[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Cthulhu 2020]

And here we go with the, "If you criticize any of it, you're dumb and just don't get it."

Seriously, how do you write three paragraphs railing at someone for not liking something as subjective as pacing? This is why no one can talk about anything in here.

And here we go with the "Ghost of Cow didn't read the post again".

Maybe I can spell it out to you in terms you'll understand, since it's so difficult for you to read.

People use literary terms to describe the story, literary terms that have objective implications. Their posts are entirely opinion driven, so trying to attempt to shove in objective literary terms that they don't even know the meaning of. It's a lot better to use more personal terms.

[Dakhath]

Man, tried LoV and couldnt even make it pass the tutorial, holy crap there's so much info and the UI is trash e.e

If you've done the kojin beast tribe quests in Stormblood, you can just spam kojin pets and win most of your matches against the AI. Takes less than 10 mins to do all the log quests for the week.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Heh. You like Emet-Selch? Pfft.

You must eat babies.

I love Emet Selch. He is the absolute best character! And the ancients are all really good characters too so SE making them go away permanently is affront to me personally. The pacing in Shadowbringers was great and Endwalker was awful! I don't know what pacing was but I got bored at parts in Endwalker so that must mean it has bad pacing! Also the ancients story didn't go where I wanted it to so they failed to properly tie off plot threads that I wanted to see happen, so now I proclaim that there are plot holes because we weren't given an actual Amaurot nor an entire extra expansion to explore the ancient world, so the overall narrative is terrible.

Also Emet Selch is like a billion times better villain than Meteion because he's a little tsundere and it makes me blush when he calls me a broken husk and intends to kill the entire population of the source and all its reflection. Meteion is just a bird, how lame!

(/s if it wasn't obvious enough)

[StrawberryZebra]

• I can't stand the netcode in this game and makes it play like shit if we're being honest, but even through all that I'm not sure I can say it "ruins" the game.

This right here is my biggest issue with the game. Server tick rates are also to blame here too, I believe someone said they were every 300ms, which also causes lots of issues particularly if you're using a movement skill. The way some AoE's work, where they pulse out from the center and trigger sequentially, also means you sometimes see people getting hit with things upto a second after they've left the area of effect. As a healer, it sometimes feels like the longest second in the world waiting to see if everyones health bars are going to top up or they're going to be dead.

It's a complex problem with no easy solutions. I doubt it'll ever get an update, but I'd much rather Squenix make things snappier and more responsive on the server end of things rather than push out more story content. I expect that would put me very much in a minority of players however.

I will at least credit it with being better than Street Fighter's netcode though. FF14 doesn't drop inputs, roll back, or let things get too far out of sync. It's janky to be sure, but at least it's never flip-flopped between the "You Win!" animation back in to the fight to find that you've been stood still for the last 5 seconds and have now lost instead. I'll gladly take jank over feeling like I've been cheated.

[Cthulhu 2020]

This right here is my biggest issue with the game. Server tick rates are also to blame here too, I believe someone said they were every 300ms, which also causes lots of issues particularly if you're using a movement skill. The way some AoE's work, where they pulse out from the center and trigger sequentially, also means you sometimes see people getting hit with things upto a second after they've left the area of effect. As a healer, it sometimes feels like the longest second in the world waiting to see if everyones health bars are going to top up or they're going to be dead.

It's a complex problem with no easy solutions. I doubt it'll ever get an update, but I'd much rather Squenix make things snappier and more responsive on the server end of things rather than push out more story content. I expect that would put me very much in a minority of players however.

I will at least credit it with being better than Street Fighter's netcode though. FF14 doesn't drop inputs, roll back, or let things get too far out of sync. It's janky to be sure, but at least it's never flip-flopped between the "You Win!" animation back in to the fight to find that you've been stood still for the last 5 seconds and have now lost instead. I'll gladly take jank over feeling like I've been cheated.

There's a way to "fix" the netcode with XIV Alexander. But most won't know about it unless told.

