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Journal of my "adventures" in FFXIV
Benthon
Member Posts: 2,069
Hey guys. I've decided to make a day-by-day journal of my thoughts and feelings on the game. I've finally gotten time to setup my account and play on Thursday, so I'm a few days behind. Here is my lodestone link to "prove" my adventures.
http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/rc/character/status?cicuid=7445407
Day 1 (Thursday):
I start off as a Lalafell with my starting class a Pugilist on Selbina in Ul'dah. My first problem upon logging into the game is that the cutscenes aren't showing. Looks like it's problems with my 5970. After figuring out that you need to go into a config.exe (really?!?) and edit the game from there, I turn on Windowed mode and the cutscenes play perfect. The UI is terrible in the amount of time it takes for menus and screens to pop up, although navigating within these menus is non-laggy. I have an extremely fast computer, so this seems like server side coding checking EVERYTHING you do. But having just joined the game, the new-game feeling is strong in me and it doesn't bother me, yet.
I kill the big ugly thing twice (due to cutscene issues) and complete that quest-thing. I do just enough to get out of the instance (figuring out who to go to is a quick look at the journal). The huge door to get out of the city is closed (timesink!), but it doesn't bother me too much, being somewhat of a masochist from playing EQ for 5 years. I grab some levequests and head out to Camp Black Brush (or whatever it's called). I complete them with ease. I'm Physical 6 with Pugilist at 5 at this point. Combat is decent, equipping abilities and that system is easy to understand, albeit the slow menus make it somewhat tedious.
I spend my remaining time in town, finishing up the storyline quest and picking up Mining, Blacksmithing, Lancer, Gladiator and Thamaturge. Before I log out I'm P10, with levels all around the place.
Day 2 (Friday):
I decide to try my hand at crafting, and spend most of my playing time doing so. I look up recipes online (Thank you windowed mode!) and realize they take all sorts of classes. Along with this, the creature levels to make some of this stuff is dropped from lvl 40 stuff only for a level 7 Blacksmithing Hammer. What the hell? I'm bound and determined to not spend gil on materials and would rather just make it myself, so I pick up Botany, Weaving, Armorsmith, Goldsmith, Leatherworking, and Woodworking. In order to pick up these classes, I needed the appropriate tool. Holy mother of God, the bazaar system... Rant incoming. Seriously? Who in the hell thought this was a good idea? The system would be a lot better if the menus would pop up in a decent time, but they don't and I realized most of my time spent in the bazaar was waiting for the menu to open up (and realize assholes were selling weapons in the crafting district, wasting more of my time). Ok, I got my tools, farm some creatures and minerals for 3 hours, and set off to create some stuff. I'm unable to craft anything beyond Hemp Cloth, Copper and Bronze nuggets, wood chips, some Bone Rings, and some hides.
I'd like to express my immediate distaste for the amount of "confirmation" this game requires. Everquest was a timesink, no doubt, but it didn't have menu's saying "Are you sure?" "ARE YOU SURE?" "ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE FUCKING SURE? THERES NO GOING BACK DUDE, THIS IS DANGEROUS" as I'm a Rank 10 Blacksmith crafting Level 1 Bronze Nuggets.
I log off, P16, Pug11, with some satisfaction despite a growing pain.
Day 3 (Saturday):
F*ck you antling diggers. I look in your general direction and you pwn me. Anyway, today was again most of a crafting day. My levequests popped up (are they 36 or 48hrs?) so I did them and did my local crafting levequests too. As my crafting professions get higher, I'm starting to be able to make most low-tier items with ease and maybe a +1 here or there. I actually made my first Copper Helmet (shown below), which was pretty rewarding considering the process you have to go through to make everything yourself. (ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DO THIS?)
I'm starting to make a bit of money selling my wares, although communication in this game is one of the worst I've ever seen. Nobody talks, ever. This is probably due to the lame chat system and the pointlessness in grouping. I did have one guy show me the ropes (Thank you Bar Bar, if you ever read this) as far as the retainer and chat systems work, so I set up my retainer and tediously (another obvious timesink, or poor implementation, it's hard to know) gave him items and told him to sell them. I'm not sure how effective this will be, as even with my high-end rig, people take forever to show up (probably a dumbass server side thing, my computer never lags at max settings).
At this time I'm Physical 19: 11 Pugilist, 10 Miner, 9 Lancer, 8 Botanist, 8 Blacksmith, 7 Armorsmith, 7 Weaver, 7 Gladiator, 6 Leatherworker, 5 Goldsmith, 5 Woodworker, 5 Thamaturge, 4 Conjurer. Also, WTF is up with Linkshells? Nobody advertises for them and nobody responds when I ask about it. Jeez, do want?
