FF XIV ONLINE - Anyone playing?

[darkewaffle]

Didn't get to play much this past weekend. But I started levelling carpentry after I hit 34 leatherworking (which is just about maxxed, I think the betas are capping content/gear at around 34-35), I didn't really realize until now that crafting jobs also are able to 'sub' abilities across classes, so while levelling carpentry I had access to one of my LW abilities which actually quite improved my materials:XP ratio. It's a nice middle ground between FFXI's subcrafts and most games "no interaction whatsoever between crafts". I'm really looking forward to seeing how everything mixes together when all the classes are finally enabled.

I also really enjoy the HQ system, it's nice being able to reliably HQ items that you significantly outlevel if you put a little extra effort into it. Also getting definite percentages rather than 'feeling it out' is appreciated.

I don't know if anything will scale differently in the official release but on one hand I can't help but feel levelling is still too easy. Maybe it's because I can only play every weekend so it's inevitable that I have a bunch of leves (pre-defined quest allotments) saved up which are great for XP. Or maybe I've just been playing a lot lol. But it just feels to me like it could run into the same problem SWTOR and GW2 had in that they 'gave it away for free' and players ran out of activities. On the other hand, having one character that can play any job and gear up every job/craft (btw, their support for multiple equipment sets is excellent so far, just needs the ability to share equipped items between sets imo) does a good job of combating that inherently.

[tedrodai]

Originally Posted by darkewaffle

I don't know if anything will scale differently in the official release but on one hand I can't help but feel levelling is still too easy. Maybe it's because I can only play every weekend so it's inevitable that I have a bunch of leves (pre-defined quest allotments) saved up which are great for XP. Or maybe I've just been playing a lot lol. But it just feels to me like it could run into the same problem SWTOR and GW2 had in that they 'gave it away for free' and players ran out of activities. On the other hand, having one character that can play any job and gear up every job/craft (btw, their support for multiple equipment sets is excellent so far, just needs the ability to share equipped items between sets imo) does a good job of combating that inherently.

I think that problem has more to do with what/how much there is to do at max level than how quickly you level. Cause people are gonna get to max level regardless, then want to do more...that's just how it is. So, no matter the leveling speed, people want near-infinite stuff to do at end-game. But leveling speed is definitely something to balance.

[ixelion]

The biggest improvement has got to be the game world. It's significantly more varied and interesting to look at. If feels more like a real place, I was really taken aback by the change especially remembering how incredibly boring and vacant the game world was in 1.0.

That being said, this is still fairly conventional MMORPG stuff, so I am not sure if I would sub. I need to play the beta a bit more to see if combat gets anymore interesting at higher levels.