[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Kazgrel]

I'm really looking forward to goofing around with the perform ability!

Here's hoping Yoshi-P doesn't have to make good on his "threats" (bit of a harsh word for it) to remove that feature if people start uploading clips of music they are playing to Youtube or whatever. I wonder how crazy it'll be on Balmung with everyone trying to play various sorts of tunes in all the place. I'm also wondering if it'll be something we can set up via macros (given the limited amount of lines per macro, I think not).

[Faroth]

LotRO never seemed to get in trouble despite players posting copyrighted music arrangements performed by a group. I'm not sure why Square would need to be concerned.

I doubt macros would work for it. I'd hope not. That goes against the spirit of what it is in the first place.

[Granyala]

Executing the /perform command should just open a Synthesia like UI and request live input (MIDI input is also accepted).

[Kazgrel]

Executing the /perform command should just open a Synthesia like UI and request live input (MIDI input is also accepted).

BRD Perform Savage.

I may fuck around with the thing, but as someone whose only musical talent is that of making ears bleed profusely, I'll leave that feature to the creative folks.

[Kaelwryn]

LotRO never seemed to get in trouble despite players posting copyrighted music arrangements performed by a group. I'm not sure why Square would need to be concerned.

I doubt macros would work for it. I'd hope not. That goes against the spirit of what it is in the first place.

TBH I don't really think SE/Yoshi is serious about removing it. Its just them saying that to cover themselves.

[Granyala]

BRD Perform Savage.

I may fuck around with the thing, but as someone whose only musical talent is that of making ears bleed profusely, I'll leave that feature to the creative folks.

Well, Ifalna plays Cello and Piano... Harp/Lute umm not so much.

[dope_danny]

I'm really looking forward to goofing around with the perform ability!

I will bet good money the first thing on the reddit will be "Pls stop with the Song of storms macro in dungeons" or something

-and on the BfA topic i actually gave legion another try this week and the classes feel better than the did when i tried it at launch, it was nice to go on my original vanilla paladin and find i had skills to add BACK onto my hotbar. Levelling is now super fast i think i got my Spriest to 108 doing all of azuna and a bit of stormheim and the artefact and order hall looks less like a sub trap after the patches changed them somewhat. Would i play it after doing all the quests? still probably not. Would i try BfA? maybe but blizzard games are always at their weakest in their retail launch state. I have to see the other shoe drop about what sub trap beyond this azeroth armour they implement to make you feel like you NEED to login if im really interested of not.
As for the story its pretty stupid to have the factions war again after exhausting themselves against the burning legion but at the same time i'm glad its not a 'no now THIS is the real world ending bad guy, those legion guys were jobbers, THIS is the real dramatic confrontation we swear this time!' because its so fucking tired at this point. Kul Tiras and Zandalar give me a Northrend/Isle of Thunder vibe and those were my favourite times in WoW for the most part. But then art design has never been a problem with blizzard so thats not surprising.

Right now though its not something i could consider dropping FFXIV for. Playing an account instead of a character is tedious, not greatly but its just not as nice as XIV where most players have one in game avatar and thats YOU and all your accomplishments have a name and face -if you arent a fantasia addict of course- and most surprisingly even with a gaming mouse with a keypad on it i just prefer the cross bar on a Dualshock 4 for a hotbar mmo. Its sincerely really strange to go back. I think part of it is because i've been playing FF games with some variation of a playstation controller for 20 years now and also i just dont play PC games much anymore compared to my PS4/Vita, Switch and 3DS so sitting at a desk with a 1-0 numpad and WASD feels off but picking up a controller just feels like playing another videogame so XIV feels less work. But i use my computer almost exclusively for video/media stuff for work so thats a personal preference. But i honestly wouldn't mind seeing Blizzard just lift it for WoW in the next expansion.

[lawow74]

I will bet good money the first thing on the reddit will be "Pls stop with the Song of storms macro in dungeons" or something

And this is why you cut off all sound other players make. I go further, of course, and keep most of the chats cut off. Only one I keep on is Party chat, and I turn on a Hunt LS when I feel like hunting.

[Kaelwryn]

IIRC you can't use perform in dungeons. Only in non-combat areas.

