Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! The day of reckoning approaches and in the end have we spent our time well? I think so.
With the coming of the FFXIV beta I have done a little bit of reminiscing about the time I have played FFXI, time I have enjoyed. I have also thought about those that didn't enjoy their time playing FFXI apparently, and I don't really get it.
I never really understood the way some people complain after quitting FFXI, or how they will never play FFXIV because "SE sux". I guess it's just the bitter gamer that is projecting their anger onto the game company instead of themselves.
Whether you like it or not, FFXI is a well run and successful game. A few people complaining about AV does not really effect the experience of 99% of the player base even those that want to fight AV.
Another one of those projections is the complaints about customer service. Outside of the few people that really did have to deal with the problems with SE and getting their account stolen, most of these complaints are from people that don't have the experience to make such claims and are just parroting what other people say.
SE's game development for FFXI is actually very good, especially considering the limitations of the game itself, but remember this game started development about 10 years ago and things are much different now than they were then. I think the problem right now is one of internal resources and nothing more.
SE doesn't "hate" their player base. They have learned from their mistakes and there are many examples of this. There are still some other mistakes they haven't or don't want to rectify (AV) but in the end the game experience in FFXI is excellent and enjoyable. It is far more social and it was built to be this way. Grumpy gamer kids may not really appreciate this aspect of the game, but in the end, we are all probably much better off without them.
And of course, if you just want to dismiss everything I just said, go ahead and call me an SE fan boy.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Morning in Vana'diel: Defending Your Avatar
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
POL News: I play Diablo, no wait I play FFXI... ummm
Ok so I will be fair, this is a lot more sophisticated than the gem system in Diablo, but it doesn't change the fact that it is still a new system that encourages you to collect gems and slot them into your equipment for additional bonuses.
As much as there was of getting your gear turned into something pretty dismal with the randomness that came with the augment system in FFXI, there was a degree of thrill that came with the unknown. Will you get something amazing like +6 INT on a Weskit, or are you going to get -3 INT on your snow ring and +3 water resist, there was an air of anticipation.
Needless to say if you suffered the loss of an item due to augmenting without the financial backing to recoop the lottery that it essentially is, it quickly becomes a very expensive risk that has deterred a lot of people from using it at all.
Enter from stage left the augments sexier, more flexible younger brother, with a spring in his step and a gleam in his eye to catch you and ensnare you with a charasmatic smile.
This of course is SE's newest "take it to the players" system they are looking to introduce in the next update. Called Evolith, it essentially breaks down into the augment system with choice. Collect the gems/crystals/evolith from various targets in Vana diel and bake them into your equipment via an oven in town.
The ability to remove these evolith stones offers a very attractive incentive to boost your gear as you can play around with different options and see how it affects your game play, plus it is nice to see that it will actually be available through a whole host of original gear as well as some new items you can beef up
Just from the snippets offered up by SE, the augments seem to be fairly interesting, although to add a pinch of salt here you could quite quickly see a bottleneck at the NM pops of some of the stones that offer the more immediate and obvious stat boosts.
This idea is most certainly following in the footsteps of the recent trend in FFXI by the development team, where they are encouraging the playerbase to take a much more hands on approach to designing their own gear. All the joys of augmentation, without the tears essentially. I can see this being one of those rare updates where SE might potentially just void one of their own systems ingame for something that is a lot more player friendly.
I have to say it is quite an interesting method to get around the continual stream of complaints I have NO doubt SE get about why this, that and the third are not done for mememe. Instead of getting grumpy about it they introduce game mechanics to feed the wolfpack.
This definately looks to have the potential to be a worthwhile system to invest time and effort in for those players dedicated to tweaking their gear to the nth degree for that fraction of more damage, along with appealing to the more casual player base with some more obvious and easy augments for instant gratification. One to keep an eye on for sure.We're pleased to announce a new system that promises to offer adventurers unprecedented customization options for their equipment! Named the "Evolith" system for the curious stones whose powers must be harnessed to reap the benefits, it will be introduced in a version update coming as early as late November.
Introducing Evolith
Little more than nondescript rocks at first glance, the substance known as evolith has long escaped the notice of the inhabitants of Vana'diel. Closer investigation, however, has revealed that these ancient stones harbor elemental power to rival that of crystals. With advances in the emerging discipline of synergy*, the time has come that their latent potential may at long last be tapped...
*Synergy is a new form of synthesis conducted using a "synergy furnace."
This system will be introduced in detail in a future Topics article.
With each piece of evolith possessing unique properties (*see example screenshots), adventurers may mix and match them in various combinations to bolster compatible equipment with the exact combination of attributes they desire.
*Development screenshot—subject to change.
Evolith 101
Adventurers may enhance their equipment with evolith through the following procedure:
1. Acquire evolith
- Evolith can be obtained by completing new NM hunting regimes accessible from "Hunt Registries" that will be introduced to certain areas alongside the Evolith system.
- Note that each piece of evolith is defined by a unique shape, size and elemental affinity.
2. Choose the base equipment you wish to enhance
- A vast assortment of equipment will support evolith, from several hundred existing items spanning a wide range of levels to new equipment slated to be introduced alongside the Evolith system.
