Just preordered FFXIV Collectors Edition...

[kehlsi]

ok don't get me wrong, but ummm...what? i will admit that there are issues that need to be addressed with this game, but some of you are acting like this is the worst game ever made based on your 15 minutes of walking around wondering what to do in the beta. @loki, no offense, but how is it even remotely possible that you could not figure out a way to interact with NPCs?

the goal of any beta is just what you're complaining about. to stress test servers, to break the game in a sense. these companies want to know the flaws in their games before they go live and people start paying for the service. it will take much less time to send an email with feedback to square than some of you spent walking around in game. again i'm not trying to insult anyone here as i fully understand that this game is not for everyone, but some of the posts in this thread seem a bit extreme and selfish. personally, i enjoy discovering a game i am playing with little help. i was never one for in depth tutorials or strategy guides. i would much rather spend 30 minutes figuring something out on my own. DISCLAIMER: yes, it is a little overwhelming walking out of the cgi and having nothing to go on but it wasn't that difficult to figure out. maybe the confusion was due to never playing an ff title. i don't know most of your gaming backgrounds, but for someone who has played games for 20 years, some things should be easy to figure out.

i preordered the ce, but i spent around 5-6 hours over a weekend playing the beta and although it runs poorly and has clear issues that need to be addressed, i am enjoying the game. i have had my wow account for 6+ years; release til now. i have loved the game most of those years and have only recently gotten burned out due to schedule changes, guild issues, etc. ffxiv is a refreshing change for me and it may simply be due to my love for ff titles and familiarity with them, but i see a ton of potential for this game. opinions are opinions and in mine, this game has the possibility of being something great. i look forward to watching it grow.

 

[Macra]

Futureshop wouldn't let me preorder -.- so I am going in on the 22ed and demanding one and/or putting my face into a 3d tv.
For all the haters I've got to ask one thing.. How many mmos have you beta tested/played on opening day?
I've tested over 8 different mmos and have played over 10 on opening day and I've had the same experience with every past one of them. No game in this day and age is going to be perfect during beta/opening. It took blizzard over 3 years to iron wow out and have it become decent.

 

[Imported]

@kehlsi - I completely agree, that is what the beta is for. But its so unpolished right now. I did all 3 nation storyline quests, leveled multiple jobs to 10+ so I didn't just walk around. I did enjoy the story and concept.. I'll just wait a few months to see if the utilization gets any better.

I've beta tested 3 or 4 MMOs.. Aion was by far the most polished of them IMO; but I was still (still am actually) more devoted to FFXI so I didn't continue on.

 

[nageov3t]

@loki, no offense, but how is it even remotely possible that you could not figure out a way to interact with NPCs?

maybe I've gone full retard... I've played multiple MMO's (EQ, DAoC, FFXI, WoW, LotRO, and MUD's before that) and I don't think I ever felt as clueless or directionless as the first time I logged into FFXIV. for the first 5 minutes, I didn't even realize that those were npc's and not just other players.

 

[Feneant2]

I was going to preorder but the open beta changed my mind. Granted I only played 2-3 hours but most of it was spent wondering what to do and where to go. There didn't appear to be much meat to the story at all but then again, maybe it's just because like Loki, I couldn't figure out what the hell to do or who to talk to!

So my thoughts are I'll give it 3-4 months to settle and then will buy it. Hopefully by then the game will have a lot more direction for newer players and some things will be more polished- like the poor mouse control, constant wrong version errors on login and maybe I won't have to wait 2-3 minutes for players and NPC's in a room to appear!

Edit: And to answer, I have tested multiple games and played on release as well- this one is the most confusing so far.

 

[tedrodai]

I'm keeping my CE preorder. I didn't even order the CE until after playing the open beta for about a week. The game definitely could use some polish...and LOTS of it in certain areas (UI response time *cough*--this is a game breaker if they don't fix it), but I also agree that it has some pretty good potential. SE has said they are enabling the hardware mouse for release, so maybe god knows why they had it disbled during beta.

I also enjoy having to figure a few things out in a game like this, but in terms of advanced game mechanics rather than "Where the heck do i even start?" The 1st main quest seems to be in place to try to familiarize you with certain aspects of the game, but it sucks at it. When I first loaded up into FFXIV, I had an experience almost exactly like what rivan described a few posts back with the forest clearing. I've played plenty of MMOs and other PC games, but it was still incredibly confusing at first, and the lag made it even more difficult (though open beta lag was to be expected). After a week of trying things and reading on a couple of FFXIV fansite forums, however, I had zero difficulties with the game. Though the game has very poor or non-existent tutorials, it truly doesn't take very long to pick up all the info you need to focus on playing the game. That first hump is a killer though...

The game is casual friendly in the respect that you can log on and immediately start accomplishing something -- be it crafting, gathering, or fighting, though the initial learning curve in open beta and the fairly slow pace is counter-casual. Also, there didn't really seem to be a lack of mobs in open beta, just a lack of them near the starting cities. If you were to explore a bit, you'd find low level mobs spread out FAR across the maps. To me, that would actually be a good thing once you've progressed more with the game and want to start up a new low level class, but it just makes things that much more confusing and/or difficult when you're just learning the game.

I'm not having any trouble playing the game with a stock C2D E8500 and stock 8800GTS 512MB, but I was having a little trouble on a stock E6400. For the game to look really good on my 1920x1200, though, I'd want a better graphics card. I'm gonna keep my eye out for a good deal when the latest gen AMD/ATI cards come out (it feels wrong to call them just AMD).

 

[HumblePie]

maybe I've gone full retard... I've played multiple MMO's (EQ, DAoC, FFXI, WoW, LotRO, and MUD's before that) and I don't think I ever felt as clueless or directionless as the first time I logged into FFXIV. for the first 5 minutes, I didn't even realize that those were npc's and not just other players.

HAHA, you never played EQ in beta. I started with EQ phase 2 beta and went to Phase 4 (open) and still have all the beta Cd's. Back then Beta's were not downloaded due to lack of broadband, but the company sent you a CD. Anyhow, talk about complete lack of direction for a game. EQ was a major sand box with some themepark bits added in. There was no tutorial, or anything. Most players spent weeks learning controls.

FFXIV harkens a bit back to those days, at least for the beta so far. But it is not hard to figure out. You can always /shout and ask for help or read forums if you are stuck.


As for performance problems, it seems to me that 90% of the time these problems are because people have something configured wrong. The remaining 10% is a really old system.

My friends daughter can run with 60fps most of the time with my very old hand me down computer I gave her. These are her specs.

AMD opteron 939 dual core running @ 2.8 Ghz
2 GB of DDR ram
8800 GT
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
Windows 7 32 bit.


That's it. She runs at 16x10 resolution and it runs great on her machine. From the graphic settings I can remember this is what she has selected.

Window mode running WindowerXIV. (google this program)
Resolution: 1680x1050
Shadows: Lowest
Buffer Size: Resolution
Texture: Standard
Texture Filtering: High
Ambient Occlusion: unchecked
Field of Depth: unchecked


With these setting and her computer she runs just fine. She drops to 25 fps or so in really busy areas, but that is most net lag causing video lag.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I think I am going to wait too ... I just don't feel into the game after playing for a few hours in beta...alpha wasn't all that great either, haha.