[dope_danny]

And this is why you cut off all sound other players make. I go further, of course, and keep most of the chats cut off. Only one I keep on is Party chat, and I turn on a Hunt LS when I feel like hunting.

Did that for a while when Shiva had an infamous 'lala only erp FC' that were very public and graphic.

[Granyala]

As for the story its pretty stupid to have the factions war again after exhausting themselves against the burning legion but at the same time i'm glad its not a 'no now THIS is the real world ending bad guy, those legion guys were jobbers, THIS is the real dramatic confrontation we swear this time!'

Yeah if we're honest: Blizzard backed themselves into a corner, where, no matter what they do, it will feel weird and lame.
Another world-ender: -> yawn. We're all totally tired and desensitized in that regard.
Little threats etc: -> Yaaawn, I did beat old Gods and infinite demon hordes just to ge against ... fu*** pirates?! These vermin should melt just by me looking at them.
Faction conflict: -> WTF? we almost worked together for a decade, both factions are exhausted. makes no sense!

[Kazgrel]

I will bet good money the first thing on the reddit will be "Pls stop with the Song of storms macro in dungeons" or something

-and on the BfA topic i actually gave legion another try this week and the classes feel better than the did when i tried it at launch, it was nice to go on my original vanilla paladin and find i had skills to add BACK onto my hotbar. Levelling is now super fast i think i got my Spriest to 108 doing all of azuna and a bit of stormheim and the artefact and order hall looks less like a sub trap after the patches changed them somewhat. Would i play it after doing all the quests? still probably not. Would i try BfA? maybe but blizzard games are always at their weakest in their retail launch state. I have to see the other shoe drop about what sub trap beyond this azeroth armour they implement to make you feel like you NEED to login if im really interested of not.
As for the story its pretty stupid to have the factions war again after exhausting themselves against the burning legion but at the same time i'm glad its not a 'no now THIS is the real world ending bad guy, those legion guys were jobbers, THIS is the real dramatic confrontation we swear this time!' because its so fucking tired at this point. Kul Tiras and Zandalar give me a Northrend/Isle of Thunder vibe and those were my favourite times in WoW for the most part. But then art design has never been a problem with blizzard so thats not surprising.

Right now though its not something i could consider dropping FFXIV for. Playing an account instead of a character is tedious, not greatly but its just not as nice as XIV where most players have one in game avatar and thats YOU and all your accomplishments have a name and face -if you arent a fantasia addict of course- and most surprisingly even with a gaming mouse with a keypad on it i just prefer the cross bar on a Dualshock 4 for a hotbar mmo. Its sincerely really strange to go back. I think part of it is because i've been playing FF games with some variation of a playstation controller for 20 years now and also i just dont play PC games much anymore compared to my PS4/Vita, Switch and 3DS so sitting at a desk with a 1-0 numpad and WASD feels off but picking up a controller just feels like playing another videogame so XIV feels less work. But i use my computer almost exclusively for video/media stuff for work so thats a personal preference. But i honestly wouldn't mind seeing Blizzard just lift it for WoW in the next expansion.

While there are times I kinda wish I could play as a different race in this game, it's as someone pointed out in another thread here, everyone's basically another form of human...tall bodybuilder human, taller powerlifter human, human with cat ears/tail, human with lizard tail and horns, and potatoes. So while it may seem like a huge change for the fantasia addicts out there, compared to other games, it's not. I went from orc to goblin at one point on my shaman main back in my WoW days, and that was a heck of a change due to different casting animations and also by going from being as tall or taller than most races to being tiny in comparison.

Even though I'm forever a KB/M player, this game enlightened me to the idea that you can have a MMO played via controller and not have it being "dumbed down" or whatever such argument that folks made for years when the idea of playing via controller, and yes, I was one of those folks. Oh, and it's not limited to "casual play", a phrase I often see used on Reddit that is code for "playing like shit", even though the terms are not one in the same. Here's World 2nd Ultimate Bahamut from WAR PoV played on PS4 + controller:



- - - Updated - - -

Yeah if we're honest: Blizzard backed themselves into a corner, where, no matter what they do, it will feel weird and lame.
Another world-ender: -> yawn. We're all totally tired and desensitized in that regard.
Little threats etc: -> Yaaawn, I did beat old Gods and infinite demon hordes just to ge against ... fu*** pirates?! These vermin should melt just by me looking at them.
Faction conflict: -> WTF? we almost worked together for a decade, both factions are exhausted. makes no sense!

