Open Beta?

[Loony BoB]

I read somewhere that they stated that this will come about "very soon" - anyone heard anything to back that up?

[ScottyRedXIII]

on what platform PC or 360 and ps3?

[Goldenboko]

Probably PC, all the beat's thus far have been PC.

[JKTrix]

Hullo, I haven't been here in a while. Made a post! Eyes On Final Fantasy - Largest Final Fantasy Resource Online (http://www.eyesonff.com/news_single.php?news_id=878)

Basically this starts tonight (or 2AM GMT for folks on that side). You can download the installer right now to get a bit of a head start.

[ljkkjlcm9]

except they just posted this:


FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test Postponed

FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test, which is scheduled to begin at 19:00 (PDT) on Aug. 31, 2010, will be postponed due to a confirmation of critical bugs. New schedule will be releaseｄ at a later date.

Along with the postponement of FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test, the issuing of registration code for FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test will be postponed as well. With the download of client software's installer, it will be suspended at 19:00 (PDT) on Aug. 31, 2010.

THE JACKEL

[JKTrix]

That is hilarious.

[Del Murder]

I hope this game doesn't end up being an epic buggy disaster when it is released.

[Ouch!]

Buggy disaster is kind of standard fare for MMORPG releases.

[Del Murder]

Maybe it will make sense for me to wait for the PS3 version then. :)

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

You can download the client in the meantime though! :D

[Baloki]

I demand betaness!

*gets pitchforks and torches!*

[Depression Moon]

PS3?

[Baloki]

PC. Just it's been delayed :(

[Mirage]

And I hope they've got enough common sense to delay the final game too.

[Miriel]

Yeah, I get the feeling the game is nowhere near ready. I wonder why they're pushing it out so soon?

Put out a half-ready game and fix it as they go?

[Ouch!]

Yeah, I get the feeling the game is nowhere near ready. I wonder why they're pushing it out so soon?

Put out a half-ready game and fix it as they go?
I think people are overestimating how much of a set-back this is. Square Enix may be bad about keeping in contact with their audience, but they're not stupid. They know that putting out an incomplete product would be catastrophic, and they wouldn't be pushing the September 22 release date unless they were confident with their ability to make that deadline.

Further, rough starts are fairly typical of MMORPGs. Most all of the titles released have rocky beginnings while the developers work out more and more bugs and refine game balance. The nature of the multiplayer experience complicates things making a perfect release near impossible. SE's plan to release the game eight days early for the collector's edition is a good move towards mitigating a number of the server issues which plague the first few days (or weeks) of release for most games. By releasing to a limited crowd, they don't have to deal with everyone trying to sign in right on the same release day and have a while to make adjustments before regular release.

We were spoiled by FFXI's release. Because the game came out a full seventeen months after the Japanese release, American audiences didn't have to deal with these types of problems. I wouldn't worry until the game breaks out of the box (which I doubt it will do).

[Miriel]

I was surprised with the release date ever since they ANNOUNCED the release date. I was telling Del Murder today that I'm wary of such a (seemingly) rushed release, even before I found out about the OpenBeta delay.

I dunno, I'm just one of those people who would not mind at all if the release date was pushed back if it meant a better product. It makes sense to me to "cook" something a little longer if it's underdone, rather than put out an unfinished product.

I'm sure they're not going to put out a completely broken game. But I'm also sure that to them, it makes more financial sense to get paid in subscriptions while making critical changes and fixes rather than not getting paid at all. It may be a cynical assessment of Square, but I've become increasingly convinced that Square is not exactly a company that cares all that much about doing right by their customers.

[soffia1987]

yes ,i heard about it, Originally Final Fantasy XIV will open beta on 19:00 (PDT) on Aug. 31, 2010, but now Final Fantasy XIV will delay opening beta. When Final Fantasy XIV open beta? why it delay?

more from:
When Will Final Fantasy XIV Open Beta? - final fantasy 14, final fantasy xiv, ff14 opening beta (http://www.pubarticles.com/article-when-will-final-fantasy-xiv-open-beta--1283317524.html)

[Loony BoB]

It's now opening on the 2nd September at 2am GMT. So roughly 12 hours or so from now! :)

[Ouch!]

Clearly it was a very critical bug that took a long time to fix.

[Del Murder]

So when does your check from SE clear, Ouch?

[Loony BoB]

Wait, people are putting together critical opinions of SE because they delayed an Open Beta for a day or two? :p Hahahaha. You guys. I tells ya.

You should instead be putting together critical opinions of SE because you started downloading an update about ten hours ago and it still is at just 11.9% :( And often sits at a download speed of 0.0b/s. How are there only 21 local connections to this updater? Crazy.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

I am at 72.7% and have been doing it since yesterday morning.

Currently 16 Local Peers and at like 42 Kbps.

[Loony BoB]

After following advice found elsewhere and enabling about five sets of ports, I'm finally moving at around 90Kbps now. Yay.

[Ouch!]

