Count me amoung the skeptics ...

[Jibe]

Oh. Well I stand corrected. I was only trying to correct that you CAN in fact HQ on Hasty. I do it all the time.

About 1/50 synths I get HQ on shards, but odds being what they are I could just be lucky and it could be 1/100.

Thanks for the info, I've never HQ on hasty hand but them again I don't use it often. Well now I have first hand experience with what happens when I assume something.

[Steggun]

Well said Kroma. I have so many fond memories from FFXI, and 90% of them relate to the sense of accomplishment I felt after completing something challenging and getting the reward I had worked so hard to get.

If I had to pick two that stood out the most to me they would be completing the CoP missions (before they were nerfed) to get access to sea. The second one involves getting all the available avatars to SMN through the lvl 20 mini-avatar fights.

These types of fights got my heart racing every time, and it was very exhilarating to do whether I won or lost. I have yet to feel anything even remotely close to this from FFXIV, but I am holding out hope that they will eventually bring this type of excitement to this game.

[gifthorse]

wrong. if that's the case i must be the luckiest mofo ever since i have hasty handed and hq'd 4 cotton yarn back to back also. that's 4 straight which was +1 +1 +2 +1. hasty hand is alot higher than 1/100.

WTF... maybe I am just unlucky. I have HQ tools and yet, statistically, these are the figures I get: around 1/20 - 1/30 when standard synthing and around 1/100 when Hasty Handing.

[darkstarpoet1]

Thanks for the info, I've never HQ on hasty hand but them again I don't use it often. Well now I have first hand experience with what happens when I assume something.

just as a heads up jibe until your craft is 10+ levels above the synth it is not a very good option to use. i use it alot on like cotton yarn, which is a very low level synth, because at r44 wvr i get 0 sp off it. i have a high success rate on it and get hq at a very high percentage on hasty hand on that one synth. i just wouldn't use it on a r20 synth at r20 and hope for hq....you don't even complete a high percentage of them.

[northernsky]

For me, helping others achieve those goals was almost just as exciting, because I knew how awesome it was to experience those things for myself. It was great to see/hear their reactions when others did the same.

Well said. I don't even remember someone asking for help in LS chat yet in XIV, in XI ls chat was literally spammed by people asking for help for quests they could not complete on their own.

[Preypacer]

Well some really special spells should probably be learned, but normal spells should come with leveling imo. Sure some FF games make you buy spells (even the recent old school style 4 heroes of light) but for the most part, you learn standard spells via leveling.

Now if people had to do quests to learn Ultima/Meteor/Holy/etc. then that would be great.

Agreed with that.

It just seems weird to me when I play a MMO (or any game for that matter) where you just automatically learn a spell the moment you hit an arbitrary level.

I have no problem with there being basic, "root" spells that mages start with... though even then I think I like the approach of having to learn them from someone or something.

Anyway, I would say at the very least, the basic "Level 1" version spells can be auto-learned... Maybe your character has learned enough other magic and grown proficient enough with it that the knowledge allows them to draw on energies to cast new ones... whatever the "mechanics" behind it might be.

However, to use more powerful versions of a given spell (levels II through IV), you have to seek out the scrolls, or some item, that you read from to learn it. Or perhaps are taught it by a NPC once they feel you are ready to learn it, maybe after finishing a quest for them to prove you are ready.

The higher power the spell, the harder it is to obtain.

Then you have the ones like you mentioned, Ultima, Holy, etc... those would be unique and uber-powerful spells that would definitely be difficult to obtain... but well worth the effort.

That would also play well into the theme of making progress and achieving milestones throughout your character's career.

[Preypacer]

It took me three tries to beat Maat. Funny thing is both times I lost when I was all pumped up and focused, third try I logged on early saturday morning still half asleep like "Fuck it, let's just do this" and ended up winning. Beating CoP's airship battle pre-nerf after the 12th try? That was some shit I wanted to celebrate over.

Ha! Very similar scenario for me. I got him on the 3rd attempt, and it was kind of a "throw away" attempt.

The first two times, I'd done my homework, checked out different strategies, got the different items I knew I'd need, etc... and lost. Horribly.

The third time was a freebie. I was helping someone else get their testimony - it was down in Monastic Cavern, if I recall - and a DRG Test. dropped... Since I was the only one in the group playing DRG who needed it, I got it.

So, just for kicks, I went in and gave it a shot. Was not nearly as prepared, and was much more "lax" about it. I didn't break any time records (especially with the current one when I did it being something like 48 seconds), but I beat the old geezer. I still have the screenshot of the combat log from it heheh.

It was pretty awesome. Great feeling to beat that guy, and have the way to 75 wide open from then on.

[Shai]

WTF... maybe I am just unlucky. I have HQ tools and yet, statistically, these are the figures I get: around 1/20 - 1/30 when standard synthing and around 1/100 when Hasty Handing.

I just know because in order to get 999 + change shards, I need about 65 Crystals.
Hasty Hand them and I typically get 1-2 HQ in there and 1-5 complete fails.

So it's just based on observation. I was selling shards for a while so I was doing this A LOT.

[Seif]

I agree with most of your points, but these stuck out to me the most. The game desperately needs a sense of accomplishment and progression. I mean, how am I supposed to feel a sense of adventure when pretty much everything is already available from the start?

I hope Yoshi takes this to heart.

I agree. The landscape is incredibly bland. I think it's probably beyond repair. The wastelands of emptiness are so void of character that a few generic looking quest hub huts aren't going to make them look more unique.

Quest rewards in XI included maps, scrolls and cutscenes with beautiful music. In XIV the reward is boring wall of text that's not important to read and some previously worn underpants from a generic NPC with zero personality.

[Shai]

Wow, yeah, the NPCs are generic.

I mean a lot of the Class Quest & certainly the Main Story has a lot of personality. I am attached to many of the NPCs I've worked with in those two areas (not all Classes, mind you, but Fishing for example has a great set of Quests).

The side-quests, heh, well you know Side-Quests are just Guildleves that weren't at a Adventurer Guild. I mean we asked for that. Guildleves are completely void of personality and now so are the NPCs that give "Side-Quests." Though I am partially appreciating the things I learn from Side-Quests that I didn't already know.

The NPCs, though, are super bland. I never feel connected to them at all.
They feel like automatons instead of personalities.

That's a great observation.