Originally posted by MikeB

Originally posted by Epic1oots

haha, how many of you once said you will not play this game ever ever again!!??

Pretty natural reaction for anyone burned that bad by the original game at the time. Also, I don't think restructuring an entire team and re-allocating resources to practically re-doing the MMO in question is a fairly common reaction to a botched MMO launch in this industry. No one could have really seen this effort coming. Most times, in cases like these, the MMO just rides out its mediocrity until the publisher pulls the plug and the fans are unfortunately left heartbroken. I'm not invested in this game's future in any way, but I'm honestly refreshed to see a developer attempt to really turn things around.

Some people will understandably not care and some will, despite being burned, be hopeful for the game's future.

The real question is: what substance are you actually going to contribute to this discussion? :)

Got any of your own thoughts on what Square Enix is planning either way?

I watched the video for the new Luminous engine they were working on. All I can say is...wow! If they can pull it off and make a FF with a coherent story and those level of graphics, then they might find their way on top again.

My problem with FFXIV is that it runs so heavy on my system. I ran the benchmark a few times and it still looks laggy even with a quad core and some better ram. I need to step up to Windows 7 and maximize my ram to handle it and a better Gfx card. But is FFXIV worth that level of investment?

Originally posted by Alders

Originally posted by Hyanmen

Originally posted by Alders

I couldn't disagree more.  The man symbolized why Japan is 5 years behind the rest of the world where PC gaming is involved.  The first leaked info on XIV was in 2006 so he had at least 4+ years to work on a successor to XI and failed miserably.  His team failed because he had no clue how the genre had evolved since XI launched.  It was clear then and to some extent still clear that the people working on the game didn't actually play MMO's.

The game used Crystal Tools, the engine that caused SE huge problems this gen. Merely blaming it all on Tanaka when he had been given such shitty cards in the first place is ignorant.

 

So all the horrible mechanics and decisions were implemented because of Crystal Tools? 

- you can't have an auction house in CT?

- you ca't get rid of animation locks in CT?

- did CT force them to go with boring and uninspired classes instead of tried and true FF classes?

 

XI had 3 fantastic mechanics going for it.  The class/subclass system, the auction house, and level sync.  To this day i don't think any other MMO has done classes better than XI, including the ability to level everything on one character.

All Tanaka had to do was build on those 3 aspects while updating glaring issues that XI had like combat responsiveness, poor grouping tools, and the UI.

I'm not giving the man a pass.  He created a game that most XI vets didn't want to play and that non Final Fantasy fans had no interest in.

I agree on the class system. Ninja, Dancer, Red Mage, and Scholar were the most beautiful classes in the game. They stood fine on their own and were really powerful subs.

It also allowed wild fun. I had so much fun in campaign as Paladin/Scholar hitting Accession >> Cure IV then Invincible'ing and Sentinel'ing after that ware off. I'd kite all the mobs lol. Eventually I died but I got truckloads of exp.

I miss pld/dnc something fierce too. Say what you want about Wotg, but scholar (probably the best white magic + black magic user I've seen in any game) and dancer (melee healer, using combat resources not mana) are some of the best classes in the game.

XI's combat responsiveness was mostly based on servers being in Japan. I'd sorely miss the japanese players, and the joy from auto-translate compliments, but it'd be worth it to have a reasonable R rate.

Poor grouping tools? I don't get it. FFXI's grouping tools were basic but they were powerful. It was nice to be able to say /sea all pld 33-37 inv (Find all paladins between 33 and 37 seeking a party) or /seal all 70-74 inv (Find everyone between 70 and 74 seeking an invite). Somehow XIV's grouping tools really are trash though. Like not being able to use auto translate in search comments.

I liked the controls, but the UI left things to be desired (like seeing other players' TP). The funniest part about the hax-addon TParty is that it was only possible because the client was communicating TP to everyone in the raid anyway. The only reason we needed TParty is because XI's team was too lazy to put TP display in their raid frames.

Honestly, nothing against the author, i know he was just relaying information, but i just got the impression that alot of what the devs were saying was just "this is what players want to hear",  It would be cool for them to actually deliver on that, but i just have other things on the horizon that i can't see myself investing into this game.

Originally posted by Hrimnir

Honestly, nothing against the author, i know he was just relaying information, but i just got the impression that alot of what the devs were saying was just "this is what players want to hear",  It would be cool for them to actually deliver on that, but i just have other things on the horizon that i can't see myself investing into this game.

Yoshi-P has delivered everything he has promised us players so far. The promisses that could not be met due to the terrible engine and server structure has been promised with 2.0. His number one goal is to regain the trust of the players they have wronged and he has already won me over in the past 2 years.

