Between Play and Square my experience was horrible

I was excited to get this, dying for a new FF and hadn't played an MMO in AGES.

I preordered the limited edition version so i would get it 8 days before the other version.. let me tell you, it will be the last time i preorder anything from play.

Not only did i not get a dispatch email, it didn't arrive, the person i spoke to on the phone was very unhelpful and just gave me an email address.

3 emails over 5 days were completly ignored (the first querying no dispatch email, the second about the game not appearing and the third about the game still not appearing...a simple apology would have sufficed at first but now i am IRATE) and the game arrives today (Saterday).

At last.. overjoyed I install it this evening.

First I am battered with a load of updates, that for some reason only download at 80-200kbps (even dropping to 0kbps for about 5mins), less than 1/10 of my network capabilities, then i have to go through the horrific ordeal of using their square enix billing system, and that horrible click and buy that refused to recognise my address, so many windows, slow site, so many clicks, having to put characters such as % or ^ in your password...

Anyway I finally get into the game and create my character, when choosing a world there was no instruction as to what the chocobos next to the world meant but i assumed more chocos = fuller server.

I finally get in and can barely move.

The default buttons are horrible, unlike any other game i have used... and when i finially get to the configuration i try to find a way to change screen res and gfx detail.. but there is none... so I alt tab.. the game crashes..

I change all the settings to medium and go for the lowest screen res... still jumpy, i repeat this step a few times getting more and more worked up, and even on the lowest settings with everything off... I still can't play this game

I built this PC myself just over 3 years ago, and even new games can be played between medium and full graphics.. but this.. I can't even play it on minimum graphics

Also the minimum spec on the box is slightly higher than origionally advertised although on most accounts i smash their minimum spec

£40 wasted on terrible customer service and an un-"play"-able game

My favorite morpg of all time was and will be EverQuest.. nothing will ever compare, i hate all these lame really easy plastic mmorpgs like WOW

FF11 was okay other than the fact that you needed to be in a group to kill anything and sometimes had to wait 3 hours to get one....

This was supposed to be... so much more.

What I don't understand is that SE is telling other fan sites to remove there links to patches.  So if you want to patch the game you have to use SE's out-of-date patching system.

http://www.ffxivcore.com/topic/19359-new-patch-ffxiv-collectors-edition-launches/page__pid__339948#entry339948

WHY ?

Originally posted by stayontarget

What I don't understand is that SE is telling other fan sites to remove there links to patches.  So if you want to patch the game you have to use SE's out-of-date patching system.

http://www.ffxivcore.com/topic/19359-new-patch-ffxiv-collectors-edition-launches/page__pid__339948#entry339948

 

WHY ?

It's a Peer-to-Peer system. If all the Peers are getting the patches eslewhere, it doesn't work?!

The patcher just sucks. It worked for me during OB, but not now.

Originally posted by Psycosis

This was supposed to be... so much more.

How would you know what it is if you even admit you never really played it?

Dont really see how someone expects an mmo to launch not only perfect, but be perfect before the game is even released.

Originally posted by spankybus

Originally posted by stayontarget

What I don't understand is that SE is telling other fan sites to remove there links to patches.  So if you want to patch the game you have to use SE's out-of-date patching system.

http://www.ffxivcore.com/topic/19359-new-patch-ffxiv-collectors-edition-launches/page__pid__339948#entry339948

 

WHY ?

It's a Peer-to-Peer system. If all the Peers are getting the patches eslewhere, it doesn't work?!

 

The patcher just sucks. It worked for me during OB, but not now.

So it's all about keeping their system viable, regardles of how painful it is to the community.

What are the specs of your 3 year old system?  Without knowing what your system is it's hard to guess if your complaints are justified.

The same controls in FFXIV are the same controls that were in FFXI. So, it shouldn't be so "horrific" to you.  I did not have ANY of the problems that you are facing.  Most of it is from paying attention to what SE told everyone to do in advance.  From reading your post you obviously did not prepare for the game and so I have no sympathy for you.

I'm at day 2 at playing and having a wonderful experience.  Of course, I prepared myself by making sure my computer could support the game (used the benchmark), went to account management before I even got the game and set up my payment method, read up on all the blogs, posts, websites about anything and everything about the game.