Oh :bou::bou::bou::bou:. Downloading uses a torrent? I'm screwed. :/

[Baloki]

So the speed of critical updates hasn't improved? Yays for 24 hour install times after 6 months :D!

[Goldenboko]

If I have to download this via torrent it doesn't seem like a good idea. I'll wait for the game to come out.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

It is not a torrent per se, but it seems to download via P2P system.

EDIT: What BoB said works wonders! Here (http://ffxiv.zam.com/forum.html?game=268&mid=1282367905291145437&page=1) has the ports you should forward. I just forward the ports in the first post, ignore the stuff about static IP and now I have a gazillion connections and it is speeding along quite nicely!

[Loony BoB]

Everything is installed and ready to go but then I tried to apply and...


Due to server congestion, the requested page could not be displayed. Please try again later.

D'oh!

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

Everything is installed and ready to go but then I tried to apply and...


Due to server congestion, the requested page could not be displayed. Please try again later.

D'oh!

Same. :(

You'd think they'd been ready for something like this to happen.

[Loony BoB]

For those of you hoping to safeguard your name on our linkshell's server (should you wish to play with us other EoFFers), please check out this thread ASAP and vote in the poll...

http://forums.eyesonff.com/final-fantasy-xiv-online/134080-server-should-we-all-go.html

[Jessweeee♪]

UUURGH I finally get in and it's like NOPE GOTTA LOG IN FIRST so I did and checked "Remember Me" but then it took me to another busy page and when THAT finally went through I was again taken to the log in page :nonono:

I just wanna download the clieeeent at least let me get that far.

[Mirage]

Everything is installed and ready to go but then I tried to apply and...


Due to server congestion, the requested page could not be displayed. Please try again later.

D'oh!

Same. :(

You'd think they'd been ready for something like this to happen.

Square Enix? Prepared?
Bwahahahaha

I'm sorry


In other new, I'm ingame at the moment of this posting.



It is not a torrent per se, but it seems to download via P2P system.

No, it is a torrent per se. You can grab the torrent out of the patch directory and open it with utorrent if you feel like it.

[Ouch!]

This is going to present problems for me if Square Enix doesn't offer an alternative means of downloading patches. My university disallows any form of P2P file-sharing; the first two offenses of using any such programs simply result in having my internet terminated until I take my computer in and have the program removed. On the third "offense," I have to meet with the Dean of Students.

I'll have to use my laptop to download the torrents off campus (at my girlfriend's parent's house or at my aunt's house or some free wireless network) and then transfer the download via an external HDD.

smurfing obnoxious, but I'll do it.

I'll still try it when the game launches and see if they catch me on it.

[Mirage]

Can't you prove to them that you're using it for legit purposes?

[Lionx]

Game is whack, it could be because its beta but its whack. -_- Not what i hoped..

[Loony BoB]

Finally got a code! Looking forward to getting home and trying it out.

[JKTrix]

As far as downloading patches, it's entirely possible for people to upload these 'torrented' patches somewhere to be downloaded another way. If you can get the files from somewhere else and put them in the right folder, you're set. Just gotta find the files if someone uploads them.

[Jessweeee♪]

Finally got a code, but now I can't get to the page where I can download the client, because the server times out and then forgets I'm logged in :(

EDIT:

Okay I see what's going on. "If you change the screen" means "if you want to change your screen name." Whoops!

[Ouch!]

Can't you prove to them that you're using it for legit purposes?
I reviewed the university's peer-to-peer policy, and it acknowledges legitimate uses of peer-to-peer services. However, to validate use, I must have the dean of one of the departments approve its use for academic purposes and forward a message regarding that to the systems administrator.

Considering that a computer engineering major my freshman year was told he could not use peer-to-peer programs to download a monthly programming ezine for which he paid a subscription fee, I doubt that I'll have much luck finding a dean willing to okay an MMORPG.

My best bet is likely what JKTrix suggested. Just have to hope that I can find someone who makes a habit of doing that.

[Miriel]

Oh man, why is your University so strict about it? What a hassle. =/

[Ouch!]

They don't want us doing stuff illegally. And they seem to forget that students live on campus and we have lives outside of academia. :|

[Loony BoB]

Game is whack, it could be because its beta but its whack. -_- Not what i hoped..
Not really sure what you were hoping for, but I've found it to be pretty much what you'd expect to see at the start of an MMORPG but with very good graphics and, obviously, a little limitations due to the Beta stage.

The game has crashed out on me twice, though, and I've no idea why unfortunately.

[Miriel]

The initial impressions of Open Beta seems to be largely negative from everything I'm reading on other sites & forums.

I think people assumed that with all the trial & error for FFXI, Square would have a much better handle on what works and what doesn't so that FFXIV wouldn't have as rough of a start as FFXI did.

I'm not too bothered though. I'm more excited just about the social aspect of the game rather than game mechanics anyway. And I never had trouble with the controls in FFXI (which apparently, are very very bad?) so the complaints about the game controls (which seems to be a big issue for people) kinda go right over my head. I don't like what I'm hearing about the game being labourous and a chore though. That's the opposite of what I was hoping for. But we'll see.