- You may check whether or not a particular piece of equipment supports evolith by trading it to one of the "Synergy Engineer" NPCs that will be dispatched to certain cities.
3. Prepare your equipment
- A maximum of three evolith-holding "slots" may be etched into a given piece of equipment via synergy.
Note that each slot will have its own shape, size, and elemental affinity, to correspond with the evolith itself.
- The etching process will require the use of dedicated items.
- Similar to augmented items, etching evolith slots into a piece of equipment will render it untradeable and unauctionable.
4. Confirm compatibility
- Ensure that the slot is of the same shape and elemental affinity, and is large enough to hold the piece of evolith you wish to attach.
5. Attach evolith
- Evolith may be attached to a compatible piece of equipment via synergy.
- It is possible to outfit a piece of equipment with as many pieces of evolith as slots it contains.
*Development screenshot—subject to change.
The Finished Product
Should your synergy be successful, congratulations! The help window for your newly evolith-enhanced equipment will appear like this:
*Development screenshot—subject to change.
- Evolith Replacement and Slot Removal
Should you wish to replace an attached piece of evolith with one offering different benefits, this may be done at time via synergy. It is also possible to remove evolith slots entirely—thereby returning the equipment to its original state—through synergy using a dedicated item. Note that in both cases, the previously attached piece of evolith will be lost.
With countless varieties of evolith in existence, the possibilities are endless. Seek out the combination that best suits your playing style, and the equipment of your dreams can be yours!
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
FFXIV News: FFXIVCore Follow-up Interview.
FFXICore has posted some very interesting follow-up questions from their original meeting with the FFXIV many months ago (I know, shocking that SE took forever to do a follow up). The questions and answers are up my alley when it comes to what I am looking for when it comes to FFXIV information. I don't care about the storyline or the monsters we will be fighting. I don't even care about the job system or how you level up. Those are things that you do first when making an MMO, and if they don't work then the game won't work, and SE's track record when it comes to these aspects of the game is very good.
I am much more interested in the day to day aspects of how the game will work. Will I need to use macros? Will I use mouse and keyboard or only keyboard or a game controller? What will linkshells/guilds be like? Other technical aspects that I want to know about while other people are drooling over pretty pictures and storylines, I am kicking the tires and checking the oil.
There are a few interesting notes that stand out. There is no self-directed flying as of yet, and honest that doesn't mean a thing to me, but I know people will be screaming about how Aion has flying just like they screamed about WoW having jumping when it first came out. (A side note to people that are playing Aion: You are playing a very, very pretty but completely recycled Korean MMO, and prettiness does not an MMO make.)
There will be quests similar to AF and Limit Break quests, which to me is very important to the overall progression of the initial gameplay and it gives people the sense of accomplishment even if they haven't really accomplished anything major in the game. It definitely breaks up the grind.
The combat system will be something completely new and revolutionary. Excuse me if I don't have the same enthusiasm that SE has about this, but it is very rare when things are truly new and revolutionary in video games. I have no concern that it will be too much like WoW, because SE has been making MMO's longer than Blizzard and while they have definitely borrowed concepts they don't really seem interested in borrowing their formats.
Finally, it should be noted that the economy in FFXIV probably wont be the same as FFXI and that is a good thing. To combat RMT they are likely going to make many more things Rare/Exclusive, and it seems like they are going to handle crafting in a different manner than they did in FFXI. What does this mean? Who knows, but I doubt you are going to see the imbalance in prices that you see in FFXI.
The entire set of follow-up questions below the break:
From FFXIVCore:Awhile ago I attended Gamescom in Germany and got to interview the Square Enix team about Final Fantasy XIV. I was limited to 45 minutes of time, but they gave me the chance to email a couple of questions that was left from the FFXIVCore.com community which they promised to answer in due time.
Well, that time has come and I present you with a mini interview (twelve questions and answers), answers are courtesy of Square Enix and the questions asked are from the community here at FFXIVCore.com. Enjoy!
Q1: Will we be able to fly somehow either by ourselves free roaming or scheduled transport airships like in FFXI?
A: At present, we have no plans for free-form aerial movement for players. We are, however, looking into a number of different types of flying transportation.
Q2: How will player run guild/linkshells work? What features can we expect and what benefits can a guild/linkshell get through progression if any?
A: For the time being, we are still keeping this information secret. But, we are very adamant about creating an entirely novel system.
Q3: Will the races hold the same benefits as they did previously in FFXI, or will the stat bonuses be different and play a larger role? In addition, will faction choice play a bigger role? In FFXI we had separate mission lines and friendly competitions such as ballista. Will we see something similar or something dramatically different than FFXI system for different factions?
A: The bonuses among races will be of a different variety than those seen in FFXI. But players need not be concerned with this when choosing a race based on aesthetics.
There is also an element of freedom in that players will not pledge their allegiance to a single city-state. This means that the guildleves or skills available will differ region to region, which all being accessible. Of course, this applies quests as well.
Q4: Will the artifact story line quests return for each class from FFXI? If not, will similar quest lines carry on a system of “right of passage” such as limit break quests?