There was a quest at some point in this game, and while the specifics of it elude me, it boiled down to a NPC making a request of us that was no more than a menial task or typical MMO quest text of "pick 5 of these plants and bring them to me", only for the guy to realize "oh shit you're the WoL; how dare I ask you to do such a menial thing". It happens more than once during the course of the SB story, I believe...but we did get a quest to scoop up shit, so there is that. I found it amusing that the devs are on to the plight of having such quests in these sort of games, so they at least work it in to poke fun at it all at the same time.

Part of those reactions to anything Blizz does with WoW at this point is simply the age of the game; such eyeroll type of reactions to anything they do were bound to happen. This game isn't immune to having tired story mechanisms, either...taking bets on who the next NPC is that will appear to have met their end on screen, only for them to pull the "you didn't see/find the body" card once again.

[Granyala]

Well us turning on each other in a situation w/o any bad guy and a super valuable and powerful substance suddenly appearing is actually quite realistic if you think about it.
Peace between the Horde and the Alliance always has been more of an eerie, easily broken "silence of arms".

It's the "all out war, burning of Teldrassil, claiming whole continents" I do not understand.
1) The horde lacks the logistics, manpower and finesse to do sth like that. Esp since Nightelven forces would have air superiority and Teldrassil is quite easy to defend.
2) Both factions are pretty much bled dry by the conflict of first MoP, then WoD invasion, then legion invasions, broken shore fiasco continued fighting on the broken isles.

To be blunt: neither one has the forces necessary to make a "full scale war" believable in any sense of the word. Skirmishes, sure. But not transcontinental conquests. Oo
At this point, both factions would need at least 20 years of peace to recoup and repopulate.

I understand though, that we would not have a game to play if Blizzard depicted peaceful times.

[Katchii]

Well us turning on each other in a situation w/o any bad guy and a super valuable and powerful substance suddenly appearing is actually quite realistic if you think about it.
Peace between the Horde and the Alliance always has been more of an eerie, easily broken "silence of arms".

It's the "all out war, burning of Teldrassil, claiming whole continents" I do not understand.
1) The horde lacks the logistics, manpower and finesse to do sth like that. Esp since Nightelven forces would have air superiority and Teldrassil is quite easy to defend.
2) Both factions are pretty much bled dry by the conflict of first MoP, then WoD invasion, then legion invasions, broken shore fiasco continued fighting on the broken isles.

To be blunt: neither one has the forces necessary to make a "full scale war" believable in any sense of the word. Skirmishes, sure. But not transcontinental conquests. Oo
At this point, both factions would need at least 20 years of peace to recoup and repopulate.

I understand though, that we would not have a game to play if Blizzard depicted peaceful times.

My main issue with the whole BfA thing is that the only character on either side that was openly hostile towards anyone was Greymane towards Sylvanas. She's not openly hostile towards anyone specifically, she is pretty ambivalent towards everyone except the Forsaken. Now, Sylvanas may have beef with Greymane but he's still a distant second tactically, when compared to her focus on addressing the Forsaken inability to reproduce and their longevity. She's a big picture kind of person and wouldn't focus on a personal vendetta unless she could take care of it as a convenient side mission to her main focus.

Also, as someone already stated, with the Class Halls essentially disregarding faction lines and Alliance and Horde fighting side by side as brothers in arms throughout the entire Legion conflict it seems incredibly forced and stupid to all of a sudden have the commanding officers/ leaders of the classes / their respective factions now being pulled into all out war. Seriously? The [Insert Leader title for X Class Faction here] is now just another grunt in the Alliance/ Horde army when they STILL lead a group from BOTH factions? How the hell does that make sense...at all?

Blizzard just seems to double down on the faction conflict whenever they feel the brand name needs a boost, but this time REALLY feels forced when everything leading up to this points at the factions somewhat outgrowing the conflict as a whole. Sure, skirmishes will happen between some races/factions within each big faction, but that doesn't mean all out war makes sense.