I still think it'll be a ton of fun playing a shiny new MMORPG though.

[Jessweeee♪]

At my college they were able to disable P2P somehow. I could never ever get any torrents to run even four hours away from campus until I'd been home for a month. Dunno what they did. They had a strict policy on that sort of thing, but there were work arounds. I overheard the girl in the room across from mine get lectured hardcore about filesharing once.

I still can't log in to the beta test site :(

[Loony BoB]

I dunno, I haven't seen anything that terrible so far. I honestly can't remember exactly how the controls worked in FFXI, but they seem easy enough to get the hang of so far. I do think that the game would benefit immensely from a few forced tutorials at the beginning, though, rather than having to do what you did in FFXI - figure it all out yourself, pretty much. Which I did, but hey, still, it would have been nice to know that I was supposed to talk to x person to get x amount of "starter cash" etc. etc.

I've played for a bit now, and I've also found that the game actually ran smoother when I increased the resolution of the window, which is pretty weird. I've done a couple of leves, figured out the menus and shortkeys/controls using the config menu... it's all decent enough. The one thing I'm struggling with at the moment is probably learning the timing of attacks and the like. It's definitely different, although I'll wait until I get more varied attacks before I judge them completely.

Also, found an enemy that killed me in one hit. Yay? :p Haha. Oh, that's another thing - probably mostly early stages but I find that you spend a fair bit of time looking for enemies. It reminds me of being on the hunt in the Dunes in FFXI while a bunch of people sit back waiting for you to fish something up. But you do get them eventually... the spawn rate seems decent enough.

I think I'll buy the guide for this game to better understand the mechanics behind some things, though.

[Ouch!]

I think I'll buy the guide for this game to better understand the mechanics behind some things, though.
Don't waste your money. The guides don't know anything about the game's mechanics, and likely we won't for some time. The few releases of the FFXI player's guides insisted that AGI was the stat which affected ranged damage; in fact AGI affects ranged accuracy, while STR affects damage. That's the only one example of the vast misinformation that permeated those pages.

Published guides for MMORPGs are more likely than not utter tosh and not worth purchasing. Just keep up to date with the online communities for the game (ZAM, Eorzeapedia, etc.) for the most relevant and accurate information.

[JKTrix]

So I played it for a while, at least 4 hours. Did the 'some like it hot' quest sequence to completion, and wandered around looking for other story-based events to do and came up dry.

The game has weird lag. Not like network latency lag (though I guess that could be part of it), but UI lag. I try to navigate through menus, and my input comes through almost a second later. It's almost game-breaking. Compounding on that is *mouse* lag. Just like with the menu input, when I move the mouse cursor it takes about a half second to catch up. *That* would be game-breaking if I didn't already set up my game pad to take care of most common functions.

Game crashing when I alt-tab out of full screen, eh. I think FFXI did that for a while too and I remember using a program called Windower to get around that. It's nothing new. Still annoying, but I can just play in windowed mode.

Spent most of my time as the 'buff/debuff' mage, did a little fishing (which I still don't quite understand) and poked in a couple of other jobs as well. It's neat that you can just switch jobs by holding the appropriate weapon, but the non-combat jobs just really feel like too much.

[Tasura]

I would like to have had a chance to try the beta before going back to university, but the delay/work schedule kinda killed that plan. So, hopefully the beta will still be on when I get my net working in my room. And luckily, my uni doesn't care about P2P, so that makes me happy.

From what I've seen on the FFXIV website, this might be the first game I actually pay a monthly fee for. And more than likely I'll be going Hellsguard Pugilist with a side of Culinarian.

[Loony BoB]

The mouse lag can be a bit of a pain, as can the command lag (although I felt the command lag had decreased the more I played it - my first teleport took me about 10 seconds, later it took about 5, later it took about 2). The mouse lag was annoying last night but is better today - it's apparently due to the "software mouse" being used over a hardware mouse, and hopefully it's something that will be taken care of before launch, but we'll see.

[Baloki]

:(


http://forums.eyesonff.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=31927&stc=1&d=1283594115

[ljkkjlcm9]

The mouse lag made it so immediately I started playing trying not to use the mouse at all. But then the input lag makes it difficult to do that for instance I hit F to go into attack mode, it didn't register, so I hit it again. He stops, pulls out his weapon, then puts it away....

I'm pretty sure I would/will be spending most of my time as a fighting class. The others all seem like secondary side jobs, and the fighting ones are the main jobs. I started a 2nd character to see a different city, and she started as an Armorer, her attack was "throw stone" and did 1 damage. I had to sit there and let the NPC kill the opening enemy, kinda dumb. So yeah, when I get the full game, definitely starting as a melee class. Though, all this lag makes me wonder if it's just my computer, or the fact that it's the Beta. I honestly couldn't play this game if the full version has as much lag as I have experienced. Otherwise, I could see it as a very fun way to pass time and socialize. So if the lag is my computer, I may wait to get the PS3 version.... I have a couple weeks to decide to cancel my pre-order or not at least!

