A Realm Reborn: What do you look forward to most?

[Loony BoB]

For me, the exploring of the newly created world ranks very high up in my list. I really love how they've implemented the fog of war so that you have to explore to unveil the map. Can't wait to die many times over while trying to get to awkward corners. xD

Beyond that, housing is a massive thing for me - particularly LS housing rather than personal housing. I want to make our LS the most awesome place there ever was. Probably won't be the best place on the server or whatever, but dammit, it'll be ours, and that makes it amazing in it's own right.

Of course, another massive thing is meeting up with all my LS pals that I met in 1.x - I can't wait to be partying up with as many of them as we can get together on one server. Hopefully that means Tony, Val, Steely, Lumos, Ari, Vaughn, Mini, Kukki (I can hope, I can!), Raine, Devore, Seiji and of course Smitten and myself taking on all the new challenges together, with whatever EoFFers swing our way! :D

[Elpizo]

I want to see the Crystal Tower the most. It's from FF III, and lord knows I love FF III. I want to see what they made of it in this game! Anything from FF III remade in glorious modern graphics is bound to be great. At least, I hope so.

[Del Murder]

I want this game to come to PS3 so I can play it.

[Loony BoB]

It's looking likely that it will be released on PS3 at the same time as PC, going by a SE blog.

[Del Murder]

Sounds exciting.

[Ouch!]

We should be getting a new timeline in the next 2-3 weeks giving us all the details.

[Bahamut2000X]

New areas to explore, the adjusted storyline to see what exactly happened after that epic final battle, the crystal tower looks to be awesome.

I'm especially looking forward to housing and especially the new combat system. I really didn't like the combat in version 1.x, and the classes were just a little too bland and homogeneous for me, especially coming from XI where the class designs were really well done.

[ScottNUMBERS]

I am intrigued to see what they do with the game and will definately be giving it a fair chance.

I had an account on version 1.x which I would activate, de-activate, re-activate, repeat x100. Though stunningly beautiful, it wasn't a game I could find myself immersed in, the combat was too slow to respond to the commands you input and it didn't focus enough on group play.

I'm putting my faith in SE a bit here when I say; I'm mostly looking forward to an improved battle system and necessity of group play in leveling.

[Ouch!]

You're apt to be disappointed on that last point then; leveling is being pushed even further toward quest-based leveling from what they have said, which is more likely going to continue to be a solitary affair. That said, in version 1.x, of the three jobs I managed to get to 50, I leveled in parties on two of them from 35+ and the other from 40+. Leveling in parties is loads faster already, although hardly necessary. It becomes even more unlikely when you consider that the party-dependent leveling is extremely unpopular in the current MMORPG landscape, and most players probably won't put up with it being required.

[Loony BoB]

You're apt to be disappointed on that last point then; leveling is being pushed even further toward quest-based leveling from what they have said, which is more likely going to continue to be a solitary affair.
I disagree on this last point. While they have said they will be adding in some content for those that prefer to solo, they have not said anything to suggest they won't have group-based quest leveling. It seems like they are going to be putting in an absolutely massive number of quests (going by that quest scenario guy in that big conference interview type thing they had for the 25th anniversary). I'm sure a very large chunk of those will be suited to partying, at least from L30 upwards.


That said, in version 1.x, of the three jobs I managed to get to 50, I leveled in parties on two of them from 35+ and the other from 40+. Leveling in parties is loads faster already, although hardly necessary. It becomes even more unlikely when you consider that the party-dependent leveling is extremely unpopular in the current MMORPG landscape, and most players probably won't put up with it being required.
Yeah, almost everyone I know leveled in parties from 30 onwards. It was great fun. I would never solo beyond 35, personally, seems like an absolute waste of time. If you know the right places to go, duoing at the very least makes you level up so much faster. Hoping it continues to be the case for the future game.

Oh, and going up to L30 is best done via Power Leveling if you're going for speed. ;)

[Cloudane]

It starting! I never bothered with the original.

Curious that they left a gap. I'd have thought it better to retain customer attention by keeping the old game up until RR is ready for launch.

I'm hoping the world and story won't all revolve around the cataclysm like EverQuest 2 does.

[Axem Titanium]

I'm looking forward to more storyline stuff. XI was always intimidating because of the massive amount of story content that built up over the years but I blew through XIV's story too quickly. I'm also looking forward to relic quest and crafting/gathering, since I didn't touch either of them in 1.0.

[Ouch!]

You're apt to be disappointed on that last point then; leveling is being pushed even further toward quest-based leveling from what they have said, which is more likely going to continue to be a solitary affair.
I disagree on this last point. While they have said they will be adding in some content for those that prefer to solo, they have not said anything to suggest they won't have group-based quest leveling. It seems like they are going to be putting in an absolutely massive number of quests (going by that quest scenario guy in that big conference interview type thing they had for the 25th anniversary). I'm sure a very large chunk of those will be suited to partying, at least from L30 upwards.
I suppose I was just basing the assumption on the fact that about 90% of the quests available in version 1.x were quests I completed solo while leveling my first job (the one I didn't party on until 40+). It really wasn't until I was already level 45 that I started encountering quests that I could not complete on my own. What's more, I completed near every non-class-based quest through level 40 on my first job. The problem was that almost none of these were repeatable.

That's where I'm worried about quest-based leveling. In other games where it's a really big thing (read: every other MMORPG), you only level a single class on each character. The consequence for FFXIV is that because you can change classes at will, there either has to be an absurd number of quests (unlikely) to sustain leveling multiple classes. I suspect that past one's first or second job, there's going to be a lot of grinding the way it currently is.

[Axem Titanium]

I think there was a Dev interview that said that there are enough quests to level 2-3 jobs to 50 and the other jobs should be leveled using specified leveling dungeons or levequests.