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Windows FFXIV A Realm Reborn Goes Retail
- Thread starter Huntn
- Start date
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I played through Beta 3 and 4, and I gotta say....it's pretty dang good. Like many, I was discouraged by the original release but the amount of work gone into the re-release is really impressive. It's beautiful as you'd expect...but more importantly it has really good "flow" now.
That all said...there is nothing new here as far as MMO's are concerned, but for me that's ok. As someone who put a fair amount of time into FFXI, I really just wanted an updated version, and I got it.
Final Fantasy universe, beautiful environments, and the coolest combat effects of just about any game, MMO or not.
I'll be playing on the PS3 because I refuse to bootcamp
skottichan
macrumors 65816
I've been playing the hell out of it since Beta 4. There were some hiccups with world population during the early access, but that seems to have gone away in the launch opening.
I'm thinking, maybe we should make a thread/sticky with FFXIV players sharing what world they're in.
I'm thinking, maybe we should make a thread/sticky with FFXIV players sharing what world they're in.
Plutonius
macrumors G4
Just picked it up and am now figuring how I get myself registered and the long download, if the servers are still functional considering today is official launch day. 😛
Hard to say. I'm pulling back a little from WoT. Actually spending quite a bit of time playing Minecraft if you can believe that. 😛😛
Hard to say. I'm pulling back a little from WoT. Actually spending quite a bit of time playing Minecraft if you can believe that. 😛😛
Plutonius
macrumors G4
e²Studios
macrumors 68020
haha I still play WoW too.. Not nearly as much as I used to, but I still have my account active.
I'm going to try to get a hour or so in game tonight. I really like how the PS3 client looks and performs, I have a Sony Playstation mini BT KB that snaps on the controller in case I need to type something too.
I'm on the Exodus server.
Got it on Monday, logged on just as the Japanese servers got opened to the public. Oooooh yeah, it's great.
I was running it initially at 1280x720 on a 1920x1080 screen. It was ok at first, but things things got really messy outside with all the mobs and people and vegetation, so I maximised the screen while keeping the resolution the same. At least, I think it's still the same. The UI elements resized themselves to fit the whole screen. I'm using the lowest settings and it runs rather fine really, for a puny little mac mini. 2012, i5, 16gb ram.
I was initially using the win 8.1 preview, but the Logitech gamepad wouldn't run on that so I switched to vanilla win 8. The game runs fine on both.
Will not run on wine.
I was running it initially at 1280x720 on a 1920x1080 screen. It was ok at first, but things things got really messy outside with all the mobs and people and vegetation, so I maximised the screen while keeping the resolution the same. At least, I think it's still the same. The UI elements resized themselves to fit the whole screen. I'm using the lowest settings and it runs rather fine really, for a puny little mac mini. 2012, i5, 16gb ram.
I was initially using the win 8.1 preview, but the Logitech gamepad wouldn't run on that so I switched to vanilla win 8. The game runs fine on both.
Will not run on wine.
Liquorpuki
macrumors 68020
I'm gonna try the PS3 version... only because a couple friends who played the original asked me to join em
But yeah my expectations are pretty low too
Has anyone tested it on an intel hd 3000 card?
That's what I have in my macbook pro and I'm curious if it can handle it.
That's what I have in my macbook pro and I'm curious if it can handle it.
Liquorpuki
macrumors 68020
That video looks like it may be based on the older benchmark tool.
I suggest you download their new one and run it yourself. AAR is based on the new luminous engine whereas old FF14 was using the FF13 crystal engine.
I suggest you download their new one and run it yourself. AAR is based on the new luminous engine whereas old FF14 was using the FF13 crystal engine.
Hastings101
macrumors 68020
I'm excited about it and will be playing it this weekend. I'll try it for PS3, my standards won't be so high then 😛. I end up comparing MMORPGs I try on PC/Mac to WoW and being disappointed with them in some way always. Funny how I haven't played that game in forever but I can't find anything as well made that appeals to me.
skottichan
macrumors 65816
Unno, it plays okay on a 2009 13" MBP (settings on Laptop Standard). It only really slows down if I'm in a heavily populated area in one of the main cities. I was able to power through the first 10 levels without getting frustrated with slowdowns.
Tho like usual, YMMV.
Liquorpuki
macrumors 68020
Yes, I'm very aware. 🙂
Here's an initial report. Fortunately the bulk of the game content was contained on the DVD, however I still ended up downloading 3GB of I assume patch content which took about an hour. Virtually all of the N.A. (North American) servers were restricted from making characters because I guess they were inundated with new players. This frustrated me. I ended up creating a character on a JP (Japan Server) which I was assured by my guild that there were mostly English speaking players there. Maybe it was the overflow. I noted the warning the game gave me that "due to latency issues" it is recommended a server be picked from your geographic area which irritated me too. Another bad issue is that the legacy server my guild sits on may take forever to access and establish a character.
But I wanted to check out the game so the JP server, it was to be for last night. One of the reasons I stopped beta testing is that I don't like repeating content over and over so I am hesitant to play too much on the JP server. Anyway I assume this will all cool down in a week or so. They seem short of servers although there was a long list of them.