So does everyone think the lag is temporary due to the Beta? Or a more permanent fixture? (I was in the range where it would run fine on my computer with the Benchmark)

THE JACKEL

[Loony BoB]

I think it's actually vastly improved since I first played yesterday. I now get a send/receive of something like 34/975 and the framerate is frantastic - but then, I did just upgrade my PC for this game so who knows.

I definitely agree regarding the speed of entering/exiting Action Mode, but then again, if it was instantaneous then it would make it far too easy to run from battles and gain health at the same time whenever you're close to death. I can understand there actually being a reason for the delay. It would be nice if there was some king of sound/image that showed that you are about to enter/exit action mode, though, so you know that your button pressing actually got registered in the game.

[JKTrix]

Despite my complaints I'm about to log on to this game again. Will probably be on for a few hours if I can find something interesting to do. Main goal is to see if I can get to another starting area without dying.

Trix Sforzando is the character name again.

[Loony BoB]

I don't think all of the maps are available so I can't imagine there would be any way to get to another starting area. This is just the beta, after all.

[Baloki]

Yay, downloads in progress :D! Only a few hours left :D:D

[JKTrix]

So I was just getting set to stalk BoB since I noticed he was on (which would be a more interesting quest than anything I'd accessed so far) and then I got a server error and can't log back in.

[Loony BoB]

There is scheduled maintenance going on - they said it would be 3-5pm GMT but I think it must have changed to 6-8pm GMT. Either that or DST amounts to the adjustment.

[JKTrix]

Makes sense. A little weird to do maintenance in the middle of the day, but that'd explain it.

Came across this site FFXIV STATUS BETA! (http://www.ffxiv-status.com/)

[Baloki]

I plan to burn S-E Headquarters to the ground for this abortion of an updater software. Seriously, Update 7/7 is something like 20kb's big and because of that you can't connect to anyone long enough to download it so just sat here for 25 mins waiting to get lucky basically :/

As for the issue I had with the error message, basically had to create a new account as it couldn't get access to create a new folder in "My Documents\My Games"...

[Loony BoB]

Makes sense. A little weird to do maintenance in the middle of the day, but that'd explain it.

Came across this site FFXIV STATUS BETA! (http://www.ffxiv-status.com/)
In international games, there is no midday. :) Japan? Europe? North America? There will always be a large group online.

[JKTrix]

TehKrizz.net - Your source for FFXI and FFXIV downloads. (http://tehkrizz.net/downloads.asp)

A place for direct downloads (and torrent files) of the updates.

So I succeeded in my objective of going somewhere else. Nice thing about FF14 is that everyone can teleport, so once you touch the crystal in a new place you can just teleport there. So right now if I needed to I could teleport to my starting area, do all the leves there, then go to this new place to do those leves.

I can't remember the name of it, but it's like a city on the ocean. Got pirates and stuff. There's a musketeer guild there, I want to be a musketeer.

[Loony BoB]

Limsa Lominsa, I believe. We got there, too, after finding out from you that you could. :D And we went on a run through to get every aetheryte on the area around it, and visited the two (fairly dead in the beta) towns nearby. Nice area! Now we're going to do runners for all the other aerethyte around Ul'Dah and then Gridania, once we figure out how to get there. xD

EDIT: Worth noting how amazingly seamless everything is when going from area to area. The only time I remember loading screens is when FMV's are coming into play. Great stuff on that part.

[Ouch!]

I was just about list the place that JKTrix found. Awesome that it'll all work out. I tried to get a beta pass today, but SE has temporarily suspended it. I'll keep hitting it up and see when I can get in.

[Xardrick]

how can i play open beta? i installed everything and now it says:
There are no valid service accounts.
and i need a key to valid account.

isn't open beta for free?

sorry if I sound stupid :D

[Del Murder]

Even though it's free, you still have to apply and get a code from Square Enix at their website.

[Xardrick]

I already applied at their website, where do i get a key?

[Del Murder]

They should have emailed it to you.

[Xardrick]

I registered a couple of days ago, but I didn't get any code

[Loony BoB]

When you say you applied at their website, do you know when you did this and which url you used to apply? You need a valid Square Enix account and you need to use the following url: FINAL FANTASY XIV (http://entry.ffxiv.com/)

Everything from that point on should be explained reasonably well. If you don't have a Square Enix account then there is a link on each of the region's beta application websites.

Every now and then they find themselves too congested to give out further codes, in which case you can keep an eye on the following website which should hopefully let you know when further codes are available.

SQUARE ENIX Support Centre (http://support.eu.square-enix.com/main.php?la=2&id=903) (this is the European site - if you are in North America, try changing the url so that 'eu' is replaced with 'na'.

[Xardrick]

thnx man, I have a code now ;D

I have a problem, I started a game and than i have a black screen, but I hear a sound, then gold rings appear and i can move them, i click on one of them then i see characters but only characters and no words or sth. like that. I hear that I am moving across menu but I don't see any words.

[Del Murder]

That's further than I ever got so I can't help you with that. Many people have been having problems with the client. Make sure your graphics card drivers are up to date, etc.

