[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[La]

Rewatching the full trailer from 2 months ago the lyrics to sokens new theme are a lot clearer and i wonder if some are teasing events. Stuff like "Two Tones Echoes tumbling through time" and in general a lot of the other stuff makes me wonder if we aren't going alone, which made me wonder about the Thancred in the trailer. We don't know if thats our Thancred and Minfilia but assume so, but then Thancred comments on the state of the place he's in as being worse than it was before. So either its an alternate thancred familiar with the location or the crystal tower isn't the only location with an actual direct copy. I wonder if the fat miqote' castle is some airship version of the aftcastle thats been moved to the last habitable area on the planet.

Things happened very differently on The Source (our shard)than on the other shards (The First). It isn't an alternate reality or alternate dimension. Millenniums have passed. Everything in The First is completely different than The Source, completely different paths were taken when The Source split into 13 shards. So there is no alternate Thancred or Alisaie, or any of the Scions. A place may be different because there was no calamity, and some things are similiar, like Lala being a dwarven beast tribe. When Thancred says his line about things changing and not at all for the better, that's because he is in Eulmore and Eulmore = Limsa, which he's referencing.

[Onikaroshi]

And prevent a lot of people from playing with their friends as well. It's a tradeoff.

Honestly we bought a friend a story skip JUST to get past the post 50 stuff, that crap needs a trimming.

She has done every other MSQ though

[Advent]

https://imgur.com/a/LdVFCOk
As nice as this is, I'm still not sold on the expansion yet. I need some QoL features, and more repeatable, non-braindead content. Something like M+ would be fun as hell for me, since I don't like-and don't want to-raid.

[Onikaroshi]

https://imgur.com/a/LdVFCOk
As nice as this is, I'm still not sold on the expansion yet. I need some QoL features, and more repeatable, non-braindead content. Something like M+ would be fun as hell for me, since I don't like-and don't want to-raid.

Only if they manage to put it in in a way the complete opposite of the way WoW did it, where M+ curbstomps all over raiding.

If they could separate the 2 out unlike WoW I would be all for it.

[Granyala]

My PC is ready

Mine got 13.2K points in 1080p (what a useless metric), further analysis of the data suggests that I only dip below 60FPS in the crafting scene with lots of people.
4K was completely unplayable with framerates around the 30-40FPS mark yet the Benchmark insists that it was still "very high" @ 5712. These people have strange definitions indeed.

[Graeham II]

We usually see QoL changes with each new patch/expansion. Honestly, what they've done with the world visit system is impressive. It's very smooth and seamless and gives me hope that the development team will be able to deal with the spaghetti code elsewhere in the game, too. Of course the real test will be the expansion itself but I always account for issues around launch time.

[Onikaroshi]

Mine got 13.2K points in 1080p (what a useless metric), further analysis of the data suggests that I only dip below 60FPS in the crafting scene with lots of people.
4K was completely unplayable with framerates around the 30-40FPS mark yet the Benchmark insists that it was still "very high" @ 5712. These people have strange definitions indeed.

Considering for the longest time, and often still, console plays quite well at 30 I'd say most people who are used to it would consider that more then playable.

[Advent]

Only if they manage to put it in in a way the complete opposite of the way WoW did it, where M+ curbstomps all over raiding.

If they could separate the 2 out unlike WoW I would be all for it.

There are obvious problems with the idea of separating them, but it depends on how the devs want their content consumed. I actually like that it's not on a weekly lockout because I get to find groups any day of the week and at all hours of the day/night, whenever I want. I also don't have to worry about "Who is saved to what?" Things like that are just barriers and headaches I don't want or need. I'm not overly concerned with how it affects raiding; someone will figure it out anyway.

[Onikaroshi]

There are obvious problems with the idea of separating them, but it depends on how the devs want their content consumed. I actually like that it's not on a weekly lockout because I get to find groups any day of the week and at all hours of the day/night, whenever I want. I also don't have to worry about "Who is saved to what?" Things like that are just barriers and headaches I don't want or need. I'm not overly concerned with how it affects raiding; someone will figure it out anyway.

M+ basically wrecked proper progression in wow, I'd just rather it be handled better in FF if something similar were to be implemented.

[Advent]

M+ basically wrecked proper progression in wow, I'd just rather it be handled better in FF if something similar were to be implemented.

No it didn't. Titanforging had a much bigger hand in that than M+. Or are we going to assume that people are obtaining raid quality items and thus are opting to not raid? Because that isn't inherently a bad thing.

[Onikaroshi]

No it didn't. Titanforging had a much bigger hand in that than M+. Or are we going to assume that people are obtaining raid quality items and thus are opting to not raid? Because that isn't inherently a bad thing.

Endlessly grindable gear that nullifies need to raid is bad for those of us who enjoy raiding, it lowers the pool of raiders when they can get the same for easier.

