I think it's time to jot down some thoughts after one year of playing in the new FFXIV.
Originally, I did briefly play FFXIV when 1.0 first came out with much excitement to try a refreshed FF MMORPG. However, I ended up slamming my head against the wall which brought me more pleasure than dealing with the train wreck that 1.0 had become. Everything from the client launcher to the UX design and even the game play was just, 'off'. Granted, I did not give it a full effort... but the lag-ridden UX was just a huge deterrent in staying logged-in to play. The only real positive about FFXIV-1 was the graphics and appearance. It was great to look at, but sucked to actually play!
In the end, I let my account go and really didn't look back until there was talk of FFXIV-2.
When the beta for FFXIV: ARR was announced; I finally was able to get in on Beta 2 if I recall correctly, and it was immediately a huge night and day difference from what had previously existed. The game was smooth, UX was incredibly improved and the graphics/atmosphere was very enticing.
Fast forward to launch:
Those of us that started from the beginning, know what a disaster the launch was. Not being able to log-in or even reliably play without getting those horrid error codes and having our characters locked in limbo. I was lucky in the fact that I played opposite hours from most NA players on Hyperion, so I was able to log-in and play pretty freely excepting the fact that nobody was around! (I get used to it...)
A few months in, the log-in and stability issues were resolved. The DF was also revised and was reasonably usable aside from some of the crazy people you meet at random! This was a turning point where a lot of people hung around or quite the game. As evident from our Free Company roster, we lost a lot of active players in the first six months of the game. We of course now, have a small core of regular members who are very active in maintaining the house and attached garden. Syx (Furax) got charged with running the FC while I was pulled away to RL requirements (crazy work schedule)... I actually had let my account lapse by accident, so yeah....
After getting back to a normal game schedule, I've progressed quite far in the end-game world. Aside from coil, I'm fairly caught up at least on my main job (Bard). It's refreshing to be able to log-in and always have something to do... comparatively, I'm behind as far as number of jobs leveled and other points... but that's fine, I'm ok with that.
The game mechanics and how you level a job are fairly acceptable. I do feel that the quest/exp system should be expanded somewhat. If you do all of the quests on one or two jobs, or at least one job/class per city-state region, then you burn up all of those quests for EXP and kind of leaves a gaping hole for other jobs/classes you may want to level. Thus, you are left with Guildheists (good for gil/exp), Dungeon Grinding and of course Levemates. The amount of tickets available for levemates (100) seems to go very quickly.... 100 sounds like a lot at first, but I can burn through 50 in a very short time period. Within two days, I'm out of tickets for Levemates. (currently, I'm letting them build up again) -- So, increase the rebuild rate or add more capacity for levemates.
Fort the dungeon grinds, I don't mind them. It's really good to use those to learn your job/class and understand the different dynamics on how to play each one.
For the end-game weapons and gear:
I'm still working on Atma, if that tells you anything... that has been a long and arduous process. I hear horror stories of the stages that follow. For gear, aside from weapons, I'm mostly geared in ST gear now. Some gear (100) I've gotten through the vendor with Soldiery points. I've yet to acquire any Coil gear, I'm still trying to get a T5 group so I can progress onwards to the 2nd coil series. This is only for Bard at the time being, but will rinse-n-repeat for other jobs later. (depending on what new content is released later)
Future:
I'm looking forward to playing this game for awhile, maybe as long as I did with FF11.. it just depends on a few factors. I'm looking forward to the new jobs that will be coming, I really want to have a thief/rouge/ninja type of class.
Closing:
These were just some of my thoughts, in brevity. I'm fairly happy with the game... I'm glad that some things are easy and others are more time consuming. The time vs. reward isn't easily accepted by all, but it doesn't bother me too much. Yeah, it's frustrating at times, but that's kind of the point.
Originally, I did briefly play FFXIV when 1.0 first came out with much excitement to try a refreshed FF MMORPG. However, I ended up slamming my head against the wall which brought me more pleasure than dealing with the train wreck that 1.0 had become. Everything from the client launcher to the UX design and even the game play was just, 'off'. Granted, I did not give it a full effort... but the lag-ridden UX was just a huge deterrent in staying logged-in to play. The only real positive about FFXIV-1 was the graphics and appearance. It was great to look at, but sucked to actually play!
In the end, I let my account go and really didn't look back until there was talk of FFXIV-2.
When the beta for FFXIV: ARR was announced; I finally was able to get in on Beta 2 if I recall correctly, and it was immediately a huge night and day difference from what had previously existed. The game was smooth, UX was incredibly improved and the graphics/atmosphere was very enticing.
Fast forward to launch:
Those of us that started from the beginning, know what a disaster the launch was. Not being able to log-in or even reliably play without getting those horrid error codes and having our characters locked in limbo. I was lucky in the fact that I played opposite hours from most NA players on Hyperion, so I was able to log-in and play pretty freely excepting the fact that nobody was around! (I get used to it...)
A few months in, the log-in and stability issues were resolved. The DF was also revised and was reasonably usable aside from some of the crazy people you meet at random! This was a turning point where a lot of people hung around or quite the game. As evident from our Free Company roster, we lost a lot of active players in the first six months of the game. We of course now, have a small core of regular members who are very active in maintaining the house and attached garden. Syx (Furax) got charged with running the FC while I was pulled away to RL requirements (crazy work schedule)... I actually had let my account lapse by accident, so yeah....
After getting back to a normal game schedule, I've progressed quite far in the end-game world. Aside from coil, I'm fairly caught up at least on my main job (Bard). It's refreshing to be able to log-in and always have something to do... comparatively, I'm behind as far as number of jobs leveled and other points... but that's fine, I'm ok with that.
The game mechanics and how you level a job are fairly acceptable. I do feel that the quest/exp system should be expanded somewhat. If you do all of the quests on one or two jobs, or at least one job/class per city-state region, then you burn up all of those quests for EXP and kind of leaves a gaping hole for other jobs/classes you may want to level. Thus, you are left with Guildheists (good for gil/exp), Dungeon Grinding and of course Levemates. The amount of tickets available for levemates (100) seems to go very quickly.... 100 sounds like a lot at first, but I can burn through 50 in a very short time period. Within two days, I'm out of tickets for Levemates. (currently, I'm letting them build up again) -- So, increase the rebuild rate or add more capacity for levemates.
Fort the dungeon grinds, I don't mind them. It's really good to use those to learn your job/class and understand the different dynamics on how to play each one.
For the end-game weapons and gear:
I'm still working on Atma, if that tells you anything... that has been a long and arduous process. I hear horror stories of the stages that follow. For gear, aside from weapons, I'm mostly geared in ST gear now. Some gear (100) I've gotten through the vendor with Soldiery points. I've yet to acquire any Coil gear, I'm still trying to get a T5 group so I can progress onwards to the 2nd coil series. This is only for Bard at the time being, but will rinse-n-repeat for other jobs later. (depending on what new content is released later)
Future:
I'm looking forward to playing this game for awhile, maybe as long as I did with FF11.. it just depends on a few factors. I'm looking forward to the new jobs that will be coming, I really want to have a thief/rouge/ninja type of class.
Closing:
These were just some of my thoughts, in brevity. I'm fairly happy with the game... I'm glad that some things are easy and others are more time consuming. The time vs. reward isn't easily accepted by all, but it doesn't bother me too much. Yeah, it's frustrating at times, but that's kind of the point.
