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silverthunder) wrote2010-09-27 09:14 am
silverthunder) wrote2010-09-27 09:14 am
Entry tags:
More Final Fantasy XIV
Now that FFXIV is out, I've changed the top banner on my site, and I think it looks pretty cool.
Cody and I spent pretty much all weekend playing. It's a fun game.
I really like their leveling system. As I mentioned before, everyone has a physical level that is unchanged. Everything gets you experience. Crafting, fighting, doing quests... everything. Each time you get a physical level, you get a certain amount of points to distribute into your stats, so you can customize your character.
Rank is what counts, though. Putting on a different type of weapon will change your job class - for example, if I've equipped a cesti, I'm a pugilist (this is my job of choice). If I've equipped a sword, I'm a gladiator, and if I've equipped a staff, I'm a conjurer. If I've equipped a sewing needle, I'm a weaver, and if I've equipped a fishing pole, I'm a fisher. Each of these job classes start at rank one and as you do things (hit mobs or fish or sew), you get skill points. These level your rank at that particular job and then you can attack higher level mobs or sew better gear or whatever.
Equipment is interesting, too. Each piece of equipment has an "optimal rank" and "recommended classes". But it could say its optimal rank is 17 and the recommended classes are gladiator and marauder, and a level 5 pugilist could still wear it. Also, the equipment comes in all different colors. You can craft it in any color you want, too (as long as you have the dye). The whole idea is for players to customize how they want to look and what kind of stat-boosting gear they want to have. It's a neat idea.
You can easily level solo as well, although it's nicer to work in a group, as always. You can pick up levequests and set them to one of six levels of difficulty - starting with a solo level and ending at a full party level - or you could just go out and kill stuff. You can also pick up quests for crafting, which provide you with the materials (nice when you start out and have no money to buy them). You can do eight of the fighting/gathering quests and eight of the crafting quests every day. I'm hoping they up that limit at some point.
There is also a limiter on experience, which is annoying to some but not something that'll ever be a problem for gamers like Cody and me. After eight straight hours of play, you stop getting experience - unless you take a break for a few hours, since it'll regenerate in that time. Since exp is ridiculously easy to get, the main concern is skill. If you've played the same job class for eight hours, you stop getting skill. However, if you switch to another job, you'll still get skill on that job. Meanwhile, the first job regenerates so if you switch back after a few hours, you'll start to get skill on it again. And if you wait until Sunday, well... you get reset back to 0 hours into your limit at that point anyway.
Cody and I haven't managed to play for eight hours straight (and probably won't) so this hasn't even been an issue.
The main problem with the game right now is that they haven't worked the kinks out of their "player-driven economy". What they are trying to do is reduce the amount of gear and materials sold by NPCs and have those who level crafts produce it instead. Crafting is fun to level in FFXIV, so is a good idea - in theory. Those who want to level a fighting job earn money by doing quests. Those who want to be gatherers, like miners and botanists and fishers earn money by selling the raw materials to crafters. Those who want to craft earn money by selling the finished gear to the fighters.
Sounds good, right? Well... there are issues.
The main issue is that people aren't selling what they make. There aren't enough devoted crafters to make this work. People level a craft just to make gear for themselves so they can go fight. Not even very many of the pieces (also crafted) to make the gear are being sold. Which is a problem, because if you're a level 10 leatherworker and you're trying to make a piece of gear for your level 10 pugilist, you have the skill to make a decent piece. But the components of that piece of gear could require level 21 leatherworking.
If level 21 leatherworkers actually sold that piece, this would work wonderfully. However, they don't. So... the solution is to stop leveling puglist and exclusively level leartherworking until you get to 21 and can make the required piece for a level 10 synth that will outfit your level 10 puglist.
Kind of ridiculous, really, and if you just wanted to be a puglist, you'd be SOL because no one is selling that piece of gear.
The solution (in my opinion)? Pieces of low level synths should be require equal to or less than the amount of skill it takes to make the whole thing. Way more fair that way.
The other issue is the system they have for selling things. Basically, this is by bazaar only; there is no auction house at all. This presents several problems that have yet to be ironed out.
