E3 2009: FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Coming in 2010

[Telera]

Re: E3 2009: FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Coming in 2010

Quotes still broken for me and I'm lazy:

BBQ: LotRO is based solely on the books. Turbine have no rights to any likeness or content from the movie trilogy. They got rights for the book content from SZC, who holds the rights or w/e for Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Because of this, we can't have any content that is found in the Silmarillion, however, since that book is still in the possession of Tolkien's estate. And you'd literally have to pry it out of his son's cold, dead fingers.

Children are likely crawling out of the woodwork on the 'normal' servers, and all of the US ones if only because the US servers lack a RP server. However, on Laurelin (English RP, EU side), it's a safe haven. The naming rules are enforced heavily, the community itself tends to be very unwilling to tolerate shit, and those who bring drama and shit find themselves suddenly on every kins 'do not group with' list. Kind of hard to get Radiance when everyone knows you're a tool. Age wise, my boyfriend and I are the youngest in our Kin at 22 and 25. Everyone else is in their very late twenties or well over 30. The leader and most of the active officers are in their 40's. And we're all there for the books, not the movies. There are very few people on Laurelin who were movie-onry! fans. Most other kins I know of are similar. So yeah, a RP server can and does seem to deter the kiddies, especially when it's well policed. However, SE would never give us one, so that's a pipe dream for me.

Jenova: It's easy to make a MMO focus on the single player in a story. I'm already playing one that exists and does it, and The Old Republic is supposedly going to do it as well. The explanation for it is easy: they don't assume the other players exist for you. And they don't. Within your 'story' all that exists is you, and at times maybe a handful of allies that come with you. They don't have to -and really shouldn't feel compelled to- cater to the idea that there are a thousand+ just like you doing the same thing. For those who RP there are easy ways around it. On Laurelin it's mostly that people either A: don't RP the epic story as part of their static and growing character arc, or B: do not count that anyone else was there at all (which is what I do). In LotRO this is actually more fitting, as at the time of the War of the Ring there were not thousands of travelers on the road anyway, and trying to say there are, or cater to the idea breaks even more lore and they're already bending it enough in other places.

But by no means do I buy that they 'have' to make the story group focused. They simply chose to. And of all the changes they could possibly make to this game, making the story deeply personal and highly focused on my character as a key mover of deeds in the world is the one I would most appreciate. I think this goes against the entire Japanese mentality and I'm likely on yet another pipe dream, but eh.

[Caspian]

Re: E3 2009: FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Coming in 2010

I would imagine that they'll stay with the normal trifecta of classes (dps, healer, tank) strengthened by the fact that they're doing the job system again, but something in the interview made me think of what they're doing with Stargate Worlds. In SGW there aren't really any of those types of classes. Its supposed to be a lot more about strategy than having one person take the beating, have someone heal them, and everyone else just beats on the mob.

[Feba]

Re: E3 2009: FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Coming in 2010

I've always wanted to see a game with a hybrid of the grid and tree based leveling systems, on an MMO scale. EVE online's skills kinda do it, but they're not organized nearly well enough to give that impression. Plus having to buy skills is a little silly.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: E3 2009: FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Coming in 2010

Considering the director is who he is (he oversaw FF, FFII and FFIII) could be we see some elements from those games. Additionally, this won't be the first Final Fantasy we've seen that didn't have experience points.

Both Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy X did not use EXP or Levels. In FFII, your character's growth was determined by the actions you took in battle and the classes were pre-determined, though you could have them use any kind of weapon and increase proficiency with it. If you took lots of damage in a fight, your HP might see an increase, whereas if you spent lots of MP, you might see an increase to your MP. Eventually, this sort of system defines you by the skills you use the most, so if you're on the frontlines taking a lot of damage, you're probably going to see stats like HP and VIT rise while INT, MND and MP diminish.

The other way might be something more akin to FFX or FFXII, a grid full of skills we gain points from kills and we're free to spend these points as we please and as we progress the grid in a particular direction, we can open up new skills from new job classes. The FFIX/FFTA system are also possible, but could see abuse as well. Imagine there's a staff that teaches Ultima, but its rare and can be sold. Use it enough and you learn Ultima.

I see a grid system as the most practical, at least for learning magic and special skills, but I think a hybrid of FFII and FFX's systems could prove interesting. The important thing is that even if you can grow a Warrior to be a Berzerker or whatever is that each job class itself, much like FFX, has things that make them shine. If a Warrior can learn Cure and a WHM can too, fine, but both offensively and defensively there should be things only they can bring to a fight.