[Onikaroshi]

I don't get what was "filler" about the invasion here. You got to fight hoards of monsters once you got back to Garlemald. And then once you head back to Thavnair, there's even more there. I don't know what you would have considered "worthwhile", but saving refugees from their former comrades turned into monsters, and chasing after endangered civilians and saving them, that pretty well shows the impact of what's going on when you get through all of the events. None of it was "wasted", it conveys how the apocalypse is affecting various people. "Go kill 12 boars for their asses" with no real compelling reason why you should do that is filler. Saving people as the WoL I'd argue is not.

But then again, I tend to get the feeling people throw "pacing" "Filler" "plot threads" around haphazardly as they do, making it clear they don't truly know what those things mean in the context of a story, in an attempt to describe why they don't like something.

What people need to realize is that when you start using literary terms to describe a work, you are trying to describe something on an objective basis. And when your literary critique actually hits the ears of a literary critic, it sounds really... desperate? It's ok to not like something. I just wish people would stop trying to assign objective basis into their opinions.

I wasn't talking about the invasion, the invasion was fine. The pacing was bad after that.

As for filler, the fish quest and the find engineers quest are two that spring immediately to mind.

[Yarathir]

All this complaining about filler is peak 1/3 sold fish talk.

[Cinnamilk]

I wasn't talking about the invasion, the invasion was fine. The pacing was bad after that.

As for filler, the fish quest and the find engineers quest are two that spring immediately to mind.

Hard disagree, depressing Russia was paced excellently imo. Faster would've betrayed the mood.
It's just that the fuckin moon followed it and the Loporrits are insufferable.

[eschatological]

So, a little topic change: How do people level?

I have all my melee/physical ranged at 90, my casters at 70, and all my tanks/healers at 60 (besides Sage which starts at 70).

I'm doing all my roulettes on my RDM/BLM/SMN, but the thought of grinding dungeons, even with the quick queues, on 8 other classes all the way to 90 makes me kinda ill. What alternative leveling stuff do you guys do?

I do have PotD (irrelevant now) and HoH unlocked. I'm also thinking of Eureka/Bozja for the tanks to grind stuff up for relic weapon/armor stuff.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

How do people level?

DPS: squadron dungeons until 50, then daily alliance, Frontline, and MSQ roulettes until level 71. Then trusts until 90. If you haven't finished Bozja yet then you can level up an alt job while you are at that. If you have finished Bozja then just keep doing trusts as Bozja isn't anywhere near as fast. It will also help to watch Netflix/Youtube or listen to a podcast or get through your powermetal playlist to make the slog less tedious.

Squadron guide:

Spoiler: 

The main thing that makes Squadrons so efficient isn't really the damage the AI party members do, but the fact that I can pull a pack or a boss and just alt tab out or walk away from my computer and do something else. So I spend on maybe a couple minutes actually playing a 15-20 minute dungeon run. That is 13-18 minutes saved that I can spend doing something else, and that time adds up quick when you're running dungeons over and over again. I've saved dozens of hours of time by doing squadron dungeons. There are only a handful of bosses in the game that I actually need to be present for when doing squadron dungeons (namely the Stone Vigil and Dzmael Darkhold bosses).

Ofcourse, if you actually stay at your computer and help DPS, then the dungeon will go much, much faster, at most as long as it would have taken to do it with other players, if not faster (and, ofcourse, you didn't have to wait in queue just to get in). The archers do a lot of DPS.

Level up your squadron by having them do the command missions (facebook game/mission table). Then for actually levelling up your jobs by doing the squadron dungeons, I have them set up like this:

• DPS - Archer (Offensive)

• DPS - Archer (Offensive) (if you're playing a DPS role then you fill this slot)

• Tank - Marauder (Defensive)

• Healer - Conjurer (Balanced)

You don't even need the chemistry's to be high ranked; I've run like a billion squadron missions and both of my Archers still only have their offensive chemistry at rank 2. The higher level chemistries do help a lot (such as my tank having defensive 4, which increases HP by 24% and reduces damages taken by 24%, giving them much higher survivability). My archers only have offensive rank 2 but it already gives them 24% damage boost, which is pretty good.

For tanks and healers, you just spam dungeon roulette until 90.

Beast tribes give a pittance of exp and aren't worth doing for the exp alone, only if you are trying to complete the story to get the mount.

[Leyre]

So, a little topic change: How do people level?

