FFXIV Initial Impressions (For curious FFXI peeps)

[Enneisevoli]

i agree with phane pretty much 100%. Those were basically my impressions of the game too. I have to say that most the problems i have with the game are UI and technical. The game development is nice, but the UI and laggy behavior of the UI is aggravating and very frustrating. I enjoyed fishing much more in FFXI than XIV, but i still enjoy fishing in this game too. There are bugs and lag that need to be dealt with before i can see myself truly enjoying the game. Overall, sadly i don't see myself playing for very long. I suggest everyone that is interested to try the game out, its actually a lot of fun, but i was hoping to re live the same feeling i felt playing FFXI when it was first released. But i have a feeling that a combination of that being my first MMO and also being much younger than i am now will make it so no other game will ever live up to the feeling of playing FFXI. I might log on every now and then, depending if i can convince myself 14 bucks a month is worth just a few hours of play a week, but i don't think il be in game for very long. But we'll see, things have a tendency to change in my mind often lol.

[Claire]

whats UI? ive no clue what yall talking bout and hand to hand lvls up faster then physical lvl im almost 10 physical im 10 pugilist ^^

[Ashido]

F key ( at least in the beta ) takes you in and out of passive mode ( alt = Aggressive mode like a fucking tiger )

Also all MMO's Suck ass for the first 6 months be cause yes the open and closed betas happened ,bugs were taken care of or "patched" kinda , its gona be a bit before everything runs ok . It's a good MMO has a great idealology behind it just give it time. i'll be waiting a month or so before i even hop on.

[Phane]

whats UI? ive no clue what yall talking bout and hand to hand lvls up faster then physical lvl im almost 10 physical im 10 pugilist ^^

UI = User Interface, basically the menus, controls and other ways you interact with the game.

I don't think the lag issues are confined to the UI at all. Sometimes when I'm fighting a mob (even out in the middle of nowhere with no one even close to me) I'll select Cure and the mob will sometimes hit me 2-3 times before I even start casting. That's rediculous lag when commands commonly take 2-3 seconds to translate into actions. FFXI usually took only a second at most and occasionally delved into the 2-3 second territory during lag spikes, but XIV is ALWAYS there.

SE needs to do one or more of the following 3 things:

Upgrade their servers SIGNIFICANTLY
Optimize their network packet structure
Use more client side processing

Client Side processing is what allows you to run for a while then suddenly getting rubber banded a ways back after a lag spike. Without Client Side processing, the game would just seem to pause and be unresponsive when you got lagged. Ideally, you don't get rubber banded at all (the server and client would agree with what you did during the spike and move forward), but sometimes disparities arise between what the client says you did and what the server says you COULD have done, in those cases, the server is always king and rubber banding results.

FFXI used client side processing much better. You could time your attacks more and the client and server worked things out with a high amount of accuracy. With FFXIV, it seems like combat is handled almost entirely server side. You can execute a command and continue to execute it repeatedly and during a lag spike your stamina bar will be completely replenished and THEN some before the server responds and the command finally executes.

[Claire]

oh i see FFXI UI was pretty shitty at first but i got used to it quickly and im used to FFXIV too i got no complaints about the game bugs will be fixed gameplay will get better my taru will become awesome! what server you on Phane?

[Claire]

oh and i forgot to mention i got no lag or anything like that from the HP300 PC you told me to get and i havent even added the graphics card yet it runs smoothly only problem i had at first was figuring out how to become pugilist to begin with but after i got it, its been smooth sailing thru calm seas

[Mahoro]

Pretty much all of us who got the CE are on Mysidia Claire. Where did you end up? We started an "Anduril Prime" linkshell where me, Eowynn, Ennei, Phane, Stormwarden, Finalizer, Immortal, and Darkaurora are. Lenneth joined Mysidia as well but she hasn't been on much.

[Claire]

oh well i ended up on Rabanastre lol ;. ;

[Phane]

oh well i ended up on Rabanastre lol ;. ;

I'd probably delete your character and start over on Mysidia if you want to play with the rest of us.

[Chewzer]

No, I don't have XIV installed, but I'll share a couple of thoughts.

It's entirely possible that an AH system will be added in the figure. I once read some traslated notes of a JP player who was participating in FFXI beta then release. I'm pretty sure XI's AH wasn't introduced until after retail (well after many players were already in Jeuno) and it went through several overhauls before the entire Jeuno server would stop crashing from the massive traffic (yes, many zones in XI have their own server).

I've heard many complaints about the lag caused by very little client-side processing. I'm guessing SE went heavy with server-side processing in order to prevent 3rd-party programs. I highly doubt this will change, as something like that would be a major programming overhaul. Will just have to wait it out and see if SE does something about it.

The fatigue system, which everybody has heard about by now, it a complete turn-off for me. I like the fact that I can work on one job for 16 hours a day if I please. Hell, I leveled Corsair from 1-72 in something like 2 weeks through actual exp parties because I loved playing the job so much.

The whole ability to 'bazaar' while not actually online is pure win.

As it stands right now, I'm not planning on FFXIV at all. Maybe by next Spring I'll change my mind and give it a shot on PS3, perhaps PC if I overhaul my system by then, but only if there's some major improvements to the problems I've read about here and on forums. In the back of my mind, even though there's no chance in hell, I still wish they would just do a major graphical/UI overhaul of XI and abandon PS2 support.