.

In the meantime i would just play with a fresh character and try out certain stuff, like exploring the world, or try out the new systems in place (like this FATE system).

And if my Beta Character is transferred to the Release version, then i'd probably delete it and create a fresh one again. (^_^ )