If you hadl followed directions this could have been a very rewarding experience for you.  So, it's not SE's fault as they were very good about informing people of advance of what to expect and what to do before downloading the game. And it's not like this information is in just one place -- it was being spread everywhere by the fans.  If you were so ready for another FF you would have been prepared. 

Originally posted by Grafbenda

What are the specs of your 3 year old system?  Without knowing what your system is it's hard to guess if your complaints are justified.

My system's more recent. I have 12 gigs of ram, 2 gtx 295, 2.9ghz quadcore i7 processor and had poor performance with the game at anything over midrange settings. It's not the rigs that are the issue, it's poor hardware optimization in the game's graphic's engine.  I installed the game to my solid state drive in an attempt to ease it but that didn't help either.  It's just sloppily coded.  That said, it still looked great with the midrange settings.

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Originally posted by TheEmpyreal

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Originally posted by Grafbenda
What are the specs of your 3 year old system?  Without knowing what your system is it's hard to guess if your complaints are justified.

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My system's more recent. I have 12 gigs of ram, 2 gtx 295, 2.9ghz quadcore i7 processor and had poor performance with the game at anything over midrange settings. It's not the rigs that are the issue, it's poor hardware optimization in the game's graphic's engine.  I installed the game to my solid state drive in an attempt to ease it but that didn't help either.  It's just sloppily coded.  That said, it still looked great with the midrange settings.

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Well if that is the case then there is no chance on my system running it, I have been planning on upgrading my graphics card for a while but my funds are rather dry at the moment... I have 4gig ram, athlon x2 3.2ghz, 512mb geforece - I am going to be upgrading the GFX card, probably going ATI because they are cheaper and supporting a family i dont really have the ability i used to to go top end... if i did I would build myself a brand new i7 System.

In regards to being ready for another FF - As explained briefly, I am a family man, one does not have the time to geek it out as one used to. I work hard at my job, and as much of my free time is spent either looking after the kids, or the mrs.

So when i am ready for a new FF.. I mean.. I am eager for it to be here. Just like i was for FF13, I dont even own a ps3 i just bought it and borrowed a friends for a while... dissapointed with that one as well.
I read up about it on sony and on here.

My system was supposed to be able to handle it - I knew i wouldn't get the best end graphics, i wasn't expecting to, I had assumed when i bought my new graphics card that things would be improved, but from the looks of it even people with incredibly fantastic systems are having problems.

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Originally posted by warmaster670

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Originally posted by Psycosis

This was supposed to be... so much more.

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How would you know what it is if you even admit you never really played it?

Dont really see how someone expects an mmo to launch not only perfect, but be perfect before the game is even released.

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I think you extracting what you want from what I said.
From when i am sitting i was supposed to have a game that i could play
which is more than what I have got

I don't expect it to be perfect, I expect it to work
When people with 12 gig of ram and 2 gtx 295's are having issues playing the game....
well it just goes to show that square didn't really test this thouroughly before launch.

Graphics are not important to me.. playability is.

my 30 day free trial is being wasted, is there anyway i can get this "paused"?

Thats TOTALLY wierd, because I have a Radeon HD 5770 with a 2.66 quad core 8 gigs of ram & I run the game totally maxed out and it looks great!

Quad Core with 4Gig RAM adn 9800GT on max settings and game runs fine

Weird I have to say

And I also Preordered through Play.com and got teh game smack bang on 22nd, even got Civ 5 a day early but due to region locks couldnt play :(

Originally posted by TheEmpyreal

Originally posted by Grafbenda

What are the specs of your 3 year old system?  Without knowing what your system is it's hard to guess if your complaints are justified.

My system's more recent. I have 12 gigs of ram, 2 gtx 295, 2.9ghz quadcore i7 processor and had poor performance with the game at anything over midrange settings. It's not the rigs that are the issue, it's poor hardware optimization in the game's graphic's engine.  I installed the game to my solid state drive in an attempt to ease it but that didn't help either.  It's just sloppily coded.  That said, it still looked great with the midrange settings.

Core 2 Duo dual core at 3.0 ghz 2 gig's of ram and a GTX275 running the game smooth at silk at high settings at 1920x1080, not sure what you've done to your "rig" but it must have been bad...

I guess on some systems it is just an OSI 8 and/or driver problem.

Aside of specifications it could be interresting to know what things run paralel on the system while the game is running. Oh and what kind of OS is used. :)

I mean like a 32 Bit operating system is no big help even by 16 gig Ram , special when it is Vista 32 bit for example :)

This game is simply full sail to fail.