A: Character development along the lines of the Armoury system and skill levels will incorporate familiar concepts from FFXI as well as entirely new elements.
Q5: What do you expect the cap level to be in FFXIV at the start and/or at the end?
A: This has yet to be decided. We will be setting the level cap after looking at the Beta phase results and other considerations.
Q6: Will there be a cooldown timer or anything that limits how often we can change class?
A: There is no real concept of static "classes" in the traditional sense. Rather, there may be somewhat of a restriction placed on the changing of weapons or tools mid-combat.
Q7: Will there be something like a Mog House? Maybe this time around we will have an actual HOUSE, and not a little tiny room!
A: Nothing is set in stone yet. There are a number of possibilities that we are still looking into.
Q8: Limit Breaks were powerful combat moves featured in several Final Fantasy titles. In FFXI we saw Weapon Skills and Magic Burst. Do you have any plans to include a similar system in FFXIV?
A: This has not been decided at this time. But it's safe to say that players can expect to see a completely new and revolutionary system.
Q9: Are there any plans to add female Roegadyn and male Miqo'te?
A: Well, the character model designs are finished... But further details regarding their implementation have yet to be decided.
Q10: Will this FFXIV be more "new person friendly" than FFXI was? (Once everyone had been playing for years, it was hard for new people who started to be able to play, even with the "level sync" system that was added in later. Not to mention, finding armors/weapons in the Auction House was nearly impossible for new players. Barely anyone used the "mentor" system in FFXI either, or rather, there were barely any hosts.)
A: We are developing in-depth introductory tutorials for new players. We are also designing the game while keeping in mind those users who enjoy playing solo, as well as those who can only log in for short periods of time. There will also be plenty of content for newcomers.
But, on the other hand, there will also be complex battles requiring large numbers of people for players more interested in content of that nature.
Our main goal is really to create a variety of ways in which to enjoy the game.
Q11: Will mobs actually drop armors/weapons like most MMOs or is FFXIV going to be like FFXI where you can only obtain these in Auction House or Crafting, or Raids?
A: The complete details of this are still undecided.
As in FFXI and other MMORPGS, some monsters will drop armor and weapons. However, items that drop in this manner are always a target for RMT exploitation. So to avoid any kind of player exclusion, most instances of these drops will yield items which cannot be passed between players.
To put it broadly, there will be a number of ways available to obtain a number of different items.
Q12: Is crafting still going to be an integral and value added portion of the game and somewhat prohibitive so that a selected dedicated few will feel like they are part of the economy and adventuring aspects? (Crafting and not adventuring usually keeps me hooked)
A: Players who wish to do so will be able to fully enjoy the game using only their crafting skills.
The same can be said not only for those wishing to specialize solely in synthesis of items, but those who prefer combat or the gathering of materials as well. All of these types of players will be important to the game world.
Morning in Vana'diel: Quality Control.
Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! Today's post spun forth from my mind while writing the POL New Update. Yes, to this day I still think that FFXI is a better overall game than WoW. Do I want to be part of the slobbering masses? Is WoW really good? It is, but it's not everything.
The one thing that SE did amazingly well was creating a variety of end-game systems. In WoW, you can either raid or PvP. There are different raids and they do get might complex after a while, but the construction of them and the progression of them is very linear. You work on older content to gear up to do newer content. There is little you can do to pick and choose what event you want to do because you will not be able to do the newer content without gear from the older content. Again, I believe this is because of a far superior job-system design on SE's end. If you have different jobs there is less concern about having to create linear progression and you instead can have a much wider base to create new content. You don't have to worry that all your new content has gear for every single job because players have multiple jobs.
SE's approach lets you pick and choose the end-game you want to play, while Blizzard's approach forces you down a path of their own choosing. You may say that Blizzard's choice is better because they have more people playing, but how many of those people are hardcore end-gamers? How many of them are running the current level of content as soon as it is released? The answer is not very many, and a much lower percentage that FFXI players. Ultimately, this is a game design decision. While WoW is very accessible to those people that are just starting the game, the end-game situation is very inaccessible even with the improvements and changes that Blizzard has made in the past. The problem is even worse if you come in late during one of their expansion cycles, because you will have to do 3 or 4 levels of content to get to the current level of content.
In FFXI once you hit end-game you can pick and choose among many different options and while gear helps there are no artificial road blocks that limit you based on gear. Save for PW and AV which are the ultimate in ultimate end-game mobs there is little that a player can not do in end-game because of gear. Sure, it may require a few more people, and while people are definitely moving toward low-man options for end-game events, this is not an artificially created barrier forcing you to do content that you, your friends or your guild may not be interested in doing.
I have said it before and I will say it again, WoW is a great game, but it is far from the perfect game. The number of casuals that play WoW is huge, while the number of casuals that play FFXI is tiny. I do think that WoW has far more hardcore players than FFXI, that would be undeniable, but the percentages are far more in favor of FFXI, and even the raw numbers would be much closer.