[Loony BoB]

That's the character creation lobby. You need to create a new character - I'm at work and can't remember exactly what you do next, but there should be some kind of option if you select one of the golden rings where you go towards designing a character. Hopefully you'll figure it out soon, if not, I'll try to remember to check back and give you more details when I'm home.

[Xardrick]

I fixed it, I installed the latest drivers and codecs and now its working, but when I'm playing many times shuts me down because of some server error :S

[Loony BoB]

Which server are you on?

I know a lot of people have random shutdowns - I get them less these days, maybe one per four hours or so compared to about three times an hour when I first started beta-ing. Hopefully they continue to decrease.

[Lionx]

Okay i played it for a couple more days to give a more accurate feel of the game and my opinion still stands. This game will have a hard time surviving outside of the diehard Square Enix fanboys. I still hold true to my opinion that this game is whack. Theres alot of things that would have been okay in Alpha but is unacceptable in Open Beta.

Do note that before anyone says 'Its just beta!'. Please don't. At this current point in time, unless they pull a miracle, chances are what you see is what you get. This is the same for any beta at this stage. Knowing how SE works for FFXI i really really doubt anything is going to change dramatically before release date, and if it isn't then its going to lose a ton of customers. Many are already canceling their pre-orders.

Also alot of the things i say has nothing to do with content in the following section...things like this are what people normally expect to be a non-issue when starting in an MMO.

------

-Huge Mouse Lag.
This is horrible, there is absolutely no excuse for this on a PC game at this day and age. The fact that they state that they do not care about this is a real devastating move against themselves. We were willing to be forgiving for FFXI's bad system due to it being Console first, but this is not the case.

Sure you can play with keyboard only, but despite any argument people may have to say, its still extremely stupid regardless that there is no real mouse support and it behaving this badly. Why does a third party patch work better than the one SE gave us yet again? (The guy who made windower had a patch made for mouse lag).

- Menu Lag/Cumbersomeness -
It takes me 5+ seconds to TRADE or CRAFT. Are you serious? The game overall lags, and its not because of my computer. Checking for durability is bad lag, assigning abilities is bad lag, buying stuff is lag, the MAP is lag. This is unacceptable in this phase of beta.

Also, assigning keys is cumbersome. You have to manually delete a key you want assigned to something if its already assigned elsewhere. The hell?

Also there are way too many times that i have to press buttons to do things. I barely played WoW but the times i went on a friend's account to mess around, it was extremely easy to press M (lagless) to view map, and then also press ESC ONCE. There are many other instances that i feel shouldn't be so hard, as in checking durability, trading the exact number of things needed, equiping items and abilities. Way too many button presses, and the lag only makes it worse.

Also why do i have to go into menus to invite anyone in this day and age? What happened to right clicking someone and then inviting them? Why doesn't right click do anything half the time? You shouldn't have to go through the menu this often.

WoW does it with I with Item bag, or some other hotkey to bring up your equpiment, and other things. Theres also no way to compare items when shopping. What the hell?

- Unfriendly Targeting System -

You press tab to cycle through everything, its extremely unfriendly. This is the only way outside of pressing unintuitive F Keys to target things you want. Even then the F Keys (Yourself, the Party, Nearest NPC/PC/anything in front of you) are cumbersome. Many times my party-mates would die because of this, bad targeting.

They got this crap right in FFXI, why is it failing here? No, seriously why?

- Party Map System -
You cannot find your party when you press M to bring up your big map. Also the minimap has Party Dots that are similar to NPC dots. They aren't totally indistinguishable but it should have been much more obvious like in FFXI. Half the time me and my partymates would have so much trouble finding one another, and it can be so easy to lose them when doing adventures together.

Also no Markers...

- Fatigue -
Haven't experienced this myself yet since i rarely log on, but the fact that its here, is already dumb. This is usually fine if the MMO is free but its not. Rested EXP system in WoW is better if they were going to implement any type of fatigue for a PAY game.

- Horrible Patching Service -
The first couple days i let this slide, it happens. But even now the patching system is extremely slow, and i rely on torrents or my friends sending them over to me manually. This is inexcusable.

- Bad Chat Channels -
You cannot create new ones apparently. This is bad...=/ I don't know if its just me though, but when i click on the battle tab, then press ESC to get rid of my chatting bar, it always goes back to General....

That and sometimes EXP gained doesn't show. Also, wheres the Trade Channels? Or things like that? What happened here?

- Battle Nitpicks -
There is no actual timer for how long a buff lasts. There is no way to cancel a spell as easily as in FFXI so i end up casting a spell then wasting it, or staying in place and getting uppercutted by a mole.

Targeting in this game is a bitch...theres also seemingly no /assist macro option. Labeling monsters and yourself is cumbersome and not easily done like in WoW. Some of the labels don't even last that long. So far the only way to eat food is to use it from your bag on the bottom right corner of the screen...kinda weird.