I heard it gets awful from P20 on, so let the grind begin. (Hopefully Nov 24th will pop out of nowhere, making it much easier... hopefully).
My Copper Helmet
Day 4 (Sunday):
I logged in today focused on killing baddies rather than crafting stuff, so I loaded my retainer full of all my stuff and went off to kill. It was a short play period, but I picked up Marauder and ranked it to 5, as well as reached P19. I also applied to a LS, so hopefully I'll get to experience that glorified chat room. (oh wait!) Right before I logged off, I've noticed that sometimes your avatar goes on awful missing sprees, as I was killing two Thistletail Marmots and accidently AoE'd an extra Copper-spider thing. Needless to say I missed 5 times in a row and died from 200HP from a mob that's level 2-3. It was frustrating because I've had this happen before but never died from it. I lost the screenshot 
Sorry I didn't play much today, but had to do some house kleening. Take note, however. My desire to log in is getting smaller and smaller. I probably won't make it through the week and will only log in at intervals, at which my journal will end.
Day 5 (Tuesday):
I ran to Ul'dah to pick up my levequests only to find out my timer was off (ugh), so I bought some new weapons with my retainer gil and set off to grind level Marauder up to 7 and Lancer to 10. Whoopie. Hoping tommorow's patch will somewhat stimulate me back into playing. Also hit Blacksmithing level 10 but still P19.
Day 6 (Wednesday):
Found a Linkshell... and no patch. I decided my feelings towards the game wasn't that it necassarily needed the November fixes first, but the March fixes. There is no content, nothing to do but grind. Grinding isn't even that fun, because the LFG system is retardedly overcomplicated, nobody talks, and grouping just doesn't happen. My free time isn't up until January 11th, 2011. However, I'd rather bite my own leg off then play this game any longer.
FFXIV hinders itself so greatly by the conscious decisions of the developers themselves. The fundamentals of this game are broken and no patch will ever fix this.
(Written by a skeptic turned player turned knowledgeable hater)
He who keeps his cool best wins.
Comments
Saved.
He who keeps his cool best wins.
http://ffxiv.yg.com/
is semi useful for trying to find stuff. Just select the server you are on and search for the item you want. It will show at the bottom if someone is selling it and where.
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You didn't mention macros. If you are going to try out all the classes life is ALOT easier if you macro gear changes and skill changes.
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Hope you enjoy your time there
Drop the next-gen marketing and people will argue if the game itself has merit.
I've only got one set of gear, besides a mail vest I wear when Im a lancer/glad. So macoring isn't exactly neccassary atm. I was actually using that site for all my info, but didn't realize it also had a bazaar search function! Thanks!
He who keeps his cool best wins.
One thing about that site is that the info might not be correct or real time. But I geuss it's better then not having any.
Nah it's not real-time, but has led me to a few vendors that were still active and I was able to skim supplies off of.
He who keeps his cool best wins.
+1 for beeing objective
Congratulations on the Helmet. That is exactly what i like about the game. Once you achieve something it is damn rewarding. The process can be long and painfull, i agree, but once you reach that goal it feels alot different than just completing another quest line where you "go kill X, then Y, then Z ~ Here is your Helmet". IT needs dedication to get things done, same as in FF11.
There is no shouting, that is because in general it is considered rude and spamming. There is no ~chat~ outside of a LS. Once you realize that the General chat is not a chat but is considered what your character says or shouts it starts to make sense. I know that is different to all other MMOs, it's not a bad thing in my eyes.
Leve reset is 36 Hours right now. There is a Windows Gadget that shows time/day/reset.
Since you just started out and visited a few of the surrounding areas. Have you noticed the much cited "copy-paste"?
Guess I'll never understand that. I think it's stupid whoever thought it was rude to speak in a channel that is there for that exact reason.
Yes, actually, about the copy paste. In Ul'dah, the same rock is prevelant literally 60-70 times in the area around Uldah -> Black Brush. Some times its near a tree (which has two-three variations, thank jeebus), sometimes alone, and sometimes near a cliff. Once I saw this rock, whenever I see it again it's just annoying. Mob types are copy-paste too, really, drop the f*cking marmots and cobblyns. Its the ONLY thing you see before Drybone, then you add Dodo's to make a total of 3 monsters for twenty levels of the game. The scenery and monsters are what I'm least impressed with. The maps copy-pasting easy to spot in realtime, but even more dramatic when you open the map and just count yourself. I'll be sure to include this in a journal entry.
Another complaint that I didn't mention in my journal (I'll stick it in Monday's entry) is the idiocracy of putting very strong mobs that aggro next to easy mobs. "Haha, you suck Star Marmot! You're getting owne- WTF! I WAS JUST HIT FOR 800!!!" Yea.
He who keeps his cool best wins.