I have all my melee/physical ranged at 90, my casters at 70, and all my tanks/healers at 60 (besides Sage which starts at 70).

I'm doing all my roulettes on my RDM/BLM/SMN, but the thought of grinding dungeons, even with the quick queues, on 8 other classes all the way to 90 makes me kinda ill. What alternative leveling stuff do you guys do?

I do have PotD (irrelevant now) and HoH unlocked. I'm also thinking of Eureka/Bozja for the tanks to grind stuff up for relic weapon/armor stuff.

Free transfer to materia to use the road to 80, then transfer back

[Yarathir]

Hard disagree, depressing Russia was paced excellently imo. Faster would've betrayed the mood.
It's just that the fuckin moon followed it and the Loporrits are insufferable.

I don't even hate the Loporrits themselves, tbh. The way they were placed is what sucked.

"Hey so you basically got bamboozled into killing Zodiark and now you're facing certain doom. BUT EH, CUTE BUNNY PEOPLE THAT MAKE LIGHT OF THE IMPENDING APOCALYPSE."

Sucked all of the atmosphere out of it.

[Onikaroshi]

Free transfer to materia to use the road to 80, then transfer back

You only get road on new characters.

[Poppincaps]

DPS: squadron dungeons until 50, then daily alliance, Frontline, and MSQ roulettes until level 71. Then trusts until 90. If you haven't finished Bozja yet then you can level up an alt job while you are at that. If you have finished Bozja then just keep doing trusts as Bozja isn't anywhere near as fast. It will also help to watch Netflix/Youtube or listen to a podcast or get through your powermetal playlist to make the slog less tedious.

Squadron guide:

Spoiler: 

Ofcourse, if you actually stay at your computer and help DPS, then the dungeon will go much, much faster, at most as long as it would have taken to do it with other players, if not faster (and, ofcourse, you didn't have to wait in queue just to get in). The archers do a lot of DPS.

For tanks and healers, you just spam dungeon roulette until 90.

Beast tribes give a pittance of exp and aren't worth doing for the exp alone, only if you are trying to complete the story to get the mount.

While true for ARR, HW, and SB Beast tribes, this is very untrue for ShB and EW beast tribes. You can get 1/3rd of a level in 5 minutes of playtime. Probably the most time efficient levelling method in the game.

[StrawberryZebra]

There's a way to "fix" the netcode with XIV Alexander. But most won't know about it unless told.

That's a fix for connection issues, not Netcoding. While I do understand the need for something like this to allow players to double weave when it's needed, it's not really relevent to the problem.

My issue with it is more that the server and my client often end up out of sync and the time it takes to rectify that can sometimes leave you bad situations. Like when you're trying to round up mobs with Sprint and the AoE skill you used activates in a different place to where your character model is. Or how you sometimes get hit by things upto a second after you've moved out of it because it cycles through everyone who was hit and resolves them sequentially and you just happened to be the last player it resolves for. Or any one of a long list of issues where your client and the server don't quite match up and you end up getting screwed because of it.

Again, it's not just the netcode that's causing the issue. Some of this stems from how the servers are set up, some from the game engine and some from player hardware.

[Leyre]

You only get road on new characters.

No, transfer to new servers gets you the buff

[MsSideEye]

So, a little topic change: How do people level?

I have all my melee/physical ranged at 90, my casters at 70, and all my tanks/healers at 60 (besides Sage which starts at 70).

I'm doing all my roulettes on my RDM/BLM/SMN, but the thought of grinding dungeons, even with the quick queues, on 8 other classes all the way to 90 makes me kinda ill. What alternative leveling stuff do you guys do?

I do have PotD (irrelevant now) and HoH unlocked. I'm also thinking of Eureka/Bozja for the tanks to grind stuff up for relic weapon/armor stuff.

You've actually gotten through the worst of it with the Melee/Physical, to be honest. If you've suffered through that, then you're pretty much golden since Tanks/Healers are so much faster and can usually determine the pace of the dungeon itself, which can make it even faster with Wall to Wall pulls. I honestly never liked running PotD or HoH outside of helping me learn the classes that start off at higher levels and have all their abilities shoved into your face.