-------

Basically, its really bad for Open Beta. Its like a chance to show off your game and get people hyped, but its failing miserably. There are ton of other things that are bad that is more subjective like food again not telling you whats up, lack of recipes to guide you in crafting, having to look up so many things online yet AGAIN, or the lack of guildleves after a while since Quest Grinding is the current norm, traditional grinding would be a huge no-no to many.

Too Long Didn't Read Part here

I could go on and on here, all been said before elsewhere. ~ Like with many others..I want to like/love the game, but SE needs to improve the game drastically and I just don't see it happening anytime soon, and even on the off chance it becomes playable in say 6+months time...other bigger MMOs are looming such as Star Wars: Old Republic which honestly right now, is looking like a much better bet to succeed. Plus you have WoW expansion and Diablo 3.. (yeah its not an MMO but it will be a big release) and those are just a small sample of the stuff coming out. FFXIV is essentially entering a market in which right now....is unforgiving of failure, and currently it reeks of it.

I am only going to play the first month and see how it goes because my friend helped pay for a large part of the pre-order. If it still sucks...i don't know man, i might just quit right there.

[Loony BoB]

A lot of the things you're complaining about are also in FFXI, a game I understand you really enjoy... any reason for considering these things gamebreakers here?

I know that this is a PC porting to PS3 but it is absolutely a console game as well as a PC game so regardless of what platform the game is released on first or ported to, it still has to be a game that is playable on the console, so that will always limit things.

EDIT: Of the things you mentioned, the patching service is workable by torrents which I see as a good thing as it increases download speed - admittedly, you do need to know how to work a torrent system, but if you don't then the existing system will still work, just slowly (like all patching systems I've dealt with over the years, it must be said). Patching has actually been getting faster and faster when using the default system, it should be noted. I imagine it would increase in speed even more as more people get involved, as with most torrent systems. The chat is an expansion on what we had in FFXI, where you had no choice but to have everything in one place. No, you can't seperate to individual chats here and there, but I don't mind as I'm used to FFXI as it is. I suppose you could say it's a flaw but I think it's more of a lack of a bonus feature.

I've experienced fatigue which it should note applies only to class levels, not to your physical level. I do just fine by switching between classes and, when spending time doing things aside from my main class, whenever I go back I'm able to level it up for a while once more. It's not a huge deal, really. It does limit how fast you can get to cap your class level, but you'll still get to cap in the same time as everyone else and you'll still get to the cap well before the cap is raised, I'm sure, if you're playing that often.

No custom markers or party members on a map is pretty crap, but it's certainly no gamebreaker. I've not had trouble finding anyone so far, but then I don't spend a large amount of time looking for specific people yet, and with Danielle I can see her screen anyway.

I haven't had trouble with the targeting system. The mouse lag was bad at first but I've not seen it much at all lately. I know that in the program there is actually a HARDWARE_MOSE=FALSE option which can be set to =TRUE to remove any lag whatsoever using third party software, but the fact that the option is there at all in the program means it will likely be implemented as an option in the config/menus somewhere eventually - as people have pointed out to me, it's likely they have not enabled it at the moment purely because they want to test the software mouse in the Beta, or that they haven't fully tested the hardware mouse internally, which is perfectly understandable. Hopefully we'll see that option listed in the menus/config sooner rather than later, but for me the lag isn't horrible at all. When I move my mouse, the cursor moves at the same time. *shrug*

UI lag is horrible. Especially when trading or crafting. I'll definitely agree with that, it's the biggest problem of all at the moment.

[Baloki]

I'd say a lot of things in 11 have been left out of 14, also the menu and targeting systems do seem much more clumsy to me, but I'm suffering major graphics lag so not sure if that's my end or not.

[Lionx]

FFXI is a really old game and also catered to console first. When i come to the current gen MMOs there is no excuse for these types of things, it should be as far apart and more efficient than FFXI. Also, there are things in FFXI that they did BETTER than they did now. You can't expect more than probably 80% of the people (not literally, but a huge part is what i meant) to stand for these things.

Have you ever touched WoW? I haven't played it hardcore or even that long (less than an hour) but just learning a little bit about the system, its already way better than FFXIV's. Hell even FFXI's clunky interface is better. Things were at least smooth and flowing.



I know that this is a PC porting to PS3 but it is absolutely a console game as well as a PC game so regardless of what platform the game is released on first or ported to, it still has to be a game that is playable on the console, so that will always limit things.

Sorry thats not excusable at all. Its like saying you should use a controller to play a FPS on your PC because it has a console port. This does not make any sense. Hell, Resident Evil 4 had this issue and they got slammed face first by poor reviews...and rightfully so. Something this fundamental shouldn't be an issue at this stage.

There is no excuse for this, they have nothing to do one one another. Sure the console will limit the game eventually but this should not be one of them. In fact what you said here was true, then this game is definitely not worth my time. It would be insulting to the PC gamers that buy the game.

Square Enix's venture into MMORPGs did not start with FF14...i expected it to be at least better than FF11. It currently is not.