For those not familiar with FFXI, a bazaar is when you flag items in your inventory as things that others can purchase from you. The items are moved from the 'items' section of your inventory into your 'bazaar' section, and an icon shows by your name to indicate that you are selling things. Other players can choose to browse through these items when they run into you in-game and potentially buy them on the spot.
This has been formalized even further in FFXIV because they have also provided each player with an NPC who you can set up in the "market" regions of each city with a bazaar to sell things for you. If you're looking for items, you go to the market and check bazaars to try and find them.
At this point, I think anyone following this can see the MAJOR GLARING PROBLEM with this system. There is no search function. You can't just look up an item like you would on an auction house. You have to go in and search every single bazaar in the market to find what you're looking for. Cody and I have done this a couple of times, and let me tell you, it is BLOODY FUCKING IRRITATING.
SquareEnix has said that they'll probably be providing a search function in the near future, which should hopefully make this somewhat bearable. Hopefully.
You can also 'seek' things in a bazaar. You provide your NPC with money (or just make sure you have money on you if you're doing it in your own bazaar) and set up an item as 'seeking' with the amount you're willing to pay. A person browsing the bazaar can sell it to you if they wish. Again, this is really neat in theory. One major limitation, however, is that in order to request the item you have to have it in your inventory. Which is redundant unless you're trying to get more of something, and if you are, you have to have more than or equal to the amount you're looking for. In other words, if I want to buy 50 earth shards, I have to have at least 50 earth shards in my inventory to request them. And if someone wants to sell me earth shards, they have to sell me exactly 50 of them. So... not a very useful feature at this point, but if they smooth it out, it'll be very handy.
Searching for players is another area that requires improvement. There is a search function, but so far I haven't seen any instruction on how it works. It... really doesn't seem to. You have a friends list, and you can add people to it (but if you add someone who doesn't exist, it doesn't tell you this - it just adds the name and makes it look like the person is just offline at the moment). But all you see when you look at the person in your list is whether or not they're online. You can't see what job they are or where they happen to be. And you can't invite them to a party from a distance - you have to be face to face with them. Really annoying. I hope they fix these things.
Overall, though, I'm having a lot of fun with this game! Fighting is fun, crafting is fun, and the graphics are excellent. If they work out some of the issues, it's going to be excellent. But even right now, I'm totally into it.
Cody and I spent pretty much all weekend playing. It's a fun game.
I really like their leveling system. As I mentioned before, everyone has a physical level that is unchanged. Everything gets you experience. Crafting, fighting, doing quests... everything. Each time you get a physical level, you get a certain amount of points to distribute into your stats, so you can customize your character.
Rank is what counts, though. Putting on a different type of weapon will change your job class - for example, if I've equipped a cesti, I'm a pugilist (this is my job of choice). If I've equipped a sword, I'm a gladiator, and if I've equipped a staff, I'm a conjurer. If I've equipped a sewing needle, I'm a weaver, and if I've equipped a fishing pole, I'm a fisher. Each of these job classes start at rank one and as you do things (hit mobs or fish or sew), you get skill points. These level your rank at that particular job and then you can attack higher level mobs or sew better gear or whatever.
Equipment is interesting, too. Each piece of equipment has an "optimal rank" and "recommended classes". But it could say its optimal rank is 17 and the recommended classes are gladiator and marauder, and a level 5 pugilist could still wear it. Also, the equipment comes in all different colors. You can craft it in any color you want, too (as long as you have the dye). The whole idea is for players to customize how they want to look and what kind of stat-boosting gear they want to have. It's a neat idea.
You can easily level solo as well, although it's nicer to work in a group, as always. You can pick up levequests and set them to one of six levels of difficulty - starting with a solo level and ending at a full party level - or you could just go out and kill stuff. You can also pick up quests for crafting, which provide you with the materials (nice when you start out and have no money to buy them). You can do eight of the fighting/gathering quests and eight of the crafting quests every day. I'm hoping they up that limit at some point.
There is also a limiter on experience, which is annoying to some but not something that'll ever be a problem for gamers like Cody and me. After eight straight hours of play, you stop getting experience - unless you take a break for a few hours, since it'll regenerate in that time. Since exp is ridiculously easy to get, the main concern is skill. If you've played the same job class for eight hours, you stop getting skill. However, if you switch to another job, you'll still get skill on that job. Meanwhile, the first job regenerates so if you switch back after a few hours, you'll start to get skill on it again. And if you wait until Sunday, well... you get reset back to 0 hours into your limit at that point anyway.