Originally posted by w005crj

This game is simply full sail to fail.

 Delightful insight that adds nothing to this thread

*HIGH FIVE*

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Originally posted by konrad16660
Thats TOTALLY wierd, because I have a Radeon HD 5770 with a 2.66 quad core 8 gigs of ram & I run the game totally maxed out and it looks great!

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I actually just upgraded to that same card and the game runs... ok.

I have everything on medium apart from shadows which are at low and the res at 1920 by 1080.

The curser is still laggy.. it actually feels like pushing a stick on a gamepad with the way it moves... you sort of move the curser and it follows.

Its actually made me consider plugging my old PS2 controller to USB adaptor in and playing with that.

When running arround I still get lag too...

I dont think it is connection lag, i have a 24mbit connection... my download transfer rate is usually around a 2MB/s and upload around 150kbps

I also hate how long it takes all the NPC's to appear around me.. i run somewhere and am like "there is nothing here" about 1 min later suddenly they start appearing.

So anyway, I am doing that first quest from the adventurers guild where you have to go and find some battlecamp or something.. and she shows me on my map and i run off.. realising i have forgotton what she told me.. check my journal.. just mentioned the name of the camp...

So i run back to her in the hope she will point it out on the map again and that I will make myself actually pay attention.. I try and open up a chat dialouge and can't move... all i can do is rotate the camera....

i am stuck like this for 5 mins before the server crashes, and I haven't been able to get back on for the last 30....

so after all the problems with play and the game initially... its still not exactly performing anywhere near my expectations...

maybe its that fangul server (or whatever it was called) - do you know if any server is better for any particular location around the world?

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Originally posted by Obidom
Quad Core with 4Gig RAM adn 9800GT on max settings and game runs fine
 
Weird I have to say
 
And I also Preordered through Play.com and got teh game smack bang on 22nd, even got Civ 5 a day early but due to region locks couldnt play :(

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Yeah Play have usually been very good with stuff like that...

This was probably the only time i actually cared about getting a game on time though...

die hard FF fan...

Originally posted by Psycosis

 

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Originally posted by konrad16660
Thats TOTALLY wierd, because I have a Radeon HD 5770 with a 2.66 quad core 8 gigs of ram & I run the game totally maxed out and it looks great!

---

 

I actually just upgraded to that same card and the game runs... ok.

I have everything on medium apart from shadows which are at low and the res at 1920 by 1080.

The curser is still laggy.. it actually feels like pushing a stick on a gamepad with the way it moves... you sort of move the curser and it follows.

Its actually made me consider plugging my old PS2 controller to USB adaptor in and playing with that.

When running arround I still get lag too...

I dont think it is connection lag, i have a 24mbit connection... my download transfer rate is usually around a 2MB/s and upload around 150kbps

I also hate how long it takes all the NPC's to appear around me.. i run somewhere and am like "there is nothing here" about 1 min later suddenly they start appearing.

So anyway, I am doing that first quest from the adventurers guild where you have to go and find some battlecamp or something.. and she shows me on my map and i run off.. realising i have forgotton what she told me.. check my journal.. just mentioned the name of the camp...

So i run back to her in the hope she will point it out on the map again and that I will make myself actually pay attention.. I try and open up a chat dialouge and can't move... all i can do is rotate the camera....

i am stuck like this for 5 mins before the server crashes, and I haven't been able to get back on for the last 30....

so after all the problems with play and the game initially... its still not exactly performing anywhere near my expectations...

Make sure you turn on the hardware mouse in the config file outside the game. You will be a happy panda if you do that.

My system got to be the most average.

Dual Core 3.0 ghz

6gb ram

57700 ATI HD

I have absolutely no problems. I turn off Ambient occulsion though because i hardly notice the difference in graphics. Shadows are set at standard and AA is set at 4. I get 30 to 40 fps easy at max resolution. Depth of field actually makes the far away objects blurry and ugly so turn of that option too.

Not the only one frustrated with play my limited edition has yet to arrive and I'm fucking sick of waiting now! it was sent on 20th september for the love of god I lost all head start and the game launched today and I'm still waiting for their shitty delivery -.-

But apart of my rant the game is heavily cpu dependant also for the guy with 2 gpus I think ffxiv doesn't detect your 2nd one still you should be able to play it on full.