I'd say a lot of things in 11 have been left out of 14, also the menu and targeting systems do seem much more clumsy to me, but I'm suffering major graphics lag so not sure if that's my end or not.

Everyone suffers this, even my friend who custom made his computer JUST for this game.

[Loony BoB]

Oops, edited my post and you guys have already replied. :p See my edit.

EDIT: I haven't played WOW, but I have played Eve, which has possibly the best UI I've ever seen, possibly in any game at all. Would I like the UI in FFXIV to have similar features? Sure, of course I would. Does the FFXIV UI it make the game unplayable for me because I've played Eve? Not at all. How often does it come across as annoying? Not that often, actually.

I guess you have have high standards and more specific requirements with your gaming than I do. I certainly don't think that - lag aside - FFXIV's UI is worse than FFXI's. FFXI was terrible. I still loved the game, though...

[Lionx]

Basically the gist of this post is...stuff that i have a gripe about, should never have been an issue to begin with. It was never an issue in other MMO betas and why should it be here?

Its Open Beta, and by now they are not really testing the game out as much as showing it off and stress testing.

-----

Patching: The fact is that it shouldn't have been an issue ever. Torrents are standard as well for WoW. This is nothing new.

Chats: This stuff is in every MMO since WoW. Even Dungeon Fighter Online or any other Free MMO has this stuff. Its not a bonus its Standard. FFXIV needs to be up with the times...this is basic.

Fatigue: The fact stays that they are telling people how to play the game in a dynamic way. No one cared about fishing fatigue in FFXI because not everyone fishes, but everyone here levels a job.

In a game thats pay to play, this is extremely stupid and a dealbreaker for MANY players. For me...i ono, but i think it might in the long run.

Party Markers: It may be fine for you with your party mate but honestly stuff like this is standard. It shouldn't be an issue by this stage of the beta.

Mouse Lag: Never have i seen any of this in any beta i played before, even FFXI's beta.


EDIT: Its not high standards...=/ Hell i played FFXI until last year because it was fun until the end. Its stuff thats in every MMO since WoW that made the game much easier to play. Very standard stuff. If they keep this up they will not do well with many many players out there. Believe me i want to like this game, but its currently not up to snuff.

I expected to gripe about content in the game but more often than not i am annoyed by the way basic game mechanics and UI is handled as well as lag server-side. Its very disappointing.

[Loony BoB]

I wouldn't say they're showing it off and stress testing exclusively. They are fixing things. Keep in mind that, as a programmer pointed out to someone else the other day, making changes that seem simple doesn't always take a single day to sort out. A lot of the things that people are debating were never going to be completed in the game in a matter of days (and the Open Beta has only been out for, what, a week or so?). They have been fixing a lot of "the game will not work if _____ happens" kind of problems, which I imagine the majority of their time is spent on because that's an actual gamebreaker rather than a dealbreaker. If they're spending their time on that, good, because those things understandably are priorities. It's not their fault nobody figured this out before Open Beta came around. However, they have been touching up on things.

People have been checking their ping and a lot of people have reported an improvement over the past few days. The chat issues (bouncing chat, chat telling you about loot that other people get, etc) are thankfully resolved, too. The download speed has improved, probably due to an increase of population (which will always improve torrent speeds). The mouse lag has been decreased dramatically from the first day in my experience and that of others, and the HARDWARE_MOUSE option was only recently added from what I've heard so hopefully it will be open for use sooner rather than later. They are improving things, just not as fast as we'd like. But that's normal - people always want things fixed faster.

Hopefully the chat system will come in. I'd like it, too. But I wouldn't throw out my preorder over such a thing. Fatigue? Likewise. I want to craft as well as beat things up, though, so maybe the spreading out of my time in different classes means that I don't have as much of a problem as you might.

The UI lag is as close as it gets to a dealbreaker for me, and I'm sure the whole world will be mentioning that to SE and I'm sure they'll respond to it rather than ignore it forever. AH will come in someday, too, although I don't know when.

Still, this is what a beta is for, yes? Sure, the game might not change instantly but we shall see how things go.

The main thing for me is whether or not I am enjoying myself. So long as I'm having fun - and I've been having a lot of it - then I'm good.

[Lionx]

What i meant to say about showing off was that, during Open Beta where people are granted free access, anyone who has a hardcore passion for this game is going to try it out now. I know many who were excited only to reconsider their pre-orders because they consider this a trial run to see if the game is for them.

They say this is for casual people too, and if they look at the lag during release they are not going to even think twice. In this age people play a game for a bit and move onto the next hot thing 2 months from now. If you don't get that hook right off the bat, then the game will suffer hugely and might not come back. Release date sales are extremely crucial and can help determine the rest of the MMO's life.

If you are having fun thats awesome...but i am not. =/ I think more people hate it than like it at the moment as much as i want to see the game do well.

[Loony BoB]

I wouldn't say more people hate it than like it. I just think the people who hate it are far more vocal in various forums than the people who like it. When it's stripped down to a "are you excited about this game?" type of poll rather than a review thread, most people say they are. Three times as many, in fact!