Limsa is honestly the best place to level, ul'dah has limited monsters after a certain point (Careful if you try fighting goats they have shit load of hp) gridania has decent monsters but I always hated the galagos (monkeys) they spam too much push back when they are nearly dead.
Tough ul'dah has the most amount of monsters (That are cool) if you go in the darker part of the desert just don't fight them for now! I took some pictures of them long ago.
Anyway around 16-18 (Or a little more) you can go to limsa cassiopeia hollows and try join a group to kill crabs, you can stay partying there till 25 or 26 then I went to gridania near bent branch camp there's mun tay dungeon and try join a group killing black efts.
Dunno if you know about it but Party > Search is best to try find a party but most jap groups don't use it and you will have to go near the camp and try asking in person (With translate unless you know how to speak in jap)
Also don't use the timer of YG because it's not correct use either this gadget: http://ffxiv.zam.com/wiki/FFXIV_Windows_Gadget or use that same site to see the countdown (I use the gadget).
Anyways good luck I got till 22 jan free plenty of time to see all changes and decide if I'll continue or not
I concur, Limsa Lominsa is the best place to level in my opinion.
It's r20 that becomes the grind not p20...
There is a hidden fatigue system in the game, but I never saw it apply to fighting. Basically if you are crafting or harvesting you will fail 80% of the time. It happens when you play too much, I doubt that applies to you
But yeah...I've never missed so much in a game, ever.
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Honestly the only thing that kept me playing for 6 weeks was a semi-decent linkshell. When the linkshell stopped logging in, I did also.
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There really aren't many mob types in the game. But they are coming? Right?
Drop the next-gen marketing and people will argue if the game itself has merit.
Sorry guys. Monday we had a huge storm so the internet was being lame all day. Day 5 (Monday) is now Day 5 (Tuesday)
He who keeps his cool best wins.
I can't do it anymore. The will to log in is so little and the time I spend playing is just grinding. Nothing exciting to write about, and certainly nothing exciting to experience. My next journey will be with Rift, I got a VIP key. ^.^
He who keeps his cool best wins.
Same here, not long ago I cancelled my account. I still have free time and would come back ONLY if they add CONTENT.
Nothing will draw me back unless they give us some impressive content patches.
Don't have the strengh to log back in atm, I guess the boring grind drained me. AT LEAST if it was fun grind with nice combos and burst of magic like in FFXI... NOOOO! of course not!
Japenese are always so good with proverbs, yet I doubt they use this one : Why fix something when it's not broken? (talking about merging FFXI combos system into FFXIV)
Oh well...
Now playing : FFXIV
Waiting on : TBD
Best MMORPGs played : EQ, FFXI
While the November update fixed quite a few things, I can understand the frustration when it comes to the content in the game. Currently this is what you can do in the game most of it falls what I would consider very basic content.
You have 8 killing/logging/fishing/mining quests each 36 hours.
You have 8 crafting quests each 36 hours.
You have an opportunity to kill things with pickup groups every hour.
You have a simple class-quest every 10 ranks or so after 20.
You have a main storyline mission every 5 to 10 ranks or so.
Most people seem to enjoy the missions but the problem is how spread out they are.
Other than that, all that's left is grinding (solo for now for the most part), gathering, or skilling up crafts.
Part of the problem I listed in the "Update and SP" thread was that pretty much the SP gained before and after the patch for levels past 32 was drastically reduced in party setups. Most of the mobs used to give anywhere between 200-300 SP and in some cases up to 400-500 SP. However after the patch almost every mob now gives around 70-140 SP in parties. People have found out one way to circumvent this is to solo mobs that give around 50-75 SP at a fast pace. Pretty much every forum I visit has a thread or two on how unhappy the players are with the change, some have called it a Korean grind, others have quit, while others have stopped playing and are deciding whether to continue. Personally I am having fun with some aspects of the game, but I am taking a very casual approach to it. However with that said, I cannot just turn a blind eye with people I know and people that have unanimously posted their dissatisfaction for example with the SP change or with the lack of content the game currently offers and tell them they can uninstall the game, how much would that help the community. By the way adding level 1 2 3 chains in combos as well as magic bursts would make the grind a little bit more fun.
The December patch will add Notorious Monsters or NM, and a few other things, granted one could say that it falls under the "go kill things" category but it seems like fun. For those that want more in depth quests or chain quests to get to know the NPCs a bit more or quality storyline content besides the only one from the main city you start with, you may have to wait till next year, possibly till the PS3 launch. I know most of you are tired of hearing the "keep on waiting" comment and rightfully so, but it seems for now Square Enix is trying to focus on other important aspects of the game. Here are the links for some of the mobs and equipment that may be coming in the next patch:
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/11/25/ffxiv_monsters_and_equipment/
And
http://www.famitsu.com/news/201011/25036130.html