At the end of the day, I can see why many people play WoW for much shorter periods of time than FFXI, and why so many people come back to FFXI after playing WoW. WoW is a good relief valve from FFXI, but for anyone that has played FFXI seriously WoW is a toy at best.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Morning in Vana'diel: I Can't Wait for You to Shut Me Up.
Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! I really, really, really want more developer contact... or do I?
Hmmm, so I guess I should explain my disappearance during one of the busiest weeks for FFXI news. The only problem is that there isn't much of an explanation besides the fact that I was busy which in turn made me lazy. There is much to cover from the week that has passed and I plan to try to handle that today if I can. If I can't I will die trying. Or at least sprain my pinky or something.
There might be quite a few posts today because of this, so if it's too much too read... well fucking deal. :)
Speaking about talking too much, I wanted to bring something up from a different game that has nothing to do with FFXI... or does it? I know, by now anyone that plays FFXI has at least a bit of a problem with WoW in some form or another. But I don't want to focus on that, I wanted to talk about the cautionary tale that can be learned from events that have happened on the WoW forums.
You might or might not know this but WoW has official forums and in those forums the lead developer (Ghostcrawler is his name on the forums, his real name is Greg Street) is known for posting about the design concepts and the direction of the development team. To a FFXI player this might seem like the promised land, a game that actually has direct contact with the developers? But as they say, the grass is always greener on the other side of the street.
While FFXI players often beg for more developer contact, this might be a place where we should reconsider what we are wishing for because we just might get it. While more developer contact seems like it could have no bad outcome, there may be a reason that SE doesn't do it more often. And that reason is us, the players.
Ghostcrawler recently posted on the WoW forums that he is going to be cutting back on how much he posts because two things happens whenever he posts explanations of in-game content. The first is that while some people understand what he is saying, a lot of people (and usually the most vocal) break down what he is saying taking things out of context or not keeping perspective about the post. The second thing that happens is that the criticism of the post turns personal, questioning his understanding of the game or knowledge of a class. Yes, the players actually believe they understand the game better from their incredibly limited personal anecdotes than the guy that has access to the data from everyone in the game and the knowledge of the entire game.
You might notice that this sounds familiar. That is because it is. You can see that happen on any FFXI forum. "The developers don't understand the game!" "Why are they nerfing/Why aren't they buffing my class?" "The developers want us to quit!" The similarities between the complaints that people make on FFXI forums compared to the ones made on the WoW forums would be funny if it wasn't so striking. I have literally seen the same exact wordings in the "threats" made by the players of both games.
What does that tell me about the benefit of developer contact? That it doesn't make one lick of difference to player's enjoyment of the game. The whiners will always whine, threaten to quit, scream at the developers whether they are listening or not, and will blame everyone else for their problems. Hey, sounds like life really, doesn't it? In the end, does developer contact change anything at all? While it feels like we may be disconnected from the developers is that because we feel like they are not "listening to us" when they aren't going to listen to us anyway? Even if FFXI's developers were listening and posting and talking to us, would it change anything at all? They know where the game is going months out, they know how they want things balanced, and as much as we critique would it really change anything? Should it change anything?
I know I don't want FFXI run by some of the forum posters I have seen. The term "Monty Hall" comes to mind.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Morning in Vana'diel: Do they know more than we think they know?
Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! The FFXI community sure does love to bash the developers. We wonder why they do the things they do. But sometimes their goals and actions actually seem right in line with how the game should operate. Are we the ones that are fooling ourselves about who knows most about the game?
I have always wondered how the developers come up with some of the gear in the game. Some of the crap that we see makes me wonder what they are thinking when it comes to making gear. But there are times when SE adds things that make me think they have a very deep and robust understanding of what is available and how the players use it. I don’t know if it is coincidence, or if it’s intentional but I think that at least some one at SE has some idea of the greater ideal.
Let’s look at a few examples:
Store TP: This is the first place that I can see there is an obvious intention to keep the math for not just Samurai, but many different jobs to optimize the number of hits it takes to get to 100TP. It used to be that there was a very strict formula that Samurai had to use to get to 6-hit builds, and the other DD had a similar but more difficult situation most of the time. Then the Askar body was added that allowed a lot of other jobs to get a rather simple 6-hit build. Then Aurum body was added which freed things up even more, and now we have the Rose Strap. Each of these was added separately but progressively making it easier and easier for people to build and then tweak their builds to get a 6-hit build. Samurai now even has a relative cheap option for getting to a 5-hit build without having to use a rather to extreme Great Katana.
Haste: Haste is an even more interesting situation. The obvious place to look first is the Usukane gear. When it was first introduced the Usukane gear was amazing, but it was the first time after the general move toward haste gear that SE offered a tradeoff between the maximum haste that was available in that slot and a piece of gear with less haste but clearly better stats overall. There are other factors like Usukane gear fitting perfectly with the Black Belt to get to the equipment haste cap. As time has passed there have been more and more pieces that fit in this pattern, like Askar Head and Aurum feet. There are now more options to replace what used to be cookie-cutter pieces. This fits in well with the notion that is gaining greater acceptance that maximum haste is only especially good at very high accuracy levels and below that things are less clear.