[Gilthanes]

The main thing I see a problem with right now is some of the XP bugs that happen, such as AOEing a group of mobs and not getting any XP for the ones that arent red to you.

Or the UI lag, yes its horrible, and makes crafting, trading, and vendoring items feel like shards of glass being dug into my fingernails. I pray that gets fixed before release

All the other problems most people have with this game, targetting, mouse, non-lag-based UI issues, are all fixed by using a USB controller.

Fact of the matter is, this game will be playable on the PS3. With that in mind, there's NO WAY they could make it feel perfect for the controller AND the keyboard, theres just no way. I know people who played FFXI for 1 day with keyboard, and completely gave it up for the same reasons listed as faults of FFXIV- all because FFXI/FFXIV need little message boxes on the back of the game box that say "Play with a USB controller or dont even bother"

Personally I love my USB controller, I sleep with it under my pillow at night, just like james bond does with his gun

[Lionx]

I am not buying a USB controller just for an MMO when every other MMO you don't really need one. All they need to do is optimize a version for PC with Mouse support and also support Controller style too, not force people to go one way or another.

Other MMOs do this, so can FFXIV...theres no excuse. If Borderlands or Halo can have Controller AND Keyboard/Mouse controls available for PC, then its possible for this as well.

For the record, i cannot play on a controller for FFXI, i needed the keyboard exclusively.

[Ouch!]

My understanding is that UI lag is a consequence of holding all the UI information server-side so that Square Enix can more easily perform stress tests with it. For release, it, along with a number of other things, will be included client-side and speed interaction up quite a bit by release.

Mouse lag is a similar issue. Square Enix has already announced that a hardware mouse is programmed in (the third party tool merely enables it), which will also likely see client side activation at release.

Fatigue, as I understand it, has also proven to be something of a non-issue. That said, it was always a non-issue. Every developer decides a pace at which they want their players to progress. Inserting a cap is one way to do this, although an uncommon one.

As far as I can tell, the alternative is to add a rested exp. system. To keep the same rate of progression, though, Square Enix would likely introduce an exaggerated exp. curve: the same thing that FFXI gives such a negative reputation. I'd much rather have a fatigue system and be able to achieve more in less time than have a ridiculous exp. curve and spend double or triple the time grinding for the same rank progression.

The other things seem like minor gripes. If people really, really complain about them, they'll get added in. SE is difficult with their playerbase, but they're not stupid.

[Priche]

I'd say a lot of things in 11 have been left out of 14, also the menu and targeting systems do seem much more clumsy to me, but I'm suffering major graphics lag so not sure if that's my end or not.

Everyone suffers this, even my friend who custom made his computer JUST for this game.

Hi

Although I can't argue that performance problems have been an issue for some, this certainly isn't something everyone experiences. It's just that you only hear the ones that have problems ever mention it.

I can play on high settings just fine as do a number of my friends. I think most people are just turning their settings up too high for their pc or experiencing the nvidea driver issue. To put this in perspective, my sisters 460 runs the game extremely smooth, but her husbands 480 runs it horribly. There are some select nvidea issues that are unfairly hurting peoples perspective on performance.

I'm running a i930 & a 5870 if your curious.

[Loony BoB]

Following on from the above...

I built two custom PCs just for this game too, however I have not experienced any graphics lag since I began. At all! It's as smooth as anything, and I'm on what is considered a "busy server".

Building a PC means little unless you use good parts, and also it can mean little for an MMO if you end up using a slow ISP. I'm not sure what you guys have experienced but have you considered these possibilities? The large FFXIV forums don't have many people bringing up graphics lag at all.


My understanding is that UI lag is a consequence of holding all the UI information server-side so that Square Enix can more easily perform stress tests with it. For release, it, along with a number of other things, will be included client-side and speed interaction up quite a bit by release.
Where did you hear this?

[Lionx]

My understanding was what Baloki meant by graphics lag were UI lag. My friend who custom built his cpu and i have no problems with graphics in terms of things that are outside menus.

My other friend who barely meets the requirements(but did meet) however has frequent crashes for some odd reason despite trying to optimize it. Pretty weird.

[Loony BoB]

Graphics lag relates to the lag caused by moving around the game, time taken to load up polygons and whatnot (eg. landscapes, characters, monsters, buildings, etc).

UI lag is the lag caused by using the menu and the various things you can access from the menu (eg. inventory, selling and buying items, crafting, etc).

Regarding crashing - yeah, I've crashed about once per day over the past five or so days (averaging about 4-5 hours per day when you consider there was a weekend thrown in there) - hopefully these things will get less and less frequent (it's already a significant improvement on when Open Beta began!) as they learn about various problems and resolve them. Such is the kind of thing the beta testing was always going to experience, what with so many different hardware setups out there in the PC world.

Crashing is fairly mild annoyance for me normally, but when you're in the middle of a leve (which takes 48 hours to recharge) and you crash and it causes the leve to be considered as "abandoned" regardless of whether or not you log back in immediately - now that's just frustrating! Looking forward to them fixing that. Hopefully they do!