For example, in FFX, you had Auron specializing in piercing damage, Rikku could dismantle machines with Steal, only Yuna could summon, only Khimari could learn Blue Magic, and Wakka was great at enfeebling and taking out aerial targets. This was important since none of the other characters could do these things and that impacted the flow of battle.

[jenova_9]

Re: E3 2009: FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Coming in 2010

It's also entirely possible that there will be evidence on people, via gear and such. If they want to make a "more realistic" MMO, they can include things like weapon wear/tear, and not have "levels", but still have "experience".
h.

I don't think wear and tear would be a good idea. I mean I know they are not going to let go of AH and the important of money.
so needing to stock up on doubles of everything or even weapons is very taxing on players budget, and might force people to farm even more than before.

as for farming, I think drops should be more reasonable and fair. especially yagudo necklaces, I swear any yagudo that has a visible neckacle on them should drop that item 100%.

same for stuff like crab meat and stuff. if you killed a crab, the crab meat is always there. it's not like we disintegrated the mob after defeating it. some drops should be more practical in drop rates.

I don't think jumping should be in, this will just turn into a mmorpg version of Halo or adventurer on the moon. people will constantly hop, even if it doesn't help them move faster. it would be too ridiculous. unless jumping has a 2 hour cooldown time.

[Feba]

Re: E3 2009: FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Coming in 2010

I was wondering when someone would do that. I edited the title myself awhile ago, but no power over the rest of the thread.

[Balfree]

Re: E3 2009: FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Coming in 2010

Changed thread title, removed "exclusively to PS3" bit. Since its not really true.

[WishMaster3K]

re: E3 2009: FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Coming in 2010

It's also entirely possible that there will be evidence on people, via gear and such. If they want to make a "more realistic" MMO, they can include things like weapon wear/tear, and not have "levels", but still have "experience".

Maybe/Hopefully you need a certain amount of experience or "proficiency". Just cause your Axe skill was 0 in FFXI, that didn't stop anyone from equipping a Juggernaut and going to town.

Or equipping a Kraken at 0 club and raising it to cap within only a few hours.

Similarly, maybe only certain monsters can give you an experience cap up to a certain level, and have certain gear only equippable by people up to a certain point. So you can see someone is a noob by their gear and accomadate. The lack of levels would mean it's easier for people higher to help someone lower without imposing restrictions on them

I see that in this way, the higher level people could easily help out lower level people, and not necessarily jump down to their "level".

Or maybe they'll do something ridiculous, like if your Great Axe is Level 100, and a mob caps at level 70, it'll only register you as if you're hitting a monster with level 70 skill.

Lol, that would make farming a chore, but would almost make it so that High Level players don't monopolize certain mobs based merely on their levels/skill at all.

Would it encourage people to fight closer to their cap level? Maybe.

Doubt they'd do it though.

[jenova_9]

re: E3 2009: FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Coming in 2010

If thats the only way to know how you're progressing then I certainly don't think it will stop people from proclaiming their skill level to show how leet they are.

Also, if there is no way to see how "grown" or "skilled", or whatever you want to call it, is then how will you know if the random person you just had join your party to kill a very "high level" mob isn't actually the equivalent of a level 10 character who lied?

that's why I think there might be a rank system of some kind that kind of classifies what degree of skill that player is compared to other players. if its like that I think ranks will have more broader comparisons than say a lv. 10 with a level 12.

there might be more tolerance levels within the range of skill levels. and with no experience levels, this may entirely eliminate the dreaded Level Gaps. and even if that wasn't the case, the devs already learned from Level Sync if that is ever needed.

so if anything the ranks might follow a letter structure instead of number structure. and there are fewer ranks than there are
experience levels, otherwise they might as well be called levels.

Ranks may overall encompass a certain spectrum of skill levels across the board. and once a player exceeds that range, then
they've moved on to the next rank. that's how I see how it might work out.

[Caspian]

re: E3 2009: FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Coming in 2010

Those numbers can be viewed by the player, but no one else.

If thats the only way to know how you're progressing then I certainly don't think it will stop people from proclaiming their skill level to show how leet they are.

Also, if there is no way to see how "grown" or "skilled", or whatever you want to call it, is then how will you know if the random person you just had join your party to kill a very "high level" mob isn't actually the equivalent of a level 10 character who lied?