Cody and I haven't managed to play for eight hours straight (and probably won't) so this hasn't even been an issue.
The main problem with the game right now is that they haven't worked the kinks out of their "player-driven economy". What they are trying to do is reduce the amount of gear and materials sold by NPCs and have those who level crafts produce it instead. Crafting is fun to level in FFXIV, so is a good idea - in theory. Those who want to level a fighting job earn money by doing quests. Those who want to be gatherers, like miners and botanists and fishers earn money by selling the raw materials to crafters. Those who want to craft earn money by selling the finished gear to the fighters.
Sounds good, right? Well... there are issues.
The main issue is that people aren't selling what they make. There aren't enough devoted crafters to make this work. People level a craft just to make gear for themselves so they can go fight. Not even very many of the pieces (also crafted) to make the gear are being sold. Which is a problem, because if you're a level 10 leatherworker and you're trying to make a piece of gear for your level 10 pugilist, you have the skill to make a decent piece. But the components of that piece of gear could require level 21 leatherworking.
If level 21 leatherworkers actually sold that piece, this would work wonderfully. However, they don't. So... the solution is to stop leveling puglist and exclusively level leartherworking until you get to 21 and can make the required piece for a level 10 synth that will outfit your level 10 puglist.
Kind of ridiculous, really, and if you just wanted to be a puglist, you'd be SOL because no one is selling that piece of gear.
The solution (in my opinion)? Pieces of low level synths should be require equal to or less than the amount of skill it takes to make the whole thing. Way more fair that way.
The other issue is the system they have for selling things. Basically, this is by bazaar only; there is no auction house at all. This presents several problems that have yet to be ironed out.
For those not familiar with FFXI, a bazaar is when you flag items in your inventory as things that others can purchase from you. The items are moved from the 'items' section of your inventory into your 'bazaar' section, and an icon shows by your name to indicate that you are selling things. Other players can choose to browse through these items when they run into you in-game and potentially buy them on the spot.
This has been formalized even further in FFXIV because they have also provided each player with an NPC who you can set up in the "market" regions of each city with a bazaar to sell things for you. If you're looking for items, you go to the market and check bazaars to try and find them.
At this point, I think anyone following this can see the MAJOR GLARING PROBLEM with this system. There is no search function. You can't just look up an item like you would on an auction house. You have to go in and search every single bazaar in the market to find what you're looking for. Cody and I have done this a couple of times, and let me tell you, it is BLOODY FUCKING IRRITATING.
SquareEnix has said that they'll probably be providing a search function in the near future, which should hopefully make this somewhat bearable. Hopefully.
You can also 'seek' things in a bazaar. You provide your NPC with money (or just make sure you have money on you if you're doing it in your own bazaar) and set up an item as 'seeking' with the amount you're willing to pay. A person browsing the bazaar can sell it to you if they wish. Again, this is really neat in theory. One major limitation, however, is that in order to request the item you have to have it in your inventory. Which is redundant unless you're trying to get more of something, and if you are, you have to have more than or equal to the amount you're looking for. In other words, if I want to buy 50 earth shards, I have to have at least 50 earth shards in my inventory to request them. And if someone wants to sell me earth shards, they have to sell me exactly 50 of them. So... not a very useful feature at this point, but if they smooth it out, it'll be very handy.
Searching for players is another area that requires improvement. There is a search function, but so far I haven't seen any instruction on how it works. It... really doesn't seem to. You have a friends list, and you can add people to it (but if you add someone who doesn't exist, it doesn't tell you this - it just adds the name and makes it look like the person is just offline at the moment). But all you see when you look at the person in your list is whether or not they're online. You can't see what job they are or where they happen to be. And you can't invite them to a party from a distance - you have to be face to face with them. Really annoying. I hope they fix these things.
Overall, though, I'm having a lot of fun with this game! Fighting is fun, crafting is fun, and the graphics are excellent. If they work out some of the issues, it's going to be excellent. But even right now, I'm totally into it.
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