[vashe9]

I've been playing FF14 again for like 1 month and while the graphics/music are way better (imo) than current wow, there are so many QoL/UI problems and things that are dumb (the whole AH system omg...) :/
I'll probably play SwB first patch instead of 8.2 but I'm not sure I'll stay in the long term, wow is better in a lot of things :/ "Hard" dungeons like mm+ are missing and the raids are just "learn mecanic perfectly to avoid aoe in a split second because of inherent lag"

What I really like is the possibility to have all classes on a single character and the glamour system. Armor and such are WAY better designed than wow

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Endlessly grindable gear that nullifies need to raid is bad for those of us who enjoy raiding, it lowers the pool of raiders when they can get the same for easier.

In FF14 you can get almost max Ilvl by just buying/improving them with tokens, without doing a single savage raid. I dont know if it was only unlocked recently, but I have ilvl 400 items including weapon without doing a single savage raid

[Onikaroshi]

In FF14 you can get almost max Ilvl by just buying/improving them with tokens, without doing a single savage raid

Not when the savage raid is released, that's only when the next 24 man is released and it's heavily gated, like it should be.

[Super Kami Dende]

The "get 1000 gil for doing something useless" challenge log? What's so good about it?

Mostly the "get X bonus EXP for doing something" ones.

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Endlessly grindable gear that nullifies need to raid is bad for those of us who enjoy raiding, it lowers the pool of raiders when they can get the same for easier.

>implying Raiding is harder than High M+

You realise M+ scaling means that at a certain point it is harder than raiding. I'd also rather a M+ system because I enjoy small group content and raiding is usually just gambling your time on more People not fucking up easy mechanics.

[Faroth]

The "get 1000 gil for doing something useless" challenge log? What's so good about it?

Most of them give big xp boosts, not paltry gil. The gil ones tend to be just a bonus on some of the other stuff you're already doing, like Beast Tribe quests (which is a fast method for leveling crafting or about half a level for alt jobs if you do HW/SB sets) or Saucer stuff.

In HW, though, I would sometimes cheese the challenge log and hop around ARR FATEs that were quick and easy to get the "do x from different zones" for the 500k bonus.

I do think they need a revision so the xp rewards scale a bit more, though. Getting 500k xp when you need 10 million doesn't have the same oomph it did back in ARR and even HW.

WoW's already got daily and weekly rewards for doing most of its content. First clear bonuses for group PVE/PVP content, emissary and paragon caches for WQs, etc.

Also, lowkey, a lot of the extra rewards they put on stuff in FFXIV is there to keep pushing players into older content because of how the game handles scaling and mandatory group content while leveling. Otherwise queue times for that stuff would become catastrophic.

You mean the rewards in roulette.....the exact same as the daily / weekly rewards for dungeon runs and the rewards for Timewalking dungeons in WoW?
They used the same bribe model, really.

Regarding the challenge log, I'd say WoW does NOT need one since leveling already outpaces the zones' main story quest chain as it is. Challenge log would just make you beyond any benefit that much faster.

I would like to see WoW's World Quest design adopted to update FATEs, especially with Shadowbringers adding FATE specific currency for specific rewards. I really liked the World Quests letting you pick what you were after. In XIV you could choose if you're needing seals, gil, tomestones, FATE rewards, etc and target appropriately. With the FATE, like WQs, being up for 30 minutes and only completing for those who do it rather than a total completion for it to disappear, they'd be pretty useful for that.

The stuff like the upcoming Itinerant Moogles are admittedly designed to encourage more players to run old stuff and give the older queues a jolt so players running through for the first time have some help getting caught up before the expansion. I've had a number of new players in the 50 MSQ recently and a lot of people asking "When did they remove the ability to skip cut scenes in here" from returning players. Funny enough, there was one run where people were complaining that it wasn't Praetorium because they preferred the long cut scenes that let them go do other stuff, even if it made the overall run longer.

I personally expect the Trust System to eventually take over as a solution for some of these older queues, though.

Also can't find anything mentioned about the things that are really important to me though. Like UI improvements, because it's still bloated, unwieldly and looks like it's been designed for form rather than function. It's far too inflexible for it's own good. The Job Gauges especially are a complete chore to set up for each individual job. Just... Make a universal toggle in the UI options like everybody else. Don't make me go into through two submenu's just for a simple toggle.

I mean seriously, WoW's UI is better right out of the box than I could ever hope to make FF14's. This shit isn't hard, yet Squenix somehow manage to keep making it worse. If they're too lazy they can let players hook up their own addons and let them solve the issue for themselves.

A fixed bar with two big stone gryphons on the side? Because when I re-installed WoW for Legion without my add ons, it was still the same old UI I remember. Without add ons, it seemed the same as I remember from Classic era.

I'll never understand the hate for XIV's UI. It feels like the WoW UI addons I used by default and I can easily modify it how I wish.

[Advent]

Endlessly grindable gear that nullifies need to raid is bad for those of us who enjoy raiding, it lowers the pool of raiders when they can get the same for easier.

Those players generally weren't going to be in your pool of potential recruits anyway. Likely because they enjoyed doing 5man content more. I used to raid, but when I got the opportunity to "trim the fat" and play on MY timetable rather than that of a guild's it opened the game up for me.