[jenova_9]

re: E3 2009: FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Coming in 2010

Was that in an interview that I missed? I imagine there will be some way (likely numerical) of keeping track of your own progression, otherwise you'd have people trying to "grow" their character for ages without realizing it wasn't accomplishing anything anymore.

well it could be like the weapon skill levels from before in profile and combat skills menu.

Those numbers can be viewed by the player, but no one else.

[Caspian]

re: E3 2009: FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Coming in 2010

yea but chances are, that information won't be displayed like experience levels did back then. so people won't be able to flaunt those numbers. or prove it much.

Was that in an interview that I missed? I imagine there will be some way (likely numerical) of keeping track of your own progression, otherwise you'd have people trying to "grow" their character for ages without realizing it wasn't accomplishing anything anymore.

[jenova_9]

re: E3 2009: FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Coming in 2010

Yeah, but there will still be a max of some sort where your character can nolonger grow anymore and I'm sure there will be people who will use whatever max is in place to determine who is better. At the very least there will be something that they latch onto in order to define their own heirarchy. Most DEX wins.

yea but chances are, that information won't be displayed like experience levels did back then. so people won't be able to flaunt those numbers. or prove it much.

but you know, I think there will be a rank system, because how can advanced players know if a party member is gimped in stats or not? will they only be able to trust their word that their skill levels are as high as their own? :p


I wonder if moogles will be a playable race. I think race stats shouldn't matter too much of a difference this time. I mean, there was a difference in XI but that didn't stop galka's form being mages, or tarus from being tanks. But ya, moogles size and
shape would be troublesome with gear fitting on them. Plus no one wants to see a moogle get hurt even though VI had one, well there was also that group at the beginning.

I wonder how the aggro system will work this time. and how people will hold hate. are food/drinks going to be "needed" for decent accuracy/refresh?

[Caspian]

re: E3 2009: FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Coming in 2010

I totally love that there's no experience points. This means also no "levels" to grind through. Just raw character growth. That's going to disarm a lot of the so-called hardcore players who need something like levels to symbolize their success with the game.

Yeah, but there will still be a max of some sort where your character can nolonger grow anymore and I'm sure there will be people who will use whatever max is in place to determine who is better. At the very least there will be something that they latch onto in order to define their own heirarchy. Most DEX wins.

[jenova_9]

re: E3 2009: FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Coming in 2010

I don't think that it will be like FF9 where you learn abilities/skills/magic from specific weapons. I think it will be entirely based on class. well okay. a lv.1 staff can't give you Cure IV, but ya I guess advanced whm gear can be equipped once your staff skill is high enough. So in a sense, only advanced gear would let people learn more skills from that job set.

But I think it should still be based on weapon level instead of specific weapon. like a lv. 5 Star Staff should allow people
to learn Protect spell, just like a lv. 5 Moon Staff. cause I know gil/money will return ( I doubt this world is like the Star Trek federation where everything is harmonious and they don't need money since they follow a system where everyone is
provided with the essentials.) that being said, AH may be a real pain trying to get a specific weapon just to learn a possibly needed skill. It may be as bad as the prices Utsusemi: Ni scroll goes for, and if the farming/crafting is a grind like before,
some might not stand for it.

i like the way it's going to be suited slightly to people who don't have alot of time to play.The only thing i hated about ffxi other than the ppl on my bl is the party system.Pop in lfp then try to make a party.No luck so you solo. 1 hour later invite BANG party disbands.
I wish i could try this new lvl sync/ solo system /cry

level sync helps but advanced levels don't skill up which is bad later on and people end up missing and not having ws needed for the mobs they should be fighting around their levels. I really hate how Campaign there's no opportunity to skill up anymore, this forces people to skill up later instead of being rewarded with xp AND skillups at once.


also people who think it's strange that XIV doesn't have experience levels, should remember that FFII didn't have experience levels either, and it still had a growth system.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_PrTAKpu8w"]YouTube - Final Fantasy II (Dawn of Souls) - Part 27[/ame]

2:01 has the menu

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhvTdUNj4a0"]YouTube - Final Fantasy II (PSP) - Dark Emperor (Good Quality)[/ame]


but anyway, the advantage is that FFXIV is new so everyone here hopefully will be playing it at launch, therefore, there will be no problem finding parties. This really is gonna be the real utopia of mmorpg gaming.