FFXIV will always have a better story in that regard, IMO, since the world population is already united. Which leaves any conflict much more nuanced, (like the stuff that happened that pushed us into Ishgard) than the stuff Blizzard is trying to pull now which just feels SOOO hamfisted.

[Granyala]

While I agree with you and would have agreed with you since back in TBC,
as long as People shout "for the horde!" on Blizzcon, they will keep that faction pride / hatred alive.
Also, keep in mind that there are more PvPers in WoW that do like the divide and associated emotions.

[Katchii]

While I agree with you and would have agreed with you since back in TBC,
as long as People shout "for the horde!" on Blizzcon, they will keep that faction pride / hatred alive.
Also, keep in mind that there are more PvPers in WoW that do like the divide and associated emotions.

I just mean narratively the conflict just doesn't make sense anymore. I understand the faction pride and the tensions always being there, but all out war just seems ridiculous at this point in the narrative and story.

I'd also say that the PvP'ers/ players in general that are super hyped over this faction conflict don't give a shit about story at all anyway, so in discussion like this, about story and context, they can be largely ignored.

[lawow74]

Part of those reactions to anything Blizz does with WoW at this point is simply the age of the game; such eyeroll type of reactions to anything they do were bound to happen. This game isn't immune to having tired story mechanisms, either...taking bets on who the next NPC is that will appear to have met their end on screen, only for them to pull the "you didn't see/find the body" card once again.

Not to mention the long, long, long, LONG-running theme of corruption from good to evil Blizzard has had in their games. Oh look, a good person turned bad. Oh noes, the morality and pathos. Oh noes, all they stood for has gone to ruin, twisted and dark. Oh, the terror. Oh, the horror.

And when that gets played out, cue the redemption arc. 'Being evil was merely a setback! You are not prepared!'

[Kazgrel]

Not to mention the long, long, long, LONG-running theme of corruption from good to evil Blizzard has had in their games. Oh look, a good person turned bad. Oh noes, the morality and pathos. Oh noes, all they stood for has gone to ruin, twisted and dark. Oh, the terror. Oh, the horror.

And when that gets played out, cue the redemption arc. 'Being evil was merely a setback! You are not prepared!'

Won't lie, I pretty much immediately rolled my eyes when Legion was originally announced and Illidan was stated to be returning. Can't a reasonably liked villain (for whatever reason) stay dead?

Some FF14 main story spoilers, but to elaborate on my previous point about having NPCs stay dead:

I would have the same sort of reaction if Gaius or Zenos were to return 3 xpacs from now in this game (I'm not ruling out the return of the latter within this xpac, though). Let the permanence of death have some sort of weight to it. Oh, and that applies both ways; I'd be equally as annoyed (perhaps moreso) if Haurchefant, Ysayle, or Papalymo were to return.

Because I've pretty much not kept up with WoW lore as of WoD; aside from Illidan, who else fits that theme? I'm drawing blanks thinking of them. Garrosh, I suppose? He was borderline likeable in some of the Cata quest stories (Stonetalon Mountains), then he went back from being babyface-ish to being a total heel again by early-mid MoP. I'd say he is a better example of poor character development.

[Eleccybubb]

30th Rabanastre run and either the caster pants haven't dropped in the majority of runs or I've rolled garbage on them......

Question about masks on last boss. Blue means ignore I know that. But it commanded us to scatter so naturally I ran up to the boss to be stacked and I still got a stack. Explanation or am I just an idiot?

[Kazgrel]

30th Rabanastre run and either the caster pants haven't dropped in the majority of runs or I've rolled garbage on them......

Question about masks on last boss. Blue means ignore I know that. But it commanded us to scatter so naturally I ran up to the boss to be stacked and I still got a stack. Explanation or am I just an idiot?

If it's Face of Lies and you get scatter, just stay put. In fact, the Face of Lies is the easiest one because you can simply just stay put facing the guy and you shouldn't get a stack. I want to say that you also would not be be casting/attacking when the debuff goes off, but I may have twitched my mouse or something that one time I got a stack even though I stood still. That or I forgot what Face it showed.