[Katchii]

I didn't dislike the Viera from the benchmark tool, but I just love my catgirl too much. I can't wait to see her as a Dancer <3

Yeah I'm sticking with kitty too.

Yeah, I'm staying a cat girl (go figure) as well. Viera needed more features and options for me to switch to one. FFXIV is the only MMO in a very long time (15+ years) where I stay the same race the whole time.

I love the Viera look, I'll make a new character as one to see if I dig the animations and "personality" so to speak of the race before Fantasia-ing my main. I love my cat girl, their animations and personality match what I'm looking for quite well, but the tail gets annoying sometimes.

If the animations and personality are on point, I'll be a bunny girl. Otherwise I'll be staying a cat girl.

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I've been playing FF14 again for like 1 month and while the graphics/music are way better (imo) than current wow, there are so many QoL/UI problems and things that are dumb (the whole AH system omg...) :/
I'll probably play SwB first patch instead of 8.2 but I'm not sure I'll stay in the long term, wow is better in a lot of things :/ "Hard" dungeons like mm+ are missing and the raids are just "learn mecanic perfectly to avoid aoe in a split second because of inherent lag"

What I really like is the possibility to have all classes on a single character and the glamour system. Armor and such are WAY better designed than wow

Buying from the AH is normal, placing things on the AH is what's different, and isn't bad but is annoying that you can't do it at the same place. Luckily the retainer bells are usually right next to the Market Board so it's not that big of a deal.

I agree that there needs to be a hard mode/ Mythic+ style dungeon thing to do to improve end game depth and longevity. If they added more tomes as a reward, I'm sure people would do them quite frequently.

In FF14 you can get almost max Ilvl by just buying/improving them with tokens, without doing a single savage raid. I dont know if it was only unlocked recently, but I have ilvl 400 items including weapon without doing a single savage raid

It takes weeks in order to unlock that when it's current. The cap has been raised since it's the end of the expansion so it doesn't take nearly as long and is significantly easier to do. Yes you can still do it, but it takes significantly longer than doing the current high end content. It's intended to be an alternate and parallel progression path to just the raids. And I personally enjoy it.

[Onikaroshi]

>implying Raiding is harder than High M+

You realise M+ scaling means that at a certain point it is harder than raiding. I'd also rather a M+ system because I enjoy small group content and raiding is usually just gambling your time on more People not fucking up easy mechanics.

If you push, and most don't, the gear doesn't get any better. All you need to do is a +10 to get the best gear, and a +10 is easier then even heroic.

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Those players generally weren't going to be in your pool of potential recruits anyway. Likely because they enjoyed doing 5man content more. I used to raid, but when I got the opportunity to "trim the fat" and play on MY timetable rather than that of a guild's it opened the game up for me.

Players gravitate towards what's easier, they don't "rise to the challenge"

If you could get Heroic and Mythic level gear doing WQs your M+ pool would drop as well.

[Faroth]

I've been playing FF14 again for like 1 month and while the graphics/music are way better (imo) than current wow, there are so many QoL/UI problems and things that are dumb (the whole AH system omg...) :/

Well, do consider the following:

With WoW:
Go to auction house, put items up for sell. Buy things from same interface.
Leave auction house, go to the mailbox, open interface, retrieve items.
Go to bank, open interface, store items.
Go to vendor, open interface, sell junk items.

With XIV:
Open market board interface - search and buy, items instantly in inventory
Open summoning bell interface right next to market board - sell junk to vendors via retainer, access bank storage, list items for sell on market board, assign retainer to gather items (useful for crafting and potentially selling) all from one interface.

[Eapoe]

I've been playing FF14 again for like 1 month and while the graphics/music are way better (imo) than current wow, there are so many QoL/UI problems and things that are dumb (the whole AH system omg...) :/
I'll probably play SwB first patch instead of 8.2 but I'm not sure I'll stay in the long term, wow is better in a lot of things :/ "Hard" dungeons like mm+ are missing and the raids are just "learn mecanic perfectly to avoid aoe in a split second because of inherent lag"

What I really like is the possibility to have all classes on a single character and the glamour system. Armor and such are WAY better designed than wow

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In FF14 you can get almost max Ilvl by just buying/improving them with tokens, without doing a single savage raid. I dont know if it was only unlocked recently, but I have ilvl 400 items including weapon without doing a single savage raid

I used to like the idea of all classes on one character, but lately the appeal has been lost for me. It really is just the same as having alts with having to level up each job individually.
I also enjoy having different race/class combinations. Not so much the limiting factor but having an Orc Hunter, BE warlock, Draenai priest. Having all jobs (classes) available to one is kind of cool, but the being restricted to one race thing hurts it for me.
The armor system seems okay. Out of all the games I’ve seen/played Rift has had one of the nicest in an mmo with the dye system with D3 having the nicest with xmog and dye system.
FF14 really seems to excel with storytelling, but overall it just doesn’t seem to have enough appeal for me. That could have something to do with losing the appeal of mmos in general.