This is maybe a little melee-centric but the gearing choices for gear for many different jobs are all becoming more complicated because there are varied and effective alternatives to the old “must-haves”. And I don’t think that is just because more gear has been added, but more because SE really does know what they are doing most of the time. Shocking I know, but it can’t just be coincidence.
Saturday, August 08, 2009
FFXIV News: Another update!
SE have never been afraid of keeping their fans on tenderhooks, infact it is their default modus operandi in just about anything they do. Regardless of what game or release they are tendering at that particular time they drip feed the player base to generate interest and speculation.
AND! It works!!!. As much as people grumble and groan and complain about how much SE never says anything, doesn't give enough information, doesn't do this that and the third, forums are filled to overflow with people talking, communicating and wildly speculating on what is to come, what has been and what shall never be.
Its good, old-fashioned marketing. In this day and age of instant communication, SE play the rumour mill like a seasoned pro. It is so easy, to just give in to everything that people want, after all, its just a click of a button away at that point, but the suspense, mystery and build up is lost. There was a reason Lucas held off sales of Episode I, to recreate the snake of people around the cinema that we just don't see any more in this digital age.
Of course there are drawbacks to this, the actual product eventually usually ends up being an anti-climax, a complete dud and just occasionally a shining spot of gold although that is extremely rare. Which is where you are at now with FFXIV.
Comparisons are inevitable, come on SE have been making THE SAME GAME for 14 incarnations at this point, this area is going to remind you of X zone, this character is going to remind you of Y person from FF(Fill in the blank). Infact for 14 incarnations of its Final Fantasy series, SE have plagarised, stolen, looted, lifted and reused themes, plots, characters and ideas from their own series.. Isn't this why we keep coming back?
I mean come on seriously, I listen to all the complaining and whining and realise I just don't care. LoL I am interested just for its own sake, not for what parallels I can draw from elsewhere. Oh look its a field, looks like a field in Rolanberry Fields (FFXI) it also looks like the lane just coming out of my father's house in Scotland. *gasp* SE must be fiends for just reusing rl generic landscapes.. oh.. wait... when you actually break it down it starts to sound a little ridiculous and mostly generated by fear of the impact it will have on a game that most of us have played for a good 5+ years now.
After all, we have good reason to wonder what SE are doing with their time, with these half-hearted updates and scenarios to try and maintain the player base, but that is rather like Ringthree trying to cure an entire alliance while "someone is WRONG on the internet", the alliance doesn't end up looking too healthy at the end of it due to the division of attention.
Better speculation would be to wonder why SE are not keeping the two games seperate, the whole thing smacks of the same people doing both games, and not being able to focus on both, in a company that size, they must be able to have 2 teams able to look after both games independantly surely?
A closer look at the released artwork and content of the game definately sheds a little light on this, SE have taken the lessons learned from FFXI and expanded, updated and polished off to a gleaming shine the results. If anything, FFXIV makes XI look like a beta test. Just a VERY LONG beta test. People are getting upset at how similar to FFXI this new MMO from SE looks, they feel abandoned because FFXI is being left to limp along with the content it has, and the groupies are thirsting for blood (which is a little creepy) but I get something different from it. I definately get a huge sense of love from SE for what they created. So much so they don't just want to toss it to one side and forget about it, and start from scratch.
Instead, they've taken something they have invested a colossal amount of time in, and lets be honest here, they have spent MORE time on this game than we have, and made it look better and more accessible (they are a business after all). It is so selective how people view improvements. I don't see people complaining over mobile phone technology and the speed at which it is developing rendering your "new phone" obsolete in a matter of months. Which is 500x more expensive for the consumer than what we are doing here. I am sure "SE" is just as passionate about Final Fantasy as we are.
Since SE has updated their site for FFXIV with a lot more detail and content, you can take a closer look at what, at least for now is the surface patina of the game. There is the introduction to the world of Eorzea, with the usual planet-wide crisis that threatens civilization, nothing like SE aping RL at all is it hmmm. Then the exposition of how the denizens of the world cope with the threat, and where we as the playerbase fit into this grand scheme of things.
Fair enough, a well crafted mmo needs a solid, well-thought out storyline to carry it or it will fizzle out and shrivel up like SO many other MMO's before it. And the one thing I will not begrudge SE on is craftmanship, their attention to detail and their desires to really push the boundaries on what is possible graphically and technically is always apparent in each incarnation of their new releases.
There are lots of nice new clickables on the website that expand on the cities, on the races, and highlight a little bit on what to expect from the job classes and the system. There are several things on reading that which did pique my interest.
The job system for FFXIV seems very much to be a cross between the access to all jobs and complete change that came from FFIV combined with the class specific progression of FFIX. It definately promises to offer a lot of flexibility for the people roaming around the world and doing whatever it is that real people do in a sandbox game. I also speculate that chocobos will not be so much as ridden as become your "nomad moogle" for all your articles, weapons and pieces of gear, quest items, drops and other random bits that you want to carry around with you. A mobile packmule to further enhance this idea of a greater accessibility and flexibility in what you can and can't do within the scope of the game.