So what kind of system requirements will this FF XIV v2.0 have? I couldn't get it because of not even reaching their lowest benchmark! If improving the graphics means newer, better, higher priced PC to run it... I guess I'll have to end my love of FF with FF XI (although I left because of the great Chocobo debacle)... sob

Originally posted by MikeB

Originally posted by Epic1oots

haha, how many of you once said you will not play this game ever ever again!!??

Pretty natural reaction for anyone burned that bad by the original game at the time. Also, I don't think restructuring an entire team and re-allocating resources to practically re-doing the MMO in question is a fairly common reaction to a botched MMO launch in this industry. No one could have really seen this effort coming. Most times, in cases like these, the MMO just rides out its mediocrity until the publisher pulls the plug and the fans are unfortunately left heartbroken. I'm not invested in this game's future in any way, but I'm honestly refreshed to see a developer attempt to really turn things around.

Some people will understandably not care and some will, despite being burned, be hopeful for the game's future.

The real question is: what substance are you actually going to contribute to this discussion? :)

Got any of your own thoughts on what Square Enix is planning either way?

It is a Final Fantasy title, SquareEnix' flagship and legacy, a Japanese company =>  of course they wouldn't give up without a fight.  Every Final Fantasy should have known that before the mess even started. 

(doublepost)

I was burned on the first go, I'll wait until I see the game running and get my hands on it via a buddy key or free trial or something.

As much as I want to love the game it needs to prove itself before I think myself, and others will return.

I would give my left nut for a complete FFXI overhaul.

Updated high res textures, enhanced effects, Voiced npc's, custom UI's. zone and quest overhaul, Combat tweaks, physics, Particle effects. Complete monster revamp.

How cool would it be in Quifm if it was redone with fog effects,  and creepy sounds, and lifelike animated monsters, and realistic corpses that persist.

Hell I could have done infinately better directing the new MMO than what that garbage team gave us for FFXIV...

Originally posted by Deathofsage

{Please assist.}

Where do you see an FFXI clone in XIV? Not trolling, really want to know because all I saw was differences, for the worse.

I mean, it has the same races, with different names, but that's about where it stops. The game is more about questing (not just missions) than XI ever was, the class system is inferior. Leveling takes a matter of days.

I could go on and on but I'm curious how you see an XI clone in XIV.

Vanilla game:

Action based combat which required user input and relied on a stamina system.

Fully customizable classes with almost every skill usable by any class.

Gear usable by ANY class at ANY level (only very select high-end gear was restricted).  Items had a favored class and optimal level; if you did not meet either you got little to no bonus.  As you leveled up the bonus increased until you received the full bonuses provided by the item.  This system alone was very unique to me and I really enjoyed it.

Manual attribute points which you can put into whichever stat you wanted to buff up depending on your playstyle.

Ability to really mix and match what skills you wanted on what classes, with the ability to solo pretty much everything if you had the proper setup and skill level (along with being in Japan, since playing with that distance latency is impossible for avoiding avoidable skills).

Overly complicated (overburning as well) crafting system which provided a real sense of crafting an actual item instead of 'get mats, set to craft'.  I both liked and hated the system, mostly because some equipment needed parts crafted with absurd materials and a far higher level of the skill than required for the resulting item.  It was pointless to self craft some things.  That said, when you finally crafted the end piece of equipment you felt accomplished, but also exhausted.

Physical and job level system. One let you improve your attributes and gave you slightly more base power than you'd otherwise have, the other let you improve your skills and more directly controlled stats (moreso max HP/MP) you had (mainly affected the hard cap benefits on your attribute levels).

Other things I've probably forgotten by now.

Yoshida's redesign:

Auto attack based combat which relied on a cooldown system for all skills/spells.

Severely restrictive selection of skills when playing other classes.

Gear with level AND class requirements.

Attribute points automatically allocated based on your class.

Solo ability severely limited with the massive nerfs to heals and general combat system changes.

Simplified crafting system.

Job levels only.

Other things I've probably forgotten by now.

Vanilla FFXIV was not like FFXI in any way.

Yoshida's FFXIV is like FFXI in most aspects.

That is why I quit.  I did not want to play FFXI-2.

The removal of an engaging combat system (the major change that impacted me the most), the removal of massive customization, the removal of soloability, the dumbing down of things.. it all turned me off more and more after every major patch release to the point where I couldn't enjoy the game anymore.  I'd login, try to do things and remember how much more I enjoyed the game before all the sweeping changes.

As I've said over and over, all the game needed was polish and refinement.  That never happened and instead we received sweeping changes into something SE has done before: FFXI.

I am still upset to this day.