Trul doing Final Fantasy XIV Open Beta

[Trul]

I am still downloading the client, so I haven't got in yet, but the game looks gorgeous and you can switch to any class just by switching weapons (which prevents all the re-rolling I generally do). It will at least be fun to figure out if the game is worth playing before I buy it.

If you want to join me, I'll probably be online tomorrow as I still have another few hours of downloading. Though its downloading surprisingly fast, probably due to the torrent-like downloading service.

My toon name will hopefully be something like Trul Ravenflyte.

Final Fantasy XIV Beta Application Website: http://entry.ffxiv.com/na/index.html

[Vasan]

Thanks for sharing the link Trul.

Still, when it goes live, I feel 13 dollars a month for eight hours a week of full xp gameplay is a bit much.

Stupid to put in a system that allows you to alt your main character, but then ties in a fatigue system to limit your productive play time on that character. Suppose you could just spent alot of time farming or crafting when your xp gain time runs out, though.

[Trul]

People are making sound worse than it is. The game has more serious problems like no hardware mouse support. I actually had to download a player made patch that enables it. I know its not a keylogger because it was created by owner/creator of FFXIAH, which is an auction house website for their old game. Without a hardware mouse, your mouse is laggy as hell and the game is unplayable.

I think I am gonna have to pass on this game. It's just not fun. It is pretty as hell and has good story aspects to it, but its just not fun enough to keep playing. The controls are so awkward that I get frustrated and don't want to play. IMO a game could be ugly as hell but have great controls/UI and great leveling-design and be the most kick ass MMO on the block. Why do you think WoW is so popular, good UI...

[Isak]

I agree with pretty much everything Trul said. First time I logged in the first thing I noticed was the awful UI. I'm sure the menu system works well on a PS3, but using the mouse makes it a chore and I haven't found any keyboard mapping that makes sense to open such useful items like your quest log, or inventory.

Game mechanics could be good, but the UI puts up a large barrier to enjoying this at least on a PC. Maybe I'll give it a try with a 360 controller, but this is going into the not interested/wait for free trial and reviews pile.

In the meantime for an MMO fix I'll stay with the free WAR endless trial, and see how long T1 can be entertaining.

[Drakhon]

Poor UI was my first impression as well. The combat seemed more turn-based than usual in the little that I saw (just the intro on a boat to my starting city), but that may be intentional (more like regular FF games). Was FF11 like that?

I'm playing a Death Knight in WoW to pass the time, currently.

[Trul]

I never played FF11.

I did buy all the wow expansions so i could play a Death Knight, but Death Knights kind of bored me and when I tried to PvP I got rocked big time. I tried to go back and start a warrior, but the leveling in that game made me even more bored. Perhaps I'll just be unhappy with all MMO's from now on. I think I miss WAR to be honest. That game was a blast before the city capturing garbage.

My new Boston Terrier puppy is coming home next sunday so I have a new game. His name is Beaker!

[Drakhon]

August's Producer Letter:

Happy August all,

GamesCom and Games Day Baltimore have come and gone and, as promised, news about the future of WAR has been announced to the Community; and that future is bright. We’re setting out a clear path for the future development of WAR and that path leads to the introduction of the new Warhammer Online RvR Pack. This multi-tiered RvR focused content will deliver something that many of today’s MMO gamers desire: more control over their online/in game experience.
For the past 12 months we’ve been drilling down on improving your experience in WAR; from Scenarios, to the RvR City Siege Experience, and now we’re turning that laser sight to Open Realm vs. Realm combat. Since the launch of 1.3.6, we’ve seen a huge resurgence in ORvR participation across all servers, the driving factor being the all new “Against All Odds” feature. Players are venturing out against superior numbers for lucrative rewards, and the action in the Lakes shows it. We’re pleased that the Community has welcomed this feature with open arms and are continuing to build upon this success with additional planned changes to the ORvR experience.