The other thing that caught my interest was a bit in the characters segment that hints at a way to customise your character beyond the slightly generic creations that exist in FFXI. If they DO make this available, that means that basic models might look the same, but everyone will be unique. Which is a fantastic idea, everyone wants to look different in an mmo, but definately in FFXI there is limited scope for that as everyone wears the "best" for their job and ends up looking identical. Line up Clubber, Izman and Ninjafox on WAR in Versus and you would be hard pressed to really see that much of a difference. While SE gave us a vast selection of gear options, really it became a much narrower field to excel, only mages seem to be able to get away with a greater flexibility in what they wear.
Its odd really, people become so comfortable with the familiar they essentially assasinate the strange or new if they feel it encroaches and no matter how you twist in the wind FFXIV IS going to encroach on FFXI. I remember when I first started playing FFXI, I logged in and the vistas were stunning, the animations were crisp and smooth and it was exciting. FFXIV holds the promise of all that over again in even prettier depictions, smoothness and boldness.
SE are definately getting a lot of flak from the community over this game, but I can't help but realise there is a tingle of excitement over how crisp and slick this game is looking already. Go play on the website, go oooo at the pretty scenery, ponder the implications of the Guildleves and the armoury system (WHICH SE has spelt correctly for once and not Americanized /cheer of approval) but most of all, go look at it with an open mind and not one filled with hostility over the new kid on the block. You never know, it might not be all bad. ^.^
Friday, August 07, 2009
FFXIV News: The Pied Piper of Shibuya.
The more and more I hear about FFXIV the more and more I get concerned. I was really looking forward to this new game, but really I have to wonder if I am interested in a new version of FFXI if SE hasn't really determined what are the real problems with FFXI. Sure SE is covering all their bases, describing the new job system, quest system and other things. But these are all things that SE does correctly right now. What about things like job balance? What about some of the insane and inane content? Instancing? World spawns? What about the basic information that anyone outside of the fanboys are really interested in when choosing a game.
The forums are frothing at the mouth over a game where they have seen nothing more than concept art. Are they going to want a game that doesn't support external add-on development again? Are they going to want to play a game that does even let you alt-tab out again, and basically requires anyone to violate the rules to even have the game playable on a PC for the first four years it is available? This is just the internet at it's worst. All flash and no content.
Don't get me wrong, I want this to turn out really well! I want FFXIV to be great, but I don't want to have to give up almost two years in FFXI content to get to that point and I don't want to have to experience the same exact mistakes they have made for seven years just delivered in a shiny new package.
Also, we haven't ever gotten the real honest truth on some issues from SE and their answers tend to change over time to fit the current mood of the player and the development team. PS2 limitations are a great example of excuses that were nothing more than hot air for a lot of things that were implemented later on.
Is the real reason they are using the same races from FFXI really to provide continuity between FFXI and FFXIV, or is it because it just saves them a lot of programmer/designer time to just reuse something they have already been developing designs for? Sure there are differences, but the creativity has been removed from that part of the development cycle.
The question is this: Are the problems in FFXI because of structural game designs that SE isn't going to have with FFXIV, or are the problems because of the people that developed FFXI feel they know better than the players? If the problem is the former, then FFXIV will likely be a great game because there is so much that has happened in the MMO world since FFXI was released and a new platform will let SE unleash their ideas integrated into a much more playable platform. If it is the latter though, then FFXIV will be nothing more than a gussied up but casual version of the game we already play. If that is the case, I already have my old faithful crack, I don't need New Crack™.
Here is my run down on the more specific issues that have been presented about the game.
The new job system - This is the main thing that FFXI got right, and it sounds like the are going to do something different but similar enough to maintain the flexibility to change jobs. Doing it on the fly will be even better. This is my one shining hope for this game.
Crafting - Oh god, not this again. Crafting in FFXI sucks, the system sucks, the skilling-up sucks, the HQ system sucks, and the economy sucks. Some people like it and I am not saying they are wrong, I am just saying that it could be so much better. Crafting shouldn't be an end in itself, but a means to make money. Integrating it into the job system seems like they are trying to make it an end again. There needs to be a purpose for crafting and that purpose needs to be making an income of a reasonable amount.
Trading-off skills - No. Just please God no. No one likes it in FFXI because it is not a "fun, additional aspect to player customizing", it is an artificially construct limit on your potential. Artificial limitations in combat skills, magic skills and crafting don't do anything to provide customization, they just sharpen the edges of the cookie-cutter even more.
Races - I stated this above but it bares mentioning again. I have to wonder how hard they really are trying here if it's just the same people in a different place with just more technology than in Vana'diel. Even the story line seems to have major resemblances to Vana'diel.
UI/Macro system - This is one place where uncertainty definitely is playing a role in my doubts about FFXIV. I should be assuming that SE is going to have a wonderful new UI and Macro system and there have already been statements about the ability to quickly swap around sets of gear, but SE's inability/lack of want to improve FFXI's UI and failure to create a decent Macro system makes me have major reservations.
