Final Fantasy XIV Roundup: Benchmark Coming Soon!

[Raistlin]

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The Community Reps have been quite active recently at the official forums for Final Fantasy XIV, releasing information about ongoing changes for A Realm Reborn. Here’s an overview of some of the new developments:

• Yoshi-P made an announcement that apologized for the lack of new information, and also included some new details. First, the new Letter from the Producer will be out in the next couple of days. And secondly, the first PC benchmark is in its final stages of testing! Yoshi-P says that they currently plan on releasing the benchmark right before phase 1 of the beta test begins. In case you’ve forgotten already, the beta is supposed to start in mid-February.

• The battle system is constantly being refined. First, the development team has begun implementing knockback abilities into ARR to add to an increasingly dynamic fighting system. Also the marking system is changing to be freely useable (no more Guildleve restrictions), and making it so that only party leaders will be able to mark targets.

• Gathering and crafting are other areas that are being overhauled. In gathering news, gathering point grades are being adjusted to make it easier to gain experience at higher levels. And crafters will be happy to know that Lodestone website is changing to include detailed information on all crafting recipes. We last discussed changes in the gathering and crafting systems here.

• A big thing in FFXIV: ARR is free companies, player-created subsections of grand companies, and the development team continues to add content to make them sound more functional and enjoyable. Due to player feedback, it’s in the works for FC leaders to be able to customize ranks and access levels within the FC. Additionally, FCs will also have their own chat.

• Lastly, don’t forget to check out the new screenshots of Shiva that were just posted at the developers’ blog.

That’s it for right now! Be sure to stay tuned as we approach the launch of the beta version.

And a big thanks to Loony BoB for gathering most of these links for me.

[Del Murder]

Can't wait until the benchmark comes out and I find out how crappy my computer is.

[Loony BoB]

My current PC ran the old game fine so I think I should have no issues. I'm pretty sure the newer version of the game runs smoother than the old one from what they're saying at SE.

[Mirage]

You're supposed to be able to play AAR on a mid-high-end laptop, apparently.

[Raistlin]

Del: you might be surprised. I've been hearing similar to BoB, that ARR should run easier than 1.0. And 1.0 seemed to run decently well on medium settings with my 3-year-old laptop, though I ended up turning all the settings to low anyway because I value smooth playing far more than graphics.

[Del Murder]

That's encouraging!

[Ouch!]

SE announced early that they designed the new game engine to be more forgiving regarding minimum requirements. It also, allegedly, scales better.