Gone will be the frustrations of “Waithammer” as well as the Victory Point system, as you know it. We’re re-envisioning the ORvR experience by thinking differently about the current zone locking mechanism and we believe we have something that will provide a fresh game play experience that is compelling, dynamic and most of all, fun. With one of the overarching goals being to slow down the RvR campaign and lessen the frequency of City Siege occurrences without relying on the aforementioned “waiting”, the new ORvR experience is going to be one thing: All about the fight.
More features will be discussed as we get deeper into development and closer to a release date, but here’s a summation of some of the things we talked about at GamesCom and GDB:
WAR is not going Free 2 Play: We’re not considering this option right now. We’re learning lessons from micro-transaction driven games; however we’re not interested in directly selling things like armor progression or other piecemeal power options. What we do plan on introducing is paid services such as server transfers, character renames and other commonly found services. We are committed to implementing these services in a responsible manner and won’t flip that switch until we’re satisfied that it will not compromise your in game experience. Additionally, we will continue to offer that buffet of services by offering the entire RVR pack purchasable in three segments. Each player can get what the features they want without committing to the whole thing (though we do think all three packs will be pretty great.)
We’re introducing a new Skaven Themed RvR Zone. This new zone is not designed to be the “new hotness” where everyone runs off to once it launches. Rather, the new area will integrate into the existing Tier 4 campaign, supplementing it rather than becoming a siphon. This new RvR experience will be just that…RvR. We’re building on the success of the redesigned cities and iterating on lessons learned there. The zone will be an epic struggle between Order and Destruction, with the victor reaping the rewards.
Skaven are coming: The RvR Pack will be introducing Skaven to the WAR. True to their chaotic nature, the Skaven will influence the battlefield in significant ways, skittering about, doing what Skaven do. Skaven will be playable by both Realms and are not an NPC “third realm”.
Each of the three parts of the RvR Pack (Power, Progression, and Personality) will tie into RvR.
We are increasing the RR Cap to 100: This goes hand in hand with a rework of the Renown Ability system. Our goal is to make the Renown Ability system less restrictive, more customizable and closer, in spirit, to the RA system from Dark Age of Camelot. In the past ten years, we’ve learned a lot of lessons from DAoC, and we’re taking our inspiration from this. At the same time, we’ll be easing some of the grind from 1-80. RR 100 will be a challenge, but we will take responsibility for making sure that the power gap between lower RR’s and the higher RR players isn’t an insurmountable obstacle to overcome.
We’re continuing to build a strong relationship with our European Community. Through events such as GamesCom and the upcoming Games Day: UK, we’re getting down in the trenches, talking to the EU Community face to face, and making sure that we’re delivering the experience that you expect from us. In the coming months you’ll see more feedback opportunities in more languages, with the upcoming 1.4 “In Development…” posts being posted not only on the Herald, but also in English, French and German.

The opportunity we had to speak with the Players at GamesCom was amazing; we were given the chance to hear firsthand what European players like, what they weren’t so hot on, and most importantly, how much they fervently care about WAR and its future. We’re taking that message to heart and will continue to work towards delivering improved and more sincere communication with our European player base.

So there it is: No Hype, All Fight. More news about the RvR Pack will be coming in the weeks ahead. Come and join Andy Belford and myself at Games Day UK on September 26th 2010; we’ll be there to talk more about the future of WAR and our 2 year anniversary. We’ll also be giving out exclusive in game items and, provided they don’t get stuck in customs this time, WAR T-Shirts, Hats and who knows what else.

Until then,

- Carrie

I'm impressed that they're actually still trying so hard, though I don't know if it'll mean anything in the end. The RvR pack idea is curious.

[Trul]

I'm downloading WAR as we speak. Gonna give it a shot!

Moving my PT toons to Badlands because PT has shutdown. Badlands is the most populated server.

[Warseth]

FFXI was slower....not soloable after 15+ it was either Group or fail....also huge time sinks.
It was good back when it came out due to being nothing else really to play. It also had down leveling to...nothing like being lvl 30 (and in new armor) getting killed right before a door and downleveling....and being Nude! sucked..thank god for a good team..they leveled me back up to continue forward.

FFXIV: Is improved but hell yes that UI needs a lot of tweaking. I already am at lvl 18 physical level and level 14 Archer.

That stamina thing is more than likely to prevent bot leveling. There are several good counter measures in place to prevent bot leveling and more going on live. IT was a big problem in FFXI with the auto targeters... they would plant some high level near a rare spawn that may spawn once every 24 hours with a 5% drop on something.. Ochidukote gloves for instance ..at my time in game it was worth 5 million because of how rare it was and most desired by Samurai class. The way it worked was the person ran a program that would auto target that named ..and if on better connection would pull well before a human can target and pull it...= locked down the rare spawns....


ANyway.... the game is not for the current generation of MMO players... Only reason I made it this far was because I did play FFXI at launch and made it to level 65 Samurai ...I want to see how much it has improved.

I am about to start DC universe online beta ..already got a spot just waiting for the green light from SOny. That has some potential to kill time till Star Wars.


TRUL,
Use the Blood spec DK. You also need Resil ..lots of it... The self heal of blood + that two hander talent will help you own... Since I was a smith I made a very nice pair of maces....and two hander. Once in PVP set I pretty much laid waste to most people. The spec which was leaning towards darkness powers ( i forget the talent tree name)...it's weak and over used. Blood if played right can outlast due to self healing and powerful blows. Not pure blood also...you need to hybrid it. I don't know if I am still On wow Armory under Warforged you can check it there.

[Rardac]

Drakhon, thanks for posting the WAR producer's letter...that was interesting info.

I thought this was an interesting statement, though:

Our goal is to make the Renown Ability system less restrictive, more customizable and closer, in spirit, to the RA system from Dark Age of Camelot. In the past ten years, we’ve learned a lot of lessons from DAoC, and we’re taking our inspiration from this.

Too bad it took them so many years to start learning lessons from DAoC...might've helped when WAR went live...