Communication - SE seems to be taking the same exact approach as they did with FFXI, while every other major MMO developer is moving toward more contact with it's player base. I understand that it is a Japanese company so there will be some disconnect, but Blizzard seems to handle it's Oceanic players with a modicum of respect. The NA representatives for SE seem to be as out of the loop as the players are for most things.
Balancing - SE doesn't have to worry about job balance in FFXI as much as other games because people can freely change and level different jobs, and FFXIV appears that it won't have this problem either, and it may be even less of a concern depending on the amount of over lap that is available for already trained skills. The problem is that SE actually though the subjob system was going to allow this to happen in FFXI, but instead the subjob system just worked to further restrict players choices. The major concern I have over game balance as a whole is that we will see mobs like Absolute Virtue again. This just causes frustration more than anything else, and is the best, most obvious example of the disconnect between how the developers envision the game and how the players actually play it.
I have high hopes for FFXIV, and I have real apprehensions. Either way, as of right now, I have no plans to stop playing FFXI. Nothing that has been present so far has made be change my plans at all. I will definitely pick up FFXIV, but the jury is still out on how everything is going to pan out.
Thursday, August 06, 2009
FFXIV News: ORLY? YARLY!
I love it when people with no real working knowledge of FFXI make commentary about it, but it is even better when people with limited working knowledge work for the "online gaming media" and post articles about FFXIV and compare it to FFXI.
It is usually a feeding frenzy whenever new information appears, at least in our very small pond. I can not reset to dive in, but how about we add a flip and a half twist to that dive? Let's take a look at 1UP's coverage of the new FFXIV information and add a little bit of Ring spice to it.
If you aren't interesting in my spice, I understand, but I have some new pictures of FFXIV that I will put at the bottom of the column after the cut, so then you will HAVE to click and maybe you will even read my comments! :)
1UP: Why is this peppy young swordsman looking so smug? Probably because he's found himself in the land of Eorzea, a wild place filled with squabbling city-states, plundering barbarians, and all kinds of other enemies, natural and unnatural. He's made it, in other words.
Ring: Yeah, he really has made it. He has made it directly from the FFXI teaser from about 10 years ago. And Eorzea looks more and more like Vana’diel from what I have seen so far. Similarities? Parallel Universe? Lazy Developers? Failed Attempt at FFXI-2? Which do you think is more likely, hmm?
1UP: Eorzea's nations used to be constantly at war with each other, but the advent of airborne battleships and other shockingly powerful weapons has created a state of détente throughout the land. The resulting peace has led to a wide swath of soldiers and mercenaries suddenly without a job, and so they're now forming guilds and calling themselves under a new name: adventurers.
Ring: Wait… what? Nations at war, but airships are the ultimate weapons that stop them from fighting? Soldiers and mercenaries becoming “adventurers”? Stop me if you have heard this before!
1UP: That's the very basic plot behind Final Fantasy XIV, the PS3/PC online RPG that Square Enix revealed at this year's E3. Now Square Enix is ready to reveal more of the goods, and in this week's issue of Famitsu magazine, game director Nobuaki Komoto offered some of the first really concrete details behind the MMORPG's gameplay. Here are the details:
- Eorzea, the continent where players begin their game, is a small continent with several surrounding islands. Time passes, and weather changes, on a regular basis in this world, with one in-game day currently set to be about an hour of realtime. This exact figure may change, but as Komoto puts it, "it won't be like Eorzea will be night for hours because it's nighttime in reality... I want FFXIV to be enjoyed even by those who can play only a short time out of the day, so I'd like the sort of time schedule such that it's always a different experience timewise when you login to Eorzea."
Ring: More and more emphasis on casual play? What about us psychos? What is in there for us? But really, this again shows that FFXIV will be following in FFXI’s footsteps in the way the world works.
1UP: Eorzea is home to five races which, although they have different names, look quite a bit like the races in Final Fantasy XI. You have the Hyuran (Hume in FFXI), Miqo'te (Mithra), Lalafell (Tarutaru), Elezen (Elvaan) and Roegadyn (Galka), and as you'd expect, you can fully customize the look your character no matter what race he or she's a member of. Hyuran are further divided into "midlanders" and "highlanders," and Miqo'te are divided into the diurnal Sunseekers and the nocturnal Moonkeepers, though how this affects gameplay is still under wraps.
Ring: Five races exactly like FFXI, of course. Seriously, are we really supposed to believe that this isn’t FFXI-2? They are just giving us features that we have wanted in FFXI for a long time. They probably decided that it was just easier to reboot the whole thing than rework the entirety of FFXI. And why do people care about Manthras anyway? Seriously, who wants Mithras with dicks?
1UP: FFXIV's "armory system" is what defines your character's growth. The game has four broadly defined "job skills" -- Fighter, Sorcerer, Gatherer and Crafter -- each of which has a variety of more specific classes (Swordsman, Blacksmith, Caster, etc) attached to it. You can change your class instantly simply by changing your weapon and armor, and as you fight and complete quests with that equipment, your character will advance in that class. You're free to concentrate entirely on one class, or try to balance yourself out among all the job skills.