Initial impressions- the game is beautiful, character animations look like they are motion captured with high fidelity and the story adds greatly to immersion from the initial interaction with a merchant on the coach headed to the town, to the mentor at the archer's guild.
Of the races, I chose a female Miquote, the cat race- humanoids with a tail and ears added. 😉
There are 3 starter cities, one in the woods, one in the desert, and one an island, and the class choice dictates which city. I wanted the woods setting and picked archer as my class and ended up in Gridania, a beautiful setting.
My first quest was to go kill some squirrels, lady bugs, and toad stools and it was extremely deja vu for every MMORPG I've ever played. Due to opening day congestion, the woods were swarming with players on their maiden quests so it was not the idyllic peaceful setting I would prefer.
Unlike WoW there was a high number of zones even in this small town where a video break was required to load the next section. I don't know why they can't follow WoW's lead in this area. I don't know what the technology is, but I have always been amazed I could run from one end of WoW's Eastern Kingdom to the other without one screen load.
One interesting aspect of FFXIV is that you can level multiple classes on a single character. That's pretty cool although my understanding (not sure if this is right) is that if you have taken a class through it's class story, then start another class on the same character, you won't have a class story because you have all ready out leveled it's quests?
Anyway, it was a positive first session, but I don't know if I'll be sucked in or continue. After all you are right, it basically is WoW in a new setting. One of the big advantages of World of Tanks is 15 minute battles so you can easily take a break whenever you want. MMORPGs tend to be more time consuming when it comes to accomplishes quests. And as compared to a single player RPG, thinking of Skyrim, too many real people mess up what are very nice settings. 😛
As far as my MBP on Windows 7/Bootcamp (see sig), the game set the graphics to high. I turned them back to normal and my static FPS jumped from about 25 to 45. Adequate to play the game and it maintained this in highly congested areas.
Hopefully you won't be facing ques on all the N.A.. servers as I did last night, that is if you could manage to make a character on a N.A. server. Granted yesterday was retail.
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I'm discouraged with FFXIV right now because of limited log in access. I can't access any North American Servers due to ques. I might mess around on one of the Japanese servers now and then, but I won't really consider this game seriously until I can find a server based in North America, that I can call home. I'm going to give Square Enix another week or so before I tell them to FO.
My guild's server has character creation locked. Who knows when that will change? Ultimately I can deal with that, but I insist on an accessible N.A. server that I can actually log into. Because of this situation, I posted a message on the Square Enix forums telling them they should extend free access to the game for another month. Right, won't hold my breath for that one... 😛
My guild's server has character creation locked. Who knows when that will change? Ultimately I can deal with that, but I insist on an accessible N.A. server that I can actually log into. Because of this situation, I posted a message on the Square Enix forums telling them they should extend free access to the game for another month. Right, won't hold my breath for that one... 😛
e²Studios
macrumors 68020
I'm on Exodus and while it might take 5-6 tries I can usually get in within 5 minutes. I'm using the PS3 client but I don't think it would make much of a difference. The longest its taken is 10 min and honestly for it being the first week I can deal with that, WoW had it far far worse during the first week.. WAY WORSE..
Give it 30 days and it'll drop off a bit, the queue kinda bugs me but honestly 5-10 min isn't much to complain about imo.
The first two nights, where I was lucky enough to make a character on a N.A. server, every time I tried to log in, about a dozen times, the queues were so large that I was just getting a message that the "world was full, try later".
Someone mentioned in the FF forums that the queue should not have a limit. I also read it's a problem with how the FF servers function and how many players they can handle in que. The largest number I've seen in a queues without an outright rejection is about 130. Of note, when I was number 136 and I watched for a couple of minutes, the number did not budge and I thought, this is going to take all night. Then pop I was in.
The other problem I've read which adds to conjestion is that unlike WoW when players go static, after 5-10 minutes, they are not ejected from the game. I tested that and nope I was not ejected. When it's really difficult to get in, I can see people not logging out even if they are going to do something else.
I did get in last night and played for a couple of hours. Although the game is beautiful, with the way the lower level quests are constructed, I'm all ready getting that been-there-done-that feeling, which is not a good sign for me and long term longevity. Not to sound overly negative, but I think the GW2 no subscription model is better because I could see my self casually playing FFXIV.
Not a word, Plutonius. 😉
Liquorpuki
macrumors 68020
Just tried to make a character for the first time this morning and ran into all the problems you mentioned. The servers are capped at 5000 players and there's no AFK boot so people are logging their characters in the morning, setting them to AFK,going to work leaving their chars logged in waiting for them when they get home. Even my friends that asked me to play do this. This triggers the restriction where they won't let anyone add new characters to a server. So if you haven't created a character yet and you wanna play on an NA EU server you're kinda screwed until around midnight when some people start logging off. I can't get into any NA or EU server right now so I just made a dummy character on a JP server so I could learn the game.
Seriously all they'd have to do is add an AFK boot and that would fix the congestion problem. Instead they said they're just slowly rolling out more servers.
I felt the same way about 1-10, post 10 the story opens up and so do the options available to experience it. If you played any FFXI, these guys are no stranger to making a game EXTREMELY difficult. I think this is their attempt at easing the audience in 😀