I've not done Eureka, but I've been told it's grindy as hell to the point of mind numbing, so you might be better off with just sticking to dungeons for it's part. Bozja's still got amazing experience that you get for doing it's fates and the added benefit of getting those buffs to your overall character for increased damage and the like will only make doing it easier for you. The only real problem you'll have is the fact that not as many people play in there now, so it's harder to do some things like the raid content connected to Bozja. I'd also suggest making a party finder to do Shadowbringer/Endwalker fates. There's almost always someone who hasn't finished doing those and getting a solid group of people smacking those around can actually clear them pretty fast, allowing you to kill two birds with one stone.

Worst comes to absolute worst, make a friend whose leveling tanks/healers and mooch of their fast/instaques.

I wasn't talking about the invasion, the invasion was fine. The pacing was bad after that.

As for filler, the fish quest and the find engineers quest are two that spring immediately to mind.

I don't think the fish quest is that bad. Mostly because at that point in the msq while we are trying to figure things out to stop bad things for happening, we don't have the urgency we get with seeing all of our planet being bathed in fire through the echo. And it's not like the WoL hasn't stopped to help out random passers by with their tasks, especially if they couldn't fulfill their original duties, which we couldn't because we couldn't really get anything important out of Khalzahl at the time. Is it a bit of a silly quest? Sure thing, but it's not the worst outlier in FF14.

The Engineers in Labyrinthos on the other I found bad only because they're so many of them and they're so spread out. I know for some players, it took them AGES to find them all and when the entire purpose there is to give you the feeling of 'we're racing to finish the space ship to help save the world, but waiting on resources', it kinda kills everything when you can't find that one guy that's up the stairs. Considering it also leads to one of the best moments for Uriange in the game, it's sad that this part was marred for a lot of folks.

I don't even hate the Loporrits themselves, tbh. The way they were placed is what sucked.

"Hey so you basically got bamboozled into killing Zodiark and now you're facing certain doom. BUT EH, CUTE BUNNY PEOPLE THAT MAKE LIGHT OF THE IMPENDING APOCALYPSE."

Sucked all of the atmosphere out of it.

I'm curious what else you would have done with them, considering the whole point of the Loporrits themselves was to give the players a break in the rather dark, depressing storyline that's been with them for the last few hours considering Garlemald. Add in the fact that they're a direct nod to their original game as well as the fact that they're kinda there to hammer home that with their lack of understanding of humanity, we didn't really have much of an option of LEAVING Etheris, and I'm struggling to think of what would be a better place to them.

Like I said previously, I think maybe if they pushed back the Premonition of seeing the world covered in fire from after killing Zodiark a bit, it would have flowed a bit better. You're not going 'Oh shit, what the fuck is going to happen' immediately into 'fluffy bunbuns!' but that's just a thought.

[Yarathir]

I'm curious what else you would have done with them, considering the whole point of the Loporrits themselves was to give the players a break in the rather dark, depressing storyline that's been with them for the last few hours considering Garlemald. Add in the fact that they're a direct nod to their original game as well as the fact that they're kinda there to hammer home that with their lack of understanding of humanity, we didn't really have much of an option of LEAVING Etheris, and I'm struggling to think of what would be a better place to them.

Like I said previously, I think maybe if they pushed back the Premonition of seeing the world covered in fire from after killing Zodiark a bit, it would have flowed a bit better. You're not going 'Oh shit, what the fuck is going to happen' immediately into 'fluffy bunbuns!' but that's just a thought.

I feel like they pushed for levity way too suddenly and too early. But that's just my personal opinion. I liked them later on in Sharlayan.

[Onikaroshi]

No, transfer to new servers gets you the buff

Unless they've changed it recently that's not true.

And according to their own site it hasn't changed.

[Leyre]

Unless they've changed it recently that's not true.

And according to their own site it hasn't changed.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...ion_balancing/

Bonuses for Transferring to a New World
Transferring to a New World will earn you the bonuses outlined below.

These bonuses will remain in effect until the population of active players in the World in question has grown to a specified number.

Home World Transfer Service is free of charge
Gift of 10 gold chocobo feathers, exchangeable for special rewards such as rare mounts
Double EXP bonus (until level 80 is reached)
* EXP bonus valid for 90 days starting from the time of transfer.