Ring: Ok, so the new job system that “isn’t a job system”. Sure, whatever. This job system may not be like the FFXI one, but it’s not that new or innovative or anything. Many other games use a branching leveling system. Yes, right, I forgot… FFXIV has no levels! Ok, the character has no “levels” but their skills have levels, and you will have to build up some kind of points to increase these levels. Calling a spade a heart doesn’t make it any less a spade. Not saying that a job system is bad or anything, I love the new idea; I just wish the marketing packaging of this whole thing was a little more honest.
1UP: This armory system isn't exactly like the "job" concept that most Final Fantasy games work under. "The way I see it, the player can define how his own job works," says Komoto. "For example, if you have the Swordsman skill, that's enough to let you play by yourself, but if you've also raised your Sorcerer skill enough to unlock that skill's healing magic, that'll make solo play a lot easier for you. You can carry enough equipment around at any given time to change your style freely, and the system makes this easy by letting you change sets of equipment all at once."
Ring: Sounds like the subjob system, but what matters is if you can do this really on-the-fly. Does that mean you kill a mob, then change gear to heal yourself, then change gear again to fight the next mob, or does it mean you are fighting the mob, take some damage, change gear to heal yourself while you are fighting the same mob then swap back to kill the mob? Are we going to still fucking lose target? This all sounds nice for the casual player, but I am much more interested in how specialization is going to work. Where is the hardcore player, end-game info?
1UP: This skill and class system largely replaces the traditional RPG concepts of levels and experience points in FFXIV. Instead of worrying about EXP, "I think the main thrust will be raising the skills you have at hand," as Komoto puts it. You'll probably still have to engage in good old-fashioned MMORPG grinding to improve your character, though.
Ring: If by “replaces”, you really mean “renames”. It’s going to be easier to level and level a variety of different jobs without much downtime, but grinding is still there, and from things I have read else where they are going with a durability system instead of an XP loss system as death punishment. Changing the name of something does not make it “new”.
1UP: FFXIV's quest system involves visiting Eorzea's guild and receiving work passes from the guildmaster. Other players can cooperate with you, and everyone can put their passes together to involve the entire gang in a sort of mini-campaign. The available passes change at regular intervals, and completing a single quest from one of these passes will be a relatively short process -- Komoto estimates it at around half an hour or so. "You don't need a set number of people for each quest," he said. "That you can work out by yourself with the other players in the guild, since they're all there for the same goal."
Ring: Content you can enjoy because SE didn’t make it! This is like a combo FoV and MMM combo. Sounds like they are totally abandoning the party system, which is good and bad. The party system created a minimum level of interpersonal decency in FFXI, which is not replicated in many places where solo play is emphasized (*coughWoWcough*). Though this system doesn’t sound like a bad idea, I just wish that there was some self-correcting anti-douche mechanism like the party system in FFXI. And I want to know how end-game is going to look…
And there you have it, my coverage of 1UP’s coverage. You might see a few consistencies in my comments. And some more pictures to prove my point. These are a few of the "new" cities in FFXIV.
Jeuno? 
La Thiene Plateau?
Konschtat Highlands?
Pashhow Marshlands?
Sarutabaruta? 
Here is a bonus shot of a Sorcerer in a city. This at least looks interesting. More "high-fantasy" themed as they have said.
And finally a picture of a page with several different cities on them. Click on the picture for the full size version. You might see a little familiarity there too. Castle city? Forest city? Bastok, San d'Oria and Windurst all have themes like this. 
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Morning in Vana'diel: Plain Old Fun Vs. Shiney New Fun.
Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! I don't know about you, but I am not having less fun in game but I am having less fun anticipating having less fun in game.
I have no internet at work this morning so I have no idea when this is going to be posted. And in this moment without instantaneous entertainment I am left to think about things a little more slowly, and a little more globally. I made me wonder how the developers really think about monster and event creation.
Now it is obvious that SE really isn’t putting anywhere as much heart into their events as they once did. The last two updates have seen events that mirror one of their oldest event systems: Garrison. Maybe they decided to use it because no one uses this kind of semi-instanced event anymore, but I have a feeling it is more to do to the need to spend less time developing new programming for events so they can work on the mini-expansions and FFXIV.
These events are not bad at all. The ANNM and Fey Weapons events are actually quite challenging and rewarding. They do require a little more thought than some other things that have been introduced lately and some of them like the Xarcabard Fey Weapon battle are actually very difficult. It is not the challenge or the reward I am concerned about, it is how they come up with the events they do implement.
There are weird balances between the different events. Some of the things they come up with are very interesting, intriguing and challenging. Salvage, for example, is probably the best implemented idea SE ever had, or at least after they added the crate of cells at the beginning of the run. Some zones were hard, some thought provoking and some required trickery, but all were interesting. But then you have something like Pandemonium Warden and Absolute Virtue, which are nothing more than insane puzzles that only the developers have the answers to the riddles. Why even create challenges that are not meant to be defeated? If we were reading a story or watching a movie these would be fine, but in a game are challenges that are too challenging even worth the development time?
[Note: Of course, Pandemonium Warden has become increasingly defeatable, but that is only because of the changes that occurred because